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Feb 21, 2011

"Oprah and Friends" to teach course on New Age Christ By Warren Smith

I believe Blogging should be informative, then entertaining. To talk without real meaning does no one any good,"Give a man a fish and you fill his stomach for a day but teach a man to fish and HE can fill his stomach with food every day."













"Oprah and Friends" to teach course on New Age Christ
By Warren Smith
November 2007
See also Oprah and Eckhart Do the New Age Shift by Warren Smith


Oprah Winfrey will be letting out all the stops on her XM Satellite Radio program this coming year. Beginning January 1, 2008, “Oprah & Friends” will offer a year-long course on the New Age teachings of A Course in Miracles.1 A lesson a day throughout the year will completely cover the 365 lessons from the Course in Miracles “Workbook.” 

 
For example, Lesson #29 asks you to go through your day affirming that “God is in everything I see.”2 Lesson #61 tells each person to repeat the affirmation “I am the light of the world.”3 Lesson #70 teaches the student to say and believe “My salvation comes from me.”4


By the end of the year, “Oprah & Friends” listeners will have completed all of the lessons laid out in the Course in Miracles Workbook. Those who finish the Course will have a wholly redefined spiritual mindset—a New Age worldview that includes the belief that there is no sin, no evil, no devil, and that God is “in” everyone and everything. A Course in Miracles teaches its students to rethink everything they believe about God and life. The Course Workbook bluntly states: “This is a course in mind training”
5 and is dedicated to “thought reversal.”6


Teaching A Course in Miracles will be Oprah’s longtime friend and special XM Satellite Radio reporter Marianne Williamson—who also happens to be one of today’s premier New Age leaders. She and Conversations with God author Neale Donald Walsch co-founded the American Renaissance Alliance in 1997, that later became the Global Renaissance Alliance of New Age leaders, that changed its name again in 2005 to the Peace Alliance. This Peace Alliance seeks to usher in an era of global peace founded on the principles of a New Age/New Spirituality that they are now referring to as a “civil rights movement for the soul.”
7 They all agree that the principles of this New Age/New Spirituality are clearly articulated in A Course in Miracles—which is fast becoming the New Age Bible. So what is A Course in Miracles and what does it teach?


A Course in Miracles is allegedly “new revelation” from “Jesus” to help humanity work through these troubled times. This “Jesus”—who bears no doctrinal resemblance to the Bible’s Jesus Christ—began delivering his channeled teachings in 1965 to a Columbia University Professor of Medical Psychology by the name of Helen Schucman. 

 
One day Schucman heard an “inner voice” stating, “This is a course in miracles. Please take notes.”8 For seven years she diligently took spiritual dictation from this inner voice that described himself as “Jesus.” A Course in Miracles was quietly published in 1975 by the Foundation for Inner Peace. For many years “the Course” was an underground cult classic for New Age seekers who studied “the Course” individually, with friends, or in small study groups.


As a former New Age follower and devoted student of A Course in Miracles, I eventually discovered that the Course in Miracles was—in reality—the truth of the Bible turned upside down. Not having a true understanding of the Bible at the time of my involvement, I was led to believe that A Course in Miracles was “a gift from God” to help everyone understand the “real” meaning of the Bible and to help bring peace to the world. Little did I know that the New Age “Christ” and the New Age teachings of A Course in Miracles were everything the real Jesus Christ warned us to watch out for. In Matthew 24 Jesus warned about false teachers, false teachings and the false “Christs” who would pretend to be He. 





When I left the New Age “Christ” to follow the Bible’s Jesus Christ, I had come to understand that the “Jesus” of A Course in Miracles was a false “Christ,” and that his Course in Miracles was dangerously deceptive. Here are some quotes from the “Jesus” of A Course in Miracles:

  • “There is no sin. . . " 9
  •   [See note]
  •  A “slain Christ has no meaning.”10
  • “The journey to the cross should be the last ‘useless journey.”11
  • “Do not make the pathetic error of ‘clinging to the old rugged cross.’”12
  • “The Name of Jesus Christ as such is but a symbol... It is a symbol that is safely used as a replacement for the many names of all the gods to which you pray.”13
  • “God is in everything I see.”14
  • “The recognition of God is the recognition of yourself.”15
  • “The oneness of the Creator and the creation is your wholeness, your sanity and your limitless power.”16
  • “The Atonement is the final lesson he [man] need learn, for it teaches him that, never having sinned, he has no need of salvation.”17
Most Christians recognize that these teachings are the opposite of what the Bible teaches. In the Bible, Jesus Christ’s atoning death on the cross of Calvary was hardly a “useless journey.” His triumph on the cross provides salvation to all those who confess their sin, accept Him and follow Him as their Lord and Saviour. His victory on the cross rings throughout the New Testament. It has been gloriously sung about in beloved hymns through the ages and is at the heart of our Christian testimony. 

 
I found the Jesus of the Bible to be wholly believable as He taught God’s truth and warned about the spiritual deception that would come in His name. The “Jesus” of A Course in Miracles reveals himself to be an imposter when he blasphemes the true Jesus Christ by saying that a “slain Christ has no meaning” and that we are all “God” and that we are all “Christ.” It was by reading the Bible’s true teachings of Jesus Christ that I came to understand how deceived I had been by A Course in Miracles and my other New Age teachings.

I was introduced to A Course in Miracles by Dr. Gerald Jampolsky’s book Love is Letting Go of Fear. Jampolsky declared in his easy-to-read book how the teachings of A Course in Miracles had changed his life. As an ambassador for A Course in Miracles over the years, Jampolsky has been featured not only in New Age circles but at least twice on Robert Schuller’s Hour of Power. While Schuller introduced Jampolsky and his “fabulous”
18 Course in Miracles-based books to his worldwide television audience, it was Marianne Williamson’s appearance on a 1992 Oprah Winfrey Show that really shook the rafters.

On that program, Oprah enthusiastically endorsed Williamson’s book, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles. Oprah told her television audience that Williamson’s book about A Course in Miracles was one of her favorite books, and that she had already bought a thousand copies and would be handing them out to everyone in her studio audience. Oprah’s endorsement skyrocketed Williamson’s book about A Course in Miracles to the top of the New York Times bestseller list. Ironically, all of this was happening after I had left the Course and the New Age. In fact, I was doing the final editing on my book The Light That Was Dark that warned about the dangers of the New Age—and in particular A Course in Miracles.




After being introduced to the world on Oprah, Marianne Williamson has continued to grow in popularity and, as previously mentioned, has become one of today’s foremost New Age leaders. Williamson credits Winfrey for bringing her book about A Course in Miracles before the world: “For that, my deepest thanks to Oprah Winfrey. Her enthusiasm and generosity have given the book, and me, an audience we would never otherwise have had.”
19 In her 2004 book, The Gift of Change, Williamson wrote:
“Twenty years ago, I saw the guidance of the Course as key to changing one’s personal life; today, I see its guidance as key to changing the world. More than anything else, I see how deeply the two are connected.”20
Thus the New Age teachings of A Course in Miracles are about to be taught by Marianne Williamson to millions of listeners on Oprah’s XM Satellite Radio program. Listeners are encouraged to buy A Course in Miracles for the year-long course. An audio version of A Course in Miracles recited by Richard (John Boy Walton) Thomas is also available on compact disc. 



Popular author Wayne Dyer told his PBS television audience that the “brilliant writing” of A Course in Miracles would produce more peace in the world.21 Williamson’s New Age colleague, Neale Donald Walsch, said his “God” stated that “the era of the Single Saviour is over”22 and that he (“God”) was responsible for authoring the teachings of A Course in Miracles.23
Meanwhile, Gerald Jampolsky’s Course in Miracles-based book, Forgiveness, continues to be sold in Robert Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral bookstore as Schuller prepares to host a January 17-19, 2008, “Rethink Conference” at his Crystal Cathedral.24

At this critical time in the history of the world, the New Gospel/New Spirituality is coming right at the world and the church with its New Age teachings and its New Age Peace Plan. But this New Age Peace Plan has at its deceptive core the bottom-line teaching from A Course in Miracles that “we are all one” because God is “in” everyone and everything. But the Bible is clear that we are not God (Ezekiel 28:2; Hosea 11:9). And per Galatians 3:26-28, our only oneness is in Jesus Christ—not in ourselves as “God” and “Christ.” What Oprah and Marianne Williamson and the world will learn one day is that humanity’s only real and lasting peace is with the true Jesus Christ who is described and quoted in the Holy Bible (Romans 5:1).

Oprah Winfrey’s misplaced faith in Marianne Williamson and the New Age teachings of A Course in Miracles is a sure sign of the times. But an even surer sign of the times is that most Christians are not taking heed to what is happening in the world and in the church. We are not contending for the faith as the Bible admonishes us to do (Jude 3). 



It is time for all of our Purpose-Driven and Emerging church pastors to address the real issue of the day. Our true Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is being reinvented, redefined, and blasphemed right in front of our eyes and hardly anyone seems to notice or care. If we want the world to know who Jesus Christ is, we need to also warn them about who He is not. There is a false New Age “Christ” making huge inroads into the world and into the church. The Apostle Paul said that “it is a shame” we have to even talk about these things, but talk about them we must (Ephesians 5:12-16).

If people want to follow Oprah Winfrey and the New Age “Christ” of A Course in Miracles they certainly have that right. But let them be warned that the New Age “Christ” they are following is not the same Jesus Christ who is so clearly and authoritatively presented in the pages of the Bible.






Warren Smith is a former New Age follower who at one time was deeply involved in the New Age teachings of A Course in Miracles. He is the author of these insightful books:


Reinventing Jesus Christ (2nd edition which is posted online): http://www.reinventingjesuschrist.com


 
Endnotes:

1. http://marianne.com/book/index/htm. It seeems to be broken, so try http://marianne.com instead.


2. A Course in Miracles: Combined Volume (Glen Ellen, California: Foundation for Inner Peace, 1975), (Workbook), p. 45.

3. Ibid., p. 102.

4. Ibid., p. 119.

5. Ibid., (Text), p. 16.

6. Ibid., (Preface), p. ix.

7. Neale Donald Walsch, Tomorrow’s God: Our Greatest Spiritual Challenge (New York: Atria Books, Simon & Schuster, 2004), pp. 262-263.

8. Robert Skutch, Journey Without Distance: The Story behind “A Course in Miracles” (Berkeley, California: Celestial Arts, 1984), p. 54.

9. A Course in Miracles: Combined Volume, (Workbook), p. 183.

10. Ibid., (Text), p. 425.

11. Ibid., p. 52.

12. Ibid.

13. Ibid., (Teachers Manual), p. 58.

14. Ibid., (Workbook), p. 45.

15. Ibid., (Text), p. 147.

16. Ibid., p. 125.

17. Ibid., p. 237.

18. http://www.hourofpower.org/interviews/interviews_detail.cfm?ArticleID=3079
19. Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles A Course in Miracles (New York: Harper Perennial, 1996), p. ix.

20. Marianne Williamson, The Gift Of Change: Spiritual Guidance for a Radically New Life (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2004), p. 5.

21. Wayne Dyer, “There’s a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem,” Public Broadcasting System broadcast in 2001.

22. Neale Donald Walsch, The New Revelations: A Conversation with God (New York: Atria Books, 2002), p. 157.

23. Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations with God: an uncommon dialogue, Book 1 (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1996), p. 90.

24. http://www.rethinkconference.com (See also WorldNetDaily.com 10/30/07 “What is Robert Schuller ‘rethinking’?” by Joseph Farah and “Rethinking Robert Schuller” by Warren Smith. See also Herescope: "Rethinking Culture" and "Rethinking and Reinventing" (10/30/07)




Seven Major Teachings of the New Age

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. [Colossians 2:8]


New Age is not new ... it is a modern revival of ancient religious traditions, along with a potpourri of influences: Eastern mysticism, modern philosophy and psychology, science and science fiction, and the counterculture of the 50s and 60s. "... So here we are in the New Age, a combination of spirituality and superstition, fad and farce, about which the only thing certain is that it is not new. Nobody seems to know exactly where the term came from, but it has been around for several decades or more, and many elements of the New Age, like faith healing, fortune-telling and transmigration of souls, go back for centuries."
 
[Otto Friedrich, "New Age Harmonies," TIME, Dec. 7, 1987.]

Despite its popularity, the New Age is hard to define. It includes a variety of beliefs, fads, and rituals. It seems to be a marriage of Science & Easternism Cult-religious organizations and can be a mixture of Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Spiritualism such as, Church Universal & Triumphant (Elizabeth Clare Prophet). Some New Agers subscribe to some parts, some to others.


It is a religious movement that is centered in SELF- all you need is within - with no defined order of sin, repentance or salvation! You become your own god! The people worship the god of forces and promote The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

 
Jesus was not and is not the only Christ, nor is he God.
 
Some may think that everyone means the same thing when they say "Christ." Christians see the one and only begotten Son of God, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Many New Age writers on the other hand refer to a Christ spirit. They believe there have been many Christ, Jesus being only one of many.

New Age prophetess Alice Bailey and author of many occult books, including
The Reappearance of The Christ, describes the "Avatar of Synthesis," who she says is a "close Associate" of "the Christ." She says: "He works under the great natural Law of Synthesis, producing at-one-ment, unification and fusion. His function (in unison with the energy of Christ) is to generate spiritual will in humanity, the will-to good.

The New Ager understands Christ as a reincarnated avatar, Messiah, or messenger sent from the 'hierarchy' to give the living on earth spiritually advanced revelation. The New Age accepts that Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius, Jesus, and many others were 'Christ'.


The
Baha'i World Faith claims to be in perfect harmony with the Christian Faith yet see the historical Jesus as only one of several manifestations of Christ on equal ground as Abraham, Moses, Krishna, Zoroastrian, Budda, Mohammed, the Bab, and their founder: Baha'u'llah.
"God" is impersonal, cosmic, a God of energy forces.

 
All things, including man, constitute, the ONE - called Universal Mind, The Source, Universal Self, Cosmic Consciousness, Universal Presence, or The Force" - your Inner Voice, Higher Self, or Intuition. " God is an impersonal energy; force, immanent in all things (including man). God can be referred to either as she or he, mother or father, god or goddess.

Do not be deceived! New Agers do not mean God or Jesus Christ of the Bible. Most New Age teachers hold that Mother Earth, the sun, the moon, and the stars, indeed all of Nature can be worshipped as God. 


Man is himself God, for he consists of and is the creator of "the forces." Man already exercises the powers inherent in his divinity and needs only to awaken to this fact.

New Ageism embraces supernaturalism, but ascribes it to the creature, not the Creator (as in Romans 1:22-24). They flaunt the "I am God" concept as it naturally appeals to man's ego and thirst for power, an appeal as old as the Garden of Eden. Satan promised Eve: "Ye shall be as God."

It is of of the goals of the New Age Movement to cause people to rebel against the true God of the Bible and to believe that they are deities. Once Satan has the person in this heretical frame of mind, then the battle is won. The individual will then be called for greater service to the Prince of Darkness. And with a mind clouded and confused, he or she will comply. The individual will have become a member, knowingly or unknowingly, of the Satanic conspiracy.
[Texe Marrs, Millennium, pp. 224-25]


Man should seek and accept spiritual instruction and direction directly from the spirit world. 

The lure of the occult is almost always on the basis of acquiring knowledge or power. [Neil T. Anderson, The Bondage Breaker, pg. 114] We crave a knowledge that is esoteric, not normally available to the ordinary person. We want to experience a power that is spiritual and supernatural in origin. People don't seem to want to hear what God has to say, they want information and direction from someone else who "knows"; a psychic, a channeler, a palm-reader, a card-reader, Ouija boards, astrology, magic charming, automatic writing, or the spirit of a dead friend of relative. 



In a sense these are God-given desire, but they are intended to be fulfilled by the knowledge and power which comes from God. However, Satan is busy trying to pass off his counterfeits for God's knowledge and power as the real thing. If he can get us to accept his versions of knowledge and power, he has a foothold in our life.


All religions and religious teachings lead to the same goal. All are equally of merit.

 
Satan's primary tactic in opposing God is not to foster atheism but religion; not to prove there is no God but to be worshipped as God. "I have not come to found a new religion," Lord Maitreya says. "I have come to teach the art of Self-realization," something which is neither an ideology nor a religion, but benefits people of all religions and those who have none. "I come to you 'like a thief in the night'", He tells us, "so that you will not become too excited. Slowly, as you become aware, you can 'digest' what is 'eaten'. In awareness you will know Me. In 'isms' you will fight against me".

The New Age does express a cloudy sort of religion, claiming vague connections with both Christianity and the major faiths of the East (New Agers like to say the Jesus spent 18 years in India absorbing Hinduism and the teachings of Buddha), plus an occasional dab of pantheism and sorcery. The underlying faith is a lack of faith in the orthodoxies of rationalism, high technology, routine living, spiritual law-and-order. Somehow, the New Agers believe, there must be some secret and mysterious shortcut or alternative path to happiness and health.


"Ecumenism is essential in creating a "Christianity" which embraces all religions. Psychology plays a major ecumenical role by providing common faith, language and ritual for everyone from atheists, cultists and occultists to Roman Catholics and evangelicals."
[Dave Hunt, "Mystery Babylon Part II," The Berean Call, August 1993]


The "ancient wisdom" of Babylon, Egypt and Greece - not the Bible - is the basis of all truth. 

 
Vice President Albert Gore in his book Earth in the Balance; Ecology and the Human Spirit, reveals himself as a person who believes we should have a "mother goddess" that we can worship. He points back to ancient religions and Hinduism and says that they have something good in their worship of "mother earth," and claims that our modern slogan should be the worship of "mother earth"; that man and nature are one, and that God is part of nature, and nature is part of God. On pages 258 through 259 of his book, he shows where he departed from the Baptist faith and entered in to the New Age Religion. 



He says "The richness and diversity of our religious tradition through out history is a spiritual resource long ignored by people of faith, who are often afraid to open their minds to teachings first offered outside their own system of belief." "This Pan-religious perspective may prove especially important where our global civilizations responsibility for the earth is concerned." "Native American Religions for instance offer a rich tapestry of ideas about our relationship to the earth."[Al Gore, Earth In the Balance; Ecology and the Human Spirit, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1992.]


 
Sin and evil do not exist. 
Peace and love are the ultimate realities. 
 
New Agers deny the existence of a hell (gehenna fire) and a judgment. They also deny that sin and evil exist. God (The universe) is alleged to be beyond good and evil.

The New Age gospel is not a system of revolutionary principles. It does not promote strife and war, but aims at peace and unity. It seeks not to set the mother against her daughter nor the father against his son, but fosters the fraternal spirit whereby the human race is regarded as one great "brotherhood." It does not seek to drag down the natural man, but to improve and uplift him. It advocates education and cultivation and appeals to "the best that is within us." It aims to make this world such a comfortable and congenial habitat that Christ's absence from it will not be felt and God will not be needed. 


 
Depending on which branch of the New Age movement you encounter, there may or may not be a great world leader who will emerge to lead us all to enlightenment. Some New Agers await the advent of the Lord Maitreya while others believe we will all become so godlike that we will not need any leaders. The Bible tells of an age when God is going to permit Satan to actually rule in person on this earth!

If a New Age leader emerges, he could well be the Antichrist, an enemy of mankind who will be intent on leading the world into terrible rebellion against God and who will be destroyed along with his followers. Although God's prophets foretold many explicit signs of Christ's first coming most people missed Him. Likewise, God has given many definite signs that point to the second coming of Jesus. False Christ's and false prophets are high on the list.

The question is, do you
KNOW God in Christ Jesus ... as He has revealed Himself in the Scriptures? Have you read His Book? Have you studied it? How can you be sure you know the real God in Christ Jesus if you have not studied what He has said about Himself?


This was from "The Jeremiah Project"






Is The New-Age False "Christ" The Antichrist?: Is "Lord-Maitreya" The Antichrist?


New Age Messiah Identified: Is Lord Maitreya Alive & Living in London?


Prophecy in the News with J. R. Church




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Those who have been redeemed from the Occult, Witchcraft, or any form good or bad of such and know what you believe, please support those who are still in the dark concerning who God is!

Whatever you do here please Testify to it now so everyone can be supported by your obedience to God!

Pray this Prayer for yourself !

Deliverance From Satan and His Demonic Forces is only a Faith prayer away!

If you have not confessed Jesus as Savior and Lord, pray specifically for salvation if you have not already done so.

Stand and thank the Father that it is done in the name of Jesus. Then pray:

Father, in the name of Jesus, I come boldly to Your throne of grace and present myself before You.

I stand in the gap and intercede in my own behalf knowing that the Holy Spirit within me takes hold together with me against the evils that would attempt to hold me in bondage.

I unwrap myself from the bonds of wickedness with my prayers and take my shield of faith and quench every fiery dart of the adversary that would come against me.

Father, You say that whatever I bind on earth is already bound in heaven, and whatever I loose on earth is already loosed in heaven.

You say for me to cast out demons in the name of Jesus.

Lord Rebuke Satan on my behalf, along with all the principalities, the powers, the rulers of the darkness and spiritual wickedness in high places and the demonic spirits assigned to ruin my life .

Take authority over them and bind them away from me now in the mighty name of Jesus your son.

Lord Jesus demand that he desist in his maneuvers now, according to your plan. Satan is a spoiled and defeated foe.

Ministering spirits of God, go forth in the power and might of Jesus and provide the necessary help to me and the assistance I need to overcome him in my flesh.

Father, I have laid hold of my salvation and my heart confession of the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

I now speak of things that are not NOW as though they were ALREADY DONE, for I choose to look at the unseen the eternal things of God.

I say that Satan shall not get an advantage over my life for I am not ignorant of Satan's devices.

I resist Satan with all my being by faith, and he must run in terror from me because the name of Jesus covers me with God's presence, making us one spirit.

I will give Satan no place to control in my life, no place to live and prosper.

I wash myself in the cleansing blood of the Lamb that deep cleans my soul, by reading and thinking like God's word tells me to think, for Satan and his minions are overcome by that blood and by Your Word.

I thank You, Father, that I can tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy in behalf of you Lord.

I am delivered from this present evil world. I am delivered from the powers of darkness and translated into the Kingdom of Your dear Son!

Father, I ask You now to fill those vacant places within in my soul with Your redemption, Your Word, Your Holy Spirit, Your love, Your wisdom, Your righteousness and Your revelation knowledge in the name of Jesus.

I thank You, Father, that I am redeemed out of the hand of Satan by the blood of Jesus.

I am justified and made righteous by the blood of Jesus and I belong to You spirit, soul and body.

I thank You that every enslaving yoke is broken, for I will not become the slave of anything or be brought under its power in the name of Jesus.

I have escaped the snare of the devil who has held me captive by deceit and henceforth I will do Your will, Father, which is to glorify You in my spirit, soul and body.

Thank You, Father, that Jesus was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil in my life.

Satan's works are NOW destroyed in my life in the name of Jesus. Hallelujah!

I now walk in what the Kingdom of God wants done, which is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit!

Praise the Lord! Amen.

Once this prayer has been prayed, thank the Father that Satan and his cohorts are bound.

Stand firm, fixed, immovable and steadfast on your confessions of faith as you intercede on this person's behalf, for greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world

(1 John 4:4).