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'enry VIII

The New Age & Devil Worship
By Thomas Horn
RNU News Sr. Reporter

Do those who practice paganism worship "devils?"

RNU.com – (Raiders News Update) - A few years ago during the Christmas
season my wife and I walked through a local mall. As we perused the
different shops, we came across a New Age bookstore conducting a
"Grand Opening". In a derisive tone I said to my wife, "Can you
believe some people's lack of intelligence?"

Casually, I strolled into the store, and without hesitation snatched a
book from the shelf and began offering a sarcastic commentary as I
read from the pages. I noticed my wife growing uncomfortable and so I
placed the book back on the shelf, and proceeded out of the store.

Suddenly, a dull sensation hit me. It began in my stomach and shot
upward through my head, impacting my equilibrium. As I stepped
outside, into the main mall walkway, my head started to spin, my hands
started shaking. I felt as if I was going to faint. It was literally
as if an invisible terror had "jumped" on me, and was somehow
injecting powerful feelings of nausea and anxiety throughout my entire
body. I tried shaking it off, but couldn't. I attempted to walk it
off and failed. At last, feigning interest in something, I moved away
from my wife and began to pray. I asked the Lord to forgive me for my
sarcastic attitude, my lack of caution, and for my want of concern for
the lost. I prayed for deliverance from evil and for healing of the
body and mind. After several hours of such walking and praying, I was
finally restored.

I discovered a valuable lesson that day: while a Christian may not be
demon-possessed, it's equally true that the "princes" of this world
are powerful, and we should enter their arena only after prayer, and
at the prompting of the Lord.

I also learned the mystical forces of the New Age movement are genuine
(and willing to protect their territory!), and that much of what is
currently published under the guise of New Age "enlightenment", is
nothing less than Old Age doctrines of nefarious invisible hosts.

As in antiquity, so in modern times, those who practice paganism are
guilty of worshipping "devils" (Rev. 9:20). The dogmas which were
once embraced (and still are through the New Age Movement) as the
wisdom of the gods, are defined in the scriptures as the "doctrines of
devils". The Apostle Paul declared: "the things which the Gentiles
sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils" (1 Cor. 10:20). In Acts 7:41-42
(Jerusalem Bible), we find that those who worship idols are joined to
the "army of heaven" [stratos, the "fallen angel army"], and Psalm
96:5 concludes that "all the gods of the nations are idols" (elilim,
LXX daimonia [demons]). Thus, pagan images, such as represented the
ancient gods and goddesses, were elilim (empty, nothing, vanity), but
behind the empty idols were the living dynamics of idolatry, and
spiritual objects of heathen adoration, the daimonia (demons) of the
Bible.

Since the Bible clearly defines idolatry as the worship of demons, and
since demons are eternal personalities which desire the worship of
men, it is fair to conclude the characterization of such deities as
"Zeus," "Amun-Ra," "Demeter," and "Isis," were simply the classical
names attributed to specific fallen spirits. In other words, Apollo
was a real personality; Osiris was a genuine underworld fiend; Hecate
actually lived, and still does!

One also concludes that the images of the gods (falcon headed statues,
animal forms, etc) served the purposes of such spirits by providing a
point of focus, and by revealing the "nature" of the particular spirit
existing within the god. The iconographies, myths and rituals of each
deity exhibited the specific characteristics (nature, gender,
underworld authority, etc) of that particular entity. Thus, the myths
and images of Zeus, according to such theory, were the physical
manifestations of a literal demon of air, while statues of the goddess
Demeter represented an earth spirit.

Today, it is my assertion and the claim of my book THE GODS WHO WALK
AMONG US, that the same spirits of antiquity, including Zeus, Athene,
Dionysus, and others, continue to express themselves within modern
paganism. My coauthor, Dr. Jones agrees, asserting that the connection
between the New Age Movement and the gods of mythology is strong.

"Nothing has changed in Satan's game plan," says Jones, "just the
names of the players, and, in some instances, even the names are the
same."

Paganism in America is exploding as we enter the new millennium.
Throughout Hollywood, government, cyberspace, and even the church, the
masses are embracing the religious philosophies of the New Age of
Aquarius.

As a modernistic process by which the old gods are worshipped, the New
Age Movement emerged in the United States during the 1960s, and has
experienced a steady growth ever since. The broad appeal of the New
Age Movement as a Western phenomenon can be explained to some degree
as the result of a changing culture. Americans have gradually
abandoned the fundamental precepts of Christianity (prayer in school,
Bible in courts, etc) which provided the cornerstone of civil life and
jurisprudence in American society for more than 200 years. As a
generation of baby-boomers has focused on human potential and the "god
within us all", Eastern philosophies of Monism, Pantheism, Hinduism,
and Self Realization are providing Americans and even some Christians
with an alluring opportunity to throw off the "outdated ideas" of
fundamental Christianity and to espouse a more "enlightened" worldview
of God and reality.

Some notable celebrities have joined the political ambitions of the
New Age Movement (goals include a United Nation's sponsored
Environmental Sabbath for the Goddess Earth), including Shirly
MacLaine, Dick Gregory, Lindsay Wagner, Dennis Weaver, Dirk Benedict,
Cloris Leachman, Richard Gere, Ally Sheedy, and the late John Denver.
Many mainstream "Christian" denominations have also annexed the New
Age ideas, and believers who once held strong doctrinal positions of
the supremacy of Christ, have abandoned those views in exchange for a
New Age universal philosophy. Examples include a witch who teaches
principles of Goddess worship at a Roman Catholic college in
California, and United Methodist pastors who propose replacing the
name of Jesus with Sophia (Goddess of Wisdom) when reading about the
crucifixion. Such persons claim we should join the efforts of New
Agers and be sympathetic to "Goddess-minded Christians."

Former New Age devotee, Judy Vorfeld re-discovered the real Jesus
after embracing such ideas. She became involved in freelance writing
as a result of experiencing the dangers involved in participating in
the New Age Movement. For many years she actively avoided anything to
do with the Christianity of her childhood. When she was in her early
forties, a neighborhood minister said he was starting a new church,
and she thought the time might be right to look at Christianity again.
Judy writes:

‘For a time I was involved in a fellowship that worshipped a different
deity than the God of the Bible....I joined a church that evolved from
ecumenism to religious syncretism....Six months after I became part of
the fellowship, fundamental Christianity was retired in favor of a
universal religious system, one designed to be inoffensive to people
of any theological persuasion. The fellowship then put together a
creed that would be acceptable for any visitors coming to worship with
us. Jews, Hindus, Muslims, and Buddhists were welcome, as were
Theosophists, Rosicrucians, and Hare Krishnas....Our minister brought
a popular seminar, advertised as a self-improvement course, into our
church. Most of us were impressed with the professional manner of the
leaders and their sophisticated system of teaching
self-realization....The organization's format, we were told, held the
answers to all our problems....Church leadership eagerly blended the
organization's ideas into an agenda that became a part of our church
curriculum. Eastern meditation, physic healing, and guided imagery
were all practiced.'

Judy Vorfeld is a friend of mine and has provided me with guidance on
the New Age Movement. In a recent correspondence she described modern
Druids, and spoke of their methods of magic healing through
"visualization." She confessed: "Tom.... When we were involved in
Silva Mind Control [through her local church!], we did the same thing
[visualized healing]. At that time, I thought God was behind all this
stuff. I "saw" people in my mind's eye who had various diseases, and
I sent energy to heal them. In groups like this, the leader often has
a list of people who are sick. This gives them a way to follow
through and see who was healed. I have no doubt some people were
healed, but since we were invoking a power other than that of the real
God, what were we doing?"

What indeed.

An amazing component of the New Age Movement (as verified by such
examples as my friend, Judy) is its capacity to adapt to a variety of
religious, even Christian ideas. Consequently, many of the popular
"Christian" doctrines advocated today are nothing more than the cultic
propositions of Eastern mysticism and ancient paganism. These include
concepts of psychic healing, self-realization, emotional experiences,
rules of success, breathing techniques, positive confession, name it
and claim it, environmental theology, the ecumenical movement,
visualization, hypnosis by clergy, mind manipulation, and so on.

At times, and I say this with caution, even the activity within the
"fundamental" church, including certain physical phenomena we
sometimes embrace as the miraculous evidence of "revival," is a modern
form of magic and opens the door for "old gods" and their mysticism to
invade the church. The line between a true manifestation of God, and
human orchestration, is often blurred. Sincere people, in a quest to
experience God, frequently mimic the doctrinal and physical activity
of others. Some physical phenomena (crawling on the church floor and
making animal sounds, etc) is extra-biblical in nature (not everything
that is extra-biblical is un-biblical, however) and therefore
undefined by New Testament teachings.

As a result, some Christians have been drawn after mystical
experiences rather than concentrating on God and His Word. Even
sermons preached by well-meaning ministers have tempted Christians to
pursue "supernatural" encounters with "God", rather than instructing
them to live by faith. The danger of such undisciplined sincerity is
that human nature rarely limits its opportunity for experience. If
the Bible has no clear guidlines of conduct and order, and the
activity is being promoted by church authorities as a way of
experiencing God, then the person seeking the "experience" may have
trouble defining what is, and what isn't acceptable, and thus go too
far. For emotional people the "experience" may be expressed by a
physical reaction, while academics tend to interpret mystical
"experiences" with God as divine revelations or imparted knowledge.
The dangerous consequences of such conduct often leads to religious
behavior more reminiscent of Dionysus or Apollo worship than of New
Testament Christianity. As a result, people like Judy Vorfeld start
out in a Christian church and wind up in the New Age movement.

The dangers of mysticism, such as those inherent with emphasizing
experiences over doctrine, were soundly illustrated in a recent report
by Samantha Smith. She writes:

‘I became strongly concerned about this movement after observing a
"service" at a south Denver Vineyard church....[a woman] stood in the
middle of a group of people who ran their hands over her body (within
an inch or so of the clothing), then kept swooshing some invisible
thing toward her heart area. Saddened, I walked toward the door,
where a church member said, "You should come back on Sunday night.
That's when they levitate."...[another group] in Seattle...sit in
circles, clucking, flapping their tucked arms and visualizing
themselves hatching the "Man Child Company," a heretical Manifested
Sons of God concept. In Kansas City, a pastor watched in horror as
men and women lay on the floor with their knees up and legs spread
apart, trying to birth the same thing....I tape-recorded a group of
Episcopalians howling at the moon, like wolves—giving a "Howl-le-lu-ia
Chorus" for Earth Day. It gets worse. There are reports of "holy
vomiting" (seance ectoplasm?) and of Christians becoming demonized by
being "slain in the spirit." How can this be?'

I echo Samantha Smith's concerns.


PANDEMONIUM!—THE PAGAN GOSPEL OF THE NEW AGE GOD-KING

The gospel according to the New Age Movement is an expansive idea
centered around the birth of a new world "consciousness." As a
religion of monism (all is one), New Agers hope to accomplish what the
builders of the Tower of Babel failed to do—unify the masses of the
world under a single religious umbrella, and, at the macro level,
harmonically converge the world's energies with the power of Gaia. To
promote such goals, New Agers claim that God is pantheistic (God is
all and all is God) and that humans are divine members of the whole
"that God is." According to New Ageism, Jesus came to reveal this
pantheistic nature of God and to teach humanity the gospel of
Self-Realization. After illustrating the divine principle of "God
within us all," Jesus ascended to a place of distinction to live among
the Masters of the Spiritual Hierarchy—Buddha and Krishna. Jesus
promised that the essence of God would be revealed from time to time,
and thus New Agers look for the imminent appearing of a World Teacher
who will, as Jesus did, illustrate the divine human potential. In
this way, New Age theology prepares the world for the coming of the
False Prophet and the Antichrist.

Pagans claim such a religion of Self-realization—a belief that will be
championed by the Antichrist—is older than Christianity.

That's true.

The gospel according to the New Age Movement—a gospel of "becoming
god"— is as old as the fall of man. It began when the serpent said to
the woman "ye shall be as gods" (Gen. 3:5), and it will zenith during
the reign of the Tribulation god-king. The New Age movement provides
the perfect creed for implementing such an end-time religion. It
unifies the religions of the world. It consecrates the forces of
nature. It provides for human divinity, and it is vogue, post modern,
and politically correct.

Tal Brooke—former New Age disciple of Hindu holy man, Sai Baba,
confirms that "the New Age movement, and its progeny, Gaia, are
spiritually correct for a new world order. Christianity is not."

Thus, history repeats itself, and the ancient Egyptian gospel of men
becoming "gods" is fashionable again!

Consequently, New Age celebrities such as Shirley MacLaine represent
themselves as "I AM that I AM" at human potential symposiums around
the world, and the Vice President of the United States, Al Gore,
describes God in terms of "a constant and holy spiritual presence in
all people, all life, and all things" [emphasis added]. Ex
president's wife, Hillary Clinton, channels the spirits of the dead,
and members of the House of Representatives warn Congress of
"increasing evidence of a government-sponsored religion in
America...[a] cloudy mixture of New Age mysticism, Native American
folklore and primitive earth worship."

For many years Christians wondered how the Antichrist would deceive
the earth's masses. How does one convince millions of people,
especially in countries where Christianity exists, to exchange their
souls for temporary earthly benefits? Then the New Age Movement came
along with its focus on human-potential and self-empowerment and
successfully drew many Christians away from Christ-exalting doctrines.
Old-fashioned gospel preaching was replaced with positive thinking,
self-realization, and pop psychology, and mystical experiences which
tantalize the flesh were sanctioned as "the last great revival." As a
result, celebrity preachers advance sermons focusing on "the inner
self," and Sunday morning services begin with shouts of "Are you ready
for God to do great things!?" The implication that God will meet with
believers and grant their many requests is touted as dynamic
Christianity. The days of unconditional Christian devotion are
threatened as contemporary congregations expect God to "manifest"
Himself and please the whims of the audience. Although Jesus warned
of an "evil and adulterous generation [that] seeketh after a sign,"
physical and mystical "thrills" have become the benchmark of many
popular Christian gathering places. The result is a growing
superficiality among some Christians who are preoccupied with
mysticism and "me-ism."

As a businessman and ministry leader I've tasted the bitter results of
the "new age" segment of Christianity. Too often these believers
fall, flop, quiver, shake, and gyrate on Sunday, but can't get out of
bed and go to work Monday morning. Among such employees, I've found
insignificant character differences between religious groups, and
"Christians" have been just as likely as non-believers to lie, cheat,
and steal at my place of business. Perhaps I've been unlucky, or
maybe, as I believe the case to be, twenty years of popular New Age
metaphysical focusing on "self" has so impacted this generation that
many "Christians" are willing to dilute their character to acquire
what pleases them.

Either way, an inward-focusing generation of "religious people"
willing to trade their soul for whatever makes them happy is exactly
what is necessary for the appearance of Antichrist. "You can stamp my
hand if you'l give me what I want" is the required attitude. While
many Christians and New Age devotees are sincere, giving people, the
lasting result of the New Age Movement is nevertheless demonic,
self-absorbed, and paves the way for the coming of paganism's
preeminent materialization—the god-king of the Great Tribulation.'



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Read God's Word in the Bible or you will be deceived!

Romans 1:18-32 (NRSV)


The Guilt of Humankind

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all
ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress
the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them,
because God has shown it to them. 20 Ever since the creation of the
world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are,
have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they
are without excuse; 21 for though they knew God, they did not honor
him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their
thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened. 22 Claiming to be
wise, they became fools; 23 and they exchanged the glory of the
immortal God for images resembling a mortal human being or birds or
four-footed animals or reptiles.

24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to
impurity, to the degrading of their bodies among themselves, 25
because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and
served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever!
Amen.

26 For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women
exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, 27 and in the same way
also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed
with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men
and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error.

28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up
to a debased mind and to things that should not be done. 29 They were
filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full
of envy, murder, strife, deceit, craftiness, they are gossips, 30
slanderers, God-haters, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of
evil, rebellious toward parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless,
ruthless. 32 They know God's decree, that those who practice such
things deserve to die—yet they not only do them but even applaud
others who practice them.