Rex Banks.

Introduction

It was part of the Great Deception, it was a lie crafted by the "father of lies" (Jn 8:44) and it succeeded in turning God's good world into tomb. Satan assured Eve that eating the forbidden fruit would bring enlightenment, ("your eyes will be opened") and that enlightenment would bring transformation, ("you will be like God") and this seductive falsehood has appeared in many different forms since. Man has always been ready to thrust from his mind the knowledge that he is a dependent, contingent being designed to glorify his Maker, and this has exposed him to the temptation to place self upon the throne and to locate the purpose of human existence in self fulfilment rather than in submission to God. A graphic contemporary example of man's willingness to dethrone God is seen in the so called New Age Movement (NAM) which has come to have a profound influence upon almost every area of Western thought over the past few decades.

Almost everyone who studies the NAM acknowledges that it is difficult to define it in precise terms, and this is due to the fact that what has been called a "movement" is really an amorphous collection of beliefs and ideas which share certain themes and presuppositions. Variations upon these themes are many and varied which makes neat categorization of New Age teachings impossible. However it is possible to identify predominant trends and common assumptions within NAM, and in the following paragraphs I have attempted to do so, keeping in mind that these general comments are neither exhaustive nor descriptive of every New Age devotee.

New Age Pantheism

Under the heading monism and pluralism we have the following in The Oxford Companion to Philosophy:

"Monism regarding the kinds of substances holds that only one such kind exists, whereas pluralism admits a multiplicity of kinds."

By way of illustration, the materialist who denies the existence of anything apart from the physical realm, is a monist for whom the one substance is matter-energy. He affirms that there is no such thing as a spiritual realm. On the other hand the theist, (e.g. the traditional Jew, the Christian and the Moslem) is a pluralist in this context, since he believes in the existence of both the physical and the spiritual realm.

God is the Creator of the physical universe, but He is a spiritual being and as such He is separate from that creation. Now the NAM is grounded upon a monistic world view known as pantheism, a view which asserts that God is the universe. Dr Norman Geisler writes in his book Creating God in the Image of Man?

"Pantheists believe all is God and God is all. They insist that the universe (reality) is all there is, and God cannot be more than all there is....Creator and creation are two different ways of viewing one reality. God is universe (or, the all) and the universe is God. There is ultimately only one reality, not many different ones. Pantheism is represented by certain forms of Hinduism, Zen Buddhism, Christian Science, and many New Age religions."

Clearly then at this very basic level the NAM rests upon a view of reality which departs sharply from those views which have traditionally dominated in the West. After all the God of the pantheist is certainly not the God of the Christian theist, and the monism of the pantheist is quite different from that of the modern Western secularist. On the other hand as Henry Morris points out in his book The Long War Against God, the NAM rests firmly upon the theory of evolution "as viewed in a pantheistic context." Morris adds:

"The revival of "spiritualism" in the mid-nineteenth century, followed soon after by Madame Helena Blavatsky's Theosophical Society and then by Rudolf Steiner's Anthroposophy, stimulated a significant resurgence of ancient occultism. At about the same time, Mary Baker Eddy was developing her "Christian Science," which in many respects was an esoteric form of Buddhism. All of these systems were very similar to many aspects of the modern New Age movement."

It is difficult to say just how much these peripheral movements contributed to the development of the NAM, but it is clear that the movement was shaped by many of the ideas and influences which emerged from that turbulent, rebellious decade of radical and rapid change which we call the '60's.

Hungry Souls Turn to the East

In our discussion of Postmodernism we spoke of the emptiness, futility and barrenness which inevitably grew out of modernism. Having banished God from his mind, Western man was condemned to a world devoid of meaning, a future without promise and a life stripped of value. But man simply cannot live like this. His whole being cries out against an existence emptied of ultimate significance. After all, he bears the image of the divine (Gen 1:26) and his Creator has set eternity in his heart. (Eccles 3:11) Man was made to be restless apart from God.

Few generations have been as restless as the "baby boomer" generation which came of age in the 60's. The boomers had enjoyed the benefits of an affluence society, and yet many of them were repelled by its shallowness and acquisitiveness. For the most part they were better educated, better paid and more indulged than any generation before them, but they were also less satisfied. Disaffected and disenchanted they challenged almost all traditional values - but sadly their dissatisfaction did not, (for the most part) lead them to embrace the revolutionary teachings of Jesus Christ. Generations of attacks upon scripture by modernists and liberal theologians coupled with the dry formalism of much which passed for Christianity had destroyed the credibility of the Bible in the minds of many. And so they turned elsewhere. They turned to mind-altering drugs, communal lifestyles and free love.

They also turned to the East, and to the swamis, the mystics, and the gurus. Film stars and pop icons travelled to Tibet and India to learn transcendental meditation and the sitar, while maharishis came to the West to bring "enlightenment" to eager students on our campuses. In 1967 the hit musical "Hair" captured the mood of a generation with its story about the pursuit of Yoga light, and a hit song from the show announced the dawning of a new age of liberation, truth, peace and revelation, the "age of Aquarius." Eastern pantheistic thought was identified with the dawning of this fresh new age, while Christian theism was seen as a tired vestige of the dying "age of Pisces." On the one hand the Bible was identified with the Establishment, while on the other the "sacred scriptures" of the East were increasingly linked to the counterculture of the time.

Now the tumult of the 60's has died away and "flower power" is no more, but the pantheistic world view introduced from the East which was once associated with youthful rebellion has now been absorbed into mainstream thought and is an integral part of NAM. However it is important to notice that New Age pantheism differs from traditional Eastern mysticism in at least one important respect. For the Hindu the world is an illusion and its events are of no ultimate significance. The world is to be denied and its distractions renounced. On the other hand New Age pantheists are typically concerned with personal fulfilment in the here and now, and because they have definite views about the future they are often involved in such things as education, social issues, protection of the environment, promotion of world peace and the like. In short pantheism does not lead them to deny the world but instead to embrace it.

Man's Divinity

In 1985 Dave Hunt and T.A. McMahon wrote in The Seduction of Christianity:

"The noted historian Arnold Toynbee, after studying civilizations across the whole span of history, concluded that self-worship was the paramount religion of mankind, although it appeared in various guises......It is only within the past 25 years, however, that this obsession has become the popular religion of the masses."

From pantheism to self-deification is a short journey and it's one that New Agers have been eager to make. At the heart of New Age spirituality lies the belief that man is God, and although such a claim makes the believer cringe it is one that New Agers are not reluctant to make.

Actress Shirley MacLean became the leading celebrity of the NAM in the 1980's as a result of her biography Out on a Limb and some of us will remember the 1986 television program based upon her autobiography in which she is persuaded by her teacher to stand upon the seashore and boldly proclaim "I am God!"

Now according to New Agers, man's biggest problem is that he has forgotten the basic truth that he is indeed divine. Listen to spirit guide Ramtha (see below) in the popular New Age book Voyage to the New World:

"What be you? You are God! Man expressing as God often forgets that which is termed his Godhood... 'Tis not the way it is. You are a God that needs to remember." (emphasis mine)

So according to our incorporeal friend, man's big problem is that he has lost sight of who he is. Having forgotten that he is his own creator, sustainer and reason for being, man is restless and unfulfilled, and he will remain that way until he rediscovers his divinity. And just how is this breakthrough to be achieved? New Agers achieve self-awareness in a variety of ways including the following:

a) Channelling

As New Age materials flooded the bookstores a new word entered our vocabulary as the movement's leading lights spoke of their experiences with what they called "channels" and "channelling." Basically channelling is similar to what we have in the past called spiritism, which is the practice of communicating with the dead or some kind of non-human intelligent entity. Typically the channel is pictured as an individual who willingly surrenders himself or herself to this foreign identity as a vehicle for communication, but the manner of communication appears to vary quite widely. An avalanche of "channelled" books and tapes has hit the bookshops and libraries in recent years, seminars on the subject attract a great deal of attention and the media find the whole business irresistible.

As the hunger for "enlightenment" has continued to grow some channellers and their spiritual guides have become celebrities. Since the early 1970's millions of people have devoured the teachings channelled by one Jane Roberts whose spirit guide Seth produced enough material for two books. Another guide Lazaris, and his channel, gained great popularity after a favourable mention in a book by Shirley MacLean. But few have attained the level of popularity enjoyed by a woman named J. Z. Knight who became the channel for Ramtha, (above) a seven foot tall, 35,000 year old warrior-king. Ramtha repeatedly emphasises that man's great need is to rediscover his own divinity.

b) Consciousness Altering

A variety of techniques for altering consciousness also feature in the New Ager's pursuit of spiritual power. These mind-altering practices have traditionally been associated with paganism, shamanism, witchcraft and the occult but the NAM has easily absorbed them all. For example there's creative visualization or guided imagery which involves the use of mental imagery in an attempt to manipulate reality, and which has its roots in ancient sorcery and occult practices. The ultimate aim of such visualization for the New Ager is the creation of one's own realtity and the realization of one's own divinity. Another example of consciousness altering is hypnosis. Historically, hypnosis/self hypnosis was associated with attempts by ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Indian mystics and others to communicate with their gods, and many New Agers employ it to the same end. Other techniques for achieving enlightenment through altered consciousness include such practices as transcendental meditation, sleep deprivation and astral projection and always the aim is spiritual enlightenment leading to rediscovery of man's divinity.

Human Potential Movement

In his book The Lure of the Cults, Ronald Enroth tells us:

"The decade of the sixties was the period when large numbers of Americans embarked on a journey of self-discovery and self improvement through what came to be known as the Human Potential Movement."

Clearly such a journey would have immense appeal for those who believe in their own divinity, and sure enough as Enroth pointed out in 1987, the "1970's and 1980's have seen even more interest in self-actualization and personal transformation." A flood of New Age books appeared preaching the good news that man need only acknowledge his infinite potential and he will as a result possess limitless power. Enroth tells us that during a thirteen year period beginning in 1971, some 500,000 people passed through Werner Erhart's Forum, a self-awareness programme grounded upon a pantheistic world view. The human potential movement reflects the influence of men such as psychologist Carl Rogers and positive thinking gurus like Norman Vincent Peale and Napoleon Hill, and it's ever-present theme is the centrality of Self. Self is king and all focus is upon self-esteem, self-realization, self-assertion, self-actualization ad nauseam. Still it's quite understandable if the self is God.

Reincarnation

Under the heading Karma we read in The Oxford Companion To Philosophy:

"Literally action, whether bodily, linguistic, or mental. In most classical Indian traditions, 'karma' can also mean the unseen potentials for future pain and pleasure which we accumulate as the result of good and bad action. Without exhausting these potentials there is no release from rebirth for the soul. Thus karma constitutes bondage in Jaina, Buddhist, and Vedic thought."

It is by means of reincarnation that these accumulated potentials for pain and pleasure are worked out, and thus in eastern societies such things as poverty and pain are matters of karma, the impersonal outworking of consequences.

As we have seen, spiritual awakening is an important New Age theme and many devotees believe that it is only after many lifetimes that the attainment of higher consciousness is achieved. Predictably most have discarded such concepts as the caste system and the more negative aspects of karma and they focus instead upon the idea that it is by means of reincarnation that growth toward godhood is achieved. Interestingly the claim is often made that reincarnation was originally a Biblical doctrine but that it was expunged from scripture by early Christian leaders.

Pantheism and Ethics

It is clear that the typical New Ager entertains a very positive view of man and many are committed to such noble goals as the attainment of global peace, equality of opportunity and the protection of the environment. Many have social consciences and involve themselves in movements which seek to correct injustices and secure rights for the oppressed. Even a cursory glance at New Age literature reveals that many place great value upon love and personal enlightenment. However none of this can hide the fact that pantheism, because of its very nature, is unable to provide meaningful answers to ethical questions. Augustus H. Strong has something to say about this in his Systematic Theology under the heading Idealistic Pantheism:

"It therefore contradicts the affirmations of our moral and religious natures by denying man's freedom and responsibility; by making God to include in himself all evil as well as all good;......."

"It is only out of condescension to popular language that pantheistic systems can recognise the notions of right and wrong, of iniquity and sin. If everything really emanates from God, there can be no such thing as sin. And the ablest philosophers who have been led to pantheistic views have vainly endeavoured to harmonize these views with what we understand by the notion of sin or moral evil......Satan as well as Gabriel is a self-development of God....." (emphasis mine)

Like others involved in pantheism, some New Agers have attempted to avoid the implications of their position, but all such attempts ultimately flounder. Clearly if the self is ultimately God, it follows that each man is ethically autonomous, including the man who devotes his life to serving others and the man who exterminates millions in the gas chamber. Both are manifestations of deity. In his Mystery Mark Of The New Age, Texe Marrs records the following quotations from from New Age literature in a chapter headed Call Not Evil Good:

"The New Agers know that there is no wrong path, no bad way, no failure, no evil, no devil, only us with complete freedom of choice to find our way back to God in any way we choose, and to grow in the experience. Satan is no more than God seen through cheap glasses." (From Some New Age Myths and Truths, Life Times, vol 1 , no 3, p. 9, Jack Underhill)

The belief that you are bad, a form of evil, distorts your vision and self-esteem. This belief will enable you to produce negative results in your world....You are made up of the same stuff God is, and that is nothing but Good. You are Good. You are not evil. No one is evil. (from The New Thought Christian, William Warch)

Ultimately all pantheistic systems made talk of "good" and "bad" meaningless.

The New Age View of Christ

Of course New Agers are quite prepared to acknowledge the deity of Christ, but then since everyone is divine this is of course a far cry from the Bible's good confession of Jesus Christ as Lord. The New Age Christ is simply a man possessing the same nature as all other men but differing from most others in his grasp of the great truth that humanity is divine.

Now one of the so-called ascended masters, Christ functions as a guide for other men who are striving to realize their godhood. Some (certainly not all) New Agers await the coming of a shadowy figure called Maitreya whom they believe to be one manifestation of Christ. (among others)

New Age Polytheism

Now as we can see from looking at Hinduism, pantheism is compatible with polytheism, and like Hinduism the NAM accommodates many gods and goddesses. Perhaps this rejection of monotheism in favour of a multiplicity of gods reflects the movement's rejection of moral absolutism and its commitment to moral relativism. (see below) What we mean by this is that Christianity is an absolutist system which involves the adoption of a single truth, acceptance of an immutable moral law, commitment to one view of reality and allegiance to an unchanging God. It is clear that such a system is just not compatible with the kind of pluralistic, relativistic world view characteristic of NAM. Polytheism however is well suited to such a view because a multiplicity of gods is compatible with a multiplicity of values, competing explanations of reality and a variety of lifestyle choices. Whatever the reason, the rapid rise of polytheism in the West in recent years testifies to the popularity of NAM.

A Golden Age

Many New Agers look for the return of a golden age characterized by equality, peace, harmony, freedom, tolerance, and inventiveness. Allegedly there was once such a time, and it was during an age when nature was sacred, when pleasure was not considered sinful and when spirituality was an inward experience. As the story goes, it existed before the present patriarchal age, and it was a time when Goddess worship prevailed and feminine qualities predominated. Christianity with its narrowness, its absolutism, its dogmatism, its preoccupation with sin and its intolerance is the product of a patriarchal system which seeks to oppress women, to stifle individuality and creativity, and to destroy the ancient matriarchal system of worship.

Now historical evidence for such a golden age is conspicuously lacking but the NAM is not reluctant to employ useful myths, and many in the NAM are feminists for whom the recovery of goddess worship is an important motif. In her book Changing of the Gods: Feminism And The End of Traditional Religions feminist Naomi R. Goldenberg wrote in the late 1970's:

"We women are going to bring an end to God. As we take positions in government, in medicine, in law, in business, in the arts and, finally, in religion, we will be the end of Him. We will change the world so much that He won't fit in anymore."

As man's belief in the one true God has waned, those old impostors, the "gods and goddesses" are well and truly making a comeback.

Illicit power and knowledge

Eve succumbed to the temptation to acquire power and knowledge which the Lord had not wanted her to possess, and throughout history many of her children have fallen prey to the same temptation. Like generations of pagans before them, New Agers have experimented with a variety of different ways of manipulating reality and obtaining illicit knowledge by means of occultic practices. Consider the following examples:

a) Mantics

Astrology, numerology and palmistry are examples of this area of the occult, which has to do with the acquisition of hidden knowledge. Astrology, of course, is the practice of consulting the stars in an effort to obtain insight into man's personality and future, and numerology involves the analysis of the "hidden meaning" contained in the letters of one's name and in one's birth date in an attempt to gain insight into character and destiny. Each night the astrologers and numerologists invade our T.V. screen with their New Age music and their promises of "mystical insights."

b) Magic

Magic is that area of the occult which has to do with obtaining power from the spirit world. Amulets and talismans are considered to provide protection and benefits for the wearer; charms and incantations are held to ward off negative forces and invoke divine assistance; witches, covens, magic circles and the like are associated with the use of occultic power. In most of our larger cities New Age bookstores make a good living supplying crystals, pentagrams etc, and of course witches and covens are often in the news. Over the past quarter century radical women's groups have introduced tens of thousands of women in the West to Wicca (witchcraft) and some witches have attained celebrity status (e.g. "Starhawk").

c) Spiritism

This term is used to describe the process of obtaining knowledge and power by way of a medium who facilitates contact with the spirit world. We associate spiritism with seances, ouija boards, familiar spirits and the like, and of course New Agers are kept in a constant state of excitement by the so-called channellers and the ascended masters who provide spiritual enlightenment from the other side. (see above)

Mankind's Old Enemy knows that the prospect of illicit knowledge and power appeals greatly to man's pride, and he also knows that in the pursuit of these things man is led away from God and away from a correct understanding of his own reason for being. The NAM represents a great victory for our ancient Adversary.

Concluding Comments

In his Mere Christianity C.S. Lewis speaks of what he calls "vague religion" by which he means a spirituality which is "all about feeling God in nature" and which is "all thrills and no work." Certainly the NAM provides our self-indulgent society with the opportunity to chose from a smorgasbord of feel-good experiences, but unfortunately it also repeats those same old falsehoods which have successfully seduced man since the beginning of time. Without questioning the sincerity or impugning the character of devotees, the Christian must gently and firmly insist that beliefs central to the NAM are incompatible with the great doctrines of the Bible. Of course this must be done with gentleness and consideration. According to scripture "the Lord is one" (Deut. 6:4) and He will not give His glory to another (Isa. 48:11), which means that human claims of divinity which emerge from New Age pantheism are simply blasphemous. The Creator of the universe honours the individual who is "humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at ....(His) word" (Isa 66:2), but when a created being says in his heart "I will make myself like the most High" (Isa 14:14) he is courting disaster. Reincarnation flatly contradicts the Biblical teaching that it is appointed for a man once to die after which comes judgement, (Heb 9:27) and no amount of shuffling can harmonise the two positions. Equally offensive to God of course is the restoration of the old pagan gods in violation of the first commandment of the decalogue ("You shall have no other gods before Me". [Ex 20:3]) Israel fared badly whenever she forgot this commandment and God has never changed His mind on the subject of idols.

Nor has God altered His view of occult practices. We need to take to heart the Biblical warning that the man who seeks power and knowledge through "mediums or spirits" is "defiled by them". (Lev 19:31) The Lord has granted us "everything pertaining to life and godliness" and He makes it available to us, not through ascended masters or occult practices but instead "through the true knowledge" of God Himself (2 Pet 1:3) which scripture provides. Do Christians believe in developing a positive mental attitude? Of course! Who would not have an optimistic view of life knowing that the God of the universe loves us enough to die for us and that He will take us home to heaven? Why then object to the human potential movement? Quite simply because unlike the New Ager, the believer grounds his optimism, not upon any belief in the innate goodness in man, and not upon the myth of man's divinity, but rather upon his trust in the transforming, enabling power of His Creator. (Phil 2:12; Heb 13:6, 20, 21) The difference is vast and vital. The New Ager deals with sin by denying that man is a sinner; the Christian deals with sin by confessing it and turning to Christ for healing (Jn 3:16) - again the difference is vast and vital.

Sometimes Christians do not recognise the profound differences between the two world views because they fail to understand New Age vernacular. When New Agers speak of God and of Christ it may sound reassuring to the Christian, but as we have seen they are not speaking of the God of scripture or the Christ of the gospels. Similarly when New Agers speak of taking responsibility for themselves they are not speaking of dealing with sin, but instead of recognising their divinity. Sometimes too Christians fail to appreciate the pervasive influence of New Age themes in the entertainment industry, especially in children's films and books. The bottom line is that the Christian needs to be alert and to understand something of the times in which he lives in order to preserve the true gospel in a world that is always ready to offer counterfeits.

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