F4S: A call to holy living in Christ means completely ditching all that's unholy.. including the New Age movement. What is the New Age Movement really about? This--it is walking through the darkness instead of in biblical light. And it is very attractive to many lost Americans who have become disillusioned with organized religion and Western rationalism. This person desires spiritual reality, but doesn’t want to give up materialism with the bougie-luxe lifestyle, and deal with any moral problems, or come under God's authority.

Wednesday, November 8, 2023

A call to holy living in Christ means completely ditching all that's unholy.. including the New Age movement. What is the New Age Movement really about? This--it is walking through the darkness instead of in biblical light. And it is very attractive to many lost Americans who have become disillusioned with organized religion and Western rationalism. This person desires spiritual reality, but doesn’t want to give up materialism with the bougie-luxe lifestyle, and deal with any moral problems, or come under God's authority.

Let's reason together about this "new age" movement. 

Weren't the early church Christians also faced with the world's pressure towards "tolerance toward false doctrines"? Yes, towards the weirdness of Gnosticism and antinomianism. 

Don't these two weird systems of thought bear some marks of the New Age Movement today? Yes, believing their own assumptions resulted in denying the incarnation and the resurrection. 

It also resulted in careless living. The apostles called them on this, “believe not every spirit but try the spirits whether they are of God,” (1 John 4:1). 

They also cautioned the Church regarding first-century resurrection-deniers and were admonished to watch out for the people they hang around with, and not to be deceived for “..evil communications corrupt good manners,” (1 Cor. 15:33). 

How do we do this? Well, pray, get your person to a healthy church regularly -- have a good grasp of the Scriptures. 

Sure, know the Bible so well, so that the slightest defection from the truth (any counterfeit bill so to speak) can be immediately detected by you.. so that you can ditch it, shun it, and toss it far away from you and your family. The Bible commands the regenerate (the twice-born person, the Christian) to stay away from such spiritually negative (erroneous) influences (click).

Please think long and hard on how God cautioned His Old Testament people, the Jews in the nation of Israel, regarding the dangers of having unholy connections with, unrighteous alliances with the Canaanites. 

God in the Bible spelled out some of the detestable Canaanite practices, which were actually good reasons for the Lord to use Israel to destroy them back in the day. They were actually involved in:

    1. Making their son or daughter pass through the fire (that practice of burning children to death as a sacrifice to the heathen gods);
    2. Divination (erroneously looking to, and getting false prophecy.. trying to know the will of the so-called gods by examining and interpreting omens);
    3. Being an "Observer of times" as by a sorcerer (who casts spells and attempts to control other people or circumstances through demonic powers);
    4. An enchanter uses any form of magic;
    5. Witchcraft from a witch;
    6. A (serpent) charmer;
    7. Consulter with familiar spirits (fallen angels a.k.a. demons) is a present-day medium channeler;
    8. A wizard is one acquainted with "the secrets of the unseen world";
    9. Necromancy (the spiritist who communicates with the dead for the purposes of consultation or knowing the future, or help in manipulation).

God ain't a killjoy -- never has been. In agape love God forbade these things because they were an abomination to Him and not at all helpful for any human. They were God's reason for destroying them (18:12). God did not want His own Jewish people to mingle with them because they were set apart unto Him (18:14). Reliance on these practices indicated a corresponding failure to trust the Lord with one’s own life.

God (in the Scriptures) said, “When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, be very careful not to imitate the detestable customs of the nations living there. 10 For example, never sacrifice your son or daughter as a burnt offering.[a] And do not let your people practice fortune-telling, or use sorcery, or interpret omens, or engage in witchcraft, 11 or cast spells, or function as mediums or psychics, or call forth the spirits of the dead. 12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord. It is because the other nations have done these detestable things that the Lord your God will drive them out ahead of you. 13 But you must be blameless before the Lord your God. 14 The nations you are about to displace consult sorcerers and fortune-tellers, but the Lord your God forbids you to do such things.” Deuteronomy 18:9-14 nlt