Book chapter update (2006)
Reinventing Jesus Christ: The New Gospel
The New Gospel & “Doctrine of Separation”
Chapter 9 Update
Warren B. Smith
Separation and the New Spirituality
In 2005, Neale Donald Walsch released a new book entitled What God Wants: A Compelling Answer to Humanity’s Biggest Question. In this book Walsch described the New Spirituality by continuing to contrast the Doctrines of Oneness and Separation:
A New Spirituality truly is emerging upon the earth, and the idea of Oneness is at its core.1
When we believe in our heart that We Are All One, everything will change. Everything.2 [emphasis in original]
Even traditional religion says that God is the All in All. If that is true, then there is nothing that exists except God, in Its varying Forms. God cannot be separated from God, and so is separate from nothing at all.3
So here is the New Spirituality in three words:
God is everything.4 [emphasis in original]
God is life, and life is God. Nothing stands outside God, and therefore there is no separation between God and anything at all.
Humanity’s understanding of this will mark the End of Separation. That, in turn, will conclude the cycle that began when Separation was first taught.5 [emphasis in original]
This is the time of the awakening of humanity.6
….—the new age is being seeded; the new myths are beginning to appear…7
Biblical Separation
Neale Donald Walsch and his “God” make their main point about “oneness” by using the biblical phrase “all in all.” They use that scriptural term to conclude that if God is the “all in all” then God is in everything. But they consistently ignore the biblical context of “in all,” “in you all” and “all in all.” The various verses containing these phrases do not mean that God is in everyone and everything. The Bible’s use of “all in all” refers specifically to the faithful followers of Jesus Christ, not to unbelievers. In attempting to make the heretical leap from biblical Christianity to the New Spirituality, Walsch perfectly illustrates the Biblical warning that “a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump” (Galatians 5:9). Walsch tries to argue:
Yet the movement is really very slight, theologically and philosophically. You already say and agree that God is the All in All. In the future you will simply include yourself in the “All in All.”…
Well, then you will see that if God is the All in All, and if you are part of the All in All, then God is obviously in you, and you in God, and there can be no separation between the two.8 [emphasis in original]
Walsch and his “God” are obviously trying to twist the Bible to make their case for universal “oneness.” Veering completely away from the biblical definition of separation, Walsch and other New Age leaders give this important biblical term their own New Age definition. According to the false teachings of the New Age/New Gospel/New Spirituality, the world is “saved” when everyone comes to the understanding that there is no separation between man and God.
As just mentioned, it is argued that because God is described in the Bible as the “all in all” He is therefore in everyone and everything and so “all is one.” Yet the Bible states that man is not God (e.g., Ezekiel 28:2) and that he is spiritually separated from his Creator until he is spiritually born again through Jesus Christ (John 3:3-7; Romans 6:11-13). The Bible explains that through disobedience man became spiritually separated from God in the Garden of Eden. And although this separation was finally and forever overcome by Jesus Christ’s victory over sin and death and evil on the cross of Calvary, each person must individually appropriate that victory into their own life by believing in and faithfully following Jesus Christ. Pastor Loren Paul Decker described biblical separation and God’s remedy for this condition:
Man, by his selfish choice to disobey God in the Garden of Eden, willingly chose the path that would separate him from fellowship with God. At that moment sin, death, shame, fear, guilt—all the things that plague the human race—were introduced to the human soul that had, to that point known Divine fellowship and love. The response of the Lord was to seek the lost. Then, as now, God is at work, redeeming our separation by atoning sacrifice, which is a gift of His love to His creation. Jesus Christ came to seek and redeem the lost (the separated). Those who acknowledge their need are brought back into fellowship with God through Jesus’ atonement. At Christ’s death the veil of “separation” in the temple was torn in two (Matthew 27:50-51), ending sin’s separating curse once and for all. The root of the sin that separates man and God has always been born first in the concept “I will” (self). The mistake of deifying the creature/creation as opposed to worshiping the Creator has always provoked judgment/separation from God.9
The beautiful hymn, Amazing Grace, illustrates the Bible’s description of man’s separation from God—his “spiritual lostness.” This separation or “lostness” through sin is overcome when he sees and believes in Jesus’ victory over sin and death and evil on the cross of Calvary. With his eyes now opened to the Gospel truth he is no longer lost but saved through faith, and found.
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.
This is the “amazing grace” of Jesus Christ that is extended to a lost humanity seeking fellowship with God and with each other. The Bible provides the scriptural answer to separation and the true meaning of the song:
For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost. (Matthew 18:11)
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:23-24)
The song Amazing Grace echoes the prodigal son Scripture story that describes God’s compassion for those who are lost in sin. It celebrates how these “lost” and separate people are “found” through their faith in Jesus Christ: “For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found” (Luke 15:24).
Amazing grace how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.
Compare this with Neale Donald Walsch’s upside-down New Age reinterpretation of the true Gospel and this beautiful hymn:
Once you were lost, but now you are found. You have found yourself in God. And you have found God, in yourself.10
Walsch also wrote:
So here is the New Spirituality in three words:
God is everything.
What a profound revelation! What a remarkable insight! What a life-changing awareness!…
Immediately you begin to understand. At once, you begin to see. You have been blind, but now you see.11 [emphasis in original]
Serious Differences
Neale Donald Walsch and his New Age colleagues are at the forefront of a universal movement to convert the world and the church to a New Age/New Gospel/New Spirituality. They are not some incidental or inconsequential fringe group. They are very serious as they produce best-selling books, are prominently featured in the media, and involve themselves in national politics. They are a formidable front line for our spiritual Adversary as he attempts to eliminate the true Christian faith—if that were possible. In much the same way that Hitler telegraphed his plans for the elimination of the Jewish people in Mein Kampf, New Age leaders have likewise telegraphed their elimination plans in books like The Revelation and Messages from Maitreya. Twisting the true Word of God for their own New Age purposes, they promise death to those who oppose the “God” and “Christ” of their New Gospel/New Spirituality.
Barbara Marx Hubbard’s “Christ” even describes how a future mark will be given to “visibly identify” those who choose “oneness” over “separation”—to those who surrender themselves to him and to the teachings of his New Spirituality. In what very well could be the “mark of the beast” Hubbard writes:
You are to provide the opportunity for a planetary signal wherein each person who chooses life over death can register that decision visibly—a coming to witness before the world.12
Each shall be “sealed” with the seal of the living God. This means that they shall be marked, visibly identified, first to themselves, then to others.13
Those who have the seal of the living God will be able to take the next step of evolution.14
This critical mass represents those marked with the seal of the living God on their foreheads.15
Those with the seal of the living God on their foreheads will be with Christ at the time of the Transformation.16 [emphasis in original]
Those who refuse the mark will be labeled “separate” and “self-centered” and will be subject to the “selection process.” There will be no room for anyone in the New Spirituality and the New World Order for anyone calling Jesus Christ their Lord and Saviour. With all that said, what does the church have to say about all of this? Sadly, almost nothing.
Endnotes
1. Neale Donald Walsch, What God Wants: A Compelling Answer to Humanity’s Biggest Question (New York: Atria Books, 2005), p. 209.
2. Ibid., p. 144.
3. Ibid., p. 104.
4. Ibid., p. 210.
5. Ibid., p. 102.
6. Ibid., p. 216.
7. Ibid., p. 220. Walsch is quoting New Age author Jean Houston from her book Life Force.
8. Walsch, Tomorrow’s God: Our Greatest Spiritual Challenge, p. 141.
9. Unpublished sermon notes of Pastor Loren Paul Decker.
10. Walsch, What God Wants, p. 205.
11. Ibid., p. 210
12. Barbara Marx Hubbard, The Revelation: A Message of Hope for the New Millennium, p. 302
13. Ibid., p.149
14. Ibid., p.150
15. Ibid., p.198
16. Ibid., p.190
In 2005, Neale Donald Walsch released a new book entitled What God Wants: A Compelling Answer to Humanity’s Biggest Question. In this book Walsch described the New Spirituality by continuing to contrast the Doctrines of Oneness and Separation:
A New Spirituality truly is emerging upon the earth, and the idea of Oneness is at its core.1
When we believe in our heart that We Are All One, everything will change. Everything.2 [emphasis in original]
Even traditional religion says that God is the All in All. If that is true, then there is nothing that exists except God, in Its varying Forms. God cannot be separated from God, and so is separate from nothing at all.3
So here is the New Spirituality in three words:
God is everything.4 [emphasis in original]
God is life, and life is God. Nothing stands outside God, and therefore there is no separation between God and anything at all.
Humanity’s understanding of this will mark the End of Separation. That, in turn, will conclude the cycle that began when Separation was first taught.5 [emphasis in original]
This is the time of the awakening of humanity.6
….—the new age is being seeded; the new myths are beginning to appear…7
Biblical Separation
Neale Donald Walsch and his “God” make their main point about “oneness” by using the biblical phrase “all in all.” They use that scriptural term to conclude that if God is the “all in all” then God is in everything. But they consistently ignore the biblical context of “in all,” “in you all” and “all in all.” The various verses containing these phrases do not mean that God is in everyone and everything. The Bible’s use of “all in all” refers specifically to the faithful followers of Jesus Christ, not to unbelievers. In attempting to make the heretical leap from biblical Christianity to the New Spirituality, Walsch perfectly illustrates the Biblical warning that “a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump” (Galatians 5:9). Walsch tries to argue:
Yet the movement is really very slight, theologically and philosophically. You already say and agree that God is the All in All. In the future you will simply include yourself in the “All in All.”…
Well, then you will see that if God is the All in All, and if you are part of the All in All, then God is obviously in you, and you in God, and there can be no separation between the two.8 [emphasis in original]
Walsch and his “God” are obviously trying to twist the Bible to make their case for universal “oneness.” Veering completely away from the biblical definition of separation, Walsch and other New Age leaders give this important biblical term their own New Age definition. According to the false teachings of the New Age/New Gospel/New Spirituality, the world is “saved” when everyone comes to the understanding that there is no separation between man and God.
As just mentioned, it is argued that because God is described in the Bible as the “all in all” He is therefore in everyone and everything and so “all is one.” Yet the Bible states that man is not God (e.g., Ezekiel 28:2) and that he is spiritually separated from his Creator until he is spiritually born again through Jesus Christ (John 3:3-7; Romans 6:11-13). The Bible explains that through disobedience man became spiritually separated from God in the Garden of Eden. And although this separation was finally and forever overcome by Jesus Christ’s victory over sin and death and evil on the cross of Calvary, each person must individually appropriate that victory into their own life by believing in and faithfully following Jesus Christ. Pastor Loren Paul Decker described biblical separation and God’s remedy for this condition:
Man, by his selfish choice to disobey God in the Garden of Eden, willingly chose the path that would separate him from fellowship with God. At that moment sin, death, shame, fear, guilt—all the things that plague the human race—were introduced to the human soul that had, to that point known Divine fellowship and love. The response of the Lord was to seek the lost. Then, as now, God is at work, redeeming our separation by atoning sacrifice, which is a gift of His love to His creation. Jesus Christ came to seek and redeem the lost (the separated). Those who acknowledge their need are brought back into fellowship with God through Jesus’ atonement. At Christ’s death the veil of “separation” in the temple was torn in two (Matthew 27:50-51), ending sin’s separating curse once and for all. The root of the sin that separates man and God has always been born first in the concept “I will” (self). The mistake of deifying the creature/creation as opposed to worshiping the Creator has always provoked judgment/separation from God.9
The beautiful hymn, Amazing Grace, illustrates the Bible’s description of man’s separation from God—his “spiritual lostness.” This separation or “lostness” through sin is overcome when he sees and believes in Jesus’ victory over sin and death and evil on the cross of Calvary. With his eyes now opened to the Gospel truth he is no longer lost but saved through faith, and found.
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.
This is the “amazing grace” of Jesus Christ that is extended to a lost humanity seeking fellowship with God and with each other. The Bible provides the scriptural answer to separation and the true meaning of the song:
For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost. (Matthew 18:11)
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:23-24)
The song Amazing Grace echoes the prodigal son Scripture story that describes God’s compassion for those who are lost in sin. It celebrates how these “lost” and separate people are “found” through their faith in Jesus Christ: “For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found” (Luke 15:24).
Amazing grace how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.
Compare this with Neale Donald Walsch’s upside-down New Age reinterpretation of the true Gospel and this beautiful hymn:
Once you were lost, but now you are found. You have found yourself in God. And you have found God, in yourself.10
Walsch also wrote:
So here is the New Spirituality in three words:
God is everything.
What a profound revelation! What a remarkable insight! What a life-changing awareness!…
Immediately you begin to understand. At once, you begin to see. You have been blind, but now you see.11 [emphasis in original]
Serious Differences
Neale Donald Walsch and his New Age colleagues are at the forefront of a universal movement to convert the world and the church to a New Age/New Gospel/New Spirituality. They are not some incidental or inconsequential fringe group. They are very serious as they produce best-selling books, are prominently featured in the media, and involve themselves in national politics. They are a formidable front line for our spiritual Adversary as he attempts to eliminate the true Christian faith—if that were possible. In much the same way that Hitler telegraphed his plans for the elimination of the Jewish people in Mein Kampf, New Age leaders have likewise telegraphed their elimination plans in books like The Revelation and Messages from Maitreya. Twisting the true Word of God for their own New Age purposes, they promise death to those who oppose the “God” and “Christ” of their New Gospel/New Spirituality.
Barbara Marx Hubbard’s “Christ” even describes how a future mark will be given to “visibly identify” those who choose “oneness” over “separation”—to those who surrender themselves to him and to the teachings of his New Spirituality. In what very well could be the “mark of the beast” Hubbard writes:
You are to provide the opportunity for a planetary signal wherein each person who chooses life over death can register that decision visibly—a coming to witness before the world.12
Each shall be “sealed” with the seal of the living God. This means that they shall be marked, visibly identified, first to themselves, then to others.13
Those who have the seal of the living God will be able to take the next step of evolution.14
This critical mass represents those marked with the seal of the living God on their foreheads.15
Those with the seal of the living God on their foreheads will be with Christ at the time of the Transformation.16 [emphasis in original]
Those who refuse the mark will be labeled “separate” and “self-centered” and will be subject to the “selection process.” There will be no room for anyone in the New Spirituality and the New World Order for anyone calling Jesus Christ their Lord and Saviour. With all that said, what does the church have to say about all of this? Sadly, almost nothing.
Endnotes
1. Neale Donald Walsch, What God Wants: A Compelling Answer to Humanity’s Biggest Question (New York: Atria Books, 2005), p. 209.
2. Ibid., p. 144.
3. Ibid., p. 104.
4. Ibid., p. 210.
5. Ibid., p. 102.
6. Ibid., p. 216.
7. Ibid., p. 220. Walsch is quoting New Age author Jean Houston from her book Life Force.
8. Walsch, Tomorrow’s God: Our Greatest Spiritual Challenge, p. 141.
9. Unpublished sermon notes of Pastor Loren Paul Decker.
10. Walsch, What God Wants, p. 205.
11. Ibid., p. 210
12. Barbara Marx Hubbard, The Revelation: A Message of Hope for the New Millennium, p. 302
13. Ibid., p.149
14. Ibid., p.150
15. Ibid., p.198
16. Ibid., p.190