Deceptive Soulish New Age Teaching

Powerful deceptive New Age spirits are at work in the Church of Jesus Christ. As the present Church Age draws to a close, utterly vital is the need for discernment between God’s truth and Satan’s lies; between what is a genuine work of God and the counterfeit of the enemy. Invariably, the New Age teaching is always appealing to the soul. It ministers to the soulish part of man.

I suggest my readers refer to my earlier postings such as, “The three types of men” (posted on 28th. Feb. 2005) and “Soul and soulish activities” (posted on 7th. Nov. 2005). Briefly, the whole personality of a man consists of spirit, soul, and body. Before a man is born again, his spirit is in a state of death and it is impossible for him to relate to God. Instead he relates well to spirit beings that are also in a state of death – that is the evil spirits. When the man is born again, his spirit is quickened, or made alive by the Spirit of God. This enables him to relate to the true God.

Paul said, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely: and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:23, NKJV, emphasis added).

Notice the following:

1. God Himself sanctifies the believers completely. Sanctification is a continuous process in the Christian walk.


2. It is hoped that our sanctification is complete and our spirit, soul, and body found blameless at the Lord’s second coming.


3. Sanctification process is considered complete if our spirit, led by the Spirit of God takes total control of our soul and body.


4. The spirit of a Christian consists of intuitive knowledge of God, and conscience.


5. The soul of a Christian consists of renewed mind, will and emotion.


6. A Christian is considered soulish if his mind is in various stages of renewal and his spirit man is not in total control of his soul and body.

Therefore, a soulish Christian will be easily deceived by soulish teaching of the New Age movement. In fact all New Age teaching and all religious teaching are in the soul realm. The Devil has no power to touch the spirit of the true Christian, but he has the power to touch and deceive the soul of the weak Christian which is not in full control by his spirit man. Matured spiritual Christians will not be deceived by the New Age Movement.

Psychology and the New Age Movement

It is beyond the scope of this message to study in details all the teaching of the New Age Movement. We shall only consider the gospel of “Self-esteem” and the gospel of “Inner Healing” which are commonly taught in the Local Church. Both of these teaching are based on human psychology which is the study of the human mind and human behavior – of the soulish realm. Therefore, psychologists can never understand things of the Spirit of God! But all true Christians understand things of the Spirit of God. Therefore, true Christian psychologist does not exist. It is a pity that most theological colleges and seminaries “Psychology” is a recognized subject. Most theologians fail to understand that psychology has given us a clearer understanding of the unredeemed human character, but it fails to give Biblical answers to the regenerated believers.

Concerning the Church of Jesus Christ, Paul said:

“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:12 – 14, NKJV).

Note the following observation:

1. The true Church understands things of the Spirit of God.


2. To the natural man (like the psychologist) spiritual things are foolishness because spiritual things can only be discerned by the Spirit of God.

Paul said further that the true Church has the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16). If we, as a true body of Christ with the mind of Christ, the Local Church will not be infiltrated by New Age teaching!

Self-Esteem

The BBC English Dictionary defines the word “Esteem” as “admiration and respect”. Therefore “Self-esteem” means “admiration and respect” of self. In Scripture the respect and admiration of self is motivated by pride:

“The rich man’s wealth is his strong city, and like a high wall in his own esteem. Before destruction the heart of a man is haughty, and before honor is humility” (Proverbs 18:11, 12, NKJV, emphasis added).

The Bible teaches us to esteem others and not self:

“Let not mercy and truth forsake you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart, and so find favor and high esteem in the sight of God and man” (Proverbs 3:3, 4, emphasis added).

“Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself” (Phil. 2:3, emphasis added).

“And we urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake” (1 Thess. 5:12, 13, emphasis added).

Denial of self

Jesus did not teach his disciples self-esteem. Instead He taught them self-denial:

“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it” (Luke 9:23, 24).

It is for the sake of self-denial that Paul said:

“Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:9, 10).

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).

The Bible never urges self-acceptance, self-love, self-assertion, self-confidence, self-esteem, self-forgiveness, nor any of the other selfisms that are very popular today. We are not called to accept self, but to turn from self to Christ! We are called to put self to death!

Inner Healing

We cannot talk about inner healing alone without referring to “Visualization”. Visualization is a major technique of Inner Healing. The real danger is, visualization is a very basic tool of operation in the occult realm and it has its foot very well into the door of the Church!

Inner Healing or “healing of the memories” can be a form of hypnosis. Psychologists use hypnosis to “regress” their clients back into their childhood or even into the womb (with the visualization of Jesus in their midst) in order to deal with early traumas. There is no Biblical basis at all in hypnosis and visualization. Visualization has its place, but if it is man’s method of influencing reality, it is unbiblical. It is one thing to visualize the sort of house we ask an architect to design or the garden we are planning. It is quite another to visualize all the seats in a Church to be full when they are empty, or little men with hammers within the body attacking cancer cells. The ends may be in God’s will, but the means to achieve the ends have to be His also. If it suits his purpose Satan can bring a counterfeit healing but in any event our departure into fantasy gives demons both the invitation and the opportunity.

Paul warned the Christians in Colosse: “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh” (Col. 2:8, 23).

“Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5).

Imagination and fantasy may well seem harmless enough, yet the Bible describes them as evil. The practice of visualization in inner healing is seen as rebellion in the sight of God:

“For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry” (1 Samuel 15:23).

The Bible clearly declares that “Christ died for our sins” (1 Cor. 15:3) and that those who receive Him as Savior and Lord are new creations, for whom old things have passed away and all things have become new (2 Cor. 5:17). The past is taken care of on the basis of faith in God and the finished work of Christ on the cross – not on the basis of some psychotherapeutic process (inner healing and visualization) that must be engaged in to make God’s promises effective. In contrast, inner healing is based upon the premise that the past is still attached to us, buried deep within the unconscious, from where it determines our attitudes and actions.

The person who claims to be a Christian psychologist with an inner healing minister is not a Christian. The Christ that he imagines is a counterfeit Christ!