Daily Devotional for Thursday September 19, 2013
A Cult Leader is Dead
(Matthew 7:15; 1 Timothy 4:1-2; 2 Peter 2:1)
***ASK BILL: Pastor Bill, what do the Jehovah Witness' believe?
ANSWER: It is a cult also known as the Watchtower Society founded by a heretic named Charles Taze Russell. A critical belief they share with the Mormon cult is denying the deity of Christ which automatically makes them a non-Christian cult. I suggest going to Google and type in "Jehovah Witness cult." You will get tons of links to study further their false beliefs.
Philip Berg, known to his followers as "the rav," is dead and no doubt burning in hell for all eternity! Berg, was the mastermind behind the celebrity driven Kabbalah cult! How sad it is in these last days to see people turning to every kind of lie man can imagine, when they are seriously searching for the truth and answers of what this life is all about. Ever since the Tower of Babel, men have created false gods and religions out of their imagination, rejecting the one and only true God and His truth. One of the hottest cults today is Kabbalah, and it has received lots of publicity since it attracted celebrities like Madonna, Britney Spears, and Paris Hilton as followers.
Kabbalah means "tradition" or "transmitted teaching." It is a mix of Jewish mysticism, the occult, gnosticism, neoplatonism, and uses numerology to "interpret" the Bible. Even though it claims to have been handed down orally from Abraham, the system appears to have been given its earliest formulation in the 11th century in France.
Like ALL cults, Kabbalah has a book called the Zohar. The Zohar first appeared in Spain at around 1300 AD. It is not one book, but a complete body of literature that has been united under one title, printed in 5 volumes, consisting of 21 parts. It consists of a mystical interpretation of the Torah and also deals with descriptions of heavenly places, contains symbolic interpretations of prayers and ceremonies, and explains an elaborate number and letter mysticism. Zohar provides a world-view through the doctrine of Sefirot (Emanations).
According to the Zohar, God is boundless, and cannot be designated by any known attributes. To allow Himself to be known at all, God allows 10 Sefirot to flow from Him, giving rise to the Universe. The Sefirot can be observed in the world, and allow us to 'notice' God. For followers of Kabbalah, this shapes everyday life at the most fundamental level. (Editorial comment: If you can buy this nonsense, I can get you some oceanfront property in Missouri real cheap!)
The leader of this modern day cult was the now deceased Philip Berg, who along with his wife and their two sons oversee this multi-million dollar cult empire based in Los Angeles (where else) through a non-profit organization known as the Kabbalah Centre, which has offices around the nation. Berg, who was known as "the rav" and many claim to be Moses reincarnate, marketed Kabbalah as a universal system for self-improvement. Revenues are derived primarily through the sale of books, tapes, the famous "red string" bracelet that is supposed to protect the wearer from the "evil eye," and Kabbalah water.
My reason for sharing this with you today is two-fold. First to warn you about this cult. Like ALL cults, they make it sound like something everyone should be involved in. They also claim that you can be a Christian and involved in Kabbalah. Kabbalah is a lie from the pits of hell! It has NOTHING to do whatsoever with the Christian faith. As I have shared with you in the past, ALL cults use as their final authority something other than God's Word. The Mormon cult uses the Book of Mormon. The Jehovah Witness cult uses the writings of the Watchtower Society. The Christian Science cult uses the writings of Mary Baker Eddy. The Scientology cult uses the writings of L. Ron Hubbard. The Kabbalah cult uses the Zohar.
The second reason is that cults like this should not only make Christians mad, but ashamed. As I stated in my opening paragraph, the sad reality is that people are out there searching for truth and answers in their life, and it is cults like Kabbalah that are reaching them. We, the followers of Jesus Christ have the ONLY real truth, the ONLY real answers, yet we are sitting back watching while cults lead these people right down a path of eternal separation from the God of the Bible!
How do they reach people with their lies? SECULAR TELEVISION, SECULAR RADIO, SECULAR NEWSPAPERS, ADVERTISING IN SECULAR PUBLICATIONS, THE INTERNET, and whatever other way they can to reach the masses. This is why I have tried to help you see that in these last days, if we are to reach the lost and hurting in this world, we MUST TAKE THE GOSPEL DIRECTLY TO THE MASSES THROUGH THE SAME VEHICLES THE WORLD USES TO REACH THEM EACH DAY!
I love you and care about you so much. It breaks my heart, and I know it breaks the heart of God to see people misled and deceived into thinking these cults like Kabbalah have the truth and answers that they are looking for. Those who die believing these lies will be eternally separated from God just like Berg found out the moment he took his last breath. I can assure you that people in your family, people you know, people that you work with or go to school with, will be looking into Kabbalah. You have to warn them that this is a cult, and that what they are selling are lies, NOT the truth.
I also want you to pray today for those who have bought into the lies of these cults like Kabbalah. Pray that God will send strong Christians into their life to expose these lies for what they are and help point them to the only truth there is, found in the pages of God's inspired, inerrant Word. People would not be looking into cults like Kabbalah unless they were searching for answers in their life. Again, this is why we must be committed to reaching the lost and hurting in this world with the truth of God's Word. Christ, and Christ alone is the answer they are searching for!!!
In His love and service, Your friend and brother in Christ, Bill Keller