Does America need a new spirituality? (6/94) The following is from Christian Crusade Newspaper, P.O. Box 977, Tulsa, OK 74102, in its 42nd year of publication. We can be E-mailed on America On Line as Christcrew, on Compuserve at 72204,541, and via the Internet as Christcrew@aol.com . by Keith Wilkerson, editor A new spirituality is emerging. Unfortunately, it has nothing to do with Jesus Christ. Instead, it has everything to do with manipulating the masses. The Soviet Union's founder, V.I. Lenin, hated religion because he said it was it was the "opiate of the masses," lulling mankind into complacency. He tried to destroy it. Instead, man's insatiable hunger for a relationship with his Creator destroyed the Soviet Union. Now these new manipulators of mankind see faith and belief as tools. Instead of destroying religion, they are figuring out how to use it for their own means. Of course, this is nothing new. Unscrupulous power mongers throughout recorded time have abused mankind's faith over and over. The Borgia family of 15th and 16th Century Italy established a reputation for wickedness and treachery -- manipulating the papacy and elevating their own to the Vatican, the corrupt Pope Alexander VI. In modern times, we have all seen the rise of cult leaders, such as Guyana's cyanide Kool-Aid killer, the evil Jim Jones, who cared only for his own maniacal agenda as he led hundreds of men, women and children into mass suicide -- all believing fervently that he was the Messiah. More recently, Turkish assassin Mehmet Ali Agca has proclaimed himself to be Jesus Christ, as have Charles Manson and David Koresh. But now history is repeating itself. A dangerous new, counterfeit spirituality is putting on a righteous face and emerging as the answer for an American society gone violently and perversely mad. "Some of the nation's more perceptive liberals are beginning to suspect that they missed a bet in ceding the whole religious aspect of life to the conservatives," writes columnist William A. Rusher. "Indeed they did; but can they now reverse themselves and contest that terrain successfully?" There are those among the social engineers remaking America who are beginning to say among themselves that the American public needs to believe something. A little fear of divine wrath could restore civil order in sections of America's cities that have become war zones after dark. A little conscience might prompt people to obey the law. After all, it is much easier to govern people who consent to be governed. So, such liberal spokesmen as Norman Lear -- people who have devoted their lives to removing Jesus Christ from American life -- are saying that re-inserting spirituality is needed now. It could hold our disintegrating society together. What the social engineers need is something watered down that sounds religious, something mystical and full of mystery that makes everybody feel really devout, and certainly something that is politically correct, yet fulfills everybody's yearning to be at peace with God. "We need to make room in the culture for a public discussion of our common spiritual life," says Norman Lear in a guest column in the Washington Post. "We need to rediscover together what is truly sacred." "Re-discover?" chuckles conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer. "For most Americans there is no need to rediscover the transcendent. They live with it. "But for the 94 percent of Americans who believe in God and the nearly half who go to church on Sundays, there is no need to rediscover anything," says Krauthammer. If such statements were being made by anybody other than Norman Lear, "this might be dismissed as yet another Beverly Hills bubblehead pronouncing himself in the Age of Clinton. But Norman Lear is no ordinary Hollywood liberal." No, Lear is the "founder of People for the American Way," a liberal advocacy group. One of its passions is the strict separation of church and state. "Having succeeded grandly at stripping public life of religion," writes Krauthammer, "they wake up one morning surprised to discover that our common life is spiritually empty. Their solution - some newfangled, New Age, new spirituality - is a guilty and pitiful substitute for what they have wantonly dismantled." In his bestselling book, The Culture of Disbelief, Yale law professor Stephen Carter notes that his fellow liberals have mistakenly treated "religious beliefs as arbitrary and unimportant, a trend supported by a rhetoric that implies there is something wrong with religious devotion." Liberals, he says, must quit treating religion as "something quiet, something private, something trivial" -- rather akin to "building model airplanes." He blames the Democratic defeats of the 1980s on such foolish disdain for the power of religious beliefs. Carter has the ear of President Bill Clinton -- who has recommended that all his cabinet members read the book and take its advice to heart. But the ear of Hillary Clinton is guru Michael Lerner's. He is the inventor of the term "politics of meaning." A rabbi, he edits Tikkun, a magazine dedicated to Jewish liberalism, recently declared that "our economy rewards the self-centered and the selfish," and called instead for "a newer paradigm of caring and concern." Hillary quoted Lerner when lecturing 14,000 listeners at the University of Texas on "what our real challenges happen to be." She said America today suffers from "a sleeping sickness of the soul," a "sense that somehow economic growth and prosperity, political democracy and freedom are not enough -- that we lack at some core level meaning in our lives and meaning collectively. What do our lives in today's world mean? We need a new politics of meaning." "Thus," writes Rusher, "she joins the long succession of political leaders from Marx to Mao, who ever since the Enlightenment have been offering their own versions of the truth as substitutes for the outdated prescriptions of religion." Former Education Secretary William Bennett says Hillary's "politics of meaning,'' is nothing more than warmed-over socialism. Bennett said it is "shocking'' that Lerner's philosophies are being treated as something new, because "this is standard sophomore stuff. I do not know if Mrs. Clinton took a philosophy course at Wellesley College or not. If she did, chances are she would have had a professor at the time she went who would have already told her this stuff. She should be reading the Federalist Papers, not Michael Lerner." The Federalist Papers, of course, were 85 newspaper essays that Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay wrote explaining the new Constitution of the United States to a skeptical American public. "Lerner has defended his philosophy as a call for the left to recapture the values issues that have long been embraced by conservatives and the religious right," writes Chuck Raasch of the Gannett News Service. He asked Lerner about a New York Times Magazine cover story which said Hillary was pursuing "the politics of virtue,'' believing that her generation is "destined (and equipped) to teach the world the errors of its ways.'' Lerner bristled at the "virtue'' label, said Raasch. He said he and Hillary Clinton were merely acknowledging a "thirst" among Americans for spirituality, as well as a desire for an "ethically and spiritually based community.'' It may seem to be so much liberal babbling. But Hillary has hit a nerve. America is searching for answers -- searching everywhere but at the foot of the cross. "Call it a spiritual renaissance. Call it a desperate search for purpose in a troubled age. Call it New Age yearning hitting mainstream publishing," writes Joannie M. Schrof in the April 25 edition of U.S. News and World Report. "Whatever the explanation, a swelling number of American readers are becoming spiritual seekers of sorts, turning out like never before to devour books that promise insights into the meaning of life." She goes on to cite a bestseller's list of New Age books which all peddle the humanist theme that the serpent first tried out on Eve in the Garden of Eden -- that we can all be gods. First, we must rebel against the idea of a great Creator, refuse to be pushed around by His jealous, arbitrary and unbending rules. Then, we will begin our evolution into a higher creation. In the publishing world, the New Age gospel is a hodgepodge of contradiction and gobbledegook with every paperback philosopher offering his or her own key insights into celestial enlightenment. However, the reading public loves it -- exploring every new and exciting alternative to the only true way to happiness, personal submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. There is a recurring theme: society's need for spirituality. A current bestseller is The Celestine Prophecy by Alabama writer James Redfield. His stated mission is to help humanity evolve into a spiritual culture. The book sits in the No. 1 slot of virtually every bestseller list in the country. Warner Publishing executives say demand for the book is heavy. The publisher has already sent stores some 570,000 copies and plans another print run any day. Among the messages in the book is the suggestion that humans who increase their "spiritual energy'' enough will become invisible and able to pass into Heaven at will. Readers like public school psychologist Gael Smith in Seattle aren't put off by such absurdity. "Even the ideas I don't agree with are thought provoking, and most of the insights ring true for me,'' Smith told U.S. News and World Report. She heard about the book from a friend at church. Does it matter that the book is at odds with Christian beliefs? Smith sees no contradiction. She has bought five copies and says that each copy she lends is quickly passed on to others rather than returned. Why does she like the book? "We're all running scared these days, with violence, turmoil and high anxiety all around. The book offers hope that life is more than a series of random things that can't be controlled.'' Of course life is not random! Yes, violence, turmoil and high anxiety are terrible! But the answer is not to turn to false gospels that deceive us with absurd promises! The same sort of stuff fills another current bestseller, Embraced by the Light, the story of one woman's near- death experiences and the lessons about God and life she garnered from them. Although her messages run at total odds to Christian truth, her book has held the No. 1 spot on the Publishers Weekly magazine nonfiction bestseller list for 13 weeks. Tragically, the book sits at the front of many bookstores in prominent display among all the other hot, fast-selling New Age paperbacks, such as Marianne Williamson's A Return to Love, which teaches the reader how to perform miracles. Never mind that the Bible is plainly clear that any miracle performed outside of God's power is sorcery and witchcraft -- and is despised by the Almighty. Why? Because any power that does not come from Him instead is a gift of Lucifer designed to deceive and confuse men into believing there is a happy and powerful alternative to submitting one's life to Jesus Christ. Yes, there is an alternative. But it is known as the Lake of Fire. Hades. Eternal damnation. Spiritual death, forever separated from our loving, mighty Creator. Hell. Why is there such interest in this new, godless paganism? Why are millions of Americans interested in books that the Apostle Paul in Ephesus of Bible times would have told new believers to burn? "The people reading these books are folks who can't trust their neighbors but want to believe it's possible to forge a society of enlightened individuals who are full of goodwill for each other," says Stan Madson, owner of the Bodhi Tree Bookstore in West Hollywood, California, a New Age bookstore with a mailing list of 39,000 for its quarterly book review and catalog. He says the recent rush for such books reflects Americans' hunger for transformation. Arianna Huffington, author of The Fourth Instinct: The Call of the Soul, proclaims the dawn of a new awareness, writing, "In the whole of human history there have never been so many avenues to inner consciousness being explored nor anything remotely approaching the proportion of people seeking such avenues for themselves.'' What exactly is the New Age movement? Your first exposure to it probably came 25 years ago at the height of the Haight-Ashbury counter-culture as a few kids in the streets protested America's involvement in Vietnam and the entertainment industry proclaimed that we were all supposed to smoke dope. Your first brush with the New Age movement was probably the song, "Aquarius" by a singing group called "The 5th Dimension." The popular hit was from the Broadway musical Hair. Believe it or not, it outlines the basic statement and outward goals of the New Agers. The song declares the coming "Age of Aquarius." Delving into astrology -- which many Christians forget is also forbidden in the Bible -- the song tells us that when the moon is in the "seventh house" and the planet Jupiter becomes aligned with Mars, "then peace will guide the planets" and love will fill all of our hearts. This, promises the song, is the dawning of the age of Aquarius. It is happening all around us, insists the song. If you are not involved with the New Age movement, this song may have sounded to you like so much wishful thinking. However, there exists in the world today an incredibly huge and well organized network consisting of thousands of groups, trusts, foundations, clubs, lodges, and religious groups whose goal and purpose is to prepare the world to enter this Age of Aquarius. A small sampling of only a few of the organizations heavily influenced by the New Age mindset includes: Amnesty International, Zero Population Growth, California New Age Caucus, New World Alliance, World Goodwill, The Church Universal and Triumphant, The Theosophical Society, Planetary Initiative for the World We Choose, and the Club of Rome. This list demonstrates the diversity of organizations operating in economic, political, and religious spheres of influence. The false gospel that is woven into their philosophy is the lie that mankind is evolving into a higher being and that peace, joy and contentment will result. While this sounds great, it simply will never happen. The philosophies of the New Age movement have inflicted a new self-centeredness, a new belligerence and new false expectations for mankind upon society in general and political liberals in particular. Man is not improving. Just visit the streets of America's big cities if you want proof. Go to Lebanon or Bosnia if you think things are getting better because the moon is in some mystical house and one planet is aligned with another. So, how do the New Agers explain the failure of their world view? Easy! They explain it the same way that the liberals explain the total failure of big government programs such as the War on Poverty or the collapse of the economies of Eastern Europe's socialist states. What is their explanation? We need to try again, but with more commitment! How will this be done? Centralized government will force New Age policies onto us whether we like it or not! Of course, the reasoning goes, when the new system is a glorious success, the resistance will subside and humanity will be immensely grateful that mankind has been saved. Depending on which branch of the New Age movement you encounter, there may or may not be a great mystical world leader who will emerge to lead us all to enlightenment. Some New Agers fervently await the advent of the Lord Maitreya. Others believe we will all become so godlike that we will not need any leaders. Either viewpoint, of course, flies in the face of Scripture. If a leader emerges, he could well be the Antichrist, an enemy of mankind who will be intent on leading the world into terrible rebellion against God and who will be destroyed along with his followers by a grieved but wrathful God. What about our all becoming little Gods? Remember what Lucifer told Eve as he seduced her into eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. He promised her that she would become godlike -- and that a nasty, unsharing tyrant Creator was denying her the chance to evolve into a higher being. So, this false message is nothing new! It is the same old rebellion against God! How do the liberal political forces dedicated to making all this come about intend to bring it all about? Just look at the agenda of the United Nations! Stated goals of the New Age Movement are to establish a World Food Authority, World Water Authority, World Economic Order, and an entirely New World Order. Sound familiar? Yes! Not so long ago, a conservative President that we all trusted startled quite a few of his faithful by declaring his delight that the Persian Gulf War had ushered in a New World Order in which all nations would work together to preserve global peace. A key phrase mentioned throughout New Age philosophy is that of "Christ Consciousness." Many Christians are deceived when such fine words are used. After all, how can anything called "Christ" be evil? Unfortunately in the twisted propaganda of the New Agers, Christ is a state of mind rather than one person, the Son of Almighty God, our risen Lord Jesus Christ. The New Agers have embraced an ancient Gnostic teaching that Jesus of Nazareth was not the only Christ, but that He equipped Himself to receive the "Christ Consciousness." So did Buddha, Krishna and Mohammed, say the New Agers. They teach that throughout history, humanity's evolution has been guided by a group of enlightened men, the Masters of Wisdom. They have remained largely in the remote desert and mountain places of earth, working mainly through their disciples who live openly in the world. At the center of this "Spiritual Hierarchy" stands the New Agers' World Teacher, Lord Maitreya. He, say the New Agers will fulfill Christian expectations of the Second Coming, the Jews' hopes for the coming of their Messiah, the Buddhists' teaching that "the fifth Buddha" will come to lead the world, the Muslims' expectations for the emergence of "the Iman Mahdi," and the Hindus hope that their blue-skinned child-god, Krishna, will return to lead the world. The New Agers say that Krishna, Christ, the fifth Buddha, the Messiah, and the Imam are all names of one individual who is about to show up and usher in an era of world peace. His presence in the world guarantees there will be no third World War, they say. The traditional view of Lucifer as the devil is clearly absent in New Age literature. Rather, he is described as a mighty being of light and the "Ruler of Humanity," according to Alice Bailey, foundational apostle and leading writer of the New Age movement. An even clearer description is given by perhaps the most influential man in the movement, David Spangler. He writes in his book, Reflections on the Christ that "The true light of Lucifer cannot be seen through sorrow, through darkness, through rejection. The true light of this great being can only be recognized when one's own eyes can see with the light of the Christ, the light of the inner sun." In Spangler's terrible heresy, he declares with a straight face that "Lucifer works within each of us to bring us to wholeness, and as we move into a new age, which is the age of man's wholeness, each of us, in some way is brought to that point which I term the Luciferic Initiation, the particular doorway through which the individual must pass if he is to come fully into the presence of his light and his wholeness." What will happen in this initiation? Are we talking about accepting the Mark of the Beast on our foreheads? Spangler says that with this initiation "Lucifer comes to give us the final gift of wholeness. If we accept it, then he is free and we are free. That is the Luciferic Initiation. It is one that many people now, and in the days ahead, will be facing, for it is an initiation into the New Age. It is an initiation of leaving the past and moving into the new, shedding our guilts and fears, our anxieties, our needs, our temptations, and becoming whole and at peace because we have recognized our inner light and the light that enfolds us, the light of God." Incredibly, many of the leaders of the New Age movement wholeheartedly embrace Lucifer -- the terrible fallen angel who led the rebellion against God and was cast out with a third of the angels. There is only one historically reliable and enduring source where the true identity of Lucifer may be found, and that is in the Bible. In the Bible, the book of Isaiah, Lucifer is identified as a great angel who thought to exalt himself above the Most High God, and for that he was banished from Heaven and came to be called Satan. Again, if you are skeptical concerning the Bible's description of Lucifer, you will find in Anton Le Vey's Satanic Bible a list of "infernal names" for Satan. This list includes Kali, Lilith, Pan, Shiva, and Lucifer. In Revelation is found the following passage: "And he causes all, small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand or in their forehead; and that no man might buy or sell, except he who has the mark, or the name of the beast or the number of his name." It is very probable that the above scripture accurately portrays the final visible manifestation of Spangler's "Luciferic Initiation." When you add together the propagation of the number 666, the acceptance and worship of Lucifer (who is Satan), and the requirement of a Luciferic initiation to enter the New Age, we see all the ingredients for the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy concerning the reign and terror of Satan through the world ruler Antichrist. Diabolically, as we have previewed, Antichrist will not at first appear in this manner, but as a great benevolent spokesman with the solutions to the world's problems, deceiving many into pledging their support to him and his program. . Then, when it is too late for the followers of Antichrist, Satan will show his contempt and hatred for the human race and will release his wrath upon all mankind, and, in so doing will also be playing a part in carrying out God's own judgment and wrath upon those "who suppress the truth in unrighteousness" and who "exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen." . But he is painted in glorious terms by the New Agers. They say that Christians have lied about him for centuries and they, the New Agers, are tired of it. Benjamin Creme, a leading lecturer and proponent of the New Age, says "Lucifer came from the planet Venus 18.5 million years ago; he's the director of our planetary evolution, he is the sacrificial lamb, and the prodigal son. Lucifer made an incredible sacrifice, a supreme sacrifice for our planet." . Creme also seems to use the name "Sanat Kumara" interchangeably with Lucifer. The only difference in the description is that in place of the name Lucifer, Sanat Kumara is used. Creme further adds that "Sanat Kumara is our God." Thus we have a clear picture of who Lucifer is according to some of those at the forefront of the New Age Movement. They believe he is a mighty, benevolent being of light, the Ruler of Humanity, mankind's inner guiding light. My friends, these claims are lies. They are dangerous. They are insidious. They will get believers nowhere but into the Pit of Hell with Lucifer and all who follow him in rebellion against our King of Kings, Lord of Lord, Almighty Father, the Prince of Peace. "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits," we Christians are warned very, very plainly in 1 John. We are not to accept every new teaching that comes our way. Instead, we are to test "whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the spirit of God; every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. "And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God." How do we fight against the false spirituality today being proclaimed from the White House? Paul warned us clearly, "We do not fight against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, and spiritual wickedness in high places." Such is the case of the new spirituality. We are to fight on our knees. We are to pray for Bill Clinton. We are to pray for his Machiavellian wife. Hillary did not invent the New Age spirituality. It was just in the right place at the right time when she needed something. We are to love Bill and Hillary and earnestly intercede for them in prayer, believing that they can know the truth and that it can set them free. This nation is in terrible danger from idealists who are so convinced that their agenda of change is the answer to America's problems. However, their changes demand scrutiny. I believe that many times idealists are used by the unscrupulous who need to put a gentle face on a harsh agenda. I believe we are also in terrible danger from greedy power mongers who see an enormous opportunity in Hillary's and Lear's and Lerner's pleas for a new spirituality. They also know that certain liberals are perfectly willing to cram this new spirituality down our throats. There are some who would not hesitate to enforce it at gunpoint. These power mongers see the new spirituality -- the New Age gospel with all its hocus-pocus -- as a magnificent way to manage the masses. The governed must stop rioting in the streets of their own free will -- not because armed troops forced them to quit doing so. They must want to return to their homes and be happy that they are doing so. A new, false "opiate of the masses" is being prepared that will calm the minds of the millions and make them more manageable, more productive, and more useful. Beware of the new spirituality. It is false. And you and I must hold onto what we know to be true. Any belief in promises of "Christ Consciousness" is a denial that Jesus is, as the Bible proclaims, "the Christ." New Agers make no bones about their denial of our Lord's deity. They become sarcastic and even hostile at the notion that He is the Only Way or that no man can come unto the Father, except through Jesus. They will smile and assure you that Jesus received the Christ Consciousness at His baptism, and that it left Him at His crucifixion. The New Agers say He was a Master of Wisdom, an ordinary man who equipped Himself to receive the Christ Consciousness. Of course, this is not true. The real Jesus who lived on this earth told His disciples: "These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me. Thus it was written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and rise from the dead the third day, and that the repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem." Before Jesus was crucified, He asked His disciples this question: "Who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God." Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father Who is in Heaven." Thus Jesus personally testified that He was the Christ, not a Christ. He was THE Christ. Who do you say that He is? He wants to know. Your eternal destiny hinges on what you believe concerning this vital question. "Who do you say I am?" Jesus Himself asks you in Luke 9:20. The question was first asked of Peter by Christ nineteen centuries ago, and has continued since then to the present day to be the best test of spirituality. "Perhaps never in the history of mankind has this question been more relevant than it is today," according to the Christian Research Journal. "One reason for this is that New Agers have taken the New Testament sculpture of Christ, crafted an esoteric/mystical chisel, and hammered away at this sculpture until a completely new image has been formed. "The new sculpture is one that fits nicely on a display shelf with sculptures of Buddha, Krishna, and other 'holy men.' This Christ is broad-minded and nonjudgmental. He is a 'Master' among 'Masters,' who -- with the others -- is leading the human race into a New Age of enlightenment and harmony." However, the real truth is that Jesus alone is the Christ. Not Buddha. Not Krishna. Not Mohammed. According to Matthew 1:23, as a babe in Bethlehem, Jesus is called Immanuel, "God with us." When the angel announced the birth of Jesus to the shepherds in Luke 2:11, he identified Jesus this way: "Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord." Simeon, who was filled with the Holy Spirit, recognized the babe Jesus as Christ in fulfillment of God's promise to him that "he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ." 1 John 2:22 warns us: "Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist -- he denies the Father and the Son." Jesus is uniquely and exclusively man's only means of coming into a relationship with God. Jesus asserted in John 14:6: "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me." A bold Peter proclaimed in Acts 4:12 that "there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under Heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved." Paul likewise affirmed that "there is one God, and one Mediator also between God and men, Christ Jesus." Jesus Christ will come again in glory. In contrast with the New Age idea that the coming of Christ is contingent on man's ability to prepare the earth spiritually for this coming, Scripture says that Christ is coming as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and man has power neither to invoke His coming nor to prevent it, according to Revelation 19:16. Our true Christ is the Christ of the gospels. The many miraculous signs He performed attested to His supreme identity, not some divine potential we all possess: "These [miraculous signs] are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name," declares John 20:31. It is Jesus, the second Person of the Trinity, that we as Christians look forward to seeing. According to Titus 2:13, "We wait for the blessed hope -- the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ." And, as Christians, we exult in the truth that Jesus has a name that is above every name, and that at His name, every knee will bow -- in Heaven and on earth and under the earth. My friends, I have a simple explanation for the "new spirituality" being proclaimed by the political liberals. It is nothing more than what old-time preachers denounced from their revival pulpits as worldliness wrapped in the mysticism of paganism. Worldliness is a radical individualism which displays a kindly attitude toward Satan's evil world system and manifests itself in self- centeredness, self-advancement and self-autonomy. A worldly Christian willfully displaces the rule of God in his life, embraces the radical individualism of Satan and gratifies his lusts outside of the will of God. As Christians, according to 1 John 3:4-9, we "are to be on guard against a kindly feeling toward the world's evil, and are not to establish intimate relations of loyalty with it." Prolonged relations are evidence that he is a member of Satan's kingdom. The scope of worldliness is far more inclusive than the list of do's and don'ts we normally establish and label "worldly." John says our associations may sparkle, our convictions may shine and I can still get up and sing a solo or preach a message--yet still have a worldly, prideful heart. This does not mean that believers should declare something akin to an Islamic jihad against our worldly neighbors. Instead, those who are part of the world system should have every opportunity to view Christians as contributors to the civil, social, intellectual and spiritual well-being of the community. You and I are commanded in Romans 13:1 to "be subject unto the higher powers." We must be loyal citizens. You and I are compelled to "do all to the glory of God," according to 1 Corinthians 10:31. Thus, we are supposed to be valuable and loyal employees. Luke 19:10 tells us we are supposed to emulate the Lord who came "to seek and to save that which was lost." God's Word makes it clear that the world will regard us with hatred and view a holy life-style with hostility. Christ warned in John 7:7 that the world would hate Him. We are told that it will also hate the believer. "Hatred is characteristic of the world, as love is of the Christian," says 1 John 3:14. The world will persecute us, John 15:20 warns. The spirit of the world prefers darkness to light, according to John 3:19-21. In that, John 12:31 tells us that the judgment of the world has already taken place, it is utter folly for you or me to establish bonds of loyalty to its doomed system. It is no surprise then that the Christian is commanded in 1 John 2:15 to "love not the world, neither the things that are in the world." James 1:27 tells us to keep ourselves "unspotted from the world." Christ has chosen us "out of the world," according to John 15:19. Even so, John 17:11 tells us that for the present we must still live "in the world." John is not calling for monastic separation from the world but for an inner attitude of separation from the sinful world and its practices. The slogan of the liberal National Council of Churches was formerly, "The World Sets the Agenda for the Church." Well, the world cannot set your agenda or mine -- or else the love of the Father is not in us, according to 1 John 2:15. James 4:4 says loving the world makes us the enemy of God. 1 Peter 2:11 tells us we are strangers and pilgrims in a world which is passing away. Not only must you and I resist the seduction of the world, but we are supposed to overcome it, according to 1 John 4:4-5. God told Adam in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2:16-17: "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." But man in his disobedience to the words of God ate the fruit from the tree and allowed sin and death into the world, says Romans 5:12. So we see that whenever we disobey the Word of God, we sin. this is why the world is so full of unhappiness, sorrow and pain. Adam and Eve did their own thing. They decided what was right and wrong. They thought happiness could be found apart from God. But God says in Proverbs 14:12 "There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death." It is not God's will for anyone to perish and spend eternity in Hell, which the Book of Revelation assures us is a place of punishment for all who have not had their sins forgiven. But God wants you and me to spend eternity with him in Heaven. But there are many people today who believe just like Adam and Eve did -- that they can do as they please and God will accept them the way they are. But God says something completely different. Jesus Christ is the only way to God and eternal life, according to the Scriptures. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him. And that is why the New Age teachings are false. Compromise will not work in religion. We cannot put aside the truth of Jesus just because it offends the Muslims or the Hindus. We cannot agree to worship their gods in the spirit of multiculturalism. Nor can we stand idly by while our children are taught that New Age mysticism or TV paganism is to be embraced if they are to be "citizens of the global village." Sorry, we are to be strangers and aliens of such a place. Politically, it might make sense to get rid of the divisive dogma that Jesus is the only way and instead force the masses to accept a new religion that accepts all beliefs, calms the crowds, and gets the workers back into the factories so that they can pay their rents and keep up with their interest payments. But Jesus is the key to God's promise to all mankind. That is why Satan hates him so -- and has devised this sort of a devious political agenda to paint Jesus as an enemy of world peace and international harmony. The new spirituality is bogus. And that is why that we must with new vigor and sincerity pray for the deceived and confused leaders of this nation. The truth can set Bill Clinton free. And you, too. WHAT IS CHRISTIAN CRUSADE NEWSPAPER? Christian Crusade Newspaper is in its 42nd year, has a worldwide circulation and is published by Christian Crusade, P.O. Box 977, Tulsa, OK 74102. It is mailed to subscribers without charge as a result of the conviction of its founder not to put a price-tag on the gospel. For a free subscription, just ask. Although Dr. Hargis no longer travels, editor-in-chief Keith Wilkerson accepts speaking invitations. Both can be E-mailed on America On Line as Christcrew, on GEnie as K.Wilkerson3, via the Internet as Christcrew@aol.com, and on Compuserve at 72204,541.