Kabbalism is enjoying a resurgence of popularity and has chiefly ridden on a wave of interest in the occult that started about 40 years ago. Kabbalism - whether 'Jewish', 'Christian', or 'Messianic Jewish', is not, however, what it appears to be.
Although kabbalism claims to contain the hidden mystical truths to the Torah and to have originated in the days of Abraham, in truth it is of modern provenance and was developped by mediaeval Jewish rabbis who dabbled in the occult. Like all dangerous counterfeit religion, it combines deep biblical truth (the hook) with raw occultism (the poison). And many a believer has been spiritually shipwrecked by kabbalism believing he could discern and separate genuine truths from the satanic lies.
You will find that most kabbalists "in the know" believe in reincarnation, reject all notions of the necessity of blood sacrifice to atone for sin, and are actually pantheists. They do not believe in a personal God though they happily use the Divine Names to invoke unseen powers in the same way as occultists generally use names, or permutations of names, for meditation purposes. Yahweh is regarded as simply an "emanation", along with mankind and the whole of creation, emanations taking place on different spiritual planes. Like all occultists, they believe not in a literal physical resurrection but in a "spiritual" one.
Kabbalism is a man-centred religion and like the early Utah Mormons kabbailists believe that Adam (called by them Adam Kadmon) is God. Mormonism was heavily influenced by kabbalism and by freemasonry - in my earlier association with freemasons I discovered that kabbalism was very popular amongst them. Kabbalism is also very popular amongst Wiccans (nature/goddess-worshippers) and Satanists. I peronally have known some quite influential kabbalists, including one who pretended to be a Christian but who revealed in the end that Christianity was just an outer "shell" to lure believers into the raw occult. Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, was one such man.
Kabbalism strongly influences Orthodox Talmudic/Rabbinical Judaism and as a result it spirit permeates right through Talmudism. A great many Messianic Jews are seduced by this occult art which they attempt to syncretise with their Messianic faith. Kabbalism is a form of Gnosticism which teaches that salvation is through knowledge. Kabbalism, like Buddhism and the occultic religions, is a quest to know self; and through knowing self, it is believed they will come to know God, because God is self. And that, incidentally, is the heart of satanism - the worship of (the imperfect) self (#6) as God (#666). Not surprisingly, therefore, in Christian/Messianic Kabbalism one of the chief sephiroth known as Tiphereth ('Beauty') has been mutated into "Christ"/"Messiah". The Christ, they teach (in common with all New Agers, is "within" and the quest is to realise the Christ-self. In kabbalism, as in all New Age dogma, man is Christ and God waiting to be manifest.
The problem with kabbalism is not its many mystical biblical insights but the fact that the system of interpetation is externally imposed on the Bible - it is not derived from the Bible itself even though kabbalists have worked hard to make it appear that way. The kabbalist "bible" is not, in fact, the Holy Bible, but a document purporting to have been written by Abraham himself called the Sepher Yetsira.
The Kabbala effortlessly embraces all occult arts from astrology to tarot because it is, at heart, an occult art itself. It does not consider the chief biblical books which it utilises (Genesis and the Song of Songs) as history at all but simply as parables. Most Kabbalists do not believe that any of the characters in Genesis earlier than Abraham had any objective, historical existence. Genesis is, they claim, an occult code ... or at least that is what they have made it into.
Kabbalism, because it is occultic, is extremely subjective, and there are nearly as many schools as there are kabbalist teachers. Like all forms of divination, such as Tarot reading, what is important (for occultists) is not the medium but the spirit that lies behind it. All occult arts employ demon guides. Whether it be Tarot cards, crystal-ball gazing, tea leaves, gut entrails, I-Ching, palm-reading or kabbalism, the core is always extra-perceptionary and little related to the exoteric (external) media. Nearly all occultism involves placing the medium into a trance and causing him to empty himself so that demonic entities can take control.
Just because an art is sophisticated doesn't make it true. And kabbalism is full of complex 'knowledge' which may appeal to the scientifically-minded spiritualist.
One Jewish kabbalist teacher said: "The whole story of the Jews is a projection of the Qabala on the world scene as understood by anonymous initiates." Whereas Yahweh declares His teaching to be His own, and Yah'shua that His is His Father's, the kabbalist originators remain concealed from view like the directors of the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society of Brooklyn, New York (the Jehovah's Witness' controlling body). And that is typical of how Satan works. Almost every book of the Bible bears the name of its authors, showing accountability.
Gentile Christians especially, because of the high esteem in which they hold all things Jewish, are mesmerised by anything to do with the Hebrew language or things Jewish. Just because kabbalah arose out of a Jewish milieu doesn't make it inspired. The Hebrews produced volumes of bogus pseudepigraphical literature claiming to be of Yahweh, and indeed many Messianic Jews are all too eager to avail themselves of these books, despite their demonstrable errors, not to mention the Talmudic literature.
Kabbalism is a large subject to be sure and one can spend a lifetime studying it. The point is - is it worth it? In my estimation, almost certainly not.
