Freedom in Christ Course
Devotion
New Age thinking 18 April
Let them know that you, whose name is the LORD - that you alone are the Most High over all the earth (Psalm 83:18 NIV).
The New Age Movement is very attractive to the natural person who has become disillusioned with organized religion and Western rationalism. They desire spiritual reality but doesn't want to give up materialism, deal with their moral problems, or come under authority. I've discovered six unifying factors in New Age thinking. We will consider three of them today and three tomorrow.
The first is monism - the belief that all is one and one is all. It says we all swim in one great cosmic ocean. History is not the story of humanity's fall into sin and its restoration by God's saving grace. Rather, it is humanity's fall into ignorance and the gradual ascent into enlightenment. Monism is a counterfeit to the unity Jesus prayed for in John 17:21. That unity is possible only when we are united together in Christian fellowship.
Second, all is God. If all is one, including God, then one must conclude that all is God - trees, snails, books and people are all of one divine essence. A personal God is abandoned in favour of an impersonal energy force or consciousness, and if God is no longer personal, He doesn't have to be served. New Agers say, "When I was a little child, I believed in God. When I began to mature, I stopped believing in God. Then I grew up and realized that I was God."
A third unifying factor refers to a change in consciousness. If we are God, we need to know we are God. We must become cosmically conscious, also called "at-one-ment" (a counterfeit of atonement), self-realization, god-realization, enlightenment, or attunement. Their faith has no object; neither does their meditation, so it becomes an inward journey. To us, the essential issue is not whether we believe or mediate, but whom we believe in and what we meditate upon. We believe God and meditate upon His law day and night.
Lord, I affirm that I am nothing, can do nothing, and will amount to nothing apart from You. You are the object of my faith and life today.
Neil Anderson
Devotion
New Age thinking 18 April
Let them know that you, whose name is the LORD - that you alone are the Most High over all the earth (Psalm 83:18 NIV).
The New Age Movement is very attractive to the natural person who has become disillusioned with organized religion and Western rationalism. They desire spiritual reality but doesn't want to give up materialism, deal with their moral problems, or come under authority. I've discovered six unifying factors in New Age thinking. We will consider three of them today and three tomorrow.
The first is monism - the belief that all is one and one is all. It says we all swim in one great cosmic ocean. History is not the story of humanity's fall into sin and its restoration by God's saving grace. Rather, it is humanity's fall into ignorance and the gradual ascent into enlightenment. Monism is a counterfeit to the unity Jesus prayed for in John 17:21. That unity is possible only when we are united together in Christian fellowship.
Second, all is God. If all is one, including God, then one must conclude that all is God - trees, snails, books and people are all of one divine essence. A personal God is abandoned in favour of an impersonal energy force or consciousness, and if God is no longer personal, He doesn't have to be served. New Agers say, "When I was a little child, I believed in God. When I began to mature, I stopped believing in God. Then I grew up and realized that I was God."
A third unifying factor refers to a change in consciousness. If we are God, we need to know we are God. We must become cosmically conscious, also called "at-one-ment" (a counterfeit of atonement), self-realization, god-realization, enlightenment, or attunement. Their faith has no object; neither does their meditation, so it becomes an inward journey. To us, the essential issue is not whether we believe or mediate, but whom we believe in and what we meditate upon. We believe God and meditate upon His law day and night.
Lord, I affirm that I am nothing, can do nothing, and will amount to nothing apart from You. You are the object of my faith and life today.
Neil Anderson