Somewhere in the reading I did about the New Age movement, I came across a statement that went something like this: Cults are the price that the church has to pay for getting sidetracked from true spirituality.
The author implied that if Christian churches would tend to genuine spiritual priorities instead of devoting so much time and effort to politics, doctrinal differences, and building expensive edifices, people would find their spiritual longings met within the church and would not be attracted to the phony piety of religious hucksters.
Such a statement is strong medicine, and difficult to swallow. Some may resist it. But the hard fact is that there is a tremendous amount of spiritual searching going on in our world today. And many of the searchers are not the least bit inclined to turn to traditional churches in search of spiritual guidance.
The reasons for this are multitude, and we can't ignore the fact that many people will not turn to a church because they do not want to submit to the moral code it represents. They are searching for a way to spirituality that does not cramp their lifestyle.
On the other hand, honesty demands that we recognize that many spiritual seekers are entering cults and groups that make far more stern demands for lifestyle change than any church would dare. Why don't these people turn to the church instead?
The answer is that whether or not some churches actually are providing the kind of spiritual nurture the seekers desire, the searchers do not perceive the church as an institution prepared to meet their needs. So they turn elsewhere--often to the offbeat, strange, or even satanic fringe religions.
If you read the first article in this two-part series, you know that the New Age movement is much broader in scope than just the offbeat cults. It is not a religion as such, but embraces a wide variety of theistic, atheistic, and agnostic viewpoints.
But by and large, people who are heavily involved in the New Age movement do not participate in traditional Christian churches. (The intrusion of New Age ideas into traditional churches, and the formation of New Age-oriented churches are separate topics beyond the scope of this article.)
No spiritual monopoly
The fact that there is so much spiritual seeking going on right now should be a boon to churches. It is unfortunate that in this time of opportunity many churches find themselves in a situation much like American auto manufacturers faced a few years ago, and are still facing to some degree. The doyens of Detroit had held the comer on the market for cars for so long that they had allowed themselves to become sloppy. Poor design, workmanship, and service drove buyers into the arms of foreign competitors.
In the Western world Christianity held the corner on the spiritual market for more than a millennium and a half. And for the first millennium of that time Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy held a virtually competitionless monopoly in their respective realms. Challenges came more in the form of military conquests by Muslims or pagans than of competing forms of spirituality. The Reformation changed that to some extent, but as national churches were formed in various nations, the church once again was able to fall into patterns of mediocrity without fear of competition.
In the United States the First Amendment to the Constitution has allowed new forms of Christianity to arise continually to appeal to people of diverse spiritual tastes. Religious freedom has helped to make the United States one of the most churchgoing nations in the world. Nonetheless the antireligion of secularism has taken a heavy toll on church membership in recent years.
The spiritual searching we are seeing today is a reaction to secularism's spiritual vacuum. If we were living in the world of our grandparents, we could expect such a reaction to fill vacant church pews automatically.
But the days when churches held a monopoly on spiritual teaching are over. Today we face competition from "import models" of religion. (I use this metaphor guardedly much of the new spirituality is not imported from foreign lands at all, but is very American in origin.) The most prominent of these new models come with a New Age label.
A Christian response
In Confronting the New Age Douglas Groothuis suggests that the church must avoid six pitfalls in responding to the New Age movement. His list covers the spectrum from fortress-style isolationism to chameleonesque adaptation.
The most widely noted fundamentalist response has, unfortunately, come in the form of books by authors who see a swastika behind every mandala and Christian martyrs' blood in every rainbow.
Such a response may be effective for keeping devoted Christians from wandering unawares into New Ageism. But it is hardly effective for winning to Christ individuals who, without a strong Christian background, have gone in search of spirituality and have stumbled into the occult side of the New Age movement.
If Ford, GM, and Chrysler had tried to regain their market share by running television commercials showing graphic pictures of accident victims who were injured in Volkswagens and Toyotas, they might have kept their loyal customers. But they would have had little chance of winning back people who had found the foreign cars better built and more fun to drive. What the American manufacturers needed was a recommitment to quality.
Likewise, Christian churches that want to win for Christ people who have been attracted by New Age forms of spirituality need a recommitment to spiritual quality.
Perhaps one of the most astute observers of the New Age movement is David Spangler. He was heavily involved in the movement, including its occult aspects, for many years. In the early seventies he wrote Revelation: The Birth of a New Age, based on channeled material he received while living in the Findhorn community in Scotland. But in recent years he has backed away from the highly publicized aspects of the movement, taken Revelation off the market, at least temporarily ceased channeling, and begun to explore methods for bringing about a closer dialogue between Christianity and the New Age movement.
Spangler has watched many people come and go within the New Age movement, and his observation is that many of the early New Age devotees who left Christian churches in search of a deeper spirituality are now being attracted back to churches that have recommitted themselves to genuine spirituality.
How can we attract seekers?
Recommitment to genuine spirituality is a vague concept. What specific things should Christian churches that are interested in reaching New Age seekers for Christ do? Eight suggestions come to mind:
1. Don't compromise. The easiest way to attract New Age-oriented people to a church would, of course, be to preach New Age philosophy. But the New Age path to spirituality and the Christian path are as different as the paths of Siddhartha and Abram.
Siddhartha, who came to be known as Buddha--the enlightened one--sought spiritual understanding through the inward journey. Finally, after years of enduring deprivations, he sat down under a tree and vowed not to move until he had achieved enlightenment. Seven weeks later he entered the state of nirvana, in which he came to conclude that it is useless to believe in God, that life consists chiefly of pointless suffering, and that the best end a human spirit can hope for is to be snuffed out and never again have to acknowledge its pain.
Abram, who came to be named Abraham--father of a multitude--sought spiritual understanding in exactly the opposite way. Although he was inclined to look within and to rely on his own resources, he learned during his long life to look outside himself for blessing. He learned to look to God to care for him. His great enlightenment is expressed in his assurance to Isaac at the foot of Mount Moriah: "The Lord will provide." Abraham did not look forward to the obliteration of his spirit, but through faith in God he looked forward to living in an eternal "city . . . , whose builder and maker is God" (Heb. 11:10).
New Age religion looks inward to self or the god within. Christianity looks out ward to the transcendent God who spoke with Abraham and Moses, leading them to turn away from self. Christianity speaks of one Man, Jesus Christ, who lived and died once for the salvation of all who would receive Him. New Ageism speaks of a cosmic Christ, or a Christ spirit that has, through the millennia, incarnated in various bodies as a teacher, not as a Saviour.
Christianity warns of evil spirits, demons who want to take over human bodies and speak lies. New Ageism calls the same beings beneficent spirits who need to use human bodies to channel messages of universal love.
Expectation of a New Age brought in by human cooperation runs contrary to hope for the second coming of Jesus to create a completely new world free from the contamination and sin we witness all around us. Brotherly love is becoming an important issue in the New Age movement.
There can be no compromise between two such diametrically opposed systems of belief. No melding can preserve Christianity's unique, powerful message for the world.
But in rejecting compromise we should not convey the impression that we are unwilling to listen and learn. People, including those in the New Age movement, tend by nature to descend into deaf-eared dogmatism. In order to apply the rest of the points in my list, Christians need to maintain open ears and learn the lessons the New Age movement can teach us about meeting people's felt needs.
2. Help people to find God. Abraham's spiritual journey was successful because he kept following after God until he came to know Him as a friend. When people come to the church as spiritual seekers, we need to help them follow after God as Abraham did. We need to help them find the solutions to their personal problems in God. We need to lead them to the new birth experience, in which they become re-created children of God.
Many New Age-oriented seekers have little or no background in Christianity. We must be equipped to help them to become not just a part of the church, but children of God. It is easier to offer a seeker rituals, church offices, and a seat in the choir than to take the time to lead him or her to truly know God and be reborn through Bible study, meditation, prayer, and shared testimony.
If we are content merely to help seekers find solace in religious activities, we will not have truly satisfied the longing that sent them on their spiritual quest. They may become a part of the church, but until their spiritual longings are satisfied in a growing, knowing relationship with God, they will continue seeking, and may fall into occult spiritual teachings because the church has not met their needs.
3. Reveal the love of God. Our efforts here must be two-pronged. Both our preaching and our lives must be brought into closer harmony with the love of God as Jesus reveals it.
Many of the people who are involved in the New Age movement have rejected Christianity because they think it presents a God who delights in eternally torturing anyone who rebels against Him. The inaccurate portrayal of God's character that is inherent in the doctrine of eternal torment drives people away from God and into the arms of channels who proclaim that there is no judgment and that we are all a part of the eternal God.
The more biblically defensible doctrine of the ultimate destruction of the wicked by the fire that will finally cleanse the universe of sin (cf. Matt. 10:28; 2 Peter 3:7-13; Mal. 4:1-3) provides a more accurate picture of God one that woos sinners rather than driving them away in search of something more pleasing.
But we need to do more than preach God's love. We need to live it out in our lives. In a recent interview, Sir George Trevelyan, a leading New Age proponent from England, shared with me his observation that brotherly love is becoming an important issue in the New Age movement. In fact, he said, a lot of hugging goes on at most New Age gatherings these days.
People want to belong to groups that both provide loving, accepting fellow ship and are involved in changing our world for the better. The church should be foremost in demonstrating this type of love, fellowship, and concern.
4. Let God speak to them through His Word. Those who go in search of spiritual light often become captivated by a channel who speaks messages for a supposedly munificent discarnate being. The captivating power of channels lies in their ability to give authoritative spiritual guidance from a supernatural source.
Christianity has, in the Bible, an authoritative, supernaturally given source of spiritual guidance. A church that wants to attract people who are seeking guidance needs to let God's Word speak to and through it. This leaves no room for rationalization or pandering to the desires of those who are unwilling to submit to the will of God.
When the church speaks unashamedly, unequivocatingly for God, pro claiming the message of His Word, people will listen.
5. Show concern for physical as well as spiritual health. Many people's first con tact with New Age ideas comes as a result of a health problem. Discontented or disillusioned with the medical establishment, they go seeking alternate therapies. If they find relief through treatment by a holistic health practitioner, they often become open to learn about the practitioner's philosophy of life which may be distinctly New Age.
Seventh-day Adventists in particular have a health message that has been proved to lengthen and strengthen life. Often, though, we don't live it or share it with others. Or when we do speak of it, it is in a negative "don't" mode instead of in the positive "this might help" mode.
Many other Christian churches have tended to concern themselves with spiritual matters and have, in practice if not in doctrine, denied that a healthful life style has anything to do with spirituality.
But holism (or wholism) is the watch word of the day in our world, and not only among New Age devotees. People realize now that it is impossible to treat one aspect of a person's life without having an impact on all other aspects. A Christian wholistic approach to health must deal with issues such as diet, exercise, consumption of tobacco, alcohol, and prescription and nonprescription drugs, and temperate use of physical energies to help people optimize their spiritual and physical lives.
6. Show concern for our planet. Most people who are part of the New Age movement are concerned with ecology. They fault the church for extending the Puritan work ethic to the point that Christians have not spoken out against capitalistic ventures that wound our environment. They think that Christians live for "pie in the sky by and by," and that we aren't concerned about depletion of resources, fouling of water supplies, or poisoning of the ocean because we figure God is going to make all things new anyhow.
But Adam and Eve were placed on this planet to tend and keep it. Good stewardship demands that Christians exercise great care to preserve the resources that God has placed under our management. If we take this responsibility seriously and begin to speak out on environmental issues and act with an ecologically tuned conscience, this will help New Age-oriented people to realize that we are not so heavenly minded as to be of no earthly good.
Of course, environmental concerns must not become our chief focus. As I will note in my eighth point, we must continue to strongly proclaim that the only real hope for permanent solutions for our world lies in trust in God and His promise to make all things new.
7. Show concern for people. The New Age movement has been accused of narcissism and with looking out only for "number one." This accusation, though, is based largely on observation of only the most public and conspicuous aspects of the movement the commercial ventures that appeal to people's desire to get ahead in life. Many people within the movement are genuinely concerned with helping others.
The church, of all institutions, should be known for sharing this concern. And most churches do reach out with help for the helpless. But in these days of disproportionate distribution of the world's resources and increasing disparity between the opportunities available to the rich and poor, this needs to be an especially high priority item. Jesus' final parable, according to Matthew's Gospel, warned of the perils of being so involved in religiosity that we ignore the needs of the hungry, thirsty, the aliens, naked, sick, and imprisoned (see Matt. 25:31-46).
Making this a high priority item will strengthen our credibility with the spiritual seekers in the world.
8. Believe in and preach the hope of the Second Coming. New Age hopes fade into mere shadows beside the glorious, blessed hope provided in Jesus' promise to return and make all things new. Christians have a hope that is not based on wishful thinking about some nebulous transformation of consciousness that will make people treat their neighbors better.
The hope of the Second Coming is based on the promises of the Son of God, who cared enough to leave heaven and come to earth to suffer and die, even though He didn't have to. We can and should steadfastly and with great assurance preach the message that He will return again.
The Second Coming hope, or what I like to call the New Earth hope, takes away the need of a New Age hope or a New Age movement.
Replacing the New Age movement
If Christian churches will carefully, creatively, and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit address and take action on the concerns I have listed above, the New Age movement should pose no threat to Christianity.
It is the churches' failure to address these issues that makes room for the New Age movement to grow and win converts. Christianity could just as well be benefiting from the energy of the people who are joining New Age organizations. But we must first let people know that they can find genuine spiritual and other help within the church. We must let them know that they will not be judged and condemned when they enter the doors of our churches. We must let them know that we are not just narrow moralists who want to take away all their freedoms and fun. We must let them know that we care about them, about the world we live in, and about God.
If we can do that, then we should be able to lead them to know and serve and love the God who has promised a New Earth to replace the New Age. Then the New Earth movement can replace the New Age movement.
