Category Archives: New Age Spirituality

Lucifer Rising, Part 1 by Carl Teichrib

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“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! —Isaiah 14:12

“LUCIFER, the Light-bearer! Strange and mysterious name to give to the Spirit of Darkness! Lucifer, the Son of the Morning! Is it he who bears the Light…Doubt it not!” —Albert Pike, preeminent Masonic authority, Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, p. 321

“A generation would soon be born that had never known a world without Lucifer.” Best selling author and world-renowned scientist, Arthur C. Clarke, penned these words in his science fiction masterpiece, 2010: Odyssey Two–a book/movie sequel to his ground breaking 1968 work, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Unknown to those who only watched 2010, there was a major difference between the motion picture and the novel. Eerily, the book contained a section titled “Lucifer Rising.”

In Clarke’s Lucifer Rising story line, the hydrogen atmosphere on the planet Jupiter is ignited. The ensuing new “little” sun is dubbed “Lucifer” and illuminates the earth with its light. The result: darkness no longer existed. Fear, suspicion, and crimes of the night disappear. Mankind has become illuminated through the light of Lucifer.

To occultists and New Agers, the symbology of Arthur C. Clarke’s writing was unmistakable. Lucifer, the “light bearer” shines his knowledge (occult “truth”) upon all humanity, chasing away fear and ignorance, and providing mankind with the opportunity to discover his own intellect.

While Arthur C. Clarke helped to perpetuate the occult view of Lucifer, the source authority on the subject of the fallen angel is the Bible. According to Ezekiel, Lucifer was an anointed cherub created by God, he was gifted with wonderful musical abilities, and was adorned with beautiful gemstones. He was also a creature of intelligence, possessing memory and a will–and pride. Scripture makes it clear that he led an angelic rebellion against God, attempting to become “like the Most High” (Isaiah 14). In response God condemned Lucifer, along with those angels who had chosen to follow him in disobedience, and removed them from their exulted heavenly positions. Lucifer–an eternal being–is now named Satan, the devil, the king of death, and the god of this world. Scripture warns us about Lucifer’s current obsession: to twist God’s word, to lead souls to spiritual death, and to assail his wrath against earth’s inhabitants–those whom Christ died for.

While Christianity views Lucifer as the personification of evil, the esoteric teachings of the occult and the New Age movement embrace him as an agent of intellectual and spiritual freedom. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, the “mother” of the New Age movement and modern occultism, taught in her Secret Doctrine that Lucifer was “higher and older than Jehovah, and had to be sacrificed to the new dogma” of the Church. She further expressed in her “great work” that Satan, under different god-names, is really an allegory of “Good, and Sacrifice, a God of Wisdom.” Blavatsky believed that Satan was the only god of earth, “is one with the Logos,” and is the “cosmic reflection of God.”

Blavatsky also equated Lucifer with Jesus Christ. This thinking is partially derived from various mystical interpretations of God’s Word. In Revelation 22:16 Jesus is called the “bright and morning star,” and in Isaiah Lucifer is referred to as the “son of the morning” (the NIV also says “son of the dawn”). Mystically and astrologically speaking, the bright and morning star is Venus, which, in the teachings of occult schools, is symbolically Lucifer. And in the solar cults, the morning star is frequently referred to as the Sun, or “son” of the morning, and “son of god.” According to Blavatsky’s esoteric theology, “Lucifer is divine and terrestrial light, the ‘Holy Ghost’ and ‘Satan,’ at one and the same time…” Her Secret Doctrine further stated,

“And now it stands proven that Satan, or the Red Fiery Dragon, the ‘Lord of Phosphorus,’ and Lucifer, or ‘Light-Bearer,’ is in us: it is our Mind – our tempter and Redeemer, our intelligent liberator and Saviour from pure animalism.” (Vol. 2, p. 513)

Thankfully the Bible sets the record straight, and in a very simple and non-confusing manner: 2 Corinthians 11:14 tells us: “for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.”

For a time the Theosophical Society published Lucifer magazine, a monthly periodical which proclaimed the inverted doctrine of Lucifer coming to redeem humanity. In the February, 1917 issue of Theosophy, the publication of the United Lodge of Theosophists in Los Angeles, an article reprinted from an early edition of Lucifer magazine gives a detailed account of Theosophical creation:

“And, when God said: ‘Let there be light,’ Intelligence was made and light appeared.

“Then, the Intelligence which God had breathed forth, like a planet detached from the Sun, took the form of a splendid Angel and the heavens saluted him with the name Lucifer.

“Intelligence awoke and it fathomed its own depths as it heard this apostrophe of the divine Word, ‘Let there be Light.’ It felt itself to be free, for God had commanded it so to be, and it answered, raising its head and spreading its wings, ‘I will not be Slavery.’…”

“God then unloosed from his bosom the thread of splendour which held back the superb spirit, and as he watched him dive into the night, cutting in it a path of glory, he loved the child of his thought, and smiling with a smile ineffable, he murmured to himself: ‘How fair a thing was this Light!’…”

“Perhaps Lucifer, in plunging into the night, drew with him a shower of Stars and Suns by the attraction of his glory?” (italics in original)

Our present day occult revival is firmly rooted within these teachings. And not unlike today, Theosophy itself sprang up during a surge of occult interest. During the 1800’s, Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, Mormonism, Hermetic Orders such as the Golden Dawn, the blossoming of reincarnation teachings, and the writings of occultists such as Eliphas Levi and Aleister Crowley, had cut deep groves into the spiritual fabric of society. Borrowing from these demonic sources, Helena Blavatsky and her organization became fertile ground for spiritual seekers and experimenters. Theosophy, boiling out of this cauldron of mysticism, not only spawned the New Age Movement, but a host of other mystical orders and schools of thought–including Nazism.

Once hidden within the occult priesthood of the mystery religions, the New Age Movement has now made the teachings of Lucifer available to the public. Hence, a new period of rejuvenated spiritual experimentation has taken shape. But while this new generation of mysticism is flourishing, its Luciferic doctrines are old–going back to the early days of history when a serpent claimed that mankind could “be like God” (Genesis 3:5). Today, the New Age Movement and the secret doctrines of the occult are attempting to do what Lucifer himself tried, to be “like the Most High.” Their claim to the throne: the Satanic “redemption” of man’s intellect.

The Bible plainly tells us that Jesus Christ, not Lucifer, is the savior of humanity. Jesus Christ alone offers salvation from Lucifer’s “illumination” of pride, greed, selfishness, hatred, maliciousness, deceit, pain, and death. Unfortunately, mankind has bought the lie of the dark lord, and is willfully being manipulated to build an earthly kingdom for the Destroyer.

The question boils down to this: Whom will you serve? Jesus Christ, who sacrificed Himself–the light of the world–for our spiritual freedom, or Lucifer, the “father of lies” and binder of souls? You need to choose this day.

“God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” —1 John 1:5-7

Copyright: Carl Teichrib, 2002.

Carl Teichrib, a Canadian-based researcher and writer on globalization, is Chief Editor of Forcing Change – a monthly intelligence journal engaged in analyzing and documenting global economic, political, and socio-religious trends. www.forcingchange.org

Spiritual Formation as Spiritual Deception: Beware the Peddlers of Grace (Part 1)

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sanctification

This article will investigate the biblical teaching of the sanctification of the believer in light of current spiritual formation teaching.  Research will be presented showing that the historic Christian theistic understanding and teaching concerning sanctification has been obfuscated today by the so-called spirituality of spiritual formation teaching.  Part one will offer an analysis of the importance of the biblical teaching on sanctification.  Part two will present the ways that sanctification has been understood in the church historically.  Part three will detail the recent re-interpretations of sanctification from within the spiritual formation perspective.  Part four will suggest a corrective to the current path of teaching on spirituality and suggest a return to biblical sanctification.  Part five will present a summation of what is at stake for the church if it does not heed this call.

This effort will rely primarily on an article written by Steven L. Porter that appeared in the September 2002 issue of the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society.  In his article Porter suggests that what is needed today is a more robust systematic theology related to the doctrine of sanctification.  It is the position of this writer that what is needed today is much more than a systematic treatment of spiritual formation.  Instead of seeking a bigger tent to encompass all the expressions of evangelical spiritual formation and disciplines today, an evaluation of the practices themselves will reveal a need to return to the biblical teaching on sanctification.

The Importance of Teaching Biblical Sanctification

The Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians to exhort readers to continue their Christian life and thereby their sanctification by faith.  His question to the Galatians then and to readers of this article today is equally appropriate: “Did you receive the Spirit by works of the Law, or by hearing with faith.”[1]  In other words did you gain life in Christ by your efforts or by the Holy Spirit?  Clearly, we are saved by grace[2] and the Scriptures teach that we are sanctified in the same manner.

Addressing an age-old issue is at the heart of this question by the apostle to the Galatians.  Mankind has a demonstrated tendency to stray from the path of divine instruction and end up on a path of its own making and choosing.  Paul’s letter to the Colossians provides a ready example of this truth.  The apostle asked the Colossians a question similar to the one he asked of the Galatians: “If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, ‘do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!’”  The point the apostle makes here is that the types of activities the Colossians were submitting themselves to could not secure the grace of sanctification being touted by the false teachers of the day and was in fact without warrant based on the teachings of Jesus Christ.

It is important to understand the biblical teaching on sanctification precisely because there has developed a plethora of methods suggesting that sanctification is predominantly the responsibility of the individual believer to achieve by whatever means the individual deems experientially satisfying.[3]  While it is true that sanctification has an experiential aspect, i.e., we are called to “work out our salvation,” it cannot be maintained that individuals are free to subscribe to any method of their choosing.  That does not stop many professing Christians from attempting self-sanctification through extra-biblical means though.  Witness for instance the variety of Purpose Driven emphases, the myriad spiritual, marriage, and youth retreats, self-help study groups, recovery groups, care groups, healing and dealing with specific issues of life groups, and the thousands of books on the so-called spiritual formation techniques of contemplative prayer, mystical silence and solitude of the soul, labyrinth walking, chanting, and visualization.  The sincerity of the creators and authors of these techniques and the eagerness of practitioners to indulge themselves in these techniques is not being questioned in this paper.  The validity of what they are practicing and urging others to engage in under the guise of spiritual growth, formation, and discipline is being questioned however.  This concern underscores the urgent need to speak directly to the evangelical Church of its need to understand and teach as a core doctrine the subject of the biblical method for the sanctification of the believer.

We are instructed in Scripture to discipline ourselves as a means to godliness.[4]  Therefore being holy is a goal of every Christian.  Does it follow that whatever technique or process deemed useful by a Christian is acceptable to God?  Following that practice has surely led Christians outside the boundaries of how God has determined He will be approached and how His people will grow in sanctification.  Mystical experiences and pragmatic techniques are nowhere called for in the Scriptures as a means to godliness.  One of the reasons the Reformers advocated Sola Scriptura was to evaluate and eliminate those teachings outside the warrant of Scripture.  It appears the modern Protestant evangelical Church has forgotten this principle.

 IN THE NEXT POST I WILL EXAMINE SANCTIFICATION FROM AN HISTORICAL AND EVANGELICAL PERSPECTIVE

Read part Two here.

[1]Galatians 3:2. Unless otherwise stated all Scripture references are from The New American Standard Bible, Updated 1995, The Lockman Foundation (Chicago: Moody Press, 1995).

[2]Ephesians 2:8.

[3]Dallas Willard for example states that spirituality/sanctification is achieved by emulating the lifestyle of Jesus.  He refers to this as the “easy yoke” of Christ and asserts that in “this truth lies the secret of the easy yoke: the secret involves living as He lived in the entirety of His life – adopting His overall lifestyle  . . . We have to discover how to enter into his disciplines from where we stand today – and no doubt, how to extend and amplify them to suit our needy cases.”  The Spirit of the Disciplines, (HarperCollins: New York, NY: 1991), 5, 9.

[4]1 Timothy 4:7.

Photo credit Young Nak Celebration Church