The Lord be praised for the chance for me one again join host Chris Arnzen on his Iron Sharpens Iron program. As you’ll hear, while Kabbalah represents the mystic tradition of Judaism, there is a real similarity to the corrupt Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism of so-called Spiritual Formation.

Now a pop culture trend, which involves people from Madonna to Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore, to Paris Hilton, Jeff Goldblum and Elizabeth Taylor to Barbara Streisand and now even Brittany Spears; Hollywood’s hottest and other celebrities have been embracing this ancient practice of Jewish Bible study known as the Kabbalah.

I also point out in this program that the place to start with all of this kind of mysticism is the Bible:

That which has been is that which will be, And that which has been done is that which will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one might say, “See this, it is new”? Already it has existed for ages, Which were before us.
(Ecclesiastes 1:9-10, NASB)

This is because mystical deception—and Kabbalah is a part of this—goes back even further than the above to when Lucifer—now know known as Satan—is quoted as saying — “I will make myself like the Most High.” (Isaiah 14:14)

Among other things I give a good working definition of Kabbalah in that it is the mystic interpretation of what Jews call “the Torah” — the Law. Some who are into Kabbalah would then broaden that definition to the Tanakh—the whole of the Jewish Scriptures, or what is the Old Testament for the Christian.

The word Kaballah itself essentially means “reception”; as in the “receiving” of information, but a bit more specifically “to receive tradition.” As you’ll also hear that someone into Kabbalah would say where the Jewish law focuses on what God wants from man, Kabbalah is trying to penetrate deeper into the unio mystica—in other words, union with God in essence.

So in that way what we’re dealing with in Kabbalah are the same lies and deceptions of classic mysticism. The goal of all mysticism is this alleged union with God. In some fashion all mysticism—no matter the flavor—somewhere will teach that God already indwells all of mankind.

You can listen to and/or download the program here.