These people were Christians! Commanded by our Lord and Savior JESUS CHRIST!!!
Actually, there were no Christians at that time - there were Jews. There was no Church yet. Christians came when the Church was established. And again, Christ's "commands" (not "commandments" - big difference) were to individuals about what to do or not do in a certain situation. He wasn't telling them to hide spiritual knowledge or theology from those who ask. Huge, huge difference from occultism.
Then by your assessment, Christ was an occultist because of His words "don't cast your pearls before swine". Let alone the OT practices which God commanded.
No, the verse saying to not give that which is holy to the dogs or to cast your pearls before swine is simply saying that you don't have to and shouldn't continue to spread the Gospel to those who have no serious intention of listening and only use it to mock. That's not hiding information, that's just avoiding a waste of time. If a Christian shares the Gospel and after a few times the person or people he is sharing it with does nothing but mock then he is wasting his time, casting pearls before swine. What it DOES NOT mean is to hide parts of what we are taught and divulge certain other parts. It does not mean "discuss this, but do not discuss these things because they are 'too sacred'". You'll never see in the Bible that anything is "too sacred" to discuss.
According to your OP it is. In fact, a priest's vow not to disclose things (such as during confession) is a systematic example of this done routinely. According to your thesis (keeping secrets = occult), that would make all Christian priests systematic occultists.
A person's confession to a priest is not theology or dogma. It is not scripture. It is not Church teaching. It is a private confession between one person and his priest. It's not "keeping secrets = occult" - it's it's keeping spiritual knowledge, such as dogma, theology, teaching, etc. secret which is occultic. Keeping personal information secret is not occultic. Occultism pertains to spirituality, not personal confidential information.
That's not the occult. That's like saying that doctors are occultists because they have to keep their patient's information hidden from others due to doctor-patient privilege. No, there are reasons for confidentiality when dealing with an individual's personal information.
Personally I find such an outrageous accusation to offensive and laughably off base.
Well I think it's because you misunderstood - you thought that I was saying ALL secrets or secret-keeping is occultism, but that's not what I said, and now I've explained it further, again, above. So no, it's not offensive or laughably off base because it's true. Mormonism is an occultic religion; ceremonies are kept hidden until someone is deemed worthy to have them revealed to them.