We
humans know that we could be much more than we ordinarily are. But what is
this? What potential do we have that we could develop more fully? And who could
tell us what this potential is? There is a body of knowledge that answers
these questions. It provides theory, practice, and techniques that enable us to
free ourselves from the limitations of ordinary life and achieve greater
happiness, wisdom, and peace.
This
knowledge has gone by many names: the Ancient Wisdom, the perennial philosophy,
the wisdom tradition. Because it is universally true, it is found all over the
world, but it takes many different forms, depending upon the time and
circumstances and the people it is addressing.
One
version of this Ancient Wisdom in recent times is Theosophy.[1]
The name Theosophy
derives from two Greek words. Theos meaning ‘god’ and Sophia meaning wisdom, so
Theosophy literally means ‘divine wisdom’. It is an eclectic mix of beliefs
drawn from philosophy, mysticism, and various religions. It could rightly be
said to be a form of ancient Gnosticism.
The founders of this
movement were a Russian spiritualist, Helena Blavatsky and two American
devotees Henry Steel Olcott and W.Q. Judge. Though seen by many as an occultic
fraud, Theosophical adherents believe Blavatsky’s writings to be key to
understanding and practicing the religion.
Helena
Petrovna was born in Russia in the early 1830s. Whilst in her teens she married
a man named N.B. Blavatsky, who was a military general. Within two months she
deserted him, spending the next twenty-five years travelling and studying
various philosophies. At one point she became a channeler for a spirit-guide
who called himself King John.
Helena
Petrovna once described as the ‘immensely fat, often foul-mouthed Madame
Blavatsky’[2],
founded The Theosophical Society of New York in 1875. She taught that there is an ancient and
secretive brotherhood of spiritual adepts known as the Masters, who—although
found across the world—are centred in Tibet.
These
Masters are believed to have developed great wisdom and supernatural powers,
and Theosophists believe that it was they who initiated the modern Theosophical
movement through disseminating their teachings via Blavatsky. They believe that
these Masters are attempting to revive knowledge of an ancient religion once
found across the world and which will again come to eclipse the existing world
religions.[3]
As we have done with
previous articles on the Jesus of the Cults, we will consider what Theosophy’s
response might be to Jesus’ question: Who do you say that I am? Here is a brief
outline of what this group believes.
God
Like other Gnostic
and Mind Science groups, Theosophy has a pantheistic view of God, speaking of
Him in impersonal terms. This means they would not use the pronoun ‘Him’, as I
have just done, neither are they keen to use the term 'God':
“Theosophy
objects to the masculine pronoun used in connection with the Self-existent Cause,
or Deity. It says IT – inasmuch as that “cause” the rootless root of
all – is neither male, female, nor anything to which an attribute – something
always conditioned, finite, and limited – can be applied.”[4]
“…the
term “God” is generally rejected in Theosophy – as is any notion of an
anthropomorphic, personal, or semi-personal God – but that the Divine Itself is
never denied but insistently and emphatically affirmed to be the One and Only
Reality, the One Life everywhere and in everything, and the True Self of each
and all.”[5]
In Theosophy God is
not personal, but rather an unknowable principle.
Jesus
Theosophy denies the
deity, and unique position as Saviour, of Jesus Christ:
“Most
readers will probably agree that a world teacher known as the Christ did come,
and that he founded a religion 2,000 years ago. Why do they think so? They
reply that God so loved the world that he sent his son the Christ to bring it
light and life. If that is true, how can we avoid the conclusion that he or his
predecessors, must have come many times before. The belief that he came but
once is consistent only with the erroneous notion that Genesis is history,
instead of allegory…when a new era in human evolution begins, a world teacher
comes in a voluntary incarnation and founds a new religion that is suited to
the requirements of a new age.”[6]
This quote shows that
Theosophy is religiously pluralistic and syncretistic. They teach that Jesus is
only one of many incarnations demonstrating the God-principle. In fact, they go
even further by maintaining that the Jesus of mainstream Christianity never
even existed. Madame Blavatsky said:
“Jesus
Christ, i.e., the Man-God of the Christians, copied from the Avatars of every
country, from the Hindu Krishna as well as the Egyptian Horus, was never a
historical person. He is a deified personification of the glorified type of the
great Hierophants of the Temples, and his story, as told in the New Testament,
is an allegory, assuredly containing profound esoteric truths, but still an
allegory.”[7]
Blavatsky taught that
Jesus was a philosopher and a moral reformer, a great teacher with the ability
to heal and exorcise demons.[8]
Gnostic cults are fond
of separating Jesus and the Christ, teaching that Jesus is only a man and the
Christ to be the divine consciousness within him. Theosophy believes that every
human has, to a greater or lesser degree, this divine consciousness, sometimes
referred to as a divine spark, and so teach that all are ‘Christs’. This is not
what the Bible teaches. There we find that Jesus is uniquely the Christ, the
Messiah whose coming was prophesied in the Old Testament.
Salvation
Theosophy denies the
Biblical teaching of original sin and therefore teaches that there is no need
for salvation. Blavatsky denied that it is appointed for a man once to die and
after that judgement:[9]
"We believe in no hell or paradise as localities; in no objective
hell-fires and worms that never die, nor in any Jerusalems with streets paved
with sapphires and diamonds."[10]
She rather she taught the Hindu belief in karma and
reincarnation. Therefore, within the theology of Theosophy there is no need for
Christ’s substitutionary sacrifice for all sin.[11]
Theosophy
is more akin to the New Age Movement and not in any way compatible with
Christianity. The Jesus of Theosophy is not unique, not a Saviour, not the
Christ of Scripture. Therefore, Theosophy’s Jesus is false and cannot save.
[1] https://www.theosophical.org/about/theosophy
[2] Quoted in
Strange Gospels – Ruth Tucker (Marshall Pickering, 1991) p.322
[3] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theosophy
[4] (Helena Blavatsky,
“Theosophical Articles and Notes” p. 196-197)
[5] https://blavatskytheosophy.com/what-does-theosophy-say-about-god/
[6] Rogers,
L.W. – Elementary Theosophy. 6th Edition.
The Theosophical Press, 1956
[7] “Theosophy:
Some Rare Perspectives” p. 83-85
[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_and_Theosophy#God
[9] Hebrews 9:27
[10] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_and_Theosophy#CITEREFBlavatsky1889
[11] 1 John 2:2
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