Posted on 08/05/2003 9:38:21 PM PDT by TBP
And listening to myself is listening to someone with my own limitations...all of which I know to well.
I want someone perfect to listen to. I don't fit the bill. (Therefore, neither do their teachings.)
IMHO, the New Thought churches are too wishy-washy, plus they have wantonly misinterpreted the Bible. The Bible according to Charles and Mildred Filmore? Doesn't bear much resemblance to the ancient, profound New and Old Testaments.
I was even asked to give talks at a Science of Mind church. I based my talks on Ernest Holme's epic poem in book form: The voice Celestial, which has some lovely passages. Holmes had much more depth than the Fillmores and was also an excellent speaker...I had some of his tapes. But Holmes is long dead and no one can fill his shoes. For me, speaking at the church was the beginning of my path back to more complex beliefs. In New Thought, I found only acceptance of the joys of life as holy. But what about sorrow? The painful paths some are given in life? New Thought makes it seem very unholy not to be on a high fulltime. I find that unrealistic, shallow, and unkind.
Attending a New Thought church is like going to see a motivational speaker.....the experience has value, but has no deep sense of the presence, power, and majesty of God. As I said, it's nice. But nice is not enough for me to base my spiritual life on.
...into the gas chambers of Auschwitz. 1945 was when much of the world soured on the progressivistic idea of human history. Sad to see it's back again.
Very good response, Claud. If you want to blow your mind on this topic, read: Talking With Angels : Budaliget 1943, a transcription of dialogues with "angels" and four women that took place in Hungary in 1943 and 1944. The book is widely hailed in New Thought and New Age circles (concentric circles, IMHO), as the beginning of a new and wonderful belief system. It's quite a slog to read through it. Basically, some voice comes through to the women and nudges them, gradually at first then quite insistently, to give up the idea of God above and to begin to worship the human: God gave you everything, you are perfect, you don't need a savior, God doesn't want you to believe in that nonsense any more. "If you believe in yourself, then you believe in the Divine."
The women all died in concentration camps. Guess they didn't believe in themselves enough.
I was leaning towards pantheism, but this sentence:
This One manifests Itself in and through all creation but is not absorbed by Its creation.
suggests that it might instead be panentheism.
That's the same thing Catholics say about Protestants. The Protestant retort is that he is led by the Holy Spirit.
They differ over the interpretation of scripture and tradition (history), but each recognizes the apostolic origins and authority of both.
When I asked if there was a "book" for the new thought folks, the answer was something about using different materials as each individual feels like it.
There is no authority to which one can appeal to validate teachings. It sounds like they make it up as they go.
I just skimmed, lightly, the article, if that matters.
Protestants and Catholics do share a source material and some history (though any bit of it could be disputed by any given person). I think that's a bit different than whatever mumbo jumbo is being peddled here.
This new thought seems to be nothing other than a worship of progress and a conceit that whatever is novel is authentic or worthwhile. A conservative should abhor such a thing.
SD
Yes.
translation: Smart people who have time to meditate and expand their intellect become one with G-D
This is gnosticism.
There is a story I have heard in both Christian and in Hindu versions, where a holy man once asked the lord to meet the holiest man in the world. An angel came, and they arrived at a poor man's house. The poor man greeted them kindly, and the large and loving family welcomed them, gave them part of their meager food, and their bed, and they treated the visitors with utmost kindness. After they left, an angel told the holy man: that man is closest to God...
If we give a cup of water lovingly in the Lord's name to the least important person in the world, we are closer to God than if we mediate and enlarge our intellect and ego into self satisfaction and egotism....
Della, you will recall, was the head angel on "Touched By an Angel." She's a minister in Culver City, CA.
I beg to differ, new thought and new age are one in the same, just a branch of the many beliefs of new age thinking or spirituality.
No, New Age vests power in crystals, tarot, and various external effects of that kind. New Thought does not do that at all. New Thought is not New Age. They are distinct and different things.
No, New Thought has some very concrete principles. They're similar to the principles taught by Tony Robbins, Steven Covey, Wayne Dyer, and the movie "What the Bleep Do We Know?"
The basic idea is that how we think creates the reality in which we live. "As a man thinketh, so is he." "It is done unto you as you believe."
"Change your thinking, change your life" is one of teh key principles of New Thought. It is a philosophy of prosperity ("It is the Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom") and spiritual healing. Many people find it very empowering.
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