What is Christianity's take on Kabbalah?

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There are many people who self-identify as Christians, who are also 'into' Kabbalah'. There are probably many more who have never even heard of Kabbalah, and a good many more still who would express alarm at the very idea of any Christian getting involved in Kabbalah. That is why such a broad-ranging questions needs to be narrowed down (scoped) to a specific group within Christianity.

My answer is that of a Christian who would be alarmed at a Christian trying to mix Kabbalah up with Christianity. First, a bit of background about the origins of Kabbalah is helpful.

Kabbalah only developed between the 6th and 13th centuries A.D. among the Jews in Babylonia, Italy, Provence, and Spain. This means that it never existed in the time of Jesus. The word “Kabbalah” means "to receive" and it claims that revelations from God were 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 secret knowledge from God as to the "true" meaning of Scriptures. Kabbalah uses occult practices, which, in itself, goes against the scriptures God gave to the Jews, way back in the time of Moses.

Kabbalah is similar to Greek Gnosticism. Both groups believed that only a select few were given deeper understanding or knowledge. But Kabbalah teaches that “emanations” from God did the work of creation, denying that creation was a creative act directly from God. This, again, goes against the scriptures given to Moses. It claims that God created a lesser god, which then created an even lesser god, and this kept happening until the end result was angels. Kabbalah is big on angels but Christians are warned in the Bible not to go down that road of angel adoration - Colossians 2:18.

Ideas about 'a demi-urge' or 'Sefirot' are all linked. In a 1548 Postel the Sefirot world is shown in the form of a menorah (a 7-branched candlestick). The Sefirot are the 10 divine emanations through which adherents to this mystical tradition believe the finite universe and its creatures are sustained. The Bible holy texts do not support any of that, and the New Testament in particular openly condemned such gnostic, mystical ideas that were trying to infiltrate the new Christian church

Kabbalah even has a pantheistic characteristic. Pantheism is the idea that God and his creation are one. This is not what God has told us in the Bible, nor did Jesus teach that. Finally, it denies the deity of Christ and the necessity of faith in him as the only means of salvation - this is the core teaching of Christianity.

See the link below for the source and more links.
http://www.gotquestions.org/Kabbalah.html

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