Know Your Enemy, But
Don't Live With Him!
Reincarnation, Eastern Mysticism,
Channeling, Psychic Phenomena, the Occult and other aspects of the New Age
Movement are sweeping the western world. Normally, we would not recommend books
covering these topics in detail. If you are the type of person who is likely to
get "bug eyed" and go too deep into this subject, you should stop
reading this article right now.
There is a perverse curiosity in human
nature to understand the "mysteries" of Satan. We know one
Sabbath-keeping minister who brags that he had read hundreds of books on the
topic of witchcraft and the occult. However, the Eternal commends those who have
not known the depths of Satan, Revelation 2:24. We should, as Texe Marrs says,
"major on Christ, minor on the
devil."
Nevertheless, we should be aware of what
is going on, without dwelling on evil. We need to have enough knowledge to be
aware of Satan's devices, II Corinthians 2:11. Wherever you are, you cannot
escape New Age philosophy and teaching. Satanists sacrificed a dog a few miles
from our home. While traveling through Chicago's O'Hare Airport, I had to walk
through a public causeway with mood-altering lights and New Age music. Schools,
media, even American businessmen are espousing eastern religious philosophies
previously unknown to the Western world. Even Sabbath- keeping organizations
promote New Age ideas.
We need to know our enemy, but not live
with him!
Texe Marrs' book, Mystery Mark of the
New Age, Satan's Design for World Domination, describes the symbols used by
New Agers and how this is a coordinated part of Satan's master plan for world
domination. Ravaged by the New Age, Satan's Plan to Destroy Our Kids,
reveals the Satanic plan to conquer the world through turning our youth to
witchcraft and Satanism.
Dave Hunt and T.A. McMahon's book, America,
The Sorcerer's New Apprentice. The Rise of New Age Shamanism, shows the
fallacy and error of New Age philosophy, how it is a "new" version of
the old "perennial religion" of pagans, Hindus, Buddhists,
witchcraft and others. In reality, there are only two religions which vie for
the mind of mankind: naturalism versus supernaturalism. In the following
outline, I have crystallized major doctrines of the New Age Movement, showing
the contrast between these two diametrically opposite ways of life. I have put
the New Age position in italics, and the Biblical position in normal
type.
New Age Religion:
Naturalism, Polytheism
Based on human Subjective Experience,
New Ageism masquerades as "science" yet is a religion. "If it
feels good, do it!" Forget about doctrine and the Bible, experience
"freedom" to do as you want.
Religion of the Bible:
Supernaturalism, Monotheism
Based on Objective Criteria, true
religion is based on faith, and backed up by evidence. The Bible reveals God's
doctrines which we must live by.
A. The Nature of God
- 1. Naturalism
- Nature came about by some
impersonal force, and you should seek to learn the secret of controlling and
using nature for your own purposes.
- Supernaturalism
- We are awed by nature and seek to know
the Creator in order to worship Him
- 2. All is God (Pantheism)
- The common creed of all pagan
religions and the occult is that there is a "higher power" of
which all things are a part, which influences human destiny. The motto of
the New Age is: "All is one, all is God, and we are God." God is
not personal, but a force, which does not judge you or hassle you with
morals. You can manipulate the force and become master of the universe.
- God is One
- God is the supreme power. We are apart
from God but can join His divine family. His laws are absolute, and if
broken will surely exact a penalty. In the words of Yul Brenner in the movie
"The Commandments": "His god is God!" There is only one
God. Judgment will fall on those who fail to distinguish between the Creator
and His Creation, Romans 1:18-32 and especially those who claim to be God,
Isaiah 47:8-10.
- 3. The Force
- The purpose of Satanic rituals is
to invoke and/or manipulate the natural "Force" or
"collective unconsciousness" of the cosmos to selfishly achieve
health, wealth, success, or curse one's enemies. Satan is not a personality.
Spirit mediums consistently teach that demons do not exist. Since the Force
is in everything, it's in you and me and we won't die, we just get recycled.
- God is Ruler
- God is Supreme Ruler, but has allowed
Satan sway over mankind for 6,000 years. Satan is a personality, and is
"The Force" contrary to God's Laws. We should surrender to God and
seek Him through prayer. The purpose of true worship is to learn more about
God and His ways, praise and thank Him for His blessings, confess our sins,
increase our love for others, and build outgoing concern.
- 4. Man is God
- You create your own reality, you
are God. You can elevate yourself to the god status by tapping into the
force. Sun Myung Moon: "Man is incarnate God", Yogi: "Be
still and know you are God." Satanist Michael Aquino says, "We are
not servants of some God, we are our own gods!" Shirley MacLaine
shouts, "I am God! I am God! I am God!"
- Only God IS God
- Only God is God, there is none else,
Isaiah 40:13-31, 45:5-19. God reproves those who aspire to take over His
place, Ezekiel 28:2.
- 5. Jesus is not THE Savior
- He was merely a highly evolved man,
He was another guru teaching the same as all the rest, studying in India to
prepare for his mission. This New Age teaching clearly marks its adherents
as part of the anti-Christ, I John 4:1-3.
- Jesus is THE Savior
- Jesus is the Son of God, He lived a
perfect life, died for our sins, was resurrected from the dead and He is
alive for evermore. Gurus deny the existence of sin, while Christ condemns
sin and calls sinner to repentance, and died for the sins of the world.
Gurus are vegetarians, whereas Jesus was not. Gurus teach there are many
ways to God, but Jesus says He is the way the truth and the life, the only
way to the Father.
- 6. Sorcery
- Sorcery is the key to a magical
solution for all your problems. However, there are no divine miracles from
an Almighty God, only natural events.
- No Magic
- Overcoming is not magic but building
character by the Holy Spirit, learning faith and patience through overcoming
trials and tests. God's power supersedes the laws of nature.
B. The Nature of Man
- 1. Human Potential.
- Achieve your own infinite potential
through psychology, developing your own inherent goodness through an
"Altered State of Consciousness", or ASC.
- Child of God
- We can become a child of God through
accepting God's gift of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for our sins, changing
our natural, carnal mind through the power of the Holy Spirit. Paradise will
be restored by the return of the Savior to rule all nations with a rod of
iron.
- 2. Mind Changing
- Altered States of Consciousness,
Transcendental Meditation, and other techniques are more powerful than
drugs. Their purpose is to experience spirit possession, to meet and listen
to your "Inner Guide", the "god within" each of you.
Hindus claim the universe is a mental illusion, and the only reality is an
ASC. You can change your world by changing your thoughts.
- Listen to God
- The truth is, that ASC is more
dangerous than cocaine or LSD. The "inner guide" is the voice of
Satan and his demons. Our natural mind is enmity to God's Laws, and results
in misery and unhappiness. God's Spirit does not coerce, it leads us to do
good. We must yield ourselves to God, resisting Satan the Devil. While in an
"altered state", group leaders are able to implant new ideas and
alter the thinking processes of their followers. Don't let others do your
thinking for you! The battle for the mind can be won through Christ. Man
cannot find the way to peace, which can only come through obedience to the
Law of God. Listen to God and His Word, the Bible. Choose life.
- 3. All is part of nature, of the
universal "Collective Unconsciousness."
- Peace can come if the whole world
meditates for peace, taps the Universal Mind. Humanity's crises rise from
ignorance of man's divinity and oneness with all things.
- God is a personality
- God is separate from nature which He
created. He is a personality. Each human being is a distinct responsible
person. There is no salvation apart from the Savior, Acts 4:12.
- 4. Self-realization
- You are a part of nature and can
"realize" your own godhood and create your own reality. Through
self-realization, mind power, you can manipulate nature, and control it
through occult power. There's nothing wrong with you, it's just the way you
think. Get in touch with yourself and look within, finding out who you are,
and then you will be able to realize the infinite human potential that
resides in each of us.
- God is source of our power
- We have no inherent power to live
beyond our few years of physical life. God is the source of all power, who
may be petitioned through prayer, but cannot be made to conform to our will.
- 5. Self Love
- Nature and man are god. You need to
have more love of yourself, self- esteem, self-worth. The self is the hope
of humanity, of man's salvation. Anton LaVey, Satanist priest, says:
"The highest of all holidays in Satanism is the date of one's own
birth, for we worship the individual and celebrate self-love."
- We are to love God
- Men shall be lovers of their own
selves, denying God. He who loves his own life more than God shall lose it.
We are nothing, but through God's love, we become His children and will
inherit all things.
- 6. Openness to Everything
(Universalism).
- Psychiatry, psychology and
humanism, communism, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc., all have a common theme, and
are all equally valid. They all take you to the same place. The only enemy
is the man not open to everything. You cannot criticize Satanists even
though they offer human sacrifices; they are just acting out their
"karma" (determined by what they did in previous lives). It
doesn't matter what you believe as long as you are sincere.
- One Faith
- There is only one true religion. All
others are false, and take you to one place--the lake of fire.
C. Sin
- 1. Sin
- Humans are without sin and guilt,
merely programmed to do the things they do. Lame excuse: "the devil
(whom I don't believe in) made me do it!" Nobody is guilty, there isn't
any right or wrong, I have my truth and you have your truth. There is no
sin, for the world is holy, nature is holy, the body is holy, sex is holy,
the mind is holy, the imagination is holy, for we are all part of god.
- Sin is the transgression of God's Law
- We are responsible for our sins and
cannot use the pitiful excuse, "the Devil made me do it!"
Forgiveness from God through Christ's blood is the only way to get rid of
guilt. Only God is holy, and only He can clean up our vile imaginations and
evil deeds.
- 2. Amoral
- Nature has no morals. There is no
such thing as justice, mercy, liberty or fairness, right or wrong. You
should reject the concept of sin and judgment. Hitler, Stalin and Mao
TseTung were not evil.
- God has laws.
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn says the
"self-deification of man as supreme" has led to a decline of
Western morals. God has laws for our own good, He is a God of mercy,
justice, equity. God's laws demand justice. His mercy is available through
Jesus, but He will execute judgment on those who refuse to repent.
- 3. Rebellion against Universal Law,
War Against God's People
- Glorification of the ugly and
perverted; brutal assault on decency and morality. Anti-Christ. The God of
the Bible is not to be tolerated.
- Satan is active.
- The Bible prophesies of the
"spirit of disobedience" in the last days, the "man of
lawlessness" who will declare he is God, II Thessalonians 2. The Beast
will persecute true believers. Christians are enemies of the New Age
Movement because they cannot accept religious leaders other than Jesus of
Nazareth. We must be separate from the one world religious system. Keeping
the Sabbath and Holy Days, and not keeping the pagan celebrations keeps us
apart from the world, and makes the world hate us.
- 4. Anti-Christian religion
- Freud: Religion is the obsessional
neurosis of humanity. Marx: the opiate of the masses. The only enemy is the
man not open to everything. Those who say there is no right or wrong,
nevertheless condemn as evil those who disagree with them. Except for
Christians, "We're all taking different roads to get to the same
place." Christianity is opposed because it claims to be right and the
only way.
- God's way or eternal death.
- The fool has said in his heart there
is no God. There are two ways: eternal life and eternal death. God's one way
of life as described in Bible is the only way to participation in the Family
of God.
- 5. Women
- Witchcraft is a religion of women,
a nature religion, that worships "mother earth", glorying in the
sin of mother Eve.
- God's special role for Women
- Eve led Adam in the first sin. Man has
a God-given leadership role. The Bible has a masculine point of view. Women
have been given a special role in training children to be God-fearing and
thus have a vital role in the redemption of mankind.
D. Destiny of Man
- 1. Evolution
- Nature came about by some
impersonal force. You should seek to learn the secret of controlling and
using this force for your own benefit. Man is a product of nature, therefore
all he does, even war, is natural, and is not "right" or
"wrong." Evolution makes reincarnation seem credible, for there is
no point in being reincarnated numerous times unless one is evolving ever
higher. Evolution has been the core belief of occultism for thousands of
years. Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, etc., all agree we came from amoeba and
are moving upwards to Godhood. Lord Maitreya: "Man is an emerging
God."
- God is Creator.
- Some are willingly ignorant of the
many proofs of creation. Even agnostics are debunking the theory of
evolution, showing it to be unscientific and unsupported by the evidence. We
seek to know the Creator in order to worship and obey Him. Man was created
by God with free moral agency, the ability to choose right or wrong.
"From slime to divine" makes man an animal and God a human. There
is a contradiction in evolution: man is supposed to be the "highest
form" of life, but has "lost" his survival instincts and
threatens to destroy all life on the planet. Man is devolving downward, not
upward.
- 2. Survival of the fittest
- Compassion is contrary to nature,
which is harsh. We should eliminate the "undesirable elements" of
society and preserve and maintain a class of elite supermen.
- Mercy, Love and Compassion
- We should have mercy, love and
compassion. Take care of the poor, needy, blind, deaf, crippled. All are
equal in the sight of God. A mentally retarded person is no less precious in
God's sight than a gifted intellectual.
- 3. Secrecy and the Elite Class
- Only those who know the secrets can
wield occult power. The rest are "dumb sheep". The "ascended
masters" are those who have mastered occult powers and are "the
Christ" who have and will lead the world.
- Salvation to all.
- Salvation is open to all whom God
calls and who truly seek Him.
- 4. Absolute Obedience
- Nazism, Hinduism, New Age beliefs
demand absolute obedience to the guru leader. Followers must abandon reason
and follow their exalted superior leaders.
- God can be talked to
- "Come let us reason
together." Paul reasoned with them out of the Scriptures. Follow no
man.
- 5. Reincarnation
- Man is evolving higher and higher
up to Godhood. If a husband beats his wife, the law of karma says he must be
reincarnated as a wife beaten by her husband. Reincarnation perpetuates
evil. Freud says the present is determined by the prior years of one's life.
Reincarnation says the present is determined by one's prior lives. Man
doesn't die, he just gets recycled and incarnated again. At death, the
individual's consciousness joins the pool of universal consciousness.
- One chance at salvation.
- Reincarnation is amoral, senseless and
hopeless. Under God's Law, each has one chance to receive salvation. Few are
being called in this age. Most will have their only chance during the Great
White Throne Judgment. The second death in the lake of fire is a final and
total cessation of one's consciousness for all eternity.
- 6. Communication with the dead
- Channeling, receiving power from
those long dead.
- Dead are DEAD.
- The dead know not anything. The Bible
condemns mediums and those involved in necromancy. Those who attempt contact
with the spirit world are seeking demons. Without repentance, they will reap
the death penalty.
New Age Movement
Infiltrates Church of God
It is shocking how many tenets of the New
Age Movement have sprung up in the Church of God. Modern religious groups have
helped pave the way for the New Age. In an effort to gain membership, some are
convinced the good news should be presented without any negative aspects, rather
than thundering calls for repentance and denunciations of sin as the prophets of
old.
Although they once knew the truth, I know
of a church organization that now preaches a pabulum gospel, extolling the
virtues of the "vast human potential", and avowedly is working for
world peace. Their new "apostle" jets around the world speaking nice
things to world leaders. Their leading scholar goes to Tibet and has cordial
relationships with Buddhist monks, and believes in "pre-Adamic man"
ideas, co-existing with evolutionary theory. This church ridicules
"anti-Catholic" books such as Hislop's The Two Babylon's as
being divisive.
They have few miracles because medical
science is lauded above the healing power of the Almighty. There is a veil of
secrecy as the "dumb sheep" of the lay people are kept in the dark as
to the real inner workings of the church. Those who can manipulate the system
can work their way up into positions of power in the church and become an elite
class above the common herd. There is an amoral double standard, as the elite
church leaders can lie, steal, commit adultery and live in luxury while the lay
people are subjected to an authoritarian, compassionless church government.
Their leaders claim to be "above the Law" of God, worshipped by the
membership.
The New Age Movement has virtually taken
over some Sabbath-keeping churches of God!
Where Persecution Will
Come From
Satan and his followers hate true Bible
believers. They say the Christian age (so-called Age of Pisces) will soon be
replaced by the enlightened Age of Aquarius. New Agers are open to everything.
Everything, that is, except Bible believers, whom they sneeringly call
"fundamentalists." New Agers will not tolerate those who believe the
Bible and the absolute necessity of following the Eternals Law.
Why do followers of the New Age hate
us? Because they want freedom from judgment and freedom from the conviction
of their sins. New Agers are unwilling to accept their guilt; they want to do
their own thing. Even without uttering a word, the true follower of Jesus of
Nazareth is a living light, showing the New Ager that sin is real and that God
hates sin, that there is a real personal Eternal who will judge every man for
his deeds. Moreover, the true believer will not give an inch and grant that
non-believers' views are equally valid. This drives the naturalistic pantheists
wild with rage.
This is why New Age writing is full of
bitter language against Christians. Bible followers are called parasites which
must be exterminated. New Agers claim all religions except the Bible lead to
godhood. All of the world's problems are said to be caused by bigoted
fundamentalists. Christians are held to be primitive, stupid, and interfering
with intelligence, creativity, joy and having a good time. Those who criticize
witchcraft and the occult are said to be against social progress.
So-called Christians who willingly accept
New Age doctrines will be spared. But New Agers say those who stubbornly stick
to their "erroneous" belief that Yahshua is the only Messiah,
and His way is the only way will have to be put to death. According to New Age
belief, such staunch Christians are the only evil there is.
What a tragedy that many so-called
Christian fundamentalists are indeed bigoted, narrow minded, rejecting the very
Bibles they thump. They fuel the New Age fire sweeping the world.
We need to understand where persecution
will come from, and why. After reading Texe Marr's book, Mystery Mark of the
New Age, I can understand why people today, as men of old, extol the
"noble" traditions of the Greeks who practiced infanticide and rampant
homosexuality, the Babylonians and Canaanites who had human sacrifices and threw
their children into fires to appease their gods, the temple prostitution of
Rome, Pergamos and Corinth. I can now understand why New Agers today hate
"obstinate" Bible believers. It goes all the way back to the Garden of
Eden and Cain and Abel.
New Age Movement
Prophesied
What we see today in the New Age Movement
is a direct fulfillment of Bible prophecy.
Isaiah 2 is an end time prophecy. Verses
1-5 describe the establishment of the Kingdom of God on this earth, with its
capital at Jerusalem. Verses 6-22 prophesies of the events just prior to the
kingdom age. The "house of Jacob", i.e., modern Israel, will be
forsaken by the Eternal. Why? Isaiah 2:6,
"because they be replenished from
the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please
themselves in the children of strangers."
Or, as the Amplified Bible has it,
"they are filled with customs from
the east."
Verses 7-9 describe the end time
idolatry: great wealth and materialism, which is idolatry. Modern Israel, the
Anglo-Saxon peoples and others in Northwestern Europe, have long observed pagan
holidays and customs. But in the last days, the Eternal says they will become
literally saturated with eastern religions. Every one of the New Age ideas come
from the east, particularly India, home of the world's pagan religions.
Notice also Isaiah 2:10-22. At Messiah's
return, He will humble proud and lofty men who claim "all is God, we are
God."
In Hosea 12:1, Ephraim, one of the
leading tribes of Israel (identified by some as the British Commonwealth, by
others as the United States) follows after "east wind." Now
"wind" is used in Scripture as a symbol of false doctrine, Ephesians
4:14. False religious doctrines from the East will corrupt modern Israel during
the last days.
II Timothy 3:1-7 adds that in the last
days, men will be lovers of their own selves. Man has not always been this way.
Self-sacrificing pioneers have colonized new territories, made great technical
achievements for the progress of mankind, often with little recognition or
remuneration. But in the last days, "love thyself" becomes the great
commandment for reprobate man.
It is interesting to note that the Beast
will honor the "god of forces", Daniel 11:38. All these scriptures
cannot be mere coincidence. They are "dead ringers" for what is going
on today.
Bible Condemns Occult,
Witchcraft, New Age Movement
It is not difficult to discover what the
Creator thinks of the "New Age" movement and similar paganistic,
occult Satanic cults. The Bible lambastes such practices.
Sorcery, wizardry, witchcraft,
enchantments, charms, clairvoyance, soothsaying, fortune telling, divination,
prognostication spirit channeling, necromancy, mediums, spiritualism, astrology,
star gazing and the like are thoroughly condemned in the Bible.
Here's some of the many scriptures that
cover this topic:
Exodus 22:18~~~~ 2nd Kings 17:17 also
21:6~~~~Jeremiah 27:8-9~~~~Leviticus 18:21 also 19:26 & 31~~~~!st Chronicles
10:13-14~~~~Micah 5:12-15~~~~Deuteronomy 12:30-32 also 17:2-5 also 18:9-12 also
18:20-22~~~~2nd Chronicles 33:6~~~~Acts 16:16-18~~~~1st Samuel 15:23 also
28:1-25~~~~Isaiah 8:19 and 19:3 and 47:8-15~~~~Galatians 5:19-21~~~~Revelation
21:8
Naturalism or
Supernaturalism?
Why is the Western world rejecting its
Biblical roots? Because churches, supposedly Bible-based, have rejected
God's word. Look at the demise of religion, the Jim Bakkers, Jimmy Swaggerts,
Armstrongs, etc. No wonder thinking people are looking elsewhere for answers to
life's questions. One of the five reasons for the decline and fall of the Roman
Empire was the decay of religion, faith fading into mere form, losing touch with
life, losing power to guide the people. Franz Cumont's Astrology and Religion
Among the Greeks and Romans describes the crumbling classical world in
"New Age" terms:
"In the declining days of antiquity
the common creed of all pagans came to be a scientific pantheism, in which the
infinite power of the divinity that pervaded the universe was revealed by all
the elements of nature."
Hunt & McMahon show that the Bible is
the basis of true faith, which grows out of a relationship of obedience to
God, when we become an instrument of His will rather than making Him the
instrument of our wills. We need to abdicate the throne of our lives to God.
Only He has right solutions. Christians should not look to themselves for the
answers, or let a religious guru do their thinking for them. We cannot exercise
free choice if we don't really understand what we believe, I John 5:20.
Therefore, we must get our noses in the Bible!
Spirit "entities" contacted by
New Agers in their spiritual encounters endlessly repeat the three-fold lie of
Satan: There is no death, man is God, knowledge of the self
leads to one's own divinity, transformation, salvation and power.
There is nothing "new" about
New Age ideas. The movement is merely a re- hash of Satan's twisted concepts.
Individually we must fight back and win our personal battles against the devil.
There are only two religions: naturalism or supernaturalism. Which one will you
choose?