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Rosicrucianism and Christianity

1. The Nature of God

It is a historic affirmation of Rosicrucianism that God is an impersonal being, composed of seven spirits, which manifest themselves as a "triune godhead," or, Father,Son and Holy Spirit. Lest there be any doubt on the subject, Heindel, in one of his many books, declares:

...The seven spirits before the throne...collectively, they are God and make up the triune godhead...the Father is the highest initiate among the humanity of the Satrun.. The Son is the initiate of the Sun ...the Holy Spirit (Jehovah) is the highest initiate of the Moon...

In such a semantic jungle, the nature of God, the holy Trinity, or Triune Deity of Biblical revelation undergoes total, if not complete, mutilation. It becomes a type of occult pantheism, cluminating in an impersonal spirit-being, who is"collectively"God.

The Rosicrucians believe the the Trinity portrays aspects of God:

...the only begotten, the Word of whom John speaks, is the second aspect of the Supreme Being. The word, and it alone, is begotten of His Father, first aspect before all worlds...Therefore, the Only Begotten is exalted Bing which ranks above all else in the universe, save only the Power aspect, which created it.

For the Rosicrucians, the Holy Spirit is Jehovah, the third aspect of the triune Godhead. But in the sense of Christian theology, these definitions are meaningless, since the Bible declares unequivocally that God is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, three divine Persons, all sharing the same nature and attributes, conexistent, conequal, and above all else, personal. The Lord Himself declared:

And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. (Exodus 3:14)

The Christian doctrine of the Trinity then, cannot be equated with the Rosicrucian caricature of it, although it is significant that Rosicrucians do usually bend over backward as it were, in an attempt to make their pantheistic theology sound Christian, thus idenifying it with the predominant form of religion in the United States, which is the Christian religion. They are equally at home among the Buddhists, Hindus or Mohammedans, and can adapt their theology much like chameleons adapt the color of their skins, to the protective coloration of the theological climate in which they find themselves. Such passages as:

Matthew 28:19 - Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
John 14:16 - And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
John 14:26 - But the Comforter, [which is] the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
Luke 1:35 - And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
John 1:1 - In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:14 - And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
Col 2:9 - For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
Acts 5:3-4 - But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back [part] of the price of the land? Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.

2. The Nature and work of Jesus Christ

As Rosicrucianism stands opposed to the historic Christian doctrine of the Trinity, so also it opposes the true divinity of the Lord Jesus. Rosicrucianism teaches that Jesus Christ was not Jesus nor the only begotton Son of God. Instead, Jesus was man, the highest luminary possible. The Christ spirit was a manifestation of the cosmic Christ and the only the begooton is "an exalted being which ranks above all else in the universe, save only the Power aspect which created it.

1John 4:1-3 - Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. 2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: 3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that [spirit] of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

It is obvious then, that as Christian Science divides Jesus and Christ, into Jesus an apparent manifextation if manhood indwelled by a Christ-consciousness or idea, so Rosicrucianism employs the same type of spiritual schizophrenia and ends, as does Christian Science and all the Gnostic cults, with a divided Messiah.

In the philosophy of Rosicrucianism, "the Christ-spirit which entered the body of Jesus when Jesus Himself vacated it, was a ray fromthe cosmic Christ. We may follow Jesus back in His previous incarnations ans can trace His growthe to the present day."

Jesus Christ, in the theology of the Rosicrucians, "was a spirit belonging to our human evolution, and so was Gautama Buddha, " a theology which makes no allowance for the incarnation of the only God in the Person of the man from Nazareth.

John 1:1,14,18 - In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
14. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
18. No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared [him].

Christianity and Rosicrucianism can never be reconciled because the former declares the absolute ans unique Deity of the central figure of all history, and the latter relegates Him to a pantheon of incarnate deities or spirits. Our Lord vigorously denied such inferences when He stated, concerning His own mission: " All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them" (John 10:8).

The Christ of Holy Scripture cannot be divided and subdivided into pantheistic and Gnostic segments. He refuses to be considered one of many equally good ways, or a mere aspect of the truth. Instead, it is His declaration that He is the Life itself, and as such, the only Way and the Truth. It is folly of the highest orderto attempt to equate the Christ of revelation with the Christ of Rosicrucianism. For Heindel's Christ, and the Christ of the, brotherhood," is in really, "another Jesus" (2 Corinthians 11:4), the creation of a fertile imagination and a broad intellect (Heindel) projected into the twentieth century, infused with occult and mystical teachings, and lightly coated with Biblical terminology. He is a clever counterfeit, but neverthless, he is a counterfeit!

It is unnecessary to point out the Rosicrucian concept of the atonement, since for them it is not vicarious, in the sense that Christ paid the penalty for all sin. The primary reason is that they do not believe that Jesus was the Christ.

It is the teaching of the Holy Scriptures the there is but one God (Deuteronomy 6:4; Galatians 3:20), and that to know Him and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, is to possess life eternal (John 17). The Rosicrucian Fellowship does not know Him; it does not accept His vicarious sacrifice for all sin ( Isaiah 53), and substitutes reincarnations, through various spheres of progressive perfection, all a product of cosmic evolution.