Mixing New Age With Christianity

[TheBlade]

New age is not some doctrine I don't agree with. But is like psychic or yoga. Relax by yoga in the Church I mean for those that will say "is to transcend the limitations of the mind" they use it for that in the Church not to just work out. Its no different then say Harry Potter in the Church.  Ouch.. sorry I truly can not see where I am walking here. I think "reincarnation, astrology, psychics and the presence of spiritual energy in physical objects like mountains or trees.". That other list not going touch it other then many ways to heaven well the word makes this one clear since Christ is the only way. The rest of that list is nothing more then a personal belief. Some doctrine you or I don't agree with is not new age nor equals a false teacher. 

Opera or what was her name she wrote book..she was a actress. Shirley Maclaine yeah.. her that's new age. "if we think positively and have faith, we will get whatever we desire from God.". This is not new age. Lets see of the top of my head.. if I doubt let not that man think he will get anything from God. What ever I desire when I pray believe I receive it you shall have it. What ever I ask the Father in Christ name He will do it. Delight my self in the lord He will give me the desires of my heart.

So leaving out it has to go in line with the word. But the simple fact is John 3:16 is just as true as everything else He said. Its just something someone has heard and does not agree with. The fact some "faith" preachers are named in that same page that oddly believe things like Mark 11:24. I have no problem saying I have listened to say Copeland, Hagen, Roberts, Wigglesworth, Wilkerson, Graham, MacArthur and many many more. I just don't agree with everything they teach. Be foolish for me to only listen to one that simple agrees with what I personally believe. When it goes out side the word against the word I toss it out. If I don't understand I pray and seek put on a shelve and keep going. I will haha be positive, faith speaking words of life. 

Things like "reincarnation, astrology, psychics and the presence of spiritual energy in physical objects like mountains or trees." Not of God

[existential mabel]

@farouk yes they are 2 different things.

[Amigo42]

On 1/15/2023 at 11:25 PM, Starise said:

I was at a bible study recently. One of those in attendance said she attempted to make both Christianity and New Age work together. She eventually realized this was not possible.

I wondered how many others once dabbled in New Age belief before becoming a believer,or attempted to hold on to it after being saved?

It seems many professing believers see no issue with holding onto New Age and similar while professing Christ.

New Age itself claims Jesus was only a prophet, while Jesus Himself said He was THE Son of God.New Age says there are multiple ways to God. Christianity says there is only one way through Christ.

The two are not compatible. I just could not understand how a person can see any association between two strongly opposing teachings.

Well, I'd agree most New Age thought is kind of sketchy.  However, there are concepts that I think actually fit quite well with some things that Jesus said.  For example, Jesus's main message was that God is love.  People who had NDEs claim that is exactly how God presented himself. 

Do all paths lead to heaven.  If one is a strict literalist then that'd be no if one has Christian beliefs.  However, if you believe of heaven in that it is simply going home then there is a different perspective.  This is actually hinted at in the Bible.  In the Bible it says that man's spirit returns to God.

[Starise]

29 minutes ago, Amigo42 said:

Well, I'd agree most New Age thought is kind of sketchy.  However, there are concepts that I think actually fit quite well with some things that Jesus said.  For example, Jesus's main message was that God is love.  People who had NDEs claim that is exactly how God presented himself. 

Do all paths lead to heaven.  If one is a strict literalist then that'd be no if one has Christian beliefs.  However, if you believe of heaven in that it is simply going home then there is a different perspective.  This is actually hinted at in the Bible.  In the Bible it says that man's spirit returns to God.

Well I don't believe we can sit on the fence with regard to this. If we hold to the bible, then New Age ideas are not condoned.

[Roymond]

On 1/16/2023 at 4:48 AM, Starise said:

Anything associated is fine too. I am trying to see how these types of things get rooted in a believer's life. 

Some beliefs which are more like cults, such as scientology are actually occult. I use the word occult because it is probably the true over arching thought here. Some things associated with occult many people think are totally innocent including Christians. There is some dispute about yoga being ok for exercise. Horoscopes are a  way to open up to some of these things.

I heard an ad the other day on the radio for a New Age shop. They actually advertised it as New Age, "Come on in for all of your New Age needs", crystals,trinkets, incense. I dunno I've never been in a New Age shop and don't care to be.

To top things off there's a dispensary not far away, so might as well stop by for those pain meds ( sarcasm intended).

Are there any specific denominations where this is more prevelant? In reading these number 2 Follow your heart, it falls very closely in line with the way many believers say the Holy Spirit leads them.

Most personality tests will differentiate between individuals who are either predominantly following their head, following their intuition, or some combination of those two. So I think some people have more of a tendency to follow their heart. For the believer, we don't follow anything that is against what the Lord tells us to follow unless we are going against Him.

When I follow my "heart" I am following a hopefully Spirit filled heart. This leading of the Spirit always produces good directions, and I might 'feel' when something isn't right. Neither would I deny the use of everything the Lord gives us to make decisions.

In the same way we believers might not always 'feel' the leading of the Spirit, non believers don't always realize they are being led by evil forces. Each are so integral they are seen as a part of 'us'. The filling of the Holy Spirit is often associated with how close we are to the Lord through prayer, bible reading and fellowship. As an example, I just changed all of my TVs over from cable to internet and replaced an older smart TV with a newer one, adding streaming boxes to the others etc.

 I had no idea what was on some of those smart TV apps, so I'm registering apps we use and a few I wasn't aware of figuring the more the merrier I was registering as many of the free ones as I could, and as it turns out I have probably double the  movies I had before. One of those apps has a free section and a paid section. In the free section is was like 90% MA rated content. I mean really sleazy stuff and it was all free. The Holy Spirit immediately told me this is WRONG. For me as a beliver this is how the Lord leads. If we choose to continue, we will be doing things that take us away from the Lord and into chastisement. I decided to stay away from that particular app, but not before reading some of the titles and feeling a strong pull of the flesh.

God doesn't direct us in every little thing -- He wants us to learn to think like Him and so not need constant guidance, and having constant guidance will keep us from learning to think for ourselves.  But every now and then He will holler at us about something, like recognizing that something is wrong -- sometimes like, "Are you kidding?  You know better than that!" but other times like, "Okay, you've been going along with this as part of your life and it's time to learn a new lesson".

If we pay attention, this means that as time goes on we will be able to trust our hearts more, as the new heart He has given us pushes aside the old one that just doesn't want to let go.  A number of years ago when I was caught up in a bit of a mess in the church I was attending, out of frustration and weariness I asked God what I should be praying, and got this:

"Lord teach me to always follow my heart -- but Oh! Teach my heart to follow You!"

I'm still not terribly good at the first part, but I have noticed that He's been at work on the second.

[Roymond]

On 1/16/2023 at 7:38 AM, Dennis1209 said:

There are all kinds of false “spirituality” out there in addition to everything already mentioned. I hear more and more people say, “I am a spiritual person.”

Those that thank mother earth for its blessings and gifts. The popular Oprah Winfrey and her spirituality. I cannot understand how “Scientology” can call itself a church?

I have not followed it lately, but the “church of artificial intelligence” was gaining some traction.

2 Thessalonians 2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:

With everything now going on in the world, I have to wonder, have many been turned over to a debased mind? Is this one of many indications we are living at the tail end of the last days? 

 

Years ago there was an immigrant from Russia where all religion had been stamped out for so long who was being interviewed about how different America was.  One thing he said stuck with me:  he talked about "the American religion", and what he described was a mess of New Age stuff.  He asserted that Reader's Digest was the religion's regular publication and called Oprah Winfrey it's greatest prophet.

[Roymond]

On 1/16/2023 at 8:25 AM, 1to3 said:

Hello Starise;

This is an important topic to warn people about.

New age is not new but those involved in getting it spread all over the world had to make it a tickling to the ears of whom it may captivate.

New age is ALL= the old occult practices  that God warns about in the old and new testament and that God FREED the people with Moses out of the Land of Egypt

 

I had a philosophy professor who said New Age stuff is all that "old age religion", just with honey and spices added and simmered to get the bitterness out.  No more blood sacrifices or anything else, just what's "nice" and "affirming".

Kind of like a used car salesman...  

[Roymond]

On 1/16/2023 at 9:28 AM, existential mabel said:

i was into the new age movement, some spelling correcting tool will change it to sewage interestingly enough lol.

i was in it for quite a while. The church itself, (building religion, and not the body of Christ, that is) i saw as irrelevant and austere. Nothing to keep me there! so i got up to all kinds of stuff and it took quite a while to be free from it.  then i decided to burn a lot of the stuff i had books, pictures...

the other thing i noticed in organised religion (church building), is the stealthy way Roman Catholic content is coming in and no one notices well i did and i also noticed  the vicar taking to wearing a new age stole for crying out loud, which i challenged her about.

 

You said Roman Catholic then called "the vicar" "her".

"New age stole"... to use a very old bit of slang, "Gag me!"  The one time I was in a church where there was a female preacher and she wore new-agey stoles it was obvious (on Easter morning, no less!) that she didn't believe Jesus actually rose from the dead.....

[Roymond]

On 1/16/2023 at 10:39 AM, Vine Abider said:

These 5 points of New Age beliefs that  @ayin jade posted are good to know and easy to address with specific verses.  All of these are counterfeits, promote man's independence and deny the deity and work of Christ.

 5 New Age beliefs that have bled into the church 

1. Law of Attraction (I know at least one member here believes in that one)

"According to your faith, let it be unto you." (Matt 8:29 et. al.) The thing that this point totally misses is it isn't just some abstract universal faith, it is faith in a person - the Son of the living God! (plus, I would add, the most positive things one can believe and speak are from God's word)

2. Follow your heart - relying on emotions

"The heart is deceitfully wicked; who can know it?" (Jer 17:9) This is independence from God, that is, looking to one's own heart and not God.

3. We are little or mini gods

"You shall be as God, knowing good and evil." (Gen 3:5)  The lie from the devil right from the beginning . . . here again, advocating independence from God. 

4. Oneness - being righteous by being sinless, not by faith in the Lord

"Not one is righteous, no not one." "The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ" "All have sinned."  (Rom 3:10, 22 & 23)  This point denies that man has a sin problem and says that a Savior is not needed. (again, man can do it - be independent)

5. All roads lead to heaven

"I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me."  (John 14:6)

 

The thing is, every one of those items is just a piece of truth twisted.  It's a nice illustration of the observation that every sin that there is is just an attempt to get what God wants for us -- done totally wrong.

The trouble with the first one is that we think that we get to pick the things that attraction will bring us, but God already told us what we're supposed to be attracted to, and that's Jesus on the Cross -- but there's no guarantee that things will be sweet and nice there, so the old man looks elsewhere.

The trouble with the second one is that yes, we are to be able to trust our hearts -- the new hearts that God gives us, that is, so we have to be wary of the old heart where the old man still clings to us.

The trouble with the third is that it's just the same wrong shortcut the serpent tried to pawn off on our first parents:  God wants to make us like Him, so we can be called "gods", but again the path to that isn't what makes us feel good, it's what takes us closer to the Cross.

The fourth takes the same wrong path; we are to achieve oneness, but like with Jacob's ladder it's  not an ascent we can make:  it was made for us, and that path leads to the Cross.

And the fifth takes the truth that all things work together for good for those who trust and love God and twists it to mean "good" as we understand it and pronounces that whatever we see as good must be closer to heaven.

Every single one is a truth torn away from the core truth of the Cross!

[Roymond]

On 1/17/2023 at 5:29 PM, Starise said:

Thank for your thoughts on this @Sower.

I guess there are different ways to go at the same thing. I see Worthy as a ministry because not everyone who comes here is a believer. Lots of people stopping by.

As believers I feel one of our tasks as salt and light is to expose the darkness. This is one of the main reasons I posted this topic, because I think one way the devil gets to people is through messages that sound good but are really lacking substance and are false. His intention is to make people feel good through deceptions, hopefully until they die, because then he has them.

In uncovering the darkness we can share the true light. Satan is an angel of light and in things such as the New Age, he is very convincing. So much so that those who are believers may even crack the door to that world not fully realizing the dangers.

Our culture is permeated with more darkness that I can address here, and a lot of it looks like light to the average person.

No matter how it happens, whether through preaching the light or showing the dark, if people begin to become aware, begin to open their eyes, we are making progress.

There are those who don't want to give up things because it has brought them some satisfaction. In reality it really isn't giving up anything because anything apart from Jesus isn't life and at best is temporary satisfaction and at worst is a pile of lies.

I don't think showing the true light is a forceful unloving commanding sort of thing. No, I think it is gentle and loving. Full of concern for that individual.

I have asked myself what seems so attractive about yoga and crystals and following a 'supposedly' friendly 'force' rather than a God that can be known personally? 

Churches are out and New Age seems to be in. Why is this? Why would someone rather meet a shaman than a pastor? Something has gone very wrong in our country and other countries. Probably some of the best ways to show the effects of some of this is to listen to the testimonies of many who came out of New Age, White and black witchcraft, secret socieites etc. There are testimonies on Youtube from those who were deeply involved. When they got close, it wasn't light and love they seen. It was dark, vile evil full of hatred for them.

Like anything else dabbling can easily lead to more than dabbling and most often it does, in addition to weakening the sensitivities of a believer. Some here are probably forced to live around it and see first hand what it is capable of. Quite simply it's a verty effective Satanic snare. I can only hope and pray anyone caught up in it gets the freedom through Christ they so desperately need.

A lot of the attraction of crystals and forests and waterfalls and such comes from the fact that Western Christianity, especially the heirs of the radical reformation (which is pretty much everyone except Lutherans and Anglicans [and by extension Methodists]) has lost the understanding of material things being sacred, leaving our entire culture devoid of any kind of connectedness -- so when someone starts talking in ways that help people feel a connection, they embrace it.

Roman Catholics haven't lost that completely, though unless you look hard they've pretty much bound it up in the ritual of the Mass, forgetting that since everything that exists was shaped by Jesus and so everything (somehow) speaks of Him, so it isn't necessary to be in church to be near God (yes, many of the mystics got this right, but the mystics are mostly neglected) and should be natural to see and experience things in nature and stumble into God's presence.

A very strong counter to the new-age treatment of crystals and incense and all is to explain how those things actually center on God in Christ so that treating them as meaningful in themselves is like scooting around the edge of a swimming pool but never actually getting in.  Just as an example, the power of crystals isn't any mystical energy, it's that they show us that we need the Light:  no crystal has any beauty of its own or power of its own, it only has what the light bestows -- so that the lesson of the crystal is that we also should be in the Light... as He is in the light, so we can shine not just like crystals but like the stars in the heavens.