New Age Movement (part 2)
OFFICIAL NAME: There is no official name, but the term "New Age Movement" is an informal designation for a large number of separate groups, individuals and activities. One can more properly speak of "The New Age Movements."
NATURE: "New Age" generally describes movements, groups and ideas that advocate approaching life in ways different from established norms in economics, education, religion and family."New" does not refer to time but to difference. Marilyn Ferguson, an influential New Age spokesperson, says that New Age is an " ill-defined " term to describe a very broad-based movement, which should be called a shift of cultural values, a shift toward the experiential, characterized by spiritual values. However, not all New Age Movements are openly religious; some present themselves as secular, self-help strategies.
DATE OF BEGINNING: New Age ideas have existed for hundreds of years, but the popular perception of New Age as a consolidated movement began to appear in the United States about 1965. It is founded on Hinduism. Link to Hinduism page
HEADQUARTERS: No single place is designated as the operating center. The movement includes loosely affiliated individuals, activist groups, businesses, occult activities and spiritual leaders.
ADHERENTS: The number of people involved in New Age Movements and ideas is unknown. Thousands of groups and spokespersons can be classified as New Age, but most groups do not have formal memberships. Many people who embrace New Age ideas do not publicly identify with a particular organization.
ASSUMPTIONS: As a general rule, the following foundational ideas characterize a New Age Movement, teacher or activity :
(1) All is one: all reality is a unitary whole.
(2) Everything is God (god) and God (god) is everything.
(3) You (as an individual) are God. You are divine; God is within you.
(4) You will never die: You have lived before and you will live again (reincarnation).
(5) You can create your own reality or transform your own consciousness.
(6) All religions are true and, therefore,one.
(7) A new world is coming; a New Age is dawning. You can identify something as "New Age" when it claims any of these foundational ideas. This belief bulletin examines basic New Age assumptions and gives Christian responses.
ALL IS ONE. All reality-- including God, humankind, the created universe and the earth, time, space and energy -- is a unitary whole. This theological idea, known as Monism, is a basic concept in Hinduism. The substance of reality is consciousness -- experience, fantasy, whatever "turns you on."
RESPONSE: God is person and personal and has attributes appropriate to personality: will, purpose, values, freedom, creativity and responsiveness. God reflects these attributes in all that He is and does. God is Creator and is separate from His creation. All of God's creation portrays features of His nature; but humankind is the highest aspect of God's creation and possesses personality, distinct from God.
EVERYTHING IS GOD. Whatever is, is god. This is called pantheism. All (god) is impersonal energy, force or consciousness -- more "it" than a "he."
There is nothing that is not God.
RESPONSE: The Bible affirms that all is not God. Although God is present in His creation, He is not to be confused with it. The Bible says "God is in heaven and you are on earth" (Eccl. 5:2, NIV). Jesus spoke of God as Creator in Mark 10:6 and 13:19 and as Lord of all in Matthew 11:25-27. God is infinite, in creation in the sense that nothing exists independently of God. He is the ground and support of all else; everything depends on Him, "for in Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).
YOU ARE GOD; GOD IS WITHIN YOU.
The goal of life is to "awaken to the god who sleeps at the root of the human being." You are really rather splendid, everyone of you, because you are divine.
RESPONSE: The Bible teaches that human beings are created in the image of God (Gen. 1:26-27) but are not, in essence, God. The Bible states that God created humanity "a little lower than the angels" and crowned humanity with "glory and honor" (Ps. 8:4-5).
YOU WILL NEVER DIE BUT BY THE PROCESS OF REINCARNATION YOU WILL GO THROUGH MANY LIFE-TIMES.
You must progress through many lifetimes to reach oneness with the One -- to become one with Ultimate Reality. If you accumulate good karma ("the fruit of one's actions") , positive benefits accrue in later lives. Bad karma produces future punishments. Eventually you may leave the cycle of birth and rebirth entirely through the experience of enlightenment -- realizing your true self. (In original Hinduism, the goal was the sacred cow.)
RESPONSE: The Bible clearly rejects reincarnation as a doctrine of salvation and says that Jesus Christ died a sacrificial death for individuals. "And as it appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgement: So Christ was once offeres to bear the sins of many...."(Heb. 9:27-28). Ephesians 2:8-9 stresses that salvation from sin and its external consequences is a gift that God gives freely. That is different from a process os self-perfection. The sin of one lifetime does not result in many lifetimes, but in death. "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" ( Rom. 6:23).
YOU CAN CHANGE YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS. The basic human problem, according to New Age thought, is that you are unaware of your true idenity as divine, as one with Ultimate Reality, which is God. All is one; all is god; you are god; but you do not realize that. Religion and Western culture have shaped your consciousness, hampering your spiritual experience. You live in the illusion that you are a limited and finite being. So you need to be "enlightened".
You can overcome this ignorance of the reality that is beyond the physical by using techniques designed to change (transform) your consciousness. You can achieve this enlightenment or transformation through discliplined practice in meditation, yoga, mind-altering techniques, past-life regression, harnessing psychic energy, out-of-body experiences, and trance-channeling (contacting spiritual guides from other dimensions).
The solution to the basic human problem is not reconciliation with a God different from yourself, but the realization that you yourself are god. The self is the cosmic treasury of wisdom and power.
RESPONSE: Christianity also affirms the need for a change in consciousness, but the Christian perception of that need is quite different from that of the New Age idea. From the Bible's perspective, the basic human problem is not ignorance of true divinity, but the reality of our sin. Everyone has rebelled against a holy God and His moral law. As Douglass R. Groothuis suggests, "The problem, not the answer, is within."* Jesus said that evil proceeds out of the heart (Mark 7:21-23). The fall of humanity recorded in Genesis 3 gives the pattern of human rebellion against God; and the Bible states, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom.3:23). While New Age sees the answer to this problem in releasing human potential -- the supposed divine within -- Christianity affirms that the only solution is for a person to turn away from personal rebellion against God and to have faith in Jesus Christ. Salvation is more than a change of consciousness; it is the process by which God's grace and power change a person into "a new creature" (2Cor.5:17). Jesus did not teach "at-one-ment" with the One (losing individuality) but atonement ( reconciliation) with God through Jesus' sacrificial death on the cross.
ALL RELIGIONS ARE TRUE AND THEREFORE ONE. The enlightened ones of all religions have experienced and taught the same oneness. The externals of religions may differ, but the essence is the same. There are many paths to the one truth, many methods to realize "the God within." Therefore no religion, including Christianity, should claim to be distinctive and exclusive. It is necessary to discover teachings of Christianity --- teachings that have been lost or suppressed.
Jesus of Nazareth should not be considered the only begotten Son of God, the God-man, the Lord and Savior of the world. He is one of many appearances or manifestations of God throughout the ages. Christ is separate from Jesus, the way-shower. The "Christ" is the perfect God idea -- the awareness of the divinity within. Jesus had "Christ-consciousness" or the "Christ-spirit" more than anyone, but everyone can have the Christ-spirit or cosmic consciousness.
RESPONSE: Different religions begin with different assumptions and proceed toward different goals. To claim that all religions are all one is to make a claim that most of those religions do not make. And to hold that all religions are true ignores the substantial differences among religions.
The Christ of the Bible is the historical Jesus of Nazareth and the eternal Son of God. He became a man, lived a sinless life, died a vicarious death on the cross, was buried, rose from the dead, and ascended to God, the Father ( Gal.4:4-5; 1 Cor. 15:3-4; Eph. 4:8).
The Bible presents Jesus as the Word of God and the only manifestation of God in the flesh ( John 1:14). Jesus himself said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" ( John 14:6 NIV).
When Col. 1:27, a favorite verse of the New Age teachers, speaks of "Christ in you, the hope of glory," it is not referring to divinity within, but that Gentiles, and not Jews only, can believe in Christ. "And the secret is this: Christ is in you [ Gentiles] , which means that you will share in the glory of God" (Col.1:27, GNB).
THERE IS A NEW WORLD COMING; A NEW AGE IS DAWNING. New Age pursues the theme of " cosmic evolutionary optimism" -- the whole world is being changed into a better condition. This evolutionary process is an experience in which people are raising their consciousness -- realizing their true selves and becoming more in tune with the Divine Whole (God). The world's philosophical, religious, political, social and economic structures are shifting. The supreme vision now is that people are within a new order of consciousness and living. Humanity is about to make an abrupt leap forward and emerge as an entirely new creature.
RESPONSE: The Bible also announces the coming of a new world (New Creation), but the Bible records history as moving according to God's sovereign plan. History will not culminate in a great planetary consciousness; but God, in His own time and way, will bring the world to its appropriate end (Matt.24:4-7). According to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly to the earth (1Thess.4:14-18). He will then judge all people. The unrighteous will be consigned to hell and the righteous will dwell forever in heaven with God (2Pet.3:7; Phil. 3:20-21).
A Christain Witness -- Understanding And Relating To People Involved In New Age Movements:
1. Reaffirm the Bible as your sole authority in all spiritual matters. Reaffirm that Jesus Christ, as He is made known in the Bible, illuminated by the Holy Spirit, is God's final and complete revelation of Himself.
2. Be cautious of any person or group who claims a new revelation or special understanding of spiritual truth not previously known and not available elsewhere.
3. Insist on defining terms. Call for normative Christian definitions of beliefs. Explore the meanings of terms people use. What do they state or imply about the nature of God, the nature of humanity, the nature of history and the relationship between them?
4. Present simple explainations of basic Christian beliefs. Tell how you have applied specific biblical teachings to enrich your life. Tell how your faith in Jesus Christ has enabled you to face life confidently and joyfully.
5. Carefully assess the world view of people and groups you encounter. Be particularly attentive if a workshop, seminar, therapy, program or technique (1) is explained in terms of harmonizing, manipulating, integrating or balancing energies or polarities; (2) emphasizes experience over belief; (3) involves changing your consciousness (how you perceive reality); or (4) teaches that you are essentially divine and you can find the solutions to your problems within yourself.
6. Do not assume that certain words always reflect New Age thinking. There are valid, wholesome, distinctly Christian uses of words like peace, oneness, holistic, human potential, networking, unity, global, rainbow and personal growth.
7. Reject New Age literature for any devotional purpose. Consider it untrustworthy for interpreting the Bible or for guidence about the meaning of life. Alert friends to the potential harm of New Age material. Refuse to subscribe to it or to have it in your home.
8. As you encounter people who embrace New Age teachings, listen with sensitivity to their personal concerns. Try to understand why those teachings are attractive to them. As you rely on the Holy Spirit, "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 ( Col.2:8, NIV).