What Is Kabbalah Or Kabbalists? Is This Biblical?

What is Kabbalah? Where did the idea come from? Is it biblical?

What is Kabbalah?

Kabbalah is original with Judaism and is an ancient wisdom that is supposed to reveal how the universe and life work. The word Kabbalah means “to receive” and in this case, it is the receiving of the ancient wisdom that the Jews have long since held onto by tradition. Kabbalah is a study course really with the chief goal being the receiving of fulfillment in one’s life. It’s not just being happy but it means you are connecting to the energy, and maintaining your connection to true long-lasting fulfillment of life that few others even know about. It’s not really a secret society but it comes pretty close to it because not just anyone can be a Kabbalist. Kabbalah attempts to explain the relationship between the infinite and the finite.

Kabbalists

A person who has or is receiving the ancient wisdom and living by it is called a Kabbalists. The Kabbalist seeks to reach fulfillment in this life and that means following and living by the ancient Jewish paradigm for this life. The end point is to fully understand how the universe works at its core level and that allows the Kabbalist to find the permanent and complete fulfillment in life that only Kabbalah can bring. You would think that since Kabbalah has Jewish origins, it would make reference to a personal God but it’s almost the pursuit of the knowledge of how the universe works so that complete fulfillment can be reached or received but there is trouble with this thinking. In the first place, it eliminates God from the picture and it makes it something we do to reach fulfillment which is contrary to the way a person is saved (Eph 2:8-9) but also most troubling is they believe that their universal principles can apply to all peoples of all faiths and all religions, no matter what god or gods they worship or no gods at all. That is universalism that is contrary to the biblical teaching that “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Rejecting Truth and Believing a Lie

Sadly, the Jews have as a whole rejected Jesus as their Messiah even though the evidence for His being the perfect fulfillment of the Messiah can be found in the Old Testament. Since they have rejected Jesus, He told them “unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:5) and even more tragic, Jesus tells the Jews “In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out. And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God” (Luke 13:28-29). They had thought it was their connection to Abraham that they would enter the kingdom and that by this external, outward circumcision of the flesh that set them apart, ignoring the fact that “a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God” (Rom 2:29).

Kabbalah’s Source

When Kabbalah began, many saw it as having a Greek origin and it was a form of Neo-Platonism and its “Christian” offshoot, Gnosticism. Gnosticism is a heresy which is made up of a diverse set of beliefs and is the teaching based on the idea of gnosis (a Koine Greek word meaning “secret knowledge”) that only a select few could have. The Gnostics thought that there physical material was evil, especially the human body, and that there was a constant tension between the flesh and the spirit but is this what the Bible teaches? A person is saved by believing in Jesus Christ and the Son of God as Savior and Lord (John 3:16) and not by trying to figure it all out by the use of knowledge. The Gnostics and the Kabbalists cannot see that it is only “by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph 2:8-9) but they want it to be by their own doing and works so that they can personally discover the way the universe works so that they can be fulfilled for the rest of their life.

Conclusion

If you know of someone who is a Kabbalist, please tell them that there is no other way to be saved than by repentance and faith (Mark 1:15) and that no one can save themselves by their own knowledge. Salvation is obtained by the knowledge of God and not by man’s own knowledge. God will save only those who repent, which means that they turn away from and forsake their sins and then they put their trust in Christ. There is simply no other way to be saved (Acts 16:30-31).

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.