Category: New Age

What Is The New Age Movement


The expression “New Age” came into existence in the 1970s and 1980s. It was promoted by the circulation of the New Age Journal and a book by Mark Satin called New Age Politics. Marilyn Ferguson’s best-selling Aquarian Conspiracy was a presentation of the social agenda and philosophical vision of the New Age.

Ferguson’s writing attained status as the unofficial scripture of the movement. As Russell Chandler, a writer for the Los Angeles Times, wrote in Understanding the New Age, “If Ferguson wrote the New Age ‘Bible,‘ Shirley MacLaine is its high priestess.”

Shirley MacLaine’s book, Out on a Limb, chronicles her reluctant conversion to New Age belief. This book describes her travels and studies, which include science fiction-like dimensions, out-of-body travel, contact with extraterrestrial beings, “trance channeling” (séances), and a “guided tour” of the unseen world.

MacLaine’s second book, Dancing in the Light, tells about her reach into the world of yoga, reincarnation, crystal power, Hindu mantras, and past-life recall experiences mediated through acupuncture. Her spirit guides informed her that each individual is God, and she passed along the “wisdom” that the person is unlimited. One only has to realize it (Chandler, page 6-2).

New Age thinking has its roots, then, in Eastern mysticism, which attempts to bypass the mind. There is a new organ of perception—the third eye—which gives spiritual light. One needs to get to the “psychic self” by training one’s self to ignore messages from the mind or to see that the mind is actually achieving “cosmic consciousness.” The mind can create reality.

Neil Anderson in his book, Walking Through the Darkness, writes this: “The New Age movement is not seen as a religion but a new way to think and understand reality.

It’s very attractive to the natural man who has become disillusioned with organized religion and Western rationalism. He desires spiritual reality but doesn’t want to give up materialism, deal with his moral problems, or come under authority” (page 22). Anderson goes on to summarize New Age thinking (pages 22–24) as follows:

(1) It is monism. The belief that all is one and one is all. 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.

(2) All is God. If all is one, including God, then one must conclude that all is God. It is pantheism—trees, snails, books, and people are all of one divine essence. A personal God who has revealed Himself in the Bible and in Jesus Christ is completely rejected. Since God is impersonal, the New Ager doesn’t have to serve Him. God is an “it,” not a “He.”

(3) There is a change in consciousness. If we are God, we need to know we are God. We must become cosmically conscious, enlightened, or attuned to the cosmic consciousness. Some who reach this enlightened status will claim to be “born again”—a counterfeit of biblical conversion.

The essential is not whether we believe or meditate, but whom we believe in and what we meditate upon. Christ is the true, personal, objective reality, as He said that He is the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6).

(4) A cosmic evolutionary optimism is taught. There is a New Age coming. There will be a new world order, a new world government. New Age thinkers believe that there will eventually be a progressive unification of world consciousness.

This, according to the Bible, is a counterfeit kingdom led by Satan himself. Christ has the true kingdom, and He will one day rule on earth with peace for all who accept Him as Savior and King (Revelation 5:13).

(5) New Agers create their own reality. They believe they can create reality by what they believe, and, by changing what they believe, they can change reality. All moral boundaries have been erased.

There are no absolutes because there is no distinction between good and evil. Nothing has reality until one says that it is reality or says that it is truth. If finite man can create truth, we are in desperate trouble in our society. Unless there are eternal absolutes from the eternal God, man will eventually be his own destruction.

(6) New Agers make contact with the kingdom of darkness. Calling a medium a “channeler” and a demon a “spirit guide” has not changed the reality of what they are. This is the kingdom of darkness of which Satan is the head.

Those involved in this kind of activity are in contact with a world that is totally opposed to the biblical God revealed to us in Jesus Christ, who defeated Satan (Matthew 4:1–11Colossians 2:15Hebrews 2:14–18).

The New Age movement is a counterfeit philosophy that appeals to the feelings of individuals, leading them to think that that they are God and can enhance their lives through their own person. The reality is that we are born, grow up, live a while on planet Earth, and die.

Humans are finite. We can never be God. We need someone greater than we who can provide us forgiveness and life eternal. Praise the Lord for the God-man, Jesus Christ. Through His death and bodily resurrection, He has won for us what we desperately need: forgiveness from God, a life of purpose and meaning in this life, and eternal life beyond the grave.

Don’t miss out on who Jesus Christ is and what He has done for you. Read John chapter 3. Ask Christ to be your Savior. Your life will be transformed, and you will know who you are, why you are here, and where you are going.

Jay Shetty (Self Help Guru) peddles New Age Deception. The DECEPTION is so subtle!


Christian Answers for the New Age

JAY SHETTY: WISDOM OF THE WORLD By Marcia Montenegro

You may have seen videos on YouTube of Jay Shetty, a popular self-help guru whose videos are even posted by Christians. But be aware that within his witty admonitions are kernels of New Age, Hindu, and Buddhist spiritual views.

Former Monk

Shetty at one time was a monk on “the Hindu Vedic path” (source, interview with National Geographic at https://bit.ly/2BLUQE6). All descriptions I came across describe him simply as a “former monk,” not specifying the spiritual tradition. This way, some may think he was a Catholic, Buddhist, Hindu, or other type of monk, making him appealing to every religious background.

Videos

If you listen carefully to some of his videos, you can catch the spiritual beliefs behind them. One video on Visualization is at https://bit.ly/2NghXYz. This is not about focus or imagination, but rather visualizing something in order to make it happen.

This type of visualization is intrinsic to the New Age and the occult – found in all areas of those two fields, especially in sorcery. Why sorcery? Because the principle behind this is that you have the power of your will to alter reality and/or to manifest something into reality.

New Agers believe this is done with thoughts and words, since you have a divine nature; and the occult does it with spells, incantations, or magical rituals. In another video, Shetty states this:

“When asked what the biggest mistake we make is, the Buddha replied: “The biggest mistake is you think you have time.” From video “Don’t waste your time” at https://bit.ly/2KPF4IH

CANA: Shetty continues on how we should not waste time, breaking time down into how much time we spend sleeping, grooming, working, on social media, doing chores, eating, etc.

First of all, there is no way to authenticate that Buddha said this: Buddha’s teachings were not written down until about 500 years after his death. Secondly, if Buddha did say it, what he meant is that there is no time because there is no self, no mind, no universe, etc.; there is only formlessness, which is the true nature of reality. So of course, he did not believe in time (this view plays into Mindfulness).

Buddhism is not about learning to be peaceful or do good deeds; its goal is to realize the true nature of reality because that is the only way to liberation from rebirth. That includes realizing there is no self and that the reality you see is not real.

Shetty ends the video with these words: “for those who love, time is eternal.” Sounds nice, but what does that mean? Time had a beginning and so it does come to an end; so it’s not eternal. How does love make “time eternal?” But there is eternity and, with or without love, we will all be in it.

Eternity with or without God?

Jesus spoke of this:“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.” John 6:47

“Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.” John 8:24

CANA: Jesus, the Son of God, came as man so that the could be the perfect sacrifice for sins. He died on the cross to pay the penalty for sins so that all who believe in him are forgiven and have eternal life with God.

Shetty’s Mission

When asked what his mission is now, Shetty replied: “To share life-changing wisdom in a way that makes people feel entertained, in a way that’s active, dynamic, and innovative….<snip>…I’m [also] passionate about spreading a movement of unlearning what the world has taught us: what our families taught, what school has taught, what we’ve picked up from around us.

To allow [people] to go back to being self-aware of their own interests, needs, and concerns. It’s disconnecting from what “makes sense” to what actually moves you and what makes sense internally.” — From National Geographic interview

CANA: Please read the above carefully, because Shetty has just repeated what most motivational and self-help teachers have always said: You must unlearn everything you know and start with a blank slate in order to see everything differently.

This is really reprogramming the mind. Shetty believes he is doing a good thing but he himself does not know the need for Christ and forgiveness of sins.This goal to change perception is the purpose and heart of programs such as est from the 1970s, all cults, people like Tony Robbins, Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, etc. It is also the stated purpose of Jesus according to New Thought, a movement claiming to be Christian but which denies the essentials of the Christian faith: that Jesus came not to die for sins, but to alter man’s perceptions of who God is and who man is.

This need to change perception also sums up the purpose of New Age teachings as well as Buddhism. Many hear of Buddhism’s “beginner’s mind” and it can sound quite appealing, but Buddhism wants you to unlearn everything you’ve known and start at ground zero so you can see things from the Buddhist worldview and learn “the true nature of reality” (according to Buddhism).In contrast, Jesus, fully God and fully man, already knows your heart, desires, fears, and hopes.

There is no need to change perception of reality but rather a need to see the reality of needing forgiveness for sins and reconciliation with the true living God. Jesus, the Son of God, came as man so that the could be the perfect sacrifice for sins. He died on the cross to pay the penalty for sins so that all who believe in him are forgiven and have eternal life with God.

Jay Shetty’s “Wisdom

Jay Shetty is not just a self-help guy with snappy sayings; his ideas have an underlying spiritual worldview, but it’s a worldview completely at odds with what Jesus taught. Shetty has the wisdom of the world, but does not know Christ, and Christ himself is “the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24, 30).

“Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe…..Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” 1 Corinthians 1:20-21, 25

CANA: Jesus, the Son of God, came as man so that the could be the perfect sacrifice for sins. He died on the cross to pay the penalty for sins so that all who believe in him are forgiven and have eternal life with God. “Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.’” John 6:35————————–

CANA article on Motivational Teachings, “In the Image of Man”https://bit.ly/2NmsgukWho is Jesus? http://bit.ly/2WwtBax

Facts on Jay Shetty

Jay moved to New York in September 2016. Jay moved on from HuffPost to create his own viral video agency and grow his brand. He now works with the biggest brands in the world. He has been invited to keynote at leading companies including Google, L’Oreal, Facebook, Coca Cola, HSBC, EY, Microsoft and Accenture. In 2016 he won the ITV Asian Media Award for Best Blog and came 3rd in the Guardian Rising Star Award in 2015.” – from https://bit.ly/2BISxBv