RE-WHAT?

I'm getting really sick and tired of all the reinventing, reimagining, rethinking and redefining that is going on within Christianity these days. What the church really needs is to RE-PENT, as we are told by Christ in the book of Revelation, lest He remove our lampstands before He RE-TURNS to gather His bride to meet her in the air. I pray she will be found faithful and have kept herself pure and unspotted by the world on that day by washing her robes in the blood of the Lamb.

Here is a look at the reinvented and redefined "New Christianity" from a website by the same name. (Please note the Hindu concept of union with God and the unbiblical methods for doing so):

Source: http://www.newchristianity.typepad.com/

Basic Concepts of the New Christianity

1. The New Christianity (NC) presents concrete solutions to the problems of life, and concrete methods for living it. The NC seeks to clarify and explain Christian teachings.

2. The NC encompasses religion, psychology and philosophy.

3. The ultimate goal of the NC is Union with God in this Lifetime. (aka, Heaven, from “The Kingdom of God is within you”, aka Enlightened Freedom from Suffering)

4. Union with God requires control of the thought-waves in the mind.

5. Repeat: Union with God requires control of the thought-waves in the mind.

6. Everything in the Bible, and everything that Jesus Christ taught-as well as every other TRULY highly evolved spiritual leader-concerns the issue of obtaining control of the thought-waves in the mind.

7. In our current state, we do not have control over our own thought-waves. They are controlled by external stimuli and rooted in the events of our individual pasts.

8. Our thoughts lead to words, and our words in turn lead to our actions. Our actions, when repeated, become habits. Our habits become our character, and our character ensures our destiny. Thus, our thoughts-which our not “our own”-control our destiny.

9. The thoughts we plant today are the seeds of our futures. “As ye sow, so shall ye reap.”

10. Thus, we are chained and imprisoned by our thoughts: this is Hell.

11. We have the ability to become free from those bindings-to change our thoughts-and the suffering it causes: this is Heaven or Union with God.

12. The NC is concerned solely with breaking free from these bindings. Whether one “believes” in Christ or not, everyone can benefit from the methods of the NC, as the NC contains psychological truths which are universal and objective in nature.

13. Before one can break free from one’s bindings-escape from Hell-one must learn what those bindings are. Thus, the first exercise of the NC is to “Know thyself,” from which the practice of Watchfulness, or Witnessing, is derived. This directive is all over the Bible and all over spiritual texts of any sort, including Jewish, Hindu, Islamic and Buddhist teachings. The importance of this cannot be understated. (Note that the term Witness is used here in a completely different way than is commonly understood. This term will be more fully discussed in a later posting, but it is the opinion of this writer that common use of the term has arisen due to misunderstanding of its true intent.)

14. The Commandments and the Seven Deadly Sins are merely examples of common ways that human beings allow their thoughts to be controlled. They are guidelines to help one see one’s thoughts.

15. Unfortunately, in a way, the word “Sin” has itself become a sin in the sense that the word itself conjures up automatic thoughts and feelings of guilt, repulsion, judgment and/or condemnation. Some people can become stuck at these very points-thus, the teachings about sin have had the exact opposite of their original intention by imprisoning instead of showing the path to freedom.

16. The NC does not condemn nor judge “sinners”. To do so is to violate many, many passages of the Bible. Further, those who condemn and judge others reveal their own sins, for “The faults one finds in others, are the faults one has oneself.” This is a universal law. Use it when observing your own thoughts, and you will start to become free.

17. Among other things, The Devil is the personification of the Ego. It is the ego that must be subdued, controlled, destroyed. The Bible and other spiritual texts address ego issues such as self-image, pride/humility/vanity, greed/covetousness, and anger, over and over again. Many such negative thoughts originate in the ego.

18. Opinions and beliefs are dangerous when one’s self-image becomes too heavily invested in, too attached to, those opinions. This includes the beliefs in one’s religion, including Christianity. This means that one’s religion can be a source of imprisonment, the very thing religion is intended to help one escape from.

19. The NC teaches methods of obtaining control over one’s own thoughts. These methods are scattered throughout the Bible and many other texts. For some reason, these methods have been lost and are not practiced by the majority of Christians. These methods include, first and foremost, the concept and practice of Watchfulness or Witnessing, from which all other practices derive, Christian meditations, Christian mantras, prayer done correctly, and affirmations, as well as other methods.

20. Religion should not function to control one’s thoughts, but should show how one can control one’s own thoughts. Religion should not tell one what to do, but should show people how to find out for themselves what to do. Religion should not label, condemn and divide, but should deconstruct, value and unite.

The Essentials of New Christianity website had this to say about this adulterated form of Christianity with its New Age terminology (selected excerpts):

Source: http://www.newchristianity.ca/About/
WhatisNewChristianity/tabid/56/Default.aspx

This New Christianity is a spiritual renewal that will reclaim the essence of Christ’s life and teachings. For many of us the path of Jesus has been a way to awakening deep spiritual truths. As we have grown the church has failed us in its inability to move past the Old Testament war God into a relationship with the God of Love, the Source, the God of Creation, the Divine that all people of faith seek to experience.

The shift to a New Christianity does not necessarily mean that we need to abandon the organized church. It does mean that we need to move beyond rote practices and weary metaphors in order to connect powerfully with the divine energy in and around each of us. For some of us we will need to leave or at least take a sabbatical from organized Christianity in order to find our own connection with the divine through Jesus Christ.

As a Christian leader with a thorough understanding of the Christian life and a deep love for the Creator, I am developing a spiritual understanding that integrates Christ’s life and teachings with eastern energy practices that allow me to continue to deepen my connection with the divine. (emphasis in these quotes is mine - Bonnie)

This website, with four pages of recommended resources, lists the books/dvds The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace (M. Scott Peck), The Celestine Prophecy (new age philosophy), The Power of Now: A guide to Spiritual Enlightenment (Eckart Tolle, new age), A Return to Love (Marianne Williamson, new age), and Blue Like Jazz (in which the author, Donald Miller says, "I once listened to an Indian on television say that God was in the wind and the water, and I wondered at how beautiful that was because it meant you could swim in Him or have Him brush your face in a breeze."). This is pantheism, not Christianity.

It is apparent that those who haven't learned from history are bound to repeat its mistakes. Over and over in the Old Testament God warned His people not to worship the gods of the nations around them and to adopt their spiritual practices. Doing so was a serious affront to Him. He knew that doing this would lead them into spiritual darkness. The New Testament also warns us not to live like the Gentiles in the futility of their thinking with their false worship of false gods. Syncretism is equated with unfaithfulness in God's Word.

I find it very disturbing when people say we need to "let God out of the box". Christians have not put God in a box, although it certainly seems many people want to put Christians in a box by saying they do. The written Word is an inerrant account of the revealed Word of God. Is God confined to the pages of a book? Of course not, but the complete revelation to us for this age is. It seems to me that the problem is one of rebellion rather than a lack of knowledge.

In answer to those who have become disillusioned with the church, I believe the problem has more to do with our own disobedience to the words of God. Have Christians down through the ages failed to perfectly do what they are supposed to as the bride of Christ? Of course they have, and yet Christ has not given up on the church. The Holy Spirit continues to guide those who desire to be faithful to Him and His Word even though they sometimes stumble along the way. Christ continues to build His true church as He promised He would. Our infallibility is why we continually need to return to God's Word for correction. There are many in the Christian church who have strayed from God's Word: this is the real problem. It was God who instituted the church, just as He instituted marriage. If we don't like the model, does that mean we can change it. That would be like saying marriage is a good thing, but an affair on the side is a healthy thing to explore. There is no perfect marriage and no perfect church, but there are faithful marriage partners and there are faithful believers even though they may not have a perfect relationship with their spouse. But God honors and rewards their faithfulness.

Contrary to what those promoting the "New Christianity" appear to believe, the way is narrow, and there are few who find it.(Matthew 7:13-15). I have no personal vendetta against those who promote false teaching. I feel pity for those who have been led away from the safety of the Scriptures. That is why I expose doctrine that is contrary to God's Word and warn others about it, in the same way I would warn my teenagers not to drive on the wrong side of the road. The human race needs a standard to follow and an orderly way of doing things. Those who try to "wing it" with their spiritual beliefs have no assurance they are on the right track, and theology is only dry to those who have lost their first love. If you are reading this blog because you are exploring the "New Christianity" I implore you to REPENT and turn to Christ alone for salvation by the way of His atonement for your sin by His shed blood on the cross.