Hegelain Dialectics

Hegelian dialectics is based on the formula “thesis-antithesis-synthesis,” which is the formula that has most influentially corrupted society and Christianity today.

Who is Hegel? Dean Gotcher wrote, “Although Georg Hegel, of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, did not directly use the word dialectic, his system for cosmic unity was built upon this Kabalistic, Gnostic, Hermetic structure, and he is most noted for its popularity.”¹⁾Dean Gotcher, The Dialectic & Praxis: Diaprax and the End of the Age, Institution for Authority Research, Vol. 2, 2004, p. 1 Glenn Alexander Magee remarked, “What is so striking is how indebted Hegel obviously is to Hermeticism.” ²⁾Glenn Alexander Magee, Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition, Cornell University, 2001, p. 110 Helena Blavatsky, who is responsible for birthing the modern New Age movement, referred to “the great metaphysican Hegel”³⁾Helena P. Blavatsky The Secret Doctrine: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy (Centenial Edition), Theosophical University Press, 1888, 1988, Vol. 1, p. 257 and that the “fine philosophical remarks of Hegel are found to have their application in the teaching of Occult science…”⁴⁾Helena P. Blavatsky The Secret Doctrine: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy (Centenial Edition), Theosophical University Press, 1888, 1988, Vol. 1, p. 641 John Burbidge indicated the writing of his occult philosophy “came at a time when Hegel was frequenting the company of known Masons, some of them graduates of the banned Illuminati.”⁵⁾John Burbidge in the introduction to Jacques D’Hondt, Hegel in his Time, (trans. John Burbidge) Lewiston, N.Y.: Broadview Press, 1988, p. xi; as cited by Glenn Alexander Magee, Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition, Cornell University, 2001, p. 130

George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) himself never used this formula thesis-antithesis-synthesis, but rather cited his own as “Abstract-Negative-Concrete” or “Immediate-Mediated-Concrete.” Hegel’s formula presents the faculty of an “abstract” (i.e. incomplete or immature, unformed) object or thought presented with its “negative” (i.e. its errors or inconsistencies) will cause it purged and purified form, “concrete” (i.e. solid impenetrable and immovable). The modern expression “thesis-antithesis-synthesis” presented by Emanual Kant (1724-1804), bares the idea that the “thesis” (the truth) presented with its “antithesis” (the opposites of the truth-a lie) can be merged together to form the “synthesis” (a compromised synchronizing of the truth and error). This synthesis is viewed as a higher form of truth which then becomes the new thesis and can follow endlessly the cycle of antithesis and synthesis as an evolving truth always getting greater. This would indicate there really is no truth outside of this philosophy of an evolving truth.

We must first note that truth is absolute and exclusive. Truth must be absolute or it would not be absolutely true, hence not truth. Furthermore, it must be exclusive. By excluding all errors is the only way it could be absolute truth. The apostle John wrote “No Lie is of the Truth” (1 John 2:21). He later wrote, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth” (3 John 4). “The dialectic does not concern itself at each step with truth.” ⁶⁾Glenn Alexander Magee, Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition, Cornell University Press, 2001, p. 98 David Cloud stated, “For the Bible believer, the Bible is THE infallible thesis, and every antithesis is to be rejected and no synthesis allowed!”⁷⁾David Cloud, The New Age Tower of Babel, Way of Life Literature, 2008, p. 444 John Goetsch assured us, “God is not looking for blenders but rather defenders of His inspired, inerrant, infallible, and preserved Word.” ⁸⁾John Goetsch, Contemporary Compromise: Standing for Truth in an Age of Deception, Striving Together Publications, 2010, p. 17 Peter Jones accurately assessed, “Relativity, compromise and civility without principle have replaced the antithetical, black-and-white thinking of the Scripture.”⁹⁾Peter Jones, Pagans in the Pews, Regal Books, 2001, p. 16 Thus the dialectic thinking is inevitably to enter moral relativity as represented in the recent popular books made into movie entitled Fifty Shades of Grey. The premise is that there is no longer  black or white, right or wrong, morality but that the right and wrong ethics can be synthesized to form any one of these fifty shades of grey. This produces perverse, pornographic, promotion of promiscuity for a tantalizing entertainment indoctrinating millions into moral relativity and ultimately the decadency of civilization.

This philosophy can be seen influencing Christianity when we reference  recent history of the battle between the liberals and fundamentalists in the early 1900s. The liberals rejected the Bible as authentic and preach a systematic secularization of Christianity while they played church. The fundamentalists believed the Bible at all points and called for a complete separation from liberalism and the moral depravity of secular society. In 1948 Harold J. Ockenga dubbed the phrase “New Evangelicalism,” also called “Neo Evangelicalism,” and by the later 60s-early 70s it was simply known as “evangelicalism” as it is commonly referred to today. Harold Ockenga writing the foreword for Harold Lindsell’s  1976 book The Battle for the Bible stated the purpose of their division from the fundamentalists.

Neo-Evangelicalism differed from modernism in its acceptance of the supernatural and its emphasis on the fundamental doctrines of Scripture…. It differed from fundamentalism in its repudiation of separation and its determination to engage itself in the theological dialogue of the day. It had a new emphasis upon the application of the gospel to the sociological, political and economic areas of life.¹⁰⁾Harold Ockenga, in Harold Lindsell, The Battle for the Bible, Zondervan (Grand Rapids, MI: 1976, 1978), Foreword-unnumbered page

So instead of simply believing the Bible, New Evangelicalism’s major points was to dialogue with the liberal and neo-orthodox heretics, as well as allowing current event of sociological and political significance to influence their theology and interpretation of the Bible. This was a synthesis of secular views and events to Christianity as Ockenga admitted, saying, “Neo-evangelicals emphasized the restatement of Christian theology in accordance with the need of the times, the reengagement in the theological debate, the recapturing of denominational leadership, and the reexamination of theological problems such as the antiquity of man, the universality of the Flood, God’s method of creation, and others.”¹¹⁾Harold Ockenga, in Harold Lindsell, The Battle for the Bible, Zondervan (Grand Rapids, MI: 1976, 1978), Foreword-unnumbered page

In 1994, Mark A. Knoll, Professor of Christian Thought at Wheaton College (a leading New evangelical school), wrote The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, in which he lamented over the influence of fundamentalism in the New evangelicals thinking to take the Bible as the literal word of God and being interpreted literal instead of seeking a synthesis with secular philosophies in assessing current events and theology. He wrote:

Yet since evangelicalism has remained a deeply populist movement, the most visible forms of political reflection have still been intuitive–carried on without a serious recourse of self-conscious theological construction, systematic moral philosophy, thorough historical analysis, or careful social scientific research. At the same time, however, from the 1940s [when New evangelicalism arose] there have been a growing number of exceptions to the intuitive character of evangelical politics. For several reasons having to do with the evangelical mosaic itself, significant, if still preliminary, steps have been taken toward self-conscious, critical, and theological informed political thought.¹²⁾Mark A. Knoll, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, Wm.B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., (Grand Rapids, MI: 1994) p. 169

This may sound good in his phrasing, but what he is essentially stating is that Christians need to look to secular philosophers of morality to tells us how we should reinterpret the Bible’s teaching on ethics. Cast away the black or white, right or wrong thinking which has been influenced from a literal interpretation of Scriptures, and desire a reconstructed morality and political view based upon the contemporary philosophers of ethics. Perhaps abortion is not so bad if the secular scientist say life does not start until a certain time of fetal development.Or maybe we should all jump on the socialist bandwagon so we can all live economically equal.

Mark Knoll claims, “Evangelicals display a gnostic strand when we treat the Bible as if it were an esoteric code to be deciphered as a way of obtaining privileged information about the creation of the natural world, the disposition of historical events, or the unfolding of the future.”¹³⁾Mark A. Knoll, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, Wm.B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., (Grand Rapids, MI: 1994) p. 52 But the Bible is the inerrant word of God. It is the privileged information from God Himself, revealing His method of creation, accurate in its recording of historical events, and always dependable to believe when it speaks of what will unfold in the future. Gnosticism was never a movement of believing the Bible, but rather a synthesis of the pagan culture and philosophies with biblical terminology. Nicola Denzey Lewis wrote the only current existing college level text book on Gnosticism for Oxford from a neo-Gnostic sympathetic perspective. She writes about how Gnosticism is a hybrid religious perspective known for synthesis interfaith tendency. “People who have been labeled Gnostic were often really best characterized not as Gnostic at all, but as pro-assimilationists. …as being experimental about blending Christianity and Roman [pagan] traditions.”¹⁴⁾Nicola Denzey Lewis, Introduction to “Gnosticism,” Oxford University Press (Oxford N.Y.: 2013), p. 46 “Greek philosophy, Egyptian, Christian, and Jewish ideas; figures from Greek mythology; and bits of magical traditions all mixed together, evidently coming from a fairly eclectic social environment.”¹⁵⁾Nicola Denzey Lewis, Introduction to “Gnosticism,” Oxford University Press (Oxford N.Y.: 2013), p. 133 “Platonism was the dominate philosophical school of the Roman Empire and had the greatest impact on what some scholars call Gnosticism. Modern scholars have long recognized this relationship between Gnosticism and Platonism…”¹⁶⁾Nicola Denzey Lewis, Introduction to “Gnosticism,” Oxford University Press (Oxford N.Y.: 2013), p. 246-247 New Evangelicalism is a modern form of Gnosticism and is essentially the view that will lead to the one-world apostate church of the antichrist.¹⁷⁾see Heath Henning, “Antichrist will be Gnotic,” https://truthwatchers.com/antichrist-will-be-gnostic/

Glenn Alexander Magee acknowledged, “Hegel continued to insist that a new philosophy could have an effect on religion, making it truer to its own essence. Hegel’s view, which remained unchanged throughout his career, was that a complete philosophy would take on a form that would make it accessible in varying degrees to everyone.”¹⁸⁾Glenn Alexander Magee, Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition, Cornell University, 2001, p. 84 Just as Hegel was a Hermeticist, so one of the major schools of Gnosticism was the Hermetic school.¹⁹⁾see Jean-Pierre Mahe, “Hermetic Religion,” in The Nag Hammadi Scriptures: The Revised and Updated Translation of Sacred Gnostic Texts Complete in One Volume, (ed. Marvin Meyer) HarpeOne Publishers (New York, NY: 2007),p. 795-798 Hermeticism is essentially panentheisism, a blending of the transcendent view of God (as represented in the Bible) and a pantheistic view of God (as represented most popularly in Hinduism or other Eastern religions espousing the idea that everything is God).²⁰⁾see Heath Henning, “Panenthiesm (Part 1),” https://truthwatchers.com/panentheism/; and “Panentheism (Part 2),” https://truthwatchers.com/panentheism-part-2/ This dialectic philosophy has been introduced by Benjamin Bloom into the educational system which all teaching accredited professionals have been trained by his methods for many generations now, even christian educators.²¹⁾see Heath Henning, “Education: A Brief History and Cause of Decadency (Part 4),” https://truthwatchers.com/education-a-brief-history-and-cause-of-decadency-part-4/ The influence of Christianity can be seen most emphatically with the Emergent Church movement, ²²⁾see Heath Henning, “Leonard Sweet: Emergent Church New Age Influence,” https://truthwatchers.com/leonard-sweet-emergent-churchs-new-age-influence/ or the synthesis of satanic rock music with Christianity,²³⁾see Heath Henning, “Why Contemperary Christian Rock Music is NOT Christian,” https://truthwatchers.com/why-contemporary-christian-music-is-not-christian/ and blending humanistic psychology with the Bible to form the heresy of “Christian Psychology.”²⁴⁾see Heath Henning, “Why Psychology cannot be Christian (Part 1),” https://truthwatchers.com/why-psychology-cannot-be-christian-part-1/; and “Why Psychology cannot be Christian (Part 2),” https://truthwatchers.com/why-psychology-cannot-be-christian-part-2/

It should be easy to understand that this influence of Hegelian Dialectics can not be under estimated as it is the widespread philosophy of the average person today without them even knowing it. Its effects are diverse but unifying with an interfaith mentality, rejection of truth, loosening of ones morals to relativism, abhorrence of sound epistemology, and a deconstruction of a biblical worldview. It is the preliminary and preparatory paradigm for the resurgence of the Gnostic religion which will be the antichrist’s world religion.

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If you liked this article, you may also be interested in Crept In Unawares: Mysticism by Heath Henning is available for purchase here.