Keys to the Kingdom: Jesus & the Mystic Kabbalah

Rating:
Summary: Amazing interpretation of Jesus!
Review: Before this book if you had asked me about Jesus I would have said yes I believe in him. But that belief was one of uncomfortable distance, if only due to the modern relgion attached to this icon. I knew there was truth in his teachings and this book helped shed so much light on them. It re-lit my passion to serve him and in turn all of mankind in the small ways I can. The breakdown of the Lord's prayer and how it was based on the Tree of Life was astounding. Included the Sephiriot and the Paths are all shown in light of the teachings of Jesus which added another profound layer onto an already profound system.

Also included the author gives a breakdown on why certain things believed in modern christianity just can not be true if in fact Jesus was the Messiah. This section many will disagree with, however that doesn't discount it as a valid theory. The Messaih was a Jewish concept and Jesus was a Jew therefore it would make sence that he would adhere to both Jewish law and the laws set forth by the Messianic standard.

All in all extremely enjoyable read that can take you places in your faith you might never have expected. I can't give enough praise to it.

Rating:
Summary: She missed the point!
Review: I really do not like to give such a bad review, however, "Keys to the Kingdom" is a very big disappointment. Based on Gonzalez-Wippler's other book, "Kabbalah for the Modern World", which I thought was not bad, I ordered 10 copies of "Keys to the Kingdom" hoping to give them out as gifts or hand them out to my Cabala students. Unfortunately, after getting all 10 books, I have discovered that Gonsalez-Wippler has totally missed the point. As usual, there a number of smaller points in which I feel she is in error, but that is the case with any two people looking at the same subject. The major problem is; Gonsalez-Wippler denies the death and resurrection of Christ and hence, misses the one and most important, "truly" Cabalistic meaning of Christ. Christ's mission was three-fold. First, it was sapiential in two aspects. One, Christ taught us how to live. Secondly and thirdly, as Paul taught, we are to receive the "grace" of God, which is both the "forgiveness of sin", but also the "power over sin", which is itself a sapiential aspect, in that God directs the disciple by way of the Holy Spirit, in the proper way of living, along the path of Sanctification. In my opinion, Gonzalez-Wippler has totally missed the point on at least two of these important issues. Because so much seems to be misunderstood by Gonzales-Wippler, I can only give this book 1 star. Who knows what I will do with the 10 copies I have of this book... Perhaps I will run a course on the dangers of Cabalistic study without the assistance of the Holy Spirit.

Mike Shaw
teacher of Christian Cabala