The word Theosophy is compounded of two Greek words, Theos, God, and sophia, wisdom; and is intended to describe a teaching which professes to bring the soul into touch with God.
It is a very pertinent inquiry as to who is the promulgator of this system. God presents His truth through clean and holy channels, through vessels meet for His use. Who would drink water out of a filthy cup? We cannot dissociate a system from its founder, and so to inquire into the character of the founder of this society is reasonable and just. We will deal with facts. If Theosophy is of God we cannot afford to be without it; if it is not of God, it is of the devil, and the wider berth we can give it the better.
Bible teaching at once would lead us to suspect a system of religion begun and headed by a woman. Seventh Day Adventism was begun by Mrs. White, a neurotic woman, subject to cataleptic seizures; Christian Science by Mrs. Eddy, a woman likewise subject to cataleptic seizures, and in her early days, a spiritist to boot. Theosophy was begun by a woman, Madame Helena Petrova Blavatsky, a spiritist medium born at Ekaterinoslow, South Russia, in 1831.
The Modern English Biography (F. Boase) tells us that she married General Blavatsky, an aged man nearer seventy than sixty years old, when only seventeen years old, but that she deserted him three months after marriage. As the Russian law does not allow divorce, she led a Bohemian life, marrying again when forty-nine years old, a mere boy of sixteen, who went mad the day after marriage. She kept a gambling hell in Tiflis in 1863.
Between October, 1848, and May, 1857, Madame Blavatsky professed to have visited Tibet and to have learned the secret of the Mahatmas, said by her to be reincarnated beings evolved through many generations to a high spiritual state, and who, she affirms, were able to precipitate messages from their inaccessible Tibetan homes to their affinities in New York, London, etc.
Their importance in this system may be gauged by the fact that Mrs. Besant, who became a high priestess of Theosophy, admits, " If there are no Mahatmas the Theosophical Society is an absurdity " (Lucifer, Dec. 15th, 1890).
In 1871 Madame Blavatsky set up a spiritist society in Cairo. There she got into trouble for tricking the public and fleecing them of their money by deception. Note, this is fourteen years after she professed to come from Tibet with the Mahatmas' religion. Why, we may ask, did she not bring out Theosophy at once? The fact is it was not the subject of revelation but of laborious growth. She is stated to have practiced spiritism from 1863 to 1875.
She founded the Theosophical Society in New York in 1875. Col. Olcott, connected with the American Army, was associated with the Society in its inception, and in time became its President, but was eventually driven out of the Society. On the death of Madame Blavatsky, Wm. Q. Judge, of New York, claimed the leadership of the Society. It split into two, if not three separate societies, each one contending that the original afflatus of its founder had descended upon it exclusively.
In 1884 the Psychical Research Society sent a gentleman named Hodgson to India to inquire into Theosophy. He published a report accusing Madame Blavatsky of trickery.
Mr. Coleman affirmed that he found in Madame Blavatsky's great book on Theosophy, Isis Unveiled, no less than two thousand plagiarisms culled from over one hundred volumes.
Experts have declared that the letters Madame Blavatsky affirmed she received from the two Mahatmas she introduced into her system, and those of Madame Blavatsky herself, where in the same handwriting, and trickery was discovered in the cabinets in which these supposed Mahatmas' letters were deposited.
In 1887 Madame Blavatsky came to London, and in 1891 died and was cremated at Woking.
In appearance she was masculine, of violent temper, and would express herself in language that would defile our pages to repeat. She incessantly smoked cigarettes, and was found guilty of trickery and lying.
Mrs. Besant, ex-infidel and ex-socialist, was her greatest convert. Attired in flowing white robes of Theosophic design, an eloquent speaker, Mrs. Besant drew crowds in the largest halls in London.
The Society has hundreds of branches throughout the world, its London Temple alone costing £50,000.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica (11th ed.) tells us that Theosophy was founded in order -
1. To establish a nucleus of the universal brotherhood of humanity.
2. To promote the study of comparative religion and philosophy.
3. To make a systematic investigation into the mystic potentialities of life and matter, or what is usually termed " occultism."
The Theosophist's theory of universal brotherhood is based upon a mystical conception of " the One Life,"—an idea derived from and common to various forms of Eastern thought, Vedic and Buddhist.
They have selected from various sources—Vedic, Buddhist, Greek, and Cabalistic—certain extracts for the purpose of exposition and illustration.
Theosophy is an attempt to popularize Buddhism in Western lands, and behind this it is Satanic, enthralling and enslaving its dupes.
One word will explain it. Mrs. Besant, in a Daily Chronicle interview (April 9th, 1894), states -
" I confined myself to the Hindu scriptures, and in all cases I stated that I regarded these scriptures and the Hindu religion as the origin of all the scriptures and all the religions. This was the position learned from Madame Blavatsky, and which I have held since I joined the Theosophical Society."
This means that the Bible and the religion it teaches are derived from the Hindu sacred writings. The fact is the two cases no more blend than oil and water. Mrs. Besant's statement is the height of absurdity.
Arthur Lille writes:-
" Theosophy proclaims that at death the individual becomes practically two individuals, one of which takes off all the good qualities to the ' rosy slumber ' of Devachan or Paradise. The second, with all its bad qualities, remains on the earth plane, attends séances, deceives spiritualists, and is by and by annihilated. By the first, perfection, even with an atrocious murderer, is obtained at the second of death, a perfection greater than that of the Angel Gabriel, for the smallest blemish will be removed. By the second, Paul will be 1,200,000 years obtaining perfection."
And that perfection is-ANNIHILATION. The Theosophist is at least candid when it says:-
" We do not at all deny the charge of Atheism, the word being used in the ordinary theistic sense " (Sept., 1882).
How far the Bible is derived from the Hindu religion may be seen when it is stated that Theosophy denies the Father, Son and Holy Ghost; scouts the idea of the precious atoning work of Christ; refuses salvation by grace, and makes it a matter of attainment and works; that in Christian lands it propagates heathenism, allowing its teachers to uphold the use of Hindu idols; whilst in heathen lands it comes out boldly in its true colors and ridicules Christianity. Verily there is no truce between God and Satan.
Theosophy took the opportunity given by the widespread expectation of the Lord's personal return by the Christian community to proclaim " The Coming One," and instituted a Society, " The Order of the Star in the East," to enroll members to wait for him. Their "Coming One" was a young Theosophic Hindu and a Mahatma, by name Krishnamurti, the Lord Maitreza, in whose body they claimed the Buddha, their Christ, would be re-incarnated.
The father of Krishnamurti instituted law proceedings against Mrs. Besant, in order to obtain possession of his own son, who was a minor, and won his suit.
Since then the young man arrived at his majority, and set out in his travels. We quote from The Biblical Recorder, an Australian magazine: -
"A slim, nervous, young Hindu, whose name is Jiddu Krishnamurti, has arrived in New York City from India, writes the 'Presbyterian ' (Philadelphia). He comes claiming to be ' the successor of God and Jesus Christ,' the first messiah to visit America.' In his claims and relations he is the pupil and product of Mrs. Annie Besant, the head of the world Theosophist movement, with headquarters in India. The claims and teachings of this man and woman are shocking to the Christian convictions and feelings of America. It is another example of the extreme falsehood and destructive results with a return to heathenism and its ultimate pollution which this age may expect as a result of the present departure from the authority of the Bible as the Word of God and the only infallible rule of faith and practice. All this irreverence and blasphemy is the result of the self-thinking of these people, and the same centering of authority within the individual mind which is becoming so common in one form or another in our own land threatens a general breakdown of faith and righteousness. A call for active and open defense of the faith and the exposure of error and wrong was never greater in the history of the Church."
" There shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders: insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect " (Matt. 24:24).
I have before me a book, entitled Theosophy, by Rudolf Steiner, translated, with the permission of the author, from the third German edition. An extract or two from it will suffice to complete this brief article. This book is a standard work on the subject. It has 212 pages, and contains the name of God twice and death a few times, a phenomenon that cannot well be ignored. The names-Lord Jesus Christ-are never once mentioned, either singly or collectively; the Holy Spirit is never mentioned, nor is SIN once alluded to. It is a pitiable system that cannot grapple with the question of sin and all that it means.
Theosophy professes to have discovered seven parts of the earthly man. For sheer twaddle commend me to Mr. Steiner's list.
" The expressions used in theosophical literature are as follows:-
1. Physical Body (Sthula Sharira).
2. Ether or life-body (Zinga Sharira).
3. Sentient-soul body (Astral Body, Kama Rupa).
4. Intellectual-soul (Lower Manas, Kama Manas).
5. Spirit-filled consciousness-soul (Higher Manas).
6. Life-spirit (Spiritual-body, Budhi).
7. Spirit-man (Atma)." (PAGE 53).
Then again he tells us:- "One has to distinguish between three lower and three higher regions of the soul world. These are linked by a fourth, so that there results the following division of the soul world:
1. Region of Burning Desires.
2. Flowing Excitability.
3. Wishes.
4. Attraction and Repulsion.
5. Soul Light.
6. Active Soul Force.
7. Soul Life."
Upon what evidence or proof is this house of cards, this juggling with words, this Satanic delusion, based? Hear the naiveté of our author:-
" It might be said, in objection to what has been stated before, that it is pure spinning of thoughts, and such external proof might be demanded as one is accustomed to in' ordinary natural science. The reply to this is that the re-embodiment of the spirit-human being is, naturally, a process which does not belong to the region of external physical facts, but is one that takes place entirely in the spiritual region. And to this region no other of our ORDINARY powers of intelligence has entrance save that of THINKING." (PAGE 66).
In other words, to learn Theosophy the poor dupe will have to resign himself to THINKING THOUGHTS presented to him, however fantastic and without any proof, and once the victim surrenders his individuality and will, and submits to be plastic clay in the hands of an unknown potter, it is only to be sport in the hands of demoniacal Spiritism with an Eastern color.
Certain words familiar in Spiritism are used, such as " spirit land," " human aura," etc.
Steiner tells us that color tones enable the theosophist to compare the " aura " or astral body—a sort of spook or ghost. He says:- " The color effects which the ' spiritual eye ' can perceive raying out round the physical man and enveloping him like a cloud (somewhat egg-shaped) are called the HUMAN aura. The size of this aura differs in different people. But one can form an idea of it by picturing that the WHOLE man is in the average twice as long and four times as broad as the physical man." (PAGE 169).
With unconscious humor he gravely tells us:- " One can notice that as intelligence increases the green tones become more and more abundant." (PAGE 170).
With this we quite agree. The full-blown theosophist must be decidedly green to believe all this nonsense. We are told that knowledge shows itself in yellow tones, so that the highly informed man must look as if he had a bad attack of jaundice. Sensual thoughts express themselves in red tones, unselfish love in " glorious rose-pink." An inventor who applies his thought to the satisfaction of his sensual passions shows " dark blue-red shades," whilst the inventor who applies his thoughts to the service of an interest outside of himself shows " light reddish blue color tones." The difference appears to us to be between tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum.
Much more of this childish folly could be enumerated, but we forbear.
The reading of the book leaves one utterly unconvinced, and with a firm conviction that Theosophy is but a snare of the devil. How any sensible person could be gulled by such nonsense can only be explained by the crafty way in which souls may be ensnared in Satan's toils. Mrs. Besant, who found it impossible to believe the Bible, was able to swallow wholesale and without difficulty this lie of the devil.
We believe the great safeguard of the Christian today is the study, persistent and prayerful, of the Word of God. To bring Theosophy to the test of the Scriptures is like flinging straw soaked with petroleum into the fire -. it is soon destroyed.
May God use this brief warning against this subtlety of Satan to, deliver many who are already ensnared.
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