New Age is not new … it is a modern revival of ancient religious traditions, along with a potpourri of influences: Eastern mysticism, modern philosophy and psychology, science and science fiction, and the counterculture of the 50s and 60s.

“… So here we are in the New Age, a combination of spirituality and superstition, fad and farce, about which the only thing certain is that it is not new. Nobody seems to know exactly where the term came from, but it has been around for several decades or more, and many elements of the New Age, like faith healing, fortune-telling and transmigration of souls, go back for centuries.” [Otto Friedrich, “New Age Harmonies,” TIME, Dec. 7, 1987.]

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. [Colossians 2:8]

Despite its popularity, the New Age is hard to define.
Clearly the New Age promotes a hollow and deceptive philosophy that is rooted in human tradition and the basic principles of this world. It includes a variety of beliefs, fads, and rituals. It seems to be a marriage of science & Easternism cult-religious organizations and can be a mixture of Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Spiritualism. One such example is the Church Universal & Triumphant (Elizabeth Clare Prophet). Some New Agers subscribe to some parts, some to others.

It is a religious movement that is centered in SELF.
All you need is within – with no defined order of sin, repentance or salvation! You become your own god! The New Agers worship the god of forces and promote The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Jesus was not and is not the only Christ, nor is he God.

Some may think that everyone means the same thing when they say “Christ.” Christians see the one and only begotten Son of God, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Many New Age writers on the other hand refer to a Christ spirit. They believe there have been many Christ, Jesus being only one of many.

The New Ager understands Christ as a reincarnated avatar, Messiah, or messenger sent from the ‘hierarchy’ to give the living on earth spiritually advanced revelation. The New Age accepts that Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius, Jesus, and many others were ‘Christ’.

The Baha’i World Faith claims to be in perfect harmony with the Christian Faith yet see the historical Jesus as only one of several manifestations of Christ on equal ground as Abraham, Moses, Krishna, Zoroastrian, Buddha, Mohammed, the Bab, and their founder: Baha’u’llah.

New Age prophetess Alice Bailey and author of many occult books, including The Reappearance of The Christ, describes the “Avatar of Synthesis,” who she says is a “close Associate” of “the Christ.” She says: “He works under the great natural Law of Synthesis, producing at-one-ment, unification and fusion. His function (in unison with the energy of Christ) is to generate spiritual will in humanity, the will-to good.”

“This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.” – 1 John 4:2-3

“God” is impersonal, cosmic, a God of energy forces.

All things, including man, constitute, the ONE – called Universal Mind, The Source, Universal Self, Cosmic Consciousness, Universal Presence, or The Force” – your Inner Voice, Higher Self, or Intuition. ” God is an impersonal energy; force, immanent in all things (including man). God can be referred to either as she or he, mother or father, god or goddess.

Do not be deceived! New Agers do not mean God or Jesus Christ of the Bible. Most New Age teachers hold that Mother Earth, the sun, the moon, and the stars, indeed all of Nature can be worshiped as God.

For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. – Romans 1:25

Man is himself God, for he consists of and is the creator of “the forces.” Man already exercises the powers inherent in his divinity and needs only to awaken to this fact.

New Ageism embraces super-naturalism, but ascribes it to the creature, not the Creator (as in Romans 1:22-24). They flaunt the “I am God” concept as it naturally appeals to man’s ego and thirst for power, an appeal as old as the Garden of Eden. Satan promised Eve: “Ye shall be as gods.”

For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. – Genesis 3:5

It is of of the goals of the New Age Movement to cause people to rebel against the true God of the Bible and to believe that they are deities. Once Satan has the person in this heretical frame of mind, then the battle is won. The individual will then be called for greater service to the Prince of Darkness. And with a mind clouded and confused, he or she will comply. The individual will have become a member, knowingly or unknowingly, of the Satanic conspiracy. [Texe Marrs, Millennium, pp. 224-25]

Man should seek and accept spiritual instruction and direction directly from the spirit world.

The lure of the occult is almost always on the basis of acquiring knowledge or power. [Neil T. Anderson, The Bondage Breaker, pg. 114] We crave a knowledge that is esoteric, not normally available to the ordinary person. We want to experience a power that is spiritual and supernatural in origin.

People don’t seem to want to hear what God has to say, they want information and direction from someone else who “knows”; a psychic, a channeler, a palm-reader, a card-reader, Ouija boards, astrology, magic charming, automatic writing, or the spirit of a dead friend of relative. In a sense these are God-given desires, but they are intended to be fulfilled by the knowledge and power which comes from God. However, Satan is busy trying to pass off his counterfeits for God’s knowledge and power as the real thing. If he can get us to accept his versions of knowledge and power, he has a foothold in our life.

Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord; because of these same detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you. – Deuteronomy 18:10-12

All religions and religious teachings lead to the same goal. All are equally of merit.

Satan’s primary tactic in opposing God is not to foster atheism but religion; not to prove there is no God but to be worshiped as God.

“I have not come to found a new religion,” Lord Maitreya says. “I have come to teach the art of Self-realization,” something which is neither an ideology nor a religion, but benefits people of all religions and those who have none.

The New Age does express a cloudy sort of religion, claiming vague connections with both Christianity and the major faiths of the East (New Agers like to say the Jesus spent 18 years in India absorbing Hinduism and the teachings of Buddha), plus an occasional dab of pantheism and sorcery. The underlying faith is a lack of faith in the orthodoxies of rationalism, high technology, routine living, spiritual law-and-order. Somehow, the New Agers believe, there must be some secret and mysterious shortcut or alternative path to happiness and health.

“Ecumenism is essential in creating a “Christianity” which embraces all religions. Psychology plays a major ecumenical role by providing common faith, language and ritual for everyone from atheists, cultists and occultists to Roman Catholics and evangelicals.” [Dave Hunt, “Mystery Babylon Part II,” The Berean Call, August 1993]

The “ancient wisdom” of Babylon, Egypt and Greece – not the Bible – is the basis of all truth.

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. – John 14:6

Vice President Albert Gore in his book Earth in the Balance; Ecology and the Human Spirit, reveals himself as a person who believes we should have a “mother goddess” that we can worship. He points back to ancient religions and Hinduism and says that they have something good in their worship of “mother earth,” and claims that our modern slogan should be the worship of “mother earth”; that man and nature are one, and that God is part of nature, and nature is part of God. On pages 258 through 259 of his book, he shows where he departed from the Baptist faith and entered in to the New Age Religion. He says “The richness and diversity of our religious tradition through out history is a spiritual resource long ignored by people of faith, who are often afraid to open their minds to teachings first offered outside their own system of belief.” “This Pan-religious perspective may prove especially important where our global civilizations responsibility for the earth is concerned.” “Native American Religions for instance offer a rich tapestry of ideas about our relationship to the earth.” [Al Gore, Earth In the Balance; Ecology and the Human Spirit, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1992.]

Sin and evil do not exist. Peace and love are the ultimate realities.

New Agers deny the existence of a hell (gehenna fire) and a judgment. They also deny that sin and evil exist. God (The universe) is alleged to be beyond good and evil.

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” – Romans 3:23

The New Age gospel is not a system of revolutionary principles – it sounds good and promotes an easy believe-ism.
It does not promote strife and war, but aims at peace and unity. It seeks not to set the mother against her daughter nor the father against his son, but fosters the fraternal spirit whereby the human race is regarded as one great “brotherhood.” It does not seek to drag down the natural man, but to improve and uplift him. It advocates education and cultivation and appeals to “the best that is within us.” It aims to make this world such a comfortable and congenial habitat that Christ’s absence from it will not be felt and God will not be needed.

Depending on which branch of the New Age movement you encounter, there may or may not be a great world leader who will emerge to lead us all to enlightenment. Some New Agers await the advent of the Lord Maitreya while others believe we will all become so godlike that we will not need any leaders. The Bible tells of an age when God is going to permit Satan to actually rule in person on this earth! If a New Age leader emerges, he could well be the Antichrist, an enemy of mankind who will be intent on leading the world into terrible rebellion against God and who will be destroyed along with his followers. Although God’s prophets foretold many explicit signs of Christ’s first coming most people missed Him. Likewise, God has given many definite signs that point to the second coming of Jesus. False Christ’s and false prophets are high on the list.

The question is, do you KNOW God in Christ Jesus … as He has revealed Himself in the Scriptures? Have you read His Book? Have you studied it? How can you be sure you know the real God in Christ Jesus if you have not studied what He has said about Himself?