TSIYON NEWS

As I began to write this newsletter I thought it would be interesting to see what the psychologists think about spirituality. I found this quote at the Psychology Today web site:

"An instinct toward spirituality appears to be deeply ingrained in humans. We can't help but ask big questions: Research finds that even declared religious skeptics can't stifle a sense that there is something greater than the physical world they see."

Psychology is, of course, not hard science, but a sort of pseudoscience involving a lot of changing human opinion. Normally psychology looks to the theory of evolution as the source of the human mind. Evolution is completely mechanistic with nothing spiritual in view. That makes this quote acknowledging 'an instinct toward spirituality' somewhat of an uncomfortable admission of the possibility of something higher beyond a merely mechanistic world. Of course, that's the limit of how far psychology can go on the topic, although there seems to be some bias among individual psychologists toward eastern religion, rather than acknowledging our Creator.

Why eastern religion? I think it is because eastern religions, though worshiping many deities, do not require anyone to be responsible to the Creator. This is much more comfortable for those who have some "instinct toward spirituality" while not desiring to be responsible to God. It is not only psychologists that adopt eastern religion for this reason - a lot of professional people, and others, do. This is a deception because 'spirituality' that leaves out the Holy Spirit - God - must involve some other spirit. That can only be demonic spirits such as those Yeshua cast out of the demonically possessed. In fact, practice of eastern religion has been known to bring on exactly that outcome.

In the Bible, worship or practices involved with spirits other than our Creator are synonymous with 'spiritism.'  In turn, the original Greek word for this in Scripture is 'pharmakeia' - the same word that our English 'pharmacy' comes from. Here is the definition of that word:

G5331 - pharmakeia
Thayer Greek Dictionary Definition:
1) the use or the administering of drugs
2) poisoning
3) sorcery, magical arts, often found in connection with idolatry and fostered by it
4) metaphorically the deceptions and seductions of idolatry

Historically speaking, it is interesting that spiritism and drugs (with those who administer them or use them) linguistically are connected. In keeping with the connection between healers and spiritism, you will often find spiritistic practices, such as eastern meditation, advocated and sold by healers, often bringing in some pseudoscientific psychology as well.   At any rate, what the world calls "spirituality" is something other than the true spirituality experienced by those who walk with Messiah in the Holy Spirit. When we say The Spiritual Life we are talking about a life lived in harmony with none other than the Holy Spirit in view.