Too bad God doesn't give us a set of spiritual headphones when we enter the kingdom of God through faith in Jesus Christ. They could sure come in handy. So many good-sounding, right-seeming voices clutter the airwaves like static while we strain to hear the truth.
The latest nonsense to up the static of confusion is the Oprah-endorsed "A New Earth," by Eckhart Tolle. Funny how the word "new" is always attached to old ideas that have never worked. New earth. New age. Nah...nothing new about it. It's the same old worn out "flash in the pan" stick figure of syncretic cultism that's been around since New Testament days.
Basically, you take a spiritual buffet table loaded with Buddha, Mohammed, Spiritism, Hinduism, esoteric philosophical fluff, transcendental meditation, and all the entrees of mysticism man has ever come up with as a substitute for truth, then you lay Jesus on the buffet table right next to that goulash and call it spiritual enlightenment.
And because Oprah is endorsing it, millions are gobbling it up. As you gorge yourself on this goulash, let me make a prediction: It won't satisfy. It won't last. It will tickle your taste buds for six months, but will not satisfy the hunger for truth that exists within. Don't be fooled by Cotton Candy Christianity.
How do I know this? Because God didn't wait for Mr. Tolle to write a book about truth. God already wrote one. What Mr. Tolle writes contradicts what God has already written. Long after "A New Earth" sits on old bookshelves next to the DaVinci Code and all other attempts to find an alternative to the truth, the Bible will still satisfy. It can do that only because it is the truth.
The problem with laying Jesus on the same buffet table as any of those other guys is Jesus won't stay there. Jesus either is who He claimed to be or He's not. If He's not, why would anyone follow Him? If He is, then what He claimed about Himself must be true. And Jesus claimed, "I am THE way, THE truth, and THE life; no one comes to the Father but by Me" (John 14:6, emphasis mine due to the emphatic nature of the definite article in the Greek language).
Jesus, the resurrected Son of God, doesn't belong on the buffet table with those guys because they're dead. He's not. At the scene of His resurrection, an incredible question was asked, "Why do you look for the living among the dead?"
About those spiritual headphones... God has given us a set. The voice of truth can clearly be heard in the Bible. Why rush to something that promises and won't deliver when that which always delivers on its promises is right in front of you?
The more truth you learn, the easier falsehoods are discerned.
Sticking to what will still be the #1 best-seller 50 years from now,
Perry Crisp
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