Dear Lighthouse Trails:
You have a fabulous ministry. In one way I have been shocked to learn about the influence New Age is having on the church – but in another way, I am not. Christians have different ideas about lots of things, that is understandable and inevitable. But my argument to people is that ultimately whatever we believe must be based on Scripture. Because as soon as a Christian chooses to believe that the Bible is not the word of God but is a literary genre that “contains” the word of God they are on the slippery slope. First comes the “insight” that Genesis is myth and Revelation is history of the first century church, then comes the need to reinterpret other parts of the Bible – and the further we start to drift away from the foundation of truth. And once we start down that path there is nothing holding us back, because we no longer see Scripture as our authority, but look to man’s interpretations.
Regarding the false gospel, I knew it existed, but I always thought it was undefinable. But through my exploration into theistic evolution, … then into New Age, I now realise that there are very distinct hallmarks of the false gospel and it has a distinct shape that can be identified. In very simple terms, I tell people, there are three things that will keep you grounded in the truth: 1) Submit to the authority of the Bible and believe Genesis as our history and Revelation as prophecy 2) Remember the Cross is the heart of our faith, not the incarnation – the belief that through the incarnation all humanity are already saved they just don’t know it yet (which is what our church is now teaching) 3) Always remain in a repentant spirit with a heart that submits to God; don’t fall for the belief that repentance is “changing the way we think about Jesus.” (Our church has changed the meaning of sin and repentance.) I think if we stick to these absolute basics, it would be difficult to be lead astray. This means that even those with the least amount of education can be protected.
For me, these three points seem so simple, yet these are exactly what the Emergent Church is moving away from or have already replaced.
Z. in Australia
