Dear CLCA'ers:
Although I do not believe the primary role of the church is to address current cultural issues, there are times when a situation is so subtle, deceptive, and potentially harmful that it must be exposed. In my opinion, the new "Church of Oprah" as it has been described meets that criteria. Evidently, Oprah Winfrey, celebrated talk show host, has made it her mission to espouse the world view of Eckhart Tolle, described as a "contemporary spiritual teacher," who has written A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose. To be completely open, I am in the process of researching Tolle's beliefs, something I don't relish but feel the need to do in order to keep this debate intellectually honest. However, I have been asked by some in our congregation to address these issues right away, and so I am doing so here on the website in order to help you in discerning this issue and to give you Biblical viewpoints to combat this misleading viewpoint. It is my intention to address these issues publicly, and before doing so I will have completed sufficient research to be comfortable doing so.
I am admittedly relying on the research of Carrington Steele whose organization produced a much watched YouTube video on this controversial subject. Let me say as a disclaimer, I do not know much about the Steele organization and my association with them in this writing is simply as a source. As a church, we are not taking any political stance in this election except that we want leaders who will stand for righteousness and justice. That being said, I want to address line by line the beliefs uncovered by the Steele video and give Scriptural answers to each one.
- "Who you are requires no belief." John 1:12 - "Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God -children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God." - Who we are in our natural state requires no belief, because we are simply born. However, the Bible teaches that a person must have a spiritual birth, or re-birth in order to experience heaven. So, in order to become a Son of God, belief is very much required. John 3:3 - "In reply Jesus declared, 'I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.'"
- "Heaven is not a location but refers to the inner realm of consciousness." John 14:1-4 - "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going." Jesus was encouraging the disciples of a place that he is preparing. If heaven is merely an inner realm of consciousness, why would Jesus have to "prepare" them for it or have to take them to it?
- "The man on the cross is an archetypal image. He is every man and every woman." According to wikipedia, archetype is defined as, "An archetype is a generic, idealized model of a person, object, or concept from which similar instances are derived, copied, patterned, or emulated. In psychology, an archetype is a model of a person, personality, or behavior." The message of the Gospel is very basic: Who was Jesus and what did He do? When you muddy this water, you endanger the reality of Christianity for every person. The "man on the cross" was no less than God Himself, in human form, taking on the sins of mankind. 2 Corinthians 5:21 - "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God."
- "My mind is a part of God's. I am very holy." Romans 3:23 - "...for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God..." Romans 5:12 - "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned&8212;..." (v. 19) "For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous." We are born into sin because of Adam's transgression; therefore our mind, body, and spirit are sinful until redeemed by Jesus because of our faith in his work on the cross. The only way our mind could be a part of God's mind is through the work of His Spirit which would require a belief in the saving work of the cross; the belief of which has been denied in statement #3 above.
- "My holiness is my salvation." Galatians 2:16 - "...know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified." This is a subtle twist. Holiness is an attribute of God. I believe it is not only the absence of sin but also a quality of His presence and character. It does not lead to salvation, but rather is a product of salvation. The Law of Moses proved that no one could walk in perfection and thus be justified. We can only be saved by faith in Jesus, then God's grace enables us to walk in holiness as a fruit of our salvation.
- "Let me remember that there is no sin." Romans 3:23 - quoted above. Sin means to miss the mark. It means that we "fall short" in our lives. The only way we could totally eliminate sin is to eliminate the "mark," or goal, which is the holy nature of God Himself. Therefore, sin is a reality, but the penalty for sin has been paid for by Jesus Christ on the cross.
- "Do not make the pathetic error of 'clinging to the old rugged cross.'" "The only message of the crucifixion is that you can overcome the cross." I quote these and also bring to your remembrance the statement above which says, "The man on the cross is an archetypal image. He is every man and every woman." It is quite interesting that there is such a real attack on the message of the cross. I am reminded of Paul's words in I Corinthians 1:18 - "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." Philippians 3:18 says, "For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ." I would remind us all also of 2 Corinthians 11:3 which states, "But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ." The King James Version describes it as the "simplicity that is in Christ."
It is amazing to me that there are really no new arguments against the Word of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. These are the same arguments that were being put forth in the day of Paul and have their roots in the deception of the Garden of Eden. Finally, I want to address the video footage of Oprah denying that Jesus is the only way of salvation and espousing the belief that there are many paths to whatever you might call God. I would simply quote the words of Jesus from John 14:6 - "Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'" I would also issue this warning to anyone who feels swayed by these viewpoints and would support them or espouse them to others: read the words of Isaiah 5:20, "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter."
Thanks for reading,
Pastor Murphy
