First, we need to understand the definition of the term occult. The occult is a rather broad term that covers a lot of practices that are unholy to our God. It comes from the Latin word occultus and means "hidden, or secret". In its most simple understanding the occult is any person, group, or organization that tries to gain supernatural power, abilities, or knowledge apart from the Creator God, Jehovah. At its root is disobedience to God!
Let's proceed ... According to a website which promotes the history of ancient Egyptian magic, the Egyptian Pharaohs practiced witchcraft to empower men with means and methods of making both demonic and friendly powers perform what they wanted. And I found this very interesting: in Egypt, the magical powers belonged exclusively to men of religion, and one who was skilled in the art and science of magic, was invincible. The domain of Egyptian witchcraft and occult was divine; a person who was an expert in this field of magic was considered immortal, or "like a god".
So, now consider Exodus 7:1-3, "Then the Lord said to Moses, “See, I make you as God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall speak to Pharaoh that he let the sons of Israel go out of his land. But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart that I may multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt", and verses 10-12: "So Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, and thus they did just as the Lord had commanded; and Aaron threw his staff down before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers, and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did the same with their secret arts. For each one threw down his staff and they turned into serpents. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs." Starting to get the picture? While in bondage in Egypt for 400 years, the Israelites would have seen the power of Egypt's occult. So God sent Moses to confound their occultic system, proving that His signs and wonders were greater. But did that stop the influence of Egyptian magic among the Israelites?
Fast forward to Solomon, the heir apparent to King David, a man whom 1 Kings 4:29-30 says, "God gave Solomon wisdom and very great discernment and breadth of mind, like the sand that is on the seashore. Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the sons of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt." I looked up the word wisdom in Strong's Concordance and found that it is the Hebrew word chokmah, and it means "wisdom, experience, and shrewdness". But among its many connotations is that the one who receives wisdom is "to be endowed with special abilities given to him by God; and that the prerequisite for wisdom is the fear of the Lord".
There is a lot of extra-Biblical literature that suggests that Solomon practiced the magic arts that came from Egypt. The Apocryphal Wisdom of Solomon (220BC-50AD) mentions Solomon praying & receiving the “spirit of Wisdom”. Through Wisdom, Solomon knows of astrology and the “forces of spirits” or “powers of spirits” in this translation. Within the Dead Sea Scrolls, there is a very fragmented Apocryphal Psalms (11Q11[11Q PsAp]) that mentions Solomon in connection with demons. It reads, "[Of David. Concerning the words of the spell] in the name of [YHWH…][…] of Solomon, and he will invoke [the name of YHWH] {to set him free from every affliction of the sp]irits, Of the devils. [Liliths,][owls and jackals.] These are the devils, and the pri[nce of emn]ity [is Belial,] who [rules] over the abyss [of dark] ness…". Around 70 AD, Josephus compiled his Antiquities and included an excerpt about Solomon. When referring to 1 Kings, Solomon no longer speaks 3000 proverbs and sings 1005 songs, Josephus writes that now he has authored 3000 books of proverbs and 1005 books of odes. Solomon could also compose incantations to heal the sick and perform exorcisms. The belief that the original Temple of Jerusalem was built with supernatural help also emerged with Josephus. Then there is The Epistle to Rehoboam, a letter purported to have been written by Solomon to his son, Rehoboam, explaining the benefits of gaining power through the use of “plants, prayers, stones, but above all else…the seven planetary gods.” It contains a passage subtitled ‘Concerning Hygromancy’ in which Solomon instructs his son, Rehoboam, on how to use divination and astrology to secure sexual gratification, health, power, and wealth. The basis of Solomon’s magic lies in a precise understanding of astrology and cosmology. Finally, there is the Testament of Solomon (TSol) (2nd century AD), which describes Solomon building the Jerusalem Temple with the aid of demons. The text claims that Solomon wrote the Testament in an attempt to record all his wisdom after he had lost his powers. If you would like to do your own research on these ancient texts, you can start here at this link.
Now, none of this is recorded in our Bible. But there is the warning God gives Solomon in 1 Kings 9: "“But if you or your sons indeed turn away from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them, and the house which I have consecrated for My name, I will cast out of My sight... ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’ And they will say, ‘Because they forsook the Lord their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and adopted other gods and worshiped them and served them". Then we see the fall of Solomon in 1 Kings 11: "Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not follow the Lord fully, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable idol of Moab, on the mountain which is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the detestable idol of the sons of Ammon. Thus also he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods."
So, how does all this tie into our understanding of the Kabbalah as a mystical religion? Johannes Buxtorf (1564-1629) a professor of Hebrew, known by the title "Master of the Rabbis", defines the Kabbalah [in his book Lexicon of the Talmud] as "a secret science, which treats in a mystical and enigmatical manner of things divine, angelic, theological, celestial, and metaphysical; the subjects being enveloped in striking symbols and secret modes of teaching". OK, I can see some synchronicity in what the historical extra-biblical texts reveal about Solomon and his "wisdom".
But now, I'm going to take a big leap and link the ancient Egyptian mysticism and occult to the Kabbalah and to the secrets of Freemasonry. I am astounded at the number of websites that promote these occultic and mystic religions and organizations. In a fascinating article on the website called Gaia (named after the pagan goddess, known as the Mother Earth goddess), Ancient Egyptian history author, Alphonse Mariette, wrote of the Egyptian mystery schools, “To the initiated of the sanctuary, no doubt, was reserved the knowledge of the god in the abstract, the god concealed in the unfathomable depths of his own essence. But for the less refined adoration of the people were presented the endless images of deities sculptured on the walls of temples.” The Christian Priest, Origen, said that “The Egyptian philosophers have sublime notions with regard to the Divine nature, which they kept secret, and never discover to the people but under a veil of fables and allegories.”
If you've done any study of Freemasonry at all, you can surely see the similarities in the teaching methods. Freemasonry is performed by way of symbolism and allegory and never revealed to the uninitiated (known as cowans). Masonic teaching centers on its initiation rituals. Each of Freemasonry’s three degrees takes the candidate through a journey steeped in history, symbolism, and allegory to teach him lessons of how to raise his divine spark, realize his relationship to a higher power (God, Grand Architect, Supreme Being, etc) and live a life of moral rectitude. Occult scholar, Lewis Spence (1874 – 1955) tells us of the same goal of initiation in Ancient Egypt: “The purpose of initiation is a conventional attempt to realize man’s place in the universe and in the divine scheme of things, and for this, I believe, the Egyptian Mystery System achieved for the first time in an orderly and philosophical manner … Have we no lessons to learn from Egypt? Aye, the greatest in the world, the knowledge of that divine introspection which alone can give man the likeness of the Divine.”
But the incontrovertible evidence that ties Freemasonry to the ancient Egyptian occult is the use of Egyptian gods like Thoth and Anubis; On, Osiris and Isis in the oaths they take. In the mystery schools of Ancient Egypt, a chain was placed around a candidate’s neck as part of his preparation for initiation. In Freemasonry, a noosed rope (called a cable tow) is placed around the initiate's neck. As in Freemasonry, the Egyptian candidate was also blindfolded to represent a state of darkness before emerging into the light of knowledge when the blindfold was removed.
When a candidate becomes a Freemason, he is presented with a white apron consisting of a square overlaid with a triangle. The apex of the triangular flap represents the divine spark we must endeavor to recover. It is the part of us made in the image of our Creator, and there’s no better geometric figure to symbolize this than the triangle. After all, geometrically a triangle is the very first shape that can be made by drawing straight lines. This is why the number 3 was venerated by the ancients and still is to this day. In Judaism, the triangle represents the past, present, and future. To the Chinese: heaven, earth, and water. To the Hindus: creation, preservation, and renewal. The three points of the triangle also represent the conscious mind, the subconscious mind, and the collective unconscious. The Ancient Egyptian ceremony of initiation led the candidate to a door shaped exactly as a Masonic apron: a triangle over a square, symbolizing his progression from an earthly, material existence (square) into a heavenly, spiritual existence of higher learning (triangle).
These are just a few of the connections between ancient Egypt, the Kabbalah and Freemasonry. Were the traditions of the Pharisees steeped in the Kabbalah? Is that why Jesus asked them, "Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?" The Bible does not make that clear. But the reading of history and historical writings make some interesting assertions about mystical Judaism. Are we to question the Bible? Absolutely not! The Holy Spirit reveals the truth of the Word; it is divine and holy. But we cannot ignore what history tells us about the occult and witchcraft, and their influence in all the major religions of the world.
The secrecy, the magic, the sorcery, and the "mystic traditions" are serious transgressions. Can you see the disobedience and rebellion against the God of the Bible? It is as ancient as time and continues to hold sway over mankind today, tempted by the Enemy to seek his own divinity. The connection between secrecy and science is unmistakable in the occult, whether in antiquity or the 21st Century. We must expose it and uproot it at every turn! We should take seriously the words of Paul to the Church at Ephesus: "Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light."
