Thank you for the clarification, dear spirited!
I can give a fine example of such a "counterfeit" — the so-called New Age Religion which proclaims the second coming of the Christ. Indeed, according to its prophet Benjamin Creme, the new Christ was incarnated in the Himalayas in 1977, and then moved to London, where he has been waiting in the wings ever since for the right time to declare himself.
But this new Christ is not Jesus. It is a risen Master of the Hierarchy by the name of the Lord Maitreya. He is "moving up" in the Hierarchy, because the current incumbent of the Office of the Christ — see, Christ is a hierarchical office, not a person, not the Son of God — Sanat Kumara, is preparing to leave our earthly system altogether, to assume higher duties elsewhere in the Cosmos.
The one really important thing about Maitreya's accession to "higher office" is the expectation that the traditions of Christianity and Buddhism will be thoroughly blended under his guidance and example. And this is the New Age, One-World religion that all men will come to believe. And a paradise on earth will then commence — under the supervision and direction of the Masters of the Hierarchy.
The risen masters are human beings who, through esoteric practices and a succession of "initiations," through their own efforts are becoming increasingly "god-like." Anyone who wants to take up these practices can do the same for himself. I.e., one can become a risen master himself, given enough time.
There are seven intra-planetary initiations. Jesus Christ is considered only a fourth-degree initiate (owing to his Crucifixion — that was His fourth initiation right there — but there is no mention of his Resurrection). As such he is outranked by the Buddha, who in turn is outranked by Maitreia and the soon-to-be-departed Sanat Kumara.
Here is the rather innocuous-sounding major prayer of this ersatz faith:
The Great InvocationAre we getting the picture here? It is easy for me to understand how an idealistic young person who is disenchanted with the traditional church or synagogue, or a highly-rationalist atheist, would find this new "religion" appealing. It has a nifty scientific, astrophysical ring to it. It totally dispenses with the Christian God and the Holy Scriptures, while retaining the use of familiar Christian symbols.
From the point of Light within the Mind of God
Let Light stream forth into the minds of men.
Let Light descend on Earth.
From the point of Love within the Heart of God
Let Love stream forth into the hearts of men.
May Christ return to Earth.
From the center where the Will of God is known
Let purpose guide the little wills of men —
The purpose which the Masters know and serve.
From the center which we call the race of men
Let the Plan of Love and Light work out.
And may it seal the door where evil dwells.
Let Light and Love and Power
restore the Plan on Earth.
In Transmission: A Meditation for the New Age [1983], Benjamin Creme justifies the new one-world religion this way:
God is both out there and in here. The Christ taught that God is within. Nevertheless, the general view of God in the Western world is to see God as out there, transcendent, above and beyond its creation, to be worshipped from afar. The Eastern approach is quite different. It is to the God within. The Eastern religions have taught us that God is everywhere, that there is nowhere where God is not. God is in all creations — men, animals, trees, everything. There is nothing in the manifested world which is not God. All beings and the space between all beings is God, closer than the breath, closer than the hands, God immanent.But Creme never really explains how that can be. I had a face-to-face conversation with him once upon a time, and would have loved to explore his thinking on this question. But once he discovered I was a "greedy capitalist," religion and philosophy went right out the window, and we spent three hours sparring about politics and economics. It is absolutely clear to me that Benjamin Creme is a British socialist and a radical progressive "one-worlder." And this one-world religion is propagandizing recruits to his political and economic views.
Both approaches are right. God is both transcendent and immanent. In the new world religion, the Christ will bring these two concepts of God together, will synthesize them to show that God is transcendent, above and beyond man and all creation, while at the same time intrinsic, immanent in all creation. Both concepts are true, and both can be held simultaneously, even if they seem to be contradictory....
Anyhoot, dear sister in Christ, I thought you might find this stuff interesting. It demonstrates that "gnostic systems" are very much alive and well TODAY....
Your observation that Darwinism is an inversion of the great chain of being "bespeaking an unbroken continuity between the low (chemicals) and the high — mind" is spot-on, IMHO....
Thank you much for writing, dear sister in Christ! Please share your thoughts with me?
CAUTION: .......Creepy photos... questionable inferences...
http://www.the-tribulation-network.com/dougkrieger/what_the_antichrist_is_not_pt5_files/image004.jpg
http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/4bde14e98cdc.jpg
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New Age is an occult worldview, a form of mystical monism that has much in common with Eastern mystical monism.
The basic foundations of the occult worldview consistently teach the following elements:
1. Monism and evolution: Though there are different forms of monism the common denominator of them all is the idea that the universe and everything in it consists of or is reducible to one substance in process of evolution.
In direct contrast to the Biblical teaching that, even though men are made in the spiritual image of God, they do not partake of God's being (Gen. 1:27), both New Age pantheism and its Eastern counterpart teach that as all things are reducible to one substance, divine spiritualized matter (prakriti), then divine consciousness (God reduced to prakriti) operates within the neural complexity of man's brain. So God is within the brain of man:
“Since the unconscious is God all along, we may further define the goal of spiritual growth to be the attainment of godhood by the conscious self.” (A Different Drum, M. Scott Peck)
Mystical forms of monism characteristically accept some form of pantheism, as exemplified by for example, Teilhard de Chardin's Advaita Hindu pantheist New Religion and Leonard Sweet's Quantum Spirituality based in Teilhard's conceptions.
Advaita (monistic) Hinduism teaches the one ultimate reality that everything consists of is Nirguna Brahman (an impersonal God-force or Void) while Teilhard's system reduces everything to Omega---his version of Brahman.
It is the monistic premise of both Darwinism and mystical occult monism that makes them fundamentally anti-Christian and anti-human. In Dr. Gary North's excellent evaluation of monism, "Unholy Spirits: Occultism and New Age Humanism," North writes that,
"...there is a permanent, unbridgeable gap between the ultimate being of God and the derivative being of creatures. There is a Creator-creature distinction (meaning that) men do not partake of God's being...they are not of the same substance as God. There is no more fundamental doctrine than this one. Significantly, in every form of occultism this principle is denied....Satan's old temptation to man hinges on his denial and man's denial of the Creator-creature distinction..." (pp. 59-61)
2. God is ultimately an impersonal substance as opposed to God as personal and loving (John 3:16)
3. Man's true identity is God since he is one with (shares) God's being as opposed to man created in God's image though not sharing the being of God. (Gen. 1:27)
4. Since there is only one substance, then evil is in harmony with the amoral god-substance or force. In contrast, Scripture teaches that evil operates in opposition to God's holy nature (1 Peter 1:14, 15; 3:12)
5. Illumination or enlightenment (salvation) is achieved through self-realization (awareness of personal divinity) by various occult spiritist practices, i.e., séances, spells, automatic writing, meditation, hypnosis, Ouija boards, shamanic drumming, Kundalini yoga, visualization, mind-altering drugs. Occult salvation is the antithesis of salvation based on the atonement (Christ's suffering and death for sin) and received as a free gift by grace through faith in God and Christ (John 3:16; 5:24; 6:47; 17:3)
6. Psychic or spiritual powers resulting from initiation into occult spiritist practices (see above) open the mind to contact with and even possession by spirits that are often used for personal power. In contrast, Scripture teaches that spiritual gifts are distinct from and work in opposition to occult psychic powers. They are given by God to His people for service to others ( 1 Cor. 12:4-11; 14:3)
7. Eternal cyclic incarnation into different bodies over thousands or millions of years or reabsorption (annihilation and/or personal extinction) into the impersonal substance. In opposition, Scripture teaches physical resurrection and personal immortality in either an eternal physical heaven or hell (Matthew 25:46)
In monism, whether 'secular' Darwinian or mystical occult versions, the traditional Western Judeo-Christian ways of thinking and perceiving are rejected because "all is one." This means there is no ultimate distinction between God and man, God and Jesus Christ and Satan, male and female, true and false, good and evil, moral and immoral, holy and unholy, or right and wrong because "true reality" (the one substance) is beyond the illusory categories associated with the natural (physical) world. This being the case, then murder, genocide, rape, sodomy, pederasty, pedophilia, lying, cheating and theft cannot be considered evil if evil itself is in harmony with the divine one substance.
While nothing can really be considered evil, nor can anything really be considered good. So love, honesty, integrity, courage, fidelity, and commitment cannot be considered good and worthy for the same reason evil cannot be considered evil.
Finally, there is no such thing as personhood (genuine personality) because true reality is the one dimension consisting of the impersonal one substance of which all things are aspects or units: not persons but aspects or units. In this way of thinking, the supernatural dimension and the One God in three Persons who made all men in His spiritual image, do not exist. Therefore personhood is an illusion. In fact, since personality is supposedly a hindrance to occult spiritual enlightenment, it must be destroyed.
The occult worldview of Satan has been with us from the pre-flood days of Noah. Today its' most highly developed forms are Wicca and Advaita Hinduism and derivatives such as the occult New Age spirituality overspreading the West and America and penetrating into the whole body of the Christian church.
Let’s see, Christianity and Islam is becoming Chrislam for political empowerment. What’s coming, Christianity and Buddhism as Buddianity (is that a homosexual issue)?
Thank you for sharing your insights and experiences!
Indeed, the children pouring out of schools these days expect instant gratification. And for them, New Age belief is a quick fix ... check the religious preference box and move on to something else.
