THE MORMON TEACHINGS OF GWEN SHAW

THE GNOSTIC GOSPEL OF THE FALSE REVIVAL

       By Barbara Aho

    A Critical Analysis of LOVE, THE LAW OF THE ANGELS by Gwen Shaw (Engeltal Press, 1979).

Love, The Law of the Angels is required reading for women and men who aspire to become End-Time Handmaidens and Servants, an organization founded by Gwen Shaw in 1970. Few who join the ETH&S will recognize the teachings in this book as Gnostic doctrine. The reason for this is that most Christians are wholly uninformed about Gnosticism, a heresy which plagued the early Church. This heresy precipitated the early Church councils which formulated the various creeds of the Christian faith.

The term “gnosticism” comes from the Greek word for knowledge, gnosis, which is the concept that there is an experiential knowledge of God that only a few may possess. This knowledge of God is believed by Gnostics to be acquired by revelation apart from the traditional canon of Scripture. The fact is, however, that Gnostic “revelations” almost invariably contradict the Bible. Gnosticism was introduced to man in Genesis 3 when the serpent “revealed” to Eve, in direct opposition to God’s command, that she and Adam would become “like gods” if they ate from the tree of the “knowledge” of good and evil. Closely related to Gnosticism is “occultism” which means “hidden” and refers to the secret doctrine and forbidden practices associated with gnosis.

Despite the vigilance of the early Church, the strength and pernicious influence of the Gnostic heresy—“ye shall be a gods”—has never diminished. Its proponents have merely changed their mode of disseminating the body of Gnostic doctrine. Even as some Gnostics mount a frontal assault on the Word of God—for example the Jesus Seminar—others have crept into the Church unawares where they present themselves as Christian teachers and leaders. There they posture as “God’s Anointed” who have been specially called to teach the “deeper truths” and new “end-time revelations” to those who can receive them. However, their Gnostic teachings are “doctrines of devils” that will lead their followers into the same deception that the Jesus Seminar aspires to do.

Love, The Law of the Angels by Gwen Shaw is, in fact, a primer on Gnostic Occultism. Every chapter presents fundamental Gnostic doctrines, albeit cloaked, as they usually are, in Biblical terminology. This paper represents a closer look at this book to elucidate and expose the Gnostic doctrines and occult practices which are contained therein. It is our prayer that this treatise will also inform Christians about Gnostic Occultism, with the good result that they will be able to recognize these heresies in other sources professing to be Christian.

INDEX

  The Gnostic Gospel

  God is Bisexual 

  Lucifer as Co-Creator 

  Lucifer, the Morning Star 

  Dualism 

  Blood is Congealed Light 

  The Divinity of Man 

  Man Created Androgynous 

  Pre-Existence of Souls  

  Extra-Biblical Revelation 

  Oracular Images 

  Visitations of Angels 

  Translation 

  Another Jesus

  The Role of Women 

  Spiritual Tribes of Israel 

  Gwen Shaw’s Mormon Mentor

THE GNOSTIC GOSPEL

Gnosticism is based upon a radically different view of Creation than is found in Scripture. According to this heresy, Adam was originally created as a “light body,” a “spark” of the “divine essence,” a pure spirit. In his original, perfect state, he was called Adam-Kadmon, the Heavenly Adam. Adam-Kadmon was not male, but male-female, or androgynous. In the course of time, this “first Adam” became attracted to materiality and incarnated into matter. As Adam-Kadmon descended into matter, this “divine androgyne” was divided into two sexes which took on material bodies, becoming Adam and Eve. As a result of Adam-Kadmon’s “fall” into the material realm, humanity is now trapped in matter.

 

After the first Adam’s descent into matter, Lucifer, who was co-creator of the world with God, offered the fallen Adam and Eve a means of release from their bondage in matter. They needed only to eat of the tree of the “knowledge of good and evil” which God had forbidden them to do. The forbidden fruit was “spiritual enlightenment” with the power to become “gods,” having the ability to transcend matter and to be reabsorbed into the “divine principle” from which they originated.  However, the other creator-God, rudely intervened in Lucifer’s plan in order to keep man trapped in matter and subject to Himself. To prevent Adam from taking of the tree of life, that he might achieve immortality, “The Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.” (Gen. 3:24)  

 

In Gnostic thought, this God is an “evil Demiurge” and “Satan,” whereas Lucifer is the true God who is in a continuing battle with the evil Demiurge for possession of planet Earth. And so, Lucifer’s offer still stands for those who will receive “spiritual enlightenment”— the delusion that they can become “gods” and escape the control of the “evil Demiurge.”

 

Lucifer has many prophets who preach this false gospel, under various disguises. To protect future generations from Lucifer’s delusion, God has placed in the hands of His people the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. (Eph.6:17) Like the “flaming sword” at the east of the garden, “the word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing under of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Heb.4:12). In other words, sanctification, not deification, is the portion of the Christian.

 

Lucifer’s emissaries on earth use the Word of God deceitfully to peddle his false gospel. Their books and sermons are replete with Bible verses, and a fair amount of truth is thrown in for good measure. But among the kernels of truth, false teachers stealthily sow heresies which take root in the hearer’s mind, become established and eventually overtake the truth. A little leaven eventually leavens the whole lump. If isolated and examined, the heresies will be seen to form a coherent system of Gnostic doctrine.

 

Love, the Law of the Angels quotes liberally from the Word of God, and even contains some truth, however, strategically placed throughout its pages are damnable heresies, doctrines of devils that will yield a crop of evil fruit in due time. This report will examine some of these heresies.

 

GOD IS BISEXUAL

In chapter 13 of her book, Love, the Law of the Angels, Gwen Shaw introduces the Gnostic concept that God is androgynous.

“God is not only ‘male,’ He is ‘female.’ One of His names is El-Shaddai, which means ‘Mother-God.’ We see the completeness of God only as we realize this truth. He is both male and female… So when God created Adam, He made him like himself, creating in him the male and female characteristics.” (Love, the Law of the Angels, p. 67)

Chapter 23 begins with a passage from a Quaker book, Feminine Aspects of Divinity, which sexualizes the Holy Spirit as a feminine deity:

“In the first few centuries A.D. Aramaic versions of the Old Testament introduced the word ‘Shekinah as a reverent circumlocution for God. In Exodus 25:8 an ancient translation reads, ‘I will let my Shekinah dwell among the children of Israel.’

     “‘It is interesting to notice that the Shekinah is referred to as feminine in more than a grammatical sense from the third century on. The Shekinah is called 'she.' 'She' is spoken of as being omnipresent in the world, but more often 'she' is physically localized. The Jerusalem temple was built to be 'her' permanent home. When this temple was desecrated and destroyed, Ezekiel saw 'her' move out from the Holy of Holies and stand over the threshold of the house (Ezekiel 10:4) Jewish history tells us that the Shekinah wandered to the Mt. of Olives or into the desert and waited vainly a few more months for Israel to repent, then for a while went to heaven... When the temple was destroyed for the last time in 70 A.D., 'she' moved on to the principal synagogues of Babylon, where ‘she’ not only appeared from time to time but made ‘herself’ audible in the sound of a bell. 'She is believed to be a comforter of the sick, a helper of those in need and especially tender toward repentant sinners. ‘She’ would descend and rest upon any who performed good deeds, even if they were pagan idolaters, and would also rest between worthy husbands and wives. ‘She’ accompanied her people through the centuries of exile and mourned with them ('she was seen by one mystic in widow's garb by the Wailing Wall), 'she' came to be identified with the Ideal Israel the faithful Community which awaited redemption.*…

“The feminine aspect of the eternal God is the ‘El-Shaddai,’ the mother-nature of God. It is in this realm that the Shekinah is revealed and does its high office work.”

     “ff. *Feminine Aspects of Divinity (a Quaker publication) by Erminie Huntress Lantero.” (Love the Law of the Angels, pp. 164-5)

Following the above citation, Gwen Shaw states that God is androgynous and BISEXUAL. Her authority for this teaching is the early Jewish rabbis, of whom more will be said later.

“You remember us mentioning in chapter 13 that God had created Adam male and female. If God created man male and female, it was because bisexuality somehow belongs to His own nature. The fact has been recognized by early rabbinic commentators that this is true.” (Love the Law of the Angels, p. 165)

LUCIFER AS CO-CREATOR

A preference for spiritual over physical light is related to the Gnostic doctrine that matter is evil and only the spirit realm is good. Gwen Shaw arrives at this Gnostic interpretation of Genesis 1:3-5 by first rejecting the plain sense of Scripture, which is about the physical creation. This light, says Shaw, was the “glory of God” and the “light of enlightenment” or “illumination” which is an occult term, and not a Biblical one. In Gnostic occultism, “enlightenment” and “illumination” are the forbidden knowledge or “gnosis” which God withheld from Adam and Eve. It is this “different light”—enlightenment — which Gwen Shaw says produced the creation. She associates this Gnostic teaching with the appalling prospect that Lucifer, whose name means ‘light,’ was co-creator of the world with God.

 

“The creation of LIGHT was not the creation of the sun, moon and stars… This was a different ‘light.’… This is none other than God’s divine presence and His glory being beamed onto the scene of chaos…

“Another question I would like to ask you to ponder over is: Was Lucifer there when God created this planet, and did he have a part in its original construction? Was he the ruling prince of this part of God’s universe before he fell and was cast down…? It is written of him, ‘Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering… Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth and I HAVE SET THEE SO: …thou hast sinned, therefore I will cast the as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee... Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness. I will cast thee to the ground… (Ezek. 28:13-18)

“What catastrophic drama really did take place back there? ...Did Lucifer in retaliation toward God, because of his damning judgment, destroy this planet in one last act of revenge?...

“And if Lucifer did try to destroy the handiwork of God’s creation, would God not intervene… THAT is when God…declared, ‘LET THERE BE LIGHT!’…This is not the light that one sees with the eyes… It is the light of enlightenment

“The glory of God is the Light of God and it was through this demonstration that all life began to exist.

“The word LIGHT in Hebrew is owr which means illumination, lightning, happiness, etc… What is that light that gives enlightenment and life? It is the very essence, the ultimate nature of God himself.” (Love the Law of the Angels, p. 130-4)

 

“Lucifer” means “Light-bearer” and Gwen Shaw teaches that it was through a demonstration of the “Light of God” in Gen; 1:3 that all life began to exist. But this was not the case. All life began through the WORD of God: “And God SAID...”  Shaw calls the “light” created in Genesis 1:3-5 “illumination, lightning . . . enlightenment.” Gnostics would agree that “enlightenment” was the agency of creation. As for lightning, Jesus said to his disciples, “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.” (Luke 10:18)

 

Gwen Shaw then goes on to suggest that, when Lucifer fell from heaven, he left the jewels from his crown inside the earth. 

 

“Were the stones that are on this earth at one time gems of sardius, diamond, sapphire, topaz and emerald? Read it again in verse 13. Where does one find these gems; are they not in the bowels of the earth?...” (Love the Law of the Angels, p. 132-4)

 

In Gnostic lore, Lucifer’s jewels became “oracles” for mankind to receive enlightenment, the forbidden knowledge or gnosis. Gnostics believe that a jewel or stone that fell from the crown of Lucifer became the “Holy Grail” or the Philosopher’s Stone, which “symbolises the transmutation of the lower animal nature of man into the highest and divine.” (Blavatsky)  An important occult society called Ordo Lapsit Exillis, which means “The Stone That Fell From Heaven,” commemorates the rebellion of Lucifer because he made possible the enlightenment of mankind with the forbidden knowledge of good and evil (gnosis):

 

“The Ordo Lapsit Exillis is named after the Stone that fell from Heaven, the fabled jewel that is said to have fallen from Lucifer’s crown during the war in Heaven, and which in the occult is used as a symbol of enlightenment - of the descent of divine light form the mind of God into the mind of Man. As such it symbolizes Venus, the Morning Star, as well as the Luciferian doctrine of the initiates, the secret knowledge which men are not allowed, and which Lucifer’s angels were cast from Heaven for sharing with man. In Freemasonry, this is symbolized as the Blazing Star, which is often depicted as falling from Heaven. As Albert Pike writes in Morals and Dogma, The Blazing Star has been regarded as an emblem of Omniscience, or the All-Seeing Eye, which to the ancients was the Sun. Masons also represent the Lapsit Exillis as the Stone that was rejected - the secret cornerstone of Solomon’s Temple which symbolizes the core of their teachings.”

 

LUCIFER—THE MORNING STAR

 

Note in the above statement of the Ordo Lapsit Exilis that the jewel from Lucifer’s crown also symbolizes “Venus, the Morning Star, as well as the Luciferian doctrine of the initiates.” In contradiction to this, the Bible teaches that Jesus Christ is the Morning Star, as Jesus Himself clearly stated in Revelation 22:16: “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.” What does Gwen Shaw teach about the Morning Star? The same Luciferian doctrine of the Ordo Lapsit Exilis…

 

“What is the morning star? It is the same star as the evening star. It is the first star out at night, way off in the western horizon, close to the new moon…

“The Lord said, ‘When you overcome every temptation with a heart full of gratitude and praise to God in the hour of testing, then He will give you the MORNING STAR.’ As the darkness of a long night begins to fade…your morning star will shine in its splendor even more beautifully because it is the only one left… Hang on a little longer children of God; when there is only ONE star left, the sun will soon usher in a new day. The name of that morning star is Venus. It is named after the goddess of love and beauty in Roman mythology. It is the star of love and beauty. God says, ‘I’ll give you the star of love and beauty… The glory of God will translate you into that glory which you desire.” (Love the Law of the Angels, p. 140)

 

The title “Morning Star,” which rightfully belongs to Jesus Christ, is coveted by Lucifer whose evil character has been transformed by Gnostics. For example, H.P. Blavatsky confers upon Lucifer the honor of being called the Morning Star in her Theosophical Glossary:

 

"Lucifer (Lat.). The planet Venus, as the bright ‘Morning Star.’ Before Milton, Lucifer had never been the name of the Devil. Quite the reverse, since the Christian Saviour is made to say of himself in Revelations (xvi.22) ‘I am…the bright morning star’ or Lucifer.” (p. 192)                                                                                          

 

Like Blavatsky, Gwen Shaw also identifies the Morning Star as the planet Venus. “So the morning star is actually a planet.” (Love the Law of the Angels, p. 41)  Pagans of the ancient world worshipped the stars and planets as gods or angels, which is astrology. When the Israelites also worshipped the host of heaven as planetary gods, God gave them strong warnings through His prophets. Pagan idolatry with its attendant sins (the worship of Venus, the “goddess of love,” involved sexual rites) brought severe judgment on the nation of Israel:

 

“Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee. Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it. (Is. 47:13-14)

 

DUALISM

 

Next Mrs. Shaw introduces the Gnostic concept of “dualism,” that the world is involved in an epic struggle between the forces of good and evil, as if God and Lucifer were equals. The outcome will depend on who wins the end-time “battle of the ages”—the “sons of light” or the “sons of darkness”:

 

“The terrific struggle between good and evil will have to come to its final end. Not only is this planet earth a battle ground between good and evil, Satan and God, but also you and I who were created out of the dust of this earth are a battleground for the conquest of the ages.

“Today there are two kinds of people in the world. They are the sons of light and the sons of darkness. The Essenes, whose writings have been discovered in the Qumran caves at the Dead Sea, have always believed that the final battle of all ages will be the battle between these sons of light and the sons of darkness. Don’t you think for one minute that God is going to permit you to go A.W.O.L. while the battle of all ages is going to be taking place on the final battlefield of this planet! You better make up your mind you are going to be there—on one side or the other! You say, ‘But what about those who have died?’ They will be there too. I see them coming with the armies of heaven just like Jude saw them… (Jude 1:14-15)” (Love the Law of the Angels, pp. 134-5)

 

Gwen Shaw does not inform her readers that the Essenes of Qumran were apostate Jews who removed to Alexandria from 70 A.D. to 132 A.D. There they taught the Alexandrian Gnostics who produced corrupt manuscripts of the Old and New Testaments as well as many Gnostic gospels. H.P. Blavatsky described the Essenes as pagan priests of the Greek goddess, Diana:

“Essenes... They had many Buddhistic ideas and practices; and it is noteworthy that the priests of the Great Mother at Ephesus, Diana-Bhavani with many breasts, were also denominated... It was at Ephesus where was the great College of the Essenes and all the lore the Tanaim had brought from the Chaldees... Essenes, believed in reincarnation.” (Theosophical Glossary, pp. 113-14, Secret Doctrine, Vol. II, p. 111n)

Shaw maintains that the protection of the believer in the coming “battle of the ages” will be the LIGHT shining through them, which she has previously defined as “enlightenment” or “illumination”:

 

“Either we are the children of light or children of darkness, and all our multitude of words and niceties which we portray to deceive people will not be able to protect us in that day. Our protection will be the LIGHT that is shining through us…” (Love the Law of the Angels, p. 135)

 

When Gnostics are initiated into the Babylonian mysteries, they are indwelt by Lucifer, the Angel of Light.

 

Gwen Shaw then makes a statement, which may at first seem Biblical, but actually expresses the Gnostic view that matter is evil.

 

“As long as we live in the flesh we will fall victim to the kingdom of darkness because we are allowing the cursed earth to rule. But when we live in the Spirit, we are living as Jesus lived and we are conquering the powers of darkness.” (p.134)

 

Scripture states that those who “walk in the flesh” are under condemnation, not those who “live in the flesh.” Romans 12:1: “There is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”  Paul knew that “living in the flesh” would be the condition of believers until they received their glorified bodies in the resurrection. He also knew that is entirely possible for the believers who must “live in the flesh” to have victory over the flesh through Christ Jesus.

 

“…and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me…” (Gal. 2:20)

 

Paul did not tell the saints to “live in the Spirit” as the Gnostics teach.

 

“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” (Gal. 6:16)

 

Gwen Shaw’s false teaching is a setup for acceptance of the Gnostic doctrine that man must be freed from his material body through “translation” in this life, which is the Gnostic quest for immortality apart from Jesus Christ. In other words, to win the “battle of the ages” will require that the “sons of light” first escape matter. [See “Translation” below.]

 

BLOOD IS CONGEALED LIGHT

Because Gnostic doctrine views all matter as evil and only the spiritual realm good, they reason that God is too pure to incarnate into a physical body, that Jesus Christ only came to earth spiritually, and that even His death was spiritual rather than physical. This heresy inherently denies that that Jesus’ literal blood was shed. Hence there was no remission of sins through the shedding of literal blood. Instead, Jesus, being a pure spirit with “divine light” in His veins, poured out His “light” or “glory” on mankind for the salvation of the world. 

 

In her book, Gwen Shaw makes some very unorthodox statements about the blood of Jesus—that Jesus had the divine bloodline of the “first Adam,” but because he also had the blood of the fallen Adam through Mary, that darkness, death and hate were in His blood. However, it was the divine bloodline of the “first Adam” (Adam-Kadmon?) in Jesus that overcame the curse on humanity.

“What type of blood flowed through [Jesus’] veins? Who did He say His father was?  He said ‘My father in heaven.’ He had the blood of His father flowing through His veins, the Blood of God…that same life-line that flowed in the first Adam, except that Jesus also had his mother’s blood type and she was of the line and lineage of David and Adam… Jesus’ blood was a mixture of deity and humanity, light and darkness, life and death, and love and hate. The God within Him overcame the curse that had come on humanity through sin.” (Love, the Law of the Angels, p. 112-13)

“The God within Jesus”?  Jesus was God, not a human being with a “spark of God” within Him. Following this monumental error, she states that Jesus’ blood was made pure by a “fountain of love” in His veins and it was this fountain of love which redeemed the planet!

“Oh, what a fountain of love that flowed through the veins of Jesus! That is what made the Blood of Jesus pure. It was the essence of love flowing in His human body. It was love liquefied that flowed from his many wounds, starting a fountain of cleansing that would bring redemption to a fallen planet… in that bloodstream flows the very love of God. That is why the Blood of Jesus is the Love of Jesus.” (p. 113)

This heretical view of redemption derives from the Gnostic belief that Adam-Kadmon—Adam-Eve in the spiritual, androgynous state—did not have blood in their veins, but “divine light,” the essence of divinity. And that, as the “first Adam” embraced the material realm, the “divine light” congealed, becoming “blood,” and the divine androgyne lost its “glory,” which is precisely the way Gwen Shaw introduced this heresy:

“Scientists lately have been making an extensive study about blood because they saw there is something peculiar and supernatural about blood. They have come to this conclusion: that blood is congealed light. It is light that has become solidified. In other words, in the body of man there are veins and these veins are flowing with a red substance which is none other than light. Light that has mystically become congealed. How did our blood become congealed light? What was man’s original state in his first creation? When God first created Adam, what gave him power of eternal life in the garden? In the veins of my father Adam and my mother Eve was not congealed light, or blood like mine, but I believe that in the perfection with which they were created there was the very light of God that flowed through their veins and this is what gave them eternal life. This is the glory that they lost when they sinned and a curse fell on the human race. From then on all human flesh began to lose that river of light through generation after generation, as man in his fallen nature fell further and further away from God’s purity of holiness, and our blood changed with each generation as iniquity increased more and more, so that in our day we have turned into destroying our very own flesh and blood, the innocent babies that are created within us. We were created to be ‘gods’ ruling over the universe as joint-heirs with Christ, but instead we have become destroyers of that creation. So today that river of light and life is under the sentence of death. The light is still there, but it is so densely congealed that it does not have the power in itself to cleanse our bodies from its defilement and weakness.’ (Leviticus 17:11)” (Love, the Law of the Angels, p. 106)

Gwen Shaw has stated, “We were created to be ‘gods’ ruling over the universe,” which is basically the same lie that Lucifer told Eve. The same lie that New Agers believe today. Shaw concludes this chapter with yet another heresy and a prophecy:

“The Blood of Jesus is going to become more powerful in the end time. More powerful than the day it poured from His veins, until it will touch our very bodies, and not only will our spirits be changed, but our bodies will be changed.” (Love, the Law of the Angels, p. 115)

How can Jesus’ blood be more powerful in the end time than the day it poured from His veins? Surely, the blood of Jesus has never lost any of its power. Does she mean that “enlightenment” will be more powerful than Jesus’ blood poured out on Calvary???  

The following is an excerpt from a New Age website identified as “Libra Rising: God, Astrology, and the Hollow Earth: A Synthesis of New Age, Spiritual, Occult, or Esoteric Topics and Subjects.” This New Age site promotes the identical teaching as Gwen Shaw: that blood is congealed light which was the result of Adam’s fall, and that our blood must become pure light if we are to return to our former state of godhood, which is androgyny.

Keys To Ascension

Fasting or purification is the key to ascension or immortality, and love and truth are the triggers.

 

     “Cleanliness IS godliness! By keeping your body, mind, and spirit clean you are in effect fulfilling your divine mission - which is to become god… First of all, you are god, although a fallen god. Originally, you were an angel or ball of light energy who in the course of time immersed yourself in the various elements… It is our destiny to experience good and evil, but it is also our destiny to overcome evil, just as light overcomes darkness…

     “…Possession or incarnation is our first selfish act... This is our first fall. Matter is and will always be both a teacher and enemy to the spirit…

     “After a large meal, much of the life force energy which is largely centered in the brain is diverted to the digestive tract resulting in drowsiness or sleep… By eliminating solid foods we liberate a large portion of the life force to do other work such as repairing and refining. If we go a step further and eliminate liquids as well, even more of the life force is liberated, greatly speeding up the regeneration process…

     “That surplus energy is simply the result of a cleaner (more oxygenated) and faster moving bloodstream. Blood is congealed light. Light builds blood and blood builds bone and tissue. The first humans who neither ate nor drank were covered in a glowing halo or white light because that is exactly what was coursing through their veins! When they began eating, that light congealed or thickened into blood. The halo disappeared, along with our spiritual clarity and power. Food blocks the full flow of spirit diminishing our aura or life force which in turn diminishes the length and quality of our lives. So why do we eat? Eating was introduced to us by the reptiles, who, jealous of our perfect state, decided to bring us down with them. They succeeded. They have done this with every new race introduced to this planet. Adama, or white man, was the latest casualty. Few of every race have recovered, and until there is a sufficient number, we will continue to remain enslaved to this planet…

     “Eating upset the hormonal balance in bisexual humanity and led to the division of the sexes and to the sex act itself. Eating leads to sex. Sex and reproduction are a means of saving the race from certain death and extinction, in the hope that those given birth to will regenerate. By refraining from food, one stops death and sex (as we know it), and guarantees one's immortality. …Even going back to a simple fruit diet is perhaps too much too expect of our present society, but this shows how far we have strayed from our original state as divine beings.”

This may explain why a 21-day fast is mandatory before joining End-Time Handmaidens & Servants. Moreover, Gwen Shaw teaches that fasting is required to receive “The Anointing”:

“Gwen Shaw says a Christian must fast to receive an ‘anointing’ from God. Her teachings on fasting—‘Your appointment with God’—twist and take scriptures out of context… Mark Scheiderer used to be part of the End Time Handmaidens and Servants cult. In five years, he did 3-4 21 day fasts; a 24 day fast and a 3 day fast from everything followed by a 3 day water fast. He writes: ‘I feel that the spirits that control Shaw can begin to control others after Shaw lays hands on them. I do feel that the fasting ‘for the anointing’ (which is unscriptural) and the learning of false doctrine through Shaw’s writings keep people in error, which in turn leads into bondage, control and influence of demonic spirits.’” (Fake Faith Healers)

It seems that certain Charismatic leaders have already experienced the supernatural phenomenon of having their blood return to its original state of “divine light.” This is called…“The Anointing.”

    “I read a book by Gwen Shaw, ‘Love the Law of the Angels’. They discovered that blood is congealed light. If you can take light and cool it down, you'll get blood. When she said that, two doctors went and checked it out. So they tested the blood of a preacher and said, ‘Right now you preach brother, you go for it and once you're in the healing line busy ministering: just stop a minute and can we get some blood?’ They tested it and found no density in the blood, but two hours after the meeting everything is normal again.

    “When anointing really starts taking over when someone preaches, you see how that preacher change. I mean how can T.D. Jakes, at his age, shout like that for hours, he just goes on at top level, preaching…preaching….preaching…no ‘Bioplus’; no ‘Turbovite’. What causes him to act like that? Something happens to your blood when the anointing rises up within you, which is the life, which is the light, which is the glory. We just touch people and people fall and they stand up and the pains are gone. Light is released, entering the blood, causing something to happen in the blood and the people stand up and witness that they feel different and their pains are gone! If you take a headache tablet, does the tablet attack the pain or does it go through the blood? It goes into the blood. So if I touch you, that's what's happening. Light is entering your blood and pains are gone. Something happens to your blood. Now, we've got this challenge to be changed to glory…” (Spirit Word Ministries)

Here is yet another testimony of a minister whose blood was turned into “light” under “the Anointing.” 

 

“The Lord has given a foretaste of a change in our blood to Martin Paulat. The Lord has shown some that blood is congealed light and to this the scientists agree. The red color of the blood is a result of the original sin. ‘Though your sins be as scarlet...’ Isa 1:18 says.

“Martin was told by the Spirit to go and have a blood test, for the Lord was going to give him a sign of our change. He did so and sat waiting for the results… The doctor next appeared holding a vial of Martin’s blood in his hand. The color of it was like golden light. The doctor looked confused and asked him if he would take the test again the next day.

“When Martin was retested, his blood was as red as any man’s. What had happened? The Lord had truly given him a sign in his body of the changing of the blood. Our blood shall once again become pure liquid light, His Life flowing through our body. When the stain of sin is removed through the blood of Lamb, death has no more claim on the body.

“He is giving these signs about being changed in the atoms, in our generation. In the scripture we also see a type and shadow of this in Jesus’s body before ever He went to the grave.” (Kingdom Gospel Publications)

 

If New Agers are fasting to acquire spiritual power, immortality and godhood, what does that tell us when the same teachings turn up in Christian books?  Gwen Shaw and other Charismatic leaders are preparing their followers, through prolonged fasting and Gnostic teachings, for an experience of “glorification” and “deification” in this world before the return of Jesus Christ. This will actually be a global event that is being heralded in New Age circles as the “Great Work” and the “Transformation,” among other occultic expressions. In the religious world, the event will be hailed as the “Divinization of Mankind” (Theosis) and the “Transfiguration of the world.” [See “Translation” below.]

 

In 1952, a Mormon mystic, Annalee Skarin, wrote Ye Are Gods, the book which inspired Gwen Shaw to write Love, the Law of the Angels. (Evidence to be presented.) In her book, Skarin cited the Doctrines & Covenants of the Mormon Church for their doctrine of “The Anointing of Light,” which confers supreme power and divinity upon the recipient:

 

“‘We were meant to obtain ‘all power, both in heaven, and on earth, even as Christ did.’ (Romans 3:23; D.&C. 50:26-29)  His glory will become our glory... This most sacred anointing of Light should be the greatest, most intense desire of every man. It can only be given when each individual has prepared himself for it through the sanctification of his life through righteousness… The anointing of light is not a thing of wild hysteria… It is an anointing of divine majesty and supreme power—a majesty of supreme power and the light of God in all its unspeakable, enfolding glory. This is the complete opening of the doors to the kingdom of God, within, in which all things are revealed—and all power bestowed… This last unfolding can take place in an instant—‘The Anointing of Light,’ but the full preparation of it will have to be completed in perfect, most minute detail first… Thus as [every man] brings forth the Christ—or the ‘anointing of light’ from within himself he places the crown of divinity upon his own head… It is the ordination of God, the ‘Birth of the Spirit, the Anointing of Light.” (Ye Are Gods, pp. 220-21,230-231)

 

DIVINITY OF MAN

 

Before the creation of the world, Lucifer coveted God’s glory and power. In his pride, he boasted, “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.” After his failed coup d'état, Lucifer deceived Eve with the lie that she and Adam could become “as gods.” (Gen. 3)  Ancient pagan cultures have passed on to posterity Lucifer’s lie—that it is possible for men to be transformed into gods. 

 

Today, the occult societies embrace the divinity of man doctrine and are collaborating to bring about a global transformation, the “birthing” of a New Man—a new race of supermen. Tragically, the twin heresies of the “deification of man” and the “divinization” or “transfiguration of the world” are also finding their way into Christianity by way of books like Love, the Law of the Angels.

 

During the Tribulation period, the Antichrist, who will be indwelt by Lucifer, will be worshipped as “God” and will teach his worshippers they can also be “deified” if they receive spiritual enlightenment.

 

“Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called god, or that is worhshipped: so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God…

     “Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders. And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

     “And for this cause God shall send them a strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” (II Thes.2:3-4,9-12)

 

The “strong delusion” which the unrighteous will believe in the end-time is the same lie Eve swallowed: “Ye shall be as gods.” What are the End-Time Handmaidens and Servants taught by Gwen Shaw?

 

“We were created to be ‘gods’ ruling over the universe as joint heirs with Christ…

“The blood was the very life of God in man. To shed that blood was to strike at the ‘God’ within man…

“…When God created you, He put something of His own eternal life into you. The spark of God is in you. The Quakers were right. The spark of God is none other than God's own life in mankind.” (Love the Law of the Angels, pp. 107, 138-9)

 

The following is an excerpt from the Mormon book, Ye Are Gods, by Annalee Skarin. Note how the Mormon book parallels Shaw’s statement above, especially Skarin’s misleading interpretation of what it means to be “joint-heirs with Christ”:

 

“Thus it is that those who receive this Spirit of Jesus Christ, or the Spirit of Truth, are called gods... It means the living contact of each man with his Father—HERE and NOW. Those who have that living contact are gods. Such men can be called ‘gods’ for to them the Word of God comes continually, a living fountain of light…

“If we are ‘joint-heirs with Christ’ then we are equal with him, if we understand this truth and live by it, making it a part of our lives.” (Ye Are Gods, p. 252)

 

The false belief that human beings are gods is foundational Mormon doctrine. Note in the next passage from Love the Law of the Angels that Gwen Shaw even uses the Mormon phrase that we are “co-equal with Christ.” Mrs. Shaw really takes liberties with the Word of God here:

                         

“Jesus said, ‘I called you servants until now, but now I call you friends.’ He promoted us to friendship. He was making us co-heirs with Him. In other words, we became co-equal with Him; and in order to be co-equal with Him we must have the same characteristics as He has.” (Love the Law of the Angels, pp. 47-8)

 

Like Gwen Shaw, Annalee Skarin based her false teachings on the “spark of God in each man” heresy:

 

“Within each man this divine spark, or life and love, is enfolded, waiting to be brought forth by the understanding and command of each individual as he steps forth to take his place in the higher realms of divine progress.” (Ye Are Gods, p. 176)

 

A former member of End-Time Handmaidens & Servants, Mark Scheiderer, has stated in his expose of the End-Time Handmaidens and Servants that Gwen Shaw told him privately that she based her book, Love, The Law of the Angels, on the works of this Mormon mystic, Annalee Skarin:

 

“On June 18, 1983 I moved to Niagara Falls, New York to help remodel a house to be used by E.T.H.& S. It was during my seven month stay there that I learned of the true nature of Mrs. Shaw’s writings and teachings. While visiting the home of an acquaintance of Mrs. Shaw in Ontario, Canada, I came across the writings of Annalee Skarin. My first reaction to them was they could not possibly be Scriptural since they contained quotes from the book of Mormon. However, I respected the opinions of those who I was with, and reasoned that I would eventually come to the understanding that they were okay. I was told Mrs. Shaw had read all of Skarin’s writings and that her book Love, The Law of the Angels was based on them. Less than a year later, Mrs. Shaw affirmed to me that this was true. She also stated that when she first started incorporating them into her teaching in the early 1970's that many people (who had heard Annalee Skarin speak) said that Mrs. Shaw sounded a lot like her.”

MAN CREATED ANDROGYNOUS

Having established in the minds of her readers that God is androgynous, and that man is divine, Gwen Shaw teaches that Adam, who was created in the image of God, was also androgynous. She must again wrest the Scriptures to arrive at this heretical interpretation:

     “God caused a ‘deep sleep’ to come upon Adam… The King James version says, ‘God took a rib out of Adam.’ But some of the early translations say, ‘God took a cell out of Adam. A ‘cell’ is defined as: ‘A small compartment or bounded area which is part of a whole.’ One might also translate this Scripture as reading, ‘God took a womb out of Adam,’ for the definition of womb is parallel to that of ‘cell’ in some respects. Webster defines the womb as ‘a cavity or space where something is generated.’ We can understand from this that God took the ‘cell’ or the ‘womb’ out of Adam and with that created the ‘womb-man’ or ‘woman.’

    “…So when God created Adam, He made him like himself, creating in him the male and female characteristics.” (Love, the Law of the Angels, p. 67)

Next Mrs. Shaw introduces the Gnostic doctrine that the first Adam (Adam-Kadmon?) was created androgynous, but was later divided into two sexes. She attempts to give this false teaching some orthodoxy by ascribing it to a Jewish rabbi.

“One [rabbi] even concluded that God made Adam androgynous, and later separated him into Adam and Eve.” (Love the Law of the Angels, p. 165)

However Gwen Shaw tries to legitimize the concept of an androgynous Adam, this teaching came straight out of the Babylonian mystery religion, which many Jews adopted during their captivity in Babylon. Androgynous Adam is the “Adam-Kadmon” of the Kabbalah, the book of Jewish occultism derived from Babylon. The Jewish rabbi who made the above statement must have been a Kabbalist, which we might be able to ascertain if Gwen Shaw had provided his name, which she did not.

 

Gwen Shaw’s rendition of the creation of man is similar to that of H.P. Blavatsky, the “Mother of the New Age Movement” as elucidated in her tome, The Secret Doctrine.

“Let anyone read the first verses of chapter i of Genesis and reflect upon them. There ‘God’ commands another ‘god’ who does his bidding.... ‘And God said let there be light,’ and ‘there was light.’ Now the latter does not mean light at all, but in the Kabala, the androgyne ‘Adam-Kadmon,’ or Sephirah (Spiritual light), for they are one: or, according to the Chaldean book of numbers, the secondary angels, the first being the Elohim who are the aggregate of that ‘fashioning’ god.” (The Secret Doctrine, Vol. I., 1888, p. 337)

The Kabbalah is the compendium of ‘secret doctrine’ which derives from ancient Babylon. When the Jews were in captivity in that land, they were exposed to the ‘secret doctrine’ of the Babylonian religion with its magical arts (which God forbade).  Many Jews chose to stay in Babylon after the captivity ended and adopted the Babylonian mystery religion as their own. Some of these Jewish apostates later came to Jerusalem with the oral traditions of the Babylonian Talmud and the Kabbalah, which later took written forms.

 

PRE-EXISTENCE OF SOULS

 

Gwen Shaw denounces in no uncertain terms the doctrine of reincarnation, but promotes a variation of it which is found in Mormon doctrine and the Jewish Kabbalah—the pre-existence of souls. Here is an example of Shaw’s complete reversal of the meaning of Scripture. She interprets Job 38:4 as God “reminding” Job of his preexistence, rather than declaring just the opposite.

 

“And when God saw this light He said, ‘IT”S A NEW DAY!’…It was the origin of all God’s creational works… You and I were there that day to see it, but we don’t remember. However, God tried to remind Job when He said, ‘Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? …When the morning stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for joy! (Job 38:4,7)’ Some day we will remember what we saw on that glorious day of splendor and beauty…” (Love, The Law of the Angels, p. 133)
 

To arrive at her private interpretation, Gwen Shaw disregarded the rest of verse 4: “…declare, if thou hast understanding” as well as verses 18-21 in which God put Job in his place as a later creation and not one of the “sons of the morning” or angels: “Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth? declare if thou knowest it all… Knowest thou it, because thou wast then born? or because the number of thy days is great?” God is reminding Job of his mortality and limited knowledge, to which Job responds by acknowledging his ignorance of God’s creative act: “…therefore have I uttered that I understood not.” (Job 42:2)  

 

In Ye Are Gods, Mormon mystic Annalee Skarin presented the same Gnostic doctrine of the pre-existence of souls as the “sparks” of the Divine Spirit or Light;

 

“But this great ‘Light of Truth’ or ‘Spirit of Truth’ or ‘light of Christ,’ of which we are a part, and were a part, even from the beginning (and there is no beginning, and no end), existed long before that time. For we too were with God before the works of creation began, ‘The Spirit of Truth.’… The light of life, or spark of the Divine Spirit of Christ, is the original source of our existence.” (Ye Are Gods, p. 211)

The following excerpt from Gwen Shaw’s book Going Home also indicates her belief in a pre-existence of human spirits who came to earth from Heaven. 

“It was with joy that the angels accompanied our spirits from Heaven, as our spirits entered the beginning of our earthly existence when the spark of ‘God-life’ came into our as yet unformed bodies in the moment of our conception.” (Gwen Shaw, Going Home)

A former Mormon, Jane Bleth, explains the doctrine of pre-existence as taught in Mormonism, and that humans were formerly angels and will become angels again:

“Angels to Mormons are only dead or not yet born humans. They aren’t a separate creation.  We all had a pre-existence, being born in spirit form to ‘heavenly father and mother,’ Jesus being the elder son, making him our elder brother.  According to how one lived in the pre-existence determines their status on earth.  Lucifer and 1/3 of the spirits rebelled and can never come and gain a body, which is a must in the order of eternal progression.  Adam transgressed God’s commandment in order to fulfill a greater purpose.  They think there could have been no pro-creation if Adam and Eve had not eaten the forbidden fruit.  All of the pre-existent spirit children needed to take up a body of flesh and bones and pass thru a period of testing in order to progress to exaltation as the ‘father’ had.   God was once a man and passed thru the same progression to exaltation where he obtained his godhood with his wives, who bore all of the spirit children, who must in turn also pass thru the process to exaltation/godhood.”

The false doctrine of the pre-existence of souls or spirits allows fallen angels to present themselves to human beings as their deceased friends, or ancestors, or famous people who have a message from God, or to present themselves as “spirit guides.” These fallen angels often present themselves as “Jesus.” This abomination is referred to in Scripture as having or consulting “familiar spirits.”

“There shall not be found among you…a consulter with familiar spirits.” Deut. 18:11

 

A man or a woman who is a medium, or who has familiar spirits, shall surely be put to death; they shall stone them with stones. Their blood shall be upon them." Lev. 20:27

EXTRA-BIBLICAL REVELATION

God commands His people to receive their instruction and guidance for life from His Word:  

“This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.” (Joshua 1:8)

 

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” (II Tim. 3:16-17)

Where does Gwen Shaw tell her people to receive guidance?

“Where does the light speak? It speaks where it is—right within us… And it is there in your soul that God speaks from. Right inside you. When we deaden this voice by constantly disobeying it, we diminish our ability to hear God speak to us. Then we can no longer hear with the spirit-ears, and so we start to rely on our natural ears. That is how we can get wrong guidance.

        “There are three ways in which God's children are being led:

            “1. They are guided by the love of God ruling in every decision they make.

            “2. They are guided by circumstances.

            “3. They are guided by their senses.

        “Let us strive to get our guidance by the first of these, for it is the highest order…” (Love the Law of the Angels, p. 139)

No mention of the Word of God as the highest and only safe guide. According to Gwen Shaw, the “love of God” which is that “light within us” is the inner voice we must listen to for guidance. And how does she define love?

 

“While it is true that love can be twisted because of its human characteristic, it is also true that love…is the very God-nature implanted into the human race… Love is devotion, loyalty tenderness and attachment of the inner heart, mind and soul of one person for another. It is feeling in one’s being the vibrations of the Holy Trinity, for it comes from the Holy Trinity… (Romans 5:5)” (Love, the Law of the Angels, p. 207)

 

Is love the God-nature implanted into the human race? Is Biblical love a feeling? How does God define love? “For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous.” (I John 5:3) God says love is keeping the commandments, but according to Gwen Shaw, love is feeling the vibrations of the Holy Trinity within.  What kind of theology is this?  The Mormon mystic, on whose writings Gwen Shaw based her book, wrote a good deal about love being “vibrations” located in the center of each human being. For example:

         

“When thought and emotion mingle the thought is conceived and will come forth. When they connect with the feeling, or emotions they become living, vibrations, generated unto growth and power, expanding into life and will surely grow into their full stature of fulfillment…

   “A thought must be harbored as an emotion, such as a fear, or a deep desire, which find lodgment in the vibrating essence of life, then only is it liberated into the forces of creation. This point where thought and emotion meet is also the place where vibration is released, AND VIBRATION IS LIFE.

   “The place of vibration is the center of life in each human being…” (Annalee Skarin, Ye Are Gods, p. 69)

 

Gwen Shaw gives precedence to the “law of the heart” and her other perceived “unwritten laws” with only an oblique mention of the law of God: 

 

“Love is the fulfilling of ALL the laws, even the unwritten ones, the law of the heart, the law that the saints and angels keep, the law of heaven… Love also demands obedience to the Lawgiver…” (Love the Law of the Angels, p. 6)

 

But what does God say about the heart? Is the heart ever at variance with the Lawgiver? Jeremiah wrote, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jer.17:10) Jesus identified the contents of the heart of man. It is not a pretty picture:

 

“And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.” (Mark 7:20-23)

 

ORACULAR IMAGES

 

Gwen Shaw goes beyond the bounds of Scripture all too frequently. In chapter 20, “Love is in the Light,” she presumes that the Urim and Thummim used by Aaron will be recovered for use in the end-time to give guidance to God’s people. 

 

“In Exodus 28:30 we read, ‘And thou shalt put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim: and they shall be upon Aarons’ heart, when he goeth in before the Lord…

            “We have already mentioned how that Aaron the high priest had to wear the breastplate at all times. We also said that the Lord wants us to wear the breastplate of love and faith [No, the breastplate of righteousness and the shield of faith] over our hearts. In that breastplate there were to be two things: the Urim and the Thummim. These are two objects of mystery. No one living today has ever seen them… Urim means the plural of flame, the oracular brilliancy of the figures in the high priest’s breastplate. Thummim means one of the epithets of the objects in the high priest’s breastplate as an emblem of complete Truth…

“In Deuteronomy 33:8 Moses was giving an end-time prophecy to the tribe of Levi and he said, ‘Let they Thummim and thy Urim be with thy Holy one…’ This prophecy was given almost one thousand years before the Urim and Thummim were lost in the captivity. Moses said that the Urim and Thummim would be given to those who would stand with God at the waters of Meribah. Meribah means ‘the place of proving and testing.’… I believe that if we come through the trials and testings of life where our faithfulness is tested and proven, God will give his priestly people the Urim and Thummim again. We are living in the end-time when all of God’s children are going to be tried and proven and out of that proven company God will choose His priests whom He can trust to give guidance to others…” (pp. 136-40)

 

Nowhere in Scripture is it even remotely suggested that the Urim and Thummim of the ancient Israelites will reappear in the period of the end-time, or any other time in Church history. This is pure speculation on Gwen Shaw’s part, or perhaps deception. If the Bible does not state that God’s people will use the Urim and Thummim in the end-time, what are we to make of this strange prophecy?

 

The Encyclopedia of Mormonism states: “Joseph Smith - through the medium of the Urim and Thummim - translated the [Book of Mormon] by the gift and power of God. Smith described the Urim and Thummim as ‘two transparent stones set in the rim of a [silver] bow fastened to a breast plate’ (HC 4:537; JS--H 1:35).” Joseph Smith’s closest colleagues were Jews, Orson Hyde and Alexander Neibaur. Lance Owens writes in “Joseph Smith and Kabbalah: The Occult Connection,” “That Neibaur brought a knowledge of Kabbalah to Nauvoo has been mentioned in several studies of the period. For instance, Newel and Avery note in their biography of Emma Smith, ‘Through Alexander Neibaur, Joseph Smith had access to ancient Jewish rites called cabalism...” Madame Blavatsky also states that Kabbalists and Occultists use counterfeit Urim and Thummim—as oracles for divination.

 

“…Modern Rabbins and Hebraists may well pretend they do not know the joint purposes of the Thummin and the Urim: but the Kabbalists do and likewise the Occultists. They were the instruments of magic divination and oracular communication—theurgic and astrological. This is shown in the following well-known facts:—…both were oracular images, like the teraphim, and uttered oracles by a voice, and both were agents for hypnotization and throwing the priests who wore them into an ecstatic condition. The Urim and Thummim were not original with the Hebrews, but had been borrowed…from the Egyptians, with whom the mystic scarabaeus, worn on the breast by the Hierophants, had the same functions. They were thus purely heathen and magical modes of divination.” (Theosophical Glossary, p. 334)

 

Once again we discover Gwen Shaw advocating an occult practice that is expressly forbidden by God.

 

“There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.  For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.” (Deut. 18:10-12)

 

Are “oracles” mentioned anywhere in Scripture in connection with the end-time? As a matter of fact, there will be an “image of the Beast” which the False Prophet, using the power of Satan, will animate so that it can speak as an oracle. All who refuse to worship this oracle will be put to death.

 

“And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of he beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.” (Rev. 13:15)

 

VISITATIONS OF ANGELS

 

Where does Gwen Shaw receive all these extra-biblical revelations?  By her own account, she has been personally visited by Jesus Christ and angels, and encourages her followers to anticipate angelic visitations to themselves.  She begins Part 2 of “Love is in the Light” by explaining that, because of the fall, God has placed a “veil” between the natural and spiritual realms; however, this veil can be penetrated in order to see and hear the spirits who are trying to contact us:

 

“There is a ‘veil’ between our eyes and the spirit world. Scales are on our eyes. We need to have our eyes anointed with eye salve in order to let us see again what we shall one day see. The only things that are visible to us are the natural, material things. We live in the realm of the senses, except for now and then when God lifts that ban and we are able to see what we call visions. It is then that we can see angels, demons, the saints, our heavenly home, the agony of hell and Jesus our Lord. There is a real spiritual world that is around us all the time, but it is only made visible to the spiritual eye and not to the natural eye…

“This is also true about our ability to hear… The voice of my Lord is speaking at all times, but only now and then is my ear quickened to hear that voice.

“During a time that I was living alone I remember one afternoon while I was resting, suddenly I was awakened and Jesus was speaking in my ear and telling me that in these last times there would be a glorious manifestation of the Elect, and His mighty power will fill those whom He had chosen to represent His glory on the earth. And then the tenor of His voice changed and He began to whisper. It was the voice of the most beautiful Lover. Full of love, He whispered right into my left ear, ‘I am coming very, very soon.’

“I will never forget that. I had heard the Lord speak audibly with these natural ears. But He is speaking ALL the time. If only we could hear…” (Love, the Law of the Angels, p.142-43)

 

According to Gwen Shaw, the veil is being lifted in these last days and many people are having visitations of Jesus, angels, and are even visiting heaven. Shaw’s interpretation of Revelation 3 has Jesus rebuking the Laodicean Church because those believers did not ‘pierce the veil’ and make contact with the spirit world:

 

“God is beginning to visit this earth one more time… Paul Harvey, a well-known religious news commentator said, “…I must warn you we have having visitors from another world!’ We don’t always see them because our vision is only partial, but God is beginning to take away our blindness. He says to the Laodicean church that did not have perfect love, ‘Anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see’ (Revelation 3:18). Let the darkness be removed. For almost 6,000 years this world has been in darkness, but there is a light shining from God that is growing brighter and brighter and one of these days it will destroy the darkness Hallelujah! And we are called to be a part of that light.” (Love, the Law of the Angels, p.143)

 

Furthermore, Mrs. Shaw states that visitations of angels are an evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, although this is nowhere stated in the New Testament. But wait! There’s that Gnostic term “enlightenment” again!                         

 

“Could it be that the quickening we receive through the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a part of that glorious millennium-enlightenment that we are awaiting? I believe it is. This is also the reason why many when they are filled with the Holy Spirit see visions. Here in America we seek tongues, and tongues are good; but we need to seek God. When we have the mighty fullness of the Holy Spirit, it will touch more than our tongue; it will touch our eyes and our ears and our memory. It will go into the depths of our being. On the mission field I have seen the mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Children were taken into the heavenlies. They saw angels, talked with Jesus and visited their heavenly mansions. The true visitations from God will be so dynamic that it will shatter our previous reservations and traditions which have blinded, deafened and dulled our spiritual understanding.” (Love, the Law of the Angels, p.145)

 

In her book, Ye Are Gods, Annalee Skarin cited the Book of Mormon frequently. The angel Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith in 1823, having completed the compilation and writing of the Book of Mormon. Thereafter, Moroni ministered to the prophet Smith and counseled with him in several reappearances until the book was published in 1830. The following passage from the Book of Mormon, which Annalee Skarin cites twice, closely parallels Gwen Shaw’s teaching that angel apparitions are evidence of the infilling of the Holy Spirit.

 

“Or have angels ceased to appear unto the children of men? Or has he withheld the power of the Holy Ghost from them? Or will he, so long as time shall last, or the earth stand, or there shall be one man upon the face of the thereof to be saved?

     “Behold I say unto you, Nay; for it is by faith that miracles are wrought; and it is by faith that angels appear and minister unto men; wherefore, if these things have ceased woe be unto all the children of men, for it is because of unbelief, AND ALL IS VAIN.’ (Moroni 8:43-44)” (Ye Are Gods, p.105)

 

Gwen Shaw teaches the End-Time Handmaidens and Servants that the traditional reserve toward angelic apparitions is a lack of spiritual understanding. However, the New Testament NEVER recommends that believers seek apparitions of “Jesus” or angels. In fact, the reverse is true. There are stern warnings to reject visions, and especially visitations of angels who preach another gospel—like the false gospel which Gwen Shaw has received from familiar spirits:

 

“And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light…” (II Cor.11:14)

 

“Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind.” (Colossians 2:18)

 

But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” (Gal. 1:8) 

  

In his Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians, Martin Luther, whom Mrs. Shaw favorably quotes on other subjects, amplified Paul’s strong words anathematizing angel apparitions:

 

“Paul's zeal for the Gospel becomes so fervent that it almost leads him to curse angels. ‘I would rather that I, my brethren, yes, the angels of heaven be anathematized than that my gospel be overthrown.’  The Greek word anathema, Hebrew herem, means to accurse, execrate, to damn... Paul maintains that there is no other gospel besides the one he had preached to the Galatians. He preached, not a gospel of his own invention, but the very same Gospel God had long ago prescribed in the Sacred Scriptures. No wonder Paul pronounces curses upon himself and upon others, upon the angels of heaven, if anyone should dare to preach any other gospel than Christ’s own.”

 

TRANSLATION

 

In their quest for spiritual enlightenment and immortality, New Agers are preparing to transcend the material realm through fasting, which is believed to purify the bloodstream so the “divine light” will be released, causing them to “ascend” and to become immortal. New Agers believe that their “ascensions” transport them into the spirit realm, and on occasion they even think they are visiting heaven. In reality, they are having out-of-body experiences which result in possession by evil spirits.

“When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.” (Matt. 12:43-45)

False teachers are also preparing the apostate Church for a false resurrection which will take place during the Tribulation period. This event is alternately termed “transfiguration,” “glorification,” or “translation” and is supposed to bring about the deification of mankind. The “divinization of man” and “transfiguration of the world” will take place under the oversight of the False Prophet and a counterfeit 144,000 who will be monastics. Despite the Biblical terminology used to promote it, this phenomenon will be the same type of out-of-body trip that New Agers experience.

 

Gwen Shaw claims that Jesus Christ was “translated” at the Transfiguration, which was not the case. Since Shaw claims that “love” is able to “translate” a person, she cannot be referring to the resurrection (which will be accomplished by the Holy Spirit), but to an altered state of consciousness such as the ecstatic experiences of mystics who are so delusional that they think they’ve been transported to the very Throne of God:

 

“Love is the secret of happiness, contentment, good health, long life and even translation…

“I have met some of God’s ‘mystics’ in my life and they are truly God’s ‘peculiar treasures’… Some of these saints are hidden away in sick rooms or hermitages that are seldom frequented by the careless multitude…

“The glory of God will translate you into that glory which you desire…

“…on the Mount of Transfiguration…the glory of God was revealed to the three chosen disciples, Peter, James and John. They saw the translation of Christ before their very eyes…” (Love, the Law of the Angels, pp. 12, 29, 140, 189)

 

Translation to the “Throne of God” is found in the Kabbalah, the book of Jewish occultism. Note that this journey of the Jewish sage was facilitated by fasting and invoking angels as guides. And that this occult tradition, which became the Kabblah, was carried throughout the Diaspora to Jewish communities worldwide.

 

“There is...the prophetic tradition which has provided many wonderful images for the contemplation of divine mystery: the most holy Throne of G-D…or 'work of creation' signs shown to the prophets, such as the vision of Ezekiel of Metatron, 1:26-28, which was interpreted esoterically as the Throne of the Chariot by early Rabbinical writers (also Isaiah 6:3). The study of these mysterious visions and symbols…tells of the descent of…‘fire’ on the expositor of the prophetic scrolls when in a holy state of contemplation. In contrast, such meditation could lead to an ‘ascent’ (in imitation of Elijah) which could lead astray the unprepared, but could, as in the case of R. Akiva, lead to ascent and descent in ‘perfect peace’ (Scholem, 1991).

“This journey of the sage through the higher realms (often seven levels) was guided by prayer, fasting and the recitation of sacred psalms. It also required the knowledge of the various ‘names of the angels’ so that a ‘seal’ or incantation could be said to facilitate the journey… The apex of this ascent is a vision of the Throne of Glory and thereby… ‘sanctification’ by the Divine Presence. Yet, this Presence remains something apart, a reality so Holy that the vision of its presence was the highest sanctification, so that man and G-D remain distinct, and the vision of the…‘prince of the divine face’ was supreme blessing. This was symbolized as the…Glory of G-D. This early development was then carried throughout the Diaspora to Jewish communities far and wide. By the 10th century, the *Sefer Yezirah (1987)* had been composed, that mystic guide to all Jewish contemplatives for over the last thousand years. In this book we find mention of the Ten Sefirot, the ‘Book of Creation’ where the paths of wisdom and the ‘22 elemental letters’ give the sage access to divine knowledge. This work, along with the Merkabah tradition set the stage for the emergence of a full-blown meditative tradition known as Kabbalah...” (“Jewish Mystical Traditions” Zos Imos, 1995)

 

Annalee Skarin claimed to have been told by God that she would be “translated” to heaven without dying, like Enoch and “Three Nephites” In Mormon doctrine, the “Three Nephites were “immortal” disciples of Jesus Christ when He appeared in the New World to give the doctrine of Mormon on “golden plates” to Joseph Smith. These “Nephites” included Mormon and his son, Moroni.

 

“There is also the account of the ‘Three Nephites’ who were permitted to tarry on the earth without death having any claim on them. There are those in this generation who have been contacted by one of more of them, and these individuals can testify, along with the ancient records, of their actual existence…

“You ask me how I dare to write such unorthodox things, and how I know them? I know them to be true because God showed them to me before I came to earth. I was taught by Him—and death was explained to me—and the laws by which it could be overcome. And again in life was it verified unto me—and the promise given that I was to have the gift and power of the ‘Three Nephites’, that I would be able to go forth, and help bring a world to light. And that same promise is yours if you will only lay hold of it…

“John 3:1-8…mean anyone who has been born of the Spirit will be able to come and go without anyone being able to tell where he came from, or where he goes. And Christ Himself proved the words many times in His own life.

“’And he that was healed wist not who it was: for Jesus had conveyed Himself away, a multitude being in that place. (John 5:3)” (Ye Are Gods, p. 182-3, 193)

 

Annalee Skarin died and was buried like everyone else, but had adopted an alias and went into hiding beforehand to conceal the fact that she was sick and dying. She was never “translated,” yet the publisher of her books continues the hoax that Skarin was translated and never saw death.

 

“Editor’s Note: Soon after publishing the first edition of this remarkable book the author, Annalee Skarin, according to Affidavits in our files, underwent a physical change known as ‘translation,’ such as did Enoch of Biblical days.” (Ye Are Gods, Frontispiece)

  

ANOTHER JESUS

“To advance unification, the New Age teaches that Jesus went to India, as such laying the groundwork for a connection between Christianity and Hinduism… That way, they argue that all religions share the same origin and that it is only normal that they should be merged back into one...that all religions share the same ‘God’ while the underlying thought of this unification is that God does not exist but was a visitor of a higher spiritual plane of existence, a superior alien race with sophisticated technology and knowledge that enlightens the mind, a race that was perceived as gods by common people.” (unknown source)

Although she quotes many verses from the King James Bible, Gwen Shaw’s theology is closer to the Gnostic gospels than the traditional Canon of Scripture. Shaw suggests in chapter 21, “Love the Key to Knowing God,” that Jesus Christ traveled the world and spent time in India before He began His ministry in Israel.

    “Have you ever wondered where Jesus was for eighteen years of his life? That was between the ages of twelve and thirty. Have you ever thought about it? What was He doing? What was he learning? Where did He go? There are secrets in the life of Jesus hidden from our knowledge that God never permitted the writers of the Gospels to reveal to us. The American Indians have a legend that He appeared to them. The Hindus of India tell how He visited them also. Certain things must remain a secret until we see Him in Glory.

    “...We are in the end time now when the seals will be opened and the righteousness of God will be revealed... We shall partake of His infinite knowledge and revelation...” (Love: The Law of the Angels, p. 224)

Gwen Shaw did not arrive at this idea from her study of the Bible, but from the “sacred books” of false religions and New Age cults, which claim that Jesus was a teacher of Hinduism in India and of other religions during His world travels. This “New Age Jesus” will replace the Scriptural Jesus when the Gnostic gospels replace the New Testament during the Tribulation period.

Philip Jenkins, Distinguished Professor of History and Religious Studies at Penn State University, wrote “The Jesus of the Cults: How the Esoteric Christ Became the Christ of Scholars.” The following rather lengthy excerpt from this informative article reveals that the various Gnostic gospels were obtained by channeling spirits.

    “Occult and esoteric writers were particularly fertile in the process of invention, and many felt compelled to fill in the missing years in Jesus’ life, that period of adolescence and early adulthood which preceded the start of his public ministry. Some of these attempts would be immensely influential. At the turn of the century, Nicholas Notovich published The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ, from Buddhistic Records, which reported the author’s alleged visit to the Tibetan city of Lhasa. Notovich claimed to have found there abundant documents concerning the life of Jesus, who had preached his first sermons in India during his teens. The book includes a complete gospel, here published as ‘The Life of Saint Issa [Jesus], best of the sons of men.’ News of Notovich’s alleged find resurfaced sporadically over the following decades, causing a minor furor in the American press as late as the 1920s.

    “In an age fascinated by spiritualism and mediumship, it seemed natural that such revelations would be obtained through what would today be called channeling. New details of Jesus' life and thought were made familiar through books like Levi Dowling’s long-popular Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ, Rudolf Steiner’s The Fifth Gospel, and Edgar Cayce's Channeled Tales of Jesus, all of which drew to some extent on Notovich. All were very popular: between 1908 and 1995, the Aquarian Gospel alone went through 52 printings in clothbound editions, and thirteen in paperback. The full influence of these books is hard to trace too specifically because they were so widely plagiarized and imitated: with minor modifications, the Aquarian Gospel became the holy scripture of the Moorish Science Temple, America’s first domestic Muslim movement. In recent years, the best-known examples of this esoteric tradition have been the works of Elizabeth Clare Prophet, who draws on Notovich to describe Jesus’ occult career in Tibet and elsewhere…

    “Though these various pseudo-gospels have no claim to historical validity, they popularized many of the ideas which have become commonplace in the last quarter-century, namely that Jesus preached mystical teachings related to those of various clandestine orders and traditions, and that early Christian doctrine involved Buddhist teachings like reincarnation and meditation. Moreover, these works present Jesus in traditional Gnostic mode as the revealer of mysteries whose deeds have a symbolic rather than historical importance. To a non-specialist, there are close resemblances between the mystical teachings of authentic early texts like the Gospel of Truth found at Nag Hammadi and Dowling’s spurious Aquarian Gospel. The seeming degree of plausibility of such forgeries need cause no surprise, since the forgers were usually drawing on the authentic early Gnostic texts which had become such a commonplace part of popular culture. While they had little impact on the mainstream churches, these radical interpretations reached a wide audience through the diverse esoteric movements that attracted so many millions of Americans and Europeans in the first half of the century. Long before the discoveries at Nag Hammadi, a remarkably large public was conditioned to accept the dramatically different portraits of Jesus contained in the new gospels: indeed, lay people with New Age interests may have been more disposed than scholars to accept the radical image of Jesus presented therein.

    “There is an obvious line of succession from these earlier pseudo-gospels to contemporary New Age and esoteric writings. Now as then, the Jesus of this movement was seen in syncretistic terms, someone who could equally well speak for Buddhism or Hinduism as for any form of Christianity. Largely ignored by most writers on Christian trends, the New Age Jesus continues to flourish, and to stimulate countless books from presses both major and marginal. One of the best-known of such efforts was Jacob Needleman’s study, which bore the evocative title of Lost Christianity. Esoteric adherents have access to their own distinctive verse-by-verse New Age commentary on Thomas, complete with appropriate mystical ‘affirmations’ and mediations throughout, while the implications of the Gnostic discoveries were discussed at length in magazines of the 1990s like Gnosis and other New Age periodicals.

    “Also immensely popular has been the book A Course in Miracles, and the vast literature it has spawned since its first appearance in 1975: the Course claims to be a series of revelations dictated by Jesus himself through a channeling process. The book shares the fundamental Gnostic principle that the material world is the product of false perception, of error and delusion, from which one can be saved through a relationship with Jesus as ‘elder brother,’ rather than unique redeemer. Also Gnostic is the rejection of the value of the crucifixion, and the absolute emphasis upon the resurrection. Many of the familiar narrative elements we have noted earlier also occur in the new age tract known as the Celestine Prophecy, although this does not adopt the ‘hidden gospel’ format. Nevertheless, this is supposedly an ancient Peruvian tract written in Jesus’ own language of Aramaic, and again, the document is exposed despite the plots and machinations of the Roman Catholic church.”

THE ROLE OF WOMEN

 

Annalee Skarin wrote concerning her authorship of Ye Are Gods which expounds the so-called “deeper truths” of Scripture:

                       

“Do not let it worry you because a woman was the scribe. God has said, ‘I will use the weak and foolish things to confound the wise.’ He has only kept His word. And since it was a woman who brought darkness into the world a woman will have to assist in rending that veil of darkness.” (Ye Are Gods, p. 293)

 

Gwen Shaw uses the same argument for women teachers in “Love is the Glory,” the chapter in which she states that the “Shekinah” is the female Holy Spirit:

 

“Why is it that the Glory of God, His Shekinah, seems to be resting in greater magnitude on the daughters of Eve in this generation? This is very evident, not only in one country but in all the nations where I have worked for God, and especially where the women have been permitted by their male elders to let God’s glory be borne witness of through their freedom to speak. The women are…fast becoming the deepest of teachers. Men have not been quick to ordain them to the ministry, but God has been doing it since the beginning of time…” (Love: The Law of the Angels, p.166)

 

In the End-Time Handmaidens & Servants newsletter, Gwen Shaw actually quoted from the Zohar, which is the premier book of the Kabbalah, the compendium of Jewish occultism.  Her theme was the unique role of women who will be ushering the true LIGHT OF GOD, the light of redemption, into the world before the Tribulation period:

 

“The Holy Zohar teaches, ‘A woman kindling the Shabbat candles, with joy in her heart, brings peace on earth, health and happiness to her family, and is blessed with children who brighten the world with the light of tradition.’ The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson said, ‘Let every woman, young girls included, add their holy light to illuminate the world that is shrouded in darkness and confusion. And let us all usher in the lights of our redemption through unselfish acts of goodness and kindness.

   “When a Jewish woman invites the Shabbat ‘Queen’ into her home, Light is born…

   “The Shabbat candies are lit 18 minutes before sunset every Friday evening.  And the fact that she must do it BEFORE the darkness of the night falls upon the land is a prophetic indication that, before the tribulation begins, women will bring the Light of Truth to all the world, and pray the Prayer of Blessing that will bring God's Glory into her home and the lives of her loved ones - and for a brief ‘18 minutes of time’ (out of all ages) all eyes will be upon her. I believe that this is a prophetic act that indicates that the time has come…for women to bring the true LIGHT OF GOD to all the world.” (ETH&S Newsletter, Aug/Sept. 1999)  

 

Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson was the founder of the Chabad-Lubavitch, a Kabbalist organization which proclaimed Schneerson to be the Jewish messiah until his death in 1994. The Lubavitchers are now a global movement that is working toward worldwide enforcement of a code of law for Gentiles called the Seven Noahide Laws. The third Noahide Law prohibits idolatry which, in Judaism, includes the worship of Jesus Christ. The penalty for infringement of even one of the 7 Noahide Laws is beheading. [See: Under the Law]

 

The “Holy Zohar” which Gwen Shaw cited as her authority for women to usher in the “true Light of God” is defined by H.P. Blavatsky as the oldest written form of the Kabbalah:

 

“Zohar, or Sohar. A compendium of Kabbalistic Theosophy which shares with the Sepher Yetzirah the reputation of being the oldest extant treatise on the Hebrew esoteric doctrines… [T]he…secret doctrines…were developed into a theology after the time of the captivity of the Jews in Babylon…The kabalist is a student of the ‘secret science’…the kabalists among the Jews…appeared at Jerusalem about the beginning of the third century.” (Theosophical Glossary, pp.388, 167-8)

 

This explains why God does not permit women to teach Bible doctrine:

 

“But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.” (I Tim. 2:12-14)

 

Testifying to the tragic results of disobedience to God’s command are the many cults established or led by women. In their quest to teach the “deeper truths” of the Bible, they inevitably wind up teaching the “deep things of Satan” like “that woman Jezebel” in Rev. 2. Their apostasy always seems to begin after they separate from their husbands and become independent of authority—Gwen Shaw and Annalee Skarin, and before them, Theosophists Madame Blavatsky, Annie Besant, Alice Bailey, Christian Science founder, Mary Baker Eddy and Foursquare Gospel founder, Aimee Semple McPherson.

 

In a previous chapter “Love in Marriage,” after quoting Ephesians 2:24, “…let the wives be subject to their own husbands in everything,” Gwen Shaw suddenly bursts into a harangue against dominant men. The issue is quickly diverted from “if a wife should obey when her husband is wrong” to a diatribe against husbands who demand sexual acts that will “send her soul to hell”! 

 

“This brings us to the question, ‘Does the wife have to obey her husband when he is wrong, when his mind has been perverted by sin and he is controlled by demons? Does she have to give her body to be used by him in repulsive acts that are just plain orgy?’ NEVER. [quotes Col.3:18]… No good man would want to be responsible for bringing his wife under condemnation or sending her soul to hell… If he does cause her to sin and she loses her own soul, on the day of judgment…those who taught him that he had power over her to cause her to do evil will be judged together with him.” (Love: The Law of the Angels, pp.70-71)

 

Gwen Shaw never answers the question, “Does the wife have to obey her husband when he is wrong?” but quickly transitions to “husbands whose minds are perverted by sin and controlled by demons,” placing the former in the same category with the latter, which she proceeds to castigate and condemn along with wives who obey them.

 

“There is a spirit of overbearing domination in the land in these last days. Man is seeking to gain mastery and predominance over others of God’s creation…

    “Personally, I cannot understand why any woman would submit to this spirit of dictatorship, especially when she lives in a free land where it is not forced upon her by a tyrannical government. I can understand that for the woman who is too weak to resist temptation because of her lack of dedication to God or love for Him, it is a good ‘cop out.’ She can readily make an excuse for herself when her husband wants her to join him for a weekend gambling in Las Vegas, a few drinks at the bar, a night at a porno movie, or what-have-you. Her religious teachers have said she MUST obey her husband…

    “Why are women who know God’s Word not submitting? Because they don’t see God in their husbands… How can a husband be looked upon as ‘God’ if he lives like the devil? It is impossible. And the woman, in trying to fill the role of a submissive wife becomes frustrated because she WAS created to submit to a man whom she can honor and respect and love… Do you know, it is strange that Paul never tells a woman to LOVE her husband?” (Love, The Law of the Angels, pp.71-3)

 

Gwen Shaw has just liberated wives of unsaved husbands from submitting to their husbands, as well as respecting and loving them. Yet Love, the Law of the Angels purports to be a book about “LOVE”!  Shaw preaches passionately about loving everybody, even the worst sinners, even one’s enemies… everyone except husbands, that is. Unsaved husbands are lumped together with “husbands who are wrong” (in their wives’ view) as domineering and cruel, and therefore unworthy of their wives’ submission. According to Gwen Shaw, God’s commandment applies only to wives of husbands in whom she can “see God”. But what does God have to say on the subject?

 

“Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives;” (I Pet. 3:1)

 

“Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.” (Eph. 5:33)

 

“That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children…” (Titus 2:4)   

 

SPIRITUAL TRIBES OF ISRAEL

 

Another book authored by Gwen Shaw is The Tribes of Israel. The website promo for this book reads: “This popular and well-loved study on the thirteen tribes of Israel will show you your place in the spiritual tribes in these last days. Better understand yourself and others through the study of this Bible Course.” ETH&S is also obsessed with Israel and the Jewish feasts, sponsoring tours of Israel each year on the Feast of Tabernacles and even maintaining a branch in Jerusalem called the House of Peace. Of interest, Gwen Shaw’s maiden name was “Bergman,” a Jewish surname. 

 

Former Mormon Jane Bleth has provided the following elaboration on the Mormon doctrine. Like the ETH&S and many cults, Mormonism has a Jewish character:

    “The Mormon church is very ‘Jewish’.  Mormon people are told they are descended from the tribe of Ephraim (sometimes Manessah) when they get their ‘patriarchal blessing.’  This blessing is given by the Stake Patriarch to all worthy members (14 and over?).  It is a personal prophesy sort of thing for that individual.  Mormons consider themselves to be ‘Zion.’  Here’s some information I found on the net regarding Mormon Zionism... In their Articles of Faith, they state that they believe in the gathering of Israel on the American Continent.

“‘In the last days, Ephraim’s descendants have the privilege and responsibility to bear the message of the restoration of the gospel to the world and to gather scattered Israel (D&C 113:3-6).’ We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent’ (A of F 10; cf. Deut. 4:27-31; 28; 29; 30; 3 Ne. 20-21). The keys of gathering Israel were committed to the Prophet Joseph Smith by Moses on April 3, 1836, in the Kirtland Temple (D&C 110:11). Many of Ephraim’s descendants are being gathered first, for they have the responsibility of preparing the way for the gathering of the other tribes (D&C 113). ‘And they [others of the tribes of Israel] shall bring forth their rich treasures unto the children of Ephraim, my servants and there shall they fall down and be crowned with glory, even in Zion, by the hands of the servants of the Lord, even the children of Ephraim, and they shall be filled with songs of everlasting joy’ (D&C 133:30-33; see also Israel: Gathering of Israel).

“One of the tools to be used in the gathering is the Book of Mormon, also known among Latter-day Saints as the stick of Joseph or the stick of Ephraim (Ezek. 37:15-19; 2 Ne. 3:12; D&C 27:5). It is to play an important part in convincing Lamanites, Jews, and Gentiles that Jesus is the messiah and that God does remember his covenant people (See Book of Mormon: Title Page).

“For Latter-day Saints, identification of a person's lineage in latter-day Covenant Israel is made under the hands of inspired Patriarchs through patriarchal blessings that declare lineage. Elder John A. Widtsoe, an Apostle, declared, ‘In giving a blessing the patriarch may declare our lineage, that is, that we are of Israel, therefore of the family of Abraham, and of a specific tribe of Jacob. In the great majority of cases, Latter-day Saints are of the tribe of Ephraim, the tribe to which has been committed the leadership of the Latter-day work. Whether this lineage is of blood or adoption it does not matter.’ (p. 73; cf. Abr. 2:10).

“The patriarchal blessings of most Latter-day Saints indicate that they are literal, blood descendants of Abraham and of Israel. Those who are not literal descendants are adopted into the family of Abraham when they receive baptism and confirmation (see Law of Adoption). They are then entitled to all the rights and privileges of heirs (TPJS, pp. 149-50). This doctrine of adoption was understood by ancient prophets and apostles (e.g., Rom. 11; 1 Ne. 10:14; Jacob 5; cf. D&C 84:33-34).” (Ephraim)

“And yes, the Book of Mormon is supposed to be the ancient record of the American Indians who are descended from a family of Jews who crossed to this land around 600 BC. The father was Lehi who had four sons. Their descendents separated into two tribes...one good and one bad. The bad were cursed with a copper skin, known as Lamanites after the son named Laman. The white skinned ones were Nephites......one of whom was Mormon and his son Moroni. Moroni was the ‘angel’ that appeared to Joseph Smith and showed him where the golden plates were buried with the ancient record of the Nephites.”

DNA testing has recently proven that the Native Americans could not possibly have descended from Israelites but most likely migrated from East Asia. Dr. Simon Southerton, a DNA researcher from Australia, has published these findings in a book titled Losing a Lost Tribe: Native Americans, DNA and the Mormon Church." Also a very well done video is available at Living Hope Ministries which, based on DNA and other compelling evidence, exposes the false teachings of Joseph Smith and Mormon holy books as fraudulent.

Of course the Mormon leadership is saying the DNA evidence is mere speculation. However, cult-watch groups believe that “DNA is the Achilles Heel of Mormonism. When the contents of this website break nationally we hope Mormonism will fall.” What could have been the motive of Joseph Smith for fabricating a Jewish ancestry for Native Americans?  Jane Bleth continues:

    “I seem to recall something about Joseph Smith having Jewish ancestry… He certainly looks Jewish. I did find this very interesting page about Orson Hyde. He was one of the original 12 apostles under Joseph Smith. He was Jewish and made a trip to Jerusalem in the 1830s to dedicate the restoration of Israel to the Jews. There are some prophecies recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants (one of the church’s books of sacred scriptures on par with Book of Mormon) by Joseph Smith regarding Zionism...

“‘In 1823 only a handful of Jews lived in Palestine, and those who did had no rights under Turkish rule. The roots of Zionism in the Jewish communities of Europe were barely stirring and the thought of Jews gathering at all was virtually unheard of let alone a return of the Jews to the Land of Palestine. But from that very time on, the spiritual stirrings of the Zionist movement began in earnest.  God was about to give to special ‘keys’ to modern prophets as he had done with ancient ones; ‘keys’ to move the nations.  In 1831, only a year after the Church was organized by Joseph Smith, another young man with a prophetic call by the name of Orson Hyde, age 26, of Jewish ancestry, was confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by the Prophet Joseph.  When Joseph laid his hands on the head of Orson Hyde he gave him a unique blessing where in he prophesied the following:

“In due time thou shalt go to Jerusalem, the land of they fathers, and be a watchman unto the House of Israel; and by thy hands shall the Most High do a great work, which shall prepare the way and greatly facilitate the gathering of that People.” (Barrett; Joseph Smith and the Restoration p 469.)

So now we see the seeds of Zionism in the founding of Mormonism. And Smith along with his “twelve apostles” reviving the ancient Kabbalah, the religion of apostate Jewry, on the American continent, the New World:

 

“What is clear is that Smith and his apostles restated what Moshe Idel, our great living scholar of Kabbalah, persuades me was the archaic or original Jewish religion… My observation certainly does find enormous validity in Smith’s imaginative recapture of crucial elements, elements evaded by normative Judaism and by the Church after it. The God of Joseph Smith is a daring revival of the God of some of the Kabbalists and Gnostics, prophetic sages who, like Smith himself, asserted that they had returned to the true religion... Either there was a more direct Kabbalistic influence upon Smith than we know, or, far more likely, his genius reinvented Kabbalah in the effort necessary to restore archaic Judaism.” (Harold Bloom, The American Religion, NY: Simon & Shuster, 1992), pp. 99, 105)

 

GWEN SHAW’S MORMON MENTOR

 

Many of Gwen Shaw’s false teachings are doctrines of the Mormon Church. The divinity of man, the pre-existence of souls, the tribes of Israel and revelations from angels are all standard Mormon fare. Former ETH&S member, Mark Scheiderer, was told at Engeltal, the ETH&S headquarters in Jasper, Arkansas, that the books of Mormon mystic, Annalee Skarin, ministered to Shaw following her divorce in 1970. Mrs. Shaw told Mark personally that her book, Love, the Law of the Angels was based on Skarin’s writings.

 

“I was told Mrs. Shaw had read all of Skarin’s writings and that her book Love, The Law of the Angels was based on them. Less than a year later, Mrs. Shaw affirmed to me that this was true. She also stated that when she first started incorporating them into her teaching in the early 1970’s that many people (who had heard Annalee Skarin speak) said that Mrs. Shaw sounded a lot like her. The writings of Annalee Skarin (available through DeVorss Publishing Co., ‘Metaphysical Capital of the World,’ Marina Del Rey, California) are theosophical and also incorporate verses from Mormon writings, the Hindu Vedas, and the Bible. Mrs. Skarin wrote 9 books, one of which was written under the pen name of Christine Mercie. After her first book, Ye Are Gods, was written in 1952, it is claimed that she (and later her husband, Reason) received her glorified body and since then she has been able to travel unhindered by ‘mortal boundaries’ and limitations.

“Mrs. Shaw told me that she had sold Mrs. Skarin’s books to a small number of people. She said she was very careful about whom she introduced these books to, since, in her words, ‘not all people can handle the deeper truths.’ On her tape, ‘Share My Burden,’ Mrs. Shaw mentions a book she was reading in bed. She claims that God told her as she read that He ‘did not intend for anybody to go through this life alone.’ She told me personally that the book she was reading was one by Mrs. Skarin. I realize now the unlikelihood that it was really God that spoke to her as she read. Mrs. Shaw also told me that The Law of the Angels is based on the writings of Mrs. Skarin, particularly the book ‘Ye Are Gods.’ The title itself is also the name of a chapter from Mrs. Skarin’s book Man Triumphant.’ (Gary Peattie of DeVorss, on May 20, 2001, verified that Shaw had indeed plagiarized from Skarin.)

“Two other books by Mrs. Shaw in which the titles of Mrs. Skarin's books appear are: Pour Out Your Heart, in which the phrase ‘beyond mortal boundaries’ occurs, and Daily Preparations for Perfection in which the phrase ‘secrets of eternity’ occurs. I have never read all of Mrs. Shaw’s books, but I am sure that there are many other phrases from Mrs. Skarin’s books incorporated into her books. Ex-Mormons who are now Christians have said that Mrs. Shaw's writings contain Mormon doctrine. No doubt many people who are currently Mormons would agree as some of Mrs. Shaw's books are sold in Salt Lake City.”

 

Love, the Law of the Angels is strikingly similar in subject matter and tenor to Ye Are Gods, not to mention the doctrinal content. There are so many passages that parallel each other in wording or concepts that it’s entirely conceivable that Shaw lifted Skarin’s themes and belief system for her own book. The following are just a few examples of parallel passages:

 

Love is the theme song of the universe

 

Annalee Skarin: “And love is the theme song of the universe… It is the melody of heaven… Love is that melody that will vibrate across the entire universe... Love is the divine symphony of eternity.” (Annalee Skarin, Ye Are Gods, pp. 177, 180)

 

Gwen Shaw: “What is love? Love is the theme of the universe, the symphony of heaven, the inspiration of life, the power of creation, the life of all we see and know…” (Love, the Law of the Angels, p.2)

 

“The Light” created all light

 

Annalee Skarin: “Light is life, and life is intelligence, or Spirit. It is energy. It is motion and activity—and it is the power of God. By it and OF it all things were created—the universe—the stars—the worlds—and mankind. …The Light of Truth…IS THE LIGHT OF CHRIST… The light which is in all things, which giveth life to all things, which is that law by which all things are governed, EVEN THE POWER OF GOD, who sitteth on the throne…” (Ye Are Gods, p. 198)

 

Gwen Shaw: “The glory of God is the Light of God and it was through this demonstration that all life began to exist… THE GLORY OF GOD IS THE LIGHT… Without light there could be no life…the two great attributes of God—LIGHT AND TRUTH…Truth is in the Light.” (Love the Law of the Angels, pp. 134-7)

 

Matter/blood is “congealed light”

 

Annalee Skarin: “The scientist has discovered that the atom is composed of pure energy. As they continue in their search they will learn that energy is light, and light is spirit…All spirit or energy is matter in a more refined degree than is registered on mortal senses. And all matter is spirit, or energy, or light. Matter, as we understand it, is congealed or condensed in its vibrations into tangible form so that mortals are aware of it.” (Ye Are Gods, p. 64, 67)

 

Gwen Shaw: “Scientists lately have been making an extensive study about blood because they saw there is something peculiar and supernatural about blood. They have come to this conclusion: that blood is congealed light. It is light that has become solidified… Light that has mystically become congealed.” (Love the Law of the Angels, p. 106)

 

“Inner Vibrations” are from God

 

Annalee Skarin: “…VIBRATION IS LIFE. The place of vibration is the center of life in each human being… Vibration is the eternal, actual substance of existence… When one feels that throbbing vibration of joyous ecstasy within he may begin to comprehend that it is the Light of Christ coming forth into activity.” (Ye Are Gods, pp. 69, 146, 298)

 

Gwen Shaw: “Love is devotion, loyalty, tenderness and attachment of the heart, mind and soul of one person for another. It is feeling in one’s being the vibrations of the Holy Trinity, for it comes from the Holy Trinity… (Romans 5:5)” (Love, the Law of the Angels, p. 207)

 

“Unwritten Laws” are “higher laws”

 

Annalee Skarin: ‘Below are listed some of the unwritten laws that should be understood in order to perfect the earth and create vibrations that will glorify a world… Only by applying the higher laws can man hope to can man hope to escape…the wickedness that has been planted on the earth. These deeper unwritten laws must begin to find a place in our life… The very power of the heart, soul and mind, united in…overwhelming love of devotion…fulfills all the laws, opening wide the doors to all light, all power all perfection.” (Ye Are Gods, pp. 149-50)

 

Gwen Shaw: “Love is the fulfilling of ALL the laws, even the unwritten ones, the law of the heart, the law that the saints and angels keep, the law of heaven…” (Love the Law of the Angels, p. 6)

 

“New Eves” will redeem mankind

 

Annalee Skarin: “And since it was a woman who brought darkness into the world a woman will have to assist in rending that veil of darkness.” (Ye Are Gods, p. 293)

 

Gwen Shaw: “God is going to begin to show His glory to Eve’s children… That is the reason God is using us handmaidens. Somehow God is going to allow us to make up for our mother’s failure…the highest call which lies on each one of you ‘Eves’ is to…bring forth the sons of God in this generation, for God promised Eve that her seed would bruise the serpent’s head. [Jesus, not ‘sons of God’] Let us travail that the sons of god will be born in this generation; for when we shall come forth, then our redemption will be complete.” (Love, the Law of the Angels, pp. 111-12)

 

“Angel apparitions” evidence of Holy Spirit filling

 

Annalee Skarin: “Or have angels ceased to appear unto the children of men? Or has he withheld the power of the Holy Ghost from them?... for it is by faith that miracles are wrought; and it is by faith that angels appear and minister unto men…” (Moroni)

“For no man has seen God at any time in the flesh, except quickened by the Spirit of God.” (Mormon Doctrines & Covenants)

“Therefore it is quite necessary that one lift his vision to begin to embrace the spiritual conception of existence. After this complete purification the promise is given that the veil will be rent and then man, being ‘quickened’ or ‘spiritualized’ by his higher concept of though, in tune with the Holy Spirit, will be able to see God…” (Ye Are Gods, pp. 105, 118-19, 138, 293)

 

Gwen Shaw: “There is a ‘veil’ between our eyes and the spirit world. ...now and then when God lifts that ban and we are able to see what we call visions. It is then that we can see angels, demons, the saints, our heavenly home, the agony of hell and Jesus our Lord…

“Could it be that the quickening we receive through the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a part of that glorious millennium-enlightenment that we are awaiting? I believe it is. This is also the reason why many when they are filled with the Holy Spirit see visions…On the mission field I have seen the mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Children were taken into the heavenlies. They saw angels, talked with Jesus and visited their heavenly mansions. The true visitations from God will be so dynamic that it will shatter our previous reservations and traditions which have blinded, deafened and dulled our spiritual understanding.” (Love, the Law of the Angels, p.145)

 

CONCLUSION

 

I trust the reader has noted the many remarkable similarities between the teachings of Gwen Shaw and Mormon doctrines. However, Mrs. Shaw’s teachings are beyond Mormonism. With doctrines that correspond to Blavatsky’s “secret doctrine” and Jewish Kabbalism, we are amid full-blown Gnostic occultism with all of its damnable heresies and abominable practices. 

 

Gnosticism is not a dead heresy, nor is it the exclusive province of New Age cults and pagan religions. It has always been a stealth operation within the Christian Church, and deadly not only for its poisonous teachings but because it goes unrecognized and therefore unchallenged. In our own day of apostasy, the heresy of Gnosticism is almost never exposed from the pulpit. In many pulpits, Gnosticism is even preached. Likewise, the subject of Occultism is scarcely ever broached, although its practices are expressly forbidden in Deuteronomy 18 and elsewhere in Scripture. Truly, God’s people perish for a lack of knowledge.

 

The apostle Paul warned that purveyors of false doctrines would present a pleasing outward appearance, and even appear as ministers of righteousness:

 

“For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness…” (II Cor. 11:13-15)

 

In light of this warning, and others in the New Testament, the Christian must learn to be impersonally objective in evaluating spiritual leaders. Emotional attachments, to a leader or group, often get in the way of critical analysis. In fact, criticism is usually preempted by Satan’s emissaries who warn their followers, “Touch not the Lord’s anointed, and do my prophets no harm” or similar veiled threats of God’s judgment. Although I Chronicles 16:22 does not apply to false teachers and false prophets, this verse is often exploited by them to prevent examination and critique of their works and teachings.

 

In contrast, true servants of God will exhort their students to critically examine all works and teachings, as Paul advised the Thessalonians: “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.” (1 Thess. 5:21) 

 

Paul also commanded Christians to separate from those who teach heresy.

 

“A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject; Knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself.” (Titus 3:5-6)

 

“Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.” (II John 1:9-11)

 

In exposing the infiltration of New Age occultism into the Church, we have often heard the rationalization, “Well, God can use evil to accomplish good...” or some variation on that theme. However, Jesus warned His disciples that the fruit of false teachers and prophets is always evil, and never good.   

 

“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?  Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.” (Matt. 7:15-18)

 

 

PROFILE OF GWEN SHAW

ETH-S *ANOINTED YOUTH RETREAT*

Testimony of a Former End-Time Handmaiden