The New Age: Real Concerns for the Church

Dear Reader, for a brief moment, let’s reason together through a hypothetical situation. Imagine that you had just moved into a new home and couldn’t wait to invite dear friends over for dinner. After providing your address, you were immensely grateful to remember that a ginormous pot hole 🕳 existed within the road leading to your home. The GPS won’t pick this up of course, so you make sure to alert your friends in advance.

This menacing hole had already flattened one of your tires, not to mention made you late for an important presentation at work. The hole is hard enough to locate at dusk…so it will certainly be extra illusive at 6pm in December. Needless to say, you lovingly warn your friends of this genuine concern…and pray that they remember.

Your warning ⚠️ was not motivated out of self-righteousness, nor was it meant to wound or belittle. However, the exposure of the pot hole was given out of an authentic care for your friends’ welfare. It was your responsibility as a friend. You knew it was there, and were keenly aware at how easily new drivers could hit it. Especially if the driver was potentially distracted by the cares of the day, was on his or her cellphone, or was driving later in the dark. To know about the hole, and then choosing not share about it, would be inexcusable. Don’t you agree?

The “pot hole” that I am lovingly wanting to help expose is one that is not new, but has been around since Eden. Gals, we have the blessed perspective of God’s Word (History) as to show us that Eve was deceived. But if we are brutally honest, we fall (no pun-intended) into deceptive reasoning more than we care to admit. We also, just like Eve had done, make decisions according to what appears pleasing to the eyes and wise in our own understanding. She wanted more knowledge (gnosis) than what she had been given, and she trusted her emotions instead of resting in God’s character. Does this sound familiar? Don’t we do those same things? Combine the sinful need to be like God with not trusting His Word, and we are traversing down the harmful road of Pragmatism (“whatever works”).

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.
‭‭Colossians‬ ‭2:8‬

The New Age Movement, also termed “Progressive Spirituality,” is that deceptive path. It’s a Gnostic belief system filled with cherry-picked scripture and twisted interpretations. The New Age is that sneaky pot hole that needs to be a topic of real discussion for churches…TODAY! A recent Pew Study has revealed that more than 60% of professing Christians ascribe legitimacy to at least of these four New Age beliefs, including the belief in psychics, reincarnation and in astrology. This does not include the spiritualism behind yoga, the belief that karma exists, or that the law of attraction is real. This is genuinely alarming! With all of this in view, we need to lovingly alert others regarding the real dangers of New Age practices, and how they have been leading hearts away from God’s Word in many of our churches…as we speak.

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
1 John 4:1

Readers, below are links to incredibly insightful resources that not only educate regarding the history of New Age practices and philosophies, but also examine them against Scripture. It’s my genuine hope and prayer that you take time to peruse the information available here…And that you not leave this blog not only more confident in your beliefs, but also with a greater awareness of New Age doctrine and programming. Here’s a powerful quote by Hillary Morgan Ferrer, from her book, Mama Bear Apologetics: “What you tolerate today, you accept tomorrow. What you accept today, you embrace tomorrow. What you embrace today, you promote tomorrow.” With God’s help, we can avoid these types of spiritual pot holes…by testing every message carefully alongside God’s Word (the Bible). Let’s pray, pray, and pray some more, Sisters! 🙏🏼

God’s got this,

Mer

What is the New Age Movement?

60 minutes with Alisa Childers and Melissa Dougherty

48 minutes (Part 2), Steven Bancarz and Allie

9 minutes with Allen Parr

10 minutes – Mike Winger and Melissa Dougherty

What is the Gospel?

3 minutes with Greg Koukl

20 minutes with David Wood- “Made in the Image of God”

75 minutes with Gary Habermas

Who is Jesus?

6 minutes

9 minutes with Nabeel Qureshi

44 minutes with Mikel Del Rosario

More Regarding the New Age?

What Does Scripture Say?

“I think the greatest weakness in the church today is that almost no one believes that God invests His power in the Bible. Everyone is looking for power in a program, in a methodology, in a technique, in anything and everything but that in which God has placed it—His Word. He alone has the power to change lives for eternity, and that power is focused on the Scriptures.”
R.C. Sproul

Deuteronomy 18:9-12 “When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you.”

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

2 Corinthians 11:4 “And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.”

1 Timothy 4:1 “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons,”

Acts 19:18-20 “Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.”

1 John 4:4 “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he (satan) who is in the world.”

Zechariah 10:2 “For the household gods utter nonsense, and the diviners see lies; they tell false dreams and give empty consolation. Therefore the people wander like sheep; they are afflicted for lack of a shepherd.”

Exodus 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.”

Galatians 5:19-21 “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

Jeremiah 14:14 “And the Lord said to me: “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divination, and the deceit of their own minds.”

James 4:7 “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

Matthew 24:24 “For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.” (Self-Deification; Universal Christ; Panentheism; Christ Consciousness)

2 Chronicles 33:6 “And he burned his sons as an offering in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, and used fortune-telling and omens and sorcery, and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.”

Jeremiah 27:9 “So do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your dreamers, your fortune-tellers, or your sorcerers, who are saying to you, ‘You shall not serve the king of Babylon.’

2 Thessalonians 2:9 “The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders,”

Ephesians 5:11 “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.”

1 Chronicles 10:13 “So Saul died for his breach of faith. He broke faith with the Lord in that he did not keep the command of the Lord, and also consulted a medium, seeking guidance.”

2 Timothy 4:3-4 “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound^[a]teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, ⁴and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.“

2 Kings 23:24 “Moreover, Josiah put away the mediums and the necromancers and the household gods and the idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might establish the words of the law that were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord.”

2 Timothy 3:2 “For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,”

1 John 3:8-10 “Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.”

Acts 16:16 “As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling.”

1 Peter 5:8 “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”

1 John 4:1-3 “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.”

1 Corinthians 5:5 “You are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.”

Ephesians 6:11 “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.”

Ezekiel 13:20 “Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against your magic bands with which you hunt the souls like birds, and I will tear them from your arms, and I will let the souls whom you hunt go free, the souls like birds.”

1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 “But test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.”

Trust the Bible

60 minutes with Voddie Baucham

130 minutes with Dan Wallace

90 minutes with Wes Huff

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What Does Scripture Say?