Apologetics Session 42 - The New Age

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May 31, 2023

Cornerstone Church Men's Bible Study. Apologetics. Presenting the Rational Case for Belief. This video is session 42 focusing on the New Age Movement.

00:34: seeing it all happen. Go ahead. Are you going to cover how the New Age is influencing progressive
00:40: Christianity? Oh, yeah, we're going to go through that right now. Okay, cool. Yeah, we're going to go through that. But before we do that,
00:45: I just want to read Psalms 82, okay, really quick, and it says
00:51: God has taken his place in the divine council in the midst of the gods. He holds judgment.
00:57: Now, the divine council was what God picked certain angels to run certain things, okay, and they failed miserably.
01:08: They've fallen away. Okay, and he asked the question, How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked?
01:16: So it's coming towards here. This is in verse 2. Verse 3, Give justice to the weak and the fatherless.
01:21: Maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Verse 4, Rescue the weak and the needy.
01:27: Deliver them from the hand of the wicked. Verse 5, They have neither knowledge or understanding.
01:34: They walk about in darkness. This all is about darkness, okay?
01:43: Verse 6 is, You are God. You're basically here in the Hebrew, is
01:48: I appointed you to look over these matters, okay? Son of the Most High, all of you.
01:55: Nevertheless, like men, you shall die. So God's promise is he's going to, and we know this in Revelation, we know in Revelation 20 and 21, he's going to throw them into the lake of fire.
02:09: And then he does a call to action. Arise, O God, judge the earth, for you shall inherit all the nations.
02:16: And that's how he ends it. So... I'm sorry, a quick question here. The divine council, you said they were angels.
02:23: Yeah. Okay, but can't that word gods, lowercase g, Yeah, Elohim. Well, can't that also be translated as judges or masters?
02:34: Yes, it can be. Because I really have a problem with those being, said that they're angels.
02:40: Right. Because it also says you will die like men. Yeah. So, big problem with saying those are angels.
02:46: Right. So you're thinking that this is men, kings. That's the basic argument. Yeah. So you need to look,
02:54: I don't know if you just, read the book, Unseen Realm, and read Hebrew, the different types of nouns that are happening there.
03:01: So the Elohim on this one has a certain accent that goes towards the angelic realm on this.
03:10: But don't take my word. Read it. Okay? Okay. This is the basic argument right here.
03:17: He just brought it up. Okay. So we're going to go through this.
03:24: The New Age. Okay. And let's go. Does anybody have any questions about what
03:32: I just said? Besides? Okay. Besides the troublemaker? No, no. I think it's good that you bring it up because this is exactly,
03:40: I just said before you came in, your pastors often say what you just said, and yet they don't go into Scripture to give the demonstration of where the splits are happening or not.
03:54: That's all I was saying. Go ahead. Well, I mean, I have a question. So besides Psalm 82, is it anywhere else in the
03:59: Bible that describes that more? It is in Genesis. Look at Genesis 6.
04:09: The Nephilim? Yeah. The Nephilim. Right. Okay. So we get a warning in Psalm 83.
04:19: So let them be put to shame and dismay forever. Let them perish in disgrace, that they may know that you alone, whose name is the
04:27: Lord, are the most high over all the earth. All right? So the New Age movement is a collection of spiritual beliefs and philosophies that first gained attraction of 1970.
04:39: However, New Age has been around since the 1860s. And if you think this is
04:46: New Age, think again. So this is what we always think about when we think of New Age. Okay?
04:52: And you know, the oneness, self -help, enlightenment, you know, vibration, esoterics. Gaia. Gaia.
04:59: Mother Earth. Right. But New Age started from this. Okay? That's where it actually started.
05:09: Okay? And so when we're thinking about the end times and we're thinking about how the dark side is trying to coalesce everyone and bring it to a point that it becomes one world order, this was the first attempt to really start to do that.
05:28: And they do it under the guise of New Age thinking. The best way to kill people is with apathy.
05:37: Think about it. Okay? You don't have to use bullets. People just roll over. And that's what ends up happening for enlightenment.
05:45: So, of course, Crosby, Still, Nash, and Young says, We are stardust. We are golden. We're trying to get ourselves back to the garden.
05:54: Okay? So that's very much a New Age thinking of what was happening back in the 60s when they were starting to embrace this.
06:01: All right? And then the talking heads even go further with it. You may ask yourself, What's this beautiful house?
06:07: You may ask yourself, Where does that highway go to? You may ask yourself, Am I right or am I wrong? And you may say to yourself,
06:13: My God, what have I done? It's the same as it ever was. You can get even more insightful from New Age thinking there.
06:21: Okay? Was that David Byrne? Yeah, David Byrne, right. So the movement started in 1875.
06:28: The theosophical teachings, which basically means God philosophy, started with Helena Pranova, and she was a mystic.
06:37: And she started the Theosophical Society, right, in 1875.
06:43: And later, in 1920, Alice Ann Bailey promoted a new form of enlightenment.
06:50: And I thank Rich for bringing her book here. I think one of her books is here.
06:58: Which one? The Secret Doctrine? The Secret Doctrine.
07:03: You can pass those around. Okay. David Spangler is a big New Ager.
07:09: So this Theosophical Society formed with a goal. So the goal was to abolish
07:17: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. And the mission is to establish the unity of all religions.
07:23: Why those three specifically? Most dominant, right? They claim their teachings were revealed by spirits and elemental gods, demons.
07:34: And in 1922, Bailey founded the Lucifer Publishing Company. He called it the
07:41: Lucis Trust after him. Right. The emphasis was on self -deification, creating a master
07:48: Aryan society, and a one -world New Age religion and social order. Lucifer Publishing Company changed to the
07:55: Lucis Trust in 1949, printed and distributed these teachings. They also gave step -by -step instructions to create a new world order.
08:07: Bailey's main teaching established the symbol of the rainbow as its identification with the discussion of sacredness of the new world order symbol of 666.
08:17: The rainbow. Now, I want to pause here for a minute. Does anything sound familiar?
08:23: What's going on right now? I think the name of the publishing company was a little on the nose. But what we're experiencing right now.
08:32: The New Age movement parallels the ideas and philosophy of Nazism of the 30s and 40s.
08:38: So that's the underpinnings of what had happened. And the books are still big sellers. Oh, huge.
08:44: They appear in loosely knit groups. And from the outside looking in, they have kind of these ambiguous goals with the effort to improve humanity.
08:57: And that's what we're hearing today. And beneath the surface is an organized leadership and strategy which guides the movement for the planetary initiative for the world we choose.
09:07: World economic forum, am I here? Do I understand that? Conspiracy theories.
09:14: I'm a conspiracy theorist, right? Okay. In 1988, 80 million confessed
09:22: New Agers unified themselves to the largest assembly of mass meditation in history calling it the
09:29: Harmonic Convergence and the Planetary Surrender. This was led by 144 ,000 shamans, witches, witch doctors, and New Age mystics.
09:38: There was a worldwide meditation desiring for one world government and religion all under the guise for peace.
09:46: 144 ,000? Yep. Who was remembering? Yeah. Where's that number from? So the reality was these meditations were acts of worship and service to the devil,
09:59: Satan. And the goal of these gatherings unleashed demons and evil spiritual forces upon the world.
10:04: As a result, we are witnessing today what the plantings of these spirits into all aspects of society.
10:11: And the most impacted is the politics, social order, families, schools, churches, health care, law, and sovereignty.
10:20: You want to give up sovereignty. I read in that book, Mark Satin's New Age Politics. Yeah, it covers a lot of that.
10:27: Okay. Alright. So today the New Age movement is extremely large, driven by mystic and occultist figures positioned as agents of peace, devoted to global government and religion.
10:39: They reject the true prince of peace, and they seek a universal leader, an antichrist.
10:45: And this is predicted in Scripture. So Ivan, it sounds very
10:52: Satanic, and I know it doesn't come right out of the safe, but Satanism, would that fall under the umbrella of this?
11:00: A hundred percent, yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. The New Age Manifesto is these nine pieces, and I'll try to run through them here.
11:15: Point number one is the New World Order, a universal credit system, world food authority, world health authority, world water authority.
11:25: Universal tax. We know all this stuff, we're seeing it right now. Universal military draft, which they're trying to do right now in Europe.
11:36: NATO is trying to have a universal draft to go against Russia. So it's happening right now. And the
11:41: UN calls them peacekeepers. Embolishment of Christianity, Judaism, one world leader.
11:48: All in the name of global peace. And the New Age writings claim that leaders such as Adolf Hitler and Jim Jones were disciples of the movement.
11:57: Now, this is interesting. Jim Jones' People's Temple, the
12:04: New Age spiritual center, was the largest New Age center in the world at the time of the massive suicide.
12:12: Everybody loves the slander here, it was in Christian cities. In 1980, prominent
12:18: New Agers David Spangler and Benjamin Krem ran ads and that's ensued the appearance of the
12:26: Christ. And the personality was introduced as Lord Matreya.
12:32: Alleging to be the world -class messiah and great teacher whom they claim to bring peace and solution to world problems.
12:40: So already, the deception is already taken hold.
12:46: So, what does the Bible say about this? You shall not permit a sorceress to live.
12:53: Do not turn to mediums or necromancers. Do not seek them out, so make yourselves unclean by them.
13:00: I am the Lord your God. Leviticus, a man and a woman who is a medium or necromancer shall surely be put to death and they shall be stoned with stones.
13:10: Their blood shall be upon them. Now, this is something I had mentioned before with my wife
13:17: Joyce who has to deal with this a lot. A lot of the younger people who are having emotional and mental breakdowns are a lot of it is affiliated with the
13:29: New Age stuff. It's happening. And seeking enlightenment. And the list goes on by panic disorders, bipolar, all types of things that you're trying to figure out.
13:42: But when Joyce goes and interviews them, she finds out that a lot of them were practicing at some place some
13:52: New Age things. And Deuteronomy is very clear about this in 18 .9
13:59: -13. When you come into the land that the Lord your God has given you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practice of those nations.
14:08: They shall be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering. Anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens or sorcerer or charmer or medium or necromancer.
14:21: One who inquires of the dead. For whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations, the
14:28: Lord your God is driving them out before you. I don't think you can get any more direct than that.
14:33: I mean that's pretty much black and white about how we should be looking at this.
14:40: But you'll see what happens there. So the New Age movement is not a religion. Think of it as a large tree of confusing but unifying branches of false teaching and practices aimed towards your enlightenment and passive surrender.
14:54: The ultimate goal is to surrender yourself to the one Lord. So what do these
15:02: New Age do? They fill that desire of spiritual reality that people are seeking so much.
15:07: And we know this through scripture that towards the end, before the Lord comes, people are going to be going all over the place to try to get this oneness with God.
15:15: But not the real God, not Jesus. I actually love the terminology they use.
15:20: They talk about being one with the Creator. One with the Creator, right. They say God all over this, all the time.
15:27: They promote a false dogma that all is God. It changes one's consciousness.
15:33: It's a universalist kind of... There's many roads and we all just are trying to find our own path to oneness with God.
15:40: Pantheism. Pantheism. And polytheism too. They communicate a cosmic evolutionary optimism.
15:47: So we're driving to have peace. Everything's going to be better. We're going to be more enlightened.
15:54: And it creates a different reality, a new reality. And probably the most tragic, it makes contact with the kingdom of darkness.
16:02: So this is where you really need to understand what's going on. Six in ten who call themselves
16:08: Christian holds at least one New Age belief. The Pew Research did a study on here.
16:19: And they broke it down. And it's quite fascinating to find out how people are breaking this up and believing what they believe.
16:31: And the churches are at fault. The pastors are at fault. And that's what's happening here. But when you look at this chart, the belief spiritual energy can be located in physical things.
16:40: They believe in psychics. They believe in reincarnation. They believe in astrology.
16:47: It's pretty horrible. Evangelical Christians believe in reincarnation and astrology.
16:58: The Great Falling Away. Yes. The apostasy. Well, at least they're the lowest.
17:06: I lost it. So when you look at this, when you look at this and you look at what
17:18: Pastor Jeff is actually pushing against, it's a huge task of what he's writing about and what he's up against.
17:26: Because this is what's happening in the churches right now. And this is back in 2017.
17:32: It's 2023. I'm sure it's even more so than it was back then. And they say, but New Age beliefs are not necessarily replacing traditional forms of religious beliefs or practices.
17:44: While 8 in 10 Christians say they believe in God as described in the Bible, 6 in 10 believe in one or more of the four
17:52: New Age beliefs analyzed here, ranging from 47 % of Evangelical Protestants to roughly 7 in 10
17:59: Catholics, Protestants, and historically black tradition. So it's a lot of redefinition.
18:06: Yes. Yeah. So that's the problem that we're dealing with right now.
18:12: They use the same words with different meanings. So I want to play a quick video for you.
18:34: What makes it so deceptive? Why is it the biggest threat currently to the Church of Jesus Christ?
18:40: How is it seducing people? How is it deceiving people? What even is the New Age? Well, I was in the
18:47: New Age for many, many years. And praise be to God, I was plucked right out of the depths of it so fast, you could hardly believe it.
18:58: But if you know my testimony, you know that it was a true miracle God saved me.
19:04: He pursued me like no other. And literally, my stubbornness and my unbelief had no match against God.
19:12: But the depths I was in, I knew so many other souls that were there. Most of which came from the
19:19: Church. Most of which grew up in the Church. Most of which were Christian. But somewhere along the line, they realized that Jesus Christ is just some enlightened guy and that the whole
19:30: Bible is a deception meant to control people. That doesn't just happen in an instant. It's a slow progression.
19:36: How the devil gains access to someone's mind. And it's through things like tarot cards, psychics, mediums who speak to the dead, crystals, transcendental meditations,
19:50: Buddhist meditations, yoga. Yoga. To be yoked with universal consciousness.
19:58: That's what it means. Brahma, they call it. It's an entirely spiritual discipline. Not just stretching.
20:04: Not just physical exercise. It's a real religion. And many other things that entail the
20:11: New Age. But what the New Age predominantly is, it's a belief system that grounds itself in ancient texts, ancient scriptures, ancient beliefs, but with a modern twist.
20:25: With a quantum physics twist. So you'll hear the word quantum in New Age a lot. About raising your vibration.
20:32: Increasing your energy. Ascending your consciousness. Expanding your consciousness. A lot of psychological terms.
20:39: So when people go through psychology or they go through yoga or studying spirituality, it's very easy to fall into the
20:49: New Age. Because the deeper questions obviously come about. And the most popular thing now is
20:54: New Age answers. The church no longer dominates the realm of thought in spiritual circles.
21:00: If you're atheist or agnostic and you are curious, just like me, chances are you're going to end up in the
21:09: New Age. And what's so seductive about it is it makes you feel so like you're onto something no one else is onto yet.
21:17: That's what draws people in. That's how the devil draws people in. Just like the occult. You might as well call it the
21:22: New Occult. Because that's what it is. Everything that's in it is the occult. There's incredible supernatural things in the
21:29: New Age. Just as supernatural as in the church many times. I had people who could quote unquote speak to the dead who knew things about my relatives
21:38: I didn't even know. About my passed away relatives. That I had to verify later. Insane accuracy.
21:47: Because these demons are real. And these demons are watching people.
21:53: And these demons communicate with people either out of deception or willingly. And this person thought they were doing a great thing helping people reach their past dead family members.
22:03: This person literally thought they were doing a good thing. Little did they know they were channeling demons. And all their lights would flicker and stuff like whoa they're here.
22:10: It was crazy. But I thought it was fascinating. I'm like whoa there's something to this. I grew up with atheists and agnostic and spiritual things as even like weird to even think about.
22:20: We just came from a bunch of random explosion of atoms. No point to life. And then obviously that doesn't add up.
22:29: So it lures you in with this secrecy. Like you're on to something no one else is on to yet.
22:35: The bible oh that's been around for thousands of years. All these people believe in that. There's no way that's the truth. Only a select few know the truth.
22:42: This is just like Gnosticism. The book of Colossians was used to address a big portion of Gnostic teachings during that time.
22:50: This is not some type of new thing. This is just branded and marketed in a new way.
22:57: The devil's using this to build that one world religion that's going to be oh there's many ways to heaven.
23:02: Not just through Christ. So you can say God all you want. The second you say Jesus Christ. That's a big no no.
23:10: Because the second you know about who Jesus Christ actually is. All else falls into place.
23:16: In the new age he's an enlightened person. He's an enlightened human. You can reach the same Christ consciousness as he did.
23:22: But he's not God. He's not the savior. He wasn't resurrected. If he did resurrect he just tapped into some supernatural ability that we can all tap into.
23:32: So the new age makes you feel so powerful. And just like the deception that Adam and Eve of the garden.
23:38: That you can be like God. That God's word is not the truth. It's the same deception now.
23:48: New ages believe yoga you can merge with God. You can merge with the universal consciousness.
23:54: They literally will say they believe in God. But they don't believe in Jesus Christ.
24:03: They believe that their soul can merge with God. So it's this spiritual discipline that feels so limited and exclusive.
24:12: That lures people in and gets people so prideful. It's so hard to witness to a new age here because they think they're so right.
24:17: And they think you're so wrong. Now it's the case for others but it's especially true in the new age.
24:23: Especially because they're so involved with the supernatural. They're so intertwined with the demonic. And they have no idea.
24:30: So these demons have such a power over their mind. And if a new ager comes to Christ they're going to need serious deliverance.
24:36: Serious deliverance. Kundalini yoga with that serpent going up your spine causing enlightenment. Come on.
24:42: Come on. That's straight Satan. I'm a certified yoga instructor. I don't teach it anymore.
24:47: But I literally have a certification to teach yoga. Hundreds of hours of training. Went to Thailand to train in yoga.
24:54: Went to China hoping to learn from a Qigong master. I was obsessed with this stuff. I wanted to know the secrets.
25:01: And I didn't know about Christ. I didn't grow up with Christ. And that's with so many souls now. So understanding the new age is so essential because people who get involved in it will slowly stop talking about Jesus.
25:13: They'll slowly start losing their love for the word. And they'll slowly start believing in their healing journey.
25:21: Their inner being. Their inner self. Their inner light. Awakening to who they truly are.
25:27: All these little buzz words that sound so fluffy. But compare nothing to the power of Jesus Christ.
25:34: The power of the Holy Spirit. And fellowship. Intimacy with the Holy Spirit. That is the best possible thing you can do.
25:42: There is not many ways to heaven. There's one and it's through Jesus Christ. And his love is real.
25:48: His mercy is real. It's powerful. It's the truth.
25:54: He is the way, the truth, and the life. This is the great truth. Lies will abound.
26:04: Lawlessness will abound. Deception. Doctrines from demons will be accepted.
26:10: And it's happening. One by one people are getting plucked off the church. By this deceptive new age.
26:17: They're getting into yoga. Thinking it's all stretching and fun and games. It's not. It's not.
26:22: Yoga was literally channeled to these ancient sages in India. By divine revelation.
26:29: Channeled directly from demons. Spiritual teachings from the ancient texts called the
26:35: Vedas. And the Bhagavad Gita which is the Hindu Bible. This is real deal stuff. There's a whole pantheon of gods and goddesses in Hinduism.
26:44: Directly tied to yoga. Bhakti yoga. Interaction with those demons. That's what it is.
26:49: Kundalini yoga. It's the serpent of the spine. If you go just for stretching and physical exercise.
26:55: That's amazing. But call it something else. Because a lot of those poses. They're not just activating organs and healing the body.
27:03: Some of them are actually worshiping demons. And you don't want to worship demons. You're going to give the devil a legal right to get into your mind.
27:09: And slowly insert seeds of doubt. This demon will slowly insert seeds of doubt into you. And you will eventually.
27:15: Seven, ten years later. What happened to my faith? You're away from Christ. And you're a huge new ager without even realizing.
27:23: Close all the doors. Close all the open doors. Live a sold out life for Jesus. Get filled with the
27:28: Holy Spirit. Be on fire. Be filled with love. Grace. Power. And do
27:33: God's work. Cut down deception. Be discerning of deception.
27:40: Study the word. Study scripture. Sharpen your knife. So you don't fall prey to any of these little things.
27:47: That he's trying to throw at you. And you can help others who are slowly falling into it. Because Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life.
27:53: Amen. Hey, do you know his name? Steve Bancorp by any chance?
28:00: No. This isn't him. His name is Everett Roth. Everett Roth.
28:08: Yeah, and his testimony is excellent. I've seen a couple of his videos.
28:15: But he basically is saying what we're talking about now. What's happening here.
28:22: The three main driving factors on this is the lack of spiritual truth. Which is what he's talking about.
28:28: They're not getting into the word. The number two is men's apathy.
28:33: And there's a reason for that. You'll see it. Number three is the feminization of the church. Men's apathy and the feminization of the church.
28:46: In general, we have to hold some responsibility. Maybe not individually, but we have to hold some responsibility of that.
28:56: Who are the most involved in the New Age? Eighty percent are women. Who practices going to church?
29:04: We know that's more than 65 percent of women go to church. There's a connection here that happens.
29:12: Starting in the 1990s, women started to challenge church doctrines to elevate their own spiritual awareness.
29:19: Now, that was a crossroads for pastors now. So you have women who are coming to church. Pastors want to fill the church.
29:26: And they're starting to push the pastors to start changing what they're talking about.
29:32: And you start to see it with a lot of the Pentecostal, hyper -charismatic movements.
29:40: By using yoga, mindfulness, meditation, reiki, channeling, women have pushed the boundaries to combine
29:46: Christian practice with New Age thinking into the churches. So they've been the biggest driver for the woke agenda.
29:54: We know that there are now more women who are in higher education. And more women that are higher in terms of their career path than men are at this moment.
30:07: And pastors have allowed the New Age platform into their sermons. Husbands have not lived up to God's hierarchy in maintaining
30:14: God's truth. And that's a mark against us. And the other cause is that we have a two -person income and careers that has become so prominent that the paradigm that God had given us in terms of family is almost all but torn to pieces there.
30:35: So feminism is a driving force for the new generation here, especially among Gen X, Millennials, Gen Y.
30:41: It's very, very prominent. And they're not accepting that. And I'm sure that you're,
30:47: Cameron, you're running into a lot of this yourself. You're in schools. So this is not a surprise. Okay.
30:54: So the New Age philosophies commonly practiced in the churches now is the law of attraction.
31:00: Like attract like, you are God. Whatever you believe you will get. Living your best life now. That's prosperity, gospel, hyper -charismatic churches.
31:09: That's all about, you know, pray it, you get it. That type of thing.
31:14: There's this oneness. Everything in the universe is one. You live in the moment.
31:20: There's no anger, no judgment. You know, God is love. We just need to all come together and be united.
31:27: No disagreement to be in spiritual harmony. And what they try to do is they think of the, the assumption is they think of the relationship with the
31:37: Trinity and they try to put that into the New Age. And then there's religious pluralism.
31:43: All have their own truth, religion. All paths lead to Jesus. Okay. And that's a, that's synchronism, which makes a hybrid
31:53: Christianity. That's why so many in the church will never, never get to heaven unless something happens.
32:03: Then there's obviously universalism. All are saved. All will eventually go to heaven. Go to the source.
32:08: Go to the universe. There is no wrath, only love. And then finally mysticism, seeking a divine and spiritual experience.
32:16: It reminds us of Gnosticism back when, when Paul was preaching.
32:22: Okay. So yogis should not be practicing in churches. And, uh. No yoga night?
32:29: No yoga night. So this yoga, this yoga. Yogurt.
32:34: I'm sorry. Yogurt. Yogurt's okay. Okay. And stop me guys if you have any questions on this.
32:42: So yoga is dedicated to a different lord, Lord Shiva. Of Hindu, the first, yogi.
32:48: And this obviously breaks the first commandment. It would be bad. Yeah. It would be bad. Yoga means to yog, lead people away from Christ, as Matt was talking about before.
32:59: Yoga poses offer, are offerings to 350 million Hindu gods.
33:05: And Acts 15, 29 directs, talks directly about what different type of gods are happening there.
33:13: Yoga has a spiritual nature. It's psychic and metaphysical force. As I had mentioned before with that, with Joyce and her work, a lot of the people who come in there, they totally turn their mind inside out with these type of practices.
33:32: And unfortunately with that, when they're trying to do a diagnosis, they're using traditional mental health things like, like I said before, you know, either you're schizophrenic or you're bipolar, what have you.
33:48: But when Joyce is doing the group and she has an opportunity to share the gospel, she has to be asked to do that.
33:55: Many of those people that are in there are former Christians that have walked away from the faith. And this was the way to do that.
34:03: Yoga is the missionary arm of the New Age movement. Many Christians adopt New Age through yoga. And Christian yoga was founded by the
34:09: Hindu leader, A .K. Manzandar. You cannot mix Hindu and a worship of Christ.
34:15: There's something called Christian yoga? Yeah. Yeah, that's a movement that's happening now.
34:22: They're trying to have it in churches. So yoga is highly sensual in nature.
34:27: And it becomes this whole practice of feelings over faith.
34:35: And we're seeing that now with a lot of the teaching. And it focuses on manipulation of life force energy. Paul talks about this in Ephesians 2 .2
34:43: to go against that. You become the focus in yoga, not
34:49: God. As a witness for Christ, this is not the way to present your belief. So it's all about you and not about Him.
34:56: Yoga is the first step towards metaphysics. And it easily opens the door for other New Age practices. Astral projections is just one of them.
35:05: And yoga empties the mind. Yet in Christianity, in Romans, you talk about the renewing of the mind.
35:12: So in Romans 12 .2. By the word. Right. And after a yoga workout, persons are very highly impressionable.
35:20: Which, as I mentioned before, think of New Age as doorways that are opened up.
35:33: So how did this happen? Obviously, biblical ignorance.
35:40: Public figures who claim to know God. Oprah. Oprah says there's many paths to God.
35:46: Many paths to God. And she's got the only way. She's got pastors to say all that. Yeah. Yeah. Dopey, opey.
35:53: Yeah. Actually, Jeff mentioned in yesterday's sermon about Billy Graham towards the end.
36:04: Apathy. General apathy. Bad Bible studies. Bad Bible studies is a big...
36:12: Instead of having studies that actually go into the Word of God, they're more like a Dr. Phil type of Bible studies they're having.
36:19: A lot of peer pressures among women that are doing this. They want to be part of a group, of a tribe, to do that.
36:28: And then just poor biblical leadership is a big factor in all of this. So the summary is that New Age is a satanic practice.
36:39: It's a weapon for the Antichrist. A platform for one -world government. It's claiming to be the last barrier, the churches.
36:50: It's really going after the churches now at this point. And it claims to be about peace, but it's all about the occult in your soul.
36:57: And New Age creates a sense of civic apathy which is so dangerous because for one -world government, we're just going to roll over.
37:08: We're not going to even try to fight back. So it's very, very important for us as men to be leaders, not just in our home, but in some way, whatever influence we have, through Christ, to take a stand as Pastor Jeff does and as some of us are doing here.
37:28: So here's the conclusion of all this. It says New Age is not new. The Pearls of Eve is alive today.
37:35: We do have a historic reference in Jezebel. I'll just read 1 Kings and 2 Kings. Jezebel really personified a lot of what we're seeing over here.
37:48: Men must take a stand for their families and for biblical truth. There's no excuse. We have to do it.
37:54: Our children depend on it. It's no longer time for us to sit in the sidelines or in the background.
38:04: We have to take a stand now. And unfortunately, this is the last line.
38:13: We live in a world that being nice will send people to hell. There's no more time to be nice.
38:19: We have to speak the truth, even if it offends people. God's truth will offend everybody, as we know in Scripture. We have to tell them the truth.
38:28: There's a podcaster on YouTube, Melissa Dougherty. She's great.
38:34: What's that? She's great. She's awesome. She used to be heavy in the New Age. She's born -again
38:41: Christian now and really preaches. Her focus is very much on preaching against the
38:47: New Age and how it sucks people in. She does these little skits on her
38:52: YouTube. She's pretty fun to watch. If you're interested, look her up on YouTube.
39:01: She'll talk about things and it'll be a little shocking. You'll be like, I never thought about that.
39:08: About how things sneak in. And what's her name, Melissa? Melissa Dougherty.
39:16: So this is kind of a data dump or brain dump on the New Age.
39:22: It's going to be uploaded onto Matt's site. On the
39:28: Cornerstone YouTube site. The Cornerstone YouTube site. Cornerstone YouTube site.
39:33: But I can't emphasize enough how important.
39:40: Did you understand this? Take the time to go through it. It is all over.
39:47: I can't express that enough. It is all over everything. If you look at a lot of the progressive
39:55: Christians as well as liberal theology.
40:02: You look at things like Joel Osteen. You look at things like the gay pastor.
40:12: I forget his name. He just did a debate with Jeff Durbin. You know who
40:18: I'm talking about? Yeah, I know who you're talking about. His name is escaping me right now. But a lot of the theology that those folks are preaching.
40:30: There's many ways. Joel Osteen said on Oprah and on Larry King.
40:37: And all over the place. He said many times that he's not one to condemn folks. And say that Jesus is the only way.
40:43: That he stays in his lane. But if you think about what he preaches. It's all how you can channel good things into your life.
40:52: It's all about sending signals into the universe. It's all about positive energy and positive thoughts.
40:58: It's very New Age. It's all about having your heaven on earth. But it's directly into the
41:04: New Age about enlightening your consciousness. And sort of willing things into existence.
41:12: And then if you go a different route in some of the progressive Christian circles. You'll hear them talk about how the
41:20: Bible is not authoritative. And some will even give up the divinity of Christ.
41:27: And say that he was just a type of moral teacher and stuff.
41:33: So all of that ties back into the New Age. You know, Jimmy Jones once gave a message.
41:40: He held up his Bible and said, too many people are looking at this and not enough at me. Well, if this doesn't tell us about Second Thessalonians.
41:52: And the great falling away of what is happening. This is a big wake up call.
42:00: A lot of people are going to be walking away. I was thinking that psychology should be one of those columns.
42:08: But I think what this is clearly showing is that. And one of the main reasons why we started the apologetics series.
42:17: And we are going to move off of it eventually to something else. But one of the reasons was because just experience.
42:25: I'm not that old. But I'm old enough to have had experience in a few churches. And how little
42:31: Christians, professing Christians. And I'm not going to pass judgment on the authenticity of their salvation.
42:38: But professing Christians have no idea what they actually believe. No idea what doctrines are.
42:46: What the actual doctrines of the church are. And so it's just so important.
42:51: Because if you don't know. Right. If all you think is you walk down an aisle, you pray a magic prayer and you're saved.
43:00: Then why not believe in astrology? Right. Why not?
43:06: Matt, you just identified a good next step. Go from apologetics to systematic theology.
43:14: And Richard's going to teach it. The next class
43:20: I'm going to be teaching is about biblical literacy. I'm going to take top ten things that people have arguments with.
43:27: And we'll kind of work through it. Like one of these. But we'll work through it.
43:32: But here's part of the issue, what you're talking about. There's thinking in Western Christianity that our knowledge base is all on the pastor's shoulder.
43:48: And to break away from that. I mean, we're responsible for our home. We're responsible for our spiritual wellness in the home.
43:57: That is the mandate that God gave us to do as a man in a family. And Mike, Cameron, when you get older and you have your own family, that's going to be responsibility for you.
44:11: It is absolutely critical to take that and give it to a pastor that you see on a
44:17: Sunday only 52 times a year, if that. It's really unfair to the pastor, number one.
44:23: And it takes away from the spiritual structure of the household. And so the result of that is what we're seeing over here.
44:31: And the other thing I'll say in short. And I'm not against women.
44:42: But men have to take back the church. You cannot have women taking over the church anymore.
44:48: It cannot happen. Because this is the result that we're having now. And again, this goes all the way back to Eve.
44:56: This is not a situation that's new. Men have to do that.
45:02: And it is critically important that until the Lord comes, that we step back in there and we start leading as we should be leading.
45:13: That is really the takeaway from all this. This is a tragedy. And many are going to be called to account for it.
45:21: I can't stress it enough on there. But it's an eye -opener.
45:28: Does anybody have any questions about this? Mike, do you have anything? Do you happen to know nowadays what percentage of the world or how many millions, how prevalent this is now worldwide?
45:44: Or does it just continue to increase in popularity? Some of the largest countries in the world,
45:52: China, India, are heavily Hindu, Buddhist, whatever,
46:00: Zen. Those are separate religions. Do those also fall under the umbrella of the New Age? When you think about what the
46:07: New Age is, and I forget the name of the guy that did the video. He talked about a lot of the stuff that Drew talked about when he was covering
46:14: Buddhism. Being one with the Brahman and dying and merging your soul with God.
46:20: Remember, that was the ultimate enlightenment when Drew went through that. You'd be reincarnated over and over until you get it right.
46:27: And then you can become one with the universal consciousness. A lot of the New Age, I think, is founded on some of those religions.
46:34: Yeah, it is. It's coming in. Our culture, I think it's really important that Satan has got into all the schools.
46:43: You have dry queens in all the libraries, and they're accepting Christianity without them. And women are dominating in terms of being teachers all over the place.
46:53: And so that influences the whole culture. They're getting in very young. The culture is being trained.
46:58: Every culture is getting more and more stronger, liberal right now. The school systems are enamoring through it.
47:07: And so many people are being influenced by, oh well, quote unquote, we should all get along. And we can't reject even the
47:13: Catholic Church. The Catholic Church is now doing the same thing. They're pushing and saying, we have to come together and meet with the
47:20: Muslims. And they're identifying with each other now. It's truly significant to watch this right now.
47:28: I saw a video saying the Pope making a comment about, well, we create our own world.
47:36: It's in our minds. It's not anything. It's in our minds. We create our own. And when he starts saying that, you know that we're coming down there.
47:44: Do you know what the German bishops did in the Catholic Church? Their vote and LGBT stuff.
47:52: There's going to be a split in the Catholic Church. But we're the ones at fault.
47:58: The men, the leaders of the home. It is. And it's very true.
48:05: Well, I hope, gentlemen, that this gives you a snapshot of what's really going on there.
48:13: And there is the spiritual motive behind it. There is the political motive behind it, too.
48:21: And it is targeted to our young people now. And we have to be very aware, when we have that opportunity, to just preach the truth to them.
48:33: Lay it on the line with them. Be truthful with them. And help them that they don't go too far into this to start walking away from it.
48:44: Again, it's a dangerous practice, demonic. And it's something that needs to be addressed. Especially to us.
48:52: Yes, sir? You know, you watch TV, right? Even Andy Stanley. The largest churches in the country are cross -party preachers.
49:01: People want to hear it. And so many women are following that. It's just absolutely outstanding. It's been for years.
49:07: But it's just, they're overcoming all of it. Right. And I had mentioned this a couple of teachings before.
49:16: Apostasy happens not for the next generation. Usually it's two or three generations away. And so we're seeing it from the 1920s.
49:24: This was being put in place. But we're starting to experience it now. And it's almost three generations away of this being implemented.
49:32: And that's usually how it works. We know that through scripture. And we're seeing it come alive here globally.
49:41: And so we just have to be on our toes to really...
49:46: When someone is coming at you with this type of diatribes of, like, we all should have peace and coexist.
49:56: The coexist symbol. We just have to speak truth. In a loving way, but we have to speak truth.
50:04: We cannot compromise that. And we may have thought ten years ago we had a little bit of time. There's no more time.
50:10: No more time. Because it's in everything now. Which, in a way, is a good thing because the rapture can't be far off.
50:17: Yeah. That is true. What I've found is that a lot of Hindus, they're fine with Jesus.
50:31: They think he's a moral teacher, all of that stuff. But if you actually read the
50:37: Bible, Jesus didn't leave a whole lot of room for Christianity. He made sure, if you actually read the statements, he was clear that Christianity is very narrow -minded.
50:51: So people say, oh, you're a narrow -minded Christian. Yes. We're a narrow -minded Christian. And amen. We believe that, you know, because you either have to take him at his word or not.
51:00: And if you take him at his word, there is one way and only one way. The road is narrow.
51:08: The road is narrow, yes. And so you just have to embrace that. To that point, so years ago when
51:14: I was in school, in seminary, I made a statement and it caused a big furor, but it was,
51:21: I said Christianity is just a brand now. And it really is true. It's just a brand.
51:27: Everybody kind of goes underneath that umbrella, you know. So I like to distinguish it by saying either you're in Christ or you're not in Christ.
51:34: That's more of a definitive, myopic, right -to -the -point view than saying
51:40: Christianity. Because, you know, when you say it, it's very hard. It's almost like inside of me, when you say
51:48: I'm a Christian, I want to say, okay, prove it right now. What does that mean? What does that mean to you?
51:53: What does that mean that you're a Christian, you know? And, of course, when
51:59: I was going to school, it was already so woke at that point, which is good because I got to see the other side of it.
52:06: But in some of the churches, you know, the Stephen Furtick's out there, that are in Evelation Church, are teaching a lot of this, and it's a shame.
52:23: This might be a bit of a tangent. Think about the 1920s, and you had a real rise in drug use, opium and so on.
52:34: And then you had a huge rise in Spiritism. And it's funny that one of the biggest crusaders against it, you know, is
52:42: Houdini. He debunked a lot of that. It's the thought now that we have, and it's just increasing as we all know about all the drug problems in America, so people can't have critical thinking, and they do open up, like you say, the doors to devil's spirit possession.
52:57: And to what point can they not even close the door anymore? Even through rehab and everything else, and there's just no way back, many times, unless just supernatural healing.
53:10: And that's why so many people, rehab doesn't take. They go through eight, ten times because there is no supernatural source.
53:22: Somebody brought up Charles Stanley. His first apostasy was denying validity or the necessity of the
53:32: Old Testament. Andy Stanley. And, you know, we're throwing out the worst of the worst here.
53:40: We're throwing out Furtick, we're throwing out Olsteen. But I'm going to tell you guys, the reason
53:45: I'm here is because the Gospel Coalition is no longer a coalition for the gospel.
53:51: Sure, absolutely. It's a coalition for feminism, homosexuality, everything.
53:58: Just soft, and just going woke. And they're just kind of woke because they're not all the way over them, but they're just kind of in the middle.
54:09: Just lukewarm. I just want to say something positive. In fact, it's really important.
54:16: In 1918 or so, they were talking about the end times, and they were saying that the next thing that's going to happen is
54:26: Israel is going to become a nation, and they were mocked for it. The Bible study. So almost the impossible happened in 1937.
54:36: Israel became a nation. Of all the times when they were being persecuted by everybody in the world, six million were killed, and they became a nation.
54:44: Seven years later, Trump recognizes Jerusalem as the capital and puts our embassy there.
54:52: And we look at all those things, and Jerusalem is going to be the nation at the end time where the antichrist is going to enter the temple and declare himself
55:00: God. And as we just looked at what just happened with COVID, how fast and how fearful this country and the world is that anything happening, they'll wear masks, they'll do anything else, and they're shaking the whole world.
55:12: Some people are still wearing masks because they're so afraid. That shows you how quickly the government can control people, and Satan can influence the culture.
55:22: And this is so, especially being pre -millennial, that the end is coming.
55:29: But the good thing is it's predicted in Scripture very clearly. Including the Jews getting five red heifers from Texas and taking them over there, and they're meeting, thinking the
55:40: Messiah is coming. The goal for New Age, the political side is, is to take over a country without shooting a shot.
55:54: That's what they're going to try to do. And to your point, they're going to do it through fentanyl, they're going to do it through meth.
56:02: Education. Education, right. And they're going to go through that. They won't fire a shot. And the test run for COVID, we saw people roll over like it was nothing.
56:12: And so that was the test run. I'm telling you right now, it may have actually killed many people, but that was a test run of seeing how people would be willing to bend.
56:23: Christians that we've been for. Yeah, yeah. So that's what's, the more we know, and the more that we learn from Scripture about what's going on there, the more we're equipped to help our families and to help our communities on that.
56:41: That we are not flat -footed, that we're not on the back foot on this, that we're not going to be surprised.
56:47: It's very, very important. I can't stress it enough. When I'm called close -minded,
56:52: I say, yeah, you're right, I am close -minded. Close to lies and deception. You want to be open -minded to lies and deception?
56:59: You can be. I don't want to be open -minded to that nonsense. Yeah. Especially when you're going into the workplace now and you're there, and this is the predominant leaning that's happening in the workplace.
57:11: And you're making decisions about what's going on here, and you know in your heart that's a tough place, you don't want to go there.
57:20: But you're also weighing the fact, there's a lot of burden on us in terms of trying to do decision -making and using proper discernment about what's happening there with this being so infiltrated into the workplace.
57:31: Yes. And if you step a little bit out of the line, you're out. You're going to be out.
57:37: If this was your job, yeah. So it's, again, the more you know, the more you learn how to navigate through all this.
57:44: A lot of it crept into the workplace with this whole idea of a diversity culture. Right. Remember that was being pushed, diversity.
57:52: I remember. Yeah. Yeah, well, I'm retired, so I'm a little out of the game.
57:59: Diversity, equity, inclusion. Yes. Used to be the clause. D -I -E, die.
58:06: All right. Is there anybody else? Matt, you want to close this out first?
58:14: Sure. Lord God, thank you for this day, for these brothers tonight. Thank you for Ivan and his preparation.
58:20: Lord, protect us against false teaching. Protect us against false teachers. Help us to stand strong on your word, to know the truth when we see it.
58:30: God, I thank you so much for this church, for our pastors who preach the word faithfully from the pulpit every
58:37: Sunday. God, I pray that we would be strong men, living according to your word, being leaders in our homes, and that we would raise children who would go on to be strong men and women of Christ.
58:52: I ask that you would protect us as we travel home. Give us a good night and help us to get back together on Sunday.