New Age Deception That God Is Already Within You

New Age thinking is everywhere. Oprah Winfrey sells it. Its tentacles reach doctors’ offices, corporations, and schools.

Beginning with Star Wars, movies often feature it. People resort to yoga, meditation, channeling, spirit guides, breathing exercises, and more to achieve the New Age goal of awakening the god within themselves.

The New Age gospel glitters because it claims all paths lead to God. They do not. Jesus said, "Enter the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the path that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it" (Matthew 7:13 NIV).¹

A Pew Research poll revealed that most Americans combine traditional faith with beliefs in reincarnation, psychics, and spiritual energy in physical objects such as trees, mountains, and crystals. About 41 percent believe in psychics and 42 percent in spiritual energy in physical objects. ²  

None of those things is legitimate. It is tempting for some people to adopt the “everyone makes it” teaching of New Age spirituality and inject it into the Christian gospel to make it more acceptable.

Adding botulinum toxin to your vegetable soup does not improve it; it ruins it. An “improved gospel” is nothing more than a different gospel that Paul condemned in Galatians 1:6-9.

I teach my grandchildren what poison ivy looks like to protect them. Here are some New Age beliefs that contradict Christian beliefs to equip you to avoid their poison:

·       There is one essential reality. All that exists is God. Man, a part of all that exists, is divine.

·       Jesus is God, but no more God than anyone else. Jesus wants us to be like Him, not worship Him. Jesus is not the creator and sustainer of the universe. Sin is not a problem. Jesus did not die a substitutionary death for our sins. Problems arise because people do not recognize their divinity.

·       Meditation, chanting, ecstatic dancing, and sensory deprivation can enable experiencing oneness with God. Mystical experiences bring increasing wholeness and personal power. The ultimate authorities are experience and intuition. Reincarnation and karma are spiritual realities.

·       Salvation is by works. Global peace, unification, and ecological balance are in our future.

·       Spiritual growth means moving from dependence to being in charge of life. Self is all-sufficient and sovereign.³ 

Ironically, the false new age gospel tries to save the world while serving the one trying to destroy it (John 10:10). Do not allow it to fool you! What is your takeaway? See additional free spiritual growth resources for Christians.

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1.     What is 'New Age' Religion, and Why Can't Christians Get on Board? (crosswalk.com)

2.     New Age Christians and the Danger They Don't Know They're In (churchleaders.com)

3.     The New Age Movement- What Is It? | Christian Research Institute (equip.org)

God has empowered me to write His Power for Your Weakness—260 Steps Toward Spiritual Strength. It’s a free, evangelistic, devotional, and discipleship e-book. Pastors have used it in Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia to lead 6,090 people to Christ and teach the basics of Christianity to 15,150 people. I invite you to explore and use it in your setting.  

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