"Going"
YEARNING FOR THE UNKNOWN
One of the greatest ironies of life is that a significant number of people have little regard for what God has revealed while pursuing enthusiastically what He has kept secret (Deut. 29:29). In the Bible God reveals His character, His morality, His salvation, His will for our lives, as well as pertinent descriptions of our futures, but interest in these marvelous revelations engenders no faithfulness to those who think there ought to be more. Listening to the ever-whispering voice of the serpent, they have concluded, "God hasn't told me everything I need to know." Therefore, they earnestly seek "knowledge" from other sources.
Not only did this attitude cause Eve to sin; it led to bizarre practices early in the history of humanity. Consider the prohibition God gave to His people when they were on the verge of conquering Canaan.
There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead (Deut. 18:10-11).
The first one of these pertains to idolatry—to the point of offering one's children as a human sacrifice—but the other items listed involved finding out "hidden" knowledge. This is not the only passage mentioning such practices. Ezekiel 21:21 adds divination, shaking arrows, consulting images (teraphim) and looking at the liver (yuck!). What knowledge can realistically be obtained from types of witchcraft, and who knows what the future holds—besides a prophet of God? Anyone can pretend to interpret omens; some can speak for others—even the dead, through ventriloquism.
All anyone needs to have a full complement of worthless things is to add to the mix such practices as seances, Ouija boards, palm reading, Tarot cards, a crystal ball, horoscopes, or reading tea leaves. What is the purpose of all these things? Usually, they promise in one way or another to tell us the future—to provide knowledge we could not otherwise obtain. Of course, none of these things are legitimate; they were designed to separate a person from his money.
Think about it. What knowledge can anyone logically expect to get from the liver of a cow? Do all animals have the futures of human beings mapped out in their bodily organs? How long does a person need to go to school in order to interpret omens? Or does it come through natural insight? Where would tea leaves get any information from to put together a coherent message to the one consuming the beverage? Do the vibrations of people's hands really know answers hidden from our conscious minds? How can stars know so much about all seven billion of us?
Oh, and the big one is the contacting the spirits of the dead. What? Did God call all the dead together and say, "Hey, gang, here's what's going to happen next"? Why would the soul of one departed have anything to impart, such as that the person paying for the séance is going to come into money? (The correct response should be, "Good, I'll pay you when I receive it.") If the rich man could have reached his five brothers, he would have said, "Don't come here!" That message would be worth more than a thousand of those, "I'm all right here. Everything is lovely and peaceful."
New Age Promises
Many of the items previously named above are practiced by practitioners of New Age concepts, which talks about the "third eye," the seven body chakras that need to be in alignment, and the use of crystals. Of course, they channel spirits from the past, like Ramtha, an ancient warrior who has learned a lot more since he died than he ever knew while living. Others include Seth and Abraham (not the patriarch).
On the Internet is a page called, "The World's Top Ten Trance Channelers." Number one is none other than Edgar Cayce, whose predictions of a quake in California failed to occur—and who said that Jesus had incarnations as Adam and Enoch, although both lived at the same time! The other nine on the list ought to protest that he gets top billing—or any billing, for that matter, since he is a proven fraud.
Kevin Ryerson and Jach Pursel, mentioned in this author's series of sermons on the New Age movement (six parts) are among the elite. We cannot account for the absence of J. Z. Knight, who created Ramtha. One of the newer ones is Esther Hicks who "channels" someone called "Abraham," who has a whole passel of teachings. One is: "You are here in this body because you chose to be here." Some are undoubtedly replying, "I'm pretty sure I didn't choose this body."
"Anything that you can imagine is yours to be or do or have," is another principle, which is not all that different from the Pentecostal concept of, "Name it, claim it." "As you are choosing your thoughts, your emotions are guiding you." No wonder New Agers are short on morality. "Relax into your natural well-being. All is well. (Really it is!)" Wanna bet? "You cannot die; you are everlasting life." What is all this gobbledygook except optimism on steroids?
The Bible records truth, which is not nearly so ephemeral or fun as this New Age stuff is. God is going to hold us accountable for our actions (Rom. 14:11-12; 2 Cor. 5:12), but the trance channelers don't. For them, everything is fine and wonderful—kind of like being in Never Never Land.
Historically, books containing hidden wisdom have generally been available. One such book is called Oahspe: A New Bible which, according to Wikipedia, "is a book published in 1882, purporting to contain 'new revelations' from '...the Embassadors of the angel hosts of heaven prepared and revealed unto man in the name of Jehovih [sic]....' It was produced by an American dentist, John Ballou Newbrough. Your congenial editor's copy contains 910 pages. It promises to be "truly a gateway to understanding" (910).
The Spirits' Book by Allen Kardec is just over 400 pages long; it too was published in the nineteenth century. Cosmic Consciousness: A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind is yet another such book, published in 1901 by the psychiatrist Richard Maurice Bucke, according to Wikipedia. As the reader might expect, the subject matter concerns "a higher form of consciousness than that possessed by the ordinary man." No doubt, some are ready to dive into this knowledge of the unknown. And who knows how many other volumes have been written along the lines of these three books?
II Esdras
One of the books in the Apocrypha likewise refers to "secret knowledge"—only it doesn't reveal what it is. The books of the Apocrypha are frequently entertaining, but scholars do not consider them inspired. Most of them were written concerning times and events in the Old Testament, but it is obvious that some of them were written after the time of Christ. 2 Esdras is one of those. The name refers to Ezra the scribe; most of it is unremarkable until the reader arrives at chapter 14 (near the end of the work).
The writer says that he retained Moses for a long time on the mountain and "told him many wonders and showed him the secrets of the times and the end" (14:5). God decides to tell the same information to Ezra because "the world has lost his youth, and the times begin to wax old" (v. 10). Ezra was instructed to tell the people they would not see him for 40 days (23). Then he was to take five scribes and tables on which they could write (24).
God would light "a candle of understanding" in Esdra's heart, which would not go out until what God had to say was written down (25). Some of what would be revealed was to be proclaimed publicly, other parts were to be revealed secretly to wise men (26). Below begins the description of how these things occurred.
The next day behold, a voice called me, saying, Esdras, open thy mouth, and drink that I give thee to drink. Then I opened my mouth, and behold, he reached me a full cup, which was full as it were with water; but the color of it was like fire. And I took it and drank, and when I had drunk it, mine heart had understanding and wisdom grew in my breast, for my spirit was strengthened in memory (38-40).
And my mouth was opened and shut no more. The Most High gave understanding unto the five men, that they wrote the things of the night, which they understood not. But in the night they did eat bread, but I spake by day, and held not my tongue by night. In forty days, they wrote 204 books (41-44).
Wow! That's a lot of writing. But 204 is the number given in the Geneva Bible. In the Oxford Annotated Apocrypha (1965), the verse specifies 94, which still boggles the mind, but the explanation fits the number better. The first 24 books refer to the entire Old Testament—the ways the Jews categorized them. We have 39 in our English Bibles, but they counted 1-2 Samuel as one book, as well as 1-2 Kings, 1-2 Chronicles, and Ezra-Nehemiah. The twelve minor prophets were also looked upon as one book—thus making only 24.
The last 70 of the 94 was to be given only to the wise among the people (45-46), "for in them is the vein of understanding, and the fountain of wisdom, and the river of knowledge" (47). So, what's in those 70 books? Wise people want to know. But, no, nothing further is revealed about that information. If those 70 were the same size as the Hebrew Old Testament, the total volume would be four times its current size. Some have theorized that this material was apocalyptic in nature, based on the phraseology of 2 Esdras 12:37-38:
"Therefore write all these things that you have seen in a book, and put it in a hidden place; and you shall teach them to the wise among your people, whose hearts you know are able to comprehend and keep these secrets."
These instructions come at the conclusion of a highly apocalyptic section of the book. But whatever the seventy books contained, it was "secret" wisdom.
"The Depths of Satan"
In Revelation 2:24, as part of the Lord's letter to Thyatira, John recorded these word of Jesus:
"But to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine, and who have not known the depths of Satan, as they call them, I will put on you no other burden."
Is it possible that Christians were involved in experiencing the depths of Satan? So it seems. What could motivate a child of God to do such a thing? Perhaps the argument was made that the only way to fight against sin is to understand it thoroughly; then Christians could help others fight against it better. The immoralities being practiced would only, then, be committed for the purpose of acquiring knowledge to fight sin. "We must know," a few may have argued, "the depths of sin in order to rise to the heights of spirituality." Hmm. The fact is that we have all the knowledge and wisdom we need in Christ, Who has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3ff). All else is striving after the wind.
Those who do not know what they are saying shouldn't be: