New Age…”The Angel of Light…to deceive”
For many years, I have been urged to become familiar with New Age and Neo Pagan practices as they were imported from other nations’ religions. I have watched as some beauty therapists have learned ‘alternative healings’ and I have observed Yoga become just a ‘nice’ exercise routine with classes taken in churches throughout the country.
As Christians, isn’t it time to take a long hard look at these practices?
In 2 Co 11:14 Paul states
And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.
I’m going to make a strong statement…the ‘angel of light‘ (Satan) is behind the New Age movement.
Deceived people seek after peace and freedom in this false system. It maintains that all religions will lead to ‘salvation’.
All You Need Is Love!?
Followers of the New Age system fervently believe that an awakening of brotherhood and love will usher in a New Age of peace and prosperity. This New Age, called the ‘Aquarian Age’,
is bringing about a new world order in which individuals will realise their true spiritual being and their inter-connectedness with all life. The key word is ‘enlightenment’; it is the revelation of ‘truth’ and the expansion of consciousness.
This is a conscious effort to abolish God totally and replace Him with humanity.
The basic premise is that there is no personal God who is the Creator and greater than His creation. There is only one divine reality which is ‘cosmic consciousness’; it is an ‘impersonal energy’, of which all are a part. It is believed that man must experience a shift in consciousness (commonly called ‘enlightenment’) to realise this.
Radnall N Baer was heavily involved in the New Age movement for 15 years. He wrote two best selling books and was a popular New Age Lecturer. He writes
“The New Age movement has seduced many millions of people into accepting the promises of personal godhood, unlimited power and immortality through incarnation”.
The New Age Movement is a Satan-controlled modern day revival of occult-based philosophies and practices in both obvious and cleverly disguised forms. The following are only some of these:
Astrology and other types of divination, spiritism, past life therapy, channelling, ‘healing’ therapies like Reiki, spirit guides, angel worship, Mother Earth, crystals, rune stones,
astral projection, goddess and planet worship, meditation of various kinds, talismans (for healing and protection), astral planes, candle magic, mediums, séances, hypnosis, guided imagery, and many, many other techniques.
Magical Mystery Tour!
Since the 1960’s, many aspects of Far Eastern culture and religion have been imported to the West.
In the mid-60’s, the Beatles became interested in Indian culture after using drugs to expand their consciousness. They generated wide interest in Transcendental Meditation. This encouraged the study of Eastern spirituality in Western popular culture.
Eastern philosophies, rooted in Hinduism and Buddhism, are prevalent; Karma and reincarnation are commonly accepted beliefs.
Eastern practices such as martial arts, yoga and transcendental meditation (TM), absolutely rooted in these religions, are widely experienced in western society. Healing therapies, steeped in many religions of Eastern and pagan origins, are used extensively.
The centre of the New Age belief, and its greatest deception, is that God is not a person but a force; every one of us is a god. It is the very same lie with which the serpent deceived Eve in the Garden of Eden. All of the above beliefs are tools for Satan to gain entrance into the lives of people.
Peace…Light…Love
New Age belief claims that we have unlimited potential to transform ourselves and the planet, so that a new age of peace, light and love will break forth.
It consistently teaches that a personal God does not exist, that Jesus is not the “only begotten” Son of God and that the Bible is simply just another good book.
New Age clearly has an antichrist identity formed on the belief that every man is a god and each one can develop a higher consciousness, progressing through stages of enlightenment.
The Age of Aquarius
It is believed that the former age of Christian thinking is restrictive and crippling, (Astrologers called it the Age of Pisces – the fish), and that we are moving into a new age, the Age of Aquarius, with which comes a new spirit. We can be sure that there will be many ‘spirits’, demon spirits, only too delighted to adopt any identity man creates, or desires to exalt, in place of the Spirit of God.
New Age embraces and employs all forms of religion except Christian belief in the One and only true God, YHVH, and His Son, Yeshua(Jesus) the Messiah.
Paganism, Druidism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Shamanism, Witchcraft, and many more practices and beliefs, are identifiable in the New Age.
Some New Age practices so closely imitate the Kingdom of God in essence that they cause confusion and deception.
The Eastern belief known as Inner Christ Consciousness, especially, is one such deception (to be discussed at a later date); so close to Christian teaching, and yet so far from Jesus Christ.
“Having a form of godliness, but denying its power (Jesus) and from such people turn away.” (2 Timothy 5:5)
“For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light…to deceive.” (2 Corinthians 11:14)
All Things Are Possible!
For example, New Agers would say ‘that which you can conceive and believe in, you can achieve’.
Jesus said:
“All things are possible to him who believes”. (Mark 9:23)
The difference is the focus of the belief – self or God. Yeshua(Jesus) makes the absolute difference!
We can identify the spirit behind any practice or organisation because only by the Spirit of God can one say
“Jesus Christ is Lord”. (1 Cor.12:3).
New Agers are strong on positive thinking. There is a power in positive thinking. People who think negatively carry a heavy weight.
The Bible tells us
“As a man thinks so he is” (Proverbs 23:7).
There is an inner strength which comes from positive thinking and changes a person’s perspective but, if the focus of the positive thinking is the SELF, the EGO, then it is an ungodly mechanism which will never achieve the purposes of God in us – CHRISTLIKENESS.
Yeshua(Jesus) was confident in His identity in the Father and had no self-agendas. In fact,
“He made HimSELF of no reputation….” (Philippians 2:7).
He didn’t feel He had to prove anything to anybody. His agenda was obedience to the Father, love and compassion for others, and total SELF-SACRIFICE, (New Age thinking makes a man his own saviour).
So, when the positive thinking is based on the nature of God, our identity in Him and the focus on the Word He has given us, then Paul’s exhortation,
“Whatever things are true …noble… just…pure……etc..think on these things” (Phil. 4:8)
reveals to us what pure positive thinking should be.
New Agers are simply looking for self-improvement. They are searching for their spiritual source. They really are looking for love and peace – the problem is that they are looking in a direction that will deceive and delude them.
Since God is not in it, the Enemy of God certainly will be. He will not hesitate to enter the ‘doors’ left open for him, which is exactly what happens when the mind is emptied (as in meditation techniques) and a spiritual experience outside God is sought after. God tells us to meditate on His Word – to ‘fill’ our minds and hearts with it.
Who Am I?
Those who have not found Christ will desperately need something in this high-powered, stress-packed age to give them a sense of well-being and purpose. 
New Age offers mental clarity, self-realisation, physical vitality and positive well-being. This enticement is an
“angel of light” (2 Cor. 11:14)
that draws a person into pleasant, euphoric experiences, which lead them into deeper realms of spiritual influence (not God) which confuse, bring fear, and allow demonic control further on in their ‘journey’ to ‘enlightenment’.
The language of New Age is ‘fudged’ in its terminology. New Agers don’t talk about mediums and séances but they do speak of ‘channelling’ unseen forces. It’s the same thing! They speak of opening oneself to a ‘spirit guide’ who will help one to focus on the god within.
Remembering that Satan’s kingdom functions constructed on deceptions of all kinds, since he is the
‘Father of Lies’ (John 8:44),
people who are not led by the Spirit of God are easy targets for other spirits to lead them.
The insipid shadow of former glory that the Church has become, added to the rebellious spirit of this age, result in people disdaining and rejecting even the mention of God.
G. K. Chesterton, a much-respected English writer of the early 20th century, once said
“When a man ceases to believe in God, he doesn’t believe in nothing, he believes in anything”.
However, what man believes does not change either who God is or what is His nature and power.
What if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Certainly not! Indeed,
“let God be true and every man a liar” (Rom. 3:3, 4).
In these days He is calling His Church to rise into our gifting and authority, to expose works of darkness and bring a release of truth into dull areas of deceptions, breaking bondages and setting people free.
Finally…
New Age is paving a way for a ‘christ’ to come back who is not Jesus Christ. The one they expect is an inter-faith christ, Lord Maitreya, an antichrist figure. Many ‘christs’ will come in the last days, performing miraculous signs;
“to deceive, if possible, God’s own people“.(Matthew 24:24)
New Age believers are deceived by the ‘angel of light’ and Christians, generally, are unsure what this is all about. Without awareness, knowledge and clarity on these things, we, too, are deceived into disinterest and complacency.
The people Israel were many times in this position of carelessness, disinterest, and a pursuit of other ways which suited their self-objectives. YHVH had a “controversy” with them for “rejecting knowledge” (i.e. knowledge of His ways)…
”My people are destroyed through lack of knowledge.“(Hosea 4:6)
This was the verse impressed on me at the very beginning of my search into New Age philosophies and practice. So, I want to encourage you…
”Let us not be ignorant of Satan’s devices” (2 Corinthians 2:11).
May we all become very alert and aware of Satan’s devices, increase our knowledge of YHVH and His ways, and be ready to give account of all of this to those who need, and want, to know.