Evangelicals and MLM Essential Oils
Sorry Karen, Those "Oils of Ancient Scripture" aren't so "Biblical" after all.
Sigh.
Listen, even if you are an Evangelical who thinks I’m Satan and disagrees with everything I write about here and my positions on Christianity as a neo-ancient householder follower of the teachings of Yeshua the Jewish mystic (gnostic christian) I want you to hear me out on this today, please, PLEASE.
Everything I have to say here today is going to line up perfectly with your canonical bible. There’s not going to be anything here that you are going to say that I am “twisting” scripture or whatever.
When it comes to multi level marketing essential oils, it is the evangelical who is twisting the canonical bible that they claim not to twist.
Remember, according to you, God can use anyone to deliver his message, even the “unsaved”. And that is exactly what I am going to do here today.
Now I’m not going to get into the touchy subject of “moneychangers and merchandise in the church” which is exactly part of what I think is going on with the whole MLMs in evangelical churches thing. I’m not even going to argue on that front at all.
What I am going to argue today is the authenticity of what you are teaching in your “Oils in the Bible” classes that you run for all of the church ladies. Yes, it’s mostly church ladies who are promoting this so, this post is for you.
So let’s begin.
Yes there were many fragrant herbs that were used by ancient people in the Bible. Yes there were fragrant oils in the Bible. Yeshua’s feet were anointed in these, if you remember correctly, among other uses.
What did not exist in biblical times were the distilled and processed volatile “essential oils” we are familiar with today. Such as the “Oils of Ancient Scripture” sets sold by Young Living, a multi level marketing essential oils company, the oils you are using to teach these classes at your church and to sell / recruit other church members. These oils are 100% NOT BIBLICAL.
You see, the method of making volatile essential oils wasn’t invented until about 1000 years later, by a Muslim physician. The actual, authentic “oils of the Bible” were whole plants and whole plant resins steeped in olive oil to extract their properties and fragrances.
So….. in order to accurately represent the teachings of your canonical Bible on the use of fragrant herbal oils you cannot use a commercial essential oils product for this purpose. Because what you are actually teaching if you do is ancient Islamic medicine and philosophy. Wah Waaaa.
Sorry NOT Sorry!
Of course, there are even more problems than this with the Young Living “Oils of Ancient Scripture” in that the plants used to make a few of these oils aren’t even the correct native plants of the ancient region. I might go into all of that in another post, but for now, what you need to know is that if you are teaching and using essential oils, of any kind, really, even the non-MLM ones, you are teaching Islam. Straight up. And if that bothers you (and I know it does) then you need to stop doing it.
There’s nothing wrong with having an interest in the ancient ways of doing things or the plants in the Bible. I personally do not have a problem with essential oils, per-se, what I have a problem with is essential oils being taught as “Biblical” or as coming from the ancient Biblical era.
If you want to teach about oils in the Bible you are going to need to learn the about oils in the Bible. What the actual plants and resins were, and how to make the oils.
I’m actually going to offer a class on this very subject soon. But I have a feeling that a lot of you aren’t going to like it. And not because I’m not going to be strictly canonical Bible about it or say anything that disagrees with evangelical doctrines, but because I AM going to be strictly canonical Bible about it and say nothing that disagrees with evangelical doctrines.
The problem you are going to have with my “Oils of the Bible” course is that it’s not going to generate sales and recruitment into your MLM. Not that it is unscriptural or not in line with evangelical doctrines.
It’s going to be a simple workbook course with a lecture for you to share at your church that uses free or low cost materials to make the oils. Making fragrant oils in the ancient Biblical times was a simple method that anyone can do at home, and it can even be mostly free if you grow any of the authentic herbs described in scripture. And that is going to cut into your MLM sales and recruitment.
Sorry NOT Sorry!
I suggest you pray about it and think very carefully about what Yeshua would say!