Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.
The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us
or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look
us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this
message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
We are going to be talking about the New Age movement.
This is going to be our final look at a world religion and
cult. And as I mentioned to you
before, we could just go on and on and on really forever in this
series. And there had to be a place
where we wanted to kind of take a off ramp, if you will, to be
able to move into the next series and where God would have
us next. And so I do think it's important
that we look at the New Age movement and it is going to be
different than anything else that we have looked at thus far
because everything that we have seen up to this point has been
very clearly defined and very clearly delineated.
Meaning this, when you look at the Mormon church, there's a
Mormon set of doctrines. There is a Mormon hierarchy,
there are numbers, there are ways to account for how many
members there are. And of course I know there are
splinter groups. And we could say this with all
of these world religions and cults, couldn't we?
But whether it's Mormonism, Jehovah Witness, the Church of
Scientology, Unitarianism, the Islamic faith, the Buddhism, all
of these things that we've looked at, there is some sort of
structure of which we can look at.
Find out how many adherence. There are leadership core
beliefs. Such as that but when it comes
to the new age movement, that is not the case.
That the move age movement is more of a philosophy that cuts
across so many different realms. And so because of that, there
really is no real way to know how many people are involved in
the new age movement. What is the leadership of the
new age movement? Where is the new age movement
centrally located? The answer is there are no
answers to any of those because it's more of a philosophy.
It's more of a. A thought process, and I would
say to that many hold to the. New Age movement, without even
realizing they actually hold to New Age thoughts.
And even beyond that, I would say this morning that the New
Age movement is starting to creep into Christian churches as
well. Now, we're not going to really
talk about that here this morning because we'll give you
more of an overview of it, but it's something that we need to
be aware of and understand how insidious it really is.
And you say insidious, what, what do you mean?
The fact that it is a very, very real thing that is infiltrating
all of these different areas as dangerous and people maybe don't
even realize how dangerous it is.
That's right in front of them. And so we'll be looking at this
morning in the title of this lesson is the new age movement.
There's nothing new about it. The new age movement, there's
nothing new about it. Now, if you were to go down
Route 138 towards Stoughton or as a a friend that I had from
Georgia once said, stuffed in, if you were to drive towards
Stoughton on Route 138 on the right hand side, right before
you go into the next town, you will find that there is a gift
shop. There is a Learning Center
called the Women of Wisdom. Now listen, I, I think women
having wisdom is a wonderful thing.
Amen. I am not against it.
Hey, it's Mother's Day, right? I think women are wise.
I think having women having wisdom, it is a great thing.
However, the Women of Wisdom is called This is on their own
website, a unique gift and bookshop, holistic healing
center and sanctuary for spiritual and personal growth.
Now you hear that. In and of itself, there's
nothing necessarily alarming about that in and of itself.
And I would tell you many years ago when the church just
started, I remember there was a lady who is here.
I won't mention her name, She's been gone for many years, but
she told me that she frequented the Women of Wisdom.
She says, oh, pastor, it's really just more of a gift shop
than anything else. I said, well, it doesn't seem
like it labels itself as a gift shop.
I mean, I see there's advertisement for mediums and
for spiritualism that's outside of the Word of God.
It doesn't seem to go pastor. I just go in there and it's a
gift shop. And this is where we as
Christians must be careful because this new Age type
thinking is all around us whether we realize it or not.
So just this last week I went on to the Women of Wisdom website
and I clicked that tab that said about us.
I want to know what they are about and I want you to listen.
I'm going to read this a little bit exhaustively here this
morning, but I want you to hear how at first you might be
nodding your head. You think you know, these are
some pretty good things that are being.
Spoken of some things that maybe are being missed by a different
groups and some things that are. On the hearts of people who are
struggling in certain areas. But the farther we go, with the
deeper we go, we start to see the real fallacy and really the
biblical inaccuracies that are being presented.
So this is from the owner of the Women of Wisdom, says Women of.
Wisdom was born from my desire to learn and grow, to reconnect
with who I am, strengthen my connection to the divine, and I
need to reclaim all the parts of myself that I left behind or
gave away to any number of people in my life.
I'd followed the path that my family roots in society laid out
for me, believing that it. Would bring me happiness
somewhere along the way in the business of being a daughter,
wife, full time mom, corporate executive, PTA.
Member, Girl Scout leader, board member at church, etcetera.
I had lost myself. I was disconnected from myself,
running on autopilot, Though through my healing process, I
discovered that so many women, and men too, it says, had
followed this path and made the same realization.
Existing wasn't enough. Doing what was expected by
others and me didn't bring fulfillment.
So I set to the task of remembering who I was, what
dreams I had once had and given up on What did I want to be when
I grew up? I wanted to make a difference in
the world. Offer as I was blessed to have
offered to me the opportunity and gift of healing to others.
To provide a safe sanctuary for those wanting to begin their
path, explore themselves and expand their perceptions.
Gain the knowledge to build a fulfilling life, then to truly
dare to open the heart, let go of fear and heal the past.
Connect to the Divine and to love oneself and others.
Choosing to live with compassion.
And finally to integrate this knowledge and compassion into
life's everyday experiences. Bringing wisdom and peace to
live the greatest adventure. Daring to make all their dreams
come true. And so, in 1996, Women Wisdom
was born. The store provides a beautiful
place to find all the tools to facilitate the healing and
reflects the beauty within all of us.
Our classes are broad, ranging from many perspectives on a
large variety of topics because learning is an ongoing part of
change and growth. We have mediums and psychic
readings to provide messages, insight, guidance, and support.
And of course, we have holistic healing treatments to assist you
in resolving any obstacles to live an amazing life.
People often ask why her name is Women of Wisdom to remind us of
what we so often forget, that wisdom is something that we have
within. And if and when we make the time
to connect to our hearts, desire our truth to our greater selves,
to connect to our divinity, then anything, everything is
possible. You know, isn't amazing how it
starts with maybe the heart's desire of someone who is not
saved, that they feel life is unfulfilling, that they feel
that all the things that they were.
Supposed to do. We're supposed to.
Bring them joy and happiness. And then they find that that is
not the case. And friend, that's what life is
before. We know Jesus Christ is our
Savior, that you keep reaching, that you keep trying to find,
You keep trying to search for that hole in your heart that
only Jesus Christ can fill. And so they present a problem
that is real, of course mentioned towards women, but
also towards men as well, That there is this God sized hole in
your heart that can only be filled by Jesus Christ.
But their answer is much different.
That the answer is not outside of yourself.
That the answer is actually within yourself.
That the problems of life don't come from yourself because of
sin, but rather the problem is you have not properly connected
with divinity. That there is no God
necessarily. There might be some life force
or all. The universe is God and God is
the universe, but really you yourself are a God.
And this is what the New Age movement propagates and teaches.
And there are places like the Women of Wisdom right up the
road. There are 1900 numbers.
If those are still around, I don't think Miss Cleo is still
around anymore. But whether it would be Miss
Cleo or mediums or horoscopes or any of those things that somehow
take the sun, moon and stars and all that is in the universe and
all that is divine and help. You find the divinity within
friend. This is.
Everywhere. This is part of the American
culture. It has become so much a part of
the American culture. I'll be honest with you, I don't
think we often even realize it's around.
In fact, I was listening to a preacher just this week.
I was doing some research on the New Age movement, not just only
through the. Books that I have, but also
listening to some teaching on it as well.
And, and he said there was a little bit within Christianity
and emphasis. On the New Age movement, maybe
2025 years ago, but not so much anymore.
And he says the reason he explains to people is because
really, in many ways, the New Age movement has won.
That is so integrated within our society, within entertainment,
all these things that we don't often even realize it's around.
Just like you don't go around every day saying, boy, isn't
this oxygen great? Isn't this air wonderful?
You just know it's there because, well, it's there and
you don't think about it very much.
And in many ways, the New Age movement has integrated itself
so much in so many ways that we don't.
Often see it for what it is, and I would say even for myself, not
that I would buy into it lock, stock and barrel, but the idea
is that it is so insidious again that it hides itself, but yet so
dangerous that you don't even realize where it's lurking.
And again, there are churches that are.
Ushering this in with open arms because of the talk of the.
Divinity, because of the talk of that.
We've heard this before, the champion within you, all of
these types of things, where did they come from?
Well, they come from not the Word of God, but rather this
very real philosophy that's completely counter to the Word
of God. It's sacrilegious teaching that
is wrapped up in an empowering and appealing cloak that the
problem is you don't trust yourself enough.
Now I know the problem is I trust myself too much.
We're going to preach this morning on the Good Shepherd,
the Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd.
The problem in my life most of the time is this.
I don't listen to Good Shepherd enough.
He's trying to lead me in right pass and I don't pay.
Attention, the problem is not that I have neglected the divine
spark within me. The problem is quite the
opposite. And so here is where we are this
morning. New age movement.
There's nothing new about it. How old is it?
Well, Deuteronomy 18, let's go ahead and start there.
We'll begin in verse #9 where God has some very stark words
about some of the very things that we just read about a few
moments ago. Now remember, Deuteronomy is the
second telling of the law. Moses is preparing the people to
go into the Promised Land, preparing them for the people
they were about to meet. And he's explaining why these
people really are going to have to be eradicated from the
Promised Land. And so look what it says in
verse #9 When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God
giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do.
After the abominations of those nations.
There shall not be found among you anyone that maketh his son
or his daughter to pass through the fire.
And I'll stop right there for just a moment.
That that literally there were those of the Amorites and the
Hittites, and all the tights that were there in the land,
that as human sacrifice were taking their children and
sacrificing them upon the altar. And so God starts by saying
this. You do not need to learn after
them. This is why they're being
removed from the promised land. The closer proximity they were
to them, the more they became like them.
And this is important for us to listen.
The closer we are to something, the more become, the more we
will become like it if we're not careful.
Now again, do we need to be around the world so we can win
the world? Absolutely.
First Corinthians 5, you'll remember Paul says if you want
to be away from the world, you'll have to leave this earth.
If you want to be away from the world.
We're around it all the time. But there's a difference between
trying to. Influence the world and allowing
the world to influence you, and so God practically.
Speaking says there's some problems and the very first one
is this the sacrificing of children upon the altar?
By the way, this isn't my message, but if Erica is still
sacrificing children upon the altar today, when you consider
the fact of what? Abortion is and women shouting
their abortions and proclaiming how wonderful abortion is.
That's an abomination before an almighty God.
A. Sin that this country will have
to pay for someday. I do believe and it says as it
continues, not just that anyone that maketh a son or.
Daughter, to pass through the fire, or that useth divination.
Now what is divination? To be able to divine that which
is beyond what we know. Or an observer, or times, or an
enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consultor with
familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer literally
speaking to those on the other side.
For all that do these things are what an abomination under the
Lord. And because of these
abominations, the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before
thee. For thou or thou shalt be
perfect with the Lord thy God. For these nations with thou
shalt possess hearken unto observers of times, and the
diviners. But As for thee, the Lord thy
God hath not suffered thee to do so.
Now what is it saying here? This is what these people are
doing. I'm not going into a deep dive
on each of these because this is not for us to be.
Able to go through Deuteronomy 18 and to be able to go through
each. Which of these?
I think we could and draw some very real and radical parallels
to some things we see today. But the idea is more of an
overview that these things that the Amorites and the Hittites
and all of these people that were of the land, the things
that God said, these are abominations, are things that
the world is grasping with open arms today.
And that we, even in our freedom in Christ, if we're not careful,
can maybe grab on to some of these things as well that work
themselves into Christian teachings, into podcasts, into
popular books. And we have to be able to be
very spiritually perceptive to be able to understand these
things. They in those in the land, those
who were abominable, they were searching for an answer through
the dead. They were searching for an
answer through spells, and they were searching for answers
through everything. Can we put it this way?
They were looking for answers for everything but God.
Anything but God was the answer to their problems.
But verse 15 says this, The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee
a prophet from the midst of thee, and thy brethren like unto
me, unto him shall ye hearken. And we see from the previous
verses the other nations listen to the wrong voices.
Can we put it this way that the other nations were listening to
the wrong voices? But what is God saying to them?
You need to listen to me, the voice of the prophet, the
capital P there. Who's that talking of it?
That is a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ and that they were to
listen to God and to God alone. When?
They listen to God. They did so well.
When they listen to all these other things, boy, it was just
problem after problem after problem.
Deuteronomy 2929 says this. The secret things belong unto
the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong
unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the
words of this law you. Know there's some things in the
Bible I wish we knew that just don't happen to be in the Bible.
You know? Probably for me, highest on the
list is what Jesus was like when he was a child.
You know, we see him at his birth, then we see him at age
12, then we see him as he starts his earthly ministry.
I don't know about you, but I wish the Bible just had a whole
book about stories of Jesus childhood.
I would love that. I would love to be able to read
what he was like and. And to know how different he was
from the other children and what that experience would have been
like. But you know.
There are things like that, and maybe a multitude of other
things that you all are thinking about this morning as well that
the Bible does not make us Privy to.
And you know why? Because here's the answer.
The secret thing is belong to the Lord Lord.
There's some things God has not revealed to us in his infinite
wisdom. We can't question the fact that
God has not revealed certain things was God is not wrong
because he did not reveal to us what Jesus childhood was like.
Honestly, I think a lot of people would just focus on those
stories and really miss the reality of who Jesus was.
And so probably it's a great blessing that we don't have that
for that very reason or could be another reason.
All I know is it's a blessing we don't have it because if we
needed it, God would have given it to us.
And since we don't have it, that means we, well, don't need it.
And the secret things belong to the Lord.
Now here's what the New Age movement says.
Now catch this this morning. The New Age movement says there
are secret things, and I'll give you a way.
To learn them. There are things that you don't
know and there is the way to find them out.
There is a divinity who has real teachings, but he hasn't given
us everything. And so you will be able to
channel your own way to be able to learn all of these very, very
important things. Now, who was someone who fell
into the trap of this? Well, we're not going to go
there this morning, but you could turn later to First Samuel
28 and you'll find that Saul took all those people who were
in the land that we just read about in Deuteronomy chapter 18.
And what? Did he do?
He removed them. He completely removed him
because that was what God had told him to do.
And so we told Israel to do. And so he came to a point
sometime in his reign, where he had purged the land of all these
people. But there was one witch who
remained in a place called Endor.
And when Samuel, or rather Saul, could not hear from God.
Now, why couldn't he hear from God?
Well. Because God had shut the windows
of heaven, if you would, from him, Because he was unrepentant
of his sin. And God in his benevolence was
not answering. Because that quietness from the
Lord should have caused Saul to say, whoa, I'm far from God.
I need to get right with God. Instead he said, I need to know
what's going on. The Philistines are breathing
down my neck. I don't know what David's up to
right now. I'm in real trouble.
I can't hear from God. So what did he do?
He found the one witch that still remained, and what did she
do in her own way, channeled from the other side?
There's a lot of questions about how that took place.
I believe that the Lord supernaturally allowed this to
take place. There are questions of whether
Samuel was actually Samuel or not.
I don't know, but I should could argue probably this morning
either way. But I do know it wasn't as much
about the power of this woman as God was trying to make a very
graphic illustration to to Saul to show him how far he had
gotten away from God. Because even this woman seemed
very surprised at what took place.
She was as surprised as anyone. But what did Saul?
Do he needed an answer from the other side how to move ahead?
Does that sound a lot like what's going on today in a lot
of ways? Oh, I can't do anything without
reading my horoscope. There are people who really
believe that we laugh at that. But there were people who would
not in in a day not that long ago, would get the newspaper.
Not because they wanted to see what was going on in the op eds
in the front page, and not because they want to see what
the scores were for the Sox or the Celtics or the Pats.
But because they had to turn that horoscope to know how do I
get about my day. They needed word from the stars
to be able to know how to move. And this is prevalent within our
society today. It still is.
Whether it's channeling or mediums, they're out there and
they're everywhere. I can tell you even just.
Over in here in Easton, there's two different places with
psychics and Mansfield, right on Main Street.
There are two different places that I know of, of which you can
receive types of readings. And that's just within these two
towns here, 50,000 people, four different places where it can be
spoken of. You say, well Pastor, a lot of
that's just a bunch of hokum and it's a bunch of junk.
There's nothing real to it. And I will say there's a lot of
con men out there that are trying to be able to pretend, as
I've said before, you know, you know, you did you did you have a
mother? You know, it's like, well, yes,
it's now that you mentioned it, yes, I did.
You know, did you know someone that started with the letter R
by any chance? Name, first name, last name,
middle name, anything. You know, there's a lot of that
that's out there. But is there some very real
occultism that is also out there?
You better believe it. And as believers, we must
understand it, acknowledge it, and when we see it, have no part
in it. And Samuel, Saul rather, was
exactly the opposite. The New Age movement has much to
do with the divine, but it has nothing to do with the God of
the Bible. And this is important, has much
to do with the divine, but it has nothing to do with the God
of the Bible. It's everywhere in Hollywood.
I know that's a surprise to everyone here today.
But the fact that Hollywood peddles it to such a level is
something that should be important for us to recognize
because whether we like it or not.
Hollywood shapes a lot of cultural thinking.
Should it be that way? No.
But the fact of the matter is that every election, who is the
one that wants to speak up and influence us on who to vote for?
It's those who are in Hollywood, those who are in sports, but
really those in Hollywood who lie for a living.
I mean, that's what acting is. I'm not saying that the acting
is not is there's, you know, good reasons to act and there's
not necessarily everything that's acting is bad by any
stretch. But say these people now all of
a sudden say, because I can act, because I can do it.
You need to listen what I think about politics or even what I
think about God himself. I'll give you some examples.
Harrison Ford once had a wide-ranging interview.
When the conversation turned to God, Harrison Ford indicated
that he appreciated the advice of Paul Tillich, who said, if
you have. Trouble with the word.
God. Then take whatever is central
and most meaningful in your life and call that God.
Harrison Ford went on to say. I don't have any religious
construct, but I think nature and God are the same thing.
And with all due respect to Harrison Ford, nature and God
are not the same thing. You'll hear a lot about God is
the. Universe and the universe is
God. There's only one problem.
With that, before the universe was God, and this is a real
misnomer of that which is taught in.
The new age movement of along with many other things in the
1997 movie Out on a Limb, Shirley MacLaine is standing on
a seashore facing the ocean. Her arms are outstretched.
She shouts at the surf. I am God.
I, I am God now I wasn't aware of this and I actually went on
to YouTube and wasted 5 minutes of my life watching this clip
from this movie of her literally grappling with this thought
about the universe and what it was.
And finally she got to the place where she did stretch out her
arms and she yelled I am God. The music starts to swell.
Isn't this a wonderful and touching moment?
And the answer is no, it's blasphemous that you are God.
We can be quite confident that this is not the God of the
Bible. Bette Midler recorded a song in
1990s which you probably are aware of from a distance.
One of the lines of the song says God is watching us, God is
watching us. God is watching us from a
distance. The notion there is this idea,
which they call process theology, that God sets the
world in motion and completely removes himself from it.
He's just watching at a distance and is not even capable of
intervening in any way. Again, this is far from.
The God of the Bible, who loves us with an everlasting love,
knows the number of hairs on our heads, intervenes in our lives
in the affairs of people with regularity.
So many. Thoughts about who God is, but
yet not the thoughts and the truth of the Bible.
So what are some common characteristics of the New Age
movement? All right, So what are some
common characteristics of the new?
I missed those slides. I'll tell you of the new age
movement. Well.
There are some core beliefs of New Agers, including monism,
which means that all is 1, Pantheism, which means all is
God. And mysticism, which is the
experience of oneness with divine monism all is 1
pantheism, all is God and mysticism, the experience of
oneness with the divine and all three of.
These thought process have logical fallacies, not even
including. The fact that they are patently
unbiblical, meaning this, that we could argue against these
things really without even using the Bible because just logically
they do not make sense in and of themselves.
Well, God is everything. And so that's why I don't eat
meat. People say it.
Now, listen, if you're a vegan this morning and that's what you
want to do because you think it's better for you, go for it.
I mean, I'm going to eat a hamburger.
I don't know about anybody else, but I like a hamburger and a
steak. But I will say if you just want
to do that because a health thing, then there's nothing
wrong with that. But there are people who
literally because of the New Age movement.
Thoughts. Why can't because of the
sacredness of all life. Well, the answer is well, but do
you cut your grass? Because that's sacred too.
What do the cows eat? Well, that's sacred too, if you
could. Go so far.
Do you understand again now is is life precious?
Absolutely it is as has, but God's also given us dominion
over this world as well to be able to as Adam did before the
fall, to dress and keep the garden.
Work is not a curse. Adam was given this job before
the curse came. But we find that this these are
the thoughts that are out there today.
Now along with those, there's a lot of secondary
characteristics. And I would say if there's a
word that you could use to explain the new age.
Movement and new Agers in general.
It will be this eclectic, eclectic.
Now, we usually use the word eclectic when you say someone
has maybe an eclectic clothing style.
You know, they dress in a certain way and a little bit of
here, a little bit of there. You know, you go in someone's
home, maybe they've decorated it in an eclectic way.
They don't really lean into one way of decorating.
It's this room is this, this room is that.
Sometimes it's a bunch of different mishmash of stuff all
in the same room. You know, that could be
eclectic. But when I say that New Agers
are eclectic, what I'm saying is this.
They take a little bit of hearing what they believe, a
little bit in there, what they believe.
By the way, many New Agers will take biblical thoughts in and of
themselves. The problem is they divorce them
from the context and the truth of the rest of the Bible.
And so it'll take a little bit here, a little bit there, a
little bit of the Far Eastern religions, a little bit of the
Bible, a little bit of Jesus Christ, a little bit of Vishnu,
a little bit of a, of a medium and put it all together.
And they have created their own way of thinking.
The problem with this is, well, who is God?
Well, they are, because they have become the arbiter of
truth, but that goes along with what they believe, that they are
the ultimate authority. And this is a very, very
dangerous way of thinking. They consult holy books like the
Bible, the Hindu Vedas. But also feel free to consult
psychics and Chandlers, whose revelations from spirit guides
are considered just as authoritative as what you would
find in. The Word of God, they have no
hesitation and consulting astrologers, others who practice
the occultic arts of necromancy, palm readings, ball gazing,
tarot cards and the like. As I've mentioned before, you
know I have a program. The Church has a program,
Liberty Home, that runs on Easton Community Access
Television every week. And I'm thankful that we've had
that platform. To be able to do that now over
100 episodes on ecat over the last three years.
I'm thankful for that. But there's also someone who has
a program called Whispers from the Other Side and she can speak
to those in her mind that are on the other side.
And she has gone to great lengths.
I've watched some of parts of her shows.
I can't say I've sat down for a whole 30 minutes and watched it,
but gone through and watched certain parts of it where she
has said, well, I can hear somebody saying this and
somebody saying that. Did you have someone in your
life whose name was this? And the person will be across
from and say no, no, it's I'll be honest with you, I'm almost.
Embarrassed for her? Even though I know she's being
exposed as someone who is untruthful.
But I'm almost thinking, wow, you put yourself out on a limb
there and you weren't even close.
And they won't even say, well, you know, some, you know,
somebody like that. No, they would say, no, I don't
know what you're talking about and should say, oh, well, you
know, that voice is fading away now.
There's another voice that's coming in and it's just we we
look at that and it's just so plain and obvious.
But there are people out there who are absolutely grasping for
something. I'll share this with you.
I was talking with my wife this morning because, you know, my
mom passed away about, you know, 12 years ago now and, you know,
Mother's Day today. And I was, you know, going to
pick a card out for for Diane. And just I was thinking, you
know, boy, I miss picking out a card for my mom.
I'll be honest with you. You know, she died when I was 31
years old. And the way that life works,
that's, that's pretty young, all things considered.
And so I miss him. I miss her, you know, I, I, I,
I'm glad I still have some tapes where I can listen to her voice,
you know, VHS tapes. I just don't have a VHS, you
know, VCR, but I have VHS tapes. So I know I can listen to them
at some point. But I'm thankful to have them.
But I also know this, I have the Lord and she does too.
And in the midst of that, I know I will see you again, that I
have that hope. But think about someone who
doesn't have that hope and they're desperate.
They've no in their mind because of their belief system.
Either they won't believe, they won't hear them or see them
again, or they just hope and not the kind of hope that we have,
which is a sure expectancy, the hope of hey, flipping a coin
kind of hope. And I hope I get the what I call
when it's up in the air. I get it.
I get the desperation. But the fact of the matter is
that desperation does not excuse the fact that it is patently
unbiblical and dangerous to be involved in such a thing.
There's a reason that God gave such a very clear rebuke to
these things that we're Speaking of here this morning.
So what are some of the common thoughts of the New Ages?
We've given you some of them already.
They believe that personal transformation takes place
typically. When a human recognizes his or
her. Witness with all things in the
universe, I am one. With the universe, the universe
and I are one. These are mantras, if you will,
of those who are New Agers. Now, secondly, they're
planetary. Transformation, they believe,
takes place when a critical mass of human beings come into this
same awareness. That's why World Peace for many
is such an important thing. Now.
I believe in World Peace in the sense that I don't want the
world to be at war. I don't want the world to be
burning down. I don't like seeing what we see
out in the world today and the evil that is surrounding us.
I don't like it, I don't applaud it.
I don't say, hey, this is the way it ought to be.
It ought to grieve our hearts. And I'm afraid sometimes we just
get used to it because we're so surrounded by it.
But there are people who are very real into the World Peace
movement, believing that is enough.
People touch the spark of divinity within them.
It will truly bring World Peace to the entire planet, and this
is a fallacy to be able to consider that.
But that's why they would be at the same time so peaceful in
some ways, but so emphatic that we don't believe.
Like they do. Because we're the ones keeping
the planet down. Our teaching is the one that's
keeping World Peace from really happy.
That's why there are certain elements that believe that we as
Bible believe in Christians are the real problem of society
because we are the ones that are hindering true World Peace come
coming from with our absolute truth that we believe.
How dare that we would believe in absolute truth.
Now most new Agers are open to meditation as well.
Now here's the thing, is meditation good?
Well, yes, it's good as long as it's well, biblical.
And what do we often say that everything that God has, it's
good and right and pure. Satan has a cheap copy, a cheap
imitation of and that is certainly true with meditation.
What is biblical meditation? Well, Psalm one 19148 is a good
example. Might prevent the night watches
that I might meditate in thy word.
Real meditation is meditating upon the word of God.
This is what we are to do. We ought to meditate every
single day. Now again, that doesn't mean
that you can get cross legged on the floor.
Some of us, you get cross legged, you might need someone
to help you get uncross legged. All right, So I'm not saying
that you need to do that. That's not what we find in the
Bible. But the idea is that when we
read our Bible, we don't just read it and discard it for the
rest of the day, that we ought to ruminate on the Word of God,
just like my preacher brother Turner used to say.
It's like a cow chewing the cud. You know, you chew on it, and
then what do they do? Well, they kind of spit it out,
but they chew it again and they spit it out.
I know it's gross, but it's not so great.
But the idea is that cow is extracted everything.
Every possible nutrient. That's why their bodies work in
that way. And when we read the word of
God, we ought to extract every. Nutrient we possibly can
throughout the day. That's biblical meditation.
Well, I'm going to take a a verse that I read in my Bible
reading today. I'm going to write it down on my
phone. I'm going to look at it, you
know, every hour or something like that.
I'm just going to write it down, put it on a sticky note, put it
in my car so I can meditate on it again.
Not, you know, humming or humming or anything like that.
It is literally just I'm going to take the word of God.
I'm going to ponder and meditate on it because really we're going
to meditate on something today. Your mind ponders something
during the day and not always healthy things.
And So what do we need to do? We need to meditate on the Word
of God. But the eastern form of
meditation is when one goes into a trance like state and seeks to
attain a sense of oneness with all things.
You see, when we meditate biblically, what do we do?
We fill our mind with thoughts of the Lord, but Eastern
meditation is this. Empty yourself of everything so
that you can be filled with that which is evil.
Whether they realize it or not, that is exactly what it is.
Emptying the mind. Directing energies within the
body allows the balancing of vital energies which is used to
promote spiritual and physical healing.
I'm going to say something might not be popular here today, but
it is very true that even yoga itself, as it was taught, was
all about directing energies and those types of things.
Now you say. Pastor So if I do those
stretches, you're saying it's evil?
I'm not. Stretches themselves are not
evil. All right, you want to do the
downward dog, help yourself. All right, I don't understand
anything about it. I don't know.
But here's what I do know that there's a difference between
stretching because it's good for your body and getting involved
in Eastern meditation, of which yoga is.
I wouldn't be part of a yoga group for a lot of reasons, but
the main reason would be this would be I don't want to be
involved in what could be considered a type of new age
worship where I am emptying myself.
And again, there will be people. I know there are Christians who
would. Scream at me right now.
You are crazy for thinking that. You think the stretches are
going to are going to cause your mind I.
Didn't say anything about the stretches.
Nothing wrong with stretching before I run, you know I do.
I stretch. It's probably good for me.
You know what I don't do? I don't empty my mind while I
stretch and try to focus my mind on that which is unseemly from
the Word of God. This is what I'm talking about,
it being so prevalent in society today.
Your energy, your chakra, good vibes.
These are the kind of things that are spoken of and even
sometimes we repeat. I'm not even thinking about the
fact. Well, what are good vibrations?
So I think that's a song. Well, it was, but it's more than
that. The idea is the very vibrations
of the human energy and the human spirit as people are often
talking about it and listen. I understand why I'm saying this
to some people. I'd sound like a crank right
now, like you're crazy. But the Bible warns us there's
some very clear things that are out there that we need to avoid
and we need to be cautious not to be scared of.
I'm not scared of yoga. I don't drive past the 18 yoga
studios here in Easton because I think that's how many we have
here in Easton. I don't drive past them and I'm
fearful. I don't walk past one and I'm
afraid for my life or afraid that I would be tempted to go in
and stretch and all of a sudden become a new ager.
But I will tell you this, I do recognize what it is, whether
everyone else does or not. And I'm not saying everyone who
does it is doing these things. I'm not saying everyone who
practices yoga is a new ager. I am saying they're involved in
something. They may not even realize
they're involved in the 1st place.
That's the important part is I'm not making an accusation of
someone's life choices because they're in there, but whether
they realize it or not, they're involving themselves in
something that is much different than maybe they even think that
it is in the 1st place. So we mentioned a few moments
ago that the New Age movement is not new.
And I'm not going to be able to finish this today, but we'll get
where we're going here this morning as the best that we can.
There are a number of factors that contribute to the
emergence, or I would even say re emergence of the new age
movement in the United States. And a lot of it goes back to
here in the very Boston area. Many of you are familiar with
Walden Pond. How many of you ever been over
there before? I have the very center of
Transcendental Meditation, the idea of to go out and become one
with nature. It was a.
Rejection of biblical theology and rather going out and being
one with nature. Now again, there are parts of
that that are very understandable.
In the sense that you think of how commercial this world is,
you think of how much of A rat race it is.
And certainly in the 1800s it was.
It was in its own way. I'm not saying that it is like
it is today, but there was commercialism back then just as
well and to be able to get away. And draw close to God could
certainly be appealing in its own way.
There's nothing wrong with that in and of itself.
But when it's not tethered to the Word of God, what?
Happens. Well, I'm going to go out there
and I will be one with the sticks.
I'm be one with the dirt and be one with the trees and be one
with the water, and I'll be one with the divine that was within
me. This becomes very, very
problematic. Transcendentalism emphasizes
intuition as a means of ascertaining.
Truth, it holds it. All religions contain divine
truth and affirm that the goal of religion is to obtain
conscious union. With the divine, such ideas help
set the stage for the eventual emergence of the New Age
movement revival, the cultism that took place in the late 19th
century. The Theosophical Society in
1875. The Anthro.
Philosophical Society, 1912. The Arcane School, 1923.
And this one's the most scary of all.
The IM movement. Think about that.
The IM movement in 1930s, that's all part of occultism and which
has merged with, and it's really been part and parcel with the
New Age movement. And we don't have to go into the
individual groups themselves. I could tell you did a little
bit of research on the Theosophical Society and I did
enough looking to know this stuff isn't good.
And this stuff has more to do with the devil than it does have
to do with God Almighty. And it's the kind of stuff that
we as Bible believing Christians should stay away from.
But where does this all come from?
And we can even look at the fact that it stems from around 2nd
century. Gnosticism.
What is Gnosticism? Gnosticism comes from the Greek
word gnosis, which means knowledge, and it was purported
to offer otherwise hidden truth. As the indispensable key to
human salvation that you have to find that which is hidden to
truly unlock. The key to your salvation.
Gnosticism with its secret knowledge is long gone, but a
revival of certain Gnostic ideas.
Neo Gnosticism occurred around the same time.
Here's some of the ideas of Gnosticism.
Man has a start spark of divine with him.
Man is ignorant of his divinity and Jesus came as a way shower
to bring enlightenment to humankind.
Now there are so many problems with that that we can't diagnose
in the next minute and 1/2 that we have here.
We'll look at it the next time we are together.
That man is a spark of divine within.
Man is ignorant of his divinity now.
Here. Here's the thing that is so
puzzling and there's so many things, and This is why I talk
about the logical fallacies that we can just debunk these things
just by using pure logic, let alone the word of God.
But I go back and we'll end here with Shirley MacLaine on the
beach. And I know that it is fiction,
but at the same time, I truly believe from looking at some of
the things of the way that she looks at life, that this was as
much her own philosophy as it was her acting.
There. In this scene, I am God.
My only question would be, if you just came to the realization
that you were God, how much God are you?
If you just realized that you are God, are you really God?
I go back to Isaiah 14, don't turn there, but I go back to
Satan, who also had. God like thoughts.
I will be like the most high. I will, I will, I will, I will.
Of course we say he has an eye problem because of all those
eyes that are there that chapter, but The funny thing is
the very fact that he said I will become was the damning
quote that showed that he was not God.
The fact that he said he would become God showed he wasn't.
The fact that someone could realize they are God is the very
evidence of the fact you are not if it just took you being out in
the beach with your toes in the sand.
And the salt spray in your face. To realize that you are God, you
aren't God, and that's the problem.
One of the many problems with the New age movement.
Now we get back together. Next week, Brother Davis will be
doing Sunday school. Next week I will be here.
Our family, Lord willing, will be here.
We flying back Saturday night. As far as I know, we're not
flying on Spirit Airlines, so we should be here next Sunday.
But he'll be teaching Sunday school the fall.
And we will look more at the New Age movement and more, many more
of its fallacies, how we contradicted biblically beyond
what we've looked at so far, and even some hints and helps so
that you can identify even in Christian literature and in
Christian teaching. So I hope it's been a help to
you this morning. Thank you for listening to the
sermon from the pulpit of Liberty Baptist Church.
If this message was a blessing to you, or if there's any way we
can serve you, please let us know by contacting us at
info@mylibertybaptist.org or you can visit us this Sunday at 800
Washington St. in Easton, MA. May the Lord bless you as you
grow in His Word.