The Bible versus New Age ideas

Notes from Stephen Bohr’s “The Genesis Code” #14 New Age or Old Lie

Matthew 6:9 In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.

1. God is a personal God
2. God is in heaven

Genesis 1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

3. God is distinct from creation and exists outside of it and before it
4. Jesus existed with God before creation
5. At some time the entire universe did not exist but God and Jesus existed

Colossians 1:16-17 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.

John 1:1-2 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God.

6. God made all things and is not on this earth
7. We are initially away from God but must grope to find Him
8. God is completely unlike any of our imaginings or devising and is not on this earth even though he is close

Acts 17:24-29 God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. 25 Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. 26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ 29 Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising.

Genesis 2:9 And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Genesis 3:22-24 Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— 23 therefore the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. 24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

Man had to eat from the tree of life to continue living, a source outside of himself:

Genesis 1:26-28 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Mankind was created superior to creation, to rule and control nature, to have dominion over the world. By taking dominion he was to take care of it, keep it:

Genesis 2:15 Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.

God created the law which he expected man to keep. This law was not his devising but told to him explicitly, an action with a specific consequence.

Genesis 2:16-17 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

God demands an accounting to God for his actions of keeping the law breaking the law:

Genesis 3:8-11 And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
9 Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”
10 So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”
11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?”

2 Corinthians 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

John 5:22 For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son,

John 5:27 and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man.

Ecclesiastes 11:9 Rejoice, O young man, in your youth,
And let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth;
Walk in the ways of your heart,
And in the sight of your eyes;
But know that for all these
God will bring you into judgment.

Revelation 14:6-7 Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth—to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people— 7 saying with a loud voice, “Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.”

Notice the phrase “judgment has come” or “judgment is come” not that the “judgment will come” after the end of the earth

Since we all have failed to live righteous lives, the judgment is not on our own merits because we would all be doomed if it was. Note also that the law always existed from the beginning of the world:

Romans 5:12-13 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned— 13 (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

God is constantly interceding for us. Note that he did not say that Adam, when you are 930 years old you will die. God interceded in the same day and sacrificed two animals to remove sin as an example of Jesus removing sin:

Genesis 2:17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

John 1:29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

Satan’s primary two lies, which are embedded deeply into the themes of almost all of the world’s literature:

1. First line: you will become a god/like God
2. You will have the ability to know good and evil

Genesis 3:5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

We worship God because he is the creator and we are his creatures. We worship him only because of his creation and his creative acts. If we do not acknowledge him as the creator, then we twist and turn the act of worship around and make it meaningless.

Psalm 95
A Call to Worship and Obedience
1 Oh come, let us sing to the LORD!
Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;
Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.
3 For the LORD is the great God,
And the great King above all gods.
4 In His hand are the deep places of the earth;
The heights of the hills are His also.
5 The sea is His, for He made it;
And His hands formed the dry land.
6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.
7 For He is our God,
And we are the people of His pasture,
And the sheep of His hand.
Today, if you will hear His voice:
8 “Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion,[a]
As in the day of trial[b] in the wilderness,
9 When your fathers tested Me;
They tried Me, though they saw My work.
10 For forty years I was grieved with that generation,
And said, ‘It is a people who go astray in their hearts,
And they do not know My ways.’
11 So I swore in My wrath,
‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”

If we throw out creation, we also throw out prophecy and redemption and the restoration of the world, because God will be repeating the acts of creation, rebuilding the earth and the atmosphere, not waiting around millions of years or taking us to a different planet:

Isaiah 66:22-23 “ For as the new heavens and the new earth
Which I will make shall remain before Me,” says the LORD,

“ So shall your descendants and your name remain.
23 And it shall come to pass
That from one New Moon to another,
And from one Sabbath to another,
All flesh shall come to worship before Me,” says the LORD.

All of these ideas from the Bible are diametrically opposed to new age ideas:

• God is nature and nature is God.
• Man is also part of God.
• The universe is constantly creating itself.
• Since man is part of the universe and part of God, his consciousness is eternal since he is part of God.
• Everything and everyone is spiritual and not physical, and no one will die.
• Nature is God. Natural law. The law is within us. (Which is technically identical to the state of lawlessness referenced by the Bible many times.)
• We are only accountable to ourselves.
• There is no sin.
• We determined right and wrong.
• Since there was no one outside of ourselves to become accountable to, we will never judge ourselves harshly, there is no external judgment,
• There is no prayer only self actuation.
• Desire is the highest law.