Latest / The Living Waters Podcast / The Snake Oil of New Age Beliefs. Receiving a Different Gospel - Highlight Episode 340

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The Snake Oil of New Age Beliefs. Receiving a Different Gospel - Highlight Episode 340 · The Living Waters Podcast

• 1:04
  Speaker 1: All right, friends.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Today we're dealing with what is Christ consciousness?
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: I'm going to read something.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: I came across this commentator who kind of gave some insight on Christ consciousness.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: I think he had some good things to say.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: He said the Center for Christ Consciousness defines Christ consciousness as the highest state of intellectual development and emotional maturity.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: They go on to claim that Jesus achieved this higher state of being.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: No, achieved this higher state of being in his human life and was given this term, christ before his name, as the recognition of his achievement of his spiritual status.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: I can't help but laugh.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: This path is open to anyone, regardless of their religious tradition, if and when he or she is open to become a living vessel of love and truth on the planet and actively strives to attain it.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Another site defines it this way Christ consciousness is the state of awareness of our true nature, our higher self and our birthright as children of God.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: So again, just yeah.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: Basically, in a sense it's not new, so to speak, it's a form of Gnosticism in a sense.
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: Ultimately, what we're trying to show here is that this direction leads you away from the truth, not into the truth.
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: I mean, I look at it like I try to break it down in my notes and different doctrinal beliefs and understandings, which is our previous episode, and different doctrinal beliefs and understandings, which is our previous episode.
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: And so just one example is that salvation is redefined here, which is that sin is now just an illusion of a separation between us and God.
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: And salvation is now escaping your own personal ego and realizing you're not separate beings but part of a divine consciousness.
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: And I think of the movie Avatar, where they plug into the great tree and they're one with the world.
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: That's that separation and then reunion.
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: And the reality is that scripture reminds us that sin is not just a mistaken perception or an ego issue.
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: Sin is a real rebellion against a holy and good God.
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: And salvation is not about you killing your ego but about you dying to yourself so that you would be found in Christ, known and loved by a true God, not just some self-realized consciousness.
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: The beauty of the gospel is it's not about you loving yourself more, it's about you realizing that you've rebelled against a God who has stepped into reality to save you, because he loves you Amen.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: That's good.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, mark.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: I think some will use what we often reference on the podcast Imago Dei as sort of this justification Well, we're made in the image of God, so we are God.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: Speak to that.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: How does that differ?
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: What does it mean to be made in the image of God and yet that doesn't make us?
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: God.
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's quite the swing of the pendulum, right?
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: You can't search for truth when you're comfortable in the darkness and you reject the truth.
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: You know all together.
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: Being created and made in the image of God means we're self-aware.
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: We're different than the animals.
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: We have moral values that are attached to the decisions that we make, that we care about the right and wrong.
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: Not just have these instincts.
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: Galatians 2.20,.
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: It says I've been crucified with Christ.
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: You know we're talking about this Christ consciousness and where they are attempting to find themselves.
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: But it is the antithesis of what Scripture says, because it's not about finding yourself.
• 4:43
  Speaker 4: It's about losing yourself and denying yourself.
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: It's not about attaining to a level that you may be higher above everybody else and having this Gnostic thought.
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: I have this inside information that you don't.
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: We are gods and this is what Shirley MacLaine did.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: That's the name of the person I've been trying to remember for the last 10 minutes.
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: You're welcome.
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: She's the goddess of the I am God thing, right back from the 1960s, she started it.
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: Yeah, there's a video of her on this precipice of this, you know, beautiful view outside of, like the ocean or something, and she says I am, I am, you know, following those same words, right the ego on me, I am, and there's only room for one right, the I am of Jesus.
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: He is the bread of life, he is the shepherd, he is the vine, he is the way, the truth and the life.
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: If you're confused, he's the truth.
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: Are you depressed and suicidal?
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: He's the life.
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: He is everything, everything in one that we will ever need.
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: 2 Corinthians, 11, 3 and 4 shows how spiritual.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: this is when it comes to the New Age.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: But I fear least somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that's in Christ.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you may well put up with it.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: And so it's a different spirit, it's a spiritual battle.
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: New.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: Age teachings preach a false Jesus.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: It's not biblical.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: In 1 Timothy 4, verse 1, it says Now the Spirit speaks expressly and in the latter times, some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons.
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: And that's really what it's about.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and doctrines of demons.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: That's so important to highlight because the author of those doctrines, the true head demon.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: He can disguise himself as an angel of light.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: So it's not.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: I mean.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: Again, some of it can seem so appealing.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: If you let go of your consciousness of the true Christ and His Word, it's easy to be like oh yeah.
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: But it's not offensive.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: There's no sin, righteousness or judgment about it.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: It's really easy to get swept up by these false doctrines.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: Oscar alluded to it being like a river and I was thinking you see so many people, especially on the Weather Channel, try and make it through a river.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: And I was thinking you see so many people, especially on the Weather Channel, try and make it through a river in their car and it's just up to the wheels and suddenly they're swept away.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: The whole family goes down the river and there's powers involved that we don't know about.
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: If you don't embrace the truth and you love a lie, you'll be given a strong delusion.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: Scripture says in Thessalonians.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: And so what New Age does?
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: It denies that Jesus is unique as the Christ and the Savior.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: It teaches that humans are divine, contradicting Scripture.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: It rejects salvation by grace, through faith, and replaces it with self-enlightenment.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: And that's the basis of it.
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: It's rooted in human pride.
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: There's a bigger issue, a bigger problem here.
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: Or as MacArthur put it the gospel is not about making bad men better, but making dead men alive.
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: So you seem to be doing better, but what are you going to do on that day when every idle word you have spoken is going to be made manifest?
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: Everything ever done in darkness is going to come out inside the light, and this is why we go through those commandments.
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: We get into this argument about their philosophy, but why not we just get down to the foundation here, that you've been weighed in the balances of an eternal scale.
• 8:17
  Speaker 4: You've been found lacking, and your only hope is found in Him who is our hope, which is Jesus, the Messiah.
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: Often, when we hear people say something that's wrong, we want to jump right in and be like well, how do you know that's right or well, where do you get your information from?
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: And we want to get like into debate mode rather than trying to find common ground to draw them in to the truth, beauty and goodness that's offered in the gospel.
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: And so one example of that if you're talking to somebody about Christ, consciousness and et cetera, et cetera, to start simply complimenting them, man, I can tell you care deeply about spiritual things.
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: And then another example would be like I really like your 14-inch blue mohawk.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: Another way of doing it is like asking the question of curiosity in regards to what they're searching for.
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: What is it like to feel separated from what you call Christ consciousness?
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: Because ultimately, what you're doing is you're trying to discover an aspect of their life that is searching for something, and then from there you can pivot into the actual truth.
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: Ultimately, I can't help but wonder that so many people in new age they sense their need for something.
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: So many people in new age they sense their need for something.
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: They know they're sick and they're looking for a cure.
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: They've just been sold snake oil and we have the actual cure, which is the gospel, and so, instead of going in hard and fast and combative and telling them they're wrong, listen to what they're looking for and provide them the truth, beauty and goodness offered through the gospel.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: In the book of Acts.
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: Somewhere it says we're groping.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: I think it's Acts 17,.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: Paul used the word groping in the King James Version searching for God like a blind man.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah yes, just groping and the scripture you quoted before the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men.
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: We would treat a blind man with tremendous gentleness because of his blindness.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: If someone walked into the studio and tripped over a chair, I wouldn't say look, watch where you're going, buddy.
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: After Mark stopped laughing, what would you do?
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd say to myself this guy cannot see, and the Bible says except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: The God of this world has blinded the minds of them that believe not, and so that's why we need to have gentleness, because they cannot understand what we're saying.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I just want to say, I think, on a closing note, the importance for us as believers to live in true consciousness of Christ.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: Oh, I see what you did there.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying the fact that what as a part of the Great Commission?
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: And lo, I am with you always, that's for sure, people, even unto the end of the age, and that he will never leave us nor forsake us.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: Guys, we have to remember that and then listen to this.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: This is John Wesley.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: His heart is ever lifted up to God at all times and in all places.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: His heart is ever lifted up to God at all times and in all places.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: In this he is never hindered, much less interrupted by any person or thing.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: In retirement or company, in leisure, business or conversation.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: His heart is ever with the Lord.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: Whether he lie down or rise up, god is in all his thoughts.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: He walks with God continually, having the loving eye of his mind still fixed upon him and everywhere seeing him.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: That is invisible, ah, that wherever we are, he is there.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: So that's Christ consciousness.
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: That's what I thought we're going to talk about.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: Dan had to write to you and say is this new age or what?
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: Which direction are we going?
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, it's shining a light on error and then ending with truth that the true consciousness of Jesus is remembering we are not him, we will never be him, but he is with us, he loves us, he redeemed us and he made us his, so go with that, friends.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: Thank you for tuning in to this week's highlights from the Living Waters podcast.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: Friends, we value your time, so we've created a bite-sized version of our podcast for listeners who want to get equipped without the jokes and fellowship.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: Be sure to check out the full episode every Thursday, where we dive deeper into the topic.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: Until then, you can watch the full podcast episode available now on livingwaterstv.