Vol. 7, No. 7, 1990

Director's Chair: The New Age Movement: Is It Really New?

by James Walker

Satan is very deceitful but he is not very original.

He takes the same old heresies, that have been around for thousands of years, dusts them off, puts a fresh coat of paint and a new name on them. Then he markets them to the next generation, who see them as new truths. The fact is they are neither new nor true.

Such it is with today's New Age Movement. It consists of a loose blend of beliefs and values that has gained popularity and notoriety in the last fifteen years. However, the ideas and values themselves have been around a lot longer than Shirley MacLaine.

Rather than calling it New Age Movement this belief system could be better described as Age Old Mistake.

NEW AND IMPROVED

For example, the "new" art of channeling is not really new at all.

New Age personality, J.Z. Knight allows the ascended master Ramtha, a warrior who is claimed to have died several thousand years ago, to use (or possess) her body to speak forth messages. She calls this channeling.

However her practice is not much different than that of trance medium, Author Ford, who through an altered state of consciousness contacted the spirit of Fletcher to break the famous Houdini code in 1928, (Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology, Vol. 1, p. 340).

Ford, also, was nothing more than a product of his time. This type of communication with the dead can be easily traced back to 19th century Spiritism in America and, in fact, it was not at all new even then.

Have you ever heard of the Witch of Endor? (1 Sam. 28).

Communication with the dead was being practiced even in Bible times. It is referred to as necromancy and both the practice and the practitioner were condemned by scripture. (Deut. 18:10-12).

Most of what is called the New Age today holds to a basic world view that matter is an illusion (MAYA), that there is no absolute right or wrong -- only cause and effect (KARMA), and that life doesn't begin at conception or end with judgement but is a continuous cycle of births and deaths (REINCARNATION).

This basic world view was not invented by New Age teachers but is the foundation of classical Pantheism, which is best recognized in the form of Hinduism.

THE GURU IN THE GARDEN

Ultimately, the roots of today's New Age go back further than the Mind Sciences (Christian Science, Unity, Religious Science) of over a hundred years ago. The roots go much deeper than 19th century Spiritism, ancient Hinduism, or even Old Testament necromancy.

The roots of the New Age can eventually be traced all the way back to the Garden of Eden. Some of the very claims and promises of the New Age were first spoken there by the serpent.

The serpent first questioned God's word saying "Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" (Gen. 3:4). The New Age similarly attacks the Bible, God's word today. This can be seen in the remarks of Benjamin Creme, promoter of Lord Maitreya, "the Christ." When speaking of the coming new era or age he said:

"Within the Christian churches, the Bible will continue to be used for some time. It is obvious, however, that the presence in the world of the Christ and the Masters -- including the Master Jesus -- will necessitate a profound reinterpretation of the meanings of that symbolical work. Much will be discarded...." (Share International, Special Info. Issue, 1986, p. 27).

The Serpent also promised that, "Ye shall not surely die." This is a promise of immortality apart from God. "Your eyes shall be opened." This is a promise of enlightenment or secret knowledge. "And ye shall be as gods." This is the ultimate promise -- the lie that man can experience deity, (Gen. 3:4-5).

The New Age Movement's basic claims are not altogether different than the promises of the serpent, offering us a spiritual experience without addressing the problem of human sinfulness. It claims that what God's word, the Bible, says is sin -- is not sin at all. But through various New Age techniques we can realize that All is One and that All is God and thereby experience our own divinity.

When Shirley MacLaine cried out "I am God, I am God" in her miniseries Out on a Limb she was not sharing a new found truth but echoing an age old lie.

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!... For thou hast said in thine heart.... I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell.... (Isaiah 14:12-15).