Deceived by the New Age, another email
Hello brother and, as usual, it was good to talk.
Here is the book info:
Deceived by the New Age
Author: Will Baron
Publisher: Pacific Press
ISBN 0-8163-1022-X
John,
Even though this book was published by an SDA printing press, don’t read it without prayer, much prayer. I say this because when I read it, I began to get confused. There are practices Satan uses that are almost identical to what the Bible uses. It’s easy to reject them both for fear of accepting the bad one—throwing the baby out with the bath water. We’ve been told by EGW that the counterfeit will be so close to the true that only those who know the Bible will make it through. Everyone else will be caught up in the confusion and deceptions of the end. I’m not trying to scare you, but when you read the book you will see what I mean.
Another thing you will realize is that everything we see going on around us—the desertion of Christians studying the Bible and particularly, Christ in the Bible; praise music, glossalalia, incense burning, and other Post-modern practices in the churches and denominations; the Ecumenical movement broadening its umbrella beyond just Protestantism as it did 30 years ago, now to encompass pagan religions, all accepting the authority of the Pope; the lowering of standards in order to appeal to the unchurched; the great efforts today to give religion the upper hand in societal control of America and the Protestants destroying the wall separating church and state—are all playing into the New Age movement promising light and love and peace.
The world will become devil-possessed, as Will Baron had become, when love and peace will only be a mirage. Ellen White speaks of it as a horrendous time for God’s people to pass through.
Deceived by the New Age is a very gripping book. It’s hard to lay down. But I recommend you not read it straight through. Keep putting it down and give yourself time to get regrounded in God’s word and in the Word, our High Priest in the Most Holy Place. Otherwise, the book will be very disconcerting. Its true, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but we need to keep our bearings.
It sells online through the ABC for $8.99, but its at ABEbooks (used) for $3 and up.
My visit with the Mormons was interesting. Zeny wouldn’t let them visit in our mobile home because it is so chocker block full, so we went to the SDA church. The Mormon missionaries wouldn’t look at the issue of the book of Mormon’s heavy borrowing from the KJV phraseology, but said God gave the same words to Joseph Smith or the Mormon prophets as He did to the apostles. If they could look at it objectively, they would see differently. We spoke at length about their idea of the law of oppositions. I.e. in order for there to be joy, sorrow must have been experienced, for righteousness there must have been evil, for obedience there must have been disobedience. That is, we couldn’t have joy unless we had sinned and suffered first, etc. The book of Mormon states that Adam and Eve didn’t know joy before sin entered the world and that sin has brought us our joy. This is a point of conflict between the Bible and their book—that God forbade sin in the Bible, while He made allowance for it in the book of Mormon. According to them, God does punish for sin, as we also understand it. But He gave them the tree of knowledge of good and evil in full assurance that they would partake of its fruit. He gave it to them in order for them to fall; He gave it to them so they could enjoy some good effect of sin.
According to Mormonism, the sinless Adam and Eve were innocent but not happy. Their righteousness was counter-balanced with ignorance of sin, which left them “flat-lined,” as the missionaries put it, neither happy nor unhappy, in my mind kind of in a state of idiocy and lukewarm emotion. They couldn’t be truly happy until they sinned; the path to real happiness is rebellion. Our Bible describes sin very differently, as a very bad thing. I didn’t think of it at the time and wish I had, but Samuel told king Saul, “rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, He hath also rejected thee from being king.” (1Sam. 15:23). What stronger example could God use to tell us that He has a zero tolerance for sin?
I did use other texts to reason with them, but of course, the Holy Spirit alone can penetrate a heavily persuaded mind and heart. We prayed and separated on good terms. I gave them a Desire of Ages and a Great Controversy, which they accepted. I also warned them of the coming union of church and state because one day that will give them very strong evidence to rethink Ellen White and the SDA understanding on the Bible.
During our visit I remembered how Jesus was so opposed by the religious leaders. Through every method He could He sought to break down the prejudices they had toward Him. But in the end, they were calling Him a servant of Beelzebub and He was warning them that they were servants of the same. And in the end, there will be two groups and only two—those who love and serve Jesus wholeheartedly and those who hate Him and are under the control of another “Jesus.” Both sides will see the other as deluded. We will know they are under the deception of satanic forces and we’ll work to break their hardened hearts, and they will see us as the devil’s children and try to rid the earth of us. Neither side will change their position, nor be able to. We will be sealed in to God and they will be sealed in to Satan. The contest between truth and its counterfeit will be extremely close.
Profession will not be a guiding light, only principle will be. Today, those who believe religious profession and going through the motions at church is enough will be the easiest targets for the adversary. Whole churches will be deceived; the light of many of our brightest theologians and pastors will go out. Everything holy will be the profession of Satan and his human army. In the way of righteousness, profession is all Satan can do, but he does it with such volume that the huge sin-loving multitudes believe him.
John, I don’t mean to communicate depression. :) But a sleeping church needs to be aroused. “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!” (Rom. 10:13-15). It’s my constant prayer that the Lord will make us into useful tools for His Latter Rain.
Have a nice Sabbath with the Lord of the Sabbath. :)
David
Here is the book info:
Deceived by the New Age
Author: Will Baron
Publisher: Pacific Press
ISBN 0-8163-1022-X
John,
Even though this book was published by an SDA printing press, don’t read it without prayer, much prayer. I say this because when I read it, I began to get confused. There are practices Satan uses that are almost identical to what the Bible uses. It’s easy to reject them both for fear of accepting the bad one—throwing the baby out with the bath water. We’ve been told by EGW that the counterfeit will be so close to the true that only those who know the Bible will make it through. Everyone else will be caught up in the confusion and deceptions of the end. I’m not trying to scare you, but when you read the book you will see what I mean.
Another thing you will realize is that everything we see going on around us—the desertion of Christians studying the Bible and particularly, Christ in the Bible; praise music, glossalalia, incense burning, and other Post-modern practices in the churches and denominations; the Ecumenical movement broadening its umbrella beyond just Protestantism as it did 30 years ago, now to encompass pagan religions, all accepting the authority of the Pope; the lowering of standards in order to appeal to the unchurched; the great efforts today to give religion the upper hand in societal control of America and the Protestants destroying the wall separating church and state—are all playing into the New Age movement promising light and love and peace.
The world will become devil-possessed, as Will Baron had become, when love and peace will only be a mirage. Ellen White speaks of it as a horrendous time for God’s people to pass through.
Deceived by the New Age is a very gripping book. It’s hard to lay down. But I recommend you not read it straight through. Keep putting it down and give yourself time to get regrounded in God’s word and in the Word, our High Priest in the Most Holy Place. Otherwise, the book will be very disconcerting. Its true, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but we need to keep our bearings.
It sells online through the ABC for $8.99, but its at ABEbooks (used) for $3 and up.
My visit with the Mormons was interesting. Zeny wouldn’t let them visit in our mobile home because it is so chocker block full, so we went to the SDA church. The Mormon missionaries wouldn’t look at the issue of the book of Mormon’s heavy borrowing from the KJV phraseology, but said God gave the same words to Joseph Smith or the Mormon prophets as He did to the apostles. If they could look at it objectively, they would see differently. We spoke at length about their idea of the law of oppositions. I.e. in order for there to be joy, sorrow must have been experienced, for righteousness there must have been evil, for obedience there must have been disobedience. That is, we couldn’t have joy unless we had sinned and suffered first, etc. The book of Mormon states that Adam and Eve didn’t know joy before sin entered the world and that sin has brought us our joy. This is a point of conflict between the Bible and their book—that God forbade sin in the Bible, while He made allowance for it in the book of Mormon. According to them, God does punish for sin, as we also understand it. But He gave them the tree of knowledge of good and evil in full assurance that they would partake of its fruit. He gave it to them in order for them to fall; He gave it to them so they could enjoy some good effect of sin.
According to Mormonism, the sinless Adam and Eve were innocent but not happy. Their righteousness was counter-balanced with ignorance of sin, which left them “flat-lined,” as the missionaries put it, neither happy nor unhappy, in my mind kind of in a state of idiocy and lukewarm emotion. They couldn’t be truly happy until they sinned; the path to real happiness is rebellion. Our Bible describes sin very differently, as a very bad thing. I didn’t think of it at the time and wish I had, but Samuel told king Saul, “rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, He hath also rejected thee from being king.” (1Sam. 15:23). What stronger example could God use to tell us that He has a zero tolerance for sin?
I did use other texts to reason with them, but of course, the Holy Spirit alone can penetrate a heavily persuaded mind and heart. We prayed and separated on good terms. I gave them a Desire of Ages and a Great Controversy, which they accepted. I also warned them of the coming union of church and state because one day that will give them very strong evidence to rethink Ellen White and the SDA understanding on the Bible.
During our visit I remembered how Jesus was so opposed by the religious leaders. Through every method He could He sought to break down the prejudices they had toward Him. But in the end, they were calling Him a servant of Beelzebub and He was warning them that they were servants of the same. And in the end, there will be two groups and only two—those who love and serve Jesus wholeheartedly and those who hate Him and are under the control of another “Jesus.” Both sides will see the other as deluded. We will know they are under the deception of satanic forces and we’ll work to break their hardened hearts, and they will see us as the devil’s children and try to rid the earth of us. Neither side will change their position, nor be able to. We will be sealed in to God and they will be sealed in to Satan. The contest between truth and its counterfeit will be extremely close.
Profession will not be a guiding light, only principle will be. Today, those who believe religious profession and going through the motions at church is enough will be the easiest targets for the adversary. Whole churches will be deceived; the light of many of our brightest theologians and pastors will go out. Everything holy will be the profession of Satan and his human army. In the way of righteousness, profession is all Satan can do, but he does it with such volume that the huge sin-loving multitudes believe him.
John, I don’t mean to communicate depression. :) But a sleeping church needs to be aroused. “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!” (Rom. 10:13-15). It’s my constant prayer that the Lord will make us into useful tools for His Latter Rain.
Have a nice Sabbath with the Lord of the Sabbath. :)
David
posted by David | 1:52 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home