Quotes to Change the World

Today, Oprah's Lifeclass published the following quotes that will "change the world"...

Anne Lamott—novelist

1. People help you, or you help them and when we offer or receive help, we take in each other. And then we are SAVED—Anne Lamott

In other words: We save each other—so we don't need God.

2. Why YOU? Because there's no one better. Why NOW? Because tomorrow isn't soon enough—Donna Brazille

In other words: it's all about you, it's all about now—so forget about God.

3. Don't ever forget that you're a citizen of this world, and there are things you can do to lift the human spirit—Aaron Sorkin

In other words: This world is our home. Let's make each other cozy in it—because we don't need God.

4. When we give what we can and give it with joy, we don't just renew the American tradition, we renew ourselves—Bill Clinton

In other words: Giving, not God, renews us—so we don't need God.

5. Whenever you see someone being cared for, and not forgotten, their human spirit comes alive—Sir Elton John

In other words: Humanitarianism gives life not only to the body, but also the spirit—so we don't need God.

6. Compassion is the ultimate expression of your highest self—Russell Simmons

In other words: Self-actualization, not faith, is all that matters—so we don't need God.

7. Look for a way to lift some one up, and if that's all you do, then that's enough—Elizabeth Lesser

In other words: be satisfied with where you are in life, as long as your kind to some one once-in-while—because we don't need God (lesser isn't more in this case!)

8....What I can do is offer myself, wholehearted and present, to walk with the people I love through the fear and the mess. That's all any of us can do. That's what we're here for—Shauna Niequist

In other words: we're doomed to a life of fear and mess. There is no hope. So, the best thing we can do is cling to our loved ones—because there is no God.

9. At the end of the day, it's not about what you have or even what you've accomplished...It's about who you've lifted up, who you've made better. It's about what you've given back—Denzel Washington

In other words: it's all about our works, not about God's grace—because at the end of the day, there is no God.

Oprah's Lifeclass is right. Ideas like these change the world. These quotes are merely reflections of our culture's prevailing ideology. And they will be added to the world's tragically long list of fatally Bad Ideas.

A Brief History of Bad Ideas

If you have ever studied philosophy, religion, or political thought, you will have noticed that the course of history is heavily impacted by ideas. At various points throughout history, either a revolutionary ideology, a political philosophy, a new religion, or a "spiritual awakening" has sprung up, each time claiming to hold the solution to the ever-pressing problem of the human condition. Ideas like these are powerful because they give people a sense of hope for a better future. They can shape culture and influence our collective consciousness, thus impacting society with great force. Such ideas can be expedient, bringing about societal change with short-term benefits. But tragically, many of them ultimately lead us away from God. For example, Gnosticism, the Religion of Reason, Marxism, Mormonism, secular humanism, selfism, and the New Age movement—to name just a few—all hinge on the belief in human perfectibility/deification though human effort (whether it is through the realization of an inner divinity, through self-actualization, through societal progress, or through works-based salvation). In this way, they each distract from—or attempt to completely negate—the human need for a supernatural Savior. 

In actuality, each of these false religions and philosophies veil man's deep-seated desire for self-autonomy in rebellion against his Creator. The fact is, there is usually simplicity on the other side of complexity. While the elaborate religions and mind-bending philosophies of men are widely lauded as "genius," "revolutionary," "ground-breaking," "eye-opening," or "spiritually enlightening," they all start out as they eventually end up: as a power-grab in direct opposition to the authority of God. They can be deceptive, however, because they can generate mass-appeal on an intellectual or emotional level, and they may contain enough partial truths to be convincing. But, each one—whether it has grains of truth or not—merely represents yet another chapter in the perpetual story of man's rebellious grasp for self-empowerment that has repeated itself over and over in every generation throughout history.

It is an old, old story—far older than the self-adulation that's rampant in our culture today...far older than Marx's claim that man created God, not the other way around...far older than the Gnosticism and the destructive greed sects that first infiltrated the early church. It is a story that began in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve made that first, fatal grasp for godhood themselves at Satan's beckoning. And it's a story that was pre-echoed by Satan himself in the prideful power-grab that led to his downfall, and the fall of his legions, from Paradise even before the world's creation. As Scripture tells us, "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." (Prov 16:18). And it is when we are puffed up with conceit that we can fall into the condemnation of the devil (1 Tim 3:6). What easier way for Satan to wreak havoc in the world than to tempt man with the promise of his own godhood?

The default setting of the fallen human heart is self-worship. The heart is deceitful above all things because it is plagued by pride, an inherent tendency to love and serve oneself in God's place, which stems from the chronic heart-condition of Original Sin. Satan prays on this desire, tempting us into sin, which eventually leads to our separation from God. In James, we read that "each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death." (Jam 1:14-15). And so, Man's lust for personal godhood perpetuates a ceaseless pattern of self-destructive human behavior, manifesting itself in many different forms...

...We devise elaborate philosophies that place the self at the center of all things. We pore over books that help the self and we seek out strategies to empower the self. We create religions that deify the self. We promote a culture that idolizes celebrities and worships humanity. And, perhaps worst of all, we try to squeeze God into a self-created box of our own cognitive construction. We tweak and remold the identity of Christ to fit neatly into our own self-generated worldview. We create counterfeit gods that are shaped by our cultural preferences, our preconceived religious convictions, our selfish needs and desires. There are countless examples of humanity's inexhaustible pursuit for self-autonomy—some of them are subtle, some more glaringly obvious—but the motive behind each is strikingly consistent. 

The Age of the Enlightenment in the eighteenth-century, for example, was revolutionary in that it emphasized reason over tradition and introduced the idea of human perfectibility in an era when great scientific advances and a new political order provided a compelling case for societal progress. Throwing off the long-held belief that society was in an unalterable process of decay, Enlightenment philosophers, like Voltaire, believed that this progress would inevitably lead humanity toward a perfected state, as articulated in 1795 by Condorcet in his Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind. For the Enlightenment thinkers, the need to seek salvation in a supernatural God was negated, if heaven was possible—indeed inevitable—here on earth. This marked a distinctive shift from the Christian belief system of the era, and an attempt to take back full control over human destiny from God. In essence, it represented a grasp for self-autonomy.

The Enlightenment, along with nineteenth-century "freethinking," gave root to secular humanism, which is highly influential in today's society, especially within academia, because it offers an intellectual, rational, and scientific approach to bettering society. As the Council on Secular Humanism puts it, "We are committed to the application of reason and science to the understanding of the universe and to the solving of human problems."[1] While Christians also use the tools of science, rationality, and intelligence, they do so primarily for God's glory. Secular humanists, on the other hand, view these things as tools for purely human ends. Furthermore, secular humanists "deplore efforts to denigrate human intelligence, to seek to explain the world in supernatural terms, and to look outside nature for salvation."[2]

In the nineteenth century, Karl Marx had already developed a materialist interpretation of history, holding that history is driven by economics and a man's identity is bound up in his labor. Marx envisioned an earthly utopia (while he vehemently denied that his ideas were utopian) in which people collectively own everything and all work together for the common good of mankind. But Marx’s theory necessitates a government that is free from corruption and elitism within its ranks. A brief look at history, however, will quickly reveal that our past is littered with examples of how power corrupts fallen mankind. A nation or government may kill the idea of God, but someone or something will take God’s place. That someone is most often an individual or group who begins to tyrannize over the population with coercion in an effort to maintain power at all costs. Lenin, Stalin, Mussolini, and Hitler are all twentieth-century examples of how absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Scripture is clear that humans are not perfectible in our own strength because we are intrinsically sinful as a result of Adam's Original Sin against God. We are born sinners and we are sinners by nature (Psa 51:5). And all people who are not in Christ are "sons of disobedience." (Eph 2:2) But man-made theories that tout a human means to a higher state of existence are always predicated on a rejection of the doctrine of Original Sin. This is because Original Sin necessitates the atoning sacrifice of a Savior and our dependence on God, thus presenting an inconvenient obstacle in the pursuit for self-autonomy.

Take, for example, the false religion of Mormonism. The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints (LDS) openly rejects the doctrine of Original Sin in its statement of faith: "We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression." Mormonism, the fastest growing religion in 26 American states[3], is known for its emphasis on family values and morality. At first glance, it may seem like a virtuous religion, but the fact is, Mormonism veils that same insidious motive: the desire for self-deification. 

It can be misleading when Mormons call Jesus their Savior and worship Him. But while the Mormon Jesus may be divine, his is a derived form of divinity, which is neither unique to him nor inherent in him. Milton R. Hunter, who served as a member of the LDS church’s First Council of the Seventy from 1945 until his death in 1975, wrote, “Jesus became a God and reached His great state of understanding through consistent effort and continuous obedience to all the Gospel truths and universal laws.”[4] In other words, Jesus achieved godhood through works, like the Heavenly Father had before him. And because divinity is earned, Mormonism holds that all men possess the potential for godhood. Indeed, the LDS tenet that men can become gods was famously coined in a couplet by fifth LDS President Lorenzo Snow who declared, “As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become.” In actuality, the ultimate goal of Mormonism is self-glory, not God's glory—whether this is openly admitted by the LDS Church or not. Mormonism goes even further than secular humanism in its goal to deify man; rather than denying God, it actually attempts to recreate Him in man's image.

Strikingly similar are the philosophies of the New Age, which have had far-reaching influence in today's society, having been promoted by heavy-hitting celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and a slew of NY Times bestselling authors. Like Mormonism, New Age philosophies incorporate the figure of Christ into their occultist beliefs, which can confuse undiscerning Christians. But a closer look quickly reveals that the New Age Jesus is presented as an imparter of wisdom rather than a savior from sins. Similar to the Mormon Jesus, the New Age Jesus is generally believed to be a mere man who achieved a high level of spiritual enlightenment, which afforded him godlike attributes. He is esteemed as one of the “Masters,” along with Buddha, Krishna, and others, all of whom illuminate the path for humanity to spiritual enlightenment. 

A widespread New Age belief is that Jesus is actually a separate being from a divine entity, which is often referred to as “the Christ.” Many New Agers perceive “the Christ” as being impersonal, cosmic, and abstract in nature—in essence, a “Christ-force.” New Agers claim that this Christ-force took possession of the body of the man, Jesus, in order to guide humanity towards a process of spiritual evolution. “The Christ” is said to lie dormant within each person, waiting to be fully realized so that humanity as a whole may experience spiritual awakening.[5] (The counterfeit christ of the New Age is apparently more Jedi than he is biblical!). As Andrew Harvey puts it in his virtual seminar, The Christ Path,  "By seeing Jesus’s life with fresh eyes, we take him off the pedestal as an untouchable Savior and begin to see him as a way-shower for all of us to embody more of our innate divinity as we co-create a more just and compassionate world."[6] 

The prevailing thrust of New Age thinking, then, culminates in shaping one's own destiny and finding one's inner truth as a means to achieving a spiritually enlightened state. But these theories are nothing new. The Christ-force concept finds its origins in the Gnostic movement that begun in the second century AD, as a heretical sect of early Christianity. Widely read New Age authors today, like Eckard Tolle, are heavily influenced by Gnosticism. Basic Gnostic beliefs hold that humans are emanated from a Supreme Being and are divine spirits trapped inside physical bodies. In Gnosticism, salvation of the soul from the material world is achieved through the realization of gnōsis [7]—esoteric or intuitive knowledge of the truth—rather than the atoning death of a Christ figure. In this sense, it is yet another self-autonomous religion. Some Gnostics identify Jesus as an embodiment of the Supreme Being who became incarnate in order to bring gnōsis to the earth. Others, like contemporary Gnostic Reverend Todd Ferrier, founder of The Order of the Cross, suggest that the word “Jesus” was merely a code-word assumed by a historical being. Most Gnostics believe that there has been more than one authentic Messiah, and that “The modern Christian claim that Jesus was the only Christ (or Messiah) is simply not tenable.”[8] And all this, of course, predictably paves the way toward self-deification. 

In keeping with the trend of human nature, today's popular culture is dominated by a narcissistic form of self-worship. From self-promoting humblebrags on Facebook to the endless stack of NY Times bestsellers that line our bookshelves each touting the same self-help ethos, our culture is all about Me. We are constantly told we need to "find ourselves" and look within ourselves for the answers. We are encouraged to embark on an exhausting pursuit of self-discovery in order to get in touch with our inner-truth and find our center. Teens are encouraged to "find out who they really are" and to explore their sexual orientation so that they can be “true to themselves.” To experience freedom, in this context, is to live an "authentic" life as the "real Me." This involves breaking free from the shackles of shame, self-loathing, and inhibition to embrace a new found pride in oneself. 

The real Me in today's secular culture doesn't need an external God. The real Me is God. And so, we are encouraged to serve the real Me first and foremost. As a result, it's become commonplace, even hackneyed, to make self-centered statements like, “I need to do what’s good for me.” The concept of loving oneself and putting oneself first is lauded on day-time TV as the harrowed housewife’s solution to her woes. Our youths strut around unabashedly announcing they are going to "do me" (put themselves first). The sense of self-entitlement our younger generations are growing up with stems from this also. It's not just talk-show psycho babble that spouts these cliches. This form of self-worship is an insipid product of the widespread "selfism" in our culture that is becoming so deeply ingrained in our collective subconscious that we can barely recognize it anymore. 

Selfism or self-actualization theories were first popularized in the 1960s and 1970s and underlie much of today’s psychotherapy[9]  helping to form the ideological basis—and justification—for the increasing self-absorption of our culture. Self-actualization is a term used in various theories of psychology—most famously in the work of Abraham Maslow and his influential “hierarchy of needs” pyramid[10]—usually to describe the process by which we can reach our full personal potential, and transform our lives. As Maslow puts it, “What a man can be, he must be. This need we may call self-actualization…It  refers to the desire for self-fulfillment, namely, to the tendency for him to become actualized in what he is potentially. This tendency might be phrased as the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming.”[11]

The idea that we should aspire to become more of what we are—in biblical terms: sinful; weak; lost—as opposed to being made new in Christ, represents a fundamental rejection of our need for God. This is the epitome of selfism, which is characterized by what Ray C. Stedman so accurately describes as, “godless chatter, profane babblings, talking endlessly about man, his abilities and his wisdom, but never recognizing God.”[12] The impact of such thinking has not been confined within an academic bubble or limited to prevailing theories of psychotherapy alone, but has laid the foundation for many social changes in our society (as ideas tend to do!)—including the growing cultural acceptance of homosexuality and the redefinition of the family structure.

It seems like the precursor to the destruction of our society. As Paul warned, in the last days, people will be lovers of themselves (2 Tim 3:2) and false teachers will worm their way into the homes of gullible women and gain control over them (2 Tim 3:6)—this verse reminds me of Oprah Winfrey appearing on gullible housewives' TVs across the country beckoning them to gain access to their self-truth! 

Billy Graham, in a 2012 open letter titled, “My Heart Aches for America" lamented the state of a nation in which “self-centered indulgence, pride and a lack of shame over sin are now emblems of the American lifestyle.” It is not surprising that in our increasingly self-centered culture, the word pride has taken on new meaning, often being construed as an admirable trait, and even being paraded with rainbows on banners in city streets. Yet as Christians we are taught to surrender to His sovereignty, to humble ourselves before Him, and to let go of our pride, acknowledging that we are lost without His grace. As Paul put it, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Eph. 2:8-9). 

Despite their differences, Marxism, Mormonism, Gnostism, self-actualization, the New Age movement, etc., are all based on the same power-hungry desire to elevate man above God. Founding LDS Prophet, Joseph Smith, may have claimed back in the 1800s to have received divine revelations enabling him to restore the truths lost to the corrupted Scriptures...New Age author Eckard Tolle may claim to have had a "spiritual awakening" brought on by a near-death experience enabling him to guide others toward path of spiritual enlightenment...And the Gnostics before them may have claimed to have found the path to salvation of the soul from the material world through the realization of gnōsis...But none of them really offer up anything new; these man-made ideologies and belief systems may appear in the individualistic form of self-worship or in the collectivistic form of humanity-worship, but they all amount to the same thing. They merely represent repetitive chapters in the same old story. 

And it's a story that is by no means exclusive to secular philosophies or false religions. Tragically, the tendency to wrestle with God for control is all too prevalent among His own people. The Old Testament is peppered with examples of God-anointed leaders who rebelled against Him. For example, Samson was a gifted leader of the Israelites for 20 years, but in the end he was arrogantly self-serving, letting himself be governed by his sexual desires rather than by God—a tragic story that culminated in his eventual suicide. Likewise, Saul, the first king of Israel, had great humility when first chosen by the prophet Samuel, but his pride later came into play and he disobeyed God's instructions, thinking he knew better. Eventually he also was driven to kill himself. Like them, King Solomon was a gifted leader, being profoundly wise, but he too faltered and disobeyed God's written Word; accumulating personal wealth, fame, and beautiful women became more important to him than building up his country. His desire for personal aggrandizement caused him to neglect God's will. Solomon's son suffered for it later, inheriting but a fragment of the Kingdom of Israel due to his father's failure. You would think Israel's great kings and leaders would have learned from the mistakes of their predecessors before them! But instead the pattern repeats itself.

Isn't this the same problem we often see in ourselves? How many times have we taken control back from God and rebelled against Him? How many times have we found ourselves going down a prideful path of self-destruction? How many times have we let self-ambition distract us from honoring God in the things we say and do? Sometimes, it seems like we will never learn. And history seems like it is doomed to repeat itself forever. 

But here's the actual truth: there is hope in Christ! Our lives don't have to conform to the patterns of this world. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can break the cycle of sin! We no longer have to live in the flesh and be governed by its deceitful desires because we have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us. So the life we are free to live now, we can live by faith in the Son of God (Gal 2:20).

It is a daily process involving daily surrender. Jesus said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it." (Luke 9:23-24). It is when we deny ourselves, we are truly set free. The world will tell us that we are only free when we are "true to ourselves." The world will tell us living in obedience to God is to be enslaved. But the only true source of freedom is to be found in Christ, for "Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." (Gal 5:1). Let's be encouraged, then, as those made new in Christ, to stand firm in our freedom, and to put off the old self with all it's deceitful desires of the flesh (Eph 4:22-24). 

We learn from Adam and Eve's fateful grasp for self-empowerment that pride is our worst, most insidious enemy. It leads us into rebellion against God and to be deceived that we know better than He, that we deserve more than He has given us. Whenever we feel pride creeping in, then, we should remind ourselves how far we fall short of God's holy standard "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Rom 3:23). And God warns us, "I will break down your stubborn pride." (Lev 26:19). When we find ourselves humbled though suffering trials, or after we fall, we can take heart that it is for our own good, remembering Jesus' own words: "For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted" (Luke 14:11). 

The fallible self is a shaky foundation on which to base one’s life-meaning and purpose, and many who do so ultimately find themselves sinking in a quick-sand of sin (Matt. 7:24-27). Man-made ideas will not stand the test of time. Indeed, the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight (1 Cor 3:19). And as it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Let's stand firm then in God's truth, "for Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles." (1 Cor 1:19-25). 

If we find ourselves coming up against the lofty intelligence of a scholar, we shouldn't balk. We can have confidence that God's wisdom trumps anything a tenured Ivy-league professor has to say. Unbelievers that the world may deem to be "genius thinkers" or "spiritually enlightened gurus" will be revealed as frauds one day. Every knee will bow.

So, instead of building our lives on the quick-sand surface of a relativistic world, let's be encouraged in our resolution to build our lives on the ever-enduring, solid rock of absolute truth—The Lord Jesus Christ (John 14:6).

---------------------------------
[1] Council for Secular Humanism, "Affirmations of Secular Humanism,"  https://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php/12 
[2] Ibid
[3] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/02/mormonism-fastest-growing-religion_n_1469566.html
[4] Milton Hunter, G.T.A., p. 51, (emphasis added)
[5] Hanegraaff, Hank, “The New Age Christ: What is the New Age view of Jesus?” article published by the Christian Research Institute
[6] Harvey, Andrew, A New Life Virtual Training: "The Christ Path, A 7-Week Journey to Awaken and Embody Christ-Consciousness" March, 2013
[7] Gnosis is the common Greek noun for knowledge
[8] Institute for Gnostic Studies, online posting, June 2000.
[9] Vitz, Paul, Psychology as Religion: The Cult of Self-Worship, (1977, 1994, William Eerdmans Publishing), http://www.narth.com/docs/vitz.html
[10] Maslow, Abraham Harold, (1908—1970) was an American professor of psychology at Brandeis University, Brooklyn College, New School for Social Research and Columbia University who created Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
[11] Maslow, Abraham Harold, “A Theory of Human Motivation,” Psychological Review, (1943). p370-96.
[12] Ray C. Stedman, O MAN OF GOD! (http://www.pbc.org/dp/stedman/timothy/3781.html)

From Astrologist to Apologist: A Testimony

In her amazing testimony, Marcia Montenegro describes her unprecedented metamorphosis from professional astrologer into Christian apologist. She had been very active in the New Age movement for twenty years and had practiced astrology for eight years. Yet the longevity of her entrenchment in the occult did not prevent God from pursuing her, even when her conversion may have seemed unlikely by earthly standards. 

Marcia recounts how an “unexplained compulsion” caused her to begrudgingly walk into a church one Sunday. For some time, she had resisted the urge to act on this compulsion with all her might. She hated Christianity and feeling this strange and undeniable compulsion had made her angry. But she couldn't shake the feeling as much as she tried, so eventually she decided to give in, hoping that doing so would get it out of her system. This decision was to become the beginning of a transformation in Marcia she would never have expected. She recalls her experience:

In the opening minutes of a service in a large church in downtown Atlanta, I felt a love I had never known wash down over and through me, so powerfully that I started quietly crying. I knew this love was from God, not from the music, the people, or the place. I returned the following Sunday, not to have another experience, but so that I could be where that love had happened to me.

Marcia knew she had experienced the love of a personal God—one whom she did not yet fully believe in or understand. So powerful was her experience of this personal God that she felt compelled to read, and subsequently to study, the Bible. Studying the Word of God would eventually lead her to commit her life to serving Him and to make the difficult, costly decision to give up her career—and her entire life—as a New Ager. 

Prior to accepting Christ, Marcia had subscribed to a New Age perspective on God. Spiritual counterfeits of the New Age masquerade as the "real" version of God—a plausible alternative to rigid religious doctrine and the "old man in the sky." New Agers claim that they are releasing God from the constraints of religious dogma, freeing him [or the amorphous energy-source that he really is] from a man-made construct that limits, reduces, and distorts. New Age ideas are the result of thinking outside of the religious box! Or are they...? The problem with New Age perspective on God, is that it merely replaces one believe system with another. Through an elaborate voyage of self-exploration to access one's inner truth, the New Age movement seeks to deify the self in place of God. But in actuality, beliefs that are contained within the limits of our earthly imaginations are far more constrained than the transcendent knowledge that can be imparted to us by the One who truly is the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End (Rev 22:13). I'd pick God-sized ideas over self-truth any day!

Rather than seeking self-truth, we are called to fix our eyes on Jesus as the author and perfector of our faith (Heb 12:2). When we seek to know ourselves, it should ultimately be to confront the reality of our sinful state, and our true, deep-seated need for God. As Kevin DeYoung so aptly puts it, "Know God. Know yourself. Know yourself to know your need of God. Know God to know you are not gods." We should point ourselves and others to God and move away from ideas and practices that distract us from centering ourselves on the gospel of Christ.

Perhaps the most tragic downside to the New Age perspective on God is that because theirs is an impersonal God, a mere energy-source, there is no experience of relational love involved. But as Christians, we know that it is the love of God as our Father, that changes everything...

Marcia’s story demonstrates how being exposed to a loving, personal God can touch the heart of an unbeliever. How comforting it must be to someone who's been struggling in their own lonely journey to realize that there is a God that loves each one of us individually, and with whom we can have an interactive relationship. Psalm 139 is my favorite of all the psalms because it illustrates the intimacy of God's love for us so powerfully. Sharing personal stories with unbelievers about the ways in which we have experienced the love of God in our lives can be a powerful witness, especially to those who subscribe to the New Age concept of God as mere form of energy. We can talk about specific ways in which we have experienced this interactive, Father-child relationship through answered prayers, life-transformation, and heart-changes, for example. 

New Agers are trapped in a perpetual struggle to attain spiritual enlightenment through their own efforts—through practicing meditation, hypnotism, yoga, creative visualization, past-life regression, channeling, or other spiritual disciplines. It must be exhausting! Yet as Christians, we can rest in the knowledge that we do not have to strive to attain spiritual fulfillment in our own strength, for we can be confident that He who began a good work in us will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus (Phil. 1:6).  It is by grace that we have been saved, through faith, and not by works (Eph. 2:8)—the work of our salvation is already accomplished for us in Christ. For those who are wearied by the futile struggle to achieve spiritual enlightenment through New Age disciplines and practices, or through the lonely process of self-actualization, this news can offer a powerful sense of relief.  We can prayerfully share with them the truth that they can be justified by faith, and have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 5:1).

Prayer is the most important thing we can do for unbelievers who are caught up in the New Age movement or in a quest to self-actualize. As Marcia was to find out later, it was the prayers of her Christian coworker and his small group that had been answered that day she felt an unexplained compulsion to walk through those church doors. When things seemed impossible, the prayers of the faithful were answered in a powerful, unprecedented way. Now Marcia is a full-time missionary and founding director of Christian Answers for the New Age (and a personal friend of mine).

Touchy-Feely Faith that Neglects the Mind

In one of her signature ah-ha moments, Oprah Winfrey announced to 50 million talk show viewers that, "God is a feeling-experience, not a believing-experience!"—a statement based on the New Age teaching of one of her spiritual gurus. Why should Christians take note of yet another one of Oprah's epiphanies? Because in this concise statement, Oprah succeeded in encapsulating the essence of an ideological movement that has gained far-reaching influence and has even infiltrated the Christian faith in insidious ways.

It is in the “new spiritualism” of Eckhart Tolle that Oprah finds the inspiration for such a concept. After Oprah’s widespread promotion of Tolle’s books, such as A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose, Tolle made several best seller lists and his teaching has had significant impact. In 2011, he was dubbed by the Watkins Review as the most spiritually influential person in the world. While this likely an inflated view of Tolle, it is true that ideas like his are hugely popular. Tolle articulates the common New Age notion that peace and truth can only be found by searching deep within oneself, a search which supposedly culminates in an overpowering feeling of oneness with the universe—which is God in us all, and by which we are all connected.

Another Oprah-endorsed author, Rhonda Byrne, presents much the same premise. In her best-selling book, The Secret, she claims to have unlocked the secret through which we can create a better life through Quantam physics and the law of attraction—in other words, we can shape our own destinies through harnessing the universal powers that are at our disposal if we search within ourselves. As Byrne puts it, “There is a truth deep down inside of you that has been waiting for you to discover it, and that Truth is this: you deserve all good things life has to offer.”[1]
  
Ideas like these can, and do, have mass-appeal because they tap into our innately self-centered nature. It's all about self-help, self-fulfillment, self-truth, and—quite frankly—self-indulgence. As a result, millions of people have embraced the New Age beliefs promoted by Oprah. Ann Oldenburg, reporting to USA Today wrote: “After two decades of searching for her authentic self — exploring New Age theories, giving away cars, trotting out fat, recommending good books and tackling countless issues from serious to frivolous — Oprah Winfrey has risen to a new level of guru.”  It is unsettling that the concept of self-truth has had such extensive impact even within Christian circles. I have encountered with some frequency Christians reading both Tolle's and Byrne's books and also Christians who admire Oprah. 

In the quest for self-truth, Tolle encourages his readers to let go of pre-conceived religious beliefs that present obstacles to the transformative power of his teachings and to gain freedom from the mental constraints that inhibit their access to spiritual enlightenment. Like other new spiritualists, Tolle claims that his version of the “Truth” about universal oneness is a-religious, (completely disregarding the fact that he is merely replacing one belief system with another pantheistic version). Tolle denies the need for a conscious belief in God, holding that the “Truth” can only be sensed through an intuitive method of unconscious internal knowing—in other words—a feeling. He criticizes “mind-dominated religions” in which “people…equate truth with thought.”[2] Tolle’s theory of oneness, therefore, did not come to him through a thought-process, he claims, but through a near-death experience.[3] 

For those not firmly grounded in the Word of God, ideas like these may sound profound and have surface appeal. Even among Christians, the trendy practice of mind-emptying meditation[4] as a relaxation technique has become popular, for example. Erasing conscious beliefs from the mind involves letting go of biblical knowledge and opening up the unconscious to the "power of the universe." While this process may seem benign to some believers, it can in fact open them up to ungodly influences, perhaps even demonic persuasion.  

Paul describes how we should "demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God" and "take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." (2 Cor 10:3-6). In complete opposition to Tolle's position, it is clear from scripture that the process of salvation begins in the heart through the believing reception of the testimony of God—a conscious process that also involves the mind. The mental rejection of that testimony hardens the heart, for without a conscious acknowledgment of our sinful state and our need for salvation, we will have stubborn and unrepentant hearts (Rom 2:5). Instead, we are told to set our "minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth." (Cor 3:1-2). Seeking the truth within the [earthly] self through a feeling-experience, therefore, can only lead to deception, a hardened heart, and away from God.

Worryingly, an emphasis on faith as a feeling-experience is being echoed by a growing number of Christians today who base their relationship with God far more heavily on their emotional response to Him than on their biblical knowledge of Him. Believers are increasingly placing more stock in heart-feelings as a means to discerning God's will for their lives without also going to the Bible for direction. Many Christians are turning to mystical or self-help books that contain "spiritual fluff" rather than solid biblical content. Often, these books call themselves "Christian," but never mention the gospel, quote Bible verses rarely, selectively, or out of context, and indulge the reader in a touchy-feely portrayal of the Christian faith. Books such as these fail to equip believers for a faith that endures.

In keeping with this trend is the Emerging Church movement—a broad, yet controversial, movement that seeks to use culturally sensitive approaches to reach the postmodern, un-churched population with the Christian message. Emerging churches often promote a feelings- and experience-based relationship with God, while downplaying the need for doctrinal understanding. In this context, the gospel can be diluted in a sea of emotion and a church culture is created that caters to human needs first, which sadly results in promoting self-indulgence while de-emphasizing the Lordship of Christ. This is the epitome of touchy-feely faith.

Touchy-feely faith, as well-intended as it may be, can put us on a winding rabbit trail of emotion that actually leads us away from God. This is because without Bible-knowledge, it is harder to discern which heart-feeling is of God and which isn't. God never contradicts His Word, and heart-feelings that aren't compatible with biblical truth are not of the Holy Spirit, even if they might feel like it. But touchy-feely faith overlooks the need to watch our doctrine closely and persevere in it in order to save both ourselves and our hearers (1 Tim 4:16). It neglects the need to be transformed by the renewing of our minds in order to test and approve God's will (Romans 12:2). And it can leave us vulnerable to being led astray by false teaching. Jesus showed that being rooted in scripture is vital when He said, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32). 

The importance of loving God with all our minds is overlooked in a dumbed-down Christian culture that relishes sound-bite theology and fleeting ah-ha moments in our Twitter feed. In addition, the growing emphasis on feeling-experiences in the Christian culture reflects the pattern-behavior of this world—patterns we are specifically taught not to conform to! (Romans 12:1).  Leading emotion-driven lives and “following one’s heart” is indeed the modus operandi of a worldly culture. The vast majority of secular pop music unashamedly indulges every emotional whim and fantasy rather than conveying anything remotely redeeming or edifying to the human heart. And our younger generations suffer from a culturally imposed sense of entitlement—believing that they deserve to live emotionally indulgent lives of happiness, comfort, pleasure, or, in other words, self-worship. David Powlison, in his in-depth analysis of idols of the heart, explains that the Bible treats idolatry, not only as stemming from within the human heart, but also “as a central feature of the social context, ‘the world,’ which shapes and molds us.”[5]  Indeed, our self-absorbed culture provides the perfect context for Byrnes’ pronouncement that “you deserve all good things life has to offer”  to be well-received, and for the idol of self-worship to take root. The hedonistic environment in which we live, is also fertile ground for self-serving lies to flourish such as, “if it feels good, it is good.” And as followers of Christ, we should reject this worldly pattern of behavior vehemently.

Basing one’s life decisions and priorities on feelings, or following one’s heart, certainly has fatal pitfalls; the Bible teaches clearly that the heart (in biblical Hebrew, the heart is a metaphor for the seat of emotions) is deceitful above all things (Jer 17:9) and is naturally wicked (Gen 8:21). Hence, the heart, when left in its original condition, contaminates one’s whole life and character (Matt 12:34; Matt 15:18). The Bible teaches that the heart must be changed and regenerated (Eze 36:26; Eze 11:19; Psa 51:10), before we can willingly obey God. 

Jesus said: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" (Matt 22:37). In this, the first and greatest of God's commandments, we learn that loving God involves a cognitive grasp of who He is (through His Word), coupled with our heart response to the transformative power of the gospel, for a faith that will endure with our souls forever. 

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[1] Byrne, Rhonda, The Secret, 2006, p41

[2] Ekahrt Tolle, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose

[3] Richard Abanes responds to this claim in A New Earth, An Old Deception: Awakening to the dangers of Ekhart Tolle’s #1 Bestseller, pointing out that similar out-of-body sensations have been documented to result from torture, hypnosis, and drug-induced hysteria.
[4] The term "meditation" here is not to be confused with practice of meditating on God's Word, which has an entirely different meaning.

[5] Powlison, David, “Idols of the Heart and “Vanity Fair,” The Journal of Biblical Counseling, Volume 13, Number 2, Winter 1995, p36

Don't Tell Me What To Do! Self-Actualization & the Sovereignty of God

One of the most powerful motives that lures us away from Christ is the desire for self-autonomy—in other words, the right to shape our own destiny, to “be who we are,” and to pursue the empty goal of self-fulfillment. In an increasingly secularized society that touts tolerance and political correctness over truth and good conscience, and in which moral relativism commands the rejection of the most basic notions of right and wrong, the will of God is conveniently cast aside, even reviled as a concept. 

Self-actualization (“selfism” or “self religion”) theories were first popularized in the 1960s and 1970s and underlie much of today’s psychotherapy [1]  helping to form the ideological basis--and justification--for the increasing self-centeredness of our culture. Self-actualization is a term used in various theories of psychology—most famously in the work of Abraham Maslow and his influential “hierarchy of needs” pyramid [2]—usually to describe the process by which we can reach our full personal potential, and transform our lives. As Maslow puts it, “What a man can be, he must be. This need we may call self-actualization…It  refers to the desire for self-fulfillment, namely, to the tendency for him to become actualized in what he is potentially. This tendency might be phrased as the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming.”[3] 

The idea that we should aspire to become more of what we are—in biblical terms: sinful; weak; lost—as opposed to being made new in Christ, represents a fundamental rejection of our need for God. This is the epitome of secular humanism, which is characterized by what Ray C. Stedman so accurately describes as, “godless chatter, profane babblings, talking endlessly about man, his abilities and his wisdom, but never recognizing God.”[4] The impact of such thinking has not been confined within an academic bubble or limited to prevailing theories of psychotherapy alone, but has laid the foundation for many social changes in our society (as ideas tend to do!)—including the growing cultural acceptance of homosexuality and the redefinition of the family structure.

Historians William Strauss and Neil Howe's book, The Fourth Turning, is a fascinating depiction of the “unraveling” of contemporary American society. In it, they discuss how, “while we exalt our own personal growth, we realize that millions of self-actualized persons don’t add up to an actualized society.”[5] This is because “optimism still attaches to self, but no longer to family or community.”[6] Strauss and Howe predict that America is on the cusp of a complete unraveling, a crisis stage, as part of a cyclical pattern that can be identified in every society throughout history. They claim that the historical pattern they have traced always involves four “turnings” or seasons that end in a societal crisis—the “fourth turning” or “winter” of every cycle, “a decisive era of secular upheaval, when the values regime propels the replacement of the old civic order with a new one.”[7] Like the other fourth turnings experienced in American history so far—marked by the American Revolution of the 1770s, the Civil War of the 1860s, and the Great Depression and World War II of the last century—Strauss and Howe predict that the fourth turning of this century (by 2050) will also be both completely unexpected and will involve “bone-jarring Crises” so monumental that, by their end, America will emerge in a wholly new form.[8]

Whether or not they are right, we are certainly seeing the effects of the rise of selfism in our society today, just as was seen in the “third turning” stage of previous eras depicted by Strauss and Howe. The quest to self-actualize leads many to seek meaning in narcissistic pursuits and to place the self at the center of everything. It has become commonplace, even clichéd, to make self-centered statements like, “I need to do what’s good for me” or for younger generations, “I need to do me.” The concept of loving oneself and putting oneself first is lauded on day-time TV chat shows as the harrowed housewife’s solution to her woes. Teens are encouraged to explore their sexual orientation in order to find out “who they really are” and to be “true to themselves.” An individual’s sense of identity is to be sought in personal achievement, social status, family, career, sexual orientation, or in other idols.

Selfism has become the prevailing ideology in our culture. This way of thinking veils a deep-seated desire for self-autonomy and self-worship; in essence the desire to be one’s own God. Indeed, if the human heart is not submitted to glorifying God, it will surely seek to glorify itself. As was demonstrated in that fateful act of rebellion—that grasp for self-empowerment—first committed in the Garden of Eden, the human heart has always been prey to a prideful spirit whispering alluring promises of earthly gain. For the heart is always worshiping something, and if it is not God, it will be a cheap substitute. And the idol of self is a seductive substitute indeed.

A fellow believer and friend of mine recently found herself confronting this very idol in a conversation with an old friend, whom I shall refer to here as Jane. Jane had formerly accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior, only to categorize Him some time later as one of several paths to a higher spiritual level of existence. Initially upon accepting Christ, Jane had passionately shared her faith with others, and was even instrumental in leading another to Christ. But like a seed that fell on rocky soil and quickly sprang up, Jane’s faith soon withered as she began to look to other religions and belief systems for further guidance. She began seeking answers in New Age spiritualism, bypassing what she now called the “middle man” of Jesus Christ, and rejecting Him as the only way to God. After my friend spent some time probing Jane with questions to understand why she was blending mysticism and other faiths with Christianity, Jane finally admitted: “The fact is, I don’t want anyone to tell me what to do.” And there it was: the heart-problem exposed. The innate, rebellious desire for self-autonomy—the potential for which lurks within all of our fallen hearts—had surfaced in Jane’s heart, leading her away from a life of submission to the sovereignty of God. She wanted things on her own terms, and didn't want to be limited by the Bible. 

It is this sinful nature within each of us that leads many to seek out other paths to happiness, and other idols in God's place, rather than accepting His authority and seeking first His Kingdom. As Tim Keller illuminates in Counterfeit Gods, “Most people spend their lives trying to make their heart’s fondest dreams come true. Isn’t that what life is all about, ‘the pursuit of happiness’? We search endlessly for ways to acquire the things we desire, and we are willing to sacrifice much to achieve them. We never imagine that getting our hearts deepest desires might be the worst thing that can ever happen to us.”[9] For our heart's desires can be rooted in pride, rather than in our love of God. Whatever one’s idol might be, even if it is something virtuous, like family or Christian ministry, for example, if it is an idol, it is always going to be tied to a prideful form of self-love. For it is pride that leads us away from God, to be lovers of self (psa 10:4) and lovers of the world (James 4:1-6). 

The fallible self is a shaky foundation on which to base one’s life-meaning and purpose, and many who do so ultimately find themselves sinking in a quick-sand of sin (Matt. 7:24-27). Whether serving in the community, performing warm and fuzzy acts of charity, aging gracefully, or living well through diet, meditation, and exercise, these things can all boil down to a futile quest for self-fulfillment in the wrong places. Christ’s redemptive love has no place in a religion of self that regards the human heart as essentially good and perfectible through human effort. The atonement of Christ can be side-lined, if not completely nullified, in this way for thinking. 

The concept that to “live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21) seems absurd when perceived through the distorting lens of selfism. But, being a disciple of Christ is about self-denial and submission to God. Jesus said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it." (Luke 9:23-24). The world will tell us that to deny ourselves in obedience to God is to be enslaved. Self-actualization is about advancing our own agenda. But self-advancement leads to narcissism, egocentricity, and ultimately to being enslaved by sin. The only true source of freedom is found in Christ, for "it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." (Gal 5:1). Let's be encouraged, then, as those made new in Christ, to stand firm in our freedom, and to put off the old self with all it's deceitful desires of the flesh (Eph 4:22-24). 

The nature of biblical truth is often paradoxical (a beautiful manifestation of the supernatural and mysterious power of God's Word). We can be uplifted by the paradoxical truth that we are actually empowered through our submission to God, for it is through dying to self that we truly live!


****See also previous blog post on Selfism and the Real Me.
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[1] Vitz, Paul, Psychology as Religion: The Cult of Self-Worship, (1977, 1994, William Eerdmans Publishing), 
[2] Maslow, Abraham Harold, (1908—1970) was an American professor of psychology at Brandeis University, Brooklyn College, New School for Social Research and Columbia University who created Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
[3] Maslow, Abraham Harold, “A Theory of Human Motivation,” Psychological Review, (1943). p370-96.
[4] Ray C. Stedman, O MAN OF GOD! (http://www.pbc.org/dp/stedman/timothy/3781.html)
[5] William Strauss and Neil Howe, The Fourth Turning, An American Prophecy, (New York, 1997), p1
[6] Ibid, p2
[7] Ibid, p3
[8] Ibid, p5
[9] Keller, Timothy, Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters, (USA, 2009), p1