Kabbalah, also spelled Kaballah, Qabalah, or Cabalah, developed between the 6th and 13th centuries among the Jews in Babylonia, Italy, Provence, and Spain. The word Kabbalah means "to receive" and refers to revelation from God received by Jews and passed to succeeding generations through oral tradition. The word was first used by mainstream Judaism but later came to refer to those who believed that only a select few were given the secret knowledge from God as to the "true" meaning of Scriptures. Kabbalah uses occult practices and is considered to be a cult.

Kabbalah closely resembles some of the beliefs held by the Greek Gnostics in that both groups believed that only a select few were given deeper understanding or knowledge. Also, Kabbalah teaches that “emanations” from God did the work of creation, denying that creation was a creative act directly from God (Genesis 1). With each descending emanation, the emanation became further away from God. The final emanation took the personal form of angels. This would be like God creating a lesser god, and that one then creating a lesser god, and this kept happening until the end result were angels. This directly contradicts God's revelation of Himself in the Bible. In the Bible, God teaches that He is both separate from all of His creation (Isaiah 55:8-9) and yet is directly accessible to those who come to Him through Jesus Christ (John 3:16).

Kabbalah does hold to the inspiration of Scripture, but does not seek the plain meaning of Scripture. The Kabbalah approach is mystical and very subjective, using such things as numerology to find "hidden" meaning. Through this method, almost any teaching that one desires could be "found" in Scripture. This goes against the very heart of communication. God provided Scripture that He might communicate with mankind and teach humanity about Himself. It is obvious that Scripture is meant to be taken at face value and not interpreted by some mystical means. This can be demonstrated by fulfilled prophecy. God said something would happen, and it happened as He said it would. The greatest example of this is the fulfillment of the prophecies concerning the first coming of Jesus Christ. There were hundreds of verses referring to His coming, and they were fulfilled literally (Isaiah 7:14; 9:6; Micah 5:2; Isaiah 53). This is why the Bible should be interpreted literally or normally.

Kabbalah even has a pantheistic characteristic. Pantheism is the idea that God and His creation are one. This of course is not what God has told us in the Bible. God created all that exists from nothing (ex nihilo in the Greek) (Genesis 1:1). Kabbalah says that creation is one of God's emanations, exhibiting the pantheistic quality of Kabbalah.

Kabbalah, like all false doctrine and religions, denies the deity of Christ and the necessity of faith in Him as the only means of salvation (John 14:6). Jesus is God in the flesh, and He came to die for the sins of all who would believe in Him. If an individual trusts in Christ—that He is God (John 1:1-3) and paid for sin (Romans 8:3)—then that person is forgiven and becomes a child of God (John 1:12).

Thanks Stephen, I have been wondering what all the fuss was about and you have explained it very clearly.

You are welcome

This Jewish mysticism practice is not christian at all

It is a form of gnostic thinking that there are hidden truths to be found beyond the scriptures of the Lord's Word

Anytime one seeks knowledge beyond the limitations that the Lord's has given ... this leads to the vulnerability of satanic manipulations

The devil wants to mislead and deceive

Advantage will be taken of those who dabble in such things and the warnings in scripture are very clear about this

One's salvation comes only by belief and faith in Jesus Christ who alone can and is willing to save for eternity

But one must focus on and adhere to this fundamental truth and never move from it

There is not any other way

And this truth is not hidden from those who seek it

There are forms of "christian" fronted cults [large and small] who border on the same type of teaching with regard to what they call knowing hidden "manna" of meanings gleaned from the scriptures

The cult leader teaches the membership that they alone can know the truth

That the leader has been given proprietary understanding and adds that he, or she, is the Lord's "prophet"

This step in the gnostic direction gives the cult leader an open road to fabricate falsehoods of their own making

They can purposely construe the scriptures to fit their stories .... especially to those who are not well versed in the overall knowledge of the Bible

This is why one must study the Lord's Word with His guidance alone .... especially in these last days

He said that false prophets and teachers would come saying that they are "christian" and at the same time would deceive many people

They are here in vast numbers

There is very little sound doctrine left and taught in "professing" christianity on the earth today

It's my understanding that Judaism was in fact mixed with the religions of Babylon during captivity to form Kabbalah...It's root is there..

Talk about falling away and giving up to your enemy...

I share that understanding. Some things are so obscure in their root; but some things are given widely or openly enough for us to know to steer clear. And Kabbalah is one to stay away from for sure. You know what too-and this takes no deep search; the Kabbalah is very similar to some of the Islamic teachings, it's weird. It's all the geometric stuff-which is part of the 'forbidden knowledge'. But think about this:

Kabba-mecca
Allah-muslim deity

Muslims go to mecca to worship that square thing called kabba and kabbalist worship the geometrical mystery square blah blah blah of whatever -see here:

Sure..Cause all the false religions have there root in the same thing..

Satan's tempting influences humans to create imaginary god's and related false religions

He then uses these as a cover for his purposes

He has managed to cause development of both monotheistic [like Judaism, pseudo-christian, and Islamic] and pagan [many gods] distractions