The Religion of the Future

DR. EDWARD HINDSON

Dean, Institute of Biblical Studies

Liberty University

The “New Age” religion has been the fastest-growing religion in America over the last ten years.

If there were one religion that could be said to best fit modern society’s “whatever-works-for-you-is-okay-with-me” mind-set, it would have to be New Age.

New Age “theology” represents a do-it-yourself form of religion. One can pick and choose whatever ideas, beliefs, concepts, and concerns happen to appeal to one’s personally. The rest can merely be set aside; they need not be rejected.

The bottom line is obvious. New Age theology rests upon pantheism, which is succinctly summarized in the following words:

All is God,

God is all,

Man is part of it,

Therefore, man is God.

According to New Age philosophy, the only thing separating man from God is his own consciousness, not his sin. Thus, “New Agers” propose finding God within one’s self by altering one’s consciousness through such means as meditation, chanting, channeling, sensory expansion, ecstatic dancing, and even fire walking. The New Age approach to spirituality is more a matter of experience than belief. An altered conscience is said to lead to self-realization, which then results in personal transformation (the New Ager’s “salvation”). In this process, personal experience becomes the final authority for defining one’s spiritual journey.

In his book, A Crash Course on the New Age Movement, Elliot Miller defines the New Age movement as an informal network of individuals and organizations bound together by common values (mysticism and monism) and a common vision (the coming New Age of Aquarius).

Within the New Age network are several separate strands that interconnect:

1. Consciousness movement: those advocating the expansion of human consciousness by altered mental states, resulting in the expansion of human awareness.

2. Holistic health: those encouraging better food and diet for better mental and spiritual development.

3. Human potential: the self-help psychology of self-awareness, self-actualization, and self-improvement.

4. Eastern mysticism: various gurus advocating transcendental meditation, astral projection, reincarnation, and various Hindu doctrines that view the material world as illusionary.

5. Occultism: pseudoscientific return to witchcraft, satanism, shamans, mediums, palm readers, and Tarot cards.

The blend of these elements varies with every individual and every subgroup within the New Age network. Some lean toward ecological issues (save the planet); others lean toward global peace issues (make love, not war); and still others prefer a mystical orientation that mixes meditation, yoga, ESP, and astrology with a strong belief in reincarnation. The combinations of any of these elements are like fingers of an intellectual hand reaching out to potential followers.

Miller states, “New Agers tend to be eclectic; they draw what they think is the best from many sources. Long-term exclusive devotion to a single teacher, teaching or technique is not the norm. They move from one approach to another in their spiritual quests.” Thus, the subjective guides of experience and intuition are the final authorities for New Age thinkers. The Bible and the Gospel message are vehemently rejected. Because there is no objective truth, the New Ager creates his or her own subjective truth. Therefore, the uniqueness of the Gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ is quickly rejected.

Scientific Mysticism

Modern man has reached the point where he does not want to face the logical consequences of a secular world without God. But instead of repenting of his rebellion against God, he has now turned to a kind of scientific mysticism that has been popularized as the New Age movement. Modern New Age mysticism is a combination of transcendentalism, spiritualism, Oriental mysticism, and transpersonal psychology.

Key elements of new age thought include restructuring the mind through meditation, sensory deprivation (for example, flotation therapy), and the self-tuning of the mind and body to become receptors and transmitters of cosmic forces. Psychic therapies claim to manipulate “life energies” to provide inner healing of individuals and to promote human relationships in harmony with cosmic forces.

It is this merging of scientific mysticism with a rejection of materialistic secularism that has resulted in New Age thinking. This thinking then couples with the human potential movement, which offers a number of techniques for advancing one’s metaphysical evolution. Since all ideas have political consequences, we should not be surprised to discover that the political agenda of New Age thinking includes ecological concerns, sexual equality, and the unification of the world order by the transformation of the current political order through a “planetary consciousness.”

The New Age transformationalists seek the total transformation of society along ideological lines consistent with their own beliefs. By challenging the “myths” of matter, time, space, and death, New Agers believe they will release our untapped human potential to create a new and better world.

It is this kind of mental gymnastics that enables New Agers to redefine the terms and concepts of spirituality. They are ready to accept the earth or the self as God. They believe in extraterrestrial beings, angels, demons, witches, and wizards. Their influence can be seen in movies like Star Wars, Ghost, Field of Dreams, E.T., and Dances with Wolves. They see great spirituality in a diversity of role models, such as Native American medicine men, Hindu gurus, Tibetan lamas, Sufi mystics, Zen teachers, and Oriental hermits. But they are united in their rejection of God the Father, the deity of Christ, and the personality of the Holy Spirit.

The Counterfeit Christ

While New Age thinkers advocate Eastern mysticism, they often attempt to clothe it in Christian terminology. That’s because those who grow up in Western society find Eastern spirituality and thought to be very different and foreign. Growing up in the Western world makes it difficult for some people to totally shed their religious heritage. So New Agers repackage Eastern mysticism to make it more acceptable to the Western mind.

New Agers have taken the Christ of the Bible and totally reinterpreted and repackaged Him as the New Age Jesus. New Agers separate the historical Jesus of Nazareth from the Christ-consciousness that He came to attain. Jesus is not the Way, the Truth, and the Life; He is a way-shower. He is one of the Ascended Masters who realized oneness with God, but He is not viewed as the unique and divine Son of God. To New Agers, Christ is one of the monistic masters in a whole pantheon of deities.

The counterfeit Christ of the New Age movement is being repackaged as a tolerant, broad-minded, nonjudgmental teacher. He is a way-shower who points men toward the god within themselves. As the cosmic Christ, He is now one of the Ascended Masters who continues to reveal Himself as an emissary of the kingdom of light.

In his study the Counterfeit Christ of the New Age Movement, Ron Rhodes points out that New Agers have three ways of explaining away orthodox Christian beliefs:

1. They speak of supposed discoveries of hidden writings about Christ (e.g., Gnostic Gospels)

2. They promote new revelations of truth about Jesus from psychics and channelers

3. They speak of esoteric interpretations (deeper meanings) of Scripture.

While the specific details may vary, all New Age thinkers agree that Christ is only one of many Ascended Masters who may serve as guides to the truth. New Age Christology is drawn from a vast array of existing religious and philosophical concepts that are eclectic and syncretistic to the extreme. In a do-it-yourself religion, one ought not be surprised to find a make-your-own Jesus!

The Apostle Paul’s warning to the Galatians (1:6-8) still applies today: “I am shocked that you so quickly deserted the grace of Christ for another gospel ... that would pervert the Gospel of Christ.” New ideas may come and go, but only the Jesus of the Bible will stand the test of time. He and He alone can meet the deepest needs of the human heart.