Are there secrets hidden in the occult Christians should glean from?
Recently, after my articles on yoga, Christ consciousness, and martial arts, a few Christians asked if certain spiritual practices they’ve witnessed with the church were of God.
Ezekiel 44:23 NASB
Moreover, they shall teach My people the difference between the holy and the profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.
Olivia and I signed up for an out-of-state “Christian Leaders” conference a few years ago, hoping to glean wisdom and experience from pastors and leaders worldwide. The conference started amazingly, featuring some of our heroes of the faith. The conference was three days long, with multiple events and speakers per day. After each morning service, the event broke out into small groups that met throughout the city at various campuses. Each small group was led by the host church’s more junior leaders and focused on specific topics ranging from worship to the prophetic to building church leaders. There were over a dozen breakout groups to choose from. At that time, Olivia and I, newer pastors, signed up for a group sharing keys on planting churches and discipleship. The session was great until the leaders asked if there were any questions from the audience. Hands went up throughout the auditorium, and the five leaders answered the questions one by one. Then, towards the end of the Q&A, a person asked, “Aside from your leaders and their books and teachings. Who else inspires each of you? And what other books and resources do you recommend us newer leaders glean from?”
After a short pause, one speaker said, “First of all. You cannot be so holy that you cannot glean the Lord from non-Christian sources. We can all agree that the Lord has spoken to us through secular movies, music, books, and speakers, right?” Everyone nodded, agreeing to her statement. “As leaders, we must not limit our influencers and resources to only Christian genres. We believe the Lord wants us to dive into the ungodly to extract and reclaim the Godly things, restoring each back to God and our beliefs.”
“WHAT,” my heart screamed! “What on earth is this woman talking about?”
Sure, God can use whatever is available to reach us because He is a good Father, but the Bible doesn’t teach us to go to the profane to find the holy.
Then, the other speakers chimed in and shared their favorite influencers. “I love Tony Robbins,” one guy said. “I love Elkhart Tolle,” another person said. “I love Paulo Coelho,” another person said. “We love Deepak Chopra,” another more senior leader added. “Ooh, I love Rhonda Byrne, the creator behind The Secret,” another one added. “Mahatma Gandhi has greatly influenced me,” another leader said.
Deuteronomy 22:9 NASB
You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, or all the produce of the seed which you have sown and the increase of the vineyard will become defiled.
The key speaker closed by saying, “The enemy is not a creator. God is! Therefore, anything the enemy has a counterfeit of, there’s an authentic we must seek out and reclaim for Jesus. We eat the meat and spit out the bones.”
My heart broke. This type of teaching and belief is the very reason why the new age has infiltrated the church so easily and mostly uncontested. This blasphemy is why yoga is allowed and encouraged. This doctrine of demons is how angel cards ever became a thing.
The Bible documents what we Christians should do with books about mysticism, witchcraft, new age, and the occult. We should burn and discard them, not embrace or search them out to discover their secrets.
Acts 19:17-20 NASB
This became known to all, both Jews and Greeks, who lived in Ephesus; and fear fell upon them all and the name of the Lord Jesus was being magnified. Many also of those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices. And many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began burning them in the sight of everyone; and they counted up the price of them and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing.
When I left Buddhism in 2003 and dove head first into following Jesus and the Bible, I was astounded to find that the doctrine I had left was alive and thriving within the church with new packaging. The church has “Christianized” the occult! And this has to stop! It grieves the Holy Spirit.
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