My friend, Steven Bancarz, now a Christian, was formerly a successful writer in the New Age movement. Summing up the vast chasm of difference between the two, he writes:
New Age spirituality is 100% premised on the idea that God is something already within man. Man shares in the divinity of God, either by extension, by indwelling, or both. If anything could be called a “staple” of New Ageism, it would be the idea that man is intrinsically divine. Some say the universe is made out of the substance and being of a transcendent God, emanating from His being. Man’s being is an emanation of God, and therefore man is divine in this sense. Others may say there is a field of consciousness within nature that can be called God that acts as the ground of being and gives rise to all particles and forces in the universe, and since this field (God) grounds and fills everything in creation, we can be said to be divine because this field of consciousness makes up the fabric of our inner and outer being.
The entire Bible however, cover to cover, is premised on man being separated by God in nature and in relationship: “The Egyptians are man, and not God, and their horses are flesh, and not spirit” (Isa. 31:3). The sacrificial and temple system of the Old Testament provided limited space where the manifest presence of God could dwell among the people, because He was too holy to actually dwell in man or with man without the shedding of blood for sin. Sin has separated man from God, and the entire purpose of Christ was to take us from being ontologically and relationally separated from God to being reconciled with God relationally.
“but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.” – Isaiah 59:2
One affirms man in his nature state God by nature in constant relationship to God while indwelt by Him, the other affirms man in his natural state isn’t God by nature having a broken relationship with God while being devoid of Him. New Age affirms a Creator-creation unity. Jesus affirms a Creator-creation distinction. They are polar opposites by definition and are logically incompatible with one another.
If Jesus’ theology is correct, New Ageism is as far away from the truth about man’s nature and relationship to God as you could possibly be. Nothing could be farther than the truth of man’s nature and status before God than New Age theology, because it is diametrically opposed to the propositions Jesus affirmed.
If New Age theology is correct, Jesus Christ is wrong and should be dismissed as having the lowest spiritual intelligence you could possibly have for being as wrong about man’s nature and relationship to God as you could possibly be. He is 0% correct about man’s nature and status before God if New Ageism is true, and is even more incorrect about man’s nature than Satan who at least affirms man should be a functional “god” over his or her life. After all, Satan promised Eve that her and Adam would become as God (or the gods) if they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Satan promised divinity, and Satanism today affirms functional divinity at the very least.
If New Age theology is true, Satan and Satanism is closer to the truth than Jesus is. Is man divine by nature as Satan affirmed in Genesis 3? Or is man separate from God by nature as the entire Bible affirms cover to cover? If one wants to affirm New Age theology, one must side with Satan. If one wants to affirm the words of Jesus, one has to denounce New Age theology.
The text of Scripture leaves us with no other option. The only other option is to be intellectually irresponsible and twist Scripture to fit the narrative that man is intrinsically divine, a theology all the prophets, disciples, and church fathers rejected which can be easily documented with primary quotes.
“Put them in fear, O LORD! Let the nations know that they are but men!” – Psalm 9:20
