Seven Major Teachings of the Occult New Age
Colossians 2:8, “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.”
New
Age is not new ... it is a modern revival of ancient religious traditions,
along with a potpourri of influences: Eastern mysticism, modern philosophy and
psychology, science and science fiction, and the counterculture of the 50s and
60s. "... So here we are in the New Age, a combination of spirituality and
superstition, fad and farce, about which the only thing certain is that it is
not new.
Nobody seems to know exactly where the term came from, but it has been around for several decades or more, and many elements of the New Age, like faith healing, fortune-telling and transmigration of souls, go back for centuries." [Otto Friedrich, "New Age Harmonies," TIME, Dec. 7, 1987.]
Despite its popularity, the New Age is hard to
define. It includes a variety of beliefs, fads, and rituals. It seems to be a
marriage of Science and Easternism Cult-religious organizations and can be a
mixture of Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Spiritualism such as, Church
Universal & Triumphant (Elizabeth Clare Prophet). Some New Agers subscribe to
some parts, some to others.
It is a religious movement that is centered in SELF- all you need is within -
with no defined order of sin, repentance or salvation! You become your own
god! The people worship the god of forces and promote The
Aquarian Gospel of
Jesus Christ.
LIE # 1 - Jesus was not and is not
the only Christ, nor is he God.
Some may think that everyone means the same thing when they say "Christ."
Christians see the one and only begotten Son of God, our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ. Many New Age writers on the other hand refer to a Christ spirit.
They believe there have been many Christ, Jesus being only one of many.
New Age prophetess Alice Bailey and author of many occult books, including
The Reappearance of The Christ, describes the "Avatar of Synthesis," who
she says is a "close Associate" of "the Christ." She says: "He works under the
great natural Law of Synthesis, producing "at-one-ment," unification and
fusion. His function (in unison with the energy of Christ) is to generate
spiritual will in humanity, the will-to good.
The New Ager understands Christ as a reincarnated avatar, Messiah, or
messenger sent from the 'hierarchy' to give the living on earth spiritually
advanced revelation. The New Age accepts that Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius,
Jesus, and many others were 'Christ'.
The Baha'i World Faith claims to be in perfect harmony with the Christian
Faith yet see the historical Jesus as only one of several manifestations of
Christ on equal ground as Abraham, Moses, Krishna, Zoroastrian, Buddha,
Mohammed, the Bab, and their founder: Baha'u'llah.
LIE # 2 - "God" is impersonal,
cosmic, a God of energy forces.
All things, including man, constitute, the ONE - called Universal Mind, The
Source, Universal Self, Cosmic Consciousness, Universal Presence, or The
Force" - your Inner Voice, Higher Self, or Intuition. " God is an impersonal
energy; force, immanent in all things (including man). God can be referred to
either as she or he, mother or father, god or goddess. Do not be deceived! New
Agers do not mean God or Jesus Christ of the Bible. Most New Age
teachers hold that Mother Earth, the sun, the moon, and the stars, indeed all
of Nature can be worshipped as God.
LIE #3 - Man is himself God, for he consists of and is the creator of "the forces." Man already exercises the powers inherent in his divinity and needs only to awaken to this fact.
New Ageism
embraces supernaturalism, but ascribes it to the creature, not the Creator (as
in Romans 1:22-24). They flaunt the "I am God" concept as it naturally appeals
to man's ego and thirst for power, an appeal as old as the Garden of Eden.
Satan promised Eve: "Ye shall be as God."
It is of of the goals of the New Age Movement to cause people to rebel against
the true God of the Bible and to believe that they are deities. Once Satan has
the person in this heretical frame of mind, then the battle is won. The
individual will then be called for greater service to the Prince of Darkness.
And with a mind clouded and confused, he or she will comply. The individual
will have become a member, knowingly or unknowingly, of the Satanic
conspiracy. [Texe Marrs, Millennium, pp. 224-25]
LIE # 4 - Man should seek and accept spiritual instruction and direction directly from the spirit world.
The lure of the occult is almost always on the
basis of acquiring knowledge or power. [Neil T. Anderson, The Bondage Breaker,
pg. 114] We crave a knowledge that is esoteric, not normally available to the
ordinary person. We want to experience a power that is spiritual and
supernatural in origin. People don't seem to want to hear what God has to say,
they want information and direction from someone else who "knows"; a psychic,
a channeler, a palm-reader, a card-reader, Ouija boards, astrology, magic
charming, automatic writing, or the spirit of a dead friend of relative. In a
sense these are God-given desire, but they are intended to be fulfilled by the
knowledge and power which comes from God. However, Satan is busy trying to
pass off his counterfeits for God's knowledge and power as the real thing. If
he can get us to accept his versions of knowledge and power, he has a foothold
in our life.
LIE # 5 - All religions and religious teachings lead to the same goal. All are equally of merit.
Satan's primary tactic in opposing God is not to
foster atheism but religion; not to prove there is no God but to be worshipped
as God. "I have not come to found a new religion," Lord Maitreya says. "I have
come to teach the art of Self-realization," something which is neither an
ideology nor a religion, but benefits people of all religions and those who
have none. "I come to you 'like a thief in the night'", He tells us, "so that
you will not become too excited. Slowly, as you become aware, you can 'digest'
what is 'eaten'. In awareness you will know Me. In 'isms' you will fight
against me".
The New Age does express a cloudy sort of religion, claiming vague connections
with both Christianity and the major faiths of the East (New Agers like to say
the Jesus spent 18 years in India absorbing Hinduism and the teachings of
Buddha), plus an occasional dab of pantheism and sorcery. The underlying faith
is a lack of faith in the orthodoxies of rationalism, high technology, routine
living, spiritual law-and-order. Somehow, the New Agers believe, there must be
some secret and mysterious shortcut or alternative path to happiness and
health.
"Ecumenism is essential in creating a "Christianity" which embraces all
religions. Psychology plays a major ecumenical role by providing common faith,
language and ritual for everyone from atheists, cultists and occultists to
Roman Catholics and evangelicals." [Dave Hunt, "Mystery Babylon Part II," The
Berean Call, August 1993]
LIE # 6 - The "ancient wisdom" of Babylon, Egypt and Greece - not the Bible - is the basis of all truth.
Vice President Albert Gore in his book Earth
in the Balance; Ecology and the Human Spirit, reveals himself as a person
who believes we should have a "mother goddess" that we can worship. He points
back to ancient religions and Hinduism and says that they have something good
in their worship of "mother earth," and claims that our modern slogan should
be the worship of "mother earth"; that man and nature are one, and that God is
part of nature, and nature is part of God. On pages 258 through 259 of his
book, he shows where he departed from the Baptist faith and entered in to the
New Age Religion. He says "The richness and diversity of our religious
tradition through out history is a spiritual resource long ignored by people
of faith, who are often afraid to open their minds to teachings first offered
outside their own system of belief." "This Pan-religious perspective may prove
especially important where our global civilizations responsibility for the
earth is concerned." "Native American Religions for instance offer a rich
tapestry of ideas about our relationship to the earth. "[Al Gore, Earth In the
Balance; Ecology and the Human Spirit, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1992.]
LIE # 7 - Sin and evil do not exist. Peace and love are the ultimate realities.
New Agers deny the existence of a hell (Gehenna
fire) and a judgment. They also deny that sin and evil exist. God (The
universe) is alleged to be beyond good and evil.
The New Age gospel is not a system of revolutionary principles. It does not
promote strife and war, but aims at peace and unity. It seeks not to set the
mother against her daughter nor the father against his son, but fosters the
fraternal spirit whereby the human race is regarded as one great
"brotherhood." It does not seek to drag down the natural man, but to improve
and uplift him. It advocates education and cultivation and appeals to "the
best that is within us." It aims to make this world such a comfortable and
congenial habitat that Christ's absence from it will not be felt and God will
not be needed.
Depending on which branch of the New Age movement you encounter, there may or may not be a great world leader who will emerge to lead us all to enlightenment. Some New Agers await the advent of the Lord Maitreya while others believe we will all become so godlike that we will not need any leaders. The Bible tells of an age when God is going to permit Satan to actually rule in person on this earth! If a New Age leader emerges, he could well be the Antichrist, an enemy of mankind who will be intent on leading the world into terrible rebellion against God and who will be destroyed along with his followers. Although God's prophets foretold many explicit signs of Christ's first coming most people missed Him. Likewise, God has given many definite signs that point to the second coming of Jesus. False Christ's and false prophets are high on the list.
The question is, do you KNOW God in Christ Jesus ... as He has revealed Himself in the Scriptures? Have you read His Book? Have you studied it? How can you be sure you know the real God in Christ Jesus if you have not studied what He has said about Himself in the Word of God, the Bible?
