The Second Coming of the New Age

Might the New Age movement be right in your church sanctuary? Listen to the warnings this hour. The New Age religious movement will be the religion of the Antichrist and the New World Order.

This is the most simplest understanding to have on this subject. Though most today do not fully realize it, the roots of the New Age stem from Eastern religions and of course the occult. This is Understanding the Times Radio with Jan Markell. This hour Jan discusses the New Age movement and how it may be influencing your church and community. Jan's guest today is author Stephen Bancars. Stephen is a former New Ager blogger of the spiritscience.net.

He came to faith in Christ following a spiritual encounter with the presence of Jesus. Stephen Bancars was heavily involved in the New Age movement. He has some incredible insights into its influence. Stephen's latest book, written with Josh Peck, is titled The Second Coming of the New Age. The hidden dangers of alternative spirituality in contemporary America and its churches can be found on Amazon.com. Now to get the conversation started, here is Jan Markell. Moving toward the darkness or are you moving toward the light? She calls it fear and love. There's this wonderful book called Ishmael by Daniel Quinn which talks about one of the points it brings out is one of the mistakes that human beings make is believing that there is only one way to live and that we don't accept that there are diverse ways of being in the world, that there are millions of ways to be a human being and many paths to what you call God and her path might be something else and when she gets there she might call it the light but her loving and her kindness and her generosity brings her if it brings her to the same point that it brings you it doesn't matter whether she called it God along the way or not. And welcome to the program and there you heard the sort of the high priestess of the New Age where you want to talk about some of those issues this hour and I have come across a new book very recently about a topic I have a great interest in because you know I track the paranormal and I've had my own paranormal experience and I know how dangerous that it is so the book I have in front of me is titled The Second Coming of the New Age The Hidden Dangers of Alternative Spirituality in Contemporary America and Its Churches and the co-authors are Steve Bancars and Josh Peck. I have Steve with me today on the line from Canada the back cover of the book says the new age has returned with full force in our culture taking the west and its churches by storm all across north america christian churches have unknowingly encouraged occult beliefs and practices far removed from what the bible teaches this unfortunate reality is intrinsically linked to the popularity increase of new age spirituality we've been so influenced by its integration into our society that we have become blind to recognizing and preventing the effects of this mainstream pop culture heresy even within the walls of God's house we must take action against new age spirituality the first step towards prevention is knowledge now is the time to be informed well that's what we're going to try to do this hour is inform you about the dangers that are hidden within the new age movement and some of these dangers are subtle some of them are blatant and we'll spend a little bit of extra time on how they're affecting the church Steve Bancars from Ontario Canada thank you for joining me for the hour yeah thank you for having me Steve at the root of the new age is man is divine new spirituality it's called new spirituality alternative spirituality the new age god is a force or a field of consciousness and they use terms like christ consciousness which we'll get into a little bit later and what attracted you to get into this what attracted me i guess what really led me into the new age movement was information that i had come across that i didn't see the church really addressing i didn't think the bible could explain it i didn't think christians could explain and i was seeing this information that was really alternative things like you know studies that demonstrate a relationship between consciousness and the material world or things like evidence for a ufo abduction reports or the alien visitation in the ancient world this stuff when taken together seemed to be enough evidence to overthrow at the time in my mind to overthrow the biblical worldview i had been raised with it was actually speaking about this being a mainstream pop culture heresy was actually a program on the history channel that led me away from my christian roots to being lost in the new age there was a program called ancient aliens so what really attracted me to the new age movement was the fact that it was giving answers to these fringe type alternative topics that are really interesting that the church just really wasn't addressing i was raised a christian you know homeschooled under a christian curriculum grew up in a christian private school in the church i never heard anything like this addressed from the pulpit and so the new age teachers were quite happy to come in and offer their own explanation for these alternative phenomenon i'm just going to cite some issues here that i think will kind of define some of the practices in the new age movement so folks listen up because if you're doing any of these things or she's got a loved one participating just some of the things i'm going to name here and name a hundred things just a few crystal therapy reiki various forms of eastern meditation yoga we've done entire programs on yoga so-called christian yoga it's an oxymoron we already covered that a month or two ago astral projection anything related to hinduism guided meditation visualization spirit guides crystal balls enlightenment ascended masters chakras kabbalah that's ancient jewish occult a tarot cards the zodiac the kundalini serpent remember i've done programming on how hindu kundalini is entering the church i mean it's just shocking how it's not subtly entering the church blatantly and we'll get into that as we move into the program steven this movement and i appreciated your attention to the history of the movement really started by basically an occultist her name is helena blabatsky a spiritualist from the 1800s and she founded the theosophical society and she stressed hidden knowledge she had a publication called lucifer and you bring out a point in both your book and in in the youtubes i've watched that the new age is rooted in the occult i want you to expand on that just a moment because i think a lot of people think the new age as well it's probably tools to make us healthier things like that that are pretty harmless and you spend time talking to people about how it's really rooted in blatant satanic occult talk to me a little bit about that right well theistic satanism or what's called spiritual satanism where they actually revere satan as being a literal entity worthy of worship and adoration the practices in the new age have been identical to the practices practiced in spiritual satanism literally to a t so as you mentioned helena blabatsky she's been dubbed the title mother of the new age because she has been really the one who popularized occult information in eastern mysticism and such in the west as you said in the late 1800s she did have a magazine that she started called lucifer but more shocking than that is the statement that she has made about satan specifically so here's the mother of the new age who've been people a person who you know professors of religion will say is responsible more than any other person for bringing new age spirituality into the west here are some quotes from her on satan she says it is but natural to view satan the serpent of genesis as the real creator and benefactor the father of spiritual mankind it is satan who is the god of our planet and the only god satan the enemy of god is in reality the highest divine spirit now that's one of about 100 quotes from her work called the secret doctrine that praise lucifer and satan in some glorifying context and that was extremely concerning to me when i came out of the new age when i spent about 80 hours researching the origins of this movement and i found this quote here i want to read this too so some people will know a man by the name of anton levey he's the father of the church of satan he's the author of the satanic bible listen to what he says about the new age of and he said in the scores of books lining the shelves of new age bookstores there are instructions for guided meditation creative visualizations out of body experiences getting in touch with your spirit guides fortune telling by cards crystal balls or the stars what if satan has reclaimed these for their own dark purposes and integrated them into rituals dedicated to the devil where they rightfully belong new agers have freely drawn upon all manner of satanic material adapting into their own hypocritical purposes new age labeling is trying to play the devil's game without using his infernal name so here's a lifetime occultist telling us that new age is identical in its philosophy and practice to satanism and the reasons for this jan is that it really all boils down to the promise that man will become god through special knowledge right so in the new age movement for example people are told that god is the substance of the universe and therefore the substance of man and that through some kind of self-realization they can ascend to a state of divinity where they live from the state of unity with god so really the new age movement is based off the same lie told in the garden of eons with a very ancient mind ancient philosophy that through some knowledge that you don't have right now you can become as a god or as the gods at the certain the king james version so for at least 6 000 years this same line has tempted the egos of mankind and unfortunately the world is still buying into this satanic philosophy where now you know it's not a snake in a garden anymore now it's best-selling new york times best-selling authors like eckhart tole or neil donald walsh or deepak chakra teaching people almost verbatim to lie the enemy of god used to bring death into the world you're listening to understanding the times radio i'm jan markell and i have on the line steve bancars he's co-author of a book i've read we're not carrying it at this time you can find it at amazon.com the second coming of the new age the hidden dangers of alternative spirituality in contemporary america and its churches i find it interesting because author steve bancars as well as co-author josh peck have spent a good deal of time both in the book and online saying churches wake up don't you know some of this is creeping into the church and we've done whole programs on so-called christian yoga there's meditation some folks are walking the labyrinth and we'll get into more of that as i get further into the program and all of this some blatantly coming into the church and some more subtly coming into the church and steve bancars you're not saying and i heard you clarify this that you're not saying they're all participants in other words let's say somebody's participating in crystal therapy okay it is a dangerous thing but they're not satanic you're not calling these people necessarily satanic no i'm not calling these people satanic if they were to do a little bit of research into the origins of their beliefs and of the type of spiritual movement that those beliefs originated out of and those practices originated out of they would see that it's satanic or luciferian in its philosophy but you know a lot of people for example they're unassuming they walk into a bookstore they think you know something looks interesting or intriguing a book about you know how to use crystals for self-healing they pick it up and they want to try and you know manipulate energy now on their own bodies that wouldn't be you know satanic of them i mean technically speaking it would be sorcery it would be witchcraft by definition because you're trying to manipulate metaphysical energy to your own advantage but i don't think you know people in new age are necessarily satanist i wasn't a satanist for example i was a new age teacher i taught this stuff online on one of the biggest new age websites in the world i was a guest author on the largest new age website in the world i hated satan i thought i was opposing satan i thought it was serving god so i definitely don't think all new age researchers are practicing statements or anything like that i want to play a short clip here it's only a minute and 20 seconds and get your response to it and a very interesting a couple of statements are made in this little one minute 20 seconds and then i'm going to come back and get your take on it you see the new age religious movement will be the religion of the antichrist and the new world order again this is the simplest understanding to have on this subject it is a religion that leads to worship of the antichrist who is the beast of revelation the abomination of desolation the new age movement does not come in the form of traditional doctrine as say christianity islam or judaism there is no unified belief or practices they typically do not label their churches as new age you will not find an official leader such as the pope for catholics they do not have an actual structure of an organization it is not what we know today as organized religion it does not work this way it's more about the doctrine and beliefs more than the label in his book the kingdom of the occult walter martin says this about the new age in the turbulent decade of the 1970s an explosion of occult knowledge occurred saturating the western world with the potent seeds of new perspective a strange blend of 19th century spiritism mysticism and humanism it took the name the new age movement it quickly evolved into a bolder more organized revival of ancient occultism it was a new title with an ancient gold the penetration of all areas of culture political educational and religious with man at the center of the universe steve several things jumped out at me there he said you will not find an official leader and there's no real structure to the new age movement it's not an organized religion would you agree with those things i would yeah there's no organization there's no one you know book that outlines all the doctrinal beliefs of the new age movement um we would definitely say however that there are staple core doctrines that are virtually universally held by those with the new age movement so things like the belief that man is intrinsically divine by nature things like nature has its own sort of divinity or deity to it things like a reincarnation for example these would be staple core new age doctrines but he's right to point out that there is no new age bible as it were basically anything is free game except the jesus of the new testament anything is embraced with open arms except the idea that jesus is the only path to god and um that's where you really start to that to me says a lot about the origins and nature of this movement when jesus christ is the one that new age teachers always have to try and explain away they're always going out of their way to account for the person the ministry of jesus christ while everything else they accept with open arms so that's very revealing and i played as we entered the program i played a clip there of the kind of new age priestess oprah winfrey and i found it interesting that you said either in the book or in some online videos i watched of you you said you know oprah winfrey is as dangerous as helena blavatsky i mean partly because she calls herself a christian oprah winfrey does but she's daily promotes this new age spirituality but you would say that she's more dangerous or as dangerous as helena blavatsky correct i would say she's more dangerous because for one she has a bigger influence she's one of the most influential women in history arguably and second of all helena blavatsky didn't claim to be a christian right so the reason you know that i would say she's caused more confusion to the christian church and christian culture in the west than anybody else in history is because she is promoting new age doctrine new age heresy while professing herself to be a christian right so when the father of jesus christ tells us you shall have no other gods before me and when oprah claims to follow jesus while also teaching and i quote we can create our spiritual understanding of our own we can have a god of our own understanding that's extremely confusing to the listeners because they are hearing one thing from jesus and the opposite from oprah and those who she features on her programs which way more dangerous so if we look just in a nutshell some of the things oprah believes really quickly she believes god is an energy and impersonal force in the universe that jesus didn't come here to die for our sins but to show us how to live from a mystical state of mind called christ consciousness that jesus isn't the only path to god that man is defined by nature that there is no text such as the bible that defines once for all doctrine and theology uh reincarnation the belief that we can kind of fashion a god for ourselves and this is coming from someone remember who publicly professes jesus year after year while claiming to be a christian and as you know jan you can't be a christian and hold any one of these beliefs let alone all of them at the same time and what she does is she will redefine god redefine christ and redefine what it means to be a christian and now you have all the christian language there but you have pagan concepts and ideas derived from the christian language so if you were to compare what she teaches to some of the biggest new age teachers in the world such as the paktropa or ekkartole marianne williamson wayne dyer they're the exact same and this is really dangerous because first of all it makes new wagers feel justified in their apostasy because oprah's teaching allows them to feel like their sympathies and intuition toward jesus are satisfied it also gives back stood and professing christians an excuse to depart from the faith by offering an alternative set of ideas and rules under the same name and lastly it makes those who are walking with the lord think that these pagan ideas are compatible with christianity and start to embrace them in their own lives and all because you have one of the most influential women ever calling herself a christian while promoting this stuff and so i think she's far more dangerous than kolana bovaski as you can call it the priestess of the new age movement you know i would agree wholeheartedly i think that she's done more for the new age movement than anybody else in history all while professing to be a christian extremely confusing and dangerous if you'd like to learn more you can find steve bancar's website at reasonsforjesus.com reasonsforjesus.com again the book find it amazon is the second coming of the new age the hidden dangers of alternative spirituality in contemporary america and its churches here's where i want to go for the balance of the program i want to get a little bit of steve's personal testimony we already heard how he got into it but i think some of the experiences that he had and how he got out of it and then what i want to spend as much time as possible on in the remaining segments that we have is how is this affecting the church does your church is it featuring something that you might just not be aware of and i've named some things is your church walking the labyrinth perhaps things like that featuring things like christian yoga we'll get into a whole lot more than that but we can't get into anything in detail it will at least give you kind of some warning signals in case your church is flirting with any of the things that would be represented at least in steve bancar's book the second coming of the new age i'm coming back in a couple of minutes don't go away just a quick reminder every weekend each new understanding the times radio broadcast is posted to our website at olive tree views dot o-r-g we would love to hear from you about this program you can contact us through our website the address again olive tree views dot org one other reminder this broadcast is listener supported we appreciate your prayers for us we appreciate your financial support you can write to us at olive tree ministries box one four five two maple grove minnesota five five three one one please don't forget to save the date september 21 at grace church in eden prairie minnesota in weeks and months to come we'll be sharing more details about our next fall conference once again the book written by jan's guest steven bancars titled the second coming of new age the hidden dangers of alternative spirituality in contemporary america and its churches can be ordered at amazon.com more from steven and jan coming right up this is jan markell and we live in a day of lawlessness in the world and a day of carelessness in the church this combination brings about a world of confusion where truth is being upstaged by social movements and the ideologies of liberal theology we help you sort through these issues every weekend right here on this station thanks for supporting this radio outreach now heading into its 19th year there is a common misperception that radio stations actually pay hosts of programs like understanding the times radio when in fact programs like this deal with serious weekly radio costs if you would like to underwrite this program give us a call monday through friday central time at seven six three five five nine four four four four that's seven six three five five nine forty four forty four or just give conveniently online at olive tree views dot org that's olive tree views dot o-r-g you can always drop a tax-deductible check to olive tree ministries box 1452 maple grove minnesota five five three one one that's box one four five two maple grove minnesota five five three one one proclaiming both the news and the good news this year i am a christian who believes that there are certainly many more paths to god other than christianity i'm a free-thinking christian who believes in my way but i don't believe that it's the only way what i believe is that jesus came to show us christ consciousness oprah advertises herself as a christian while rejecting the essentials of the faith it's that she deliberately rejects christianity while promoting new age spirituality oprah winfrey is a pro-Christian christian on one hand and the most prominent new age teacher on the planet on the other hand this is understanding the times radio with jan markell they saw our jans talking with stephen bancars about the new age movement let's go back to their conversation once again jan markell i was a really broken person i didn't realize how broken that i i truly was but i was depraved i was miserable i had depression and anxiety that i was suppressing i had all this quote-unquote spiritual knowledge all of this information and it wasn't bearing any real fruit in my life i felt like something was missing i felt a little bit dead inside steve had a disturbing dream when i opened my eyes i was hovering four feet over my bed and realized that i was out of my body and i started having a panic attack and a being appeared in front of me and this being had red skin with black markings on his face it just scared me because i realized that i wasn't in control that this stuff is more powerful than i was that these forces were real and that they didn't care for my well-being they didn't need my permission i was in their playground shaken by the experience he began investigating the claims of the bible and jesus more closely i would sleep with the bible under my pillow because i knew there was something there that was authoritative that was true and that was secure and that had power over anything that i was scared of well thank the lord steve band cars finally realized he was dealing with very dark forces that the dark forces are real he realized he was actually playing a role in blatant evil now again he entered the new age movement very young he became extremely popular his online following was staggering i tell you if i had that many online followers we'd have quite a ministry here i mean it was just incredible the number of people who were looking to steve for some kind of new age slash occult slash paranormal direction from him and and his life steve at 19 you really became a spiritual guru as i said to hundreds and hundreds of thousands you felt god was this really got to me you felt god was rewarding you because you had a higher state of consciousness and i played this clip and you were interviewed i think it was on cbn and fascinating short little interview there but you felt all of this gave you a greater sense of power purpose and meaning and i bet do a lot of folks who are into the world and i think do a lot of folks who are into this stream feel that they indeed have power purpose and meaning because of their paranormal influence yeah well when you're able to interact and presumably control when you're being told that you can control not only the forces of nature but spirit beings in another realm where they're kind of at your disposal you can call upon them when you want you can tell them to depart from you when you want it is very empowering and it makes you feel as though you're the driver of your own ship and as i mentioned in that interview there that soundbite from the 700 club from cbn what was really shocking to me is that all of the rules i had learned in the new age you can go how spirit beings are allowed to interact with mankind they proved to be false in one single experience where i was pulled out of my body against my will by what i can only describe as being a demon red skin black markings on his face i was in what's called a lucid dream where you're consciously aware that you're within a dream and i got pulled out of my car within this dream and i got sucked into his third eye it sounds crazy but he had a third eye in between his two regular eyes which is a symbol of psychic empowerment and the new age events related to the pineal gland and when it opened that and i got sucked into his third eye i opened my eyes after about three seconds of blackness and i was hovering four feet in the air over my bed and i spent the next four or five minutes trying to fight to get back into my body and i see my physical leg i see that i'm not in my physical leg i'm trying to get back into it and that to me was extremely terrifying because i really i realized i don't have sovereignty over myself and over these practices and the new age movement and the real reason is because when you start doing anything scripture tells you not to do when you start engaging in different types of supernatural sin immediately you step outside of the protective covering of the father that's exactly what happened to me you obviously you got your eyes open here and you repented you turned to god and turned your life around because of what happened to you you made a public statement to your hundreds of thousands of followers and what was the response right in a nutshell i had a facebook page right called spirit science metaphysics which gathered over half a million followers in less than a year and a half and well what i did is i had this network with some of the largest new age or conscious facebook pages on the internet we would all share each other's stuff so by the time i had my own website up and running in 2014 as kind of a culmination of my research i started sharing into all these pages i had access to and that's how i started developing a real solid following in my website it was really popular took off i was getting hundreds of thousands of views a day i actually made sixty thousand dollars in my first month in ad revenue and so here i am you know eventually bought my own house i'm 22 years old making 40 50 grand a month living in a 4 000 square foot house as you featured in the clip there broken and depraved and wicked these are all understatements i was dark and i was black and the bible says that you were darkness i was darkness i was spiritually dead i was morally and spiritually bankrupt and after i started confessing sins the people in my life and realizing you know i am not fit to be god over my own life anymore that's why i decided to say a prayer of salvation with my mother to invite jesus into my life and a few weeks went by nothing really changed after that prayer but it was kind of an invitation she says i want more of you i want who you really are i don't the new age version of you anymore and it culminated to me having this moment of brokenness in his presence where i was weeping before him in repentance asking for forgiveness asking that he would hear me and the only way i can describe it is i got engulfed with his presence where the atmosphere started to change and it became thick with his glory and i knew it was a person i knew it was the jesus of the new testament it was a personal divine authoritative presence all around me and i knew it was you know the jesus i had been raised with and i knew he loved me i knew he was a lord i knew everything was subject to him and all i could say in my head during this time was jesus is lord jesus is lord over in my head and i got born again i got born again in a five minute encounter with him i got filled with the holy spirit and i couldn't believe what i had just experienced it was jesus christ and even when i was in his presence chance something was really interesting was it seemed like nature itself was responding to him in that moment like his presence showed up and i could detect in the spirit that nature was responding to him being there that really really moved me because i was i was seeing how even the universe is subject to him even the created world knows that jesus is lord and so i got born again i went inside i had the holy spirit reveal all of these lies and deceptions to me about a new age movement and as you said i made a public apology to people i told them the new age was into deception to keep people away from salvation in christ i apologize to them for leaving them into demonic deception uh and practices that are only going to invite demons into their body and as far as the reception goes the reception ranged from people telling me to kill myself and rid myself off the face of the earth to people kind of keeping watch and taking tabs to see if i was genuine and sincere to praise god a lot of people came out of the new age movement in fact the best-selling new age author of all time her name's doreen virtue you can go to any bookstore in any place in america and you're going to see her angel cards that are still up there because she's still they're still under contract but she's a repentant christian now she said my videos helped give her courage and boldness to leave the new age movement and publicly come forward with her faith so the response ranged from people telling me to kill myself and absolutely freaking out to some of the most prominent new age teachers ever being inspired to lead the new age movement as well so praise god for that yes indeed again you can learn more at reasonsforjesus.com reasonsforjesus.com you can find the book the most convenient place folks is amazon and that's the second coming of the new age the hidden dangers of alternative spirituality in contemporary america and its churches and it's by steve bancars and josh peck so i've read a good portion of it plus i've seen videos online that are very moving and indeed the troubling part of course is lots of things but the number of people caught up in this perhaps a number of people naively caught up in it again they may be doing certain practices that sound perfectly harmless and i talked about some of those in the first segment crystal therapy reiki certain kinds of meditation yoga astral projection guided meditation visualization spirit guides crystal balls enlightenment ascended masters chakras kabala tarot cards the zodiac kundalini kundalini spirit i could go on and on and some of you listening are participating in some of these things and you think it's harmless it's maybe even be healthy and we're here to tell you that it's spiritually reckless and dangerous you're listening to understanding the times radio i'm jan markell i have on the line from canada co-author steven bancars steven a couple things here how can christians accept this i mean the new age christianizes its message you bring that out the church ignores the message you bring that out bible verses are taken out of context by new age teachers they might use john 10 they would extrapolate jesus saying you are gods pastors don't want to offend so they won't confront people who are going into these things i'm just pulling out some points that you bring out both in your book and online you bring out the fact jesus is someone who became christ by raising his consciousness through meditation yoga contemplation he realized he was god anyway these are some of the tricks that the new age is playing on people who may even have a church background exactly and i do want to take a moment here just to dispel this myth and this idea that kind of floats around in our culture that new age is some fringe type issue that it's not really a problem in our culture that it's just kind of a maybe a handful of hippies in sedona arizona but in fact when you look at statistics when you have you know 36 million americans currently practicing yoga as a 10 billion dollar industry when you have 40 of americans say they meditate at least once a week when you have 27 of americans identify as being spiritual but not religious and this number continues to grow year after year after year actually october 1st 2018 after our book the second coming of the new age was published a study came out that showed that 62 of the american population hold at least one new age belief and they only tested for four beliefs they tested for the belief of spiritual energy being present within nature in psychics having reliable insight into the future in astrology and in reincarnation they only tested for beliefs of 62 of americans but what's scary jan is that 61 of professing christians also held at least one of these new age beliefs that's right 61 you're right and they weren't testing for things like pantheism the idea that god is in nature they weren't testing for the idea that all paths lead back to god in the end eventually universalism they weren't testing for a belief in the eastern principle karma or yoga so i would say a very conservative estimate is that 80 of professing christians hold at least one new age belief which in my opinion is nothing short of a theological crisis in the church right now it's very unfortunate that about one third of people who claim to be christian believe in reincarnation for example and what i really want pastors and christians to realize those who are concerned is that atheism atheism isn't the problem in our culture anymore only three percent of the american population identify as aliens the problem isn't that people stop believing in god it's that they start to believe they are god they're more likely to believe they are divine than to reject the divine altogether and so the new age movement as we talked about early on the program this is being taught by ellen degenerace okay oprah winfrey russell brand jim carrey this is the religion the spiritual movement that's taking over the west right now and as you've mentioned janet is starting to infiltrate its way into modern evangelical churches as well absolutely and something else you bring out steven is that some churches will now stress that jesus being the only way is very narrow so maybe some of these things we're talking about maybe they're okay well the truth is narrow right it is 17 he says i came to bear witness to the truth and whoever is on the side of truth is on my side right jesus says don't think i've come to bring peace upon the earth i haven't come to bring peace i've come to bring division and the truth divides right it divides light from darkness holy from the profane truth from untruth and yes the truth is extremely narrow narrow is the way that leads to eternal life and see there be that find it but the truth is a person and the truth is jesus and my hope would be that people would be open minded enough to if they read the book or the second coming of the new age to be open-minded and willing to follow the evidence where it leads if it leads somewhere narrow then we're going to stick with the narrow because at least it's true and so in the new age movement of course they completely pervert the idea of truth truth is all relative to the individual you can create your own truth it's all this post-modern self-defeating philosophy that has no basis in science in scripture really in history until about 60 years ago and jesus christ completely overthrows that by saying no man comes to the father except through me does the new age teach that jesus is someone who became christ by raising his consciousness through meditation yoga contemplation etc i mean he realized he was god through practicing these things which so many christians are doing absolutely yeah absolutely this doctrine is called christ consciousness and and just to once again demonstrate the pervasiveness of this idea this is something taught by oprah winfrey by deepak chopra ekart tole so what they do is they define god as being the substance of reality and say you know we're all made of god and therefore we are kind of god in human form god is the substance of our being he's the substance of humanity and so jesus is someone who came to show us how to self-realize that we are intrinsically divine jesus is someone who became christ by realizing he was intrinsically connected to god just as everyone else is just as everything is in creation and so he came to teach us how to be enlightened and enter into the kingdom of god which is used as a metaphor for this divine state of consciousness of realizing you are inseparable from the being and substance of god right so christ consciousness is the idea that jesus came to teach us that man is inherently unified with god and is separated from god only through self-ignorant not through sin but through self-ignorant and oprah winfrey says that she believes jesus didn't come here to die for our sins but to teach us and show us the christ consciousness that abides with each of us so you know neil donald walsh for example in the book conversations with god which is a series that has sold over 10 million copies mind you in there you know not just jesus has been christ that you can be christed too you know you can become a christ and it's it's dangerous because jesus says what does jesus say in the last days many people will come saying i am christ and will deceive many he says don't go after those who say i am christ but here you have new age teachers telling millions and millions and millions of people convincing them you are christ it's literally fulfilling biblical prophecy for the end times the stuff here's where i want to go stephen in my closing segment and we'll get in as much of this as we can and folks what we can't get in you can find a lot online on youtube and you can certainly find it in stephen's book the second coming of the new age but just what are some of the practices that the church is putting its blessing on and we've made some reference to them we'll take a closer look here in my closing segment for instance you may remember a year ago i talked about christ alignment basically these are christianized tarot cards destiny cards destiny readings we'll spend a minute or two on that angel boards i never thought i'd see the day when we'd have a christianized ouija boards but they're called angel boards or spirit boards we've got again yoga in the church kundalini in the church we've got mentioned it walking the labyrinth we've got some contemplative prayer we've got stephen feels near-death experiences would be new age type experiences that perhaps their dreams hallucinations or visions and he brought out something interesting that i was particularly caught my attention that we're reading some popular books today where it's really jesus speaking word for word in these books which is nothing more than sort of glorified channeling trying to get to to believe that jesus is speaking word for word word by word in some books today that are best sellers and this would be closer to new age belief than christianity so those are some things and more we'll get to as we have time in my closing segment the book again is the second coming of the new age you can find it at amazon.com and i'm coming back in just a couple of minutes we'll wrap this up with steven band cars learn more at reasonsforjesus.com back in just a minute or two don't go away we know you're enjoying jan's discussion with steven band cars on the new age movement we want to remind you this broadcast comes into your home every week because people like you have supported it without your participation in praying for us and giving we could not be heard coast to coast in over 830 radio stations so thanks to all of you for your generous support we welcome your tax deductible gifts mailed to olive tree ministries box 1452 maple grove minnesota 55311 or you can give securely online at olive tree views.org if you need to reach us by phone 763-559-4444 is the number to call jan and steven return right after this brief time out i have watched the tide of our times deteriorate for decades some say we are in the time period known as the beginning of sorrows but that actually comes later in god's clock and calendar still without an eternal perspective people are discouraged today and that is why hebrews 10 tells us to encourage one another olive tree ministries has products that will help you do that visit our website olive tree views.org olive tree views.org we have books and dvds that are uplifting and that will remind you that the king is coming soon and the darkness will turn to dawn if you want to stay up to date also check our daily headlines posted hourly every day the sons of isekar in first chronicles 12 were men who understood the times god wants us to be in the know up to date and looking at events that cause us to await his return in today's world who do you trust for good insight on current events for that matter who do you trust for good bible commentary america is full of fake news and false teaching that's why we want to offer you an alternative to both we are understanding the times radio with jan markell and our main objective is to tell you the truth about current events as they relate to a biblical world view join us each week on this station for a source you can trust new age religion comes wrapped up in a package of self-help self-esteem and self-reliance philippians 4 13 says i can do all things through messiah which strengthens me the new age philosophy subtly removes messiah from our thoughts and makes us believe that we can do all things if we just believe it and will it to be so it's the power of positive thinking now for the conclusion of today's understanding the times broadcast once again jan markell the new age movement consists of a massive network of groups that all work towards one desired goal the main goal of the new age religious movement is bringing about rain and worship of a one world leader who will control a world government he will bring enlightenment to the masses he will bring peace to the earth and show people how to live in peace through him they refer to him as the christ or maitreya they will accomplish this goal in many ways but one main specific way is to bring about acceptance of all religions and beliefs but at the same time directly blaspheme the doctrine of judeo-christian beliefs this blaspheme sometimes is very direct but a lot of it is very subtle so subtle that if one does not put on the full armor of elohim they may be swayed by this philosophy you see in new age philosophy you can believe in jesus christ just as long as you don't read your bible too much and really practice what it says okay we are wrapping up my hour-long conversation with author steve bancars just a couple of quick announcements here and you know we have a very active facebook page jan markell's olive tree ministries you might want to join the conversation there follow us on twitter at olive tree men and just consider getting my print and e newsletter we talk about these issues in the print and e newsletter olive tree views.org olive tree views.org and remember the program is posted to my website every saturday morning olive tree views.org or you might sign up for the oneplace.com mobile app and then it's downloaded to your device every saturday morning so please won't you follow us if you are too busy to follow us on real radio which we are on about 830 stations you can always get us online my website oneplace.com and other locations as well steve i kind of gave a little tease going out of my last segment and let's just talk about some things happening in the church sneaking in the back door in some cases rushing in the front door full-blown occult practices so in some cases in other cases perhaps more new agey type things but as we've kind of discussed over the hour the new age really is the occult and it's trying to christianize questionable things at best and way last february i believe i talked about christ alignment christianized tarot cards called destiny card readings this is a christ alignment people in australia talking about christianized tarot cards hi guys my name is ali and i'm one of the healers down at the christ alignment healing tent at the dandenong markets and you can come down and see us we're here on tuesdays fridays saturday's and sundays from 9 a.m till 4 p.m and we're at stand which is called j11 so just come and find us and we'd love to see you for a spiritual healing a destiny card reading where you can ask a question and receive an answer from spirit we work with the the highest spirit the christ spirit and yeah we give accurate destiny card readings words of knowledge guidance clarity letting go of emotional things and getting renewed basically you can also have dream interpretation so if you have a dream you'd like interpreted feel free to email it we'd love to see you down here see bankars uh christianized tarot cards now these folks would say that they're using these christianized tarot cards for evangelistic purposes your thoughts on this interestingly it's not just about ministry there and i would say that you know i do believe these people are well intentioned i think maybe even some of them are are born again christians who feel hey you know we're operating in the gifts of the holy spirit we're operating in word of knowledge here there is actually a plethora of ministries that are that are utilizing cards so it's just not a bad ministry it's kind of becoming a trend right now and as far as using cards and kind of appealing to the intuition of people who are unsafe and you know asking them you know pick a card that you feel john see okay now pick another card now pick another card now we're going to pray into this and ask spirit and what he's saying about the card you picked and as far as an evangelical method and i don't think that from scripture that word of knowledge operates like that you don't just choose to operate in word of knowledge the holy spirit appoints the gifts as he wills and based entire evangelical ministry off of this idea that you can be a newborn christian and just choose to operate in the third heaven or choose to operate in word of knowledge i don't really see that as being biblical i would take the stumbling block as well to christians into those outside the body of christ that is actually a very very small way in terms of the amount of people numerically who are being impacted by new age in the church i think that a much bigger practice once again may be well-intentioned people and as you mentioned i'll mention briefly here christian yoga where you actually have christian yoga ministries you have you can get your own christian yoga certificate and this is paganism by definition yoga literally means union and refers to a state of union where your individual self is unified with brahman with the universal spirit that undergirds reality so it's not just stretching yoga is designed to shift your consciousness and align your energy systems in your body so that you facilitate a higher consciousness called moksha where you realize that god is all and all is god it's literally hinduism in practice and as we mentioned earlier on the program this is a 10 billion dollar industry and this is being practiced in the church being practiced outside of the church by christians some of these poses they're meant to honor and revere the polytheistic gods of hinduism they're meant to invoke them to invoke their essences their properties into one's life you're literally exercising your body your members of your body onto idolatry you're opening up a spiritual portal for demonic oppression my own mother for example had to quit her job recently because of new age in her church she had worked at a church for several years and to honor the church's anniversary of having been built on indigenous land they invited indigenous tribes and to come celebrate and they're doing drum circles pagan drum circles which are meant to invoke spirits in the room and they're doing smudging ceremonies in the church and the church was inviting its members come celebrate this with us so there's many many different ways the new age movement is beginning to infiltrate the church and we go over that in our book but it's really getting out of control jan i'm sure that you're aware that it is really getting out of control absolutely it's getting out of control a contemplative prayer i mean i think people think well doesn't everybody sort of contemplate when they pray well that's not quite what we mean why don't you give me one minute on contemplative prayer contemplative prayer is meant to facilitate a shift in consciousness i'm quoting from a guy named pennington here who started a catholic mystic who started the contemplative prayer movement where we go from ordinary consciousness to a state of pure consciousness in which we leave the false self for the true self and attain a unity consciousness with god right so he actually says that that god is known in pure consciousness rather than by some subject object knowledge and what they mean is that when you shift your awareness away from the ego consciousness away from the mental chatter away from thinking and into a state of just pure awareness that that's where you meet god with that's where you interact with god and so contemplative prayer is a set of practices where you're going to kind of pick a mantra repeat a mantra over and over in your head for the purpose of trying to shift your psychology so that when you shift your brain wave state and you shift your state of mind now you're able to somehow i don't interact with god better i mean that's not how you interact with god you interact with god through supplication through repentance through righteousness through praying in the spirit not through trying to you know shift your own consciousness some pagan means it's really mindfulness it's literally mindfulness by definition there's no vertical connection made between you and god you're just using scripture or some kind of mantra a christianized mantra repeating it to yourself to try and facilitate some new state of consciousness to accomplish some pagan end of meeting god in a place of pure consciousness or something it's just it's really really deceptive unfortunately it is being promoted and encouraged by some really prominent evangelical leaders as well angel boards or spirit boards i i thought i was in tune steven i thought i was really aware of the kind of the evil things coming along i did not know there were angel boards also called spirit boards they're dressed up ouija boards and never thought i'd see the day when did this come along i'm not really sure when it came along it's been around for for quite a while it seems like a very old product but this is something where you know it does appeal to a younger generation who maybe wants to dabble in the supernatural in a way that they feel is safe and obviously for some reason kids have some kind of fascination with ouija boards but now here we have more of a christianized appropriate safe way to engage with supernatural entities and supernatural beings which i mean is simply idolatry there's no instance in all of scripture where anyone has ever tried to contact an angel of 31 000 verses and and in the bible nowhere does it say to contact an angel there's no precedent for that and you know bible says in second christian 11 that satan masquerades himself as an angel of life you know you're trying to contact angels how do you know what you're contacting is actually an angel when you're practicing spiritism by definition these are practices god put the death penalty on in the old testament and now we're embracing them in the church wholeheartedly you mentioned as well you know there's some best-selling books that are aren't new age in their orientation that are in christian bookstores and you mentioned near-death experiences i wouldn't say new york experiences are all on new age necessarily but there is one a book called proof of heaven where you have a former harvard trained neurosurgeon who had this encounter where he went to heaven apparently and it's in christian bookstores everywhere it sold 14 15 million copies but he is actually linked up now with the esophageal society of helen helen of lebowski that we talked about earlier on in the program and you know i actually went to a christian bookstore recently i pulled it off the shelf and i was like do you guys realize this is new age let me explain and she was like you can throw that in the garbage i don't want that sold in the store and you know this is a very popular prominent book there's another one where as you mentioned earlier it's basically channeling right so and i quote this author would sit down quote to listen to god with pen and hand writing down whatever i believe he was saying and that it changed from monologue to dialogue and that she began to write messages that began to flow more freely in dialogue with jesus but when you're reading the words it's jesus speaking in the first person like the apostle paul didn't even do that he would say i paul write these things to you he wasn't saying i jesus or i holy spirit write these things to you if you read the actual content of this book as well he doesn't sound like jesus he's using words like divine mind or spirit mind or divine alchemy i mean jesus is the same yesterday today and forever if it doesn't sound like jesus it's not jesus amen i mean no christian who has the holy spirit reads these words and the spirit bears witness yes these are the verbatim word for word messages from the lord jesus christ and this is also you know tens of millions of copies tens of millions of copies the author i'm sure is a multi-multi-millionaire because of these practices folks you all this info found in the second coming of the new age the hidden dangers of alternative spirituality in contemporary america and its churches with a good emphasis in the book about the church honestly that's what was most helpful to me but i think anybody you love dabbling in it you need to get them the book or find stephen banquards online on youtube outstanding teachings he's got there let me close i'm completely out of time because the bible says that in the last days people would give heed to the doctrine of demons and you have heard about all of that in this hour and while this is a part of the perilous times scenario written about in second timothy 3 it is not too late for you to pull out of this movement if you find yourself attracted to it or even active in it so renounce the evil turn to god turn your life around become a new creature today a new creature in christ tomorrow maybe too late i want to thank you for listening and we will talk to you next week we are a moment you are forever lord of the ages is god before time we are a vapor you are eternal love everlasting raining on high holy holy lord god almighty worthy is thank you for joining us for understanding the times radio with jan markell we're reaching the world to report current events for the lens of scripture this broadcast cost you nothing to listen it cost us thousands of dollars each weekend as we produce and distribute this weekly program would you consider becoming a financial partner with us in this ever-changing world price followers need to stay informed and to be aware of current events from a biblical perspective this is where you'll hear compelling programs every week to highlight hidden dangers in our culture and the hope that comes to faith in jesus christ we invite you to join us in helping to underwrite this listener supported broadcast please write with your tax deductible gifts to olive tree ministries box 14 52 maple grove minnesota 5 5 3 1 1 you can also give at olive tree views.org or by phone at 763-559-4444 around the clock olive tree views.org is also the place to go for daily updates on global events from a biblical world view we're looking forward to hearing from you this week thank you for your continued prayer support join jen next week when she returns with another information and inspiration packed hour designed to help you understand the times