Old Lies for a New Age – Part I

What is the New Age Movement? Is it about Shirley MacLaine claiming to be God? Does it have something to do with people who say that higher forms of intelligence speak through them? Why is rubbing a quartz crystal to my joints wrong? Is listening to New Age music wrong if it’s just meditative for me? In this article we will deal with what the “New Age” is and look at some of the principles on which it was founded and continues to flourish. This is so that we can recognize it when it uses its chameleon-like features to disguise itself, and to confuse and deceive many, luring them deep into the occult. In the second part of this article we will deal with the Christian response to the New Age Movement.

We find as we minister in India that there is complete clarity of what the Bible says, and there the Christians know where they stand in the midst of their mostly pagan and often hostile surroundings. Here at home in the U.S.A., I am not so sure that many Christians really know where they stand in relation to God’s Word, or what they know about the New Age Movement. My prayer is that this small article (by no means exhaustive) will get your spiritual antennas up, bring you greater awareness, and prepare you to minister.

Beginning in the 1980’s, the phrase “New Age” has increasingly come to the attention of many people. However, the ideas and concepts of the New Age Movement existed in one form or another long before it was called by that name. In fact, it has been around almost since the beginning of time. Its lies are as old as those of the Serpent in the Garden of Eden. The impression that it is new has been created by the media, which often focuses on its strange practices and overlooks its philosophical or religious side.

The New Age Movement is a network of many organizations. Popular writers like Constance Cumbey and Texe Marrs made the New Age Movement appear to be a vast, organized conspiracy. New Age sociologist Marilyn Ferguson gave the impression that the New Age Movement was larger than it is. On the other hand, among those involved in New Age ideas and practices there is enough agreement to identify a specific and distinct belief system.

The New Age Movement may be defined as: “a network of otherwise dissimilar people intent on replacing the reality of a personal God with the idea that humanity is the center of all things.” Indeed, it is claimed that each person is God, one with a universal energy, and he or she only needs to develop the potential of divinity to the fullest. But no brief definition can explain the rapid spread of the movement in our American society. This can be understood only by giving attention to the history of the movement, as well as the basic principles of the New Age philosophy.

The New Age Movement appears to be a confusing and contradictory mix until one understands that there are actually two distinct expressions of the movement: the occult and the humanist. The occult involves such ideas and practices as reincarnation, crystal power, channeling spirit guides, UFO phenomenon, and the worship of self. The humanist expression focuses on developing unlimited human potential and an ethical system centered in responsibility only to one’s self.

The humanist manifestation is like a chameleon, and it has changed its colors in order to blend into a new environment. It continues to promote Satan’s agenda as it seeks to involve every social, cultural and religious aspect of life in his deceptive lies. This movement borrows freely from modern secularism, eastern mysticism and western occultism, humanist psychology, ancient and medieval witchcraft and pagan pantheism. It represents a relentless quest toward self-deification and the integration of all knowledge and spirituality in order to create a utopian society. It is important for Christians to recognize that by replacing God with the deification of human beings, the New Age Movement is religious to the core and is fundamentally hostile to every Christian belief.

Some Broad New Age Principles

There are many branches off the occult and humanistic forks of the New Age tree, but six broad principles form the roots from which the New Age Philosophy grows. The importance that various New Age entities will attach to one or another of these principles will vary, but the principles in one form or another express a kind of New Age creed. At the same time, the interpretation of and additions to the following six principles often separate humanistic and occult New Agers from one another.

All is one; therefore all is God. This principle expresses the twin concepts of monism and pantheism, which have long been identified with Eastern religions. The New Age god is impersonal and does not have existence distinct from creation. “It” is a universal energy, the force, the combined consciousness, the oneness (monism) of all living things. In this oneness, good and evil, life and death are the same. Differences exist only in how a person perceives things. If all is one, then this universal energy, this impersonal god, is in all things (meaning pantheism). They describe their idea of god as, not an individual, but energy because its energy is within and behind all universes, systems and fields. It is aware of each sparrow that falls, for it is each sparrow that falls.

Humanity, like all creation, is divine and has unlimited potential. This New Age principle simply says that each person is God in disguise. Any human being may say “I am god” in the same sense that Jesus said it. The concept of divinity is that each person creates his or her own reality. Since the divine energy will admit no limitations, human beings themselves have no limitations as they visualize and create their own reality. Therefore they can evolve into anything they choose. They are under no laws, and there are no absolutes apart from the reality of the right and wrong each person creates.

Humanity’s basic flaw is its ignorance of divinity and oneness with all things. It is obvious that the human race has problems, but its major problem is not sin. The only barrier to humanity’s further evolution is ignorance of its divinity, but ignorance can be dispelled by “enlightenment”. Humanity’s arrival at perfection comes through an evolutionary or awakening process called transformation. Transformed humanity is the savior of humanity. We have personal and world problems because a critical mass of enlightened beings that will create a total transformation of the human race has not been achieved.

Humanity’s only need is transformation – the awareness of divinity. WE are our own creators, and thus we are responsible for everything that happens to us and around us. The capture and directing of our future evolution is our only hope. Recognizing our divinity and choosing wisely the direction of humanity’s evolution, we will achieve the betterment of humanity. The so-called evolutionary “leap” is drawn from this.

Transformation is achieved by various techniques. The object of each of these techniques is to induce an altered state of consciousness. The result will be a replacement of the current belief system (faith) by a new perception of reality based on humanity as the creator. Some of these techniques are: sensory isolation, flotation tanks, biofeedback, hypnosis and self hypnosis, meditation of every description – yoga, feverish dancing, magical rites, human potential seminars, mind control, life spring, dream journals, primal therapy, rebirthing, syncretic religions, body disciplines, self healing, and on and on. Anything is acceptable that will trigger a mystic or psychic experience powerful enough to cause a person
to change his or her belief system.

Personal transformation is the step towards global transformation. The mark of such transformation is mass enlightenment and global unity. The theory says, further transformation will inevitably become universal, climaxing in a golden age that will be free of all war, violence, racism, disease, hunger, and death. Some believe that this will result in one language, one monetary system, one world government, one religion, one mind and will. Have you heard of the term “quantum leap” – into divinity? This means a perfect world is just around the corner.

What should a Christian’s response be to the New Age Movement and its methods? Look for it in next month’s article!