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The New Age Movement is both a religious and a social movement. In fact, Christian culture is currently experiencing via New Age believers, a broad based attack that is spiritual,ideological, political and sociological. It is a religious world-view that is alien and hostile to Christianity. It's a multi-focused, multi-faceted synthesis, in varying degrees, of the Far Eastern, mystical religions, mainly including Hinduism, Buddhism , Taoism and Occultism.
The New Age Movement is comprised of hundreds of groups and individuals who have gained significant influence, affecting almost every area of the culture - sociology, psychology, medicine, the government, ecology, science, arts, education, the business community, the media, entertainment, sports, and even the Christian church. The movement expresses itself in widely divergent and various mutated forms, from the blatantly obvious to the subtle. It is expressed in organized religious forms such as Unitarianism, and Wicca. It also shows up in secular forms as well, in various human potential seminars, Transcendental Meditation, some alternative medicine practices, and certain curricula in public (and private) schools.
The most central and commonly shared beliefs among New Agers are various combinations of gnosticism and occultism. Gnosticism is an ancient world-view stating that a so called “divine essence” is the only true or highest reality, and that the unconscious ‘Self’ of man is actually this essence. It is always through some intuitional discovery or visionary experience or initiation into secret doctrine that man becomes conscious of this true Self.
Someone asked on another thread what “occult” meant. Well here is a definition from the Encyclopedia Brittanica, Vol. 7, p. 469: “Occultism is a "general designation for various theories, practices, and rituals based on esoteric knowledge, especially alleged knowledge about the world of spirits and unknown forces of the universe”.
The term "New Age" is an informal term derived from astrology, which indicates that this earth, if not the cosmos, is on the verge of an evolutionary transition from the Picean Age (rationality) to the Aquarian Age of spirituality, bliss, and harmony of all things.
But even though it is undergoing a significant revival, the "New Age" is hardly new. In fact, it is very old.
The New Age Movement (NAM) is a modern revival of very ancient, divergent, religious traditions and practices. The actual original root is squarely centered in Genesis 3:1-5, and reverberates throughout the movement's continued historical expressions. In the original lie, Satan questions God's word, His authority and benevolent rule (v. 1), disputes that death results from disobedience (v. 4), and claims that through the acquisition of secret or Gnostic wisdom man can be enlightened and can be "like God" (v. 5).
Many of the occult practices and beliefs revived by the modern NAM were a part of very early pagan cultures. Many practices common to the NAM such as witchcraft, spiritism, divination, necromancy (consulting the dead), and astrology are clearly and strongly condemned in Scripture (Deuteronomy 18: 9-17; Isaiah 47: 9-15). These and other occultic practices were spread through the ancient magic and mystery religions of the Chaldeans, Egyptians, and most notably the Assyrian-Babylonian culture (Ancient Empires of the New Age, pp. 15-62 The Bible informs Christians of Babylon's eschatological implications. The lie of Genesis 3 is significantly developed in Babylon (Isaiah 47) and continues to its ultimate state of development, revealed as Satan's one-world system at the end of the age (Revelation 17-18).
Three major world religions whose beliefs and practices are entwined with the NAM are Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism, Another prominent occultic influence in Europe was Druidism, the religion of the Celts.
Prominent expressions of the NAM were carried on into more modern times in Europe and America by Madame Helena Blavatsky who introduced Theosophy, while the sixties witnessed a revival of Eastern mysticism as traditional values when Zen, Transcendental Meditation, and yoga all became popular. While in the eighties, Shirley MacLaine's books and television mini-series gave the NAM more popular exposure.
It is important for Christians to recognize even the most disguised forms of the New Age Movement
because a flood of foreign gods is upon us and if Christians are not careful, they will drown !!
The best way to recognize the lies of the NAM is to seek their understanding of who God and Jesus Christ are. Why ? Because every theological heresy begins with a denial, diminution or alteration of the character of God the Father and God the Son.
For example, even though many NAM adherents describe "God" in personal terms,ultimately, "God" is an impersonal “life force”, “consciousness” or “energy”. The nature of the world and universe of the NAM is monistic and pantheistic, which means that everything that exists is of “One Essence”, and that “One essence” is “God”. Everything is a different form of that essence (energy, consciousness, power, love, force) or “God”. Then there is something called the “State of God “ or “God-consciousness”, “Universal Love”, “Self-Realization”, “The I AM”, “Higher Self”, “Nirvana” and so on.
While Jesus was a man who "evolved spiritually" to the state of "The Christ". "The Christ" being an actual state of ultimate essence. Everyone's true being is "the Christ:" and each person's goal is to come to that self-realization. So to the New Ager, “Jesus, [b]the Christ”/b], is one of many “ascended masters”, whose function is to awaken humanity and illuminate the path. Many even reinvent the historical Jesus by claiming that He traveled to India and learned the New Age doctrines there during His "silent years".
Another marker is their concept of sin. Man is not sinful since his true essence is “divine and perfect”. The only discontinuity between man and "God" is man's ignorance of his unlimited potential. Man is divine. He creates his own reality. Absolute truth is replaced by relativistic, subjective experience. And since man is intrinsically divine and perfect, his only real problem is ignorance of that fact.
There are many other characteristics or fruits of the NAM. But by their fruits “ye shall know them.”
Praise God.
The New Age Movement is comprised of hundreds of groups and individuals who have gained significant influence, affecting almost every area of the culture - sociology, psychology, medicine, the government, ecology, science, arts, education, the business community, the media, entertainment, sports, and even the Christian church. The movement expresses itself in widely divergent and various mutated forms, from the blatantly obvious to the subtle. It is expressed in organized religious forms such as Unitarianism, and Wicca. It also shows up in secular forms as well, in various human potential seminars, Transcendental Meditation, some alternative medicine practices, and certain curricula in public (and private) schools.
The most central and commonly shared beliefs among New Agers are various combinations of gnosticism and occultism. Gnosticism is an ancient world-view stating that a so called “divine essence” is the only true or highest reality, and that the unconscious ‘Self’ of man is actually this essence. It is always through some intuitional discovery or visionary experience or initiation into secret doctrine that man becomes conscious of this true Self.
Someone asked on another thread what “occult” meant. Well here is a definition from the Encyclopedia Brittanica, Vol. 7, p. 469: “Occultism is a "general designation for various theories, practices, and rituals based on esoteric knowledge, especially alleged knowledge about the world of spirits and unknown forces of the universe”.
The term "New Age" is an informal term derived from astrology, which indicates that this earth, if not the cosmos, is on the verge of an evolutionary transition from the Picean Age (rationality) to the Aquarian Age of spirituality, bliss, and harmony of all things.
But even though it is undergoing a significant revival, the "New Age" is hardly new. In fact, it is very old.
The New Age Movement (NAM) is a modern revival of very ancient, divergent, religious traditions and practices. The actual original root is squarely centered in Genesis 3:1-5, and reverberates throughout the movement's continued historical expressions. In the original lie, Satan questions God's word, His authority and benevolent rule (v. 1), disputes that death results from disobedience (v. 4), and claims that through the acquisition of secret or Gnostic wisdom man can be enlightened and can be "like God" (v. 5).
Many of the occult practices and beliefs revived by the modern NAM were a part of very early pagan cultures. Many practices common to the NAM such as witchcraft, spiritism, divination, necromancy (consulting the dead), and astrology are clearly and strongly condemned in Scripture (Deuteronomy 18: 9-17; Isaiah 47: 9-15). These and other occultic practices were spread through the ancient magic and mystery religions of the Chaldeans, Egyptians, and most notably the Assyrian-Babylonian culture (Ancient Empires of the New Age, pp. 15-62 The Bible informs Christians of Babylon's eschatological implications. The lie of Genesis 3 is significantly developed in Babylon (Isaiah 47) and continues to its ultimate state of development, revealed as Satan's one-world system at the end of the age (Revelation 17-18).
Three major world religions whose beliefs and practices are entwined with the NAM are Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism, Another prominent occultic influence in Europe was Druidism, the religion of the Celts.
Prominent expressions of the NAM were carried on into more modern times in Europe and America by Madame Helena Blavatsky who introduced Theosophy, while the sixties witnessed a revival of Eastern mysticism as traditional values when Zen, Transcendental Meditation, and yoga all became popular. While in the eighties, Shirley MacLaine's books and television mini-series gave the NAM more popular exposure.
It is important for Christians to recognize even the most disguised forms of the New Age Movement
because a flood of foreign gods is upon us and if Christians are not careful, they will drown !!
The best way to recognize the lies of the NAM is to seek their understanding of who God and Jesus Christ are. Why ? Because every theological heresy begins with a denial, diminution or alteration of the character of God the Father and God the Son.
For example, even though many NAM adherents describe "God" in personal terms,ultimately, "God" is an impersonal “life force”, “consciousness” or “energy”. The nature of the world and universe of the NAM is monistic and pantheistic, which means that everything that exists is of “One Essence”, and that “One essence” is “God”. Everything is a different form of that essence (energy, consciousness, power, love, force) or “God”. Then there is something called the “State of God “ or “God-consciousness”, “Universal Love”, “Self-Realization”, “The I AM”, “Higher Self”, “Nirvana” and so on.
While Jesus was a man who "evolved spiritually" to the state of "The Christ". "The Christ" being an actual state of ultimate essence. Everyone's true being is "the Christ:" and each person's goal is to come to that self-realization. So to the New Ager, “Jesus, [b]the Christ”/b], is one of many “ascended masters”, whose function is to awaken humanity and illuminate the path. Many even reinvent the historical Jesus by claiming that He traveled to India and learned the New Age doctrines there during His "silent years".
Another marker is their concept of sin. Man is not sinful since his true essence is “divine and perfect”. The only discontinuity between man and "God" is man's ignorance of his unlimited potential. Man is divine. He creates his own reality. Absolute truth is replaced by relativistic, subjective experience. And since man is intrinsically divine and perfect, his only real problem is ignorance of that fact.
There are many other characteristics or fruits of the NAM. But by their fruits “ye shall know them.”
Praise God.
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