New Thought—Old Lie

Most people are familiar with or have at least heard of the New Age movement, which is a mish-mash of pseudo-spiritual, pseudo-religious ideas and beliefs that blossomed and came to the forefront in the 1960s and 1970s. Although the New Age Movement is admittedly hard to define and means different things to different people, it would be reasonable to say that it is an eclectic mix of ideas and beliefs taken from various Eastern religions and fused with ideas about a holistic form of divinity that pervades the entire universe and the "spiritual authority" of the self.

Although I came of age during the heyday of the New Age movement, my scripturally solid Christian upbringing—although largely ineffective in producing anything resembling Christ-like character in one particular Midwestern teenage boy, I'm sad to say—at the very least clued me in to the fact that all this cool New Age stuff was one big load of malarkey that did little more than deceive innocent, well-meaning people who were looking for something spiritually satisfying, but just didn't know where to look.

Which I knew was the Bible—that dust-covered book I had...somewhere.

I'm happy to report that, for me personally, the New Age movement has been consigned to the same trash heap that my bell-bottoms and tie-dyed T-shirts ended up in (plus I know exactly where that dust-free Bible of mine is).

Recently, however, I learned a bit more about the source of a few of the New Age movement's fundamental ideas and beliefs, and that source was a movement whose name I was not familiar with even though I had read about a few bits and pieces of it. The source I am speaking of is known as the New Thought movement—and although I was familiar with a few of its basic tenets, I had never heard it referred to by that name.

But as I learned more about the New Thought movement recently, it became clear to me that it was the source of a number of slithering vipers that have crawled under the door of today's Church and made a home for themselves, unbeknownst to many sincere but unaware believers.

What I want to do in this article is first give you a (mercifully brief) summary of the origins and development of the New Thought movement just so you have some idea about what we are dealing with and where it came from. Then I want to go to the Word and shred the futile attempts to pass off what New Thought pushes as sound biblical doctrine.

And that's because the Word of God,

rightly divided, tells us in no uncertain

terms that such New Thought beliefs are

absolutely not sound biblical doctrine.

New thought beliefs are simply some of the relatively new arrows in Satan's quiver, and he uses them in his tireless effort to carry out job one:

Blind men's minds to the truth of the gospel.

The roots

When most average people today hear the words "New Age," they typically form mental images of flaky individuals who believe crystals can heal them, that so-called Star People walk among us, and that they can channel advanced species of aliens in the Pleiades. As a result, for most average people the New Age movement is relatively easy to snicker at and dismiss out of hand.

More importantly, they see precious little connection between the New Age movement and biblical Christianity.

As soon as someone starts spouting off about things New Age, most average people are fully aware that such "flaky" individuals have no substantive connection with Christianity or the Bible—they are likely to just smile and think to themselves that the person they are speaking with is "one of those."

But the New Thought movement is a horse of a different color. New Thought may have been the source of a few of the fundamental ideas of New Age—a movement that starkly contrasts with Christianity, but New Thought is so deeply entrenched within the bowels of Christianity that it feeds a number of modern denominations and Church movements. The tentacles of New Thought lie so deeply buried within parts of today's Church that many believers are unaware of them.

Not only that, but in many cases it takes a healthy amount of scriptural discernment to separate the wheat from the chaff, as it were, because as we will see, New Thought beliefs are invariably passed off as more "enlightened" interpretations of certain passages of Scripture. In other words:

Unlike the New Age movement, the New Thought movement is routinely gussied up in the finest Christian apparel.

And that's a problem, because as we shall see, I can categorically state the following simple truth based on the authority of God's Word:

The New Thought movement is based

on lies—some of which are the same lies

that Satan fed Eve in the Garden of Eden.

Nothing has changed. Satan doesn't need new lies—he just dresses up his old lies in more modern apparel to make them more palatable to different generations of people.

But they are just as deceptive and damning as they ever were.

But where do the root beliefs and ideas of New Thought come from? This is a complex question that covers roughly three centuries, but I'm going to do my best to breeze through this quickly and just hit the main ideas.

First, several of the key people:

Emanuel Swedenborg

Many would agree that the original progenitor of the ideas that culminated in the New Thought movement would be Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772).

Swedenborg was a Swedish polymath who experienced a "spiritual awakening" in 1744, after which he believed the Lord had given him freedom to visit heaven and hell anytime he pleased and speak with angels and demons.

Not sure about you, but that right there is a flashing warning light for me.

Swedenborg was convinced that the spiritual world was more real than the visible world we live in, and that everything in the visible world had a correspondence in the spiritual world—although the physical world was a cruder version of the spiritual domain. He saw the Bible as an esoteric work in which words were symbols of higher truths that only the most enlightened minds (such as his) could understand. He also believed that heaven and hell were simply states of mind, not literal places. (Oh, but he still had permission to "visit" them anytime he wanted. Oooh-kay.)

The key point is that it was Swedenborg's work that stimulated a number of others to mine similar veins of thought concerning the supposed relationships between the mind, the physical world, and the spiritual world.

Anton Mesmer

Anton Mesmer (1734–1815) was greatly influenced by Swedenborg's work, and he believed there existed a natural process of energy transference between animate and inanimate objects that he called "animal magnetism." Mesmer believed that manipulation of this natural energy transference could bring about healing of the body, and such techniques eventually became known as hypnosis or mesmerism (hence the word "mesmerize").

The point is that Mesmer did much to advance the theoretical relationships between the mind, the physical or visible world, and the spiritual or invisible world that Swedenborg had developed.

Phineas Quimby

Phineas Quimby (1802–1866) was a follower of Mesmer who further developed these ideas about the relationship between the mind, the physical world, and the spiritual world into the form that people today most closely associate with the New Thought movement.

Quimby was a self-proclaimed healer who believed that illness originated in the mind, and as a result physical illnesses could be overcome by right thinking (aka the "Truth"). According to Quimby, if wrong thinking in the mind can be corrected, then one can be can be cured of illnesses and other problems.

Quimby continued to be influenced by others who had been influenced by Swedenborg and Mesmer, and ultimately came to believe that healing is a product of inner belief, that God is in fact man's "true nature," and that the source of all healing is a science known as "Christ."

In the late the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, these early notions of New Thought began to take on deeper spiritual overtones, and they inevitably began to slither into Christianity. Here are a few of those snakes:

Arguably the most fundamental tenet of New Thought is that man is God, or at least part of God or the "Divine Nature," and that man can reach a state of "divine consciousness" or "Christ consciousness" when he finally becomes fully aware of this. (Note that the New Age movement shares a similar belief in this regard.)

Jesus is the "Son of God" only in the sense that we are all God's children. In reality, He was a man who realized his divine nature (as should we).

The fundamental biblical teaching that salvation from sin comes through faith in Christ's work of atonement on the cross is rejected, and replaced with the concept that union with the Divine Mind is what will bring health, wealth, and happiness. That's "salvation."

Rather than sin, man's problem is wrong thinking—that's "sin," and it's what causes illness. The Bible should be interpreted in an allegorical manner, as well as through the lens of New Thought beliefs. The idea of "salvation" is in reality a process of birthing a new consciousness that will lead to an awareness of the divine nature that we all possess naturally.

Note that New Thought doesn't deny God or Jesus—it simply redefines them, and this is seen in three major New Thought churches that exist today: the Church of Christ, Scientist (or Christian Science Church), the Unity School of Christianity (or the Unity Church), and the Church of Religious Science.

As some of these vipers began to slither under the door of the Church, they began to appeal to many people who perhaps had been turned off by the old-fashioned, comparatively quaint "Come to Jesus" message the Church had been preaching for two thousand years.

This was something better and deeper. This was hip and cool. This wasn't about being a sinner—it was about being a winner.

As opposed to some pathetic loser sobbing at an altar, that is. And the result? No prizes for zeroing in on this one:

The result was a quasi-Christian belief system that, while passing itself off as being "Christian," in many ways took the focus off a holy God's grace and mercy expressed to sinful man and placed that focus on "divine" man and the power of his mind to achieve health, wealth, happiness, and success as a result of his own "right thinking."

This encroachment of the New Thought movement into Christianity is an example of a process called syncretism, or the merging of two belief systems in a manner that asserts an underlying unity between them and allows for the development of a different, more inclusive set of beliefs.

And as we will see, in this particular case, that resulting set of beliefs is a lie from the father of lies that has and will continue to damn countless legions of sincere, well-meaning people to an eternity of separation from the holy God they fancy they are part of by nature.

And no amount of "right thinking"

will ever save them from that fate.

Unless, of course, you define "right thinking" as turning from your "wrong thinking" and realizing that instead of being a part of God, you are a sinner separated from God and trusting in His Son's work of atonement to be forgiven of sin and reconciled to Him for eternity.

New Thought fallacies

As always, we need to go the Word. We need to examine some of the principles of this quasi-Christian belief system that masquerades as Christianity under the spotlight of God's Word, which was meant to be read, studied, and understood as literally as common sense and context allow by all believers, rather than being regarded as an esoteric book of mysteries that must be interpreted allegorically and that can only be understood by an enlightened few.

So, what I'm going to do here is look at a few of the basic principles of the New Thought version (or perversion) of Christianity and hold them up next to Scripture to show you clearly how and why they simply don't line up with the Bible (you know, that esoteric book of mysteries that must be interpreted allegorically and that can only be understood by an enlightened few—a requirement that I guarantee would exclude yours truly).

1. Believe and receive.

One fundamental principle of New Thought teaches that right thinking is the key to everything good and positive. If our thinking is right, it will enable health, wealth, and success to materialize in our lives. In other words, our minds have power over our physical circumstances.

One way to frame this is by saying that if we want something (and we ask with the right thinking), we will certainly receive it. Those who preach the New Thought gospel will frequently go to the following passage to back this up:

²⁰As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away from the roots. ²¹Peter, remembering, said to him, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree which you cursed has withered away." [This is a picture of Israel's lack of faith.] ²²Jesus answered them, "Have faith in God. [That is, don't follow Israel's example.] ²³For most certainly I tell you, whoever may tell this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' and doesn't doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is happening, he shall have whatever he says. ²⁴Therefore I tell you, all things whatever you pray and ask for, believe that you have received them, and you shall have them." [This is the verse they focus on.]

(Mark 11:20–24 / emphasis & [comments] added)

"Yeah...whatever you want, just 'believe and receive.' That's the ticket!"

The problem is that New Thought proponents, just as many others who teach some aberration of biblical doctrine, take individual verses out of their scriptural context and wave them around with a morphed meaning, as if the Bible were a book of sayings that could be yanked out of context and given meanings that contradict not only the context of the given passage, but other clear passages of Scripture that reveal their error to anyone with enough sense to study them in a clear-headed, unbiased manner.

Notice that in verse 22 Jesus tells them to "have faith in God." That's the entire point. Put your complete faith and trust in your omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent Heavenly Father. New Thought proponents use such verses to teach people to have faith in themselves and their own ability to muster the appropriate "right thinking." As a result of this divine downsizing, they essentially treat God as a cosmic vending machine for whatever their right-thinking hearts desire.

After all, their reasoning goes, everything depends on our right thinking, not a personal, loving Heavenly Father who has promised to provide for our needs and seeks our ultimate best...and whose written Word urges us to have complete, consummate faith in Him.

Notice also something important about the word "ask" used in verse 2:

It is being used in the context of prayer.

And what, pray tell, is prayer, exactly? Here's a hint: It's not rattling off your latest wish list and expecting God to deliver the goods.

Prayer isn't a process of

bending His will to ours.

Prayer is a process of

bending our will to His.

The very essence of prayer is submission to God's will—just as Jesus models for His disciples in the Lord's Prayer:

¹⁰Let your Kingdom come. Let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

(Matthew 6:10 / emphasis added)

As we submit to God's will, His desires increasingly become our desires, and as this happens what we pray for increasingly aligns with His will for our lives. This is key, because it rips New Thought teaching inside out.

Notice also that the word "believe" in Mark 11:24 above emphasizes the idea of believing and trusting in God, not just believing that you're gonna receive all the good stuff you want.

Big difference.

The bottom line is that the New Thought Jesus, rather than being God's only begotten Son who came to earth as God in the flesh to carry out the plan of redemption, is an enlightened man who understands the secret spiritual laws behind formulas that enable people to get the health, wealth, and success they desire. New Thought effectively renders God inferior to the things you want—He's essentially just a vehicle through which you can obtain them.

The end result is that the things you

desire effectively become your god.

(Don't look now, but this is idolatry.)

2. As you think in your heart, so are you.

Another verse that the New Thought folks enjoy tearing from its context and using to teach the same fundamental concept as in no. 1 (in other words, that whatever we think and affirm will manifest itself in our lives or be drawn to us) is found in the book of Psalms:

⁷For as he thinks in his heart, so is he:

(Proverb 23:7a AKJV)

So if we think and affirm ourselves as the proud owner of a new camper van, someone with a clean bill of health prior to next week's checkup, or someone who has received a promotion in their department at work, our thinking and affirmation has the power to draw those things to our lives and make them become reality.

Same old tune and two-step: believe and receive.

It's just that this time a different passage of Scripture is twisted out of context in order to support it:

⁶Eat you not the bread of him that has an evil eye, neither desire you his dainty meats:

⁷For as he thinks in his heart, so is he: [Takes on a noticeably different meaning in context, doesn't it? In other words, if a man thinks in a hypocritical manner in his heart, then he is indeed a hypocrite.] Eat and drink, said he to you; but his heart is not with you. [The psalmist isn't telling us how to think what we want into reality—he's denouncing hypocritical behavior in people!]

⁸The morsel which you have eaten shall you vomit up, and lose your sweet words.

(Proverbs 23:6–8 AKJV / emphasis & [comments] added)

Any believer who has a clear understanding of this passage should run—not walk—from the New Thought movement! This psalm doesn't do what New Thought wants people to believe it does: Rather than giving us a formula to get the things we desire, it openly and strongly condemns selfish, hypocritical behavior and warns us to steer clear of such people.

3. The kingdom is within you.

Another common New Thought abuse of Scripture comes in the way they treat something Jesus said to the Pharisees in the Gospel of Luke:

²¹...for behold, God's Kingdom is within you. [So look within yourself and get in touch with your "inner divinity," and the sky's the limit!]

(Luke 17:21b / emphasis & [comments] added)

"Well, that's great! The kingdom of God is inside me, so all I have to do is get into some right thinking and find God's divinity that's already in me!"

First of all, be aware that this verse is also translated along the lines of "the kingdom of God is in your midst / among you / here with you," which would seem to lean in a different direction—and that "different direction" better reflects Christ's actual meaning here.

Once again, it's vital to consider the context, so let's step back and see if we can get a feel for what that context is:

²⁰Being asked by the Pharisees when God's Kingdom would come, he answered them, "God’s Kingdom doesn't come with observation; ²¹neither will they say, 'Look, here!' or, 'Look, there!' for behold, God's Kingdom is within you [in your midst / among you / here with you]."

²²He said to the disciples, "The days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. ²³They will tell you, 'Look, here!' or 'Look, there!' Don't go away or follow after them, ²⁴for as the lightning, when it flashes out of one part under the sky, shines to another part under the sky, so will the Son of Man be in his day. [Jesus is clearly speaking of the Second Coming here, when He will return to finally establish His kingdom on earth.] ²⁵But first, he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation." [Even though Christ legitimately offered the Jews their kingdom, He knew they would reject it and that it would be another two millennia before He would return to establish that kingdom.]

(Luke 21:20–25 / emphasis & [comments] added)

As you read this whole passage, it should be patently obvious that Jesus is not telling the Pharisees that everyone has God's kingdom dwelling deep inside them and thus has an "inner divinity," and so we can find God or His kingdom within ourselves in some mystical way.

The Pharisees had asked Jesus in verse 20 when the anticipated kingdom would arrive, and Jesus is referring to the fact that it is He, the Messiah, who would bring the kingdom—and when He did, that kingdom would not come with observable signs.

Jesus alluded to the kingdom numerous times, and made no secret of the fact that it was He who had come to offer it. For example, earlier in Luke's Gospel the Pharisees accuse Jesus of casting out demons by the power of Satan, and Jesus puts it to them about as directly as it can be put:

¹⁹But if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. ²⁰But if I by God's finger cast out demons, then God's Kingdom has come to you. [Jesus' statement could scarcely be any clearer: He, as the Messiah, had come to offer them the promised kingdom.]

(Luke 11:19–20 / emphasis & [comments] added)

Jesus not only made it 100 percent clear that He had come to offer Israel the kingdom God had promised His people, but also that the kingdom was present in His ministry that was fully empowered by the Holy Spirit, a fact that was made evident in the miracles He performed.

Just like the prophet said: Be aware of the fact that Jesus didn't just perform any old miracles—He repeatedly performed the exact miracles that Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would perform: He made the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, and the mute speak (Isa. 35:5–6). And speaking of mute, this left the Pharisees speechless—except to pathetically and inexcusably accuse Him of doing it through the power of Satan after witnessing such miracles with their own eyes. (By the way, that's the definition of blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, so if you know any one who is worried they have committed that unforgivable sin, tell 'em to relax...they couldn't have.)

And it was precisely this Spirit-empowered ministry that Israel's religious leaders were scoffing at and denigrating in the vilest manner possible when they attributed Christ's miracles to Satan...which goes a long way in explaining why Jesus told them that the tax collectors and the prostitutes would enter the kingdom before they ever would (Matt. 21:28–32).

So when New Thought folks say Jesus is telling us we have a divine nature within us that we can tap into to get whatever we want, they are twisting these important points about the kingdom and its relationship to Christ's earthly ministry, thus revealing how blind they are to the truth of Scripture.

4. Seek ye first...

The primary thrust of the New Thought movement is the seeking of wealth and other forms of material gain. But someone should remind New Thought adherents that this contradicts the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount when He told His listeners to seek God's kingdom above all else, because God would provide them with the material things they needed:

³¹Therefore don't be anxious, saying, "What will we eat?," "What will we drink?" or, "With what will we be clothed?" ³²For the Gentiles seek after all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³But seek first God's Kingdom and his righteousness; and all these things will be given to you as well.

(Matthew 6:31–33 / emphasis added)

Here and in numerous other places in Scripture we are told to "seek first God's kingdom," rather than make material things our priority and treat God as our cosmic vending machine.

5. Working all things together for good.

One primary aspect of the New Thought movement has always been the idea of tapping into our inner divine selves and using the resulting right thinking to attain the health and material gain we desire. So, if we are experiencing health problems or financial difficulties or any other type of trial or tribulation in our lives, the attitude is that we're obviously not doing something right—perhaps we need to dig a bit deeper into our inner divine selves and straighten out our thinking, which clearly isn't as right as it should be.

Of course, that begs the question: How does this aspect of the New Thought belief system stack up to Scripture?

This is a question that troubles many believers, not just those influenced by New Thought principles. One hard truth that all believers must come face to face with is the reality that being a born-again believer in the gospel of Jesus Christ doesn't make us immune to the trials and tribulations that we experience in our lives here in this fallen world in which we live.

In fact, they serve a purpose.

There are a number of passages of Scripture that speak to this, and Paul wrote his fair share of them. For example, as Paul famously encourages the believers in Rome, he tells them...

²⁸We know that all things [that includes the bad stuff] work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose. ²⁹For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son [that's God's ultimate purpose in all this], that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

(Romans 8:28–29 / emphasis & [comments] added)

Well, let's see..."all things" means all things, and "all things" include the trials and tribulations that we all experience in our lives on a routine basis. That means these trials and tribulations are things that God uses to effect His purpose for our lives and ultimately bring about our greater good, as well as conforming us to the image of Christ (v. 29).

In other words, God uses the trials and tribulations in our lives to produce godly character in us, and that makes it possible for us to...

³...rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; ⁵and hope doesn't disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. [If you ask me, this doesn't sound all that New-Thoughtish, does it?]

(Romans 5:3b–5 / emphasis & [comments] added)

Once again, New Thought beliefs and principles stand in stark contrast to Scripture, which invariably expose them as the self-centered, shortsighted shibboleths they are.

Blab it and grab it

I would be remiss if I failed to touch on what is easily the most successful (not to mention profitable) manifestation of the New Thought movement.

As you may have already guessed, one of the most successful movements that was spawned by the encroachment of New Thought ideas and beliefs into the Church is the prosperity gospel, also commonly known as the Word of Faith movement (and frequently referred to by its critics as "name it and claim it" or "blab it and grab it").

In 2006, a poll in Time magazine reported that 17 percent of American Christians identified with a church or movement that preached some species of the prosperity gospel. A few of the big names in the prosperity gospel arena that have virtually become household words in the United States include Kenneth Hagin, Jim Bakker, Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, Joyce Meyer, Creflo Dollar, T.D. Jakes, Robert Tilton, Joel Osteen, and Paula White—whom I might add is currently President Trump's "spiritual adviser." (And forgive me if I left out your favorite.)

Although most of these people and others who preach some species of the prosperity gospel have different takes on various details and aspects of what they claim Scripture teaches, the roots of their teaching are invariably based on New Thought beliefs and principles that have found a home in the Church since the early twentieth century.

And please...I'm not trying to step on anyone's toes here. I used to really enjoy listening to some of these people (several decades ago), and I've actually supported a couple of these ministries in years past. So I'm not trying to come across as the Big Meanie or Mr. Know-It-All here. But there is one point about the prosperity gospel that I feel compelled to mention.

One thing the vast majority of these ministries invariably do is automatically link their financial success with God's blessing. Opulence equals God's approval, pure and simple. They assume that if they rake in big bucks from donations, that means God approves of them and their teaching and as a result is busy showering them with well-deserved blessings.

I'll just say it straight out: This is a grave error.

Not to mention a dead giveaway you are dealing with the prosperity gospel. No? Well, why don't we ask the disciples who preached the gospel in the streets of Jerusalem two thousand years ago:

"OK, so you guys had no big money coming in from donations, no real financial prosperity to speak of...so your ministry must not have had God's blessing or approval, right?"

I'll let Luke answer that one for us:

⁴⁰...Summoning the apostles, they beat them [i.e. whipped or flogged them] and commanded them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. ⁴¹They therefore departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for Jesus' name.

(Acts 5:40b–41 / emphasis & [comments] added)

Not sure about you, but getting whipped isn't exactly my idea of prosperity.

Look, all I can do is urge you to be discriminating in the teachers you listen to, and don't hesitate to leave off with ones you find to be suspect in some scripturally significant way.

It's too late in the game to be misled by teaching that is attractive and alluring, but not fully and solidly grounded in the plain text of Scripture.

MAGA and the power of positive thinking

One of the best-known and most successful versions of New Thought came in the teaching of Normal Vincent Peale, author of the classic and perennially popular book The Power of Positive Thinking (1952).

Peale was convinced that belief in a higher power was essential for success, and that such a belief could cast out feelings of hate or fear, physical illness, and any species of weakness or defeat. Not only that, but it would strengthen and refresh your life with health, happiness, and success.

It should be mentioned, however, that Peale's teaching was controversial and he had his share of critics. A number of ministers spoke out against what they saw as a cult that corrupted Christianity and the message of the gospel.

One thing many people aren't aware of, however, is that Peale was the minister of Marble Collegiate College in Manhattan from 1932 until he retired in 1984, and this was the church Donald Trump's family attended when he was a boy. Trump speaks glowingly of Peale, and was clearly influenced by his teaching. For Trump, faith is about being a winner, and he tends to add an extensive degree of nationalism and American exceptionalism to Peale's teaching.

In other words:

Trump's Christianity blends positive thinking with patriotism.

This link between Christianity and nationalism that is characteristic of Trump's thinking was put on full display at his inauguration, where his spiritual adviser and prosperity gospel preacher Paula White said in her invocation:

"We recognize that every good and every perfect gift comes from you and the United States of America is your gift, for which we proclaim gratitude."

I don't know whether to get on my knees and pray and stand up and salute.

Make America Godly Again: If you've read very many of my articles, you know I support President Trump. But I certainly don't worship him or view him as our nation's savior in some overblown, unscriptural manner the way I know some people do. Is he a born-again believer? I don't know. It's not outside the realm of possibility, but there are times when I have my doubts. But it is not mine to say—I shouldn't have to tell you that only God looks upon the heart. I do, however, believe God is using Trump as a tool to help bring about the scenario that will set the stage for the attack of Gog-Magog and the ensuing Tribulation. But my intro line above was tongue in cheek: Trump isn't going to Make America Godly Again—only Christ can do that, and He will when He returns to establish His kingdom.

The oldest lie of all

As I said earlier, the New Thought movement is based on lies, and one of the foundational New Thought principles is a dressed-up version of the same lie Satan used on Eve in the Garden of Eden:

¹Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, Yes, has God said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden? [Step one: Make Eve question what God has said] ²And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: ³But of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. [Step two: Get us to add to what God has said.] ⁴And the serpent said to the woman, You shall not surely die: [Step three: Refute what God has said.] ⁵For God does know that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. [Step four: Lure us into disobeying what God has said.] ⁶And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also to her husband with her; and he did eat. [...a-n-d we take the bait.] ⁷And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

(Genesis 3:1–7 AKJV / emphasis & [comments] added)

"Then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." In Satan's statement to Eve, we find one of the most fundamental, overarching principles of New Thought:

True human selfhood is divine, and that means

we have the potential within us to be like God.

But God's Word exposes Satan's lie for what it is:

The world's oldest lie from

the world's oldest liar.

Human selfhood is not divine—far from it. We have been spiritually separated from a loving God ever since Adam and Eve sinned and Adam began passing that fallen nature on to all his human descendants...and we remain that way until we (a) believe in God and in His promise of a coming Redeemer (pre-Calvary), or (b) believe in faith in that Redeemer's work of atonement and as a result are eternally reconciled to God (post-Calvary).

Also, don't forget that the curse of sin and death that Adam brought upon the world affected not only all of his human descendants, but the earth as well. Death and decay were introduced into our perfect world, and we became susceptible to all manner of sickness and disease and physical ailments as our now very mortal bodies inevitably wear out.

There is no escaping this curse: No amount of right thinking, positive thinking, or any kind of thinking can overcome this curse. Our hope is not in our ability to tap into some mysterious "divine" ability to overcome and eliminate sickness, disease, trials, and tribulations from our lives:

Our only true hope is in God's promise

of redemption that He provided through

the atoning work of His Son Jesus Christ.

But Satan continues to sell these lies to people who don't know or refuse to accept this truth. These lies have worked ever since the Garden of Eden—Satan just keeps them polished with a fresh coat of the latest pseudo-spiritual mumbo jumbo to make them come across as something new and hip and so much more spiritual than all that old-fashioned "Jesus Saves" schlock.

So, if you have ever been influenced to some degree by any of the precepts of the New Thought movement the way I was many years ago, I pray that you will carefully examine these ideas through the lens of Scripture and that you will come to see the error that lies lurking behind them.

As you do, I pray you would deposit those ideas in the nearest trash heap where they belong.

And while you're there, you're welcome to try on my old bell-bottoms and tie-dyed T-shirts if you want.

From Greg Lauer @ A Little Strength—JUL '25

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