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Saturday, May 24, 2008

The New Enlightenment Pt. 1

There is an emergence of a new enlightenment or new consciousness evangelizing both secular and religious society and seeking to alter and or remove the message of Jesus in particular from every fact of daily life. At the very least this new enlightenment seeks to place all religions on equal level by borrowing bits and pieces from each one, creating a new spirituality that supposedly transcends thoughts, material and being. Further, this enlightenment has no boundaries and will use every means possible to promote itself and proliferate its message.

Often called the New Age movement by many within Christian circles, these teachings are eclectic (inclusive of many brands of religious and secular thought) and humanistic in nature. The adherents are unrestrained by current religious and doctrinal teachings and are especially rejecting of Christian truths which are often criticized as divisive, weak and ineffective dogma’s.


This new consciousness appeals to the masses and is marketed through corporate productivity and personal improvement seminars, popular books and book clubs, (Alas, my dear beautiful Oprah Winfrey-Ooh how forsaken I feel!) and for credibility’s sake, implores the use of educational terms such as cognitive science (CS) or cognitive science religion (CSR), modern psychology and scientific psychological mapping.

The goals of this new consciousness are noteworthy:

To help humanity achieve it’s potential
To help individuals reach their goals
To help individuals live a better life
To help individuals create more meaningful relationships
To create better workplace environments
To accentuate and focus on the positives and positive thoughts
To help unite humanity in a common cause against hunger, poverty, illiteracy and civil and social injustices.

The problem is not so much the goal, but the method used and encouraged to achieve the end. I am afraid that if we are not careful, our desire to relieve the burdens of the world will only lead to a greater and deeper frustration and ultimately judgement from God.

In order to achieve success new age apostles whether knowingly or unknowingly are generally following the orders of Paul Kurtz and the Humanist Manifesto 2000 in one form or another. As I stated in "The Legacy Of Atheism’s Queen" The objectives and mission statement of the Council For Secular Humanism are as follows:

"…The wider platform for human progress as part of a New Enlightenment needs, I submit, to advocate secularism in the above three senses:
(1) the separation of religion from the state;
(2) the humanization of values that satisfy the deeper interests and needs of human beings; and

(3) the decline of religious practice, entailing the growth of the Human City in place of the City of God."

As you may note, the emphasis is on values, education and the removal of God or religion in general from society. There are several ways that this is being achieved.


  • Remove God and any inference to religion from our schools (X)
  • Removed God and any inference to him from our courts (X) *
  • Remove God and any inference to him from our currency (X)
  • Replace all values with humanistic values (X)
  • Eliminate biblical morality (X)
  • Establish a new morality based on human reasoning, understanding and benefits (X)
  • Redefine family values and civil rights by promoting homosexuals and lesbian marriages (X)
  • Retrain the mind to believe that all spiritual inclinations are only an extension of biological functions (X)
  • Remove God, specifically Jesus, from our hearts (__)
    * = excludes humanistic religion
    I left # 7 blank on purpose, because you may be the last part of the plan still yet standing.
Rev. 13:18 ~ "Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six."

God has been removed from the schools as an uninvited guest, now we have rampant behavioral problems, guns, violence and gross underperformance in far too many places. "In God We Trust" is now being imprinted on the side of currency in effort to move any reference to HIS being. It is obvious, we are witnessing the effort to remove God from society in general. We must admit that the secularists have been successful and that the popular tide is against God.

This is regardless of how many hurricanes we experience, earthquakes we witness, uncontrollable fires that occur and droughts that we experience. Unfortunately, terrorist attacks and wars are short-lived inconveniences that cause us to pause and reflect on ourselves and God briefly and then recommit to strengthen the goals of humanity and double our sins.


Rev. 16:8-11 ~ "And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory. And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds."

In all of this there is one thing that we must note. Man, being the spiritual vessel that he is, has a desire to replace what is lost after asking God to exit. Cognitive science religion (CSR) has declared that man’s brain is "hard-wired and psychologically prepared to believe in God" and further "pass on religious ideas to others in the form of religions and rituals" (The Christian Research Journal Vol 31 No. 2, "Does Religion Originate In The Brain" pg.36 Paul Copan) Whether or not this is true, The whole subject is a bain of conflict for the humanist and materialist.

As stated, lofty goals can be set, but there must be a vehicle in place to help one achieve. So although the humanist believes that he/she is in total control of their futures and destiny, according to their own approved brand of current studies, there must be a path or pattern whereby one can compensate for any perceived spiritual deficiencies and also achieve their goals and supposedly take back control of their own lives.

If this sounds like it’s above your head, don’t be intimidated AT ALL. One thing we are sure of is that it’s nothing new:


Eccl. 1:9 ~ "The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun."



From the late night security guard to the televangelist, everyone is talking about laws, keys, and steps to success and personal fulfillment. From Russell Simmons "Do You" outlining 12 Laws to success to












Rhonda Byrne’s "The Secret" explaining and promoting the understanding of the overarching Universal Law Of Attraction to











Eckhart Tolle’s "A New Earth" and "The Power Of Now", which is repackaged Hinduism and mysticism for a western audience, there is a preoccupation and obsession with laws and principles to help you achieve your success.








To keep up with the trend, there is currently a whole host of "Christian potential" books on the market. Some of the titles are

"Reposition Yourself: Living Life Without Limits" by my man Bishop T.D Jakes,











"Birthing Your Dreams" 2004 Paula White,














"Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential" 2004 and "Become a Better You: 7 Keys to Improving Your Life Every Day" 2007 along with the study guide to help you "Live At Your Full Potential" by Pastor Joel Osteen











Then there was Bishop Thomas Weeks III,"Even As Your Soul Prospers: Realize Your Purpose Release Your Blessings."2004,














and his former spouse Juanita Bynum’s "Matters Of The Heart: Stop Trying To Fix The Old. Let God Give You Something New." 2002











Last but certainly not least, there’s Dollar Creflo’s "Total Life Prosperity: 14 Practical Steps To Receiving God’s Full Blessing" 1999 and my all time personal favorite title "8 Steps To Create The Life You Want" 2008,






Amazingly most of these writings are designed to do one or all of the following:
  • To help raise higher thoughts and conscious awareness
  • To help increase spiritual focus
  • To help clear the focus on actual desires
  • To help eliminate the "noise" of life or center ones self
  • To help increase your God given or natural abilities and potentials
  • To help bring you out of fear and into faith
  • To help increase you personal and material wealth
  • To help improve you physical health and wellbeing
Although various authors implore various methods the goals are generally the same or very similar as those I’ve outlined. To be specific, what we are experiencing is a resurgence of religious eclecticism, Eastern mysticism and metaphysical thought systems.

For the Christian the message has become about appealing to the masses and seeker sensitivity. This is to our utter shame. The reason that mysticism and the new enlightenment have become so appealing is due to the church's lack of consistency of both message and living. The message of sin and repentance has now become a message of "brokeness" and "psychological and spiritual healing". The encouragement to free ourselves from negative thoughts is requires that we relieve ourselves of critical thinking capacities toward leadership and replacing good stewardship and accountability with degrees of personality, sensationalism, association and assimilation.

Our desire to not offend and to win mass appeal, has led to the dysfunctionalisms that we observe in many of our churches and experience through many of our ministries. During a recent battle for the culture of our school system CLICK HERE, I exposed a particular evasive teaching that "stirred up" many individuals in our city.
During the heat of the battle I was contacted by a "spaghetti-backed" pastor telling me that he didn't want to be "professionally associated" with me because of my stance against allowing occultism in the schools system was overbearing. After pondering the issue and checking as to what may have been this persons motivation, there were quite a few discoveries made. One of the most significant ones was that he (the pastor) about a year prior, had lost a church because he had an affair with the secretary... CHURCH secretary!
Now, that's beyond belief...A defrocked, adulterous Pastor didn't want to be "professionally associated" with me because he thought I might make "him look bad" or " taint his image"....Shockingly, he was right...His image was certainly not the image of God and I would have adequately tainted his image of flesh with righteousness and holiness.
Little does the average apostate know that the reason the new enlightenment is tricking and attracting so many is because of what we live, not so much as what we say, but what we live or in all too many cases DON'T live.
Stay tuned for Part 2.
Blessed!

2 comments:

  1. Harvey B wrote:
    "God has been removed from the schools as an uninvited guest, now we have rampant behavioral problems, guns, violence and gross underperformance in far too many places. "In God We Trust" is now being imprinted on the side of currency in effort to move any reference to HIS being. It is obvious, we are witnessing the effort to remove God from society in general. We must admit that the secularists have been successful and that the popular tide is against God.

    This is regardless of how many hurricanes we experience, earthquakes we witness, uncontrollable fires that occur and droughts that we experience. Unfortunately, terrorist attacks and wars are short-lived inconveniences that cause us to pause and reflect on ourselves and God briefly and then recommit to strengthen the goals of humanity and double our sins."

    Dear Harvey,
    Are you seriously suggesting that natural phenomena such as Hurricanes, droughts, and wildfires are occuring as a result of the secular influences within your society? Are you suggesting that they're a punishment from Yahweh? Or am I misunderstanding what you are saying?
    All this sounds very 'Old Testament' to me. If we in the developed nations would cut down on the greenhouse gasses we are pumping into the atmosphere, we might just find that these freak weather conditions will abate in time. We need more science to help us fight this danger, not less. I'm afraid that appeals to an imaginary god will not help us in the slightest to solve these problems.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dingo~ I would expect to hear as much from you and further expect that you would take what I'm saying to try to prove another point.

    Fact is God is real.I know you and your atheist friends don't like that but it's true.

    Second fact is that too many people only want a god that will appease them and make them feel better about things. It's like marriage without committment.

    A spouse that only wants the good times and wants to be uncommitted during the bad is not a good spouse.

    America, in spite of what it goes through only turns to god when it's convenient or when there seems to be an opportunity for personal gain. Soon afterwards they revert bac to the same ole ways.

    Look at 9/11. The next day they were praying on the steps of congress. The next week they were legislating against Christinaity because some atheist said his rights were being violated.

    The fact is that EVERY nation that forgets god will be turned into hell. How is that? The flood gate opens and men are given to the consequesces of what "they want". That's the punishment...the sin you love-ie, flesh self and materialism, overwhelms them. Nature responds because I believe even nature it'self know what's right and identifies it's creator. If the gorund opens at God's command, there's an identification that the earth makes that we know nothing about yet.

    So as much as the atheist wants to believe in an unjust God punishing people arbitrarily for their sins, it doesn't happen like that. People punish themselves when they refuse to follow.

    Peace.

    ReplyDelete

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