“See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, which are based on human tradition and the spiritual forces of the world rather than on Christ” (Colossians 2:8). So said the Apostle Paul, warning the church at Colossae of spiritual atrophy and compromise. From time immemorial and until the first coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the satanic forms of religion had held all the nations of the world in spiritual bondage. This is why students and practitioners of the occult often refer to their craft as the “Ancient Religion” or “Ancient Wisdom Tradition”. The occultists of today hark back with approval to the times when this religion was globally practised under a variety of guises such as fertility cults, shamanism, tribal witchcraft, the ‘mystery religions’, Druidism, and so on. The Old Testament nation of Israel came into being within the context of a proliferation of such satanic influences among the nations of the world. The Lord was purifying a “treasured possession” for Himself out of the midst of this spiritual debauchery (Exodus 19:5-6). The Old Testament faithfully records the spiritual battle between this new holy nation of Israel — which was called to practise obedience to God’s law — and the surrounding nations which practised the satanic religion in the form of false god and goddess worship, demon and spirit invocation, ecstatic trance-states, temple prostitution, sex magic, sorcery, witchcraft, idolatry, divination, etc.

The Two Great Principles of Spiritual Life

However, the spirituality of the Lord’s chosen nation, Israel, repeatedly degenerated as time went by, thus demonstrating two great principles of spiritual life which the Lord wishes us to know and take onboard: First, that a mere adherence to the Old Covenant law can only serve, at best, to make those who so strive become painfully aware of their essential defects and the collective fallen nature of humanity (Romans 3:19-20), while at the same time exposing the intrinsic inadequacy of that law to truly sanctify us (Hebrews 10:1). Second, that through an understanding of this inadequacy we are brought to the realisation that we need total dependence on God, as Saviour and, ultimately, on a Divine Intermediary (Galatians 3:19-20), without whom we can do nothing of any spiritual worth (John 15:5).

By the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry, religious practice among many of the Lord’s people, Israel, had become so corrupted that the spiritual truth which was originally delivered to the nation Israel had become unrecognisable in the hands of the various sects and factions which had abounded during the inter-Testamental period. When we examine the condition of Israel which confronted the Lord Jesus, we find that there were three main deceiving faces of false religion, providing us with a perfect paradigm for the corruption of true spirituality among the Lord’s people in all eras — especially applicable to developments within the New Testament Church. The Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus, when explaining Judaism to the Greek-speaking world, referred to these three particular philosophical groups, which he identified as the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Essenes. [Flavius Josephus, Antiquities, Book XIII, Chapter 9. It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that these three Jewish sects were the “three false shepherds” which Zechariah prophesied would be “cut off” by Messiah, see Zechariah 11:8 in its context, who was “the Good Shepherd”, John 10:11].

However, most important for the purposes of this book is the fact that these three tendencies are not merely confined to the inter-testamental errors of the Jews. For each one represents a different aspect of religious corruption, the three great religious traps which have been the earthly expression of satanic spirituality for aeons: Liberal-humanism, legalism, and occult-mysticism. Let us now examine these three in detail.

1) The Sadducees: Model of Liberal-Humanism

The Sadducees were a Jewish aristocratic elite who tended to regard Judaism as “a temple-centred religion rather than a law-centred way of life” (Walter Elwell, ed., Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Marshall Pickering, 1984, p.966).They did not believe in resurrection, spirits or angels (cf. Mark 12:18; Luke 20:27; Acts 23:8), tending rather to busy themselves with temple administration and ritual, whilst appeasing their political rulers in Rome through diplomacy and sycophancy.

These Sadducees were essentially a humanistic grouping who, although believing in God, denied that He has ever intervened in the course of human history. Therefore, in their view, there is no foreordination, no divine co-operation in human action, while good and evil depend purely on human free-will and self-determinism. They are well-described as “a loose confederation of wealthy and powerful men… who took a secular-pragmatic, rather than a religious-ideological stance with regard to the nation and its laws” (Walter Elwell, ed., op.cit.).

These descriptions of the Sadducees find a fine parallel with many of the leaders in the mainstream churches of today. These are the ‘gentlemen of wide swallow’. [Google A.I. intelligently depicts ‘gentlemen of wide swallow’ like this: “Individuals, often clergymen, who are perceived as being flexible or opportunistic in their beliefs and actions, willing to compromise their principles for personal gain or worldly power. They are seen as readily adapting to changing circumstances and ideologies, even if it means compromising their core beliefs”.] They are the Latitudinarians, the wafflers who do not affirm a belief in the resurrection and the Divine, miraculous intervention of God in history — those who play at politics and busy themselves with “temple administration” and ritual rather than the preaching of the Word. They are essentially secular-pragmatists carving out a niche for themselves in a role of respectability in theological colleges and denominational high-office. These are the liberals, the false professors, the ones who are peddling the “elementary principles of this world” rather than the fundamental truths of the Scriptures (Colossians 2:8), yet who are dishonest enough to do it behind a clerical collar, a cassock, or a churchified title. They are the ones who are contemptuous about the phrase “born again”, and who sneer at those who are willing to stand up for the true faith. They are the modern “slaughterers of the flock” (cf. Zechariah 11:4-7). Such are the characteristics of liberal-humanist religion, as it manifests itself in the Christian scene. It is the first of the three major forms of religious corruption which have plagued the Church from the earliest time.

2) The Pharisees: Model of Legalism

Legalism has been defined as “the tendency to observe letter or form rather than spirit” (Chambers English Dictionary (Chambers, 1988), p.816).Highlighting this approach to religion, Jesus said to the Pharisees:

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You pay tithes of mint, dill, and cumin. But you have disregarded the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former” (Matthew 23:23).

The Pharisees were surely the greatest legalists of all time. Adhering to the letter of the Mosaic Law, rather than seeing it as a humble gateway to sanctification, they used it as a club with which to batter the common people. Moreover, they also added many new regulations to those ordained by God and constrained others to keep to them (Matthew 23:1-4). However, unlike the Sadducees, they did believe in the resurrection from the dead, and in spirits and angels.

There is always a tendency in religious affairs, when they are not the outcome of genuine regeneration, for spiritual expression to be reduced to a mere outward profession and adherence to ceremony. This is as true today as it was in the time of Jesus. For the Pharisee has been a common occurrence throughout the history of the Church. They are the churchgoers who are more concerned with the neglected shine of another person’s shoes than with the obdurate state of their own souls. They are the constantly carping dissemblers who live in the ‘town of pretended morality’ rather than in the ‘valley of free grace’. In such circles, rote formalism and routine ritualism are substituted for genuine worship and spiritual expression.

Such folk will often expect you to pledge unswerving loyalty to the constitution of their church rather than to the Word of God. They are the ones who practise what they do because it makes them feel secure rather than because it is what the Lord requires of them. They are the ones who want to make you more like them than like Christ. They are the ones who are inwardly lukewarm and complacent in their spirituality but tend to publicly say “Amen” the loudest. They are the ones whose rules have been constructed on the doctrines of men rather than on the commandments of God. They will often emphasise the wrath of God and display little of His love in their lives. Theirs is an orthodox religion of the head rather than a spirituality of the heart; and their emphasis will often be on the fussy acquisition of doctrinal knowledge at the expense of the fostering of spiritual growth and progressive sanctification. Legalism is the clinical practice of preserving religion on an intellectual life-support system when it is technically soul-dead.

For the diligent but unsuspecting Christian, legalism (or neo-nomianism, as it is also known) can create great problems as far as his or her spiritual progress is concerned. As one writer puts it: “Legalism inevitably undermines Christian assurance and joy and tends to create a self-centred, excessively introspective piety” (S. Ferguson, D.F. Wright, J.I. Packer, The New Dictionary of Theology, IVP, 1988, p.379).Such a mindset is the second major form of religious corruption into which many of those calling themselves “Christians” have fallen, and still continue to do so.

3) The Essenes: Model of Occult Mysticism

The third example of religious corruption into which Israel had fallen by the time of the coming of the Messiah is represented by the extremist sect known as the Essenes. It is significant that this sect is never directly mentioned in the New Testament — unlike the Pharisees and Sadducees who came to feature so prominently in the four Gospels. Perhaps this is typical of the mystery surrounding mysticism; most likely it is because they never attempted to confront Jesus directly and tended to live in desert-based secluded, secretive circumstances. However, there are many indirect references which are most instructive.

The word essene is derived from the East Aramaic, hasen, meaning “the pious ones” (from which the name of the modern orthodox Jewish Hasidim is derived). The Essene sect (2nd century BC to 70 AD) was an ascetic, commune-based, Jewish monastic order which regarded itself as the true Israel. In some ways they resembled the Pharisees in terms of such elements as ritual purity and legal observances; indeed, in this respect they often out-Phariseed the Pharisees! But their rigid adherence to the Levitical code was augmented by many additional works and practices which were, at best, in transgression of Pentateuchal Law and, at worst, downright sorcery and superstition.

For example, they adored the sun and earnestly prayed to it before it rose (J. Hastings (ed.), Dictionary of the Bible, T. & T. Clark, 1898, Vol.I., p.769); they used a variety of magical and esoteric books and they practised divination and developed a highly elaborate angelology and cosmogony which went far beyond the biblical teachings of Moses (J. Hastings (ed.), Dictionary of the Apostolic Church, T. & T. Clark, 1915, p.368). Their teaching on angels was, in fact, “derived from the Magi” (Chambers’s Encyclopaedia, George Newnes, 1963, Vol.V, p.395), and in many ways they “became the forerunners of the Gnostics and of the Jewish Cabbalists” (Ibid. The Cabbalah is “the ancient esoteric Jewish mystical tradition of philosophy containing strong elements of pantheism and is akin to Neo-Platonism”, Hutchinson Encyclopedia, 1991, p.453. It is a “theosophical system” which “has strong connections with Gnosticism and also with magical practices”, Macmillan Encyclopedia, 1986, p.659).

This widely accepted knowledge that the angelology of the Essenes was derived from the Magi takes on an important significance when we are informed that among these Magi “there was a strong tradition which favoured the exercise of sacerdotal and occult powers” (Merrill C. Tenney, The Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible, 1975, Vol.IV, p.31). Even more significant, these Magi “were in communication with evil spirits, and… they were well acquainted with Mesmerism and every practice of modern Spiritualism” (G.H. Pember, Earth’s Earliest Ages and their Connection with Modern Spiritualism, Theosophy, and Buddhism, G.H. Lang, n.d., first published in 1876, p.162). So the influences which had been brought to bear on the Essenes were decidedly occultic. It was, in fact, a mystico-occult sect utilising magical practices.

The False Likening of Essenism with the Teachings of Jesus and John the Baptist

However, it has been suggested by those with a vested interest in syncretism and the promotion of New Age or other false teachings that Christianity was either influenced by, or developed from, Essenism. They point to some apparent similarities between Jesus’ teaching (or those of John the Baptist) and that of the Essenes, such as their piety, holiness and love of justice and righteousness, citing also as significant the fact that there is no recorded direct criticism of them by Jesus (unlike His scathing treatment of both the Sadducees and Pharisees). In truth, there are far more similarities between Essenism and the later Gnosticism than with true Christianity. As one authoritative source puts it: “The suggestions, occasionally made, that St. John the Baptist and even Christ Himself had Essene connections, are most improbable” (F.L. Cross & E.A. Livingstone, The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, O.U.P., 1983, p.471).

So, let us list some of the glaring contrasts between the religion of Essenism and the spirituality of Jesus’ teachings or the lifestyle of John the Baptist. Unlike the Essenes, Jesus did not withdraw, nor did He advocate withdrawal from the world (cf. John 17:15,18); neither did He reject the aged and the physically handicapped (cf. Matthew 12:9-13; 15:30), nor did He advocate hatred of His enemies, as did the Essenes (more on that below). He never purified Himself before eating with sinners (Matthew 9:10-13). He did not advocate or practise vegetarianism (Matthew 14:19), and He did not believe that defilement and uncleanness comes from unpurified food, clothing and people (Matthew 15:11), all of which were part and parcel of being an Essene. So deep was their bondage to the laws of purification that if one of their members was expelled from the community for sins committed, he would find himself unable to eat the unpurified food of the outside world and would therefore die of starvation (J. Hastings, ed., Dictionary of the Bible, T. & T. Clark, 1898, Vol. I, p.769).

The Essenes also had such a highly developed, yet corrupt, system of elitism within their sect that the more “advanced” members believed that they became spiritually polluted if they came into physical contact with, or ate food prepared by, novitiates (Ibid. One is here reminded of the caste system in India). It is also likely that Jesus was referring to the Essenes when He made the enigmatic statement: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy’” (Matthew 5:43). Nowhere is the idea of hating one’s enemy advocated as such by the Law in the Old Testament (cf. Leviticus 19:17-18). There are, however, a number of such references in the Essenic documents found at Qumran in 1948 (G. Vermes, The Dead Sea Scrolls in English, Penguin Books, 1975, pp.72-73, 91). I believe, therefore, that Jesus’ biblically-recorded saying above is a direct swipe at the Essenes and highlights a fundamental difference between the Essenes and the teachings of Christ.

Regarding the notion that John the Baptist was an Essene, there are many differences which show that he most certainly could not have been an Essene. His style of ministry was openly evangelistic, unlike the Essenes’ who maintained an exclusive and isolated community. John the Baptist identified Jesus as the Messiah, which does not at all fit with the Essenes messianic expectations. The Essenes viewed the Jerusalem priesthood as being corrupt and unholy, while John’s family was priestly, though he was to became a prophet (Luke 1). He was even highly regarded by King Herod and a number of the Pharisees came to him for baptism (Mark 6:20; Matthew 3:5-7.). The Essenes were vegetarians but John wore a leather belt and ate locusts (Matthew 3:4). I ask you this question: Given that the Essenes were a mystico-occult sect with many unbiblical beliefs and practices while living a communal life of cultish exclusivity in the desert, is it at all likely that John the Baptist — who was preparing the way for the real ‘Ruler of the world’, the King of kings, the Saviour who is God the Son sent by God the Father — would be a part of such a grossly polluted faction of cultish renegades? Please answer that question honestly.

The mysticism, asceticism, esotericism and magical practice of the Essenes represents the third and most significant form of religious degeneration into which human beings have been plunged by dint of their own warped natures, aided and abetted by Satan. Jesus explicitly warned of those who try to convince people that the true Christ is to be found in ascetic sects or secret groups of initiates with their esoteric codes — a phenomenon especially to be expected as the end of the Age draws nearer (please read Matthew 24:23-26). Clearly, those who make their spiritual homes “in the desert” (both literally, as with many of the Essene communes, and symbolically, referring to all ascetic withdrawal from the world) or who meet secretively in “inner rooms” (as in esoteric coteries, secret societies or cabals), in order to discover occult ‘truths’, cannot be genuine disciples of Christ. Yes, John the Baptist lived in the desert, but — unlike the Essenes — he openly evangelised and did not keep his messianic ‘good news’ in absolute exclusivity.

The above “three false shepherds” which manifested in Jesus’ time as the Sadducees, Pharisees and Essenes, symbolise historically the religious traps into which Satan has always tried to force all the spiritual aspirations and movements within humanity. They were among those who the Lord Jesus said to be the ones who “do not enter the sheepfold by the gate, but climb in some other way” and are thereby “thieves and robbers” (John 10:1). Within the Church this has been a particularly destructive affair, in which those claiming to have an allegiance to Christ advocate philosophies which are imitative of the world, inaugurate Spirit-void, rule-bound tyrannies, and even invite an initiation into mysticism and sorcery — as I shall be documenting throughout this book.

History shows unequivocally that the visible manifestation of God’s people on earth has a tendency to fall into one or more of the above three degenerative states in the process of time. Although the satanic stream of Liberal-Humanism still holds great sway in the religious scene, it is largely confined to the seminaries, universities and mainstream denominational churches. Fortunately, it is today quite recognisable for what it is and now hardly constitutes a “deception” so much as a glaring error! In any case, as we shall later learn, its most pervasive work was done in the last century as a preparation for the more catastrophic religious developments of the present time, which I will be opening up in many chapters throughout this book. One of the greatest polemics against ‘Christian’ liberalism, by J. Gresham Machen, first appeared in 1923; and it needs nothing further adding to it today (J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism, Eerdmans, 1985).

Legalism, as a form of religious degeneration, can be very subtle indeed; and, ironically, it most easily penetrates those Christian circles which set about maintaining an over-dogmatically-applied adherence to the rigours of biblical orthodoxy. But compared with the third form of religious degeneration — occult-mysticism — such legalism is not so much a deadly threat as an unfortunate menace. Thankfully, there are a great many books which have been written concerning the need for heart-spirituality, progressive sanctification and inner holiness in the life of the Christian, all of which will adequately counteract the many proponents of mere externalised religion and dead formalism.

The Spiritual Focus of this Book

However, although there has been a great deal of material polemicising against liberalism and legalism, there has been comparatively little which systematically catalogues the interaction between occult-mysticism and the Christian Church in the course of history.

For this reason, a subject at the heart of this book you are now reading will be a study of the history and development of forms of religious degeneration similar to those which were manifested in the doctrine and practices of the Essenes: Namely, occult-mysticism — the cultish idea that there is a secret mystical doctrine into which a person can be initiated and by which he or she can reach up to God, become ‘enlightened’, and thus (so they claim) even actually become ‘God’.

It is this aspect of world religion which has its roots clearly grounded in the Fall in Eden and in the “Satanic Initiation” which was introduced there by the fallen archangel, Satan, as I revealed in the previous chapter. It also forms the impulse for that essence of all false religion: The attempted ‘divinisation’ of Man — the usurping by man of what is essentially Divine, the ultimate realisation of the original lie.

EPILOGUE

To close off this chapter, let me just say that the satanic religion is just as powerfully at work today as it was in Eden — desperately subtle, concentrating on clever argument, philosophies and ideologies to eclipse the Word of God; subtle enough, in fact, to deceive even the elect, if such a thing was possible. On the spiritual front at this present time, in both the visible church and the secular world, we have the growing popularity of occult-mysticism and sorcery — having worked secretively and deceptively for the last couple of millennia. The secular world combines these with the dispassionate disciplines of science and sophistry, now working flat-out to disprove the existence of the one true God of the Bible. Within the worldwide visible church, alongside the twin-influences of mysticism and sorcery, are the further stagnant waters of worldliness, liberalism and legalism — all designed to encourage the illusion that we are not complete in Christ.

In the following chapters, we will explore these developments from many different angles: The growth of Gnosticism and its transformation into various new forms to suit the era; the development of mysticism ancient and modern, of both East and West; the manifold works of magic and sorcery; the vagaries of godless scientific research; the present and future growth of Transhumanism; the fulminations of feminism; the mental and emotional fascism of the ‘mind-sciences’; the presence of New Age teachings in the world and in the Church (the real ‘New Age’ teachings, that is, as initiated by theosophists such as Helena Blavatsky, Annie Besant and Alice Bailey); the wayward movements in the visible church which falsely claim to be the work of the Spirit, and the global process towards a Christ-defying syncretism. After examining all those influences and more, we will then come to appreciate that today there is little difference between the visible church and the secular world in so many twisted areas of life and work.

We will also learn the wisdom of Solomon when he made his terse observation that “there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9).

[The above is an excerpt from the upcoming Second Edition of “The Serpent & the Cross: Religious Corruption in an Evil Age”. It is from the introductory Chapter 1, entitled “Fathering the Lie: The Fount of False Religion”, which sets the scene for all the following chapters. This excerpt works as a standalone article while introducing readers to more from the book. If you want to see a little information brochure of the book, explaining its contents with a number of sample pages, contents pages, prefaces, reviews, etc., you can download that here: https://diakrisis-project.com/2025/07/04/pre-publication-information-brochure-for-the-serpent-the-cross-now-available-for-distribution/ ].

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© Copyright, Alan Morrison, 2025
[The copyright on my works is merely to protect them from any wanton plagiarism which could result in undesirable changes (as has actually happened!). Readers are free to reproduce my work, so long as it is in the same format and with the exact same content and its origin is acknowledged]

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