The New Age Movement: Beware, Christians!

By David Fugoyo

What is the New Age Movement?

It is hard to define what the New Age Movement (NAM) is due to its composition of assorted beliefs and theologies from various religions and philosophies. The NAM does not have a clear base and structured system, and that makes is difficult to be defined. However, “The New Age Movement (NAM)...is just what it is – a movement.  It is essentially a collection of eastern-influenced metaphysical ideologies, a hodge-podge of theologies and philosophies that are bound together by “universal tolerance” and moral relativism.  The NAM is the natural progression of humanism.” source of quotation.

“It is a theology of ‘feel-goodism,’ ‘universal tolerance,’ and ‘moral relativism’” (ibid).

 

“The new age movement is the most deceptive and damaging philosophy around today. It is entwined not only in witchcraft and satanism, it is prevalent in all denominations of what the world calls Christianity.” Source of quotation.

The danger of the New Age Movement is that it is a mixture of Christian theology and other theologies and philosophical ideologies, and it does not have any physical institution. Being almost shapeless, the NAM is easier than Islam and Buddhism, for instance, to enter in the Christian circles. Its presence is not easily noticed; and it, therefore, faces no resistance in its spread among any group, belief or ideology.

The NAM’s Teachings in Summery

• Man is in the centre of everything; all is about man not God or anything else. It is about the well-being, enjoyment and freedom of man.
• God is in everything including man and nature. So, man is God. Nature is God too.
• Human being has evolved biologically, and must now evolve spiritually.
• Man is separated from God not because of sin but because of lack of understanding the true nature and essence of God. Knowledge, therefore, is vital as far as being together with God is concerned.

Two Basic Beliefs of the NAM

1. Evolutionary Godhood

Man is now in the stage of spiritual evolution (the physical evolution took place). Since the evolution is continuously taking place, man will one day become like God (or Christ)—this is what the New Agers are hoping for in the future. After becoming like God, man will end up becoming God because man will eventually have all the qualities of God. What is realized in this belief is the man-centeredness—all is about man.

The NAM followers also believe in ‘reincarnation.’ Reincarnation is simply a rebirth—man will go under some sort of rebirth to be elevated and become God.

2. Global Unity

Unity is very central in the beliefs of the NAM. The unity will be between the following.

1. Man and Man

As man and man grow and becoming like God, they will have a mutual understanding, harmony and love which will make them have one purpose. Having one understanding and purpose will result in man having strong unity.

As far as unity is concerned, the NAM followers believe and hope for a one universal economy and one leader to lead the world. (organizations that stress unity and oneness).

2. Man and Nature

God is in everything he created, is the view believed by the Nam. Nature is one of the ‘everything’ God created. Nature is then part of God and it is to be respected by man in a mutual and cordial relationship—unity. There is need for harmony and strong tie (unity) between man and nature. Gaia (earth) is to be respected and revered by the people, stresses the NAM. (organizations that stress the nature). 

3. Man and God

Since man is evolving, he is improving in having divine nature; and soon, man will be God—equivalent to God—and he will be in harmony with God. The idea here is that man and God will have the same will and that God will not need to tell man what to do. Again, the free will of man is central in this belief.

Means of Spreading

The NAM has numerous vehicles through which it spreads. These vehicles include:

1. Music

Music is a very powerful vehicle for the spreading of the NAM. The fact that music is loved by the people from every culture and religion has made it easier for the NAM to get its roots into those cultures and religions. Songs that express the feelings of the singer and the situations he/she is in (e.g. songs born out of personal emotional experience such as love) is dominant in the music industry. Such songs are loved more than any others. The issue here is, those songs spread the message of “only me and my feelings” which is highly attributed to the NAM.

2. Movies

Movies are not different from music. Romantic movies, though not all of them are bad, are considered the evangelists of the NAM. You would watch a man trying his best to have a girl agree to fall in love with him; and he is ready to fight and even kill for the sake of the girl. The attention here—if carefully observed—is the egoism of the man. All attentions are on one person: the man and all that he (only him) wants. 

3. Internet

Internet is increasingly teaching people to embrace the NAM ideologies. For instance, more than 80% (my own assessment) wall posts on facebook are egocentric. They express the feeling of the poster, not necessarily social or religious sentiments.

4. Literature

Romantic books and magazines find a free and huge market worldwide. They are read more than any other types of literature by the common people because they (i.e. the literatures) address and feed egoism in people.

5. Fashion

What is fashion all about? Is it about the company, the type of dress, the color? Though many may claim that fashions are about the aforementioned reason, it is not entirely true. The truth is, most of those who buy and love fashions; they do it for their own sake. They don’t necessarily care about what others would say; they do what they see good—egoism. 

6. Pleasure

Pleasure, though not new, is the driving force behind the spread of the NAM. Pleasure is related to the individual rights to exercise whatever they want. Pleasure has given birth to so many practices such as pornography, alcoholism, drug abuse, etc.  

“Egoism” is what we see in all the abovementioned vehicles.

The NAM is calling for the following:

(1) New world order
(2) Universal credit card system
(3) World food authority
(4) World Health Authority
(5) World water authority
(6) Universal tax
(7) Universal military draft
(8) Abolishing of Christianity, Judaism and Islam
(9) One world leader

Dale Robbins @  this source.

It is clear from the above mentioned list that the NAM is calling for unity; the unity being called for by the NAM is not a mere unity, but a unity that is/will ultimately be dominated and controlled by one entity, body (organization) or person.

Basic Christian Responses to the NAM

Christianity in its teaching does not agree with most of the teaching of the NAM. What we need to know is that, a half truth is not equivalent to truth; in other words, half truth is not acceptable as truth. In fact half truth is more dangerous that lie or untruth.

My friend in Sudan once said, “Sugar is good and beneficial. However, when sugar is mixed with a little sand, no body really likes it.” In the same way, truth is good, but it is not good if it is mixed with untruth.

The NAM teaches that man is not separated from God because of sin but because of lack of knowledge of God. That is not true, because a mere knowledge of God leads only to religiosity. The Bible teaches us that people are separated from God because of sin (Isaiah 59:2).

The NAM claims that man has the nature of God and therefore man is free from sin. It is not true because the Bible clearly states that all have sinned.... (Romans 2:23).

Through the teaching of the NAM, knowledge of God seems to be the way of getting closer (Salvation) to God. The Bible in many places teaches that Christ is the only solution through whom we can get closer to God (be saved), (e.g. 1 Peter 3:18).

The Nam teaches that man and God are or will be compatible. Christianity clearly states that God is different from man and that there are things only God can do (Isaiah 44:24). That is the old lie of the devil that man will become like God in Genesis 3:5.

Though the NAM believes in reincarnation, the Bible rules out the idea because, “people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).

The issue of unity and having one global system under one leader is the indication of the truthfulness of the word of God; “Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God.” (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4).

Some Basic Differences between the NAM and Christianity

NAM	CHRISTIANITY
God is an impersonal force.	God is personal.  He is our Heavenly Father who loves us.
God is all and all is God.  He is part of creation, as are all of us.	God is the Almighty Creator of the universe, and all within it.  Man is finite, and one of God’s creations.
There is no sin, only misunderstanding of truth.	Rebellion from God is sin.  All have sinned, and all must be saved.
Man saves himself.	Jesus Christ paid the penalty for our sins.  Only through faith in Him may man be saved.
Heaven and Hell do not exist.  They are states of mind.	There is a literal Heaven, and a literal Hell.
Jesus is a man who exemplified “Christ Consciousness, and the divinity that is man.	Jesus is the Son of God, and is part of the triune nature of God.

The table is adopted from this source.

From the discussions above, we see that it is possible for a person to be a NAM follower without actively engaged in a particular kind of organization or worship activities. The best way to know and avoid the NAM teaching is by knowing the Lord at a personal level and studying his word diligently.