Little children, beware late-stage Spiritualism

Little children, we are entering a time of dark harmony

This article is about the difference between mature spirituality according to the Bible, and the temptation of the “spiritual community” taking over.

I believe Christians are in danger of being lured into a herd mentality by the Movement That Has No Name, and I want to give you another path.

---

Christian maturity

Christians must be “born again” when they submit to Jesus Christ:

(John 3:3) Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.

Among other things, this means they require help, just like a child does. They require a community (however small) of providers and guides to teach and guide them on their way to maturity. However, once a Christian is biblically-educated and spiritually strong, they no longer need the “milk” and can move on to the “meat,” as the authors of the New Testament explained in 1 Corinthians 3, and in even more clearly in Hebrews 5:

(Hebrews 5: 11-14) We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain, because you are dull of hearing. Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to reteach you the basic principles of God’s word. You need milk, not solid food!

For everyone who lives on milk is still an infant, inexperienced in the message of righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained their senses to distinguish good from evil.

I want you to notice what’s being said here:

1. The author has “much to say” about a mystery of Christ (in this case, his comparison to Melchizedek) but it becomes “hard to explain” because they are “dull of hearing.” This tells us that spiritual immaturity means being hard to teach and easily confused by advanced concepts;

2. His readers have proven disappointing because they failed to become teachers, and are still in need of being taught the basic principles again. Christians should strive to become teachers, not learn the same things over and over;

3. Basic biblical principles are considered “milk” suitable for “infants,” whereas the more advanced concepts are like “solid food.” It is therefore good to be established in the basic principles, but to seek more than only them;

4. Maturity is not reached automatically over time, but rather by “training” their spirit, by “constant use” of the Holy Spirit to “distinguish good from evil.”

Do you see how the trajectory of the Christian is supposed to go? I think the apostles would be ashamed of those believers who go on calling themselves a Christian for decades and still doubt God’s Word, still need to be reminded about basics. We are supposed to grow up and become the guides for others. We are not expected to remain child-like forever.

Let’s be honest, most churches only serve milk. They are continuously treading the same basic ground, which is good for ensuring that new believers can always get the help they need, but this is not enough to sustain those who need “solid food” of more profound lessons. Originally, there were no churches as we think of them. They had city-wide assemblies of all believers, without denominations, to discuss the matters of the day, share insights, help the needy, settle controversies, and encourage each other; but today they are institutions that operate like commercial services. Almost every mature Christian man I know feels no need to attend such a service, just as they would be put off by the prospect of drinking a bottle of milk. However, they are eager and happy to have deeper discussions, and explore the mysteries of the Bible!

When I was first saved many years ago, I was starving for teachings and discussions with believers, and I felt safe and comfortable in church. I’m glad that I had a community to show me love, acceptance, and train me on the basics. But by now I am hungry for solid food. I am not hard to teach, my hearing is not dull, and I want to teach others.

So yes, a mature Christian will tend to be less interested in routine gatherings, rituals, repetitions, and uncritical harmony. They will be more interested in discerning good and evil—including among those who profess to be Christian. They will want to be challenged, intrigued, and trained for use. They are more independent. In today’s culture, unfortunately, it can also feel lonely.

Infectious spirit

In the book American Gnosis, author (and gnostic) Arthur Versluis documents some of the more obscure thinkers of modern mysticism, including those in Latin America. One of the figures he tracks is an American professor named Christopher Bache, who wrote extensively on something he called a “quantum pedagogy,” or the idea that students learn by proximity and absorption of consciousness as much as by intellect. Ideas are subtly transferred through fields of consciousness, overturning the logic of individualism. In this view, individuals are really not individuals at all, because to be an individual one must be separate from others, as a unique and distinct entity.

Gnostic teachings suggest that we are all a collective consciousness experiencing itself, like facets of a gem, and that’s why we can understand things beyond the rational limits of our senses.

“States of consciousness are contagious,” he wrote. And in a sense, he’s correct.

Burning Man (2015). A place where spiritual communities are built in the desolate desert overnight. This is a metaphor for how they plan to rise from the ashes of a collapsed society. They will unify to burn the heretics and reinvent mankind.

Bache describes his teaching experience as a journey of personal discovery. He realized that, even as he was teaching them the concepts of “impermanence, interdependence, oneness, no-self, and the divine within” he began to trigger these very experiences in the college students. He was effectively acting as a “lightning rod,” so that they were “activated less by my words and more by an energetic resonance to my person.” Of course, there are alternative explanations for this. Any hypnotist could tell you that one of the tricks to inducing a weakened state of consciousness is to load a person’s mind with gibberish confidently, jamming up their intellect and reducing them to state of suggestibility. This is what mantras and chanting do, and why they are so ancient and effective. When the mind is either emptied or overwhelmed, it shuts down and goes into standby mode, waiting for something meaningful to process. In the meantime, it becomes susceptible. Bache was likely spouting mountains of nonsensical gnosticism to bright young people who, in an act of trust, tried to absorb his ideas and failed, and thus experienced a kind of hypnotic trance.¹

Another explanation is that impressionable young people intuit the truth held by their superiors, and sometimes conform to their mentality so seamlessly that they almost channel the same “spirit.” Young people always roleplay and experiment with personas, testing out how it feels to agree with or reject those around them. They are carried by the winds, as the Bible says of spiritual infants…

(Ephesians 4:14) Then we will no longer be infants, tossed about by the waves and carried around by every wind of teaching, and by the clever cunning of men in their deceitful scheming.

Another explanation is that Bache is literally demon-possessed and was inviting his audience to lower their spiritual defenses so that they could also be exposed to real deceiving spirits. Although I tend to stay away from this topic because it’s usually overly dramatized and becomes an unfruitful rabbit hole, I do believe that unclean spirits continue to infect the minds and hearts of those who practice occultism, and that this is a kind of spiritual virus that spreads among the weakest souls.

Either way, I’m not ready to dismiss the idea of collective spirituality. The Bible clearly commands Christians to gather together and share the same Holy Spirit. We’re supposed to partake in rites of fellowship. It is hardly controversial, therefore, to suggest that church is an act of collective spirituality. What’s the difference between a classroom and a church? Not much, in terms of structure. It’s plausible that spiritual experiences could happen in a classroom, as the guru wears down the rational barriers of the mind and invites them to imagine strange things about reality. Cult leaders do it all the time. Christians are theoretically practicing a good version of the same phenomenon, strengthening their souls and uniting in godliness to learn the truth.

On occasion, long ago, I have had the pleasure of such a church service. There is something revitalizing about listening to a great sermon, shoulder-to-shoulder with your fellow believers. Singing hymns, praying, and contemplating the Word of God as a group is powerful. I wish that I could find that kind of communion again, but aside from the fellowship of online Bible study groups, it’s been elusive.

Gnostic Revivalism and the Tribulation

Ever since Vatican II (1962-1965) the goal of the Roman Catholic Church has been to infiltrate, schism, and polarize Protestant congregations into so many divided sects that the only way to experience a genuine sense of broad communion is in their Catholic masses. Catholicism has always been closer to mysticism than Protestantism, which was born out of the mass availability of the Bible in the common language, and the rationality associated with the so-called Enlightenment. Catholics do not teach from the Bible and expound the scriptures, but prefer to use chanting, repetition, and grandeur to inspire awe and reverence, fear and guilt, and spectacle. They want their congregation to be in a muted state of mind, crushed by the weight of symbols and sacred nonsense instead of edified by the clear teachings of Christ applied to daily life. I believe that the majority of Bible-believing churches have been targeted by the Jesuits and their agents by now, attempting to steer their doctrine aside, expel their leaders, and otherwise subvert their integrity.

Whether or not this is accurate, the Winter Christian remains secure in their faith, with or without the option of communion. They are not bound to any church, denomination, sect, or movement. They are ready to be betrayed, shunned, and silenced. They will continue to operate behind enemy lines, individually, and will guard their spirit against so-called brothers in Christ just as readily as those who profess some other religion. We are living in times of unparalleled deception, and it will only get worse. Bible-believing Christians are the #1 target of Satan’s world empire of lies, because we are the only ones who can point people to the truth.

Alone and Hated

As theosophy and gnosticism grows in momentum, so too will the pressure to be united by collective spirituality beyond just the local congregation. The stated goal of the Theosophical Society was to produce an interfaith examination, and educate people on the underlying unity of all religions through mysticism. The Oneness movement demands that all separated religions merge, all doctrines blur, and all souls fornicate with idolatry. But God says the very opposite. We are meant to be separate, untainted, and “holy”—which literally means being set apart. If you’re willing to participate in the unification of religions, you will violate the Holy Spirit and it will flee from you.

(2 Corinthians 6:14) Do not become unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what partnership does righteousness have with lawlessness? Or what fellowship is there between light and darkness?

We are meant to be divided, not united.

As the term “Christian” becomes hijacked by New Age deceivers and churches fall further into anti-biblical corruption, it will be necessary for the Winter Christian to separate from the false churches more aggressively, insisting on a purity that they will despise.

We will be mocked, but we will also be blamed for all the problems of the world. Ultimately, they will have such a grip on the “Christian” narrative that we will be branded as the “heretics,” even though they are the luciferian mystics turning the gospel upside down. They will “own” Christianity. The word heretic literally means one who chooses for themselves; meaning one who refuses to conform. Back when the Catholic Church had full control over the Roman Empire, they destroyed our ancestors by calling them heretics, too. If we’re lucky, we’ll get to join their honorable company.

As we expose their lies, we will be framed as persecutors. They will be quick to call themselves victims of hate. Gnostics in particular will go back to the the days of the early church, when they were rejected and persecuted by the rest of the Christians, and claim to be the original victims of scriptural literalists. This is what Arthur Versluis argues in another of his books on gnosticism, The New Inquisitions. He frames today as a period of misunderstanding, cruelty, and injustice towards gnostics, who are the victims of an intolerant institutional church. He softens the idea of gnosticism to the point where anyone who claims to have the Holy Spirit or a personal relationship with God is basically a gnostic. See how slippery the slope can be?

The Tribulation will be a time of extreme “tolerance.” We will be the ones who are portrayed as hateful, even as they destroy us. Literal Satan worshipers will have us murdered in the name of peace, joy, and harmony. They will have the biggest communal spirituality you can get—the Oneness movement—while we will be outcast and marginalized, demonized and ostracized, to the point where we can safely serve as the scapegoat.

1. I believe the longwinded, rambling, highly jargonized writing of Helena Blavatsky, Alice Bailey, Barbara Marx Hubbard, and other theosophists who channeled demonic entities are designed to induce these kinds of hypnotic states as well. Christian writing tends to be clear, direct, simple, and clarifying, whereas mystic writing is deliberately awkward, obscure, and shrouded in code words.