|
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." Lesson #61 tells each person
to repeat the affirmation "I am the light of the world."
Lesson #70 teaches the student to say and believe "My
salvation comes from me."
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" and is dedicated to "thought reversal."
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." 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 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 form 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
Him.
Here are some quotes from the "Jesus" of A Course in Miracles:
"There is no sin. . . " A "slain Christ has no meaning." "The journey to the cross should be the last 'useless
journey.'" "Do not make the pathetic error of 'clinging to the old
rugged cross.'" "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." "God is in everything I see."
"The recognition of God is the recognition of yourself."
"The oneness of the Creator and the creation is your
wholeness, your sanity and your limitless power."
"The Atonement is the final lesson he [man] need learn,
for it teaches him that, never having sinned, he has no need
of salvation."
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 h eart 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" 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 than ks to Oprah Winfrey. Her enthusiasm and
generosity have given the book, and me, an audience we would
never otherwise have had." 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."
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 "brillia nt writing" of A
Course in Miracles would produce more peace in the world.
Williamson's New Age colleague, Neale Donald Walsch, said
his "God" stated that "the era of the Single Saviour is
over" 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.
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.
|
