New Age Movement

Seven Major Teachings of the New Age

Colossians 2:8 “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on 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.]

Listen to this from Got Questions.

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 & 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.

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, Budda, Mohammed, the Bab, and their founder: Baha’u’llah.

“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.

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]

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.

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]

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.]

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?

New Age Definitions

Acupressure – Healing by use of certain pressure points on the body.

Acupuncture –  An ancient Chinese healing art.

Astrology – An ancient art of the Occult. It is thought that the planets and other heavenly bodies have power over the decisions and destinies of man. Also see Horoscopes.

Aura – Colors surrounding the human body that reveal the condition of the body, soul and spirit. An analysis is given by a psychic.

Chi – The life-giving energy force of the cosmos. Composed of opposites know as Yin and Yang.

I Ching  – (Book of Changes), book on divination and fortune-telling; one of Confucian Classics

Clairvoyant  – Pertaining to clairvoyance; discerning objects while in a mesmeric state which are not present to the senses.

Crystals  – Quartz rocks that have highly predictable vibrations, which leads to the belief that they can effect the similar vibrations of the body.

Cabbala –  (also Kabbalah) An ancient Jewish Occult form of mysticism by which Rabbis sought to decipher meanings in scripture by assigning numerical value to letters and words. see numerology.

Book of Changes –  A 3,000 year old book of Chinese wisdom consisting of 64 sections. Each one is introduced by a Hexagram and is said the reveal the secrets of the universe.

Divination  – The art or practice that seeks to foresee or foretell future events or discover hidden knowledge by the interpretation of omens or by the aid of supernatural powers.

Horoscopes  – A diagram of the relative positions of planets and signs of the zodiac at a specific time (as at one’s birth) for use by astrologers in inferring individual character and personality traits and in foretelling events of a person’s life.

Numerology –  The system of numerology is a method of divination which is also employed in the use of magic.

Palmistry –  Reading one’s hand by the size, shape and creases. It is said it reflects the persons past and reveals the future.

Psychic readings – Telling something about you that only you know or what you want to here. These psychics are in contact with demons!!

Reincarnation  – The belief that when you die you keep coming back to life possibly in another form until you get it right.

Runes –  Stones inscribed with letters of the ancient Scandinavian alphabet. used by the Vikings and revived for today’s fortune telling.

Tarot Cards  – Cards with special inscribed figures and emblems. it is said they reveal the purpose of he universe and the future of a persons life.

Tasseography  – (tea leaf reading) A method of divination that is formed by reading the pattern of tea leaves in the bottom of a cup to reveal hidden truths about the subject in question.

Third Eye or Minds Eye –  An Occult concept assuming that a spiritually intuitive center of consciousness exists in the center of the forehead. The so-called 7th enlightenment in Yoga. See Signs and Symbols

Yoga  – A Hindu theistic philosophy teaching the suppression of all activity of body, mind, and will in order that the self may realize its distinction from them and attain liberation 2. A system of exercises for attaining bodily or mental control and well-being