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Bible Questions and Spiritual Discussion
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Why the New Age is so dangerous to Bible-believing Christians
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Hi there, the following that I will write is of my own thoughts, and I am writing it as sort of an outsider with an "in", but my purpose for it is to help Christians such as yourself not be led away from the Christian faith by New Age ideas.
The Bible is a glorious book. It is written not only to the people who first read it, but for all people for all time. It is internally coherent and many use the phrase "scripture interprets scripture". The Bible is written especially for you and I and is not, primarily, a sort of code book that can only be understood by someone "in the know".
That is the danger of the New Age/New Thought movement. This movement, in practice, uses the Bible, though what they do is very sneaky: they redefine the meaning of words. The amazing thing is that, if you explore the Bible thinking about the meanings that practitioners of the New Age give the words, the Bible will seem to agree with them. But the reason for this is not that they are right; rather it is because the Bible is internally coherent.
I am using some uncommon words, so I will try to simplify using an example. Math is also "internally coherent". For example: We know that 2 + 2 = 4. Now if I change the meaning of "2" and say that the character "2" represents the quantity 4, and if I change the meaning of "4" and say that the character "4" represents the quantity 8, the following is still true: "2" + "2" = "4" but what we really mean is 4 + 4 = 8. This trick redefines the actual answer while still being internally coherent to itself. But now you have 8 instead of 4 for your final quantity.
Such is the thought process of New Age "Christianity". I use the word "Christianity" in quotes here because they are not Christian, but in reality it is anything but. A new (yet old) heresy has arisen based on the idea that sin does not really exist, that the concepts "sin" and "evil" are all in the mind, and they will tell you that to believe in sin or evil is to be deceived. Nothing could be farther from the truth, and nothing could be more of the devil. Yet those who believe in the "New Age" will use the Bible to try to tell you just that: there is no sin nor evil in the world. And they authentically believe these things, and that because of their horribly twisted redefinition of the words of scripture.
We can just look around us and realize that there is evil in the world. We can look around us and tell that there is sin. God is not simply a life force, Jesus did not come to reprogram our minds into the denial of evil. God is a single divine trinity consisting of three persons, one of whom became one of us so that we could know God intimately and so that we could become God-like through faith enlivened by knowing the goodness of God, so that we could learn to love and be love by showing us what love is when he came to give himself up for us, even though we were his enemy.
The New Age is a horrible heresy that brain-washes many people. If you were to adhere to this heresy, you would enter into a system which fosters abuse. A woman coming to her pastor concerning the physical abuse her husband has inflicted upon her would be told, in no uncertain terms, that said abuse was "all in her head", that evil is "all in her head". The destruction of the twin towers, which was a clearly evil act, would be regarded as a figment of deception, something that did not happen. God becomes an impersonal life force, heaven no longer is a place that exists, hell is denied, and the Bible itself is warped beyond any understanding.
There is a lot to be said about the traditional understanding of why events in the Bible happened, and the historical fact that they did happen. I believe that this is why Paul insisted on holding fast to traditions (2 Thess. 2:15). I'm not saying this in particular to promote my Catholic faith, but rather out of concern for the very authentic and good Christian people I have met on this forum. Never let go of the common literal meaning of the scriptures. Think of how the ears of simple every day people would have understood any particular verse of the scriptures. It is true that the scriptures also contain spiritual meanings that can lead to a wealth of wonderful insight upon God, but those insights can never deny the plain literal meaning of scripture
I love you all, and I pray, in the name of Jesus who is God and Savior of the world, that you never succumb to the New Age or New Thought movements.
Andre
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Catholica 05/31/2011 14:25 |
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Calico
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05/31/2011 20:40 |
Heya Andre,
I am off to work soon and can't respond fully, so I wanted to at least offer acknowledgment of what you've written. It has clarity and conciseness, and I for one am heartened by what you've written. I can see why you've written what you have. Amen, amen, and amen.
Praying with you,
Tom
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Davidwayne Lackey
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05/31/2011 21:44 |
Amen Andre!!! Well said!!!
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Helga
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05/31/2011 23:08 |
Hi Andre, I really enjoyed what you have written. What I like about is, that it is written in a plain and simple way and for me easy to understand. A lot of people around me are New Age and it grieves me and I have to learn to convince people about Christianity in such a way that it makes sense to them and I really struggle at times because all I want to say "Man can you not see and understand" because the secret of this is to learn to communicate well.
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jonathonbyrd
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06/01/2011 01:51 |
I was worried about where you were initially headed with the scripture defining scripture bit. But I'm happy to see where you ended up.
God says that He hides the truth from the wise and will only reveal it to those that He calls. The Truth was revealed to me, not by using conventional understanding of semantics, but instead by using scripture to define scripture.
I hope that we all understand that we must first accept Christ as our LORD before we can accept Him as our Savior.
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TRWord
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06/01/2011 15:13 |
Hi Andre
First let me unburden you of fear that Christians can be led astray by any new doctrine. A Christian is a disciple of Jesus Christ a follower of his teaching.
Using the parable of the good shepherd Jesus said;
John 10:4 And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.
John 10:5 And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.
He also said;
John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
Your concern is for the mainstream believer.
Mainstream christianity is a continuation of what the Jews believed with one exception. The Jews offered animals as a sacrifice for sin while to mainstream Christians Jesus Christ is the sacrifice.
You believe that the problem is New Age ideas but the problem is neither new or is it of this age. Since 303AD the teaching of Jesus Christ has been replaced by contrived doctrine. And Jesus had already warned that all who exchange his teaching for this doctrine worship him in vain.
Mark 7:7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
Mark 7:8 For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.
The Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man is the message of the scriptures; this is the way to righteousness.
Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. (Matthew 22:36-40KJV)
This teaching ran contrary to powers that be.
First this teaching was persecuted but it still spread so finally it was replaced.
All this common knowledge and undeniable true!
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Calico
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06/01/2011 16:32 |
Heya Christopher,
Respectfully, brother, I think you have missed the point of Andre's post. Perhaps I am out-of-line answering here, since I am writing before Andre responds, but I hope to encourage you to re-read the post.
Praying with you,
Tom
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Faith
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06/06/2011 07:53 |
Well Andre, I had written out a response to this detailing some questions I had and how much I appreciate your insight and love hearing from you, but it didn't post and my computer lost the text. I will come back when I am less frustrated. >:(
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Catholica
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06/06/2011 12:13 |
I'm so sorry to hear that, Faith. I hate that, I hate when that happens!
Ok so that commercial reference might not be in your memory, but it is in mine. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7JTaRF78_M
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Calico
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06/06/2011 16:39 |
FAITH!!!! THERE'S FAITH!!!! :-)
...totally oblivious to what Andre's referring to here: "that commercial reference might not be in your memory, but it is in mine." Is it OK for me to ask the two of you what the heck you're talking about here? :-)
Hugs all,
Tom
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Marcie in MO
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06/06/2011 18:35 |
A great post, Andre! Thank you for your wisdom and insight.
In His Love,
Marcie
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