New Creation? Or New Age?

The popular message prevalent in our day is that everyone has god within, and we must learn to “connect” with this god.

The idea of the human race being spirit-indwelt and spirit-operated is not exclusively a biblical idea. It is a belief that is widespread in today’s world. The difference in the world view of that idea and the biblical view is that the world says that everyone contains god at their center and all one has to do to be complete is to recognize that fact.

The Bible says something very different. Yes, the Bible says we all have a spirit part within that is to be our master and operator, but – and it is a huge “but” (a “but” that divides the entire human race, those both living and dead, into two entirely different kingdoms) – there are two different possible indwelling spirit natures and everyone is operated by one or the other of the two. The unconverted are operated by the spirit nature of error, or Satan’s nature (1 John 4:6), and they are members of Satan’s kingdom, the kingdom of darkness. The converted (born-again) have a spirit nature indwelt by the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ, and they are members of His kingdom, the kingdom of light.

It is important that we make it very clear that the message stated “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27) is not true for the unconverted who have not accepted Him. We are all spirit people and every person is operated by an indwelling spirit nature.

But to tell people they are spirit operated and not make a clear distinction between the two spirit natures is very dangerous. To unconverted people, this statement puts them in danger of thinking that the god within them is the one true God. This lie gives them a false sense of security and thus they remain in their lost state of sin. The vital knowledge is that our operating nature changes when we accept Christ as our Savior and we become born-again – the spirit nature of error (from Satan) exits at our new birth and Christ enters, filling us with His spirit life.

I had an experience listening to my car radio that illustrates what I am saying here. The interviewer got into a conversation with someone which caught my attention. The gentleman he talked to spoke of being God-indwelt, and I echoed my agreement. The conversation continued along spirit lines in near perfect agreement with what I believed about myself. The gentleman said that by following the guidance of his God-led spirit within, he would live the kind of life that had a purpose. Right on, I thought! That’s what people need to hear!

Then the interviewer asked him the great dividing question: “Do you believe in Jesus Christ as Lord?” His answer threw me for a loop. “No,” he said. “Jesus Christ was never meant to be my lord!”

Whoa! I thought. They were on a track I didn’t know they were on. This man was a full-fledged “New Ager”. Much New Age thought sounds very similar to what I believe about the workings of salvation. But what puts us in two entirely different camps is that the New Agers don’t believe in Jesus Christ, the Cross, and the atonement. They believe that Christ, if He existed at all, was merely a good teacher.

As I listened further, I saw that we were not dealing with an idiot. He was an ex-professional who had done well in the world, had been reared a Roman Catholic but as an adult had embraced some rather strange beliefs. Before the conversation about Jesus Christ ended, he said he believed that Jesus Christ came from another planet. He went on to say that on the planet Jesus came from, they had learned how to live in harmony and love, and Jesus came to this planet to teach us to live that same way. This teaching that Christ brought from His planet was so strange and extreme that He was crucified for what He taught.

I wanted to reach across the airwaves and say, “Well, some things about Jesus that are different from any other “teacher” are, number one, He raised people from the dead, and number two, He Himself was resurrected.” Almost on cue with my thoughts, he said that Jesus raising Lazarus was a mistake because in doing so He almost drained the mother ship of all its energy. And even though he agreed that Jesus died, he said that Jesus revived Himself and was living on a mountain somewhere in the Himalayas. He continued that he had talked to people who lived on this mountain in the Himalayas, too, who had talked to Jesus Christ.

What a shocking conversation. The idea that an intelligent, educated person in the twenty-first century could take the Savior and His atonement and turn Him into a space-age, New Age alien character made me angry and sad at the same time.

The message the world must come to understand is NOT that we all have “God” inside us and by connecting with this spirit nature within us, we will automatically become “good people”. The most convincing way to lead people astray is by a half-truth! The truth of the Bible is that humans are composed of spirit, soul and body (1 Thes. 5;23). I like to say that I AM a spirit, I HAVE a soul, and I LIVE in a body. We are constructed by God to be directed by our spirit. Our soul is our mind’s intellect, emotions and will. The soul is the decision maker for the actions of the body after the soul received whatever input it desires.

What the New Agers fail to recognize is that this “god spirit” they are attempting to communicate with is the spirit nature of Satan with which every person is humanly born. It is the spirit of self-centeredness which leads to sin. “You are of your father the devil and the lusts of your father you do” (John 8:44).

The purpose of life on this earth is to discover this sinfulness, to recognize that we can’t work out a relationship with the true God on our own, that we need a Savior. And then we discover that one has been provided for us in the Person of Jesus Christ. As we believe on Him, the sin spirit nature that we entered this earth with goes out by His death. The Spirit nature of God joins to our human spirit and Christ comes to live within us by a awesome, wonderful miracle of exchange of natures – Satan nature out, God nature in!

The New Ager’s half-truth of contacting and following the direction of our spirit inside only applies when that spirit nature is TRUE GOD-NATURE. Without understanding the truth of Jesus Christ and the importance, in fact the necessity, of belief in His life, death and resurrection, any direction inward by a New Ager is just a form of self-centeredness, self-importance, and self-delusion.

The choice will become clear:
Is it to be New Age spirit direction within?
Or is it truly a New Creation rebirth in union with Jesus Christ?

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