What Lies beyond Faith

By Jamarr Holland

What happens when you dig below the surface of several beliefs? When you compare it to that of your own, what will you find? What happens when you take those different belief systems, practices, backgrounds, and histories and place them side by side? What types of truths will unfold before your eyes? What is truth when you are faced with what lies beyond faith?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 30, 2020
• ISBN: 9781662405419

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What Lies

Beyond Faith

Jamarr Holland

Copyright © 2020 Jamarr Holland

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING, INC.

Conneaut Lake, PA

First originally published by Page Publishing 2020

ISBN 978-1-6624-0540-2 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-6624-0541-9 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

The New Age Movement

Eckankar

The Occult

The Shaman

Eyewitness Reports

Encounter with Being of Light

Buddhism

Views of Jesus Christ

Jesus, Pagans, God, and Religion

The Biblical Jesus

Lucifer, Satan, and the New Age Movement

Introduction

In John 14:16, Jesus states that the truth, the life, and the way are to be found in Him and through Him. From reading the Bible, growing up in a household that regularly attended church services, listening to preaching, and my own life experiences, I have gathered that man is in search of these three things.

The popular television series, The X-Files, which aired on September tenth in 1993 and was then canceled on May nineteenth in 2002¹ had phrases that to this very day still stand out in my mind. One of the phrases was shown at the end of the opening credits in the second episode, which stated, The truth is out there.² The second phrase can be found on a poster located in the main characters’ office in the basement of the FBI building, which is a picture of a UFO hovering in midair with the phrase written in bold letters: I want to believe.³

Though the television series, The X-Files, is a work of pure fiction, those statements from the show have some truth to them. Man is in search of the truth, such as the truth in whether or not God exists, the truth in the existence of free will, and the truth in what it means to live life.⁴ The list could go on and on. This search for the truth and the desire to believe have led me to the research of the New Age Movement and how it stacks up against the Holy Word of God and Christian views and beliefs. I am of the persuasion that the truth about the New Age Movement can be exposed once you compare its belief system and origin to the Scriptures, the Word of God.

Chapter 1

The New Age Movement

When you take a look at history, the New Age Movement came into play because a certain group of people did not like the way that culture and society were set up in the 1960s. This group of people wanted to push against what was normal for that time period.⁵ What paved the way for the New Age Movement was the practice of a religion that came from the Eastern Hemisphere of the world. This religion is what is known as Zen Buddhism. The practice began in the 1950s, and the New Age Movement began in the 1960s.

Along with the start of the New Age Movement came its teachers from the East who are called gurus. Once the gurus made their way over to the United States, they started their schools, which taught people the ways of the New Age.⁶ Trying to label, define, or explain the New Age Movement can be a very difficult thing to do.⁷ The movement is not a church and is not a sect, denomination, or cult.⁸ The New Age has no problems accepting, practicing, and following systems of beliefs found in the West and East. They do have problems with structured and organized faiths like Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.⁹ Those who are involved with the New Age Movement are looking for ways that will bring them to the point of being enlightened. God is nowhere to be found in their quest, but the occult is.¹⁰ Their ways to enlightenment involve things like yoga, meditation, and altered states of consciousness, and this only naming a few things that are practiced.¹¹

Mike York, who is a sociologist of religion, says that the New Age is an umbrella term.¹² He says this because the New Age system of beliefs covers so many things at once.¹³ The New Age Movement does not have one specific leader or spokesperson. The movement has a large number of people that lead it.¹⁴ The structure of the New Age Movement is a major factor in why it is so popular among a great deal of people. The weight that it carries looks far more different than that of religions that are considered normal.¹⁵

It is safe to say that people who practice and follow the New Age beliefs are extremely environmentally conscious. They are really concerned about how the earth is being treated, along with how natural resources are being used and misused. They really care about having a positive impact on the earth and its atmosphere.¹⁶ The way that people think about God and what they believe about God will change in ways that seem dramatic once they have been exposed to New Age beliefs and thought systems. Those exposed to the New Age tend to look at the universe the way that the Movement teaches them to.¹⁷

The New Age stresses that gurus are special, that they are set apart, and that they have all of the answers.¹⁸ Not only is the New Age interested in believing and taking hold of belief systems from the East and West, but they also take hold of many scientific values. The New Age Movement states a claim that seems to paint religious organizations as being intolerant and rigid because of its unwillingness to accept beliefs that stem from a multitude of sources.¹⁹ The answers to questions that are found in life are found within the Word of God.

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. (Psalm 119:105)

The New Age claims that there is more than one way to understanding and collecting data about God.²⁰ They also know that their views and beliefs will clash with those of others’ faiths and that not everyone will agree with what they believe and teach.²¹ They are essentially at odds with many doctrinal definitions of God.²²

To try and understand, label, and point out what the New Age is, you would have to take a look at nature worship, religious mysticism, occultism, astrology, physics, science, and roll them up into one yet present them as separate.²³ The whole view, concept, structure, and idea of the New Age Movement goes against every fiber of what true Christianity and the Word of God stands for and presents. Followers of the New Age Movement have clearly been duped. People of the New Age Movement are blind. Proverbs 29:18 says, Where there is no vision, the people perish: The New Age Movement is not as new as people believe it to be.

Ecclesiastes 1:9 says, The thing that hath been, it is that whichh shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

To really understand a thing you must trace origin, you just discover where its starting point is, its beginning. The word origin means that from which anything derives its existence: a source or cause.²⁴

Genesis 1:1 says, In the beginning, God created…, and John 1:1 also states, In the beginning was the Word. According to the book of Genesis and in the first chapter and first verse, to understand creation from a biblical standpoint, to trace the origin of creation, you must start at the beginning. You must start from Genesis. Genesis means the coming into being of anything; origin.²⁵ The origin or genesis of the New Age Movement can be traced back to antiquity. Author Texe Marrs traces the New Age back to Nimrod and Babylon.²⁶ In Texe Marrs’s book, Dark Secrets of the New Age: Satan’s Plan for a One World Religion, he compiles a list of the majority of New Age beliefs and places its creation upon the shoulders of Nimrod and his wife.²⁷ Nimrod is first mentioned in the book of Genesis chapter 10 and verses 8 and 9. The Bible refers to Nimrod as being the mighty hunter before the LORD. The word mighty means "powerful, warrior, tyrant, champion, chief, strong valiant, giant.²⁸ The