ALL MEN ARE IN DARKNESS
The first thing to understand is that all men are in darkness relevant to the Christ untill such a time He comes to “light our candle”.
Job 32:8 "But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding." This spirit, our spirit, the spirit of man, within us is said to be; "The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly."(Prov 20:27)
It is the candle of the Lord; "for what man knoweth the things of man, save the spirit of man which is in him?"(1 Cor 2:11) Not until God lights this candle " thou will light my candle: The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness."[/i](Ps 18:28) This candle must be lit by Christ who is; " the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." (jn 1:9)
This means even though we all have our spirit, called the spirit of man. We all walk in darkness, relative to the truth of God, until our candle is lit by Him who is the true light. This is why many of the, so called books of wisdom of either eastern religions, or even the Talmud and Kabbalah of the Jews can not contain the very spirit of truth. For until there candle is lit by the true light, what is being shared by these writing’s is not true in the least but a perversion of the truth. For it is said He is the “true light”. If He is that then all that is written supposedly about God they themselves should know Him. But the fruit of these teachings do not produce the true light do they? Just because they come from Jewish oral tradition in no means does it mean they are hearing or knowing the truth.
Let me also add this Jesus himself said;
Joh 8:37 "I know that ye are Abraham's seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you."
Joh 8:43 "Why do ye not understand my speech? because ye cannot hear my word."
This is very important to the teachings of the Talmidic writings and those of Kabbalah. For the very roots of this lack of inability to hear His word takes us right back to Mt. Sinai. When all Israel was brought before God and His presence engulfed the Mount, we read;
"And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw [it], they removed, and stood afar off.
And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die." (Ex 20:18-19)
Now remember the Talmudic writings and the Kabbalah only came about after Christ. The later not until about 1200 ad. What’s interesting not one early convert mentioned in any of the New Testament gives reference to Talmudic teachings, nor to any supposed oral traditions of there Fathers in the least. But we must go back to Mt. Sinai in order to understand why Jesus said what he did. It was here that we see they did not want God to speak to them. “…let not God speak with us…” Just as Jesus said “ye do not understand my speech? Because ye cannot hear my word.”
To pick back up with the discourse Jesus had with those who do not hear what he says, we note what they do hear is of another source.
“Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and ABODE not in the truth , because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” (Jn 8:44)
John wrote of this in this manner;
"I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth." (1 Jo 2:21)
Did you catch that "no lie is ---of---the truth".
That is simply Kabbalism if it is "of the truth" should talk very plainly of Christ who is the truth. No mumbo jumbo of words to decifer or secret knowledge.
Truth will testify of Christ who is the truth. Not veiled in some mystical type of writings as one reads of the Kabbalah. This “mystical quality” is the very deception of these writing they seem so mystical so they must be of God. Also Jesus spoke very candidly to those who were Abrahams seed. At Sinai they did not want to hear from God for themselves, so I ask what is there source of hearing from? Jesus said it very plainly can you accept it? “Ye are of your father the devil”. That is what is the source of this wisdom? James helps to understand there are two sources of wisdom. Also why would he say such a thing? For he stated "the devil" is the "Father of lies". Who is the generating force of these thoughts in Kabbalah? If they were of Christ then so should they have professed the same. For remember these writing only supposedly came about after Christ, not before. Even if the subtle lie they try to claim that there handed down oral traditions, from Abraham.
To sum this up. Every man is in darkness until the true light lights our candle. This means all that is shared by anyone until then is of another source. This is very plain and simple. For he is the TRUE LIGHT that will light EVERY MAN. Also those who are of the household of Abraham specifically the Jews, who are the so called keepers of the oral tradition, DO NOT HAVE HIS WORD IN THEM. Why? Because He is the TRUE LIGHT. They refused to hear for themselves for if they truly heard and any who truly hear, they would proclaim Him. I needed to write the spiritual aspect first. For this aspect is over arching regardless of what literature is purportedly called spiritual or having truth.
Historical Aspects
Let me share some other insights from those of the household of Judah themselves dealing with the Kabbalah. As way of confirming from the historical perspective, how man builds upon “knowledge” and not Him who is the truth. Some of this information is taken from the “Jews for Jesus web sight” which has been very helpful in understanding the Jewish religion.
… "Kabbalah" means "received teachings" or simply "traditions" and is derived from the Hebrew "kabel" which means "to receive." It originally applied only to the Oral Law "received" after the destruction of the Second Temple, in the form of the Talmud. However, in the twelfth century the term "kabbalah" was also used to denote various mystical teachings that began to be "received" by the Jewish communities of that day. This second set of "received" teachings is the Kabbalah proper. Though it was fully developed in the Middle Ages, the first seeds of a mystical trend began to emerge in the talmudic literature, written well after the destruction of the Second Temple—from 150 A.D. to 600 A.D…”
What is to be noted is that the Talmudic writings began “AFTER THE DESTRUCTION OF THE SECOND TEMPLE”. This of course is speaking of the Temple that began to be rebuilt by Ezra and beautified by Herod. Which Temple was destroyed after Christ death some years later. Let me continue with the quote about Kabbalah.
“…The Hekhalot Literature
The earliest mystical texts of Judaism are contained in the Hekhalot (heavenly places) literature which are collections of fragmentary midrashim—rabbinic writings of the Talmudic period. They center on mystical interpretations of certain biblical passages.
For example, while commenting on the chariot described in Ezekiel 1, Ishmael ben Elijah1 describes his ecstatic ascent into the heavenly places where he beholds the divine chariot, the heavenly places and the throne on which God is seated as well as his visions of the divine palaces and his personal experience of the Divine presence. The Hekhalot literature sets the scene for further "heavenly exploration."
Sepher Yetzirah
Another important mystical text, developed between the third and six centuries a.d. is the Sepher Yetzirah or the "Book of Creation." This canonical text for the later kabbalistic movement sought to explain the workings and the origin of the universe. It described the sefirot or "emanations," the ten so-called "manifestations of God." Knowledge of these mysteries was thought to confer magical powers on the initiated.
Neoplatonism and Gnosticism
Sepher Yetzirah was influenced heavily by neoplatonsim, a late Greek philosophical school that combined elements of Plato with Oriental belief systems. Plato believed that our physical world is not the primary place of existence. He posited a "higher" world where the true forms exist. Our world is, he thought, only a mirror of the true world "above." Sefer Yetzirah placed these ideas into a Jewish framework. The work was back-dated and its authorship ascribed (in typical Kabbalistic fashion) to an authoritative Jewish figure, in this case Abraham.
Gnosticism, another mystical trend of the time also influenced the Kabbalists. Gershon Sholem, one of the great modern scholars in the development of the Kabbalah defines gnosticism as "the possession of knowledge that cannot be obtained by ordinary intellectual means; the possession of a secret doctrine concerning the order of the celestial worlds and the means that provide access to it."2
Gnosticism puffed-up the place of the individual and emphasized that he or she must gain secret knowledge and develop personal power in order to discover the road to self-enlightenment. Although the Kabbalah never removed its adherents from the community-at-large, as other gnostic sects did, Kabbalists latched onto the personal-experiential appeal of gnosticism and grafted the idea into the Jewish context.
And so it can be seen that "from the Talmudic period forward, Jews cultivated profoundly rich and highly diverse forms of mysticism."3 With the rise of Islam and the consequent persecutions of the Jews, the religious center of the Jewish people shifted from Babylon to locations in Europe, specifically to Italy, Germany, Spain and France.
It was in twelfth and thirteenth century France and Spain that the Kabbalah finally came into its definitive expression. In his article on kabbalistic texts, scholar Lawrence Fine defines the term "Kabbalah" as "a specific historical movement which originated in the second half of the twelfth century in that area of southern France known as Provence, and in northern Spain in the thirteenth century."4…”
Please note that the Talmudic literate first off was begun some time in the 2 century. After the destruction of the second temple.
