There are two religious spiritualities vying for the modern mind:
1. A Spirituality from Jesus Christ …. there is a great need to equip the Church to answer, in the power of the gospel, the questions emerging in a culture dominated by planetary paganism, for the sake of her evangelism and her intentional Christian living. There is a further need:
- To train a new generation of scholars and leaders to understand and inform the Church of the challenge of global paganism.
- To understand the richness of the Christian gospel and the Bible’s worldview in light of the post-modern pagan option.
- To instruct members of Christ’s Church around the world about the implications of living in and witnessing to a pagan world.
- To give an understanding of the counter-cultural character of the Christian worldview to the next generation of Christians, born into a paganized culture that claims to be just and normative, and dismisses Christianity as mere bigoted “traditionalism,” by giving Christian youth an understanding of the timeless character of the Christian/pagan antithesis.
2. The New Spirituality: This spirituality is quite different to the Spirituality from Jesus Christ as described above in where they are coming from. Each is vying for the modern mind.
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The New Spirituality global paganism: There are five distinguishing characteristics of this spiritualty:
1. All is One and One Is all …. The Universe is one living organism …. The circle is used as a symbol of the unity of the Universe ….
2. All Humanity is One …. People are in the Circle and therefore need to consider other human beings as part of God. In this view, ‘You are wonderful’.
3. All Religions are One ….. They are like giant pizza. Each Religion has a piece of the pizza with a common centre with the mystical union of the divine with our humanity.
4. There Is Only One Problem For Mankind …. There are many problems in the world and these are caused by people who do not realise who they really are ….. they are lost in a metaphysical sense ….. they do not remember their divine self. They compound the problems by having illusions of who they are ….. seeing themselves as distinct from others. By realizing the divine whole of all things again, we then realise there is only one problem ….. We have lost our true self of soul and body whereby our inner and outer parts are reunited …. A healing process needs to take place
5. There Is Only One Solution …….. words are the least way to communicate with others. We need to get in touch with our feelings so stop talking. Instead get yoked together with God to go within ourselves through the sacred technologies. In so doing, we reconfigure ourselves by getting in touch with our true selves.
A useful resource paper is given below:
- Out of Spirituality into a Relationship with the infinite - personal God … Some Spirituality Comparisons between the New Spirituality the Spirituality from Jesus Christ … by Ken Aitken
some_spirituality_comparisons 247 KB
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The Beginnings of a Christian Heresy Called Gnosticism:
In the time soon after Jesus in the 2nd & 3rd Century, a heresy of Gnosticism came amongst the later followers of Jesus Christ. This heresy led to a split or dualism in all things. There was a split between the upper more superior spiritual world and a lower downstairs material world. The material world was seen as evil. You had to get of the evil material world and be more occupied by the superior spiritual world. Special knowledge or ‘gnosis’ would lead to this awareness. The purpose of Jesus Christ coming into the world was to bring this ‘gnosis’.
Gnosticism was a blending of Christianity, Roman Mystery cults and Eastern spiritualities. The believers in Gnosticism formed themselves into communities and wrote extensively on their beliefs. This view of life was firmly put to death by the writings of the Disciples of Jesus Christ and various Christian leaders which formed the New Testament.
The 2nd & 3rd Century Christian Heresy lay dead for 1500 years then was brought to life again. Neo – Gnosticism began in 1945 when 50 texts discovered in clay pots in Egypt. These were translated into English by very liberal Christian scholars who saw these writings as being an alternative but valid view on Jesus Christ. This Neo – Gnosticism eventually became the New Spirituality of our age. It is really the Old Spirituality dressed up in new western clothes. The Old Spirituality of Self Enlightenment where ‘you will be as God, you will know good and evil and you will not surely die’ is found in (Genesis 3: 1-7). This was the original Temptation and Fall of Man in the Garden.
This spirituality has become very global …. a rising tide of neopaganism is on the increase. I recently heard Dr. Peter Jones address this issue speaking at a Conference on this theme in Queensland, Australia. He is part of a global organisation called Christian Witness to A Pagan Planet (CWiPP). CWiPP desires to be a global communication centre that broadcasts a gospel - driven, worldview response to pagan spirituality as well as recruiting, equipping, and mobilizing a network of fearless Christian leaders. The goals of CWiPP are:
- To train a new generation of scholars and leaders to understand and inform the Church of the challenge of global paganism.
- To understand the richness of the Christian gospel and the Bible’s worldview in light of the post-modern pagan option.
- To instruct members of Christ’s Church around the world about the implications of living in and witnessing to a pagan world.
- To give an understanding of the counter-cultural character of the Christian worldview to the next generation of Christians, born into a paganized culture that claims to be just and normative, and dismisses Christianity as mere bigoted “traditionalism,” by giving Christian youth an understanding of the timeless character of the Christian/pagan antithesis.
See the website at: http://www.cwipp.org/ Dr. Peter Jones has written and has many books which are available in the Online Store section of the website. See http://www.cwipp.org/Library.asp for viewing archives of CWiPP Newsletters.
See the section for viewing his online books at http://www.cwipp.org/shop.asp?action=cat&catID=7965 Two of his excellent books are:
- · ‘Gnostic Empire Strikes Back’ by Peter Jones .... Gnostic Empire Strikes Back sounds the alarm of the New Age threat, comparing it to the ancient Christian heresy of Gnosticism.
- 'Spirit Wars by Peter Jones' …. Spirit Wars demonstrates that at the dawn of a new millennium, two world views (the only two) collide: pagan monism and theism–the earth goddess or the God who made heaven and earth. At the heart of our culture wars are Spirit Wars.
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