Starting January 1st 2008, New Age advocate Marianne Williamson began a year long course on Oprah & Friends radio, teaching the New Age “bible” A Course in Miracles. Former New Age follower Warren Smith explains the origins of A Course in Miracles:
In 1965 Columbia University Professor of Medical Psychology, Helen Schucman, heard an “inner voice” saying, “This is a course in miracles. Please take notes.” Schucman’s initial resistance was overcome when the “inner voice,” identifying itself as “Jesus,” told her the purpose of the Course [i.e., A Course in Miracles, ed.]: The world situation is worsening to an alarming degree. People all over the world are being called on to help, and are making their individual contributions as part of an overall prearranged plan. Part of the plan is taking down A Course in Miracles, and I am fulfilling my part in the agreement, as you will fulfill yours. You will be using abilities you developed long ago, and which you are not really ready to use again. Because of the acute emergency, however, the usual slow, evolutionary process is being by-passed in what might best be described as a “celestial speed-up.” (Reinventing Jesus Christ, p. 8)
For over seven years, Schucman took this dictation from her unseen spirit guide, which resulted in A Course of Miracles. Years later in 1992, when Marianne Williamson wrote about the Course in her own book, A Return to Love, Oprah became an evangelist for Williamson’s work, turning the Course and Williamson into nearly an overnight success. Now, in 2008, Williamson will present the Course to millions of women every day of the year via Oprah’s radio program (also online). And while most of these unsuspecting women will be thinking they are getting encouraging, uplifting spiritual teachings from “Jesus,” in reality they will be given hearty doses of blatant New Ageism (i.e., occultism).
The message in the Course, says Smith, is love:
[L]ove is all there is. And because God is love, God is therefore in everyone and everything. Because God is sinless, perfect, and “at one” with all creation, then we, as a part of God, are also sinless and perfect in our “oneness” with Him. Man’s only “sin” is in not remembering his own perfect, sinless, divine nature. The only “devil” is our illusion that we are separate from, and not a part of, God. (RJC, p. 9)
Before Christian women are too quick to embrace Williamson’s talk of God and love, it would be a good idea to grasp an understanding of this Course in Miracle “God.” Listen to a few quotes from A Course in Miracles describing God and Jesus:
There is no separation between God and His creation.(Text, p. 147)
God is All in all in a very literal sense. All being is in Him Who is all Being. You are therefore in Him since your being is His. (Text, p. 119)
Is he [Jesus] the Christ? O yes, along with you. His little life on earth was not enough to teach the mighty lesson that he learned for all of you. (Manual, p. 87)
The Name of Jesus Christ as such is but a symbol…. It is a symbol that is safely used as a replacement for the many names of all the gods to which you pray. (Manual, p. 58)
Christ is God’s Son as He created Him. He is the Self we share, uniting us with one another, and with God as well. (Workbook, p. 431)
For Christ takes many forms with different names until their oneness can be recognized.(Manual, p. 88) (quotes courtesy Reinventing Jesus Christ)
The following with show that Marianne Williamson’s summation of God and Christ is not any different:
Even if he takes another name, even if he takes another face, He is in essence the truth of who we are. Our joined lives form the mystical body of Christ. (A Return to Love, p. 296)
Jesus and other enlightened masters are our evolutionary elder brothers. (p. 42)
The concept of a divine, or “Christ” mind, is the idea that, at our core, we are not just identical, but actually the same being. “There is only one begotten Son” doesn’t mean that someone else was it, and we’re not. It means we’re all it. There’s only one of us here. (p.30-31)
You and I have the Christmind in us as much as Jesus does. (p. 42)
Mike Oppenheimer (Let Us Reason ministries) says that the primary reason for the Course is the “Correcting of the errors of Christianity…. To foster spiritual development through the study and practice of A Course In Miracles, ….to teach the Course’s reinterpretation of traditional Christian principles such as sin, suffering, forgiveness, Atonement, and the meaning of the Crucifixion…” 1
In essence, the Course has the same objective that we are seeing through the emerging church today … to redefine what Christianity is. While Oprah will introduce millions of women (many of them professing Christians) to a new kind of Jesus with a new definition of atonement, sin, and forgiveness, the emerging church leaders along with the contemplative promoting leaders are introducing millions of Christians to a new kind of Jesus with a new definition of atonement, sin, and forgiveness. But keep in mind, both are going in the same direction … and that is further and further away from the Jesus Christ of the Bible who says:
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door [Jesus Christ] into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. (John 10:1)
Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.(John 10:7-11)
I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6)
Some people may think that New Agers like Williamson are harmless kooks and will have no lasting effect on society. But as Ray Yungen points out, nothing could be further from the truth.
One former New Ager explains Williamson’s interest in the political field:
Over the past decade, Williamson has continued to champion A Course in Miracles in the media and in her public appearances around the country. A more recent book, Healing the Soul of America, has enabled Williamson and the Course to make a subtle transition into the political arena. Hoping to inspire a “new gospel” approach to national and world problems, Williamson, along with bestselling Conversations with God author Neale Donald Walsch, cofounded The Global Renaissance Alliance (RJC, Smith)
When we comprehend Williamson’s propensity towards the New Age and meditation (as a vehicle for world peace), it is astounding to know that Williamson is working closely with Walter Cronkite, a former CBS news anchor and public icon, once referred to as “the most trusted man in America.” Williamson and Cronkite, along with Congressman Dennis Kucinich, are trying to convince the US government to start a cabinet-level Department of Peace within the executive branch via House bill HR808. The fact that someone as mainstream as Walter Cronkite would align himself with the openly metaphysical Williamson bespeaks of the current spiritual climate of our society. Incidentally, the campaign to start the Department of Peace is gaining momentum and currently has the support of over 60 U.S. Representatives and Senators and has local grassroot chapters in over 200 congressional districts.
Williamson embodies, as few others do, the marriage between political/social idealism and the embracing of metaphysical perception [New Age]. As the tone of modern spirituality changes so will the various institutions that comprise society. The Western world is encountering the Aquarian dimension as a dynamic reality. (For Many Shall Come in My Name, 2nd ed., p. 57
For related information:
Meditation: The heartbeat of a new kind of politics
Oprah Show Today: “Silence is the Only True Religion” – What Do Christian Leaders Think?
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