From New Age to Biblical Christianity

Complimentary Story
      As a New Ager, I had close friends who embraced sound biblical doctrines, but I read and interpreted the Bible metaphysically.  I concealed my opinion that my friends were narrow-minded and spiritually primitive, but I loved their high moral standards because they were similar to mine.  I believed I was like my friends, a Christian, albeit a more enlightened Christian because of my New Age beliefs.  Then one day (Gasp!) I realized that I wasn’t an actual Christian at all!
   I read the tenets of Christianity and agreed with almost none of them.  I did not and could not agree that Jesus Christ was Lord and Savior.  My pluralistic “all-paths-lead-to-God” thinking had me feeling that the name “Jesus” was offensive, primitive.  In my mind, the name “Jesus” was linked with blind fanaticism and simple intellects.
   So how did I, a New Ager, became convinced that I was wrong and that Scriptural Christianity is true?
   This is how I told my story to one of my New Age friends. (I hope you’ll glean some helpful points on how to proclaim God’s truth to someone involved in the New Age.)
   Rachel had just told me she talked with the dead and consulted astrologers.
   I prayed silently, “Lord Jesus, what Rachel did is wrong in Your sight, but I don’t know what to say that will be effective.  I’ll probably end up offending her, not convincing her at all. But You can do it through me; I’m unable to do it on my own.  In Your holy name, Jesus Christ, Amen.”
   I turned to Rachel and said, “That’s interesting.  When I was a New Ager I went to an astrologer too - a real astrologer.  I gave him my date of birth, and he was so specific and accurate about past events in my life.  He didn’t give me generalities, he gave me really precise, specific information.  Astrology “works.”  But many other things work too.  Witchcraft “works.” Black magic “works.” Satanism “works.” But the question is not whether something works, but whether it is right in the sight of God.
   “The Bible says that it’s wrong to consult astrologers or talk with the dead.  At first, I thought that was narrow-minded.”
   Rachel nodded as if she thought the same.
   But I continued that I had come to know that God is God and that it is we who are narrow-minded (Job 38:1-42:6; Isaiah 10:12-15; Romans 9:19-21).  What God forbids, He forbids not because He’s shallow, petty, or bigoted; He forbids what He forbids because He is Yahveh, period (Leviticus 18:4-6; Ezekiel 20:19).  You see, as eternal and self-existent Creator, Owner, Sustainer, and Disposer of all things and people (Isaiah 40:28; John 1:3; Isaiah 42:5; Psalm 24:1-2, 104:24-30, 145:15-20; Colossians 1:17; Romans 9:21-24),   God possesses the absolute right to forbid or command whatever from whomever whenever for whatever reason.  And the fact that He is holy, set entirely apart from sin (Leviticus 11:44; Revelation 4:8; Hebrews 7:26), means that His forbiddances and commands are never wrong. This essential holy character of God is the one and only example to be followed by His creation (Leviticus 11:44-45, 19:1ff., 20:7; 1 Peter 1:13-17).  To disobey Him in affection, motive, thought, word, or action is to violate His standard, defile ourselves in His sight (Leviticus 18:30; Ezekiel 20:7; Mark 7:20-23) and incur His judgment against us (Genesis 2:16-17; Ezekiel 18:4; Romans 1:19-2:11; Hebrews 13:4).
   Rachel said, “Okay,” but I sensed she wasn’t convinced.  I told her my testimony.
   “As you know, I tried all the religions I could find, comparing them to make sure I picked the most accurate one.  Comparison shopping is just something I do with everything.  In the end, I chose Christianity as being the best, but I held teachings from Buddhism, Hinduism, and the New Age too.  Then, one day, I read the doctrines of mainstream Christianity and realized that I believed practically none of them.”
   I enumerated the doctrines my memory could recall, counting them on my fingers.
   “One of them is that Jesus is God.  I didn’t have a problem with that because to New Agers everyone is god, everyone has a divine consciousness within.
   “The second is that Jesus is the only way to God.  I didn’t believe that one at all.  I believed there were many ways to God, that different religions were just different ways.
   “Another is that we die once then face judgment. I had a problem with that too because I believed in reincarnation.
   “The last one is that the Bible is the Word of God. I didn’t believe that one either; I was convinced that some parts of the Bible were inspired by God, but that most of it was written by men and that the Bible had been edited, that some parts had even been taken out.”
   Recognition came to Rachel’s eyes as if she thought, “At last, someone who thinks like me!”
   I said, “I was shocked to discover that according to mainstream Christianity I couldn’t be considered a Christian at all. I thought, ‘All this time I thought I was a Christian, but now I see that what I believe is diametrically opposed to Christianity.’
   “Well, I figured that if the New Agers are right about the editing of the Bible, I should be able to find documents that prove it.  So I set out to research the matter online.
   “Everything I found that New Agers submitted to be believed as true regarding the editing of the Bible was supposition.  I found no facts to support their claims: no historical documents, no facsimiles of historical documents, no photos online or in books of such documents, no locations or addresses whereat these supposed documents are housed, etc. (This is entirely unlike ancient Christian documents preserved in collections, institutions, and museums across the globe.)  New Agers said the councils of Nicea and Constantinople took the parts about reincarnation out of the Bible, but I read papers on these councils and neither was about reincarnation at all.  So where was the New Agers’ evidence?  What and where are the historical documents that prove their claims?  My research turned up the Bible as the most well-documented historical record in history!
   “That confused me,” I confessed to Rachel.  “I began to wonder, ‘So which one is right?  New Age or Christianity?’
   “I went back online to search for web pages with apologetics for and against Christianity and for and against the New Age. I was intent upon finding the truth. And I believed I could find the truth using my reason, logic, and common sense.  I trusted my own intellect.  I thought I’d read the apologetics and determine the truth with ease.
   “Both sides gave excellent arguments, but they contradicted each other.  And the more intelligent the writer, whether Christian or New Age, the more that one’s argument made sense.
   “Dazed, I came to realize that I couldn’t rely on my intelligence to find out the truth after all, because someone more intelligent than me can simply frame their argument in such a way to convince me that what they believe is logical and true. I became aware that I couldn’t rely on my intellect because it’s limited. We all have limited intellect.  We’re not omniscient.”
   Rachel couldn’t wait to hear outcome of my search.
   “So how did you find out what’s true, Veronique?”  She looked at me like she was thinking, “Speak! Speak! Don’t leave me in suspense like this!  I want to know!”
   “I prayed to God,” I told her.  “I told God, ‘I give up.  I know now that I cannot and must not rely on my mind to ascertain the truth.  It’s beyond my ability. I can’t do it.’
   “That was key: humbling myself before God.  I surrendered to and relied on Him instead of myself. I said, ‘I can’t figure out the truth, so please show me the truth. Help me know what is true and false about these different doctrines.’
   “Immediately, an idea!  I knew the Bible said that the devil is the father of lies (John 8:44).  So if I wanted to get to know the truth, I could learn what the father of lies teaches in Satanism and reverse those teachings.
   “Reverse the devil’s lies. . . . I never thought of that before!  It had never occurred to me to uncover the truth by learning the lies.
   “So I read books on Satanism.  I was stunned to learn that, besides the really outright evil stuff, doctrines of Satanism and the New Age  are the same, exactly.
   “Some Satanists channel demons that speak through them. New Agers do the same, except they call the entities ‘spirit guides’ or ‘higher selves.’  Yet the Satanists’ demons and the New Agers’ spirit guides teach the same things: reincarnation, god-consciousness within, no eternal punishment, occult practices.”
   Permit me to break away momentarily from the account of my conversation with Rachel to document that Satanists and New Agers carry the same basic beliefs.
   February 17, 1988, Michael Aquino, high priest of the Satanic order The Temple of Set, was a guest on the Oprah Show. (Transcripts and videos of this interview may be found via the internet.) During his interview, he said some surprising things to Oprah Winfrey and her television audience:
   “We are not servants of some god,” Aquino said, “we are our own gods.”  He reassured Ms. Winfrey that he was, “Not under the realm of Satan; under the realm of the exploration of this element of the human psyche that is responsible for its own virtue and responsible for its own ethics.”
   Oprah replied, “The way a lot of people who are into metaphysics now and the New Age movement and New Age thinking, they say the very same thing. Are you saying that it’s the same?”
   Without hesitation Aquino answered, “Yes, except that I would say we [Satanists] have a more precise grasp of . . . this quality of the human psyche or the human soul. . . . We would say that we understand what’s actually happening a little better than many New Agers.”
   Back to my conversation with Rachel.
   “Some demons take on the appearance of angelic beings of light or any appearance that will please the channeler or conjurer.  I thought, ‘If demons teach reincarnation, then I’m not going to believe in that.  That’s demonic doctrine.’ That’s how I got to know that reincarnation is a lie.
   “The church of Satan also teaches that there are many paths to ‘God,’ but that Jesus Christ is not one of those ways. Reversing that, I saw that there is only one way to the true and living God and that it is through Jesus Christ. That’s what the Bible says too!  (John 14:6; Ephesians 2:18; Hebrews 7:25).
   “I also learned that during Satanic ceremonies, Satanists will sometimes urinate on the Bible, spit on it, burn it, or pour blood on it. Why would they do this only to the Bible? They don’t urinate on the Koran, the Bhagavad Gita, the Tipitaka, New Age books, or any other book.  No, it’s only the Bible they desecrate.
   “Why would Satanists so hate this book if it were written by mere men and not breathed forth of God?  I began to understand that Satanists desecrate only the Bible because Satan hates both God and His Word.  And that convinced me that the Bible is not a collection of men’s writings, but the inerrant, infallible, impeccable word of God.
   “Now, I have no difficulty believing that the whole Bible is inspired by God. But to think that when I embraced New Age doctrines I was believing what is taught by demons and Satanists!  The only thing opposite to what they teach is the Bible.”
   The conversation ended there.  Rachel had a lot to reconsider.
   Deuteronomy 18:10-13, “There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For whoever does these things is detestable to the LORD; and because of these detestable things the LORD your God will drive them out before you. You shall be blameless before the LORD your God.”
   Isaiah 8:19, “When they say to you, ‘Consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter,’ should not a people consult their God?  Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living?”
   Isaiah 47:13-14, “You are wearied with your many counsels; Let now the astrologers, Those who prophesy by the stars, Those who predict by the new moons, stand up and save you from what will come upon you. Behold, they have become like stubble, fire burns them; they cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame;  there will be no coal to warm by nor a fire to sit before!”
   Jeremiah 27:9-10, “But as for you, do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your dreamers, your soothsayers or your sorcerers who speak to you, saying, ‘You will not serve the king of Babylon.’  For they prophesy a lie to you in order to remove you far from your land; and I will drive you out and you will perish.”
Continued on Page 18

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