The Oldest New Idea
Your coworker wears a healing crystal. Your cousin reads her horoscope every morning. A friend says he is spiritual but not religious, that he believes in energy and the universe, and that he thinks he has lived before. None of them would say they belong to something called the New Age, because the New Age is more like a climate than a church. It has no founder, no headquarters, no membership roll, and no creed. It is a loose family of beliefs that share one conviction: the divine is found within, and the way forward is to awaken to it.
It is more common than many Christians realize. In 2018 the Pew Research Center reported that about six in ten American adults accept at least one of four New Age beliefs: psychics, spiritual energy in physical objects, reincarnation, or astrology. The share among Christians was also about six in ten, and among evangelical Protestants it was 47 percent. These ideas are in our pews.
A broad modern spiritual movement, drawn from Western occult teaching and Eastern religion, which holds that all reality is one and divine, that people can awaken to their own divinity, and that spiritual practices, inner wisdom, and unseen guides can shape a person's life.
The New Age is too loose to be a single group, but it belongs in this section because it so often borrows Christian words. It speaks of Christ, healing, love, and light while meaning something else. That is what we mean by a cult in the theological sense: Christian words with another Jesus and another gospel behind them (2 Corinthians 11:4). See What Is a Cult?.
We Have Heard This Before
“And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”GENESIS 3:4–5 · KJV
The serpent made three offers. You will not really die. Your eyes will be opened. You will be as gods. Nearly everything in the New Age is one of those three. Reincarnation says death is not really the end. Enlightenment promises opened eyes. The divine self promises godhood. The newest thing about the New Age is its name.
Many who try these things are lonely, hurting, or hungry for something real, and that hunger is no sin. We oppose the teaching, not the person. Most people who read a horoscope are not occultists, and we should never treat them that way.
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For Deeper Study
- Unmasking the New AgeAmazon Douglas R. GroothuisA clear evangelical analysis of the movement's central beliefs.
- A Crash Course on the New Age MovementAmazon Elliot MillerA short evangelical overview with guidance for witnessing.
- Encyclopedia of New Age BeliefsAmazon John Ankerberg and John WeldonA large evangelical reference, arranged by topic.
- The Universe Next DoorAmazon James W. SireA worldview survey with a chapter on the New Age. Sire is evangelical; we differ on some points of doctrine.
- New Age Religion and Western CultureAmazon Wouter J. HanegraaffThe standard scholarly history. Secular and advanced; not written from a Christian view.
- Foxe's Book of MartyrsAmazon John FoxeThe classic Protestant record of those who died for the faith, from the early church to the English Reformation.
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What Is a Cult?
A cult, as this section uses the word, is a group that uses Christian words while denying the Gospel or the God it reveals, preaching another Jesus, another spirit, or another gospel.
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