Christian Opponents Of The New Age Do Not Know What It's About

by Thomas Ivan Dahlheimer


The two pontifical councils that produced a joint document on the New Age do not know what the New Age is about, and neither do any of the leading Protestant opponents of the New Age, they all get it wrong. Both the leading Catholic and Protestant opponents of the New Age teach that it is about panentheism, this is true, but there are very different forms of panentheism, and the form of panentheism that they claim the New Age is about is totally wrong.

Panentheism is the belief that the divine pervades and interpenetrates every part of the universe and also extends beyond time and space and is infine. The leading Christian opponents of the New Age all most always incorrectly teach that New Agers only believe in the part of panentheism wherein God is immanent, or is "in all things," and for those who do believe and mention that New Agers also believe that God extends beyond time and space, they erroneously teach that God's transcendence beyond the creation is essentially irrelevant to New Agers. The truth is, God's transcendence beyond the creation is the most important part of the New Age spiritual philosophy.

Caryl Matrisciana (1947-2016) was one of the leading Christian opponent of the New Age. She authored a best-selling book titled "Gods of the New Age." There is a popular Caryl Productions YouTube video about the New Age. It is titled "Yoga Uncoiled - Christ Centered Yoga False Christianity - Documentary."

This Caryl Productions video includes an introductory documentary about how the New Age spiritual philosophy entered the mainstream by way of the Beatles' promotion of the yogic Hindu, 1960s hippie spiritual revolution. In this video a narrator states that the 1960s spiritual revolution that the Beatles began to promote-continued to spread throughout the '70s and succeeding decades-and that it "is still rapidly gaining global acceptance today."

The Beatles promoted the spiritual philosophy of Paramahansa Yogananda and his line of Gurus. Yogananda's book "Autobiography of a Yogi" is considered by many to be the New Age Hippie Bible. Yogananda is also considered by many to be the Yogi of the West.



Yogananda wrote: "The word 'God' means the manifested, transcendental Being beyond creation, but existing in relation to creation. Spirit existed before God. God is the Creator of the universe, but Spirit is the Creator of God." The Hindu name for "God" is Brahma. "This Sanskrit word [Brahma] derives from the verbal root b?h 'to expand, grow, fructify', because 'Brahma expands' and becomes the Universe woven out of his own substance." - Theosophy Wiki

A Hindu sacred text states that after Spirit (the Supreme God) "created"/emanated a subordinate God (Brahma), this subordinate God sinned. After this God sinned, He became manifest, because of his sin, as this corrupt and less-than-divine physical universe. A Hindu sacred text says that after God sinned Shiva (Spirit) told him that he would "NEVER BE WORSHIPED." Thus, Hindus and New Agers do not worship the universe.

New Agers do not believe that God and the creation are identical. New Agers believe that a less-than-divine god and the universe are identical. New Agers believe that when this less-than-divine universe can be seen by a spiritually advanced individual as an essentially undifferenated mass of light permeated with Christ Consciousness It can then, rightfully, be perceived as God manifest. New Agers also believe in the unmanifested expression of God, or, the unqualified Absolute, the transcendent Spirit beyond creation.

Helena Blavatsky, the Mother of the New Age Movement, wrote in THE SECRET DOCTRINE Vol. 1, Page 274: The Universe is called, with everything in it, Maya, because all is temporary therein, from the ephemeral life of a fire-fly to that of the Sun. Compared to the eternal immutability of the One [Spirit]. Yogananda wrote: Spirit is not the universe; Spirit is that which was and will be whether the universe does or does not exist.

Yogananda wrote: Maya is the principle of relativity, inversion, contrast, duality, oppositional states; the "Satan" (lit., in Hebrew, "the adversary") of the Old Testament prophets; and the "devil" whom Christ described picturesquely as a "murderer" and a "liar," because "there is no truth in him". -(John 8:44) Yogananda also wrote: Maya is Nature herself—the phenomenal worlds [the universe], ever in transitional flux as antithesis to Divine Immutability. ... Scientists declare that, despite its vast size, the universe is finite. The Infinite, God, is the ultimate cause of all finite creation. ... Being infinite, God cannot be limited to any form, human or stone; yet He is manifest in all forms. ... Beyond the gross vibratory boundaries of matter [or beyond the finite creation], the Immutable Infinite reigns in all His majesty and vastness.

Yogananda's Guru wrote: “Jesus meant, never that he was the sole Son of God, but that no man can obtain the unqualified Absolute, the transcendent Father beyond creation, until he has first manifested the ‘Son’ or activating Christ Consciousness within creation.” - Swami Sri Yukteswar

Yogananda said when one "sees the universe as an essentially undifferentiated mass of light" that person will "manifest the 'Son" or will be activating Christ Consciousness within creation." When Jesus was in this divine state of consciousness He said, "the Father is greater than I." And when Jesus's consciousness had ascended to the Father or attained "the unqualified Absolute, the transcendent Father beyond creation" He said: the Father and I are one."

The late New Age leader, Benjamin Creme, wrote: But eventually a new world religion will be inaugurated which will be a fusion and synthesis of the approach of the East and the approach of the West. The Christ will bring together, not simply Christianity and Buddhism, but the concept of God transcendent—outside of His creation—and also the concept of God immanent in all creation—in man and all creation.

Contrary to what the leading Christian opponents of the New Age believe and teach, for New Agers becoming One with the "unqualified Absolute, the transcendent Father beyond creation" is the ultimate goal.

One of the founding figures of the modern New Age Movement, David Spangler, wrote:

"The idea of a world soul, an anima mundi, a planetary Logos, is an ancient one found in both Eastern and Western culture. The world soul is usually conceived as a "formative force," an active, intelligent, purposeful spiritual presence at work in the material world to guide and guard the course of planetary evolution. It is generally not accorded the status of being the ultimate source, or Creator [Spirit], but might be looked upon as a great angelic or archangelic being [or less-than-divine Brahma] presiding over the well being of the world, or the gestalt, the wholeness of all the lives and patterns that manifest upon, and as, the earth."

Spangler says in this above statement of his that New Agers do not worship the world soul and that New Agers believe in "the ultimate source, or Creator."

Alice Bailey (1880-1949), a deciple of Helena Blavatsky and world-renowned New Ager, wrote in her book Ponder This: "God Transcendent eternally exists, but can only be seen and known and correctly approached, by God Immanent – immanent in individual man, in groups and nations, in organised forms and in religion, in humanity as a whole, and in the planetary Life Itself."

It is essential for a true New Age adherent to consciously merge and permanently unite their soul with the Spirit. If this is not a self accliamed New Agers' ultimate goal they are not a true New Ager. The universe is temporary, the Spirit is eternal. New Agers have to first become One with the divine monistic expression of the Universe, and then go through It (the Divine Cosmic Jesus Christ) to become One with the unqualified Absolute, transcendent Father/Spirit beyond the creation.

The Two Pontifical Councils' Joint Statement About The New Age:

New Age has a marked preference for Eastern or pre-Christian religions, which are reckoned to be uncontaminated by Judaeo-Christian distorsions. Hence great respect is given to ancient agricultural rites and to fertility cults. "Gaia", Mother Earth, is offered as an alternative to God the Father, whose image is seen to be linked to a patriarchal conception of male domination of women. There is talk of God, but it is not a personal God; the God of which New Age speaks is neither personal nor transcendent. Nor is it the Creator and sustainer of the universe, but an "impersonal energy" immanent in the world, with which it forms a "cosmic unity": "All is one". This unity is monistic, pantheistic or, more precisely, panentheistic. God is the "life-principle", the "spirit or soul of the world", the sum total of consciousness existing in the world. In a sense, everything is God. God's presence is clearest in the spiritual aspects of reality, so every mind/spirit is, in some sense, God."

Justice demands that the two pontifical councils that produced a joint document on the New Age admit that they got it wrong, apologize and then produce a new document on the New Age.