I actually make a strong attempt to avoid the LHV (Larry Herrin Version) of the Bible and use mostly a reliable one; the KJV. When you read your version and no change results, perhaps your version needs reverse updating because truth NEVER changes!
For those who don't believe in any version, they are of course, in outward rebellion to God. That gets the person by for a time, but sooner or later, time will be over and the skeptic will be standing in front of an angry God making excuses! That's reminiscent of the first grader caught cheating, but the penalty will be more severe than sitting out recess; it'll be sitting out eternity tormented by isolation and misery so extreme that... well beyond anything imaginable!
New Age Philosophy:
We are in "The New Age". Those who have ushered in this age call it "the age of Aquarius", which we know quite well through the medley by the same name by James Rado and Gerome Ragni and first heard in the Broadway play Hair. I actually like the melody! It's done quite well! However, the message scares me because those who classify themselves as "New Age" usher in the period scripture warns us about! The New Age is "a broad movement characterized by alternative approaches to traditional Western culture, with an interest in spirituality, mysticism, holism, and environmentalism." (Google).
Yes, it's replacing western culture with spirituality, mysticism, holism and environmentalism. Note, that Christians believe in these aspects, but not as practiced by those in the New Age. We must take care to magnify God, not the "self" or "mother earth" when dealing with the spiritual world!
The New Age doesn't have a defined doctrine which sets them apart from other religions, bu they do have their own savior. However, their God is "as they understand him" to be. Scripture defines God quite well and seldom do our imaginations reflect "The One True God"! What Christians fail to understand is that evil uses the notion of "God" as a means of deceiving!
Of course skeptics doubt the existence of Adam, Eve and the serpent, but like it or not; it's God's word and God says they were real people!
Genesis 3:3 "Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, 'Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?'".Satan is symbolic of the angel named "Lucifer". Being an angel, Lucifer was capable of appearing in any form. The serpent may actually have been the devil which is how Godly people refer to this angel of death! With that said, the serpent wasn't a skeptic! He believed in "the Lord God". When speaking with Eve he acclimated her by dropping God's name. Eve knew God, had probably communed with him and trusted God. She believed that there would be punishment for eating of the fruit, but the serpent dropped God's name into the conversation! He was crafty; that's his M.O.!
Guess what? God is the same as he always was (Hebrews 13:8) and so is the devil! His M.O. is still "craftiness". "The New Age Movement" is crafty too because it's all about the serpent!
Part of being "crafty" is this movement's self-description of "spiritual" in lieu of "New Age". After all, Christians are spiritual beings aren't we. The problem lies in "whose spirit" do we commune!
Now let me throw out a little known fact: The Nazi's were unabashedly a part of "The New Age Movement"! Their movement was driven by the backbone of this New age, namely Theosophy! It was an early version of the Human Potential Movement with Aryans as the potential! Do you think that you cannot be fooled? Well 93% of the Germans were including most Christians!
ASTROLOGY
The New Age is based on astrology! It's the same sin as those who built the ziggarat at Babylon!
Genesis 11:4a "And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name..."Anthropology indicates that this tower built to the heavens was the practice of astrology. The people turned to the stars for wisdom instead of God. They never abandoned God, they merely didn't have faith enough in him to keep from trusting in him alone!
Deuteronomy 4:19 "And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the Lord thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven."Astrology was one of the earliest forms of idolatry. It was and still is "having another god besides me (God)". Of course astrology is just the idol which stands there representing the people's gods. It's out of rebellion that they turned to the cosmos. They were doing "what was right in their own eyes" (Deuteronomy 12:8) as they always did! They ignored God's will and did what they wanted to do. Astrology is a form of self-worship as are all idols!
Most Christians will say "Astrology is just entertainment!" or "No one takes it seriously!" Well, God takes it seriously and said not to do it, and Christians should never entertain themselves using forbidden religious practices. Astrology is a religious practice, but not of God. It's the devil's doing and you are doing what the serpent wants you to do! Even if you don't believe it's harmful, it's disrespectful of God. As Christians, we are to love and fear God (Deuteronomy 10:12) and part of that is reverence for him!
Having "fun" with whatever God is jealous of is dangerous. Providing pleasure to the god of self is what astrology truly is! The Tower of Babel was the temple, the stars are the idols and the scattered people were the "other gods".
Astrology is NOT a religion; it's a "religious practice" in opposition to God. Just as "communion", the taking of the bread and wine in Christianity, is a religious practice, "consulting the stars" for guidance is spirituality and the one who does it is "communing with evil spirits" because it is not of God!
The argument "It's not a religion, so don't be confused!" is the way to confuse people into doing things contrary to God's will! Most teachers of yoga have the same M.O. as did the serpent back in the Garden "Don't be afraid to do it; yoga is not a religion!"
YOGA
True! Yoga is NOT a religion. It's a pagan religious PRACTICE! Yoga is DEMONIC! It's what the devil wants you to do to undermine God. It's a spiritual practice among many others of which God is jealous:
Exodus 20:5 "Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God..."Yoga is spiritually bowing down before other gods, but what's more it's even the physical bowing down! Many are not confronted with the spiritual aspect of yoga at first. It's a mere physical bowing down. That's because there are different phases of yoga, starting with the physical and moving into the spiritual realm.
There are two purposes of yoga: 1) "hatha yoga" which is building both physical and mental strength and balance in seek of enlightenment. Enlightenment is an epiphany. "Spiritual enlightenment" is a Hindu spiritual experience which frees the individual from the cravings, suffering and rebirths resulting from karma. It frees the person's spirit from the cycle of rebirths and deaths. 2) " bhakti yoga" is the more eastern-practiced type of yoga and is an overt worship of Hindu gods. Being that one yoga is overt, then by implication what Americans practice is covert!
As Jesus was being crucified and his executioners casting lots for his clothing a graceful Jesus said:
Luke 23:34 "Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."
I am not judging those who practice yoga. God does that, and frankly, he is much more merciful than what I am capable! Jesus sought forgiveness even for those who were killing him. That's grace for they were ignorant of what they were doing! If you have read this, and checked my use of scripture, then Jesus won't say that because "you will know what you are doing"!
Yes, most people do yoga because it's in vogue, is different, and are totally ignorant that they are not in God's will. Some use the excuse that they do it for health reasons! God is in the business of healing and he doesn't recommend yoga for that. He can't because yoga is a practice of bowing to other gods!
Yes, you can exercise, even stretch. However, you don't need to go to the witch doctors of yoga to do that! They are the priests of a deceitful religion. They use "god" in their sales pitch, but take God's word for it; yoga is not of God!
THE MARTIAL ARTS
The argument against yoga is the same argument against the martial arts. The focus and enlightenment of oriental concentration is the same as for yoga! God has power. David had the power of God in his sling. It was God who hurled the stone with accuracy and inertia to topple Goliath. It was God on whom David focused. It wasn't his inner self or power of the mind that is so effective. It's the same God who fell the walls of Jericho with music! God doesn't need any eastern religious practice to defeat the enemy and you don't either!
Philosophy and Psychology:
Philosophy is the father of psychology. What Socrates and Plato taught centuries ago has been integrated into every facet of daily life, even Christianity! Philosophy is the "unknown God" of which Paul taught against in Athens:
Acts 17:23 "For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, To The Unknown God. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you."The philosophers were seeking the meaning and life and the answer to the question "What is truth?" and they all had their own conflicting theories to explain God. For instance, the Stoics and the Epicureans with whom Paul debated, had opposite ideas to the question "Why do we exist?" Their God was "unknown". Paul defined the "unknown god" whom they sought. He is the Son of God, crucified and resurrected. Jesus is the answer to the philosopher's ruminations!
Psychology is the "study of the soul" and philosophy is "the love of wisdom". The former is seeking fulfillment and the latter is trying to be as God. Psychology is a religion as it's defined and philosophy is the god of Reason;
Genesis 3:5a "For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods..."Philosophers attempt to be as wise as God and indeed their wisdom has entered into the life of every Christian because of their writings throughout time!
If one examines psychology, some have been honest about it. Thomas Szasz has exposed the fraudulent field of psychology, but not from a religious standpoint, but from a rational one. Even by their own admission, it has never been proven that any one with problems in living have been helped any more with counseling than without! It's snake oil and desperate people are those who are defrauded with little accountability on the part of the snake oil salesmen!
In any branches of psychology God is presented as an imbalance in people's lives, all the way from the cause of repressive behaviors to the cause of dysfunctional guilt! God is irrational and being non-existent; an interference in our behaviors. Rather than Christ being a means of healing, he blocks the way to mental health!
Sigmund Freud's psychotherapy implied that people are born in good mental health, but parents influence their children pathologically. Carl Jung, on the other hand, proposed that even our dead ancestors makes us psychologically what we are! God says that we are all born in sin and get worse unless healed by the power of the God using his Holy Spirit. It's faith in having eternal hope which heals! Jesus is the way to spiritual and consequently, psychological health!
Analytical psychology, the forte of Carl Jung was founded largely upon the influences of eastern mysticism (religions) and influence of those long dead! In fact what appears to be so benign, "The Briggs-Meyers Personality Tests" are an outcome of Jung's Analytical Psychology, which by it's own admission, was influenced because of contact with the spirit world in a seance with a twelve-year-old dead girl!
If any field of psychology is examined, it's becomes obvious that all are at odds with scripture yet Christians depend on their wisdom to heal what God can heal through faith! Christians don't get healed because they rely on charlatans and not God! Psychologists often place their wisdom over God and even blame God for people's problems. One of my courses in Family Counseling was taught by the Department Chairmen whose lectures were mostly minimizing Jesus while magnifying the various priests of the denominations of Psychology!
Proverbs 3:5 "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding."I actually had one person tell me that he had to go to a counselor because his marriage was failing and said the reason was "because this one is too hard for God"! The marriage is over. If God had been trusted, who knows? The odds are that if two people sincerely turn to God and have trust in him, the unity will remain intact! The counselor has no stake in a successful marriage. He gets paid either way. God has a stake in all marriages because they are holy matrimony. When a marriage fails the divorce is an infraction of what God wills!
With God all things are possible! You can's say that for astrology, yoga and psychology. Remember, even Pharaoh's magicians could copy miracles and plagues, but it was God who even destroyed them! All these New Age ideas are warmed over old age shenanigans by the serpent in the tree. Men now, as then, are still beguiled by the slick words of the serpent!
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