The Bible: One Bite at a Time Expository Sermon Series Notes Genesis to The Revelation Sid Galloway © 1999

Genesis 3:1b Dr. Lucifer: Pseudo- Psychotherapist The Crucial Matter of Epistemology

Audio Tape # 19 - March 5, 2000         (Notes Updated ..... March 1, 2000)

Review: (Gen 1-2) Creation See the notes on the Web

Exposition and Commentary - Genesis 3:1 (Strong's #'s in parentheses)

"Now the serpent (5175 nachash, from 5172 nachash = enchanter) was more cunning (6175 aruwm = shrewd; intelligent) than any beast (2415 chay = living) of the field which the LORD (3068 YHWH = Yahweh, from havah = to be) God had made. And he said to the woman, 'Has God indeed said, "'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden"'? "''

"Serpent . . . cunning . . . said . . . . ":

- "Talk-Therapy" is not new. It is an ancient alternative to the counsel of God.
- As seen in the previous weeks of study, Satan, "that serpent of old", is described by numerous labels and adjectives throughout Scripture. All of these terms and phrases paint a picture of a master con, a blazingly brilliant and seductive deceiver.
- Dr. Lucifer, Ph.D. (Phony Doctor) chose to use as his co-conspirator, a creature that by nature was shrewd and attractive. The LORD has not given sufficient information in the Biblical record for us to know much of who and what the serpent was beyond this central character quality that was useful in Satan's strategy to subvert God's sufficient counsel - God's Word. The point is that Dr. Lucifer loves to use what looks impressive by the world's standards. Yet God loves to do just the opposite (maybe that's why I'm in ministry ;-)

1 Corinthians 1:27 "But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty"

- Cloaked in the camouflage of a beautiful and intelligent, garden creature, the Father of Lies, the original pseudo-psychotherapist, offered Eve the first "SELF-HELP" Program.

"Has God indeed said, . . . every tree":

- Step One, in Dr. Lucifer's strategy is to get the counselee to begin doubting God and His Word. Satan wants to get his counselees to start questioning whether God is really good, honest, and accurate.
- Satan's initial implication is that he, the "light-bearer" has some special, expert knowledge that we need in addition to God's Word. He uses language carefully crafted to manipulate his counselees into following his therapy for abundant life and relationships.
- This is the most important cornerstone issue in all of theology and counseling. It is called "epistemology". The term refers to a person's source of knowledge about a subject. So every pastor must ask a foundational question. Is God's Word a sufficient source of knowledge about the non-physical soul (psyche) and its relationships, or do we need to add special knowledge from the unregenerate world's theories?
- What did God do before Sigmund Fraud, Maslow, Jung, et. al? (God didn't need Sigmund's help then and He didn't need Satan's help in the Garden)

Lucifer, counseled himself (self-help) into self-deception (Jer 17:9; Isa 14:12-15; Eze 28:12-17; Rev 12:9), believing that he could and should have a high self-esteem. Esteeming God was not enough for him. But this search for significance is a sinful, bottomless pit - a vain and painful pursuit of pleasure. He ultimately desired to be equal to the most high God in esteem. He chose to love himself more than God and more than his neighbors (man and the other angels). He did not want to have anyone tell him what to do as authority over him. He wanted to decide for him self what was good and evil. He believed that he could evolve, becoming better and better until he would be like the God almighty. This counsel is the heart and core of sin (Jer 17:9), and out of such a heart flow the sins (Mat 15:19) which now infect God's creation. It is the counsel Satan gave to Eve, and she in turn became the peer-counselor of her husband Adam. The list goes on and on until our own names appear. Scripture warns that at the end of this age, these very same deceptive, counseling principles will flood both the world and even the church (2 Tim 3-4).

2 Timothy 3:1-2 "But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, . . . rather than lovers of God."

2 Timothy 4:1-4 "I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires (to feel good), because they have itching ears (of the soul, psyche), they will heap up for themselves teachers (of the soul, psychotherapists); and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables (about the soul, psychotherapies)." (Comments inserted)

Transpersonal Psychology: (Generic spirituality that bypasses Jesus Christ)

- This is the fastest growing field in psychology and is becoming the dominant philosophy that now drives the New World Order.
- This fact is easily seen by checking the Bestseller lists and noting the many books offering generic spirituality such as those by Deepak Chopra, Scott Peck, Thomas Moore, and many more including the rancid "Chicken Soup for the Soul" series.
- The current, reigning high priest among the New World's psychogurus is Deepak Chopra, M.D.. ** See Deepak Chopra's Website. With scores of books and hundreds of audio/video series, Deepak is becoming one of the many messianic hopes of the global elites. His books include How To Know God: The Soul's Journey into the Mystery of Mysteries. 2000, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, and its sequel The Seven Spiritual Laws for Parents..  As both a psychiatrist (M.D.) and an east Indian Hindu, Chopra epitomizes the qualifications most respected now in the New World Order (2 Tim 3-4). With his counsel, humanism has found religion, evidenced by endorsements from respected university professors, Gorbachev, Benjamin Spock and countless others. All of Chopra's works are raw, evolutionary Hinduism thinly disguised in western terminology, and many of his 25 books have become New York Times Best-Sellers. His central message is that God is not a person, but a process in which you and I can achieve the state of "I AM" (p. 292). Sounds familiar doesn't it! And you shall be like God.
- It is the "way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death" (Pro 14:12)
- Chopra offers a Seven Stage Process to godhood. A person who reaches Chopra's Seventh Stage, will be able to say: "When I pray, I find that I am praying to myself" (p. 293).
- Brothers and sisters, this is not a fringe movement. It is now embraced by world leaders in science, politics, education, psychology, medicine, etc.. Listen to the praise given to Chopra and his book from the following sources:

Professor Rustum Roy, Evan Pugh Professor of the Solid
State Professor of Science, Technology and Society Professor
of Geochemistry Pennsylvania State
"It is a "cri de coeur" by one of the most brilliant minds of our time."

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, Author, Kosher Sex and An
Intelligent Person's Guide to Judaism
"For the thousand years which preceded modernity, the world was G-d
intoxicated. Theology was man's greatest pursuit embraced by the earth's
leading minds. Then along came mindnumbing soundbites about the deity-
"G-d is love," "May the Force be with you" - which propelled the
knowledge of G-d back to its infancy. Deepak Chopra's profound and
insightful book inspires us once again to apprehend G-d in all His majesty
and all His glory. Hats off to Deepak for restoring awe and mystery to the
grandest of all subjects."

Francis Stroud, S.J., Executive Director, DeMello Spirituality
Center, Fordham University
"Dr. Chopra with this work moves his many talents from the arena of the
medical, to the realm of the spiritual, and in so doing "awakens" our
consciousness which is what spirituality is all about in the first place."

Amit Goswami, Professor, Department of Physics, University
of Oregon, Scholar in Residence, Institute of Noetic Sciences
Author, The Self-Aware Universe: How Consciousness
Creates the Material World and Quantum Creativity: Waking
Up to Our Creative Potential
"There is a paradigm shift going on and Deepak Chopra, M.D. is one of
its most popular and eloquent spokesperson. In this new paradigm,
consciousness, popularly called God, is the ground of all being.
Opponents often ask, so how do I know this consciousness? Certainly
my ego is nothing like you describe! Now Chopra has given a very
readable response in HOW TO KNOW GOD. It is not easy to know
God, says Chopra correctly, because God is separated from us by a
discontinuity. Chopra explains this beautifully using quantum physics and
relativity theory. But you can know God with God's Grace, assures
Chopra, as he gives many steps to follow. If you want to investigate
Reality or God, especially if you are a beginner, this book will be of real
help."

The Dalai Lama (Leader of Tibetan Buddhism, worshipped by followers as deity)
"I congratulate Dr. Deepak Chopra for this wonderful book, reaching out
to many, many readers, on a subject of spirituality but with a scientific
approach. And I absolutely agree with Dr. Chopra's view that "if we want
to change the world, we have to begin by changing ourselves." This is the
same message that I have always been conveying."

Robert Thurman, Ph.D., Professor of Religion, Columbia
University
"The most important book about God for our times. Deepak Chopra is an
amazing combination of William James and Shankara. In this book he has
built for us a magical stairway to ascend to life changing experience of the
sacred, keeping our scientific outlook and an ever more open-heart and
mind."

Oscar Arias, President of Costa Rica, 1986-1990; 1987 Nobel
Peace Laureate
"Spiritual health and moral responsibility are two of the most precious gifts
that any leader can offer. Few thinkers have done as much as Deepak
Chopra to allow millions to embrace the project of personal and social
transformation. I agree completely with Dr. Chopra's insight that "if we
want to change the world, we have to begin by changing ourselves." In a
world where overcoming poverty, inequality, greed, and cynicism will be
the great human challenges of the 21st century, Deepak Chopra offers
life-affirming suggestions for developing a more just and peaceful society."

Mikhail Gorbachev, President, Former leader of the Soviet Union, Coordinator
of the State of the World Forum, which convenes annually in San Francisco in the
old military base, The Presidio. Citation of the Medal of the Presidency of the Italian Republic Awarded by the Pio Manzu International Scientific Committee
"A renowned physician and author, Deepak Chopra is undoubtedly one
of the most lucid and inspired philosophers of our times."

George Freeman Solomon, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry and
Biobehavioral Sciences, Emeritus University of California, Los Angeles
"In the tradition not only of William James but, especially, Carl Gustav
Jung, Deepak Chopra finds the soul where it belongs, an essential element
of being and links spirituality to human needs. In the spirit of Abraham
Maslow's "The Farther Reaches of Human Nature", he carries stages of
development/potentiality even beyond self-actualization and peak
experience. Chopra sees the soul as the culmination of an evolution that
enables man to find God. Most importantly, he puts ways of experiencing
God in a development sequence, ontogeny recapitulating phylogeny
spiritually as well as biologically. "God is a process." It is appropriate that
Deepak Chopra, who previously dealt with physical health now
approaches spirituality in a similarly inspired way, since growing evidence
suggest the two may be linked."

Candace B. Pert, PhD, Research Professor at Georgetown
University School of Medicine, Washington DC, Department
of Physiology and Biophysics, Author of Molecules of
Emotion: Why You Feel The Way You Feel
"Deepak has really done it this time---a brilliant, scholarly yet lyrical
synthesis of neuroscience, quantum physics, personal reminiscence,
Eastern, Western, and New Age spiritual thinking. Dr. Chopra's new
theory of seven stages of understanding God is extremely relevant to the
ongoing transformation in medicine today from the old soul-less paradigm
to the new one with spirituality and emotions occupying center stage. This
will be the Bible of the New Medicine, the scientifically accurate medicine
that will replace the dying reductionist old think.

2 Corinthians 11:13-15
"For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into
an angel of light.
Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works."

 

 

- I spent many confusing years following various New Age groups, theories, and teachers. From quantum physics to transpersonal psychology, this now dominating movement glitters with promises of a panacea for physical and spiritual struggles of every sort. And if Deepak is a master at anything, he has mastered the art of a silver tongued con man. His bottom line is, you can be like God. The con can't get any better than that. Of course it isn't new. It sounds strangely similar to the serpent in the Garden of Eden.
The above sermon outline illustrates the exponential rate at which the original lie of Lucifer is spreading. Maslow's self-actualization has been left behind in the dust as man now blatantly reaches toward self-deification with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength. Please think and plan strategically for your family, your church, and your various ministries, in order to make your Biblical message effective in countering this growing deception.

"See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the traditions of men, according to the elementary principles of this world, rather than according to Christ" Colossians 2:8-9

 

Time to wake up and smell the incense, brothers and sisters!

Matthew 4: Jesus vs. Lucifer (God's Way to Counter Dr. Lucifer's Sales Pitch)

- Jesus resisted Satan simply by submissively trusting His Father's Word.
- This is God's Way Home, The Way of His Son, Hypotasso Faith:

"Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil and he will free from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded." Jam 4:7-8

* For more information about Biblical Discipleship Counseling vs. psychologized "Christian" counseling, see the related articles on Counseling and New World Deceptions at:
http://www.soulcare.org/articles.htm#Counseling
http://www.soulcare.org/articles.htm#Deceptions