Oprah the false prophet and A Course in Miracles
I have been amazed by the popularity, and infamy of Oprah's increased support of New Age religion, in her ongoing interviews with Eckhart Tolle, and her renewed support for A Course in Miracles (ACIM) as evidenced by inviting Marianne Williamson to host a daily show on Oprah's XM station.
OneNewsNow reports on this, and discusses a book critical of Oprah's 'Christianity' (Reinventing Jesus Christ: The New Gospel) (online version):
Oprah told her audience that she has no problem reconciling the differences between the new age religion she is now promoting and the Christian faith she claims....But Smith, appearing on the March 11 edition of the AFA Report, said the false teachings of A Course in Miracles should be obvious to any Christian. "Here are some of the lessons: Lesson 29, 'God is in everything I see.' Lesson 186, 'The salvation of the world depends on me.' 253, 'My self is the ruler of the universe.' 337, 'My sinless-ness protects me from all harm,'" Smith said, quoting from the lessons. "This is the Bible upside-down."
Now, I actually experimented with ACIM, and I have really benefited from it, even though it is clearly NOT biblical, though it uses Christian language. The main 'issues' with ACIM are:
- Their view of Jesus' death is that it was not substitutionary, but merely exemplary
- Jesus was not God, but merely an enlightened human - or only a god in the sense that WE too can become gods.
- There is no evil, that is only our perception - that kind of 'you create your own reality' thing that the recent book The Secret made popular again
- It relies on inner and outer spirit guides, which ends up putting our own subjective experience over scripture or reason, and can open us up to demonic influences
However, what I really like about ACIM is its focus on 'removing the blocks in our mind to the awareness and experience of love' - that is, that we are made of love, and to love, and that God is love, and we need to change our thinking to become aware of and experience the love of God. But no need for repentance in the biblical sense.
I'll do more posts on ACIM, since it seems it is coming up in the news.
In the meantime, you might enjoy researching the following excellent books by ACIM authors:
- I Will Never Leave You: How Couples Can Achieve The Power Of Lasting Love by Hugh Prather (all of his books are worth a look)
- Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain
- Love Is Letting Go of Fear by Gerald Jampolsky - a true classic, worth a read by all Christians - and you might want to compare it to John Powell's Unconditional Love: Love Without Limits, a classic and short Christian view of self love and love for others.
- Teach Only Love: The Twelve Principles of Attitudinal Healing by Gerald Jampolsky
- A Course in Love: A Self-Discovery Guide for Finding Your Soulmate by Joan Gattuso
Also, here's a decent list of the perennial New Age best sellers, which are worth a look, not only to learn FROM, but to be aware of, and to evaluate within a Christian worldview if you dare.
