Nuggets from Occult Invasion—“Spiritual” Is Where You Find It | thebereancall.org

Dave Hunt

Phil Jackson considers basketball to be a very “spiritual” pursuit. He writes of the “link between spirit and sports.” By “spirit” or “spiritual” he obviously means something entirely different from biblical Christianity. And his new spirituality with its new acceptability by the world has opened up to him seemingly infinite possibilities that have liberated him from the narrow-mindedness of his youthful upbringing.

Jackson acknowledges that there is a spiritual dimension to existence. He has experienced, and it works, even to the extent of producing championship basketball teams! No longer, however, is true spirituality defined by the Bible. The very concept of something being true and something else false has been discarded. Spirituality, for Jackson, is a vast realm to be explored and experienced. He refers to “my two greatest passions: basketball and spiritual exploration.”

Yes, exploration! What possibilities that thought opens for wandering wide-eyed through exotic landscapes along a variety of paths made possible through the rejection of the Bible as God’s Word and infallible guide! And who cares where one path or another may lead? The excitement is in the discovery. All that matters is the experience of limitless exploration.

This new respectability which the world grants to a generic spirituality (so long as it isn’t Christianity) has allowed Phil Jackson (like multitudes of others) to reject what he thinks is Christianity without any sense of guilt. His embrace of all religions has clouded any understanding he may ever have had of Christianity.

Jackson equates faith in oneself with faith in God. In the occult we are each god. Declaring that the Bulls “certainly had faith in themselves in 1991-92,” he writes, “You have to trust your inner knowing.” Amazingly, he confuses one’s inner knowing with “what St. Paul called faith: ‘the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen’ (Hebrews:11:1).”

On the contrary, Paul specifically said that he had no confidence in himself or in anyone else (Philippians:3:3). Repeatedly the Bible warns against trusting in any man, including one’s own self. Solomon wrote, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding” (Proverbs:3:5). Jeremiah warned, “Cursed be the man that trusteth in man…and whose heart departeth from the Lord” (Jeremiah:17:5). Jesus said, “Have faith in God” (Mark:11:22).