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From New Age Almanac, by J. Gordon Melton:

“The New Age Movement can best be dated from circa 1971. By that year, Eastern religion and transpersonal psychology (the key elements needed to create the distinctive New Age synthesis) had achieved a level of popularity, and metaphysical leaders could begin to articulate the New Age vision…Baba Ram Dass, a transformed refugee from the psychedelic age, emerged as the first national prophet…Despite its relatively recent appearance, the movement should not be viewed as a startlingly new phenomenon in Western culture...

Eph 5:11 “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.”

The New Age Movement is the western presentation of eastern mysticism. While individual practitioners emphasize different practices or traditions, the main religious contributors are Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, and traditional Chinese mysticism.

PURPOSE: to bring about a New World Order through a world-wide change in thinking about ultimate reality and global needs. One government, one global community, one spiritual reality.

In the New Age Movement, the system (universe, cosmos) is divine, therefore preservation of the system must occur at any cost. Elements within the system are also divine = > “Earth” rather than “earth”...

Paul’s letter to the Romans is a wonderful dissertation on the tremendous grace of God towards men. Paul introduces himself as one having authority to speak, by virtue of being an ‘apostle’ or one sent out, an ambassador of Jesus Christ. In the course of his  letter to the Romans, Paul identifies the Lord Jesus as the Christ, or the Messiah the Jews awaited, in fulfilment of the prophecies given by God so they would know the Messiah when He came. Paul also asserts unequivocally that Jesus is also the Son of God.

Paul’s purpose in writing to his letter to the Romans becomes clear as the letter develops; there were misunderstandings among the people about how Christ’s Gospel affected each of the people of the Jews and the Gentiles, those who were not part of the nation of Israel...

General

The Bible is God’s word to man. It has specific meaning for all men at all times. If the meaning of Scripture is fluid (changeable), or subjective (someone’s interpretation or opinion), God has said nothing to us, and we have nothing to say to the world. Our hope is based upon His word being Truth, as Jesus declared it to be.

The Bible was written by ordinary men under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It is not restricted to those with special training or higher learning, but is open to any who read or hear. Its message is not complex or difficult, except to the extent that men may choose to rebel against its author, and therefore its content.

Study of Scripture is a two-fold exercise:

Intellectual – engaging the mind in discovering what is said.

Spiritual – as the Holy Spir...

In keeping with the purpose of Grace and Truth website to help Christians grow in their knowledge of God through the careful consideration of God’s Word, the Holy Bible, I will begin to post the notes to different Bible Studies. In these Bible Studies I will address individual Books of the Bible to expand the reader’s knowledge and understanding of the Person and Nature of God, the nature and purpose of the material world, the nature and role of humans in God’s creation, and Man’s Relationship with God.

The Bible declares itself throughout to be the Word of God.  Whenever you read the phrase, “Thus saith the LORD…”, you have the words God spoke to the man who recorded the words...

Satan wants to suppress and extinguish the light of the Gospel of Christ.

His legions in the world war against the Truth and against those who bear it, through lies and twisting of facts and the meanings of words, through assault and oppression, and through censure; through distractions, diversions, temptations, enticements, relationships, comforts, and “goals”. The enemy roars both inside and out of the recognized church. We must take hold of our Captain. We must relinquish our hold on temporal distractions. We must refuse to become servants of worldly things – any worldly thing no matter now noble or how necessary, becomes a stumbling block and an impediment to the work of the Gospel as soon as it has equal time, equal effort, equal priority to Christ and His grace in our life.

The...

Signs and wonders, or miracles, are often accepted by professing Christians as evidence or even proof that a person, spiritual leader or teacher, or a phenomenon is from God. Sometimes even unbelievers and skeptics are persuaded through miraculous signs and wonders of the spirituality of some teacher or circumstance. But are all signs and wonders or apparent miracles necessarily from God or are they necessarily good? I don’t believe there is one true Christian who does not know that the Bible clearly teaches otherwise.

The preoccupation with miraculous phenomena has exploded since the charismatic movement began, and more particularly the Vineyard movement...

QUESTIONS TO ASK AN EMERGENT FOLLOWER OR OTHER LIBERAL PROFESSING CHRISTIAN:

On what authority do you know anything? Your natural senses? What some person tells you?

On what authority do you know anything about God?

Do you believe you are a Christian?

What is a Christian?

Do you believe it is possible to be a Christian without being saved?

Do you believe a person can ‘follow Jesus’ without being saved?

On what authority do you believe you are saved?

What is the gospel?

On what authority do you know what the gospel is?

If your natural senses are your authority, you have no basis for knowledge of anything beyond the natural: love, fear, outer-space, inner earth, super-natural, God, spirit, Heaven.

If it is the word of men, you are a fool. Men lie, steal, rape, kill, and cheat...

Or Can we “Sanctify” Acts or Ideas belonging to False Religious Systems to Make Them Suitable for Worship of the Lord God or a Part of Christian Life Practice? 

Throughout Scripture, God commands His people to be ‘holy’, separate from the world and sin. False teachings and false practices have plagued the church since the beginning, evidenced in the letters from Paul, Peter, John, and Jude, so it is not unique to today. The Holy Spirit ensured we would have no reason to question what response might be appropriate to the inclusion of pagan practices or philosophies in Christian life and worship. God admonished the Israelites frequently that they were to absolutely reject everything originating from pagan practice, incorporating none of it in their lives or the worship of Almighty God...