New Age

[Chad]

New Age Movement

The expression “New Age” came into existence in the 1970s and 1980s. It was encouraged along by the circulation of the New Age Journal, and a book by Mark Satin called New Age Politics. Marilyn Ferguson’s best selling Aquarian Conspiracy, was a presentation of the social agenda and philosophical vision of the New Age. Ferguson’s writing attained status as the unofficial scripture of the movement. As Russell Chandler, one time religious writer for the Los Angeles Times, wrote in his small booklet, Understanding The New Age, “But if Ferguson wrote the New Age ‘Bible,‘ Shirley MacLaine is its high priestess. (Pages 6-1)

Shirley MacLaine’s book, Out On A Limb, chronicled her reluctant conversion to New Age belief. This book included her travels and studies, which included science fiction -- like dimensions out-of-body travel, contact with extraterrestrial beings, and “trance channeling” (séances) -- a “guided tour” of the unseen world. MacLaine’s second book, Dancing In The Light, told about her reach into the world of yoga, reincarnation, crystal power, Hindu mantras, and past-life recall experiences mediated through acupuncture. Her spirit guides informed her that each individual is God, and she pass along the wisdom to a friend that the person was unlimited. One only had to realize it. (Chandler, Page 6-2).

New Age thinking has its roots, then, in Eastern mysticism which likes to by pass the mind. There is a new organ of perception, the third eye, which gives spiritual light. One needs to get to the “psychic self” by training one’s self to ignore the messages from the mind. Really it is throwing the mind in neutral.

The Western mind, of course, is trained differently. We are people who use our reason, hopefully. The New Age thinkers came along and said that the mind is not by-passed, but it is actually the mind that is achieving “cosmic consciousness” They tell us that the mind can create reality.

Neil Anderson in his timely book, Walking Through The Darkness, writes this about the New Age Movement, “The New Age movement is not seen a s a religion but a new way to think and understand reality. It’s very attractive to the natural man who has become disillusioned with organized religion and Western rationalism. He desires spiritual reality but doesn’t want to give up materialism, deal with his moral problems or come under authority.” (Page 22). Then Anderson goes on and summarizes the New Age thinking (pages 22-24).

(1) It is monism. The belief that all is one and one is all. History is not the story of humanity’s fall into sin and its restoration by God’s saving grace. Rather, it is humanity’s fall into ignorance and the gradual ascent into enlightenment.

(2) All is God. If one is one, including God, then one must conclude that all is God. It is pantheism - trees, snails, books, and people are all of one divine essence. A personal God who has revealed Himself in the Bible and in Jesus Christ is completely abandoned. Since God is impersonal, the New Ager doesn’t have to be served. He is an “it,” not an “He.”

(3) There is a change in consciousness. If we are God, we need to know we are God. We must become cosmically conscious, also called “at-one-ment (a counterfeit of atonement) self-realization, god-realization, enlightenment nor attune-ment. Some who reach this enlightened status will claim to be “born again.” This is counterfeit biblical conversion. The real essential is not whether or not we be believe or meditate, but who we believe in and what we meditate upon. Christ is true personal objective reality as He said that He was the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6).

(4) A cosmic evolutionary optimism is taught. There is a New Age coming. There will be a new world order, a new world government. The New Age thinkers believe that there will eventually be a progressive unification of world consciousness. This, of course, according to the Bible is a counterfeit kingdom led by Satan himself. Christ has the true kingdom which will one day rule on earth with peace for all who accept Him as Savior and King.

(5) New Agers create their own reality. They believe that they can create reality by what they believe, so by changing what they believe, they can change reality. All moral boundaries have been erased by the metaphysical influence of Taoism’s yin and yang, the ebb and flow of competing and complementary forces. There are no absolutes because there is no distinction between good and evil. Nothing has reality until one says that it is reality or says that it is truth. If finite man can create truth, we are in desperate trouble in our society. Unless there are eternal absolutes from the eternal God, man will eventually be his own destruction.

(6) New Agers make contact with the kingdom of darkness. Calling a medium a “channeler,” and a demon a “spirit guide” has not changed the reality of what they are. This is the kingdom of darkness of which Satan is the head, who asked Eve, “Has God said?” Those involved in this kind of activity are in contact with the world that is totally opposed to the biblical God revealed to us in Jesus Christ who defeated Satan in His life (Matthew 4:1-11), and then through His death and bodily resurrection, Christ defeated Satan (Colossians 2:15; Hebrews 2:14-18).
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The New Age movement is a counterfeit movement that appeals to the minds of individuals leading them to think that that they are God and can enhance their lives through their own person. If this is thought through, it becomes quickly apparent that this is impossible. We are born, grow up, live awhile on planet earth and die. Humans are finite. We can never be God. We need someone greater than us yet like us who can come and provide us forgiveness and life eternal. Only One has filled this description, the God-man, Jesus Christ. Through His death and bodily resurrection for us, He has won for us what we desperately need, forgiveness before God and life that guarantees us purpose and meaning in this life with life beyond the grave. Don’t miss out on who Jesus Christ is and what He has done for you. Read John 3 in the Bible. Ask Christ to be your Savior if you have never made that decision for Him. Your life will be transformed and you will know who you are, why you are here, and where you are going.

 

[Property Of God]

thank you very much about that post, I had no idea about all of this Info, people are so weird.

 

[sasko]

Thanks Chad

If this is thought through, it becomes quickly apparent that this is impossible. We are born, grow up, live awhile on planet earth and die. Humans are finite.

Can't these new agers use their common sense? What kind of God forgets that he's God? We are created beings whom God created to be in a relationship with Him. What an awesome privilege, to know the God who created heaven and earth! Just look at a sunset, does it not shout and proclaim God's glory. We need to stop focusing on ourselves, read this gem:

Isaiah 66:2 "<script type="text/javascript">cb(66,2);</script>For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word."

 

[Zulu]

Interesting how so many, so called stars, are involved in this movement. I just thank God that He gave us Christ for our salvation. Thank God that there is religions and then there is Christianity which is a way of living and not a religion. Amen

 

[Mirjam]

Before I found Jesus I used to go to New Age meetings. This man, the medium, talked about everything Chad pointed out : a new world order coming in 2012. He was getting messages from this new world order, called the white brotherhood.

After I found Jesus I of course stopped going to those meetings. You simply can't combine it. Looking back on it, it seems that this movement takes things from Buddism, eastern ways of thinking etc. and mix it all up in such a way that everything sounds nice. They gave Jesus a place too in the mids of all this, being 'the symbol of Christianity'...
As said in the post it is very attractive to people desillusioned with the Western society ( as I was ).

I know somebody who believes in Jesus and New Age, she took me to these meetings. I haven't talked to her since I found Jesus, so I don't know what she's going to say. She might try to convince me that you can believe in both. I won't listen to her when she's going to say this.

I know that you just can't believe in both. I made my choice, I choose Jesus

 

[Deep_MindQuest]

THE NEW AGE MOVEMENT


The New Age Movement. You've probably heard the phrase, and chances are you've heard it applied to everything from cartoon shows to environmental protection groups. Today we have "new age" radio stations, "new age" bookstores, and even "new age" churches, but a great deal of confusion remains about the New Age Movement. To begin with, the New Age Movement is not a conspiracy or a cult. It is a loose collection of very diverse people and groups. It is a religious trend, not a religious organization. Its broadness makes it rather difficult to define, but there are several beliefs that are distinctively "New Age."
One of these beliefs is monism, the idea that all of reality is essentially one. You and I usually recognize differences between ourselves and between different objects in our world, but the monist sees everything as a single organic whole. From the monistic perspective, we are all part of one another; and, if God exists, we are all part of God.
Monism sounds very much like Eastern pantheism, and this similarity has caused many observers to describe the New Age Movement as the invasion of Eastern mysticism into Western culture. In fact, the New Age Movement has its historical roots in European philosophy. What we're seeing is not the adoption of Eastern religion, but the bankruptcy of our own culture.
Let me explain. For centuries Christian theologians maintained that there were three sources of truth: revelation, tradition, and reason. One by one, the philosophers discarded revelation, ignored tradition, and concluded that reason was inadequate. The situation thus became a little scary. There weren't any sources of authority left!
Humans don't function very well without some source of authority, some source of hope. With no other place to turn, Western philosophers began to place their hopes in irrational ideas like monism, believing that the problems and inconsistencies of life were more apparent than real and that these problems could be resolved at some deep level that we really can't comprehend. These ideas provided the real foundation for the New Age Movement.It came about because Western philosophy had run out of answers.
All of that is simply to say this: The New Age Movement teaches some things that don't make much sense. Its teachings violate Scripture, tradition, and reason. Its proponents are people who are desperately looking for hope and security in a world that seems very confusing. They have bought into the idea that we have no sure source of authority, and they are attempting to find answers in experience and in irrational ideals.
Monism and Pantheism

One of the most distinctive beliefs of the New Age Movement is monism, the belief that all of reality is essentially one. From this perspective, everything that exists is part of a single organic whole. There are no real differences between people, between objects, or between people and objects.
Monism seems very odd to most of us because our experience points to distinctions between ourselves and other people or between persons and objects. The New Age Movement, however, perceives logic and reason as limitations. Its adherents see commonly observed distinctions as illusions, and they believe we are led astray by what we would call "common sense." For the New Age follower, we are all one with one another and, for that matter, with everything. When individuals come to the belief that they are one with the universe, a kind of conversion takes place. Shirley MacLaine's experience in an Andean mineral bath illustrates the point. She writes,

Slowly, slowly, I became the water . . . . I was the air, the water, the darkness, the walls, the bubbles, the candle, the wet rocks under the water, and even the sound of the rushing river outside.
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Shirley MacLaine came to the conclusion that she was not herself a distinct entity, but that she was instead completely identified with all that surrounded her. This belief that everything is essentially one leads New Age followers to believe in pantheism, the idea that all is God. The unity of all reality tells them that everything is divine, including themselves. If all is one, then there are no distinctions, and all is God. Again, Shirley MacLaine writes, "I am God, because all energy is plugged into the same source. We are all individualized reflections of the God source. God is in us and we are God."
From a New Age perspective, this concept is the key to unlocking one's true potential, for to realize that you are God is to realize that you have no finite limitations. But there's a problem with this claim. If God does not have limited knowledge or abilities, why would we have to grow in knowledge if we are God? Why would we even have to come to the conclusion that we are divine? If we are unlimited, why are we so limited that we do not always realize we are unlimited?
In addition, if all is essentially one, no real difference exists between good and evil. With no legitimate distinction between good and evil, New Age religious activity becomes an exercise in futility. What you do or don't do doesn't matter at all!
Finally, New Age pantheism stands in sharp contrast to the biblical doctrine of creation. Genesis 1 tells us that, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. God is not the same as His creation, but is utterly distinct from it as the Creator. Our place is not to ascend to His throne, but to bow down before it.
The Political Agenda of the New Age Movement

A consequence of New Age monism is a strong emphasis on the unity of our planet. This belief that everything is one was reinforced when astronauts photographed the Earth from outer space. The pictures didn't look anything like our rapidly changing political maps. The barriers we had erected between nations were invisible, as were the wars taking place at the time. Only what we had in common was visible: a single planet and a fragile ecosystem. Peter Russell writes,

[This] picture has become a spiritual symbol for our times. It stands for the growing awareness that we and the planet are all part of a single system, that we can no longer divorce ourselves from the whole.
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These pictures of the Earth from outer space are on New Age posters, bumper stickers, and T-shirts to remind us that we are all essentially one. We see this same idea in popular music as well-- the Grammy award-winning song "From a Distance" emphasizes the idea that when one stands back and looks at our planet "from a distance," there is harmony, peace, and hope. There is global oneness.
This emphasis on globalism reflects the New Age desire to see the essential oneness of all reality manifested in our experience. The followers of the New Age want humanity to function as a "superorganism," similar to a school of fish or a flock of birds, reacting to danger within a fraction of a second and behaving in such cooperation that we seem to have a common brain. Peter Russell writes,

No longer will we perceive ourselves as isolated individuals; we will know ourselves to be part of a rapidly integrating global network, the nerve cells of an awakened global brain.
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This vision doesn't stop with the Earth, for New Age followers believe that our world will network with other planets, then other galaxies, until the entire universe is in complete harmony as a single organism.
From this perspective, the interests of humanity are subordinated to those of the Earth as a whole. The important thing is not whether we ourselves survive, or even whether or not our Earth survives, but whether or not this evolutionary process continues to go forward. Particularly in light of the fact that many people become a part of the New Age Movement because they desire a positive message of hope, their expectation is ultimately a very sad and impersonal one. The individual is lost in the whole process, like a drop of water blending into a cosmic ocean.
Achieving Oneness

While all New Age followers look forward to global and universal oneness, they do not all agree on the means by which they expect that oneness to be achieved. Some focus on humanity's technological potential for harmony, emphasizing advances in telecommunications and the sciences. Others pay more attention to the somewhat mystical idea that all things share the same essential energy. If we can tap into that energy we can use it to our advantage. Just as Luke Skywalker used "the Force" in the Star Wars movies to levitate objects and win battles, many New Age adherents believe they can control events around them through visualization and meditation. This belief goes far beyond using one's perceived powers for personal gain. Their commitment to global and universal harmony causes New Age followers to focus their attention on transforming the world. Here their belief that we share the same essential energy means that we can share the same consciousness.
One of the best illustrations of this concept is in the New Age fable of the "One-Hundredth Monkey." As the story goes, a group of scientists taught an island monkey to wash his food in the water before he ate. Several other monkeys eventually mimicked his behavior, and before long nearly a hundred of the monkeys on that island had learned this same lesson. At that point, however, a strange thing happened. When the one-hundredth monkey began to wash his food, suddenly all of the monkeys of that species began doing the same thing, even those who had no contact with the monkeys in the experiment. The idea is that the one-hundredth monkey was enough to push this practice "over the edge" into a kind of cosmic consciousness.
New Age followers use this fable as a way of illustrating what they believe we can achieve with the human race. They maintain that they need only to reach this "critical mass" of enlightened individuals in order for their enlightenment to become the common consciousness of all humanity. The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, for example, has said that if just 1 percent of the population were to practice the technique of Transcendental Meditation, the "Age of Enlightenment" could dawn.
This critical mass is what New Age followers were trying to achieve with the event they called the "Harmonic Convergence." The Harmonic Convergence provided an opportunity for New Age adherents to channel their collective powers toward the common goal of world peace and harmony. The attempt to achieve this critical mass is also why so many cars have bumper stickers that read "Visualize World Peace." The proponents of the New Age believe that world peace will actually be realized if enough people visualize it.
Witnessing to the New Age Follower

It is absolutely essential that Christians be sensitive to the philosophical perspective of New Age followers. We have seen that the New Age Movement reflects our culture's rejection of revelation, tradition, and reason as authentic sources of truth. New Age followers will be completely turned off if we use reason with them to show them the error of their beliefs. From their point of view, such dependence on logic and reason does nothing more than demonstrate a profound lack of enlightenment on our part. In the same way, an appeal to the truth of Scripture or to the teachings of your church will seem rigid and insensitive. I'm not saying that we must avoid Scripture or logic; I'm simply saying that we need to be extremely cautious in the way we minister to the New Age follower.
Since the New Age Movement values experience so highly, it may well be that your personal testimony is the most helpful thing you can communicate to adherents of the New Age. They will usually dismiss your logic and your books, but their own beliefs prevent them from dismissing your experience. By demonstrating the reality of your Christianity and the transformation that the gospel has brought into your life, you appeal to them on their own terms.
Naturally, there's something a little disconcerting about a testimonial approach. It means that you must have a more consistent testimony than their peers in the New Age. New Age seminars, for example, provide a great deal of personal support for those in attendance. Visitors feel welcome, they feel loved, and they want to come back just because the people are so friendly and attentive. Do we treat visitors that way in our churches? Do we treat our New Age friends with love and respect even though we disagree with their theology? If we give them rejection instead of encouragement, we're driving them deeper into the New Age.
The greatest thing we can offer New Age followers is a secure sense of hope. I believe hope is what they are looking for in the New Age Movement, but their thirst won't be satisfied there. The New Age hope is insecure and impersonal, and the individual is ultimately not valued at all. Compare that "hope" to the promise of the Savior that nothing can separate us from His love, that nobody will ever snatch us from the hand of the Father, that one day He will wipe away every tear from our eyes (Rom. 8:31-39; John 10:27-29; Rev. 21:4). What a difference! We need to demonstrate the reality of our hope and be prepared to explain how we have been made to feel so secure (1 Pet. 3:15).
The New Age Movement is very diverse, and it blends in easily with many other religions. One thing that it does not take in very well, however, is the cross of Jesus Christ. Your New Age friends will have a very difficult time accepting the idea that salvation can only come through Jesus Christ. That concept stands against everything they believe. Understand that they will probably not embrace the gospel quickly, but speak the truth in love. Through your words and through your lifestyle point them to Christ, who is our hope.