By Roger Penney
A New Age Wish
New Age beliefs can be regarded as a hodge-podge of ideas from eastern mysticism, ancient shamanism and the spiritism of Madame Blavatsky. The Romantic Movement and the psychoanalysis of Carl Jung are mixed in as well, with some of the social evolutionary theory of Herbert Spencer. Added to the toxic brew are the anti-rationalism of some artistic movements and the hopes for a global society as expressed by people like H.G. Wells. Nietzsche’s longing for an “overman” and a dash of the peace and love protests could be included also. It would take too long to trace the histories of all these diverse trains of thought as they intertwine into the New Age ideas and, sometimes, diverge once again.
Many years ago I set up my Christian witness stall at an arts festival. Soon the grounds were filled with all sorts of stalls selling experiences, books, exotic foods and herbal remedies. This is all part of the New Age movement.
I had many conversations there, but my working class accent was decidedly out of place in what was mostly a gathering of people from the upper-middle class. I recited some of my poems until a man in a suit cut me down. Later, I had a long correspondence with this man who claimed to have the ability to mediate with the spirit world, or shamanic skills. Sadly, his skills at rational dialogue were not impressive and his understanding of the Bible was even worse, despite his claim to have answered an evangelist’s altar call.
The threads of belief and culture which run through most of what is called “The New Age” are ones Christians might recognize, but only to the extent that there is a yearning for something better in our personalities and self. This wish however is doomed among New Agers, for they strongly believe in self-improvement. They claim to need no help – and certainly not from God or the Lord Jesus. We cannot be sure what the gods are that New Agers mention, but we know they deny the true God.
Their ethical values are rather vague and formless, but they do include non-violence, diversity and community. They argue for global unification while rejecting the idea of a powerful central world government. A future happy “Age of Aquarius” is their hope – a time of doing whatever they please as they lounge around on the grass grooving in the sunshine. Alas, the sun does not always shine.
New Agers seek a sort of beneficial social evolution. Intriguingly enough, they take a leaf out of Vladimir Lenin’s writings, which are ideologies written in blood if there ever were, and hope for an elite mass of informed, committed and spiritually aware men and women to bring about the desired great social, religious and political changes.
Real Change
We who are Christians understand that we are a spiritual people working for the transformation of the human race, and we know that positive change in the world will not come through our efforts or by our commitment. On a personal level it only comes through faith in the Son of God. World change will only be by the soon return of the Lord Jesus Christ. “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the LORD of hosts” (Zech. 4:6 KJV). Before this prophecy of Zechariah is fulfilled, another spoken by Ezekiel will come to pass: “I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until He come whose right it is, and I will give it to Him” (Ezek. 21:27). The LORD also spoke through Malachi, saying, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse” (Mal. 4:5-6).
We long for improvement in our lives and spiritual development, yearning too for the return of our “Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body” (Phil. 3:20-21). His eternal reign of peace, justice and love is our strong desire.
Churches – the local gatherings of believers – should be the nearest things on this side of eternity to a truly loving community, where there is both diversity and unity. At the same time we form a dedicated and well-informed band of spiritual envoys: the ambassadors of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:20; Eph. 6:19-20). These things can only exist and take place through Him, in view of His death at Calvary and the sending of the Holy Spirit. God alone can make us fit for such things, having addressed our sin.
Liar And Deceiver
Satan has perverted the things of God in an attempt to make them his own. The testing of the Lord Jesus (Mt. 4:1-11; Lk. 4:13) shows us clearly how Satan works, so we are “not ignorant of his devices” (2 Cor. 2:11). Satan presents himself as “an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness” (11:13-15). This is the case with the New Age Movement and its mixture of the occult, idealism and ancient superstitions. As of old the Devil’s promise, “ye shall be as gods,” has its ancient appeal (Gen. 3:4-5).
Fuelled by the arts, false science and worldly philosophies, modern man has no values – nothing on which to express his God-given moral nature. Nietzsche gave academia the lie that “God is dead.” Freud and Darwin supplied the falsehood that salvation is in the material world by one’s own efforts. Industrialization made man a servant of the machine and greed.
The lasting influence of the youth and protest culture of the 1960’s has turned man against God and the truth of the gospel. The violent values of survivalism have been turned to its own use by competitive commercial and industrial society. To a vast extent, many in the modern working class have become dull consumers of television and media – a far cry from the active, self-educating men and women of earlier times.
The Danish philosopher Kier- kegaard taught that faith is a leap in the dark. It is therefore no wonder that classes of people have been recruited to the pseudo spirituality and false fellowship of the New Age.
In the midst of the carnage of World War 1 a group of artists and writers in Switzerland formed a protest group. Since war seemed to them as madness, they decided that the world had gone mad. They then led the world into the abstract and absurd world of Modern and Post Modern Art, and into a whole celebration of the absurd until even that seemed ridiculous.
Workers of the world settle for things and entertainment. People choose the occult or other beliefs and practices while rejecting right institutions and values. These decisions are destructive to humanity, and their wide acceptance can be seen by recent decisions of nations and secular churches.
Aquarius is now alive and well in all denominations of Christendom, the professing Church. While some worshipers bow before the idols in their church, others fall on the floor after being given a mystic pat on the forehead. How grave things have become in that even born again Christians look for a euphoric experience given by a guru channeling the power of a goddess.
Be Steadfast, Looking
Churches are infested with searches for experiences and feelings, while Bible reading and understanding is at an all time low. Yet, we who are believers may commune with the Lord Jesus and our heavenly Father. We can read God’s Word and be truly enlightened by the leading of the Holy Spirit as He reveals to us the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is the age for which we live. It is the true, new age of justice, peace, truth and love. We who are believers will live closely with the Lord Himself, enfolded in the warmth of His love and devotion for us. “God … hath highly exalted Him,” and the day is coming when “every knee should bow … and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord [the sovereign God, Jehovah], to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:9-11).
