Worldviews New Age

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WorldviewsNew Age

• Berea PCA Church
• Fall 2007
• kvworley_at_msn.com

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Outline

• How Should We Then Live? (video)
• Francis Schaeffer shows influence of worldview
  on progression of Western Civilization Personal
  Peace Affluence
• Presentation of alternative worldviews
• New Age / Cosmic Humanism / Neo-Paganism

Bettina Aptheker quit the Communist Party in
1981. She is a professor in Feminist Studies and
lectures 500 students per semester.
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Only 12 of evangelicals know what worldview is,
and only 4 said they needed to know anything
about it.
Remember!!
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What is worldview?

• A worldview is a commitment, a fundamental
  orientation of the heart, that can be expressed
  in a story or as a set of presuppositions
  (starting assumptions) which we hold about the
  basic constitution of reality, and that provides
  the foundation of on which we live and move and
  have our being

• James Sire, The Universe Next Door

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Spirituality Doctrine Lite
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Diagnostic Questions

• What is really real? All is one (Monism).
• What is the nature of the world around us?
  Visible and invisible (altered states of
  consciousness)
• What is a human being? A sleeping god.
• What happens at death? Reincarnation.
• Why is it possible to know anything? Special,
  personal revelation.
• How do we know right from wrong? Good and evil
  are two sides of same coin (Monism).
• What is the meaning of history? Cyclical.

Remember!!
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Neo-Pagan Distinctives

• All is One (monism)
• All is God (pantheism)
• Humanity is God (perfect, but ignorant)
• Man needs higher consciousness
• Occultism occult means secret, hidden
• Gnosticism salvation from secret knowledge
• All religions are one
• Optimistic about a utopian New Age

- Douglas Groothuis Unmasking the New Age
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What is really real?
Theism teaches God is distinct from His creation
Pantheism teaches that all is God rocks, people,
animals
Is the whale my brother? Is the earth my mother?
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When all is one, categories vanish

• Creator/Creation
• God/Man
• Animal/Human
• Christ/Satan
• Life/Death
• Heaven/Hell
• Parents/Children
• Good/Evil

• Male/Female
• Love/Pornography
• Bible/Other Scripture
• Mono/Polytheism
• Monogamy/Polygamy

Through mantras, yoga, meditation, Earth
worshipthe goal is to make You stop making
distinctions. This Is fuzzy thinking and plays
into the Hands of the post-modern tolerance
- Peter Jones, lecture
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Neo-Pagan Distinctives

• All is One (monism)
• All is God (pantheism)
• Humanity is God (perfect, but ignorant)
• Man needs higher consciousness
• Occultism occult means secret, hidden
• Gnosticism salvation from secret knowledge
• All religions are one
• Optimistic about a utopian New Age

- Douglas Groothuis Unmasking the New Age
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All is One
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Neo-Pagan Distinctives

• All is One (monism)
• All is God (pantheism)
• Humanity is God (perfect, but ignorant)
• Man needs higher consciousness
• Occultism occult means secret, hidden
• Gnosticism salvation from secret knowledge
• All religions are one
• Optimistic about a utopian New Age

- Douglas Groothuis Unmasking the New Age
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Diagnostic Questions

• What is really real? All is one (Monism).
• What is the nature of the world around us?
  Visible and invisible (altered states of
  consciousness)
• What is a human being? A sleeping god.
• What happens at death? Reincarnation.
• Why is it possible to know anything? Special,
  personal revelation.
• How do we know right from wrong? Good and evil
  are two sides of same coin (Monism).
• What is the meaning of history? Cyclical.

Remember!!
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Resources

• Douglas Groothuis, Unmasking the New Age
• Peter Jones, www.spirit-wars.com
• The Gnostic Empire Strikes Back
• Cracking DaVincis Code
• Catherine Edwards Sanders, Wiccas Charm