New Age or New Birth

“The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables.'“ 2 Timothy 4:3-4.

Paul's prophecy has been fulfilled in many ways down through the ages. Paul himself probably had in mind Gnosticism; it is easy to apply it also to Romanism. But one of the many ways in which it is fulfilled in the twentieth century is in the a movement both bizarre and dangerous, which has deluded thousands in our modern times.

Most of us have met the New Age Movement somewhere - it has infiltrated into most parts of society. If you have ever visited Glastonbury, you will know that it is full of New Age shops, selling Celtic ornaments, incense and crystals. Throughout Britain there are New Age travellers, seeking to live close to nature.” You will find them living in caravans or in tents, or sometimes even in tree houses. But it is not only on the eccentric fringes of society that we find the New Age. New Age philosophy lies behind many of the “mind improvement” seminars so popular in the business world and many of the alternative medicines” that are so popular today, as well as the modern eco-politics of groups like Greenpeace. Even in the church - the notorious Nine o'clock Service was a New Age service.

What is the New Age Movement?
It is difficult to define the New Age Movement, because it has no Headquarters, no single leader. Someone has said, ‘it is like trying to catch a slippery fish, just when you think you have got it, it slips away’. Douglas Groothuis has defined it as follows: “New Age is a smorgasbord of spiritual substitutes for Christianity, all heralding our unlimited ability to transform ourselves and the planet, so that a New Age of peace, light and love will break forth.”

New Agers believe that the earth has passed through a succession of ages, corresponding to the gradually shifting pattern of the stars, each lasting about two thousand years. We have just come to the end of the Age of Pisces, the Fish, the Christian Age, when the sun is in Pisces at the Vernal Equinox, and we are about to enter the Age of Aquarius. Remember the Sixties rock musical Hair? This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius”. Some say that the New Age has already started, 1977 seems to be the key date; some say it is about to start at the turn of the Millennium. They speak of a “paradigm shift” a new way of thinking, enabling us to make a quantum leap forwards in this New Age. They themselves, of course, have already gone through this change.

New Age - old heresies
New Age philosophy is usually traced to an eccentric Russian mystic, Madame Blavatsky, who founded the Theo- sophical Society in 1875 combining Christian ideas with Hinduism. Members of the “Theosophical Society” have included such famous names as George Bernard Shaw, William Butler, Thomas Eddison and Nehru. A W Pink was also a disciple for a while, though he was later delivered from it! Other early leaders included Guy Ballard, Annie Besant and Alice Bailey (who coined the term New Age.

Modern writers have included Marilyn Ferguson, and David Spangler. Spangler was involved in the Findhorn Community, in Scotland, which has been very influential. The actress, Shirley Maclaine, has also done a great deal to popularise the New Age Movement and to make it respectable.

In the religious world, the Jesuit priest, Teilhard de Chardin has been influential, and more recently, the Dominican, Matthew Fox, with his Creation Spirituality.

The early leaders expected a new world leader, the “Lord Matreiya” to emerge and usher in the New Age. A boy called Krishnamurti was actually proclaimed as the new ruler, but declined the honour, having become disillusioned after the death of his brother!

Many of the ideas of the New Age Movement are borrowed from the east -Hinduism especially. Others are simply a recycling of old heresies - Gnosticism, Mysticism and the Kaballah for example. There is “nothing new under the sun” and the New Age certainly is not new. Pagan ideas are happily embraced - many New Agers are unashamedly pagan, out-rightly rejecting Christianity. There is also a strong occult influence: Alice Bailey wrote under the influence of spirit guides.

A hotchpotch of beliefs
Beliefs vary amongst New Agers, but the following ideas are typical. You will not need a degree in theology to realise that all of them are grotesquely anti-Christian:

1) Pantheism: New Agers believe, like Hindus, that God is all, and all is God. This is, of course, contrary to Scripture, which teaches us that God is separate from his creation: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth”.

2) The divinity of man - this is the ancient lie of Satan in the Garden of Eden “You shall be as gods” One of the main publishing houses for the New Age Movement used to be called the Lucifer Trust, it has changed its name now to the Lucis Trust.

3) The divinity of the earth - this is the pagan idea of mother earth. New Agers believe that the world has a soul, and they speak of a life-force called Gaia. This often leads to a fanatical concern for conservation, and to a radical feminism.

4) The spirituality of every living thing, including animals and plants. Christians also believe in a respect for all creatures - we are stewards of creation but the New Ager often takes it to bizarre extremes. Matthew Fox, for example, once made his dog his spiritual director! Many New Agers are vegetarians.

5) Meditation as a means to enlightenment, another Hindu idea. Oriental meditation is quite different from the meditation encouraged in the Bible. When David meditated on the Law of God, he was pondering deeply upon its meaning. When a New Ager meditates, he is emptying his mind, and allowing who knows what in.

6) Reincarnation - again from Hinduism. The New Ager believes that he will be born again in another form; by the same token he can regress into former lives through hypnosis whereas the Bible says: “It is appointed unto men once to die, and after that the judgement”. The New Ager has no place for the judgement, and is horrified by hell.

7) Interconnectedness - the idea that all events everywhere are somehow connected. Thus the felling of a tree in Brazil affects me. This is true, but the Bible mercifully limits our responsibility over such distant events and asks us instead to look at our own lives. Repenting for the destruction of our planet is no substitute for repentance over our own sins.

8) Syncretism - New Agers are happy to draw upon all religions, including Christianity. This is what makes it deceptive to some Christians - Christian words are used. Jesus himself is often seen as an avatar, or enlightened one. There is even a strange book called The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus Christ which makes Jesus a New Age guru! There is also a great interest in the cosmic Christ - the spirit of Christ in all things. Christian concepts are often given an oriental meaning; we must beware of such confusion.

9) An acceptance of all forms of spirituality - Celtic, Red Indian or whatever. Anything in fact, except Biblical Christianity, because that is exclusive. Jesus said :“I am the way the truth and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me”.

10) An acceptance of the occult - horoscopes, witchcraft, spirit channelling, it is all accepted. Indeed witchcraft, wicca as it is sometimes called the “Old Religion”. The Bible, of course, forbids Christians to have anything to do with such practices.

11) A search for unity in all things - this again is an oriental idea. Sometimes it leads to a desire for a single world government. Christianity teaches that God is indeed gathering together all things in Christ. But there is a radical disunity between the saved and the lost.

12) Relativism - there are no rules, whatever works for you is OK.
A growing influence. The New Age Movement has had a growing influence on our society, sometimes directly, sometimes indirectly, through the infiltration of words and ideas. Here are just a few examples:

1) In politics, the influence of pressure groups like Greenpeace and "Friends of the Earth. The Greenpeace ship, Rainbow Warrior is actually named after a spirit guide. Now many of the issues raised by these groups are important, and we ought not to reject them because of their associations. But we need to beware. New Age words have crept into mainstream politics also. George Bush famously proclaimed a New World Order, only to have it shattered by the Gulf War. Am I alone in cringing at New Labour?

2) In healthcare, alternative medicines have become widely accepted, even amongst Christians, acupuncture, and aromatherapy, for example. There is often a New Age influence here. Now some of these medicines may well work, and I do not want to be a scaremonger. But we ought to be careful. Homeopathy, for example, has gained widespread acceptance in Christian circles, but the inventor of homeopathy, Samuel Hahnemann, was apparently steeped in Swedenborgian mysticism and based his ideas on mystical philosophy!

3) Above all, in religion. The Nine o'clock service in Sheffield was a very lurid example, but by no means an isolated one. Indeed, the most disturbing aspect of the Nine o'clock service was that the Church did not condemn the New Age spirituality behind it, only the sexual misdemeanours of the vicar. The Nine o'clock service was based upon the Creation Spirituality of Matthew Fox, which teaches that God can be found in nature. We can encounter God, therefore, by standing on the seashore, or embracing a tree.

I wonder if the popularity of pet services in recent years owes something to New Age influence. Matthew Fox has come up with some bizarre ideas along these lines. He is unhappy with pet services, because that still suggests human superiority over animals, and suggests that perhaps a congregation could dress up as giraffes, and an animal could be brought in to bless them. He is joking presumably - but you never quite know! The feminist notion of a Mother God which is gaining popularity also has New Age links. Matthew Fox quotes Jesus as saying, ``The kingdom of God is within you'.

One clergyman, Don Cupitt, who has appeared on TV, calls himself a Christian Buddhist and one church, St James, Piccadilly, has been described as a New Age church. Inter-faith services in Anglican cathedrals have often incorporated New Age ideas. The World Council of Churches also recently gave a platform to a Red Indian shaman. One cannot help wondering also about some of the more outrageous ideas in the charismatic movement. Kenneth Copeland, for example, has spoken of men as gods. We ought not to become witch-hunters, seeing New Age influence everywhere - but we ought to keep our eyes open. No doubt we can expect an increase in New Age influence towards the year two thousand.

The attraction
Why do people believe this nonsense? Let me suggest four reasons.
1) It offers spirituality without churchgoing. Sadly, to many the church is a stumblingblock. We have all met this, I am sure, in our conversations with people: “I believe in God”, they say, “but I don't believe in the church.” Matthew Fox comments, “My generation is not interested in religion, but we are interested in spirituality”. We are often told nowadays that there is a great interest in spirituality amongst young people, and so there is. But it is not the spirituality of the churches they want. Now perhaps we are partly to blame for that. We have made the church unattractive and unwelcoming, institutional rather than inspirational. More likely, however, most people have simply never been to a good church. They have judged the church by the insipid standards of the churches they have encountered, and found it wanting. The New Age movement appears to offer a better alternative.

2) It offers the lure of “hidden knowledge” and that appeals to man's pride. That was the attraction of the Gnostic movement. Certainly, much of this New Age literature is incomprehensible; you get a sense of achievement simply at having read through it!

3) It answers the felt needs of people - health and happiness, peace and tranquillity though not, of course, their real needs, of forgiveness, reconciliation with God and holiness.

4) A sense of hope - even if it is a false hope. People want to believe that the world is getting better. The harsh reality of a world heading for judgement is too terrible to believe.

The answer
It is tempting to dismiss the New Age Movement as nonsense. We need however, to have an answer for those who are attracted to it, and the answer is easy to find. The answer is the Gospel. The Bible does indeed teach a New Age with the Lord Jesus Christ as its leader. There really will be a glorious New Age when our Lord returns - as John says, #``I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away' (Revelation 21: 1) That New Age is indeed a wonderful one: ``God himself shall be with them and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pains; for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.'' As Christians, we are longing for the New Age and our Messiah, unlike Krishnamurti, will not let us down, or become disillusioned. He will reign, for ever and ever, and his saints will reign with him.

But, what is more wonderful, this New Age has already broken in upon the earth, with the coming of Christ; and for each individual Christian it is a reality already - through the New Birth: ``Therefore If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" We have in our hearts the peace, the tranquillity, the joy that the New Ager longs after. There is in the church the beginnings of a new society: the new, New Age has begun in us.

True enlightenment comes only by the new birth: ``Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God''. New Agers themselves need a paradigm shift in order to be saved!

We must pray for New Agers that the Lord will enlighten them. We must also pray for ourselves, that the Lord will keep us, and our churches, safe from every harmful influence, until the Day dawns and our Lord Jesus Christ returns, and the true New Age begins in all its glory.

Robert Dale,