CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH

~ The Received Text ~

ONCE DELIVERED TO THE SAINTS

 

 

SECTION I

Gail Riplinger’s Rosicrucian Masterpiece

 

CHAPTER I

A PRIMER ON KABBALAH

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“And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” (Gen. 3:4-5)

 

In her 2003 book, In Awe of Thy Word: Understanding the King James Bible: Its Mystery & History Letter by Letter, Gail Riplinger warned Christians against the use of all Greek and Hebrew lexicons and concordances, as well as Greek-English and Hebrew-English interlinear translations, as aids to understanding the Bible. Her reason for placing these resources on the KJV-Only “Index of Forbidden Books”? In the course of their research, the Hebrew and Greek scholars who authored them consulted books authored by unsaved liberals:

 

“What about the Greek and Hebrew interlinears and study aids compiled by Christian men?

“These men may have inspired Greek and Hebrew words, but the English reference books they use to translate them into so-called ‘literal,’ ‘plain,’ ‘everyday’ English, are anything but inspired. Since ancient Koine Greek is not the mother tongue of any living person, they must use the books with the ‘corrupt words’ of unsaved liberal lexicon writers to create their interlinears and study aids (Dan. 2:9). Since they are forced to use the very reference books used by the new version translators, their so-called English equivalencies or definitions are identical to those in the new versions and are in error.” (In Awe of Thy Word, p. 518)

 

In place of using the traditional Hebrew and Greek resources to better comprehend the meanings of the words God used in Scripture, Gail Riplinger recommended that KJV readers “gather insights about the subject from linguists who have already explored this vast and new scientific field of letter meanings.”  The meaning of God’s letters, stated Gail, must be given their proper place, even priority, in determining the meaning of God’s words:

“God built the Bible, letter by letter. He gave each sound a sense. The meanings of each letter can be found in the Bible, in the book of Genesis... Just as God created the basic chemical elements to use a building blocks to create different things, he also created letters, with significations that they carry to create word meanings. An appendix at the end of this book details some of the central meanings of each letter.” (Awe, p. 16)

In place of Greek and Hebrew resources to help Christians determine accurate word meanings, Gail Riplinger recommended worldly books from liberal, humanistic and atheistic universities to aid them in determining letter meanings. Computer technology and English dictionaries are recommended to replace interlinear translations, lexicons and concordances as resources for Bible study. The following liberal institutions are among many secular sources of information recommended by Gail for learning the hidden meanings of the “letters” in the King James Bible:

 

Stanford Professor, Seth Lehrer, says that ‘Words tell us more than we ever thought...’ The new field of computational linguistics, with research from the nation’s leading universities, such as Stanford and MIT, has confirmed letter meanings, as seen in the book of Genesis. Just as the electron microscope allowed scientists to see things that had always existed at the molecular level, so computer technology and computational linguistics allow linguists to see and uncover a pattern of meanings for letters that have always been there. This understanding could revolutionize the teaching of reading…

“…Explore in the KJV what Harvard’s Literary Guide to the Bible tells readers about the Bible’s ‘sound-meaning interactions.’ In the 1500s Erasmus said, ‘God is in every syllable.’ (The Bible Through the Ages, p. 306)

“…God knows his English ABCs. He apparently wrote them on butterfly wings, even before the English Bible took flight. A Smithsonian Institute photographer has discovered that each of the 26 letters of the English alphabet is written on the wings of butterflies!...

“...Only the KJV’s words are ‘wholesome words’..., according to databases such as Oxford University’s Psycholinguistic Database, Princeton University’s Cognitive Science Laboratory, and Edinburgh University’s Associative Thesaurus.” (In Awe of Thy Word, p. 18)

 

“The best dictionary for studying words used in the King James Bible is the online Early Modern English Dictionary Database (EMEDD), compiled by linguists from the University of Toronto to ‘correct the OED’ and more accurately define words as they were used between 1530 and 1657. Definitions from 16 dictionaries, many available to the KJV translators, appear instantly online when a KJV word is searched.” (In Awe of Thy Word, p. 64)

 

“LITERATURE CITED… Only books having an asterisk (*) are recommended for further study on this subject…”

 

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Columbia University Press*

The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, Cambridge University Press*

The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, Cambridge University Press*

An American Bible, Stanford University Press*

Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th ed. NY Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 1910-1911*

The Cambridge History of the Bible, The West From the Reformation to the Present Day, vol. 3, Cambridge University Press*

An American Bible, Stanford University Press*

The History of the English Language, S. Lerer, Stanford University, Ph.D. University of Chicago*

How to Read and Understand Poetry, Willard Spiegelman, Southern Methodist University, Ph.D., Harvard University

Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press (Oxford University Press)*

Gods of the Word: Archetypes in the Consonants, Thomas Jefferson University Press, (*great linguistics, non-Christian world view)

Mysteries of the Alphabet, Marc-Alain Ouaknin, University of Bar-Han, Israel*  (In Awe of Thy Word, pp. 1179-83)

 

In Gail Riplinger’s new cult of “letter meanings,” it is commendable, even spiritually-minded, to use liberal, humanistic and esoteric resources in order to learn more about the hidden meanings of letters in the KJV, but it is folly and arrogance to use Greek or Hebrew resources in order to learn the original meanings of the words of the Bible. The subtitle of In Awe of Thy Word Understanding the King James Bible: Its Mystery & History Letter by Letter — means that the King James Bible should be understood according to the meaning of its letters, for the hidden meanings of the KJV’s letters determines the meaning of the KJV’s words. 

 

The reader may be wondering who on earth interprets the Bible by deciphering its letter meanings. This arcane subject is the obsession of Jewish Kabbalists who seek “union with the Divine” using a complex system of mystical agnosticism and magical practices taught by rabbinic sages.

“Kabbalism...includes...a group of divinatory and magical practices, manipulations of the alphabet and the text of the Pentateuch, magic spells and rites. All of these elements go back to very early days—to the beginnings of Israel in Palestine, and it is these beginnings which shed most light on both scholarly Kabbalism and popular Hasidism, and, in addition, go far to illuminate the real, the abiding spiritual meaning of Judaism in all times and places.” (Introduction, The Holy Kabbalah, 2003, p. ix)

How do Gail Riplinger’s readers know that the unsaved linguists she recommended in her book are not Kabbalists?  They don’t, since Gail has withheld vital information about the pagan beliefs and hidden agenda of her sources.  For example, one book “recommended for further study on this subject” of letter meanings is Mysteries of the Alphabet by Marc-Alain Ouaknin, who is a Kabbalist. (see above)  Rabbi Ouaknin is also cited as an authority on the letter meanings of the Tetragrammaton, the four lettered name of God (YHWH), with no disclaimer or caveat but simply introduced as “Professor Marc-Alain Ouaknin of the Center for Research and Jewish Studies in Paris and a professor at the University of Bar-Han in Israel. Rabbi Ouaknin’s other works include Mysteries of the Kabbalah, an introduction to the Kabbalah in which Rabbi Ouaknin expressed the foundational Kabbalistic principle that God is the “Text” of the Torah.

 

“For Christians, the infinite deity also becomes finite through the body of Christ. For kabbalists, the incarnation is produced in the body of the Text. This statement indicates the importance of reading and study in Judaism. It has been said, ‘God is the text.’ This means that the most radical manifestation of divinity is through the text, the Book, and the letters of the alphabet.” (Ouaknin, Mysteries of the Kabbalah, pp. 381-2)

 

In other words, Kabbalists such as Rabbi Ouaknin believe that God “incarnated,” not as a man, Jesus Christ, but in the “letters” of the Old Testament!  Moreover, says Rabbi Ouaknin, since this ‘Text-God’ is infinite (Ein-Sof), it is the work of Kabbalists and Talmudists to interpret the letters and text of Scripture so that God’s words have an infinite number of meanings:

 

“The ‘Text-God’ must be accorded its status of infinity; in other words, every means must be used to give it an infinite meaning. These means consist of all the rules of interpretation...especially gematria, tseruf [combining letters], and so on. The need to interpret the text as the liberation of the divine is one of the fundamental meanings of all the work of kabbalists and Talmudists... The Talmud...is a means of interpreting the text in such a way that the words it contains...can be interpreted in a plurality of ways.

“And it is this plurality which becomes freedom—of God and men!” (Mysteries of the Kabbalah, pp. 381-2)

 

Why would Gail Riplinger recommend the work of a Kabbalist for further study of the subject of letter meanings? Perhaps for the same reason she falsely attributed to Erasmus the Kabbalistic statement, “God is in every syllable.” (see above)  The fact is that Gail Riplinger is teaching the same Kabbalistic approach to the interpretation of Scripture as Rabbi Ouaknin and other Kabbalists whose publications and ideas she promotes in her book, In Awe of Thy Word.

 

Gail Riplinger’s readers need to know where her unconventional approach to interpreting God’s Word will ultimately lead.  According to The Zohar, the central book of Kabbalah, the letters of the Hebrew alphabet function as channels to “the Light,” which is the esoteric term for Lucifer, and the spiritual enlightenment which he offers:

 

The Language of The Zohar

“...the individual letters of The Zohar have special significance. In our everyday lives, we’re used to thinking of the letters of the English alphabet in purely functional terms... The letters of the Hebrew alphabet (used for both Aramaic and Hebrew) should be understood in an entirely different way. In addition to their functional importance as components of words, each Aramaic letter is also a channel to a unique form of spiritual energy.... The Aramaic alphabet is a gift of the Creator, just as The Zohar itself is a gift... Scanning the letters—just letting your eyes pass over them—opens an unlimited channel to the Light.”  (The Kabbalah Centre International)

 

GODS IN THE WORDS

 

In Awe of Thy Word is, in essence, a primer on Kabbalah, that is, discovering the hidden meanings in the spiritually energized letters in the King James Bible. An Appendix titled “The KJV’s ABCs” is a dictionary of the 26 letters of the English alphabet and the “hidden meanings” which Gail has fathomed in each letter. To aid the reader in exploring even deeper meanings in each letter and thereby determine the meaning of the words in the KJV, Gail recommends reading the works of “computational linguists” whose “letter meanings... are shown to agree 100% with meanings ascribed to letters in Genesis.” (Awe, p. 1115) One “computational linguist” highly recommended by Gail is Margaret Magnus, another Kabbalist.

 

“Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is the world’s richest scientific brain bank. One of their researchers, ‘Ph.D. candidate in formal theoretical linguistics at MIT,’ Margaret Magnus, ‘developed linguistic, lexical, and algorithmic databases used in spelling and grammar checkers by popular typesetting and word processing software.’ She has numerous linguistic degrees, has done advanced study in mathematics at universities worldwide, and speaks over a dozen languages. While creating dictionaries for word processing software, letter meanings became self-evident to her. This cutting-edge researcher writes...” [quotes Magnus’ book, Gods of the Word: Archetypes in the Consonants]. (Awe, p. 104)

 

Magnus’ book, Gods of the Word: Archetypes in the Consonants, is also recommended for further study of letter meanings: 

 

“LITERATURE CITED. The books cited here are those from which direct quotations have been noted. They represent only a tiny portion of those used in researching this book. Only books having an asterisk (*) are recommended for further study on this subject...

“Magnus, M. Gods of the Word: Archetypes in the Consonants, Kirksville, Missouri: Thomas Jefferson University Press, 1999.

(*great linguistics; non-Christian world view).” (Awe, pp. 1179, 1181)

 

“Non-Christian world view” hardly prepares the reader for the esoteric content of Magnus’ book whose Kabbalistic thesis is that: (1) letters and their sounds in combination are subterranean “Gods of the Word,” (2) the “Archetypes in the Consonants” are “sound gods” or living spirits which actually reside in the consonants of the English alphabet, and (3) the English language is the playground of this collection of sound gods who interact with each other and influence human affairs:

“These sounds do have the look and feel of a pack of Tarot cards. They are large and archetypal in nature. As you spend time with a sound, you see it rise from the dust and live, no less than you or I. It takes on the proportions of a god and moves with a will and destiny of its own. Yet it remains always rooted in its essence, guided by a coherency and logic wider than itself. It lives together in discord or in peace with its neighbors and they fight out their battles and engage in their love affairs within our English words. One suddenly envisions language as the playground of the sound gods... [quotes Carl Jung]...I, too, am a true believer in the autonomy of the archetype. A /t/ or an /h/ is no less than a Zeus. The consonants are not essentially physical, but they live, evolve, and influence human affairs. We overlook something if we deny that they can get up and walk around.” (Gods of the Word: Archetypes in the Consonants, pp. 65-6)

Portions of Margaret Magnus’ book are published on her website: http://www.trismegistos.com/, named in honor of Hermes Trismegistos, aka the Egyptian god, Thoth, who communicated to the postdiluvian Grail kings the secret doctrine which the pre-flood civilization had received from fallen angels. Margo's Magical Letter Page explains the meanings of two “Archetypes,” the “S” and the “G,” which letters she maintains are inhabited and informed by the “serpent” and the “Grail” respectively:

 

“About 300 hours into this research, you start losing your mind. You start imagining you discern archetypes in all those consonants and vowels. (Ho, ho!) For your confoundment and entertainment, I now proffer some data on the serpent in /s/ and the Grail in /g/.

“In truth, I believe data of this type to be incredibly important. What it says essentially is that the consonants and vowels do in fact have a meaning. The most fundamental aspect of that meaning is pure sound without any interpretation or symbolism. That pure sound is meaningful (and how!). But one step above that most fundamental and pure sound-meaning is the archetypal meaning. Since the consonants and vowels form the foundation of the word - not only of its sound, but also of its meaning, then we literally talk in terms of archetypes. Every word is a sound - a shruti note - on which are superimposed a collection of gods whose interaction forms the basis of the word.

“And so, friends, I bid you observe how the mighty serpent abides in English S and informs every word that contains it...” (“Margo's Magical Letter Page”)

 

Magnus then proceeds to show how the “mighty serpent” abides in the English “S” and how the “Grail” inhabits the letter “G”, as well as every word that begins with or contains these letters. Gail Riplinger endorses Magnus’ theory that “‘S’ is the serpent” as sound linguistics.  The ‘S’ section of Gail’s “KJV’s ABCs” is suggestive that Satan is the Spirit who created the world:

 

“The letter ‘S’ is as mysterious, as the other letters are simple, at least to the author. ‘S’ definitely has a non-material sense about it, which is verified by its first use as ‘Spirit’ in Genesis 1...

“With God’s Spirit in control in Genesis 1 and 2, ‘s’ is ‘so’ ‘star-spangled’ and sensational. When the ‘subtil’ ‘serpent’ shows up in Genesis 3, so does ‘sin,’ ‘sweat,’ ‘sorrow’ and the ‘sword.’...

“The letter  ‘S’ slides in ‘serpent,’ ‘subtle,’...

“The opposing spirit is evident in words such as ‘Satan’ and ‘serpent.’ Magnus is quick to tell her readers that, ‘About 25% of /s/ words in the dictionary are related to the serpent’ (p. 57). Her website takes it so far as to conclude, ‘S’ is the serpent. The warning, ‘watch out for the s,’ is based on sound linguistic theory...

“The ‘ spirit takes a loose, extending () downhill course in ‘sl’ words, such as ‘slide’...

“The first usage of –‘And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters’ (Gen. 1:2) – lends emphasis to its sense of north to south movement. It has a linear movement from ‘here to there,’ like the ‘t,’ but its curvy, north-to-south (Ps. 75:6; Isa. 14:13), heaven to earth shape give it a ‘more subtil’ sense...

“The ‘serpent’ moves and slithers in his S-shaped path...

“In conclusion, I must admit that the letter ‘s’ defies a concrete definition... Perhaps it is because the ‘spirit’ is not concrete...” (Awe, pp. 1144-45)

Gail has just made the following correlation in her readers minds: “‘S ’ slides in ‘serpent,’ ‘subtle,’” the ‘ spirit ‘slides’ downward and is the “Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters...in a north to south movement” having a “more subtil” sense – the derogatory description of the serpent in Genesis 3:1. (“Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made.”)  These associations suggest ever so subtly that the Creator of the world is Satan, which is a major tenet of Gnostic dualism (See: “The Gnostic Gospel”)

 

From this example alone (there are others) we can deduce that it is perilous to interpret God’s Word by looking for “hidden meanings” in the letters of the KJV or consulting sources like Margaret Magnus’ Gods of the Word: Archetypes in the Consonants. To determine the meaning of a word in the Bible, it’s really much safer to consult Hebrew and Greek lexicons, which are dictionaries that define the words of Scripture as they were used in the original languages along with important grammatical information needed for translation.

 

In the place of Greek and Hebrew lexicons, however, Gail urges her readers to determine the meaning of each word in the King James Bible from the shapes and sounds of its letters:

“This chapter shows how word definitions are created and retrieved automatically by the brain, while simply reading faithfully the sounds of the King James Bible. Explore in the KJV what Harvard’s Literary Guide to the Bible tells readers about the Bible’s ‘sound-meaning interactions.’ In the 1500s Erasmus said, ‘God is in every syllable.’” (Awe, p. 16)

 

“The historical and current shape of each letter is a tremendous clue to its meaning. How and where a letter is pronounced in the vocal chords is another. A letter has more than one meaning... If you forget the sense, simply look at the letter because it pictures its meaning.”  (Awe, pp. 1115, 1117)  

Gail’s analysis of the English alphabet provided detailed visual and phonetic analyses of each letter as guides to understanding their secret meanings. Kabbalist Margaret Magnus also teaches that the combined sound of the letters of a word defines the word. Both ladies are encouraging their readers to bypass the objective meanings of words as they are found in dictionaries and lexicons and to redefine words according to their shapes and sounds.  The implications for private interpretation of the Bible are obvious, as we have seen with Gail’s interpretation of the letter .

 

In the “G” section of Gail’s “KJV’s ABCs,” there is no mention of the “Grail,” but the words on the “G” page (photo on left) form the shape of the “Holy Grail”!

 

  

 

 

The Grail is also formed on Gail’s “Z” page (far right). This page is about “Zion,” which the Grail bloodline zealously conspires to possess through military means so they can enthrone their False Messiah on in a rebuilt Temple of Solomon:

“Just as “J” is a letter to begin names, so is ‘Z.’ It has the active, pointed confrontational face, seen on zealots like Zelotes. ‘Zeal’ pictures the busy zigzag sense of ‘z.’ In Hebrew, the letter Zayin which looks like a club or hatchet and also means ‘weapon.’ This is carried into Zion which means ‘fortress’; Zebah which means ‘slaughter’; Zabbai pictures its ‘roving about’ zigzag nature.” (Awe, p. 1153) 

In the process of deciphering the meaning of the letter “G”, Gail discovered that:

  “Gg  The visually Grand, Great, and Gigantic letter ‘G’ frequently communicates what its size implies, and that is, greatness and grandeur....

God is seen in ‘God,’ ‘Godhead,’ ‘Holy Ghost,’ ‘godliness, and ‘godly’... The profile of G for ‘God’ gives a view of the throne C and the book ך  ...” (Awe, p. 1129)

Looking at the shape of the letter ‘G’ caused Gail to see God there: “God is seen in...” “The profile of G...gives a view of....”  Visualizing God in the shapes and profiles of letters borders on Margaret Magnus’ Kabbalistic concept that gods indwell the letters, which may explain why God has forbidden even thinking about Him in terms of the shape of any thing:

“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.”  (Exod. 20:4)

 

“Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.” (Acts 17:29)  

Freemasons also see ‘God’ in the Letter “G” which is their ‘Great Letter’ as it is Gail’s Great Letter:

 

“Thus, in the course of the degrees, the Great Letter has descended from heaven to earth, as if to show us the deep meaning of Masonry... God becomes man that man may become God...meanings and much history are thus gathered into the Great Letter, some of it dim and lost to us now. In our Lodges, and in the thought of the craft today, the Letter ‘G’ stands for Geometry, and also as the initial for our word for God. Now for one, now for the other, but nearly always for both, since all Masonry rests upon Geometry, and in all its lore Geometry is the way to God.”  (Short Talks on Masonry, “The Letter ‘G’”, pp. 2-3)

 

Gail Riplinger’s recommendation of Kabbalists such as Margaret Magnus is hedged with disclaimers such as “Sadly, only sayings of sages and New Agers served as gauges and gave her only counterfeit answers.” (Awe, p. 105) And the following disclaimer is found in small print in the introduction to Gail’s “KJV’s ABCs”:

“(The internet can be a real ‘web.’ Be careful to limit your study to that of verifiable science; avoid mystical New Age information that counterfeits the truth of God (e.g. Kabbalah). They ‘changed the truth of God into a lie’ and even worship God’s creation (Rom. 1:25); esoterics have their own nonsense meanings ascribed to letters; these should be avoided. But just because New Age vegans worship ‘mother earth’ is not reason to quit eating vegetables. Likewise, just because esoterics see in letters ‘gods’ that are not there, this should not deter true scriptural and scholarly investigation into the word of God.)” (Awe, p. 1116)

Disclaimers such as the above are among the dishonest devices often employed by occultists to evade detection and deflect criticism while they purvey their unorthodox teachings to Christians who would otherwise reject them. Should these crypto-occultists be caught in their deception, they can point to their disclaimers as evidence that they disapprove of occult practices. In The Trojan Horse: The New Age Infiltration of the Church, authors Samantha Smith and Brenda Scott observed that such phony denials are quite common:

 

In our ongoing study of mysticism/occultism/spiritualism, we often find that the authors deny what they are actually teaching.”  (p. 14)

 

Gail Riplinger introduced Margaret Magnus to her readers as a Ph.D. candidate in formal theoretical linguistics at MIT (the world’s richest scientific brain bank) who has done advanced study in mathematics, developed linguistic/lexical/algorithmic databases and speaks over a dozen languages. Magnus’ credentials appear to be in fields of study that are recognized as legitimate sciences. Gail did not inform her readers that Magnus is a Kabbalist and that her book is a primer on Kabbalism, but instead highly recommended the book “for further study of this subject” because it has “*great linguistics” albeit a “non-Christian world view.”

 

In her book which Gail recommends, Margaret Magnus promotes the esoteric belief systems of Plato, Sufism, Cabalism, and Gnosticism among other pagan religions in hopes that belief in the gods of the alphabet will one day become a branch, if not the mainstream, of formal linguistics. Magnus references a broad range of occult literature: “The Gospel of Truth” from the Nag Hammadi Library, The Lost Books of the Bible, the Upanishads (Hindu scriptures), Popul Vuh, The Tao of Physics, Emmanuel Swedenborg, Rudolf Steiner, Joseph Campbell, Friedrich Nietzsche, Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival, Carl Jung, Darwin’s Origin of Species, and A Course in Miracles. Portions of Magnus’ book are devoted to teaching the “Letter Meanings According to Mystical Traditions”: “The Anglo-Saxon (Viking) Runes,” “The Hebrew Alphabet of the Kabbalah,” “The Celtic Tree Alphabet” and the “Japanese Shinto Kototama.” References abound to other occult sources, e.g., (See Nigel Pennick, "Magical Alphabets" and Robert Graves "White Goddess").

 

Gail Riplinger’s weak denial of Kabbalism, the thesis of Magnus’ entire book, is neutralized by her generous praise and strong recommendation of this Kabbalist resource for information on letter meanings. Riplinger has exposed her readers to a plague of esoteric philosophy while casually advising them not to catch the fatal disease.  In effect, her disclaimer says: “I highly recommend this thoroughly Satanic book, just be careful to avoid the New Age nonsense. Even though occultists conjure evil spirits using letters for divination and magic, that doesn’t mean Christians shouldn’t study their works for new insights about the hidden meanings of letters in the King James Bible.”

 

Gail Riplinger stealthily purveys occult literature in her book “for further study” of letter meanings, but solemnly warns her readers not to ever, ever use a Hebrew or Greek lexicon to determine the meaning of words in Scripture:  

“Study of today’s Hebrew Old Testament texts, lexicons, grammars, and reference works draws the sheep – students, pastors, Christians, and so-called Hebrew scholars – away into dangerous enemy territory. Sheet by sheet these reference books sheer away the Christian’s confidence in the Bible.” (Gail Riplinger, In Awe of Thy Word, p. 429)

What’s wrong with this picture?  Occult books don’t “draw the sheep away into dangerous enemy territory” or “sheer away the Christian’s confidence in the Bible”?? 

 

The fact is that Gail Riplinger’s book, In Awe of Thy Word is also a primer on Kabbalah, the mystical art of deciphering the hidden meanings of the letters of Scripture in order to receive spiritual illumination. Gail’s campaign against Bible study tools aims to sever students of God’s Word from objective, factual information on the meanings of the words in the English Bible and cast them into a sea of subjectivity where they must privately interpret the meaning of words by subconsciously divining the hidden meaning of the letters by their shapes and sounds.  

 

“God said, ‘[S]eek, and ye shall find’ (Matt. 7:7)... In searching for the meaning of a word, the Lord allowed me to see that meaning is built into the word itself. God has implanted into his Holy Bible subconscious contextual associations and consequent ‘meanings’ with each letter of the alphabet. These enable the reader to understand the ‘sense’ of all of the Bible’s words. It all happens without the conscious awareness of the reader. There is nothing to learn; one merely needs to read the Bible.

“The historical and current shape of each letter is a tremendous clue to its meaning. It would take an entire book to show how each letter contributes to create a word’s meaning. ...search the KJV for yourself... If you forget the sense [of a word], simply look at the letter because it pictures its meaning.” (Awe, p. 101-2, 1115-7)

 

Like Jewish Kabbalists, Gail Riplinger is steering students of God’s Word away from scholarly resources for Bible study onto the mystical path of seeking “extrabiblical revelations” through the analysis of the shapes and sounds of the letters in Scripture. This mystical method is really no different than the Charismatic pursuit of extrabiblical revelations through visualization, dreams and visions. Both cults encourage believers to rely on the subconscious mind for “new revelations” which carry more weight than the literal meaning of the words, verses and passages of the Bible.

 

Whereas Mrs. Riplinger condemns Greek and Hebrew resources as “private interpretations,” she seems to have implicit faith that subconsciously deciphering the hidden meanings of each letter in the KJV will produce a harvest of pure truth. However, the outcome of this mystical quest will not be a true understanding of God’s Word but rather a heretical interpretation of Scripture which corresponds to the secret doctrine communicated by fallen angels.

“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;” (1 Tim. 4:1)

To ascertain whether Christians should use lexicons for Bible study, Gail has consulted “Dr. Isaac Mozeson, eminent Hebrew and English linguist, [who] agrees that lexicons from the last two centuries are part of the ‘movement of desacrilizing Hebrew’ (letter on file)” (Awe, p. 499)  Dr. Isaac Mozeson also agrees with her that “sound is sense” and recommends “books on the mystical symbolism and meaning of each letter” which are “largely homiletic, symbolic, or kabbalistic.” (The ABCs of Creation”)  Gail omitted to mention that the reason Dr. Mozeson rejects Hebrew and Greek lexicons which give the literal meaning of the words in Scripture is that he considers the Bible to be a “jumble of myths” which is not to be taken literally. In 2001, Dr. Mozeson produced his own interpretive rendition” of the book of Genesis, The Millennium Bible: Genesis, which reveals Dr. Mozesons post-denominationalGnostic theology:

 

“The casual to serious Bible reader may find much to enjoy and be challenged by in The Millennium Bible: Genesis (MBG), but so should a New Age spiritualist, a Sci-Fi fan, or many others who would not, even at their funeral, be caught dead with a Bible.” (Introduction)  

 

“...whatever Man is called, he should remember that he is essentially an animal...” (Gen. 2:19) 

 

“Humans had been created equally male and female [–an equality they will ultimately recapture–]; while this androgynous creature was called Earthling when they were created, they were blessed and divided to join and attain humanity.” (Gen. 5:2)

 

Dr. Isaac Mozeson is also the author of The Word: The Dictionary that Reveals the Hebrew Roots of English and is Chairman of the Hebrew Language Fellowship of the Root & Branch Association 1.“which promotes Mr. Mozeson’s research into the Hebrew origins of world languages.” Dr. Mozeson is considered a pioneer in the movement to restore the “Lost Tribes of Israel” because he allegedly “proves that English [words] are ultimately from Biblical Hebrew and that all languages ultimately link up, and only through variations of the original, universal language - Hebrew.” Proponents of the Lost Tribes restoration claim that “the white race descends, not only from the Hebrew peoples, but that the Elohiym godhead were the also their ancestors.” This divine bloodline is the “Red Thread Bloodline of the Ancient Hebrew People,” which is also a prominent theme in Gail Riplinger’s book. (See: “Gail Riplingers ‘Rosicrucian Masterpiece”)
 

Dr. Mozeson refers to himself as an “Edenicist,” that is a linguist who believes that all words can be traced to the Hebrew language which was “programmed into Adam and Eve” in the Garden of Eden, as stated in his book, The Origin of Speeches: Intelligent Design in Language:

Our common ancestors were exiled at Eden, but mankind’s Diaspora began at the Tower of Babel.  Books like this can begin the process of getting us all on the same page.” 

Dr. Mozeson, who espouses “a millennial theology that ennobles all Biblical faiths,” wrote The Millennium Bible to “get us all on the same page”:

“Christianity is well on its way to a more tolerant, less partisan spirituality... The more evolved Bible believers have accepted the Torah’s concept that the Creator loves all people and peoples, and has given prophets to many peoples in many generations... The outstanding prophets behind Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Shinto all have divine authenticity and relevance for their culture. Bahai is one later faith that embraces precisely these global, tolerant ideas, while it needs to progress in women’s issues... Troubled children don’t mature overnight, and various fundamentalist Jews, Christians, Moslems, etc. may take several more decades to evolve to the Millennium’s vision of global spirituality.”  (Introduction)

Dr. Mozeson’s vision for the world is that its “troubled children...fundamentalist Jews, Christians, Moslems, etc...may...evolve to the Millennium’s vision of global spirituality.” Bear in mind that Isaac Mozeson is the authority Gail Riplinger recommends to Fundamental Christians as a reliable source on the trustworthiness of “lexicons from the last two centuries.” Gail shares Dr. Mozeson’s contempt for traditional Hebrew and Greek resources. Does she also share his Millennial vision of global spirituality for Christians? Transitioning Christians from traditional Greek and Hebrew resources to Kabbalism will certainly get them on same page with Jews and Moslems in time for the new global spirituality.

 

 

CHAPTER II

THE TETRAGRAMMATON 

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NOTES

1. The Root & Branch Association also promotes The Noahide Laws which will be enforced during the Tribulation period for the purpose of exterminating Christians. (See: Under the Noahide Laws.”)

 

CONTEND FOR THE FAITH:

THE TEXTUS RECEPTUS