Book Review:
Crime Of The Calf
A Port Jefferson Station, New York, pastor, Sheila R. Vitale leads Living Epistles Ministries and is well known as a Christian author. Sheila R. Vitale also heads Christ-Centered Kabbalah, which combines the teachings of Lurianic Kabbalah and Christian doctrine.
Her offerings at www.christ-centeredkabbalah.org include “The Crime of the Calf,” an exposition of Exodus 32. In Exodus 32:1-6, Moshe (Moses) takes too long to return to his people from Mount Sinai, where he receives the Ten Commandments. Aharon (Aaron) orders the Israelites to remove their gold earrings and from them creates an idol in the shape of a calf. An altar is created for this calf and offerings are made, followed by revelry. This constitutes a sin of spiritual and emotional weakness, and false idolatry of leaders.
Following Moses’ disappearance, allegiance is transferred to Aaron, due to the Israelites’ negative feelings such as fear and ignorance. This in turn leads them back into sin. When Moses returns from the mountain of God to the material world, he alerts the people of their terrible sin, and shows the multitudes how they can easily fall into the trap of idolizing their leaders.
The creation and worship of idols is equated with spiritual adultery because idols are false gods, so Moses ascends before Jehovah to seek atonement for the crime of the calf. Jehovah's judgment is that a plague will be visited upon a future generation of the people of Israel. But Jehovah's mercy ultimately prevails in the form of an internalized angel which guides the individual Israelite with the same wisdom and personal direction that Moses received from Jehovah when he was the ruling authority over “the generation in the wilderness.”
Pastor Vitale’s extensively footnoted writings offer an informed interpretation of Exodus, Chapter 32, including an alternate translation.
Book Review:
Curse Of The Concubine
Sheila R. Vitale leads Living Epistles Ministries and is a noted Christian pastor and author who has developed alternate translations of select verses of the Old Testament. Born a Jew of secular parents, Sheila R. Vitale was touched by God as a child following a chronic illness that came close to killing her. Today, she also leads Christ-Centered Kabbalah and focuses on approaches to the Bible that incorporate the principles of Kabbalah, an ancient Jewish tradition.
She presents numerous writings at www.christ-centeredkabbalah.org, including “The Curse of the Concubine,” which presents her interpretation of a nightmarish dream. Pastor Vitale was surprised to learn from the book of Daniel that God sometimes communicates in ways that generate a sense of horror to the natural man. The nightmare she experienced happened after she read the account of Gideon in the Book of Judges in the King James Bible.
Tested by God, Gideon’s faith stays strong and he becomes a judge of Israel who raises an army, battles the Midianites, and creates peace where there was previously oppression. At the same time he has 70 legal sons through multiple wives and at least one illegitimate son through a concubine. The Scripture talks of the envy that this illegitimate son, Abimelech, experiences toward the power and respect of his righteous brothers, and of the good fortune enjoyed by Israel.
Abimelech leads the men of Shechem to slay all of Gidgeon’s legitimate sons but one. This one righteous son calls down a curse upon Abimelech and the men of Shechem for their evil deeds. Pastor Vitale goes on to explore her nightmare as it relates to this passage of Scripture. She interprets this vision in part as relating to a great schism that will appear within the Arab world, leading to military conflict and bloodshed, and ultimately to their conversion to Christianity.
Book Review:
The Upper & Lower Courts
Pastor Sheila R. Vitale maintains an active presence as founder of Living Epistles Ministries and has published numerous Christian books, including "The Woman In The Well.”
Sheila R. Vitale also directs Christ-Centered Kabbalah, which focuses on revealing Christ as Messiah in the Kabbalah, a form of ancient Jewish learning and tradition.
Her works are accessible at www.christ-centeredkabbalah.org and include “Divine Justice, The Upper & The Lower Courts,” which is an unedited transcript of CCK Message #545. A key facet of this message is that there is no male or female in Christ Jesus and words that refer to sexual identity, in reality, only reference spiritual principles.
In conceptualizing Divine Justice, Pastor Vitale writes of two sets of five Sefirot (Rings of Power) each, called the upper and lower court, which are connected with each other. When all 10 Sefirot are connected a human being will no longer experience sickness or death, as occurred with the eternal life of Jesus Christ. When the two sets of five (ten total) Sefirot are disconnected, a person lives a natural life and then dies.
At the same time, these Sefirot can render various levels of judgment in the upper court and lower court. When a single Sefirah is not properly unified, it results in destruction in one’s life, because the spiritual unity that perfects the man is lost.
Yet all is not lost when disunion reigns, as there is still the possibility of God reversing rendered judgments. This provides great hope for those who seek to contact the Lord to experience his mercy and forgiveness from sin.
Book Review:
Gate of Reincarnations
A respected Christian pastor, Sheila R. Vitale leads Living Epistles Ministries and Christ-Centered Kabbalah. Through both organizations Sheila R. Vitale publishes works on various aspects of the Bible and Kabbalah, including alternate translations of selected verses of the Scripture. She offers a host of free classroom resources at www.Living Epistles.org and www.christ-centeredkabbalah.org.
Messages on Rabbi Chayyim Vital's Gate of ReincarnationS may be found on the latter website. Pastor Vitale takes an existing Hebrew to English translation and renders a unique interpretation of the English translation. She creates a new English translation that focuses on the moment when the Holy Spirit enters a person and the Personality of the glorified Messiah is reborn within that person. It is her opinion that Rabbi Isaac Luria, the author of the original material, is speaking of a new birth of restored, fallen Adam, within the mortal (fallen) man.
When a person is born, the Nefesh (lowest of five grades of soul) enters him. In cases where he has rectified his Nefesh sufficiently by his 13th year, his Ruach (the second of five grades of soul), enters and he becomes a "completed person.” The Neshamah (third of five grades of soul) enters after he completes the 20th year, provided the Ruach is completely rectified. In cases where the Nefesh is not rectified, it is reincarnated as many times as is necessary until it is adequately rectified.
It is Pastor Vitale's opinion (not Rabbi Luria's or Rabbi Vital's) that this reincarnation cycle reflects the death of the First Adam to his immortality and the curse that was placed upon him for disobedience. The rule of reincarnation does not reflect God's Will, but the Law of the underworld Snake system into which Adam and his descendants fell as a result of Jehovah's curse, which is administered by Satan.
Book Review:
Three Israels
The main thrust of this author's work is that spiritual Israel has inhabited or dwelt within three different nations. The first nation to embody the Nation of Israel was the African or black people. Their leader was Nimrod and he brought the Israelite faith all the way to Egypt where in the Israelites dwelt. Now we have heard that the first Israelites were black and coming from the Middle East they would have had to have been very dark. MANY Jews today have dark feature even the European ones. But in the authors view the Africans lost the right to Israelite nationhood based on the fact that they practiced witchcraft and had hubris. A bit of She states that the Africans are lost in a permanent state of spiritual decay due to their sin of witchcraft, and can only rise out of it through Jesus Christ.
The seed then passed on to the sons of Jacob. Jacob as you know married Aesanat daughter of Potipher, an Egyptian priest. It was through Ephraim and Manasseh that the line carries on. The line of Moses did not continue through his two sons because of their lack of righteousness. Rather it went through Joshua as he was considered married in a spiritual nonphysical way to Moses. The author goes on to say that Jacob unrightfully stole the blessing from Esau because he was convinced by his feminine spiritual nature to do so. He did God’s will, but in the wrong way.
There is somewhat of an interesting opinion on spirituality. The author claims that the feminine is stronger but less disciplined while the male half is not as strong but has more discipline. Later on the spiritual seed passed on through the church of Christ which grafts many nations to its enormous tree trunk. The khazars are also considered legitimate Jews despite the fact that they are not true Israelites, but converted no less.
I am giving this book an extra star for some interesting thought on masculine and feminine spirituality.
