by Dan Matheny

Created on: August 26, 2008

Many years ago, when I was a very young man, in 1983, and newly married to a woman that had just graduated in accounting, I wanted to be a normal person. I shunned spirituality, choosing instead to get rich as quick as possible. Having been raised a preacher's kid, and surrounded with all the endless discussions that go on in such a household, and having seen the results of being in such a drama, the last thing I desired was to begin my adult life repeating the patterns of my childhood. And while I did not get rich, I certainly made lots of money, drove new cars, and lived in a large home. I was a publisher of a shopper paper with my wife within a couple of years of being married, was the top salesman and the most profitable publisher in the chain of 100 or so papers. But after 6 years of marriage, and rising to the top of my field, my life came apart with a divorce, and the loss of my business. It was then that I began a journey to recover my spiritual life, and after 17 years of that journey, which involved intense participation in New Age, I have decided on the more reasonable approach to spirituality: salvation.

Now, to begin this essay, it is not necessary for me to oppose anything to make an argument for something. I don't oppose New Age, but I do believe that it is an unreasonable and insensible philosophy, which has produced cults, crimes, and undisciplined lives, among other undesirable results, that reflect the insanity of its premises. I believe in the integrity and the validity of God's Word as revealed by the writings of the authors of the Bible, but also in the truth that is found in mankind's heart. By heart, I mean his soul, his inner nature. I believe his soul was the receptacle of an inspired Word, or truth, that in this day, as in all days, has proven reasonable and effective in helping and healing, learning and growing, lasting and of a utility that is meaningful for those who have earnestly believed in it.

What are the premises of New Age? Unlike true Christianity, which begins and ends with the simple truth that Yahashua the Annointed, or Jesus Christ, as He has been so mistranslated, was God in the form of a man Who died and was resurrected to save us from our sins. New Age is neither simple nor true. Neither does it have anything whatsoever to do with Calvary. It avoids the issue of the death and ressurection of the Savior because of the necessity, so illustrated by Mel Gibson's "The Passion of Christ" for suffering and bloodshed. It seeks

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