New Age - Cults & The Occult Lesson # 1
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- So tonight we're going to begin our study of world religions more specifically the cults and the occult
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- We're going to begin with the New Age movement So how many of you have heard somebody say something to the effect that I'm spiritual, but I'm not religious
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- Have you heard anyone say that? Or they're not really interested in organized
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- Religion they are interested though in spirituality But they don't think that any one religion is correct or maybe they have a co -exist bumper sticker
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- On their car. Well, if you've heard that you've heard people say those things that could be an indicator
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- It's not proof, but it could be an indicator that that person at least has been influenced by the
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- New Age movement Some of you who are older will remember this back in the 1960s.
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- I guess it was 1970s were there all of a sudden was this talk about the age of Aquarius Well, that is the
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- New Age The New Age is the age of Aquarius.
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- So it was around that time in the 60s The thing started to change people's ideas about religion started
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- Started to change people were less dogmatic more open to new ideas Proselytizing became
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- Taboo like you're not supposed to convert people all of a sudden that became offensive doctrine and absolute truth
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- We're starting to be pushed out the door and people just were just a little more free a little more open -minded
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- They didn't believe that any one System of religion was the truth.
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- Everyone has their own path. And now that's just the way most people think so You know, you need to be true to yourself.
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- These are all familiar things that we hear They're very closely associated with this
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- New Age movement. So let's turn to 1st Thessalonians chapter 5 So what is
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- New Age You can't really call it a cult Since it's not really an organized faith
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- There's no centralized Leadership, so it's kind of hard to pin down But the most famous New Age leaders
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- The names that everyone would know are Shirley MacLaine, right the actress
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- Oprah Winfrey Everybody knows Oprah and then Deepak Chopra.
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- So these are probably the most well -known names in New Age There are not really any officially defined
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- Doctrines, it's sort of sort of a mixture of Spirituality Social trends political forces that all mixed up together
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- But we're going to go through some of the defining marks of the New Age movement. This term New Age has been around for about 50 60 years and it's described as a utopian vision
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- Where we are entering in or beginning to enter into the new age the age of Aquarius Where there is going to be more harmony
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- Basically human progress people are going to become Enlightened before we look at this scripture just some statistics over 12 million
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- Americans are involved in the New Age movement and another 30 million are avidly interested
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- Just in comparison There are 8 million Mormons in the
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- United States in 1 .3 Million Jehovah's Witnesses, so think about that Jehovah's Witnesses 1 .3
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- Mormons 8 million how many New Age? 12 with another 30 interested and much more again have been influenced by it so look at 1st
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- Thessalonians 5 21 through 23 this Really describes Why I'm doing this study what my approach is going to be what this is all about 1st
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- Thessalonians 5 21 through 23 says test all things and hold fast
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- What is good? abstain from every form of evil and now may the
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- God of peace himself sanctify you completely and may your whole spirit
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- Soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our
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- Lord Jesus Christ So just that first statement test all things hold fast that which is good.
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- That's what we want to do. We want to test the New Age movement and Look at it.
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- See what people believe what they're saying and compare it to what the Bible says
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- So test all things hold fast that which is good. I Talk about this stuff so that you are equipped so that you have the information so that you know some of the arguments
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- Against it. Okay. This is what they say, but here's what the Bible says I mean we could continue our study in Matthew and I we will at some point
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- But most of you have heard you've read the gospel of Matthew. You've heard preaching from the gospel some of you for 50 or 60 years
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- Maybe you've never heard a study on this. So I think this is important Instead of just kind of going over things that you've heard before we need to we need to test all things
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- So let's go through some of the defining marks of the New Age movement number one religious
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- Syncretism, so this is the blending of all faiths together. So here's the thing a
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- New Ager can take Christianity Hinduism Buddhism You know, just kind of blend it all together and pick and choose what they what they like New Age thinkers are open to all sorts of different things
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- But one thing they are not open to is a truth claim of exclusivity
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- So if you want to talk about your faith, that's fine As long as you don't say
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- Jesus Christ is the only way to God that they don't like You can pretty much believe what you want, but if you say hey we have the truth
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- Jesus Said he's the way the truth and the life. No man comes unto the Father except through me
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- John 14 verse 6 That's something they would be against or they would redefine it that well
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- Yeah, Jesus, he's a way but he's not the way. Okay. So number one religious
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- Syncretism and If you have any questions, just raise your hand as we go along or anything you want to contribute.
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- Just let me know Another defining mark of New Age is the concept of monism.
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- I Don't want to get too much into philosophy but there's monism there is
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- Dualism basically, this is the idea that reality is not made up of material and immaterial
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- You know physical things and spiritual things New Age people believe that all is one all is one and one is all
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- Which would mean that there is no God out there who's distinct from his creation
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- What do we believe as Christians that there is a God and there was a time when all of this didn't exist
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- So we believe that God exists and that he is separate from his creation
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- God isn't me and I'm not God that seems pretty basic, right? But in New Age thought
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- Everything is everything all it all is one and one is all so they see no distinction of body in spirit
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- Everything is one and this closely connects to the next mark of the
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- New Age Their concept of God is what what is it mark? Their concept they're not monotheists.
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- They are what? Pantheists Right So God is in everything
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- God is Everything right all is one one is all does this sound confusing to you like this just this just isn't the way
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- People in the Western world typically think we don't think of it that way Sometimes just can't even really comprehend what's being said, but yeah pantheism basically is
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- I'm God You're God, you know, this this computer is
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- God the trees are God the rocks are everything is God Well, if everything is
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- God then nothing is God. That's what I would argue. But this is this is the concept of monism and then
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- Pantheism and of course that leads to the next mark the deification of humanity
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- So if God is pantheistic if God is everything then you are
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- What? Yeah, you are God so the deification of humanity
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- So if God is everything then we are divine we are divine beings So we just need to realize that you just need to realize you're divine come to that You know that divine consciousness and Then you can unlock your potential and since the mind in the body are one
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- You know if you're sick Well, it's like mind over matter. Well, they're what if you think and believe that you're well, there is healing
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- From your mind say I see some confused looks and I don't I don't get it and that doesn't make sense well, but this is just a totally different way of viewing reality that everything is
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- Connected but sometimes you hear preaching That sounds a lot like this
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- You know that you are little gods and if you just speak the word and believe it hard enough, you know you can kind of create your own reality and you can be healed if you just believe and So there are parts of the
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- Bible that they can kind of twist and manipulate to make it sound that this is New Age But it actually sounds
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- Christian and Christian sounds new way and it you can kind of go back and forth So the idea is that people can tap into the same awareness in grand consciousness of life so that you reach this place place of self actualization which
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- Psychologists say that only 10 % or less of people on earth have reached this level where all your
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- Emotional needs physical needs spiritual needs all your needs have been met You come to this place where you are completely fulfilled in at peace and you reach that sort of higher level
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- It's like a state of enlightenment Okay, so some of you probably looked up New Age during the week is this sounding familiar
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- Is this the type of thing that you found? Okay, who's ever seen a picture and there's a lot of Christian it's not art, but memes
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- I guess but Who's ever seen a picture of somebody standing in front of the ocean or standing, you know on a mountaintop and they're like this right
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- You probably see and I'm not saying if some Christian posted something on Facebook and there's some guy like this
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- And there's a Bible verse that they're secretly New Age not saying that because this stuff is everywhere But that's that's kind of a symbol of that person on the mountaintop in front of the ocean with their arms outstretched that they've kind of realized that they are connected to to everything and they have kind of realized that There's this connection and they are they are almost
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- Well, they are divine. Well The biblical teaching of course is contrary to this
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- Somebody asked me is this new is the New Age movement new I said no If these are all ideas that have been around a long long time
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- It's like this idea that you are divine. Well, what was the first temptation in the garden?
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- The devil said to Eve if you eat of the fruit you shall be like what? Yeah, you will be like God.
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- So whatever it is. We see here The Bible addresses it somewhere. So none of this is actually new and of course the concept of salvation
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- Salvation for the New Ager is where found in Jesus Christ who's in heaven. No salvation is is within you
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- So let's turn to Hebrews chapter 9 So in Christianity, we believe
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- God is a personal being he is separate from his creation We are not
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- God we are below God are you how are you comfortable saying that yeah, we are we are way below God We believe that mankind is corrupt, but the
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- New Ager they find that offensive. No, you're you're divine You just need to realize that so when somebody comes along and teaches the
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- Bible that mankind is actually sinful and corrupt What does the scripture say? Let God be true and every man a liar see that's what they would be against So they're pretty much open to all sorts of different ideas but biblical truth, they're very much against it
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- All right. So the next mark of New Age is the belief in heaven and hell
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- No, you need to get rid of that thinking New Agers typically believe in what?
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- Yeah reincarnation The idea that you will come back in another form after all you're part of the divine
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- So everything is connected reincarnation comes from what religion originally
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- Well Hinduism and then Buddhism, but Hindus there's a difference So again
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- New Age is is not new really but they take old ideas and just put a new spin on it
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- Hindus who originally believed they were the first ones to believe in reincarnation
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- Hindus are taught to deny self and To deny the things of this world
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- New Agers on the other hand affirm self and they affirm
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- And glorify some of the things of this world. So they're similar and but not the same. So what does the
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- Bible say about reincarnation? You might say well, it doesn't really address reincarnation specifically look at Hebrews 9 27
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- The scripture teaches that it is appointed unto man once to die and after this you come back as as a dog or a cat or whatever
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- No, it's appointed unto man wants to die and after this the judgment So I know
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- Christians have been affected by New Age because when people preach the Bible And what the scripture says about the final judgment
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- God having wrath I know there are people in churches who react negatively against that And I've heard
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- Christians say things like, you know, if somebody's talking about God's wrath or you know The final judgment and I've heard even pastors say this that that person has a religious spirit
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- Or they when they talk about religion, they're very down on religion is bad so if somebody's talking about God having wrath that person just has a
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- Religious spirit. So the idea is with New Age if you say things that are negative
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- That's bad, that's you know, typical religion they reject it and let's face it death judgment
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- Like that is negative, isn't it? So New Agers tend to be very
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- Positive or they try to be very positive everything they say Typically when you listen to them
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- It's not positive only because they do react negatively towards, you know Christianity and claims of absolute truth, but they they typically try to sound at least positive
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- It was around this time the New Age movement started That you saw this trend in Christianity the power of positive thinking who remembers that?
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- yeah, and That is kind of morphed into today with evangelicalism.
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- The most popular ministries are basically positive only Preachers and they have some
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- New Age ideas The that were little gods if you were preachers, this was a big thing 20 years ago, or if you make declarations, you know,
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- I decree or I declare and you you say things that are not Actually happening yet But you speak these words of faith over your life in words are containers of power
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- So you can kind of create your own reality, you know TV preachers are famous for that be positive
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- Speak what you want to come to pass believe it and it will take place
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- Well, I mean that is similar to New Age. So some of the televangelists in a sense they're like they're like gurus and They're those same people have a very inclusive attitude towards other religions
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- You will never hear them preach against other religions because I would argue they're Influenced by New Age thought so here's the thing to watch out for just as a
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- Christian the positive only preaching that can be a gateway into New Age because there's a lot of overlap and Speaking of Oprah as one of the kind of New Age gurus
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- If Oprah is that if you ever seen Oprah promoting a Christian or a preacher? I mean that kind of tells you something.
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- All right, any questions or comments so far any of this sound familiar? All right, another thing that's common in New Age is the use of crystals now
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- I want to be careful just because somebody maybe wears a necklace and a crystal or they have crystals
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- That doesn't mean that they're wrapped up in the New Age. Okay, but crystals
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- Supposedly in New Age thought attract and store spiritual energy I remember
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- I used to work with a guy and he told me how you know his wife she had back problems and she put these crystals under the mattress and like the next day her back was healed and they were they
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- Were into New Age, although I don't know if they use that that term But New Age believers
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- Think that to harmonize ourselves with the universe that can be done through the vibrations created by crystals
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- And if this sounds strange, I'm just reading what what I discovered Crystals are used for a number of things like psychic healing
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- Getting in contact with spirits and reaching a higher Consciousness.
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- So the idea is the energy from crystals they say Can be released by holding them
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- Meditating upon them or simply wearing the crystal around your neck just being close to it can have that positive
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- Effect. All right, let's turn to Deuteronomy chapter 18. And again, some people might just wear it for a fashion statement, but So it doesn't prove anything.
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- Just like if somebody says well, I'm spiritual but not religious then Doesn't mean that they're in the
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- New Age religion I mean, they may be they might not be but these are things that are common To New Age.
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- I Personally know somebody who got mixed up with crystals and these rocks and this is just what they told me
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- They said they were using crystals to communicate with the spiritual realm and they told me they did get in contact with a spirit and Whatever happened to them that caused them to leave the
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- New Age movement Now that they're out of the New Age movement, they recognized that that spirit was a demon and they
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- Personally believe they are possessed by a demon Again, I I don't know that that actually happened.
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- I'm just telling you what the person told me Now obviously within New Age New Age people would not identify these spirits as demons
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- But as Christians if we believe the Bible we don't believe in ghosts Like in a haunted house when somebody dies their ghost remain we don't believe that But we do believe in angels and demons the scripture does teach angels and demons.
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- So any spirit that you would contact Would be if you do contact the spirit
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- Presumably that would be a what? What the what the scriptures that calls an unclean spirit or a demon?
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- All right, look at Deuteronomy 18 9 through 12 So the New Age is very open about Contacting spirits and this spirit can act as a guide the
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- Bible does directly address that Deuteronomy 18 9 through 12 Says when you come into the land, which the
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- Lord your God is giving you you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations
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- There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire or one who?
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- practices witchcraft or a soothsayer or one who interprets omens or a sorcerer or One who conjures spells or a medium or a spiritist or one who calls up the dead another term for calling up the dead would be necromancy you remember the
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- King of Israel Saul he went and Visited the witch at Endor and he wanted to contact
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- Samuel. What was the problem with that Samuel was dead and The witch at Endor Contacted a
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- Spirit and up came well, it says Samuel, but we don't know that that was actually Samuel it could have been a one -time event where he actually contacted
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- Samuel, but It's also possible that Saul Encountered a demon either way the next day.
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- He was dead Deuteronomy 18 verse 12. So all those who practice soothsaying
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- Necromancy witchcraft, what does the scripture say and this is the Lord speaking for all who do these things are what?
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- an abomination to The Lord so for that reason alone the
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- New Age movement would be completely incompatible with biblical Christianity, you know, and if there's anyone here or watching online,
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- I realize that people in churches Probably people in this room have in the past dabbled with things like this and we believe in forgiveness
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- And we would encourage people obviously not to do that if especially with young people
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- Don't get involved because the idea is well witchcraft, you know, it's like Harry Potter It's not real and it's just fun and make -believe
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- Well, the stuff in the movies is make -believe but people who actually dabble with this stuff in real life
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- I've heard many many people say no, I actually experienced something very dark and it was real and This is something we want to avoid but there is forgiveness
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- Of course, if if a person would turn away from it Okay, so hopefully at this point you can see that New Age and biblical
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- Christianity are completely at odds with one another Any questions so far
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- This next one I really find interesting the next mark of the
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- New Age is belief in the New World Order Who's heard of the
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- New World Order? Yeah, I think everyone's heard of it now because the past two years
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- There's been a lot of tights kind of the idea has kind of gone Mainstream if you talked about the
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- New World Order ten years ago people would have thought you know, you're one of these crazy Conspiracy theorists, but now it's talked about openly so New Agers believe in a coming
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- New World Order one author wrote this a Cosmic evolutionary optimism is taught that there is a new age coming
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- There will be a new world order a new world government New Age thinkers believe that there will eventually be a progressive unification of world
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- Consciousness so they believe the whole world is going to come together. There will be one governing body
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- There will be one world religion and then we believe as Christians In the one world economy because let's turn to Revelation chapter 13
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- Because the Bible talks about this the New World Order The whole idea of a coming utopia is nothing new
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- These are just old ideas being repackaged I did a sermon a couple years ago titled
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- Babylon and the New World Order and that's all it is It's the spirit of Babylon remember Nimrod the
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- Tower of Babel. He wanted to build Make a name for themselves can have a one world religion
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- Just bring everybody together around the Tower of Babel and what did God want? God said no and he spread people out
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- God wanted different nations Different languages, but they want to bring everyone together and now that sounds good, right?
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- Yeah, let's let's all come together well The world will come together
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- According to the Bible, but it will be under the leadership of who? No, well that will happen one day but before the world comes together
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- Yeah under Christ. It's going to come together first under Antichrist Okay, so let's look at Revelation 13 verse 1
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- The Apostle John writes then I stood on the sand of the sea and I saw a beast rising up out of the sea
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- Having seven heads and ten horns and on his horns ten crowns and on his heads a blasphemous
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- Name so this beast that comes up out of the sea is most commonly referred to by Christians as the
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- Antichrist So the beast or the Antichrist and then in verse 11 You see another beast who is identified as the false prophet in Revelation 16 verse 13 it specifically talks about the beast the false prophet and who's the third member of this
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- Satanic Trinity if you will The dragon so it's the dragon the beast and the false prophet
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- What did the Apostles of Jesus teach and 2nd Corinthians 4 for they said that?
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- Satan they believe that Satan is the god of this age Right Satan is the prince of the power of the air.
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- So who is in control of the world right now? Yeah, this is the devil's
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- Kingdom if you will remember in the temptation of Jesus the devil offered
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- Jesus the kingdoms of this world if he would bow down and worship him and the devil could offer that because they
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- Are under his control? so This world is under the control of Satan right now
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- So at the end of days the new world order will be brought in there will be a one world government
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- Along with a one world religion. I would argue the one world religion in in a sense is already here
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- It's called ecumenism Or we talk about the ecumenical movement, but basically the idea that all religions are equal
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- So all religions can come together You know, you can have your headscarf.
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- You can burn your incense. You can have your holy day Everyone can do their own thing, but we're all the same level.
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- We all have many paths to God So let's all come together and get along. I think that's the new the new age religion the new world
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- Order religion as long as you don't say that my way is correct and you need to convert.
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- That's the one thing they will not tolerate But you can believe what you want as long as you don't say that All right, so you're in Matthew or excuse me
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- Revelation 13 Verse 3 says that the world Marveled and followed the beast.
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- So the whole world is following who? the beast or the Antichrist Verse 4 says that the whole world
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- Worships him. So that's one world government one world religion And then you see the one world economic system in verses 16 and 17
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- He the false prophet says causes all Both small and great rich and poor free and slave
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- To receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads that no one may be able to buy or sell
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- Except the one who has the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name here is wisdom
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- Let him who has understanding Calculate the number of the beast for it is the number of a man his number is and you've heard this before his number is 6 6 -6 we don't know exactly what that's going to look like.
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- But when the time comes People will be able to identify what the mark of the beast is
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- So this is the coming New World Order and it's just interesting that now you have world rulers and you have people in the
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- New Age movement openly admitting that hey We want the New World Order and New Age people believe that it will
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- Come in sometime in the middle of this century. So they're predicting the
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- New World Order in the next What 20 30 40 years does that prove that it's going to happen?
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- No, but this is the belief out there All right. You understand that the whole concept of the
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- New World Order? Right who's heard of the
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- World Economic Forum Davos is it Switzerland? Yeah.
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- Yeah Yeah, and they're the they're sort of the architects They say by the year what one campaign they put out last year is by the year 2030 you will own nothing and you'll be happy One of their people just last week it came out that they said, you know, the average citizen
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- Does not have the right to own a car, you know because of climate change and whatever So there's all this pollution so people shouldn't own their own car
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- So what they want is they want to organize a Governing body that will dictate to the world what you can do and what you can't do.
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- I Mean that is happening whether or not they accomplish it whether or not that is the
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- New World Order I mean that remains to be seen but the point is this is not conspiracy
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- There's like this is happening in the open right now. People are talking like this So it's just a matter of time before one day it actually takes place
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- But it would that kind of thinking would be in line with with the new age Because we're now we're entering into this new era and people are more enlightened and there's a select few who really get it
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- And you know, everybody else you just don't understand. We know what's best for you
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- So we're gonna create the rules and you're gonna do what we say that that's the way it kind of works any other comments or Questions on that Okay, so just a recap
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- In the New Age movement, there is no one faith. That is correct Well, everybody has the spark of divinity.
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- So Muslim Buddhist Christian That's fine. You can believe what you want long as you don't say one religion is the the true religion
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- They believe that God is what? God is whoever you want him to be or whoever you want her to be or whoever you want it to be
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- God is basically a a concept God is everything everything is
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- God. So God is more of an impersonal force or a divine principle Does that contradict the
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- Bible Obviously why because Jesus was a person God the Father is a
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- Person and God the Father is referred to by the masculine pronouns
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- He and him and the Holy Spirit is referred to as he and him So when you hear someone talking about God as a her they don't actually think
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- God is a woman. They're just rejecting the old Way of thinking so that is more
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- New Age New Age thought So The truth is what it's what you want it to be you can have your truth and all have my truth
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- Doesn't that sound great? We can all have our own our own truth New New Age teachers say that salvation depends on you
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- Here's one quote that I found the tragedy of the human race is that you don't realize that you're divine
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- People are trapped by their own Misconceptions, so what you really need you need transformation you need a new consciousness
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- Can you understand why people are attracted to this? I I can totally see it
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- You know There's here's a Christian preacher and he's teaching to all have sinned and have come short of the glory of God You need to repent and you need to believe on Jesus because there's a judge
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- You know people hear that and they're turned off like I don't want to hear this But when someone says, you know, you you are a god
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- You are good Salvation is within you. You know, you can have your own truth.
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- You basically hey That's the temptation of the devil. You will be like God you will decide what's right and wrong
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- You have your own path. See this is what people want this appeals to the flesh So the
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- New Age movement Probably even though it's kind of flying under the radar one person
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- Compared it to an onion that it grows underground and has many layers, you know, and it stinks probably is another
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- Flying under the radar most people maybe they heard about it somewhere, but you don't realize how
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- Much of an effect it's having how many people you know, this mindset is capturing so What if somebody is teaching
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- New Age? Religion and I'm just going to use Oprah because every article I read every book, you know every internet website
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- Wherever I looked about New Age. Oprah is always the one mentioned. I think she is probably the most well -known
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- Person, so what if you come across someone like Oprah Winfrey? She and Oprah talks about religion a lot and Oprah maybe you know this maybe you don't she identifies as a
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- Christian Yeah, she's I'm a Christian. I watched one video where she was and I thought about playing one and maybe we'll
- 36:44
- Play some clips with some of the other topics, but you know, she was talking about how I'm a
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- Christian and She's like if you're interested you can come to me and I'll tell you and I'm like no
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- She's the last person you want to go to you hear about Christianity, but she's like I'm not talking about religion
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- She got really stern I'm not talking about religion What's she saying like the
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- Bible like doctrine like actual concrete things that you can point to like Jesus died for your sin the
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- Resurrection the Ten Commandments like real stuff. You can sink your teeth into oh, she doesn't want any of that She just wants to retain the label to appear spiritual and then suck you in.
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- It's like a bait -and -switch Well, I'm a Christian and then here there's a New Age pill. Why don't you swallow that? That's what's happening
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- And what was my point about Oprah? I brought her up for a reason Okay. Yeah, she she would be one who is teaching
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- New Age Thought so what should we do? Let's turn to Romans 16.
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- What does the Bible say? about our response, how should we Respond react to someone who is teaching this you could probably guess
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- You know the The common attitude is well You know, you can you can listen to what she has to say or Deepak Chopra or one of these other people
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- They have some good things to say So, you know you you eat the meat and spit out the bone
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- So take the things that she says that are good and then the things that are off -base just kind of ignore that you can listen
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- To her with the good stuff Is that what the Apostle Paul would recommend? Do you think the
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- Apostle Paul would recommend that you? Get your religious teachings from Oprah, I kind of doubt it.
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- Let's look at what Yeah, and again there
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- Some of you might maybe you watch Oprah and I'm not saying hey, you've been deceived by the New Age, you know
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- But you need to be careful because sometimes we can be influenced by something and not even realize it
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- Here's our response Here's what it should be to New Age teachers Paul says in Romans 16 verse 17 now
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- I urge you brethren Note those who cause divisions in offenses contrary to the doctrine which you learned and do what?
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- Avoid them. So if somebody is teaching things contrary to what the Bible teaches
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- Paul says note that person recognize who they are and avoid them
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- So that should be our stance towards New Age teachers Just avoid them don't listen to them
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- Obviously, that's a decision you need to make personally, but that's that's the command of Scripture mark
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- And avoid so that's that's a teacher though. What about your cousin?
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- What about your neighbor? What about your co -worker who? Maybe is influenced by the
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- New Age is dabbling in the New Age Our response towards them is totally different So Shirley MacLaine, okay, she can be she's a talented actress maybe but you know, don't read her books on spirituality
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- But your neighbor or your co -worker who's being influenced by New Age. We need to be kind to them, right?
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- We need to patiently teach them What the truth is so we need to patiently come alongside them and guide them into What we're hoping to do is to guide them into a personal relationship with Jesus Don't be harsh with them.
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- Don't tell them what they believe this stupid and you know, don't react like that Be patient because you know, there was a time where you were
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- Thinking wrongly there is a time neighbor. Maybe you were mixed up and whatever it is
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- So we want to be able to come alongside people and in gently guide them in the right direction
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- That's where you come in. That's where the church comes in and to share with them the truth the gospel of Christ crucified and risen
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- Human beings are not divine Right human beings have been made in God's image.
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- That'll be how they twist it Well, we're all made in the image of God. Well, that's true, but we're not all divine
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- The scripture says we have all sinned in a fallen short of the glory of God So that's the starting point and then we lead them into the truth of the gospel
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- So I'll close with what Jude says in verses 22 through 25 He says and on some have compassion
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- Making a distinction but others save with fear pulling them out of the fire
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- Hating even the garment defiled by the flesh Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy
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- To God our Savior who alone is wise the glory and majesty dominion and power both now and forever
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- Amen So you need to make a distinction Is this person a teacher of new age if they are you're probably not going to convince them just stay away
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- Is somebody being persuaded a dabbling in it? that's the person you need to try to reach and do it with kindness and There's some people that I mean they're diving headfirst into this and it's an urgent thing
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- That's where you need to make the distinction and that's where it might be appropriate to say. Hey, you know
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- I care about you and I see where you're going and this road leads to Destruction and there might be a time where you have to come out and kind of put it in more blunt terms
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- But remember the purpose here is not just to tell somebody they're wrong and prove a point.
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- What's the purpose? To save people from from the fire and then protect people from others who are teaching
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- Really? It's it's a doctrine of demons because it goes right back to the original temptation in The garden that you shall be as God's that's what the