Taking a Quantum Leap into the New Age

From Roger Oakland and Caryl Matrisciana’s book,
The Evolution Conspiracy.

There is a clear but complex marriage between physical evolution and transcendental evolution. Ironically, while forcing out creationism, many scientists and educators push for an equally religious alternative. They cling to the Eastern concept that the next stage of man’s evolution will arrive in spiritual terms. Many “prophesy” a development—a quantum leap from biological evolution into a sort of “mystical emergence.”

Fritjof Capra, an American physics professor and author of The Tao of Physics, is a prominent advocate of New Age thought who says:

The universe is no longer seen as a machine, made up of a multitude of objects, but has to be pictured as one indivisible, dynamic whole whose parts are essentially interrelated and can be understood only as patterns of a cosmic process.1

After so much indoctrination in and exposure to the unproven ideas of evolutionary thinking, growing numbers of people are now accepting the concept of this “cosmic process” as the most natural thing in the world. Natural, but deadly—for this blending of physical and spiritual evolution thickens into a hot spiritual porridge made up of a variety of assorted cereals. Mystical alchemy, charading as spiritual evolution, combines with speculation about physical evolution. This fuses with “Eastern maya,” the belief that the physical (the real, what we see) is merging with the not-yet-physical (maya) and that the mind is able to create reality (shamanism, witchcraft). This opens the door to every form of New Age deception.

The New Age movement is a hybrid of spiritually eclectic pagan consciousness that embraces every idolatry named in the Bible. Though it poses as a spiritually tolerant mindset, it is extremely intolerant of biblical Christianity.

The philosophies under its umbrella are numerous. A general summary would be any mental techniques involving altered states of consciousness through deep-breathing relaxation exercises, guided imagery, and visualization. It may also include the application of dietary or mystical folklore promising power.

Interwoven into its philosophy are a proliferation of Eastern religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism. It includes guru movements, psychotherapy cults, aberrational Christian movements, blatant satanism, witchcraft, the practice of nature worship—and the list goes on. Beliefs and practices that used to be considered overtly heathen, rooted in pantheistic evolution and confined to the streets of India or the Far East, are now common practice in tens of millions of homes across North America and Europe.

Finding the Higher Self

The road to one’s “higher self” can be long and bumpy, and those who travel it may partake of a good deal of New Age healing along the way. Many New Age/New Spirituality magazines advertise a myriad of these therapies and techniques. Such materials are often given away at health food stores throughout America and promote transcendental meditation, Yoga, Reiki (energy healing), astrology, visualization, and numerous other occultic practices.

Many modern health practitioners, including doctors and psychologists, have fallen under the spell of “holistic” medicine, a discipline in which the human body, mind, and spirit are recognized as a part of the cosmos at large. When one part of the body is ill, the healer will claim that the “spirit” must be treated by drawing on the manipulation of cosmic forces, powers, and energies. There are countless examples in the news of how New Age practices have entered the medical arena. One news article states:

Once a practice that appealed mostly to mystics and occult followers, meditation now is reaching the USA’s mainstream. . . . The medical establishment now recognizes the value of meditation and other mind-over-body states in dealing with stress-related illnesses.2

What’s more, Yoga, Eastern mediation, visualization, and other forms of hypnosis are designed to train the use of occult “energy” to escape from reality, pacify stress, and nullify ills. These notions are based on the unbiblical premise that mankind has the authority to alleviate all suffering through mind-altering techniques.

The Deceptive Promise of Godhood

The basic idea of man progressing from simple to complex, from mortality to godhood, is the underlying notion in New Age thinking. . . . The delusion that man is “literally taking control of his own evolution” is ludicrous in light of events reported daily. To imagine that we can draw from resources within ourselves as we “realize our godhood” is clear deception. The Bible says that “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9). Solutions of goodness cannot come from man’s imagining that his heart is evolving to a higher state of purity when it is only God who can put a clean heart inside of man:

Create in me a clean heart, 0 God; and renew a right spirit within me. (Psalm 51:10)

Humanism based on a foundation that rejects God is gaining spiritual momentum among millions today who believe that within man is the potential of “God power.” A new generation is turning back to paganism rooted in evolutionism, which promotes this religious theory.

John Randolph Price, originator of World Healing Day, in his book The Superbeings says:

A new species of man is coming forth to lead us out of darkness and into a new dimension scarcely dreamed of by ninety percent of this world. This will be the New Age of Enlightenment, and science and religion will join hands in spreading the truth that man is not the man we thought he was. I thank God that I live at this time and will be able to see the next great leap forward in man’s expanding consciousness.3

This “superconsciousness” is renamed “god consciousness within,” “the god-power,” or “the christ-within.” These are just some of the names given to man’s prideful claim that he is God and can do what only God is able to do. This spiritual mirage leads millions to what they think is soul-satisfying water. But as with any mirage, it is only an illusion.

If the “enlightened” human chooses to imagine he has the ability to control his immortality, Satan will impress upon him the means with which to do it. If the would-be reincarnationist wants to believe he has the ability to come back in another life, Satan will find a form of deception that will cause him to believe it. The same principle applies to the evolutionist who has been duped into believing he came from nothing and goes to nothing. Satan is like a chameleon and can change his color to suit the need of the moment. The apostle Peter understood this. His warning is clear:

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. (1 Peter 5:8)

Jesus also spoke of the reality of the devil and his deadly plot:

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. (John 10:10)

There are millions today who have chosen to reject our Creator’s grace through Jesus Christ. Countless others have not yet been presented with the choice. Tens of thousands are turning away from the traditional Judeo-Christian faith of their parents or grandparents and choosing this “new” spirituality instead. Disillusioned by materialism, churchism, secularism, and humanism, seekers of self-fulfillment are turning to this new evolutionary religiosity and embracing the lie that they can become gods, or at least have the power to control their lives and destiny. Assured of inward resources and psychic powers, they attempt to fill the spiritual vacuum they feel inside.

Every Man a God

The concept that man can evolve into higher states or godhood is fraudulent, scandalous, and a complete sham that should motivate Christians with a burning desire to fight the good fight.

The new enlightened age promise of spiritual control is the same lie perpetrated by Satan when he seduced Eve in the garden of Eden (Genesis.3:4,5). It was the same spirit of rebellion that resulted in Satan being cast out of the presence of God. Isaiah 14 recounts Satan’s story from God’s perspective. Lucifer, the “son of the morning,” with all his God-given beauty and authority, brought rebellion into the universe when in his heart he said “I will” and set his mind on ascribing God’s glory to himself.
Today this rebellion continues. Listen to some quotes by well-known religious leaders and writers who believe that man is God or that God is in all humanity.*

If you want to know the closest place to look for grace, it is within yourself. . . . To put it plainly, our unconscious is God. God within us. We were part of God all the time.4—M. Scott Peck (popular New Age writer)

One of the most important books I think I’ve read in my life was a book by Eric Butterworth. . . . Discover the Power Within You. And what Eric Butterworth said in that book is that Jesus didn’t come to teach us how divine he was, but came to teach that there is divinity within us.5—Oprah Winfrey

Quantum Spirituality bonds us to all creation as well as to other members of the human family. . . . This entails a radical doctrine of embodiment of God in the very substance of creation.6—Leonard Sweet (emergent church author)

[D]ivinity will no longer be only heavenly, other, out there, up there, beyond time and space, beyond body and death. It will also be right here, right now, in me, in the earth, in this river and this rock, in excrement and roses alike.7—Sue Monk Kidd (author of The Secret Life of Bees)

You have one Master, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who rules over all, works through all, and is present in all. Everything you are and think and do is permeated with Oneness.8—Eugene Peterson (author of The Message)

. . . underneath each of us is a “golden Buddha,” a “golden Christ” or “a golden essence,” which is our real self.9—Jack Canfield (author of Chicken Soup for the Soul books)

For the Son of God became man so that we might become God. (#460)10—from the Catechism of the Catholic Church

The God who dwells in our inner sanctuary is also the God who dwells in the inner sanctuary of every human being.11—Henri Nouwen (Catholic contemplative priest)

Because God is with you all the time, no place is any closer to God than the place where you are right now. The Bible says, “He rules everything and is everywhere and is in everything.”12—Rick Warren (said in The Purpose Driven Life)

“God” who is the ground of all being, dwells in, around, and through all things.13—William Paul Young (in The Shack)

I am above all as well as in all.14—Sarah Young (said by “Jesus” in Jesus Calling)

Word-Faith leader Kenneth Copeland says, “We are partakers of the divine nature . . . you don’t have a God in you, you are one!”15 and “Adam is as much like a god as you could get, just the same as Jesus . . . he’s God manifested in the flesh.”16 “I say this and repeat it so it doesn’t upset you too bad . . . when I read in the Bible where He [Jesus] says, ‘I Am,’ I say, ‘Yes! I am too!”17

These statements declaring that man is God or is becoming God and that God is in all His creation fit into the spiritual evolution agenda all too well. Satan’s deception, that man is God or can become God, is now being taken dangerously further. As man schemed to build a unified government with spiritual aspirations in Babel, so again today he is attempting to manipulate mass consciousness. It is the hope of many world leaders that global unity and man-made “peace” will ultimately overcome what the Bible says about the coming end of the world and that we will be able to create a world-wide Utopia. It will be the long-awaited “Age of Aquarius” when man will realize his own divinity and a world ruler will bring “peace” to the whole planet. Even religious leaders are telling us we should take the book of Revelation as a warning and not as a prophecy and bring God’s “kingdom now” to the earth. But the book of Revelation will someday be fulfilled to the last detail when Jesus returns to a planet on the brink of destruction.

Satan’s Final Strategy

There is a school of thought which states that when the collective consciousness of the “spiritually attuned masses” attains a certain level of awareness, there will be a quantum leap into global spiritual oneness.
When this critical mass happens, it will form a spiritual basis for the coming new-world order. Growing numbers await the day when their efforts of spiritual consciousness will make the quantum leap into peace possible. This outlook plays right into the hands of Satan, who has one final strategy left in his battle for men’s souls. . . .

In his last ploy, Satan will lure men away from allegiance to their Creator. He will satisfy men with a false peace and ultimately usher in a false world leader, whom the Bible calls the Antichrist. This man will deceive the masses as they perceive him to be the global leadership they have all awaited. With accelerating speed, we see mankind being conditioned to just such a scenario. Today’s media reports detail extensively the trends of global political unity, man’s hope of a new-world order, and discussions of a global financial economy.

What’s more, mainline Christian denominations and ministries are moving toward religious ecumenism that embraces both a spiritual evolution of consciousness and evolutionary views on man and the world’s existence.

Coupled with the changing views on evolution is the view by many that we need to remove the barriers that separate the world’s religions. In a 2014 NBC news article, it reported on the Roman Catholic head Pope Francis’ views on evolution:

Big Bang theory and evolution in nature “do not contradict” the idea of creation, Pope Francis has told an audience at the Vatican, saying God was not “a magician with a magic wand.” The Pope’s remarks on Monday to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences appeared to be a theological break from his predecessor Benedict XVI, a strong exponent of creationism.18

At the same time, the Pope has become a spokesperson for bringing all the religions together. In January 2016, the Pope issued a world-wide YouTube message, stating:

Many think differently, feel differently, seeking God or meeting God in different ways. In this crowd, in this range of religions, there is only one certainty that we have for all: we are all children of God.19

The Catholic News Agency reported:

[T]his month’s prayer requests focus on Francis’ desire for Interreligious Dialogue and Christian Unity. Francis offers his universal petition so that “sincere dialogue among men and women of different faiths may produce the fruits of peace and justice,” and expresses his evangelistic prayer that “by means of dialogue and fraternal charity and with the grace of the Holy Spirit, Christians may overcome divisions.”20

In 2014, Pope Francis demonstrated his views on “sincere dialogue” when he visited Turkey’s Islamic Blue Mosque “expressing reverence during a moment of prayer observed by the nation’s grand mufti, who led him on a tour of the Islamic facility.”21 An article on the event stated:

According to reports, Francis took off his shoes, folded his hands and bowed his head, standing silently next to Rahmi Yaran, who serves as the nation’s highest Islamic leader as grand mufti. The two faced Mecca as Yaran prayed with his palms raised. . . .

Francis held his first ecumenical meeting last March, greeting Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders, as well as those who ascribe to no faith at all. During the occasion, he praised the Muslim leaders that had come for the meeting, remarking that they were men who “adore the one, living, and merciful God and who call upon Him in prayer.” 22

Profoundly revolutionary are the new missionary goals of this blossoming ecumenical, evolutionary movement. It vehemently challenges age-old values, morals, and doctrines rooted in the Bible for which the apostles, prophets, and many others were willing to be martyred. Old ways of thinking, no matter how cherished and useful in the past, have no place within post-modern man’s massive religio-political trend.

Jeremy Rifkin, leading New Age spokesperson, summarized it well:

We no longer feel ourselves to be guests in someone else’s home and therefore obliged to make our behavior conform with a set of preexisting cosmic rules. It is our creation now. We make the rules. We establish the parameters of reality. We create the world, and because we do, we no longer feel beholden to outside forces. We no longer have to justify our behavior, for we are now the architects of the universe. We are responsible to nothing outside ourselves, for we are the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever.23

The Kingdom, Here and Now

The idea that man can build his own kingdom of heaven on earth distorts the Christian’s biblical hope of the true heaven and breeds horrendous apostasy in the church. This condition is prophesied in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, which says that before the Antichrist, or false messiah, can assert himself as world leader of Satan’s kingdom on earth, there will be a “falling away” from the faith by the church. Millions of proclaiming Christians have become corrupted by the world’s agenda and are even now playing into the hands of the enemy in his quest to dupe men into believing that world consolidation will bring about a satisfying peace.

Reconstructionism, a movement significantly affecting the evangelical church, claims that Christ’s return is dependent upon a global political takeover by Christians who must establish His kingdom on earth before He can return. Advocates of Kingdom Now and Dominion Theology join in this dangerous perpetration of such heresy. Certain charismatics in mainline denominations fall into the same apostasy, adopting Latter Rain and Manifest Sons of God theology which claim that a “raising” of Christian consciousness is necessary to restore God’s earthly kingdom.

How presumptuous to think that God needs the help of either Christians or nonbelievers to accomplish His destiny! The Christian’s citizenship is not here on Earth but in Heaven (Hebrews 11:8-10, 16). To conquer the world for God is not the ministry to which God called His church. To compromise the Great Commission is to do a corrupt disservice to the command of Christ.

Jesus said, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19,20).
The emerging church, a movement that began in the late 1990s and by some estimates claims over twenty million mostly young people,24 holds to the view that the kingdom of God is already here on Earth and that there will be no second return of Christ.

People who are deceived by these various movements will also be deceived when a world leader comes on the scene and proclaims himself to be the “Christ” that they were able to usher in due to their “important” political and social justice maneuvering.

Everywhere on Earth, Christians and other groups will praise him as a genius of global political peace. The Jews will gratefully acclaim him as the peacemaker, their long-awaited “Messiah.”

The evolutionists will see him as naturalistic emanation that formed from the cosmic universe, which at last scientifically proves that order can come out of chaos.

The Infinite Wisdom of God

As we analyze our society, it is easy to see we are being steeped in the concept that physical evolution is responsible for shaping the past and that spiritual evolution is able to create our future.

To accept the outrageous idea that godhood lies within man, not only as a personal evolutionary pilgrimage but on a grand scale, brings heavy warnings from God:

Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God . . . Behold, therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations: and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall defile thy brightness. (Ezekiel 28:2,7)

History has proven that man’s godhood can never happen. Anytime that man attempts to rule the universe, he must fall as we see in the humbling process that befell King Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4:30-35. To believe that man can bring in an age of lasting peace apart from God is to believe the lie that out of chaos comes order. But method cannot come out of madness.

Method and order are the faithful characteristics of a God of love and are transparently seen in His creation. Method and order belong to a God with eternal intentions, who gracefully shows that every jot and tittle in the Bible have an ultimate purpose in revealing Him as Truth and Love. Method and order are part of the infinite wisdom of a God filled with the purpose of bringing mankind into a loving relationship with Him, through His Son, Jesus, who died as a remission for the sins of the world “that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

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*This set of quotes can be found in Warren B. Smith’s booklet, Be Still and Know That You Are NOT God .

(photo from bigstockphoto.com; used with permission)

Endnotes:

1. Fritjof Capra, The Turning Point (Toronto, CA: Bantam, 1982), pp. 77-78.
2. USA Weekend Sunday Supplement, July 24-26, 1987, p. 12.
3. John Randolph Price, The Superbeings (New York, NY: Ballantine Books, 1981), p. 17.
4. M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth (New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1978), p. 281.
5. The Oprah Winfrey Show # W265, “The New Age Movement,” Air Date: September 18, 1987.
6. Leonard Sweet, Quantum Spirituality: A Postmodern Apologetic (Dayton, OH: Whaleprints for SpiritVenture Ministries, Inc., 1991, 1994), p. 125.
7. Sue Monk Kidd, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter: A Woman’s Journey from Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine (New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers Inc.,1992), p. 160.
8. Eugene Peterson, The Message: The New Testament in Contemporary Language (Colorado Springs, CO: Nav Press, 1993, 2003), pp. 21-22.
9. Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, Chicken Soup for the Soul: 101 Stories to Open the Heart and Rekindle the Spirit (Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications, Inc., 1993), p. 69.
10. Catechism of the Catholic Church (New York, NY: Doubleday, 1995), p. 229.
11. Henri Nouwen, Here and Now (New York, NY: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 1997 edition), p. 22.
12. Rick Warren, The Purpose-Driven Life: What on Earth am I Here For? (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), p. 88.
13. William P. Young, The Shack: Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity (Newbury Park, CA: Windblown Media, 2007), p. 112.
14. Sarah Young, Jesus Calling (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2004), p. 199.
15. Kenneth Copeland, “The Force of Love” cassette tape #02-0028.
16. Kenneth Copeland, “Following the Faith of Abraham” cassette tape, 1989.
17. Kenneth Copeland, “Believers Voice of Victory,” broadcast on TBN. July 9, 1987.
18. “Pope Francis: Evolution and Big Bang Theory Are Real” (NBC News, October 28, 2014, http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/pope-francis-evolution-big-bang-theory-are-real-n235696).
19. The Pope Video—Inter-religious Dialogue—January 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq7us5Lf5IU.
20. Elise Harris, “In First Prayer Video, Pope Stresses Interfaith Unity: ‘We Are All Children of God’” (Catholic News Agency, January 7, 2016, http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/in-first-video-message-pope-francis-stresses-unity-we-are-all-children-of-god-39381/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=email).
21. Heather Clark, “‘Pope Francis’ Bows Head in ‘Silent Adoration’ Beside Islamic Grand Mufti in Turkey’s Blue Mosque” (Christian News Network, November 29, 2014, http://christiannews.net/2014/11/29/pope-francis-bows-head-in-silent-adoration-beside-islamic-grand-mufti-in-turkeys-blue-mosque.
22. Ibid.
23. Jeremy Rifkin, Algeny (New York, NY: Viking Press 1983), p. 244.
24. Antonio Mora, “New Faithful Practice Away From Churches” (Chicago News, CBS Broadcasting, July 10, 2006, http://www.religionnewsblog.com/15295/Some-Say-20-Million-Participate-In-Emerging-Church-Movement).