LOTS OF BIBLICAL QUOTATIONS EVEN FROM DEMONIC DEVICES
The New Age movement currently seems to be hidden in plain sight but is being revealed as the subjective feelings- and experientially-oriented movement in the name of new revelation/new spirituality/new worldview/New World Religion.
From Miletus, Paul sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church. When they arrived, he said to them: ‘You know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I came into the province of Asia. I served the Lord with great humility and with tears and in the midst of severe testing by the plots of my Jewish opponents. You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house. I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus. ...
However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me – the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace. … For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears. ‘Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. … In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”’ ACTS 20:17-21,:24-35.
The passage above is Apostle Paul’s farewell address to the Ephesian church elders and one of the most poignant messages from him. Paul, serving the Lord with great humility under conditions of great danger, preached the gospel of the grace of God house to house in Ephesus without hesitation. His prophetic warning of grievous wolves, that is, false teachers, invading the church to lead her astray came true not so long after. Later, in his writing to Timothy, Paul warned of their rise from within the church and named at least five false teachers from Ephesus whose erroneous teachings had already begun to spread around in the neighbouring city of Colossae.
Paul instructed Timothy of the importance of being nourished in the words of faith and in good doctrine that he had diligently followed:
The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron… Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers. (1Ti.4:1-16)
Whatever teachings that tamper with God’s providence and commandment should be avoided in order to remain as His faithful believers to the end. Interestingly, Christ’s revelation to the Ephesus church in Rev. 2:2-6 shows that they heeded Paul’s admonition regarding the false teachers, as the Lord mercifully commended them for their labours.
However, throughout church history, heretical teaching has continued to rear its head and stirr up the church. I have recently come across an interesting talk about the reappearance of the New Age in disguise: “That Good, Old-Time, New Age Religion”, which is helpful in providing understanding of the current trend of false teachings. Warren Smith, a former New Ager who has used his experience to equip the body of Christ to discern New Age teachings and practices, has revealed several warnings. The outline of his talk is as follows.
He warns that the following books or statements are influenced by New Age thinking, despite the impact they’ve had amongst Christian circles: ‘Jesus Calling’ by Sarah Young was inspired by a New Age book ‘God Callng’, which was primarily designed to get people engaging in contemplative prayer and hearing voices that are not from God. He also warns that Rick Warren’s interpretation of Proverbs 3:6: ‘in all your ways submit to him (the LORD), and he will make your paths straight’ as ‘Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go. He's the one who will keep you on track’ is wrong.
Regarding the hearing of God’s voice as premium and the encounter with Him as the standard of faith is both false. The similar emphasis on hearing from Christ is claimed by Beth Moore and others. David Jeremiah who once wrote a book of warning about the New Age, saying ‘The New Age is the most dangerous thing to come into the church’ in 1995 and 2002, has recently written a book; ‘Is This Really the End?’. Endorsing and supporting Sarah Young, he has now turned to endorse the New Age. He has yielded to apostasy, and has succumbed to a delusion.
Any bible-believing Christian ‘recognizes that it's all moving in a certain direction. It's setting the world up, conditioning the world for the religion of the Antichrist. This is where it's headed’. In their conversation Tom A. McMahon underscores Smith’s talk as an undermining move from the objective Word (the written Word of God) into the realm of subjectivity, (the contemplative movement in which feelings rule).
Paul warned in 2 The.2:10-12 that God will send strong delusion to those who refuse to love the truth. Likewise, the same apostasy can happen to any believer if he/she does not remain in the teachings consistent with the Word. False teachers quote lots of scriptures though, but out of context and by wrong devices. To make matters worse, such unbiblical concept, untruths and lies that are claimed to be inspired by Christ, have increased not only in the church but in the world as a little leaven growing into a whole lump.
The New Age movement currently seems to be hidden in plain sight but is being revealed as the subjective feelings- and experientially-oriented movement in the name of new revelation/new spirituality/new worldview/New World Religion.
