christians and the new age

Christians and the New Age

New Age Flora by Ythren

Dr Alex Tang

The Age of Aquarius

• Counter-cultural 1960s

• End of the Age of Pisces

• A New Age of hope for the world, human freedom and spirituality

The Age of Aquarius

‘When the moon is in the seventh houseAnd Jupiter aligns with MarsThen peace will guide the planetsAnd love will steer the stars

This is the dawning of the age of AquariusThe age of Aquarius,

Aquarius

The Age of Aquarius

Harmony and understandingSympathy and trust aboundingNo more falsehoods or derisionsGolden living dreams of visionsMystic crystal revelationAnd the minds true liberation…’

Ramtha

Spiritual walking, Transcendent Meditation

Columbia University psychologist, Dr. Helen Schucman, (1909-1981), over an 8 year period

ACIMWe are all one.There's enough.There's nothing we have to do.Ours is not a better way, ours is merely another way

The law of attractiongratitude and visualization

Rhonda Byrne

‘may the Force be with you’

‘I try and understand this deep connection the people have with the forest. She talks about a network of energy that flows through all living things. She says all energy is only borrowed and one day you have to give it back.’

Occult aspects

Spiritual aspects

Social aspects

New Age

Aspects of the New Age Movement

Occult Aspects

• Channeling

• act as a channel of information from sources other than their normal selves

• sources described as being God, gods and goddesses, ascended masters, spirit guides, extraterrestrials, angels, devas, historical figures, the collective unconscious, elementals, or nature spirits

Spiritual Aspects

• individual development

• biofeedback, yoga, homeopathy, massage, meditation, visualisation, nutritional therapy, psychic healing, pyramid power, herbal medicine, healing using crystals, metals, music, and colours, Tarot, astrology, and reincarnation therapy

Social Aspects

• social change to One World Government

• new politics that gave special weight to such topics as consciousness, ecology, personal and spiritual development, community empowerment, and global unity

Spiritualism

Occult aspects

Spiritual aspects

Social aspects

New Age

Emanuel Swedenborg

Dr Franz Mesmer

Spiritualism

TheosophyOccult

aspects

Spiritual aspects

Social aspects

New Age

Nature is aliveCreative imagination Experience of transmutation

Spiritualism

Theosophy

New Thought and Science

Occult aspects

Spiritual aspects

Social aspects

New Age

Spiritualism

Theosophy

New Thought and Science

Eastern religions

Occult aspects

Spiritual aspects

Social aspects

New Age

Hinduism (TM), Buddhism, Taoism, Sufism, Kaballah, Paganism, Folk religions…

Central Tenets of New Agers

• Belief in Deity• Reincarnation• Universe and Life• Salvation• Jesus Christ

Belief in Deity

• God is the impersonal life force, consciousness, ultimate truth and reality, the incorporeal, formless cosmic order personified within all people and matter• God is all and all are God.

Belief in Deity

24 “This is what the LORD says—

your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb:

I am the LORD,

the Maker of all things,

who stretches out the heavens,

who spreads out the earth by myself,

Isaiah 44:24

God is a Person

• God speaks and has a self-given name: "I AM" (Exodus 3:14)• God is long-suffering (Psalm 86:15; 2 Peter

3:15)• God is forgiving (Daniel 9:9; Ephesians 1:7;

Psalm 86:5)• God hates sin (Psalm 5:5-6; Habakkuk

1:13)

Channeling

Leviticus 19:31 31 “ ‘Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, for you will be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God

Leviticus 20:6 6 “ ‘I will set my face against the person who turns to mediums and spiritists to prostitute himself by following them, and I will cut him off from his people. Witch of Endor (Nikolay

Ge) 1 Sam.28:3-25

Reincarnation

• continual rebirth-no death-as life is spirit• souls rest for a time before deciding

on a new body (or bodies)• heaven and hell are states of

consciousness, self-imposed, due to ignorance of God as all • all in the universe are embodiments

of God

Reincarnation

27 Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment,

Hebrews 9:27

Universe and Life

• The universe, life, and matter were not created by God but "are" God• The universe and life emerged out

of the creative power of the eternal universal life force• Man are gods

Universe and Life

3  Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction,

4  who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.

1 Thessalonians 2:3-4

Man is not divine but a sinner (Romans 3:23)

• He is deceitful and desperately sick (Jer. 17:9)

• He is full of evil (Mark 7:21-23)

• He loves darkness rather than light (John 3:19)

• He is unrighteous, does not understand, does not seek for God (Rom. 3:10-12)

• He is helpless and ungodly (Rom. 5:6)

• He is dead in his trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1)

Salvation and Self-spirituality

• Salvation lies in the realization of oneness with the impersonal life force• Awareness can be heightened through methods

that induce altered states of consciousness• Some believe the salvation of humanity will

occur when a critical mass is reached, when people converge• This will bring a New World Order or new

Planetary Order, resulting in oneness of civilization and one-world government, peace, and harmony

Salvation and Self-spirituality

• Holistic Health• crystal healing, homeopathy, iridology, massage, various

meditation methods, polarity therapy, psychic healing, therapeutic touch, reflexology

• Human Potential Movement• Esalen Growth Center programs, EST, Gestalt Practice,

Primal Scream Therapy, Transactional Analysis, Transcendental Meditation,Yoga

Salvation

• Salvation is not correct thought but deliverance from the consequence of our sin (Romans 6:23; Ephesians 2:8-9)•  Salvation is God's deliverance from

damnation (Eph. 2:8-9; Rom. 1:18; 2:5; 5:9)• This salvation is found in no one but Jesus

alone (Acts 4:12)

New Age Jesus

The Jesus of the New Age is differs from the Biblical Jesus

The New Age separates Jesus from Christ

Jesus was one of many Christs or teachers, who came to show the way

Christ is seen as office being held by an avatar or teacher.

Jesus Christ in the Bible

Jesus is God incarnate, God the Son born of a virgin, who came into the world and died on a cross. Jesus is the only means of salvation

Central Tenets of New Agers

• Belief in Deity• Reincarnation• Universe and Life• Salvation• Jesus Christ

New Age is not

• Contemplative spirituality• Mysticism• Spiritual formation

Christians and the New Age

New Age Flora by Ythren

Kairos Spiritual Formationwww.kairos2.com

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