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Home::Religion
Differences Between New Era and Christianity
Author : Wilma Melendez
Do you believe that there is no right and wrong, that whether something is right or wrong is decided by each individual? Or do you believe there is bad karma and that you pay for it by being reincarnated? Or do you believe neither- then what alternative is there, if any?
Do you believe that God wants everyone to be saved or only a few? Do you think that promoting the belief in Having any values whatsoever is good for the world? Your answers to these questions tells whether you support the New Era movement or not.
In the New Era belief, you yourself decide what it right, values are relative. New Era supporters believe in reincarnation, because as one pop song put it, “it takes more than one lifetime to learn”. Yet the New Era followers believe in karma. However the New Age movement does not try to stimulate moral values in people for them, or tells them they can do whatever because there is no need for salvation. In the new Era, the followers believe that everyone is saved no matter what bad they do.
In contrast, Christians accept that ten million lifetimes would not be enough to learn. The more that the world progresses in technology, the worse that the weapons become. The more medicines are invented, the more billions that have no access to them because of poverty. We have the accumulated knowledge of past generations accumulated as formal education, we have more information than ever. But we still have the same world problems.
Christians believe there is definite right and wrong. If not there would not be so many problems in the world. We are all imperfect and need salvation, but we can not earn salvation by ourselves because not even one bad thing that we have done can become undone by all the good we do. Nor can we clean up guilt by saying that all we do is good. The Belief in Karma can not save us because karma is a racist philosophy from India that justifies the mistreatment of a race of people called “the untouchables”.
Karma, according to people in the New Era movement, is the idea that you pay for what you do wrong. Karma as a belief is not “new” at all, it originated from India. In India, Hindus and Buddhists believe that karma is accumulated through reincarnation and one pays for karma in their next reincarnation.
In India, karma is used as an excuse to justify the wrongs accepted with racism. They believe that people who were born with black skin are born that way because they were evil in a past life. In India, the blacks are called the untouchables. They and anybody who is crippled or poor are denied equality and opportunities to improve their life,as K.P. Yohannan explains in his Christian book,
Revolution in World Missions, according to karmic belief, Hindus believe that helping them would worsen their condition, prolonging the time they have to suffer to pay for their bad karma. Thus the belief in karma plus reincarnation equals racism.
In Hinduism, some animals are sacred because it is believed that people incarnate into them. Sadly, Hinduism keeps India poor, K.P. Yohannan adds, because the Hindus believe that rats are sacred. They will not exterminate rats even though they eat one third of the crops and cause disease. The cows and rats eat the crops but starving people are not allowed to eat of it.
In Christian belief, all races are made by God from one common ancestor, Adam and Eve. We are all made in God’s image and deserve to be treated equally and loved as God loves us (Genesis 2:27). The Bible tells us to help the poor. “If there be any among you that are poor of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the Lord has given you, you shall not harden your heart, nor shut your hand from your poor brother (Deuteronomy 15: 7) and “And thy shall not glean your vineyard, neither shall you gather every grape of thy vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger” (Leviticus 23:22). To glean means to pick up every last crop. Some of the crop must be left behind for the poor of the country and the poor foreigners to gather.
Jesus taught that a man who could not see was not born
Without sight to pay for his sin nor for the sin of his parents (John 9:1-3). People with handicaps are equal to all and should not be looked down upon.
But from Western eyes, it is not desirable to have “good karma” either. Reverend Moisés Roman explained that in Hinduism belief, you reincarnate into a cow, not as a punishment, but because you have been very good and have reached a very high level of development. In fact, in Asia, it is an ideal to stop reincarnating and become free of the supposed endless cycle of birth and re-birth, whereas to a New Age westerner, it is a welcome idea to keep reincarnating.
We must examine the societal implications of our beliefs. According to economists, India, which has a free market and is a democracy, should have an excellent economy. Yet it is one of the poorest parts of the world because there is little support for equality and charity. The Christians are the ones that have set up charitable organizations there, but it is not enough. For instance, in India, Christian missionaries are beaten and rejected by their families (from various articles from Send! Missionary magazine, www.gfa.org ).
We can not save ourselves by good deeds, and there is no reincarnation. We have one life to live. Only the crucifixion of one who has never done anything bad could pay for our wrongs. Yet we can all become saved from eternal suffering and enjoy eternal happiness with God. It is as easy as believing in Jesus as our only Savior and God.
New Era doctrine resents Christianity. New Era
Doctrine implies that God is mean because all can not be saved; but Christianity says God has called all to be saved, even though all have sinned, simply by believing in Jesus. What could be easier than that?
Why is crucifixion required? If you are kidnapped by an enemy, and the enemy wants money for your release, someone must pay that ransom for you to live. The enemy is the devil who has tied us up with sin, but the Savior is Jesus. A kidnapper wants a lot of money, even more than we have. The devil is even worse than a kidnapper. He wants us to have eternal suffering. And he asks a ransom that he knows we can not give, the cruxifiction of someone perfect, because he does not want us to be released. But Jesus, having never sinned, was the sacrifice that saved us because he had no sin, so the shedding of his blood is priceless. His great worth paid for the salvation of all who are willing to believe in him and enjoy eternal happiness in heaven.
Jesus’ life is told in the New Testament books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. In these books we are told how Jesus taught us, “love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you, and persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44). And he really lived that. Jesus did not fight back when the ancient Pagan Roman army came to arrest him and crucify him, (even though he could have done a miracle to set himself free), because he wanted to give himself in ransom for our sins.
Jesus came to this world to fulfill a mission, God, his Father, asked him to do; and Jesus willingly did. His mission was to give himself to save us from our sins. When they came to arrest him, one who was with Jesus took out a sword and cut the ear off of one of those who came to arrest him. But Jesus said, “Put back your sword, for all they who take up the sword shall perish by the sword”. Jesus said he could have called thousands of angels to his aid if he so chose to, but he did not defend himself (Matthew 26:51-54). No one can live up to Jesus. This was done as an example to all of us.
Jesus, of whose one of his titles was the Son of man, said, “For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). The Bible says, “even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all that believe: for there is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace, this grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God has set to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God” (Romans 3:22-25). This means that we all need forgiveness and can receive it by believing in Jesus.
One educated, western person I know prays by looking in the mirror and talking to “the God inside him”. Many people in the New Age movement misunderstand the Christian belief that God is everywhere, and instead represent it to mean that God is everything. Pantheism and Christianity are very different. You are not God; God is perfect.
Christians become filled with the Holy Spirit of God by believing in Jesus and asking Jesus only to come into their heart. According to born again Christians, if you have not asked Jesus to be your Savior and God, then you have not invited Jesus into your temple, which is your body, so God is not inside you. “The most high does not dwell in temples made with hands…” (Acts 8:48). When you believe in Jesus, you have the joy of Jesus dwelling in your heart, (your heart is created by God), not in statues or pictures made by human hands.
When born again Christians pray, they close their eyes and pray to God, the creator of the entire universe. They pray to God in Jesus’ name, not to themselves. Jesus, God’s son, said, “And whatsoever you shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you shall ask anything in my name, I will do it” (John 14:13-14).
During a time of crisis, we need to become strengthened by turning to a resource outside of our limitations. If we believe that we are God, if we believe that we make up our own values, and that we make up our own miracles; we will have mental inconsistency. We will be going around in circles, looking for something outside of, and greater than ourselves; while seeking within ourselves, what we already have and do not need to seek. But we keep seeking inside because what we have inside is not enough.
I know a lady that would do a Tarot reading for herself over and over again on the same question, never accepting the answer she got. Some Tarot readers that charge for their reading record the session, and give the recording away, so the customer will not ask the same questions over and over again. We were meant for something better, we were meant to pray to God, the creator and sustainer of the Universe; the only source of power, perfection, and infinite wisdom; and to receive help from him.
For books on salvation, explore the author’s Christian bookstore link at www.webspawner.com/users/howtopray . I recommend Just the FAQ’s About Salvation: Frecuently Asked Questions, by Andreas Max; The New Age Movement, by Philip Lochhaas; and Is Jesus the Only Savior? by Ronald H. Nash.
You can get K.P. Yohannan’s book, Revolution in World Missions, from the Christian bookstore link for $6.99 plus shipping and handling; or you can currently get it free directly from Gospel for Asia Ministries, the Asian charitable Christian evangelical organization of missionaries, at the link www.gfa.org ).
About the Author
Wilma Melendez has been a born again Christian for 18 years. She attends El Sendero de La Cruz Christian Church in Puerto Rico and is a counseling student of their Theological Seminary. She studies the Bible using books from her online Christian bookstore: http://www.family-moment.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi/wm246863/storeframe.html
Her home page is at http://www.webspawner.com/users/howtopray/
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