CONTENDING FOR FAITH

~ The Received Text ~

ONCE DELIVERED TO THE SAINTS

 

CHAPTER XX

 

CHRISTIAN ROSENCREUZ

PDF VERSION

Download Acrobat Reader FREE from Adobe.com.

 

 

 

It was during the Rosicrucian Enlightenment of the 17th century that the Rosicrucian Manifestos were published anonymously. These mysterious publications heralded a future “reformation of the whole wide world” to be inaugurated by the Fraternity of the Rosy Cross. First there appeared the Fama Fraternitatis of the Meritorious Order of the Rosy Cross (1614), followed by the Confession of the Rosicrucian Fraternity (1615) and, lastly, The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosencreutz (1616).  The first two manifestos were published anonymously. There is speculation that Francis Bacon was the author, however, the manifestos have historically been attributed to Johann Valentin Andreae who was a German theologian, Lutheran minister and Grand Master of the Prieuré de Sion from 1637-1654

 

According to three Rosicrucian Manifestos published early in the 17th century, “Christian Rosenkreuz” was the founder of the Rosicrucian Order or the Order of the Rose Cross. The first of these manifestos, the Fama Fraternitatis Rosae Crucis published in 1614 in Kassel, Germany, introduced the founder of the Rosicrucian Order only as “Frater C.R.C.” The Fama was followed the next year by the Confessio Fraternitatis and, the following year, The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz, published in Strasbourg, disclosed the founder’s name as Christian Rosenkreuz. The “legend” of Christian Rosenkreuz is summarized in the Rose Croix Journal: 

 

“The main part of the Fama related the life and death of Christian Rosenkreuz (‘Rosy Cross’), a mythical figure described as the founder of the Order. According to the Confessio, Rosenkreuz was born in 1378 of a noble family in poor circumstances. At the age of four he was placed in a monastery. When still ‘in his growing years’ the young man set out, accompanied by a monk, on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. But the monk died in Cyprus, and Rosenkreuz studied in Damascus, where he became well known for his medical skill. Then he traveled to ‘Damkar’ in Arabia, where he studied under a group of wise men ‘to whom Nature was discovered.’ These wise men had been expecting Rosenkreuz. They taught him Arabic, physics, and mathematics, and introduced him to the Book M, which contained the secrets of the universe, and which he translated into Latin.

“Later, after studying botany and zoology in Egypt, and magic and the Cabala at Fez, Rosenkreuz was equipped to teach the learned of Europe how to ‘order all their studies on those sure and sound foundations.’ He eventually returned to Germany, where he assembled seven disciples, and the group of eight founded the Fraternity of the Rosy Cross. It was determined that they would live in separate countries where they might influence learned people. ‘Before dispersing, they agreed to profess nothing but to cure the sick, without payment; not to distinguish themselves by any particular costume; to meet annually in Germany; to nominate their successors before dying; to adopt the initials R.C. as their seal; and to keep their fraternity secret for one hundred years.’

“The Fama also declared that Rosenkreuz died at the age of 106 [1484] and was buried in a hidden tomb. This tomb was later discovered in 1604 by the authors of the Fama. The tomb or vault lay behind a concealed door bearing the words ‘I shall open after 120 years.’ Inside was a seven-sided vault lit by a mysterious luminary set in the roof. In the center stood an altar, beneath which they found the body of Rosenkreuz, ‘whole and unconsumed.’ The tomb also contained a chest of mirrors and a copy of the Book T, “our greatest treasure next to the Bible.” (Rosicrucian Digest)

“Christian Rosenkreuz” was born in 1378, the year in which the Great Schism began. It was also the year John Wycliffe stood trial before the Catholic bishops at Lambeth, only to be acquitted of heresy courtesy of the Queen Mother, Joan of Kent, who intervened in the proceedings. An account of that trial is recorded in David Fowler’s book on The Life and Times of John Trevisa, Medieval Scholar:

“…Courtenay, as bishop of London procured the citation of Wyclif to appear before Archbishop Sudbury at St. Paul’s in 1377… Later that same year, the lobbying of Benedictines in the papal court resulted in the promulgation of bulls by Gregory XI citing eighteen errors attributed to Wyclif, and requiring his arrest and examination.

“At the very time all this was going on, the government was seeking Wyclif’s opinion on the legality of preventing its wealth from going abroad, even if the pope demanded it—and indeed he was doing so at that moment.  Wyclif of course affirmed the legality of such a procedure in very strong language. Meanwhile, ecclesiastical efforts to have him arrested continued, and he finally appeared before Sudbury in 1378, protected by a prohibition by the king’s mother against any final judgment in the case [birth of Christian Rosenkreutz?], with the result that he was simply told not to express any opinions that might scandalize the laity. This year also marked the death of Gregory XI and the beginning of the beginning of the great schism, an event which no doubt further weakened the efforts of any pope to make his voice heard in national affairs.

“England itself was at this time experiencing a certain turbulence as a result of the collection of two burdensome subsidies inflicted on the disgruntled population by a Parliament controlled by John of Gaunt [Plantagenet]. The unpopularity of the poll taxes was destined to erupt in the riots of June 1381 in London and elsewhere, which were to shake the confidence of the entire nation (Covella, 1992, pp. 34-35).  But whatever the forces that were at work nationally, Wyclif himself was now embarked on a course from which there was no turning back.  By the time his De Eucharistica appeared in 1379, his few supporters that remained among the friars were alienated, and even his colleagues on the secular faculty were alarmed. The following year his old friend from Merton, William de Barton, now chancellor of the University, appointed a committee…to report on his teaching on the Eucharist. The adverse judgment of this group, by a vote of seven to five, we have already observed. Wyclif’s reply to this judgment, The Confessio, was issued on 10 May 1381, but in its wake came accusations of complicity, the seculars accusing the regulars, in particular the friars, of causing the uprising, and the latter pointing an accusing finger at the heretical teachings of Wyclif condoned by the secular faculty. Considering that Wyclif’s protection from prosecution was attributable to the power of John of Gaunt, the friars went so far as to address a letter to he duke [Gaunt], calling attention to the dangers represented by Wyclif and his followers at Oxford. This letter was dated 18 February 1382 and was delivered to Lancaster personally by the Carmelite Stephen Patrington. The friars were particularly anxious to do something about Nicholas Hereford, named in an early manuscript as a translator of the Bible, and a committed disciple of Wyclif’s. The duke ignored the appeal of the friars, and on 23 February Hereford announced in a sermon that the religious should hereafter be barred from receiving degrees in the University. In March Wyclif himself published De Blasphemia, in which the denunciation of ecclesiastical abuses became even stronger, and in May he submitted a sharply worded petition to Parliament urging the rejection of any and all papal assessments, and the taxing of possessioners in England. Meanwhile, in Oxford on Ascension Day (15 May 1382), Hereford delivered a sermon in English designed to alienate nearly everyone except the most fanatical of Wyclif’s followers.” (The Life and Times of John Trevisa, Medieval Scholar, David C. Fowler, University of Washington Press, 1995, pp. 76-78) 

Clearly John Wycliffe’s acquittal was the initial triumph of the Merovingian dynasty and the English nation over the previously impregnable citadel of the Roman Catholic Church. Which may explain why Wycliffe is honored as the “Morning Star of the Reformation.” However, another event occurred in 1378 which sealed the fate of the Roman Catholic Church. The Great Schism began on September 20, 1378 (Wikipedia).

“There were, however, two events that sowed the seeds of his discontent with the papacy. The first was the total submission of the pope to the demands of the French, historically loathed by the English. The second was the spectacle of rival popes excommunicating each other during the Great Schism. These two episodes seemed to call into question both the pope's political authority and his infallibility.” (“John Wycliffe, Father of American Dissent”)

A little more than a century later, the Protestant Reformation would divide Christendom. Rosicrucian Jeff Nesbitt put it this way in “Rosslyn Chapel Revisited”:

“In one fell swoop, the Christian world was cleft in twain. No longer would Rome be able to raise great armies from its subject nations to crush heresies wherever the Papal finger pointed. There was no longer just one big boy on the block. Another had moved in. The mightiest church the world had ever known had been ‘divided’ and ‘conquered’.”

Martin Luther’s personal seal appeared on the third Rosicrucian Manifesto, The Chemical Wedding of  Christian Rosenkreutz, which was authored by Johann Andrea who was Grand Master of the Prieuré de Sion from 1637-1654.

“Luther’s crest with a black cross on a red heart upon a white rose…set beside an expansion on the letters, F. R. C., Futurae Reformatio Catholicae, signifying a hope for a future Universal Reformation, similar to that heralded by the first Rosicrucian texts from Tübingen.” (Da Vinci Code Rosicrucians)


 

F.R.C. or Frater Rosae Crucis is the title awarded to advanced members of the Rosicrucian Order. This title is awarded specifically to advanced members of the AMORC or Ancient Mystical Order Rosæ Crucis. Through years of study the Rosicrucian who has progressed to this level is understood to be at the master level of understanding the teachings presented by this organization. For this reason, only those who have been formally initiated into the 10th Degree of the order are allowed to attach F.R.C. to their name.” (Wikipedia)

Christian Rosenkreuz, the mythical knight of the 15th century who is said to have launched the Rosicrucian movement in England, was born at Wartburg Castle.  Martin Luther also resided at Wartburg Castle in 1521-22 after his excommunication by Pope Leo X following German Diet of Worms. There are other parallels between the Protestant Reformation and Christian Rosencreutz.

Rosencreutz was born in 1378 - as indicated in the Confessio and cryptographically in the Chymische Hochzeit - and his tomb was 'discovered' in 1604 after 120 years, he died just about the time of Luther's birth in 1483 or 1484. The year 1604 was fraught with chiliastic significance: 'new stars' had appeared in the constellations Serpentarius and Cygnus, mentioned specifically in the Fama, which Kepler had written about in De stella nova in pede Serpentarii (1606); a heavenly portent in the form of a fiery triangle was observed that was thought to appear every 800 years, having heralded Charlemagne and Christ before him; the third age predicted by Joachim of Fiore was expected; and it was the year Studion completed his millenarian prophecy. The Fama was thus situated auspiciously.” (Johann Valentin Andreae's utopian brotherhoods”)

 

“1604-2004 – “The 400th Anniversary of the Opening of the Rosicrucian Vault”

The opening of the tomb of Christian Rosenkreuz was symbolic of the opening of the Rosicrucian Vault (pictured above) which refers to the announcement of the existence of the Invisible College by means of the Rosicrucian manifestos. 

“Yates refers to this forgotten period of European history as the ‘Rosicrucian Enlightenment’—an incredible time when an outburst of curious and obscure Hermetic and alchemical manifestos, along with other printed pamphlets, began to circulate across Europe.5 These publications announced the dawn of a ‘New Age,’ and proclaimed a universal reform of science, religion, and society. The authors were members of an ‘invisible college’ and confessed themselves disciples of ‘Christian Rosenkreuz.’…

“Titled ‘The College of the Fraternity,’ it [the accompanying illustration] appeared in a publication known as Speculum Sophicum Rhodo-Stauroticum, by Daniel Mögling, alias Theophilus Schweighardt. The illustration was drawn, if not published, around 1604, about ten years before the appearance of the Fama Fraternitatis—usually considered the first book to announce the presence of the Rosicrucians to the world.” (Rosicrucian Digest)

The Fama, first of the Rosicrucian manifestos published in 1614, noted that in 1604, new supernovae, Cygnus & Serpentarius, were observed in the heavens signaling the opening of a door in Europe, according to the Journal of the Rose Croix:

“The heart of this article: the new stars that appeared in 1604, if the chronology of the story is calculated, give the same date at which the tomb of Christian Rosenkreuz is said to have been discovered. C.R.C. was born in 1378, lived to an age of 106, and lay undiscovered for 120 years. 1378 + 106 + 120 = 1604! Thus, the opening of the door of the vault symbolizes the opening of a door in Europe.” (Rosicrucian Digest)

A curious statement in The Fama points to Martin Luther as an agent of the Rosicrucians:

“In this [Memorial] Table stuck a great naile somewhat strong, so that when it was with force drawn out it took with it an indifferent big stone out of the thin wall or plaistering of the hidden door, and so unlooked for uncovered the door, whereat we did with joy and longing throw down the rest of the wall and cleared the door, upon which was written in great letters Post CXX Annos Patebo, with the year of the Lord under it... For like as our door was after so many years wonderfully discovered, also there shall be opened a door to Europe (when the wall is removed) which already doth begin to appear, and with great desire is expected of many. (Fama)
 

“Post CXX Annos Patebo” - “At the end of 120 years I will disclose myself.”

“According to Philip Melanchthon, writing in 1546, Luther nailed a copy of the 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg that same day — church doors acting as the bulletin boards of his time — an event now seen as sparking the Protestant Reformation, and celebrated every October 31 as Reformation Day.” (Wikipedia)

For more information see: The Protestant Reformation: Rosicrucian Connections

WHO WAS CHRISTIAN ROSENCREUZ?

 

Donald R. Dickson, a Reader for Renaissance Quarterly, interpreted the mystical concept of the “Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosencreutz” as the union of the Lutheran Reformation and Christian Hermetism.

“Christian Rosencreutz (spelled with a k only in the title), presumably Andreae’s own creation since the name, a symbol of the central idea of his Christian philosophy, does not appear anywhere before 1605. The rose-cross came from his family’s coat of arms, which derived from Luther’s. Andreae’s originality was in uniting the age-old symbols of the rose, the cross, and the wedding as a symbol of the union of the Lutheran reformation and Christian hermetism...

“All three Rosicrucian works are tied together through this imaginary hero Christian Rosencreutz, whose name brought to mind the shield of Luther and his own honored grandfather, Jacob Andreae. The creation of the name Christian Rosencreutz must be credited to Andreae; no one has discovered its use prior to 1605.” (“Johann Valentin Andreae's utopian brotherhoods,” Donald R. Dickson, Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 49, No. 4, 1996, pp. 760-802)

According to the SRIA, an English Masonic Order for Trinitarian Christians, Christian Rosencreutz was never a person but an intellectual movement which used the Reformation to effect a marriage of convenience between Rosicrucianism and Christianity:

...according to Schuchard, 'current scholarship suggests composite authorship by Andrae and his colleagues at Tubingen’.  Here we have an author who is very shrewd, he presents an appeasement (wedding), ie., a Marriage of Alchemy (Intelligentsia of Europe) with the new Protestantism of Europe for political acceptance of the Religious Brotherhood...

“...THE OFFSPRING, of the Manifestos, was the Rosicrucian philosophy that influenced Protestant Europe for the next several centuries...

Hence, may we say that ‘Rosicrucians’ were people who enjoyed the mystical and esoteric way of life which eventually led to the Church’s reform.  To overcome the Church’s label of Heresy they enveiled their thoughts within the science of Alchemy.  This concept (destruction of the total control of the Papacy) which began with Luther, included the 30-year War (1618-1648) and reached the public with the publication of the so-called ‘rosicrucian manifesto’, The FAMA.

“CRC was NEVER a person, rather it was an Intellectual Movement (of 100 years) which roughly spanned 1517 (when Luther nailed his Theses to the Church door) to 1614 (production of the Fama).” - “What is Christian Rosencreutz?   

In 1605, the Constitution of the Society of Rosy Cross was published in The Restoration of the Decayed Temple of Pallas” and the Rosicrucian Enlightenment was underway. The Journal of the Rose Croix states that the Manifestos “announced the dawn of a ‘New Age,’ and proclaimed a universal reform of science, religion, and society.”  However, there was one man who stood virtually alone against the plans of the Rosicrucian Order to inaugurate a ‘New Age.’ Oxford historian Frances Yates described in her book, The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, how King James I of Great Britain single-handedly foiled the Rosicrucian plan.

 

“Prague…became a centre for alchemical, astrological, magico-scientific studies of all kinds… A Mecca for those interested in esoteric and scientific studies from all over Europe. Hither came John Dee and Edward Kelly, Giordano Bruno and Johannes Keppler. However strange the reputation of Prague in the time of Rudolph it was yet a relatively tolerant city. Jews might pursue their cabalistic studies undisturbed… The Bohemian church, founded by John Huss, was the first of the reformed churches of Europe…

“Bohemia was now in a state of open rebellion against its Hapsburg sovereign. According to the rebels the crown of Bohemia was an elective crown, to be offered to whomever they elected, and not hereditary in the House of Hapsburg…

“On 26 August, 1619, the Bohemians decided to offer the crown of their country to Frederick, Elector Palatine…

“…to accept it was dangerous; it would amount to a declaration of war against the Hapsburg powers…

“On the day of the coronation…German verses were to be sung to a psalm tune… Wyclif came from England, they explain, from whom Huss took his teaching, alluding to Wyclif’s influences on the Hussite reformation; and now a queen comes to us from England.

 

Jacobus, her lord father dear,

Through her has become

Our mightiest patron and support;

He will not desert us,

Otherwise we would suffer great distress.

 

“Here we reach the heart of this great tragedy of misunderstanding. For James was not supporting his daughter and her husband; he was working for the other side in his frantic cult of Spanish friendship; he was even now, when this print was published, disowning all responsibility for his son-in-law’s Bohemian enterprise to every court in Europe. Not only had no military preparations been made in Britain for the support of this enterprise, but James’s diplomacy was working against it, disowning it, counteracting it, making every effort to curry favor with the Hapsburg powers. James’ attitude, of course, immeasurably weakened Frederick’s position and caused his other friends to doubt him. It had been assumed James would be bound to support his daughter when the time of trial came. She was the hostage ensuring her father’s good will. But when the time came it was revealed that James was perfectly willing to desert his daughter rather than incurring the Hapsburg anger.

“The whole question is extremely complicated, and the rights and wrongs of it are complicated. James stood for peace at all costs; he had wanted to achieve this by marrying his children to opposite sides in the great conflict. Frederick and his supporters had interpreted the marriage as full support for their side. Many of James’s subjects also interpreted it in this way and welcomed it with enthusiasm as a continuation of Elizabethan tradition. But even Queen Elizabeth might not have entirely approved of Frederick; she had carefully avoided doing what he did, namely taking sovereignty of a country claimed by another power.  She had firmly refused to take the sovereignty of the Netherlands, though she supported the cause.

“…the Thirty Years  War which eventually whittled away the Hapsburg power.” (Yates, pp. 20-22)

Had King James of England not withstood the Rosicrucian plot to establish a beachhead in Europe (which he did at the expense of his relationship with his own daughter whom he never saw again), the New Age would have come to pass in the 17th century. For more information, please listen to our audios on: The Life and Times of King James I  Unfortunately, there has not been King James’ equal on the world scene since, and Rosicrucian plan is coming to fruition 400 years later.

We note the honorable mention given to John Wycliffe for his role in bringing to pass the sad state of affairs in England and Europe that would lead to a New Age!  Can this be one reason Gail Riplinger has written a book which gives Wycliffe a new image among KJV-Only Christians?  If Wycliffe, the “Morning Star of the Reformation,” was an agent of the Merovingian popes in Avignon, this would explain why Gail has written, for all intents and purposes, an attack on the Textus Receptus. And why she is teaching Kabbalism.

CHRISTIAN HERMETICISM

“Christian Rosenkreutz” is an allegorical romance depicting Andreae’s philosophy of “Christian Cabalism.” The Rosicrucian Manifestos heralded the restoration of the “true Christianity” based on a right understanding of the Holy Scripture which could be attained by means of the Jewish Cabala. The protagonist of the first and third Manifestos, a mythical knight of a German Cathar family named “Christian Rosencreutz,” became an adept Cabalist in the course of his travels en route to Damascus.

 

A portion of the second Rosicrucian Manifesto, The Confessio, is devoted to the Holy Bible, the “characters and letters” of which are said to contain “images” that are “keys” to predicting the future of the Church and of understanding nature and science.

 

“Although that great book of nature stands open to all men, yet there are but few that can read and understand the same…

“These characters and letters, as God hath here and there incorporated them in the Holy Scriptures, the Bible, so hath he imprinted them in all beasts. So that like as the mathematician and astronomer can long before see and know the eclipses which are to come, so we may verily foreknow and foresee the darkness of obscurations of the Church, /Drosnin / and how long they shall last. From the which characters or letters we have borrowed our magic writing, and have found out, and made, a new language for ourselves, in the which withal is expressed and declared the nature of all things. So that it is no wonder that we are not so eloquent in other languages, the which we know that they are altogether disagreeing to the language of our forefathers, Adam and Enoch, and were through the Babylonical confusion wholly hidden. / angelic language

     “…Wherefore we do admonish everyone for to read diligently and continually the Holy Bible, for he that taketh all his pleasures therein, he shall know that he prepared for himself an excellent way to come to our Fraternity. For as this is the whole sum and content of our rule, that every letter or character which is in the world ought to be learned and regarded well; so those are like unto us, and are very near allied unto us, who do make the Holy Bible a rule of their life, and an aim and end of all their studies: yea to let it be a compendium and content of the whole world. And not only to have it continually in the mouth, but to know how to apply and direct the true understanding of it to all times and ages of the world… / Mozeson

  “…we do openly witness and acknowledge, that from the beginning of the world there hath not been given unto men a more worthy, a more excellent, and more admirable and wholesome Book than the Holy Bible. Blessed is he that hath the same, yet more blessed is he who reads it diligently, but most blessed of all is he that truly understandeth the same, for he is most like to God, and doth come most near to him.” (The Confessio)

 

An interesting commentary on these paragraphs is found in The Impact of the Kabbalah in the Seventeenth Century. The editors of the Kabbala Denudata or “Kabbalah Unveiled” (1677-1684) believed the Kabbala would be the key to attaining religious unity as well as a “correct understanding” of the Bible, in contrast to Greek wisdom (e.g. Greek resources) which have “muddied the waters of divine Hebrew wisdom”:

 

“The frontispiece of the Kabbala Denudata shows the high expectations that Knorr and von Helmont had of the Kabbala in terms of religious peace and unity. It also reveals their conviction that the Kabbala offered a key to understanding the natural world as well… [G]entile wisdom has clear limits—it does not reach to, or come from, heaven the way the Kabbala does… Knorr attributed the divisions among Christians to their misplaced dependence on Greek wisdom, which far from being the source of true wisdom had simply muddied the waters of divine Hebrew wisdom. 

“…the Kabbalah alone is able to unlock the secrets of the Old and New Testaments… The…first volume of the Kabala denudata emphasizes the encyclopedic nature of the Kabbalah. Not only does it provide a theology that will unite Christians, Jews and pagans, but it offers a morality and ethic that calms the passions besetting the soul…”

 

Kabbalists believe the Hebrew letters are a “divine script” as well as “images” that reveal by their “shapes and sounds” the nature of things: 

 

“The ‘topos’ of the ‘Book of Nature’ also appears in the Manifestos. Two books are available to mankind, nature and Scripture, the one mirroring the other. The dual nature of the divine script printed both in things and on the biblical page provides the rationale for the belief that the Hebrew letters are images of things and reveal by their shapes and sounds the nature of things… [quotes passage above from the Confessio]

“The notion that the Bible is the font of all knowledge, if it is understood correctly, which is so central to van Helmont and [Christian Knorr] van Rosenroth, is clearly stated in the Confessio. Indeed the following passage is similar to von Rosenroth’s preface to the Alphabet of Nature[quotes passage above from the Confessio]” (The Impact of the Kabbalah in the Seventeenth Century, p. 81)

 

The Kabbalists’ view of the Hebrew letters is essentially Gail Riplinger’s teaching that the letters of Scripture were created/written personally by God and that the “shape” and “sound” of each letter should be analyzed to determine its meaning.

 

“God built the Bible, letter by letter. He gave each sound a sense… Just as God created the basic chemical elements to use as the building blocks to create different things, he also created letters, with significations they carry to create word meanings… Explore in the KJV what Harvard’s Literary Guide to the Bible tells readers about the Bible’s ‘sound-meaning interactions’ (p. 276.) In the 1500s Erasmus said, ‘God is in every syllable’ (The Bible Through the Ages, p. 306) (Awe, p. 16)

 

“The historical and current shape of each letter is a tremendous clue to its meaning… (Awe, p. 1115)

 

“Q. How do letters convey meaning?

“A. Words and letters often resemble their meaning…. Most words are a mix of these:

·     Pictorial, optical and geometrical: the shape of the letter

·     Aural and acoustic: the sound of the letter; how its pronunciation reproduces the thought referred to… (Awe, p. 1159)

 

“Before anti-Semitic German ‘scholars,’…linguists often traced words back to common Hebrew roots… English has been traced back to Hebrew… ‘In fact, it is our hypothesis that the phonetic alphabet, monotheism, and codified law were introduced for the first time to the Israelites by Moses at Mount Sinai in the form of the Ten Commandments’… ‘The written letter replaced the graven image’ … God said the letters on the stone tablets were ones, ‘which I have written…the tables were the work of God and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.’” (Awe, p. 1171)

A ROSICRUCIAN MASTERPIECE

Is Gail Riplinger merely dabbling in Kabbalah or is she a “Christian Kabbalist” whose hidden agenda is to introduce Christians to the occult methods used by Jewish Kabbalists to interpret Scripture? 

 

If Mrs. Riplinger is, in fact, functioning as a “Christian Kabbalist” in the Christian community, we would expect to find Rosicrucian symbols and concepts in her book. In fact, there are many Rosicrucian symbols, motifs and code words subtly incorporated throughout In Awe of Thy Word. The examples in the following pages are representative of numerous others in the book. Occult symbols from various other sources have been included for comparison purposes.

 

But first, a word from David Bay, which is more applicable to Gail Riplinger’s book than to the King James Bible:

“A former Satanist told me that all witches place great stock in symbols. They believe that, once a symbol is created, it begins to throb with occult energy from the demonic realm. Symbols literally are believed to be transfer points of great supernatural energy. It makes no difference whether the symbol is on the ground or the floor of a building – as it in with all rituals – or in a painting, or on a piece of paper. Once they are created, they begin to throb with enormous demonic power.

 

“Thus, it is of great significance that all these Satanic symbols were originally placed on the original 1611 KJV Bible. The Rosicrucians who created these symbols really and truly believed that they were creating ‘centers of occult power’ which would throb with demonic power 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. I believe that Bacon and King James firmly intended to create a Rosicrucian Bible, filled with occult symbols which were ‘throbbing with Satanic power’, designed to move the entire English-speaking peoples of the world into the ‘Mystic Christianity’ called Rosicrucianism...

 

“As you continue to understand, these pagan Rosicrucians and Freemasons led by Sir Francis Bacon had their hands all over the original 1611 King James Bible. They took perfectly good text and added page after page after page of Rosicrucian artwork, some of which tells a hidden story, while others are just symbols. These Masonic handshakes are very real and very telling, for they tell the story that Bacon and King James conspired to produce a Rosicrucian masterpiece when they published this Bible.” (David Bay, “Horror of All Horrors”)

In the Spring of 2006, David Bay published his case that the King James Bible was a “Rosicrucian masterpiece” and that King James was himself a Rosicrucian who “gave that manuscript to Sir Francis Bacon, who possessed it for about one year, until 1611, when he handed the manuscript back to the King, who promptly sent it to his official printer.”  Cutting Edge Ministries’ shocking (albeit unproven) revelations were not a quiet affair, but generated waves of protest and a full-blown controversy among Christians on the Internet. Watch Unto Prayer did a 4-part audio series exposing the deception of Cutting Edge Ministries. (See: “Did Francis Bacon Edit the King James Bible?”)  Strangely, Gail Riplinger remained silent, offering no defense of King James or the King James Bible to counter the devastating accusations of David Bay. Why???

 

The extensive use of Rosicrucian symbolism in Gail Riplinger’s book, In Awe of Thy Word, goes a long way toward explaining the strange phenomenon of the quintessential “King James-Only defender” standing down, so to speak, while the King James Bible was viciously attacked as a “Rosicrucian Bible, complete with masterful Luciferian artwork.”  Even so, considering the multitude of Rosicrucian symbols in Mrs. Riplinger’s book, the latter phrase is a better description of In Awe of Thy Word than the KJV.

 

In New Age Bible Versions, Gail Riplinger demonstrated her clear understanding that symbols are Satan’s mode of communication since he must carry out his evil plan clandestinely.

“There are two ways of communication: 1.) direct and explicit (i.e., the word of God and its doctrines) 2.) indirect and implicit (i.e., symbols and rituals). God uses the first method; Satan uses the second method.” (New Age Bible Versions, p. 101)

Notwithstanding Mrs. Riplinger’s firm grasp of this principle, In Awe of Thy Word is loaded with occult symbols...too many to give Gail the benefit of the doubt.  Before proceeding to the evidence, a final word is in order from David Bay concerning the power of occult symbols which are concealed from the uninitiated:

“Occultists the world over believe that, once a symbol is created, it acquires power of its own, and more power is generated when such symbol(s) are created without the profane [uninitiated] knowing about it. And, the greatest power of all is created in the symbol(s) if the uninitiated NEVER discover that the symbol exists... The occultist firmly believes that a symbol or a set of symbols possesses inherent power once they are created. Therefore, occultic doctrine teaches that these Satanic symbols would act as a powerful electric-type grid once they were set in place. This power grid would constantly pulsate with Luciferic power 24 hours a day, seven days a week...”  (David Bay, “Masonic Symbols of Power”)

 

APPENDIX I

Grail Riplingers Rosicrucian Masterpiece

PDF VERSION

Download Acrobat Reader FREE from Adobe.com.

 

CONTEND FOR THE FAITH:

THE TEXTUS RECEPTUS