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THE<\/strong> phrase “secret society” in this series has less to do with covert operations and more to do with a central ideology that pervades its members: Gnosticism<\/em>. It is the belief that they are special custodians of ancient “secret knowledge” \u2014 knowledge that can make them lords over the earth. This heresy goes all the way back to the beginning and reveals to us a diabolical masterplan behind the new paganism emerging at the end of this era…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n THE FIRST LIE<\/p>\n Eve wasn’t tempted by a roaring lion or a squawking eagle but a snake,\u00a0<\/em>a creature whose movements and voice are quiet, subtle, hissing.<\/p>\n Now the serpent was more subtle than any of the beasts of the earth which the Lord God made… (Genesis 3:1)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n And these were the words with which he tempted her as she stood before the Tree of Knowledge <\/em>of good and evil.<\/p>\n God knows well that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, who know<\/em> good and evil. (Genesis 3:5)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Gn\u014dstikos: <\/em>“knowledge”. With that, Eve, and then Adam, were tempted to believe that there was a “secret knowledge” that could make them like God.<\/p>\n Now, the Scriptures really don’t tell us much about the ensuing fall of mankind into depravity. One can only surmise that the tension between knowing one’s spiritual immortality and yet the inevitability of death, is what eventually led to all manners of evil outside of paradise: superstition, alchemy, sorcery, divination, magic, and ultimately worship of nature itself (Pantheism), all in a futile attempt to gain that secret knowledge<\/em> that would restore man’s dominion over himself (and others). It’s as if Satan whispered in fallen man’s other ear: “Ah, well you see, God never had your best interests in mind after all! Let <\/em>me<\/strong> show you how you can indeed become gods.”<\/em><\/p>\n Long story short, God set aside for himself a Chosen People, delivering them from Egypt, which by then, was deeply immersed in the occult (which means “covered or concealed”). The Jews, then, would be the people from whom salvation for the entire world would come. As such, God began to impart to them, not secret, but divine <\/em>knowledge\u2014wisdom from on high that was not to be hidden but rather a beacon to the pagan nations. God’s covenant would not be esoteric (only for a few) but the beginning of a life-giving Revelation\u2014truth that would eventually set all of creation free.<\/p>\n This Revelation began with the Ten Commandments. But when Moses descended Mount Sinai with the tablets on which they were inscribed, incredibly, the Chosen People had fallen into idolatry: they had made for themselves a golden calf, which they worshipped…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n THE FIRST SECRET SOCIETY<\/p>\n Stephen Mahowald has authored an excellent and concise book that traces what happened next after the Israelites lapsed into idolatry.<\/p>\n Lucifer, the father of lies, whose work for the destruction of souls began in the Garden of Eden, now put his insidous and most grandiose plan to date into action\u2014a plan that would lead countless souls to perdition. The cornerstone of this plan was laid with the birth of the Kabbala. <\/em><\/strong>\u2014Stephen Mahowald, She Shall Crush Thy Head, <\/em>p .23<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Mahowald explains how, according to Talmudic Jews, God gave His people, not one, but two inspired revelations. There was the written Law of Moses received atop Sinai, but there was also the oral tradition acquired by seventy elders who came to the base of the mountain but were forbidden to proceed farther. The Pharisees said these seventy elders, or Sanhedrin, received a much more extensive and profound revelation than Moses, a revelation which was never written down, yet took precendent over the written law.<\/strong> \u2014Ibid. p. 23; quoted from The Other Israel, <\/em>Ted Pike<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The Kabbala, then, refers to a library of knowledge or a body of teachings that formed an “ancient and secret<\/em> oral tradition among a small and elite group of Israelites.”[1]<\/sup><\/a>Ibid. p. 23<\/span><\/span>\n
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After the fall, death entered the world\u2014despite the serpent’s other lie that “you will not die.”<\/em> Like all Satan’s lies, it was a half-truth; Adam’s and Eve’s souls were indeed immortal… but now their bodies would suffer the consequences of original sin, as well as their progeny henceforth.<\/p>\n\n
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