New Age Movement

The New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. One of New Age’s primary traits is that it holds to "a holistic worldview, thereby emphasizing that the Mind, Body and Spirit are interrelated and that there is a form of Monism and unity throughout the universe. It further attempts to create "a worldview that includes both science and spirituality" and thereby embraces a number of forms of science and pseudoscience.

New Age Shrine or prayer station

- literally a movement of spirituality, health, politics, education and business that encompasses countless groups seeking to direct the path of society. These groups share many beliefs in common yet often hold numerous distinctive doctrines and at times even disagree with each other on significant issues. Consequently, the New Age movement is more a collection of cults. Those involved believe that humanity is currently on the brink of something very significant -- an evolutionary leap of man’s spiritual nature -- which eventually will bring about the emergence of a new cycle of human consciousness and experience. New Ager’s believe that the coming new age will be marked by global peace, mass enlightenment, and unparalleled spiritual advancement. Even now the earth is allegedly is being made for a final transformation from outmoded habits, negative energies, and thought forms.

Some New Agers are content to wait passively for the dawning of this harmonious era, the majority feel that its arrival is dependent upon the dissemination and mass acceptance of New Age doctrines. New Age revolutionaries have injected their philosophies into nearly all aspects of our culture. They’ve penetrated the entertainment industry, the food industry, public school curriculums, health care services, the political arena, the business world, and even the United States military.

Much of it is not really New Age at all... Time magazine has called the New Age a “combination of spirituality and superstition, fad and farce, about which the only thing certain is that it is not new.” The nuts and bolts of the New Age movement’s worldview is ancient occultism. Every technique New Agers use to gain “spiritual truth” can be traced either directly or indirectly back to the pagan mystery religions of Egypt, Babylon, and other cultures.

The word occult basically means hidden or secret things. The term is used to describe practices such as astrology, numerology, witchcraft, crystal gazing, necromancy (communication with the dead), magic, and palm reading, which according to the Bible are forbidden to man and cursed by God.

These satanically energized methods of obtaining otherwise unobtainable knowledge comprise the very heart and soul of the New Age movement because they are the primary means through which New Age teachings are proclaimed. They may have modern sounding names (eg. astral projection, psychometry, radiance therapy, channeling), but they are the same practices the church of Jesus Christ has been standing against for more than nineteen centuries.Besides knowing the role occultism plays in the New Age movement, Christians must also understand that the New Age movement is little more than Hinduism. It is the religion of India disguised in Western terminology and presented as a new brand of spirituality that will prove to be mankind’s long-awaited key to Utopia.The only substantive difference is that Hinduism is world denying while the New Age movement is world affirming. No “yuppie” is going to adopt the Hindu tradition of abandoning all worldly possessions to go meditate under a cliff, on a mountain, or in a cave. At it’s doctrinal core, however, the New Age movement is still Hinduism. As a general principal the New Age movement accepts all religions, all except orthodox Christianity.

History, Doctrines & Practices

In the nineteenth century there emerged several religious groups that contributed greatly to the development of the New Age movement. The Theosophical Society founded in 1875 by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and the “I AM” sects. As Theosophy and its offsprings were producing one strain of spiritual beliefs, the views of psychic healer Phineas P. Quimby were developing another. He taught that all disease is a product of the mind and that many problems are caused simply by “wrong thinking”. Quimby’s teachings, termed “New Thought”, gave rise to the numberous Mind Science cults.All of the above groups, along with the thousands of factions they created, were eventually influenced to varying degrees by spiritualism, psychology, science, quantum physics, and the contemporary concerns of society. The resulting blend is what we now call the New Age movement.

GodThe god of the New Age movement is not the God of the Bible. New Agers usually define “God” as an impersonal force pervading all creation. This view naturally flows from the New Age movement’s most foundational belief - monism. Monism, which litally means “one-ism”, teaches that all is one and one is all.Every New Ager believes there is ultimately only one substance and that the diversity we perceive is actually unreal. It is all an illusion. Oneness is the only reality and diversity is its apparent manifestation.In other words, people only think that a rock lying in a field is something entirely separate from the field in which it is lying. Similarly, people only think that they are individual entities. Reality is that there is no “you” or “me” distinction. There is only one big “I”.

This “I” includes not only every person, but also every thing (eg. soil, wooden boards, raindrops). Everyone is everything, and everything is everyone. one substance referred to by New Agers as the Reality, Power, All, Force, Absolute, Principle, One, or Universal Energy. The ultimate stat of consciousness is one in which “all individuality dissolves into universal, undifferentiated oneness.”Accompanying monism is pantheism, which asserts that everything is God. After all, if everything that exists is one, then “God” must also be one with everything. Everything is ultimately God.

Some New Agers feel that the concept of a transcendent God is what has actually caused nearly all of the world’s problems: “Two-thirds of evil (for humanity) comes from false God concepts, promoted by clever minds to enslave humanity. There is no God, no one intelligent entity outside His creation.”

Benjamin Creme states, “In a sense there is no such thing as God, God does not exist. And in another sense, there is nothing else but God--only God exists... This microphone is God. This table is God. All is God. And because all is God, there is no God...”

This “all is God/God is all” doctrine coupled with monism’s “all is one” concept forms the substructure of not only the New Age movement but also Hinduism. Hindu literature is literally saturated with both pantheism and monism.

Genesis chapter one clearly establishes that God is separate and distinct from the universe. Genesis systematically shows that God, rather than being a part of all that exists, is the Creator of all that exists. Other supporting passages are Psa. 33:13-14; Isa. 42:5; 44:24; Acts 17:24-25.

MANThe monistic/pantheistic worldview held by New Agers leads them to believe that they are God. All life is one and so I am one with God and can embody Divinity... God and I do not just communicate; we commune and are one. There is no separation except failure to recognize that there is no separation. YOU are the only thing that is real. Everything else is your imagination, movie stuff you’ve brought into your screenplay to help you see who you really are... There are no victims in this life or any other. No mistakes. No wrong paths. No winners. No losers. Accept that and then take responsibility for making your life what you want it to be.

Shirley MacLaine, (dancer, actress and film star) is a major voice for the New Age community. In her book entitled “Out On A Limb” she unabashedly proclaimed, “I AM GOD, I AM GOD!” She said, “I know that I exist, therefore I AM. I know that the God-source exists. Therefore IT IS. Since I am part of that force, then I AM that I AM.”

Sin & SatanNew Age believers answer to no moral standard and want nothing to do with an objective code of

righteousness. New Agers decide for themselves what is right because they are God: “Contemplate the love of God; how great this Entity-Self is, that is all-encompassing, that will allow you to be and do

anything you wish and hold you judgeless. God has never judged you or anyone. If He has then He has judged himself, for who be you but He. We can take all the scriptures and all the teachings, and all the tablets, and all the laws, and all the marshmellows and have a jolly good bonfire... because that’s all they are worth. Once you are the law, once you are the truth, you do not need it externally represented for

you.”Anything is permissible for New Agers because sin and evil are not real. They are only illusions. Evil is

basically the manifestation of a force that is out of place or out of timing, inappropriate to the needs and realities of the situation. In other words, evil is just a misdirected thought, a glitch in perspective, or a

deceptive image originating in the mind of the person perceiving something as evil/sin.

Ministering to a New Ager

New Age - extremely large, international social and religious movement, practices vary

- not new at all - ancient occultism. Every technique New Agers use to gain “spiritual truth” can be traced either directly or indirectly back to the pagan mystery religions of Egypt, Babylon, and other cultures.

- based in mysticism & monism (one-ism: world view that all is one) Everything is everyone and everyone is everything.

- believe that humanity is currently on the brink of something very significant (an evolutionary leap of man’s spiritual nature) which eventually will bring about the emergence of a new cycle of human consciousness and experience. This emergence will be marked by global peace, mass enlightenment, and unparalleled spiritual advancement. Even now the earth is allegedly is being made for a final transformation from outmoded habits, negative energies, and thought forms.

Review

There is really very little similarity between Christianity and the New Age movement. To them “god” is an

impersonal being. The common ground is minimal and approaches have often not been successful. Since they do not accept the Bible, there is little foundation to start with

besides friendship and philosophical reasoning.

Suggestions:

1. Establish a personal friendship. Invite them for dinner (vegetarian/vegan) They will appreciate a vegetarian meal.

2. Discuss the concept of good and evil. Ask them where did evil come from and why? Get them to start thinking.

3. Attempt to reason that if God’s creation is personal, intelligent, and rational, God must be a personal, intelligent, loving being. If He is not a personal, intelligent, loving being, how could something impersonal create someone personal? How could the non-intelligent produce the intelligent? How could something non-loving produce someone loving? Ask, “Where does the source of love originate?”

4. Share the health message with them (the 8 Laws of Health, Natural Remedies, etc.)

5. After a deeper friendship has been established and some re pore is built, share a study on the inspiration of the Bible. 2 Pet. 1:21, 2 Tim. 3:16, Ps. 119:160, Jn. 5:39, Ps. 12:6,7; Jn. 17:17

6. Proceed with your personal testimony regarding Jesus.

Once there is a willingness to study the Bible, establish that Jesus is the Son of God (Divinity of Christ). Matt. 1:23, Jn. 8:58; Jn. 1:1, Jn. 17:5, 24; Jn. 8:58; Ex. 3:14

Human nature is fallen

Ultimately the conversion of a soul to Christ is the work of the Holy Spirit. We can take no credit for it ourselves....

“Is it not a miracle that we can break free from the bondage of Satan? Enmity against Satan is not natural to the human heart; it is implanted

by the grace of God. When one who has been controlled by a stubborn, wayward will is set free, and yields himself wholeheartedly to the drawing of God’s heavenly agencies a miracle is wrought, so also when a man who has been under strong delusion comes to

understand moral truth. Every time a soul is converted, and learns to love God & keep His commandments, the promise of God is fullfilled

“A new heart also will I give you...” (Ezek. 36:26) The change in human hearts, the transformation of human character, is a miracle that

reveals an everlasting Saviour, working to rescue souls.” {Desire of Ages pg. 407}