New Age Beliefs: I'm studying the subject and posting what I learn. Feel free to tell me where I'm wrong. I have quite a lot more in-depth stuff that I'm researching.
Pantheism-God is All and All is God
Everything is God and God is everything. Everything that exists is God. As one New Ager has written, “For God is the All, and the Goddess is everything, and there is nothing else that is.” This belief is known as pantheism. Since everything is God you also are God. While New Agers sometimes talk about God in personal terms, most understand God as ultimately impersonal. God is often referred to as a force or energy. When (the impersonal) All is God, the personal God of the Bible cannot exist.
New Age pantheism denies the biblical view of creation: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”(Gen. 1:1, NIV). New Agers deny that God created something that was not God. Instead of creation, most New Agers believe that God emanated itself into what we now know as the universe. This means that everything in the universe is god.
New Agers treasure the teachings of pantheism because it means that they also are gods/goddesses. This teaching, however, loses much of its appeal when it is pointed out that the rat rummaging through the garbage is also God according to pantheism. If pantheism is true then it means that even garbage is God. It means that a slug is God. It means that a worm in an apple is God. It means that maggots are God.
Another problem with pantheism is that God ultimately must be understood as impersonal and not as a personal being. If this is true, it means that the impersonal must be greater than (or at least the same value as) the personal. But even New Agers find it very difficult to live as if this is true. They tend to value animals as having more value than an impersonal rock. They tend to value their families as having more value than a plant. When New Agers live as if the personal is of more value than the impersonal, they act as if the teachings of the Bible, and not pantheism, are true. The God of the Bible is a personal God distinct from His creation.
The Bible issues strong warnings to those who confuse God with His creation. “Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles” (Rom. 1:22-23, NIV).
Both our experiences of reality and the teachings of the Bible contradict the New Age belief that we are God. We encounter problems. Things do not always go our way. People do not always treat us fairly and honestly. Sorrow and trouble sometimes come our way.
The Bible teaches that while humanity was created in the image of God, mankind is not and never will be God (see Gen. 1:26-27). Isaiah 43:10 (NIV) says, “‘You are my witnesses,’ declares the Lord, ‘and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after Me."
Monism-All is One Everything that exists is One. All distinctions (including your sense of being distinct from everyone and everything else) are really illusions. The belief that All is One is closely related to the New Age tenet that everything is God. According to his book Conversations with God, Neale Donald Walsch states, “The first step in finding that we are not apart from God is finding that we are not apart from each other, and until we know and realize that all of us are One, we cannot know and realize that we and God are One.”2 Both our experience of reality and the teachings of the Bible contradict the belief that “all is one.” We experience ourselves as different from others. We perceive and treat our children differently from the offspring of others. Even New Agers find it difficult to live life as if “all is one.” They treat their mates differently than they do someone else’s spouse. The teachings of the Bible agree with our experience of reality. The Bible indicates that the reason we do not experience life as being one is because all is not one. God has created a universe that contains objects that are both unique and precious. We experience ourselves as different from others because God has created us as unique beings distinct from other things and people. “For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him” (Col. 1:16, NIV).
