Abundant Joy

My shirt has probably gotten your attention tonight. “Bad Theology Hurts People.” It’s the title of my talk because we thought if we titled it “Syncretism”, nobody would come! Tonight, I am going to show you how New Thought/ New Age practices have blended into Christianity (syncretism) and how the result has caused harm to the body of Christ. I hope you will learn what to look for, and how to guard against these beliefs.

First, let me introduce myself. My name is Kim Minick and we started attending Summit church about 2 years ago. We moved from a small mountain community in Southern California. My husband was born in Sheridan, and we have loved visiting for the last 30 years. We are so excited to finally be able to live here in Wyoming! We attended the same church for 32 years, and I first worked with the youth for about 15 years, and then I moved to women’s ministry which I loved. I saw the opportunity to serve on the women’s ministry team here and I jumped on it!

I have always been a teacher. I don’t think I could have been anything else. When I was in high school, I worked with our juniors- the third and 4th graders. When I graduated high school, I started working with the junior high group. When I got married at 20 (still married 37 years later!) and we moved to our mountain community, I volunteered at our new church to work with the youth group. I finished my degree and I got a job teaching high school Special Education English. I retired two years ago after 25 years and we moved to Story. We have three adult sons who still live in California.

I still love teaching, but God is using me in a new way. I’ve always read my Bible, but I used to pray that God would give me a love, a passion for it. Boy did he answer that! I love nothing more than to sit in my sunroom studying God’s word. I spent my first year of retirement digging deep into the book of Ephesians and all of last year on 1 Peter. I’m still working on finishing first Peter! You can find my blog at Abundant Joy – Digging Deep Into The Word

I especially love apologetics, being able to give a defense for the Christian faith. My goal for you tonight is that you will understand how important it is for you to know your Bible, not just verses pulled out of context, but the overarching story of the whole Bible, of God’s plan of redemption for mankind. I want you to understand the Bible in context so that you will recognize false beliefs when they are present in the church.

The key passage for tonight is this:

In fact, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Evil people and impostors will become worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed. You know those who taught you, and you know that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3:12-17

Paul warned Timothy that the way to avoid being deceived was to know the Scriptures. These verses tell us that all Scripture is inspired by God.

Let’s start by looking at some statistics from the Barna Research Group.

-About ½ of Americans believe that the Bible includes everything a person needs to know to live a meaningful life.

That sounds pretty encouraging, doesn’t it? And yet-

-Of over 2 billion Christians in the world, only 30% will ever read through the entire Bible.

-82% of Christian Americans only read their bibles on Sunday while in church.

These numbers help to explain the next set of statistics. A 2022 Ligonier and Lifeway Research Study on the state of Theology study found:

• 67% agree “God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism and Islam.”

 • 51% agree “God learns and adapts to different circumstances.”

• 55% agree “Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God.”

 • 53% agree “Jesus was a great teacher, but he was not God.”

• 59% agree “The Holy Spirit is a force but is not a personal being.”

 • 51% agree “The Holy Spirit gives a spiritual new birth or new life before a person has faith in Jesus Christ.”

• 22% agree “The Holy Spirit can tell me to do something which is forbidden in the Bible.

It is no wonder that so many false beliefs have now crept into Christianity. These things that are believed by over half of evangelical Christians are unbiblical. But this is nothing new. Paul wrote in Galatians 1: 6-7, “I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from him who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are troubling you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.” Paul was writing about a heresy that had swept through the early church called Gnosticism. The Gnostics felt that the spirit was good and the body was bad. A simple definition of what the Gnostics believed is that salvation comes through a secret knowledge that awakens one’s knowledge of the divine spiritual nature of humankind. There is a lot more to it, but this will do for our purposes tonight.

What does this have to do with our topic? I’m going to be talking about syncretism, the blending of other religions into Christianity. Specifically, I’m going to be talking about how both New Age and New Thought ideas (both gnostic in practice) have made their way into Christianity. I’ve already stated how important it is to know the Bible, both the overarching storyline of God’s redemptive plan for humankind, and of understanding how to read the Bible in context. In Jude we read, “Dear friends, although I was eager to write you about the salvation we share, I found it necessary to write, appealing to you to contend for the faith that was delivered to the saints once for all.” We need to know the Gospel message. We need to contend for the faith that was delivered once and for all. I read this in a blog article titled “Syncretism and the Death of Christianity -In Jesus Alone… or Nothing.”  “…it is impossible to mix anything with Jesus and not create something new and unholy. Adding anything to the life and teachings of Jesus and biblical truth simply creates heresy. It may retain Christian teaching and titles, but it is not the faith of the apostles.”

Let’s first look at New Thought. People often confuse New Thought with New Age but they are different. People can hold both beliefs, and they are often intertwined. New Thought often masquerades as Christian and uses Christian terms. It will help to look at a brief history of New Thought and then see how it has infiltrated the church.

New Thought can be traced to Phineas Quimby (1802-1866). He was a 19th century mystic, faith healer, and hypnotist. He taught people that their thoughts are made from pure energy and that a process of like energy attracting like energy exists through which a person can improve their health, wealth, and personal relationships. Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, was a student of his. E.W Kenyon (1867-1948) was a pastor who admired the work of Mary Baker Eddy. He incorporated her ideas into his writings and teachings. Kenneth Hagin plagiarized much of Kenyon’s work and moved them to the masses through his books, appearances, and Rhema Bible Training College. He is considered the father of the Word of Faith movement. He argued that God created the universe by speaking it into existence and because we are created in his exact image, we also have these powers. Kenneth Copeland, a student of Kenneth Hagin goes even further by saying that we are little gods.

The Word of Faith doctrine has spread to the hyper-charismatic church. This is the fastest growing church movement worldwide with 369 million participants. Churches such as Bethel in Redding, CA are having a huge impact on our music, which is how they get their theology into churches. Bill Johnson, lead pastor of Bethel, says this about Bethel music. “Music bypasses all of the intellectual barriers, and when the anointing of God is on a song, people will begin to believe things they wouldn’t believe through teaching.” As we will see, quite a few of Bethel’s teachings are problematic. There is nowhere in the Bible that teaches us to separate our heart from our head. In fact, Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable—who can understand it?” And when Jesus was asked what the greatest command was, he said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). We need to use both our heart and our mind.

The reason I will be using Bethel so much is because there is so much information on them and they are representative of the hyper-charismatic movement. Bethel teaches a New Thought idea called Law of Attraction. They don’t call it this, but this is what it is. This is what Phineas Quimby taught in the 1800s. This is the idea that positive or negative thoughts bring positive or negative experiences into a person’s life. One of the ways this manifests itself is positive confession. A person claims or affirms healing, well-being, prosperity, and other promises from God before they experience results. I heard one commentator say that these preachers don’t allow for a theology of suffering. And yet, we see in the New Testament that we will be called to suffer for the gospel. Remember our key verse for tonight. Paul tells Timothy that all who want to live a godly life will be persecuted. One of the things they do is decree and declare in their prayers, believing that their words have the power to create that reality.

This is where the bad theology comes in. It can creep into our prayers without us realizing it. I have a friend who posted a prayer to her Facebook page decreeing and declaring safety over her children. It was one of those posts where you were challenged to copy and repost. She is a strong Christian who is not part of this movement. I honestly don’t think she knew where this idea came from. But what does it mean to decree and declare? By definition, a decree is an official order issued by a legal authority. In order for the decree to be official, the person issuing the decree must have the authority to pronounce the order. To declare means to make something known formally. But a declaration does not have the power to make something happen. There is nowhere or no example in the Bible where we are told to decree or declare. Our words do not have the power to make things happen. You can imagine that if someone had prayed that prayer on the Facebook post and then lost their child, they would be devastated. We are not more powerful than God and we do not have the authority to make him do anything. This is a tweet from Kris Vallotton, the “prophet” of Bethel. (The slide I showed is Kris Vallotton’s sharing a Bill Johnson quote in a tweet. It is this: “God is in charge but He is not in control. He has left us in control.” -Bill Johnson). Bethel teaches that while God is in charge, he is not in control. He has left us in control. I’m not sure how that works, to be honest with you! I am so thankful we are not in control! Bethel is teaching a very bad theology that is harming people. Many people have left the church because they don’t understand why their prayers haven’t been answered. They have a wrong understanding of the Bible with verses pulled out of context to teach something that is not correct. They also have a wrong understanding of who God is, and of who we are in relationship to his holiness and sovereignty.

Another place we see the Law of Attraction is in the popular book The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. She has written several follow up books also that teach that your thoughts can change your life. You can use the power of positive thinking to achieve anything you can imagine. Her books were popularized on Oprah Winfrey and became instant best sellers. I have Christian friends who have read and recommended these books, but this is dangerous New Thought teaching. She writes in her book The Secret, “You are God in a physical body. You are Spirit in the flesh. You are eternal life expressing itself as you. You are a cosmic being. You are all power.  You are all wisdom. You are all intelligence. You are perfection. You are magnificence. You are the Creator, and you are creating the creation of you on this planet” (pg. 164). Yikes! No we are not! Stay away from the false teaching of this book. There is only one God, and it is not you!

Let’s move on to the New Age movement. The New Age can encompass New Thought, but flows from many eastern religions including Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism. It also incorporates the human potential movement and mysticism. Every New Ager will have different beliefs- I’ve heard it described like a salad bar- you pick your favorite beliefs and incorporate them into your life. Many people start with one and then move deeper and deeper in. Most believe that human transformation is possible when people open themselves up to spiritual energies that are available to every human being. They hope to attain a higher consciousness so they can tap into their full human potential. They do this through yoga, crystals, astrology, and anything else that will open them up to the spirit realm. Another common belief is monism- everything is one substance. Monism holds that because everything is one, humanity is no different from God, who is no different from the rocks in the front yard. We are all related and we all depend on each other. Our differences are in our vibrations, energy, and abilities, but not in our value. We are all part of the whole. They also believe that everything is god, also known as pantheism. Philosopher and apologist Douglas Groothuis says this about the New Ager. “Ultimate reality is god, who is in all and through all; In fact god is all.”

It is an impersonal God, not the God of Christianity. The Christian God is personal infinite and distinct from His creation.

New Agers rely heavily on their experiences rather than facts. Mystical experiences give them all the evidence they need that their beliefs are true. This leads them to dabble in astrology, channeling of spirits, and meditation to reach cosmic consciousness. So how does this blend with Christianity? Let’s look at some statistics:

Pew Research conducted a survey in 2018 and found that New Age beliefs were common in both religious and nonreligious Americans. Here are some of the startling numbers.

The P represents Protestant and the E represents Evangelical.

-Believe spiritual energy can be located in physical things.    P-32%    E– 24%

-Believe in psychics.     P– 38%    E- 33%

-Believe in reincarnation.    P-26%     E– 19%

-Believe in astrology.      P– 24%    E– 18%

New Age mysticism has infiltrated the church. There is much talk about revival, but it is not revival in the traditional sense. Let’s look at what two men say about revival. John Wesley (1703 -1791) said this:

“You have nothing to do but save souls. Therefore spend and be spent on this work. And go not only to those that need you, but to those that need you most. It is not your business to preach so many times, and to take care of this or that society; but to save as many souls as you can; to bring as many sinners as you possibly can to repentance.”

Wesley was an English cleric, theologian, and evangelist who was the leader of a revival movement within the Church of England. He preached 49,000 sermons by the time he died at age 87. The revival transformed the English-speaking countries of the world. Our denomination is named for him. At the end of his life, he wrote this. “I always observe, wherever a work of sanctification breaks out, the whole work of God prospers.”

Contrast that with Bill Johnson of Bethel Church of Redding ‘s statements on revival.

“Bethel is a congregation rooted in the love of God and dedicated to worldwide transformation through revival. The Lord has given us a mandate to be a resource center to impact cities and nations. We believe we’re on the edge of the greatest revival of all time.

We are a vibrant family of hope-filled believers who deeply experience the love and presence of God and partner with Jesus to express the joy and power of His kingdom in every area of life. At the center of our gatherings is a pursuit of God’s presence, where our hearts are transformed and launched into our destinies. We are excited to run with you and pursue God’s presence until the earth looks like heaven.”

Notice what is missing from the quote. The gospel is not the good news that Jesus has saved us from our sins, but a gospel of power. The center of their gatherings isn’t a preaching of God’s word, but a pursuit of God’s presence. Their ministry is focused on signs and wonders which leads right into New Age mysticism.

Bethel sells and endorses books on their website which promote occultic practices. One book called The Physics of Heaven has chapters that Bill and Benni Johnson contributed to. Chapter five of the book teaches that wherever there is something real, there has to be a counterfeit. They teach that if there are spirit guides, channeling, meditation, crystals, auras, trances, etc., these are the counterfeits and the real thing belongs to the church. The author of this chapter says, “When you see a counterfeit, don’t shrink back in fear- let this cry rise in your heart, THAT IS  MINE AND I WANT IT BACK!’ (pg. 49). The book teaches that all these New Age practices are okay, and in fact, belong in the church. In other chapters, they talk about positive and negative vibrations, portals, our genetics being aligned with the Father’s genetics, and other very strange, unbiblical New Age stuff.

Bethel relies heavily on signs and wonders. They rely on experience over theology. Because of this, the church values emotional experiences over the Word of God. Bill Johnson, the lead pastor has said the following:

“Many Christians miss out on God encounters because they are satisfied with good theology.”

When he is talking about God encounters, he is talking about physical manifestations (whatever that may look like). Theology is the study of God. Good theology is the correct study of God. Let that sink in for a minute.

1 John 4:1 says, “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

Another quote from Johnson:

“God will never violate His word, but He doesn’t seem to mind violating our understanding of His word.”

What does he even mean by that? God is clear with the Bible. He has not put some secret, hidden message that we don’t understand. Again, let’s look at our passage for tonight.

“All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17

God is not going to change the meaning of Scripture to mean something different today than it did when it was written.

One last quote from Bill Johnson:

“Our mandate is simple: raise up a generation that can openly display the raw power of God.”

I’m not sure where they got that mandate. What about Jesus’s mandate?

“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you.”   Matthew 28:19-20a

There are several ways this harms people. When people go from one emotional experience to another, seeking signs and wonders instead of the true gospel, they lose out on the true gospel. When they don’t see the miracles occur, they leave the church. I watched one video of a former Bethel worship leader and he recounts how many of his friends are now either in the New Age completely or atheists. You can watch his series here: (29) Breaking Bethel Series – YouTube

The Bible warns against many of the practices that Bethel promotes in their books, teaches at their School of Supernatural Ministry and teaches from the pulpit.

“No one among you is to sacrifice his son or daughter in the fire, practice divination, tell fortunes, interpret omens, practice sorcery, cast spells, consult a medium or a spiritist, or inquire of the dead. Everyone who does these acts is detestable to the Lord, and the Lord your God is driving out the nations before you because of these detestable acts.”  Deuteronomy 18:10-12

God forbade the Israelites from doing these things. Moses said everyone who does these things is detestable to God.

Here are a couple more ways that New Age beliefs have crept into Christianity-

Progressive Christianity. Let’s look at the website ProgressiveChristianity.org : The Core Values of Progressive Christianity to their values.  Notice the unity of all life, and many faith traditions always lead to God. These are New Age values.

Richard Rohr is a very popular Franciscan priest who is a highly influential author and leader in the Progressive Church movement. He believes that Jesus was a model for us to follow. He separates Jesus and Christ into two entities with Jesus being nothing more than “a model and exemplar” of the human and divine united in one human body. In Rohr’s view, Christ is a cosmic reality that is found “whenever the material and the divine coexist- which is always and everywhere.”

He denies all the basic tenets of Christianity (original sin, the atonement, Jesus being the only way of salvation) and he teaches a New Age understanding of God in his book The Universal Christ. He has been interviewed by Oprah Winfrey and is a widely quoted author. He holds to panentheism, a combination of pantheism and theism. The world subsists within God, but God is also transcending the universe. It is still unbiblical and New Age.

Richard Rohr also popularized the Enneagram. I know this is not going to be popular, but the Enneagram has New Age roots. The Enneagram Institute is a New Age center that provided workshops and events on learning about “providing assistance on our path to self-knowledge.” The two men who developed it, Oscar Ichazo and Claudio Naranjo got the information through channeling spirits and automatic writing. Here is a link to the New Age Enneagram Institute, where they give a history of the Enneagram. Traditional Enneagram (History) — The Enneagram Institute You can clearly see the mystical, New Age roots. You can also read my blog article titled Does the Enneagram Belong in Church at Does the Enneagram Belong in Church? – Abundant Joy There are YouTube videos of Ichazo and Naranjo giving interviews where they talk about this. I have another video linked below in my resources.

 In all of the things we have talked about tonight-the Law of Attraction, decreeing and declaring, positive confession, signs and wonders, mysticism, experiencing the divine- they all have one thing in common. It puts us at the center. It elevates the self over God. It all goes back to the first lie told in the garden by Satan.

“No! You will certainly not die,” the serpent said to the woman. “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

The lie that started it all! You can be like God. Now that is bad theology! So let’s go back to the beginning. How do we protect ourselves from this lie?

First and foremost, we need to be reading our Bibles. We need to know what it says. What is God’s message to us? I love that we have been challenged to read through the Bible these last two years.

My husband and I are on our third time through of The Bible with the Bible Recap by Tara Leigh Cobble. It has been so helpful in understanding the big picture of the Bible. We read (and listen) to the daily Bible reading in the YouVersion App (you can search for The Bible Recap in the Plans) and then we listen to her podcast. Here is the website. The Bible Recap

I just ordered the book and workbook for The Bible From 30,000 Feet- Soaring Through the Scriptures in One Year from Genesis to Revelation by Skip Heitzig. It looks like it is going to be another good way to read through the Bible!

I just finished reading How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth. This was a super valuable resource. I learned how to read the different types of literature in the Bible (history, wisdom literature, poetry, epistles, etc.). I learned again how important it is to read in context and not pull out a verse and try to make it say something it shouldn’t say. We tend to put ourselves at the center of the Bible and read ourselves into every story. But the Bible isn’t about us. It’s the story of God. He’s the hero, not us! It’s His plan of redemption for mankind.

Another very helpful book that I recommend is The Story of Reality by Greg Koukl. It’s subtitle is “How the World Began, How it Ends, and Everything Important That Happens In Between.” It is a very easy to read explanation of the Christian world-view and of that story of God’s redemptive plan.

Second, we need to understand who God is. What are His attributes? When we don’t have a high enough view of God, it is easy to elevate ourselves. He has some attributes that he shares with us, and some that he does not. Some of his incommunicable attributes (ones he does not share) are God’s eternity (He has always existed); unchangeableness (God does not change, but we do); omnipresence (God is present everywhere, but we are present in only one place at one time). Some of his communicable (ones He does share) attributes are love, knowledge, mercy and justice. I could do a whole lesson on just these attributes and how important it is to understand them, but instead, I will recommend J.I. Packer’s classic book Knowing God. If you really want to dig deep, you can go through a systematic theology book, which is where I first learned about them.

And last, pray. Pray that God would give you wisdom. Pray that He would give you a hunger for His word. Pray that the Holy Spirit would guide you as you read.

I will leave you with this verse. When Paul writes his letter to the church at Ephesus, he tells them to put on the full armor so that they can stand against the schemes of the devil. Every piece of armor that he describes is defensive. Truth like a belt, righteousness like armor, the helmet of salvation. Except one. There is one offensive weapon.

 ^“Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit—which is the word of God.”

Know your Bible! Know what it says. Then, when you hear something that is false, you will know.

Resources:

The Bible Recap

Counterfeit Kingdom- The Dangers of New Revelation, New Prophets, and New Age Practices in the Church by Holly Pivec and R. Douglas Geivett

The Bible From 30,000 Feet- Soaring Through the Scriptures In One Year from Genesis to Revelation by Skip Heitzig

The Story of Reality- How the World Began, How It Ends, and Everything Important That Happens In Between by Gregory Koukl

How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth by Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart

Knowing God by J. I. Packer

Mike Winger’s excellent video on Physics of Heaven:

(22) Bethel and Bill Johnson’s Bridge to the New Age and Spiritual Fakery. – YouTube 

(22) The Origins of the Enneagram – Marcia Montenegro – YouTube

The link below is for Stand to Reason’s STR University. All of the courses are excellent, (and free!) but the one that I referred to in my talk is Never Read a Bible Verse. Stand to Reason (str.org) has many apologetics resources if you are interested in getting started in apologetics.

STR U