Compiled from Ray Yungen’s writings “Alice Bailey” and “Regeneration of the Churches” at www.lighthousetrails.com
Many people have a kind of bemused contempt for those involved with mysticism, and thus, they believe that the New Age movement is a frivolous frolic into the absurd.
First, millions of people are having real experiences. Second, these experiences are as old as human civilization.
The Mystery Schools are the most easily documented of the ancient adherents of occultism. They were the caretakers of this esoteric (hidden) knowledge.
These schools formed the nucleus of the religious practices of ancient nations and empires such as Egypt, China, Chaldea, Persia, Greece, and Rome, as well as the Aztec and Inca civilizations.
The Mystery religions were so labeled because their teachings were kept hidden from the common people. In fact, the term occult (meaning hidden or concealed) originated from the Mystery religions because the majority of people were ignorant of their true meanings. Only the priests and adepts (who were initiated through various grades or levels) gained insight into these hidden “truths” of the universe.
What was kept hidden or secret? It can best be summed up as the knowledge of the laws and forces that underlie the universe but are not evident to the five senses of man’s normal perception. Basically, they taught an awareness of the invisible worlds for wisdom and guidance and the development of psychic abilities and spiritual healing techniques.
New Age writers often refer to the core teachings of occultism as the Ancient Wisdom.
If we were to mark any particular beginning of the modern New Age movement, it would have to be the founding of the Theosophical Society in 1875. Theos is the Greek word for God, and sophos is the word for wisdom. The Theosophical Society became the society for the study of the wisdom of the Divine.
The actual coining of the very term New Age has been attributed to Alice Bailey (June 16, 1880 – December 15, 1949). She was introduced to this movement in 1915:
“I discovered, first of all, that there is a great and divine Plan . . . I discovered, for a second thing, that there are Those Who are responsible for the working out of that Plan and Who, step by step and stage by stage, have led mankind on down the centuries.”
Alice had her first contact with a voice that claimed to be a “master” in November of 1919. Calling himself the Tibetan, he wanted Alice to take dictation from him. Concerning this, Alice wrote:
“I heard a voice which said, “There are some books, which it is desired, should be written for the public. You can write them. Will you do so?”
The “valuable work” Alice was to do ended up lasting thirty years. Between 1919 and 1949, by means of telepathic communication, Alice Bailey wrote nineteen books for her “unseen mentor.” [She founded a publishing company, Lucifer Trust, now known as Lucis Trust.]
The Alice Bailey writings has heralded anticipation of the appearance of a World Healer and Savior in the coming Aquarian Age (the astrological age of enlightenment and peace). This savior would unite all mankind under his guidance. Bailey termed him the “Coming One.” This person was not to be the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom Christians await the return, but an entirely different individual who would embody all the great principles of occultism, chiefly the divinity and perfectibility of man.
It is important to note that the apostle Paul declared one called “the man of sin” and “the son of perdition” would also proclaim himself to be God (2 Thessalonians 2:3,4).
Daniel 8:23 states this man will be a master of dark sayings. In Hebrew, this translates as one skilled in cunning and ambiguous speech. The world will see him as one who is distinguished and spiritually brilliant.
When this man comes forward, all those who are in touch with their higher self, those who are awakened, will clearly recognize him as their unifier and give him their allegiance. He will have a ready-made constituency (many in key positions) to help him reconstruct society. This will be the final culmination of the paradigm shift.
The Alice Bailey “prophecies” can provide further insight into what the apostle Paul called in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 the falling away. Bailey eagerly foretold of what she termed “the regeneration of the churches.”
In other words, instead of opposing Christianity, the occult would capture and blend itself with Christianity and then use it as its primary vehicle for spreading and instilling New Age consciousness! The various churches would still have their outer trappings of Christianity and still use much of the same lingo.
This revitalization of Christianity would fit in with Bailey’s “new and vital world religion” —a religion that would be the cornerstone of the New Age. Such a religion would be the spiritual platform for the “Coming One.” This unity of spiritual thought would not be a single one-world denomination but would have a unity-in-diversity, multicultural, interfaith, ecumenical agenda. Thomas Merton made a direct reference to this at a spiritual summit conference in Calcutta, India when he told Hindus and Buddhists, “We are already one, but we imagine, we are not. What we have to recover is our original unity.”
What is happening to mainstream Christianity is the same thing that is happening to business, health, education, counseling, and other areas of society. Christianity is being cultivated for a role in the New Age.
In the context of Christianity, this means that those meditating will think they have contacted God, when in reality they have connected up with other spirits (who are more than willing to impersonate whomever they wish to reach so long as these seductive spirits can link with them).
This ultimately points to a deluded global religion based on meditation and mystical experience.
Alice Bailey herself, who personified New Age consciousness, said:
“The new era is coming; the new ideals, the new civilization, the new modes of life, of education, of religious presentation and of government are slowly precipitating and naught can stop them. They can, however, be delayed by the reactionary types of people, by the ultra-conservative and closed minds. . . . They are the ones who can and do hold back the hour of liberation. . . . these must all be brought under the power of death.”
Persecution and death is predicted in the Bible for those who won’t fall into line during the Antichrist’s rule. The parallel between what the Bible says about this period and the statements above are striking. The following prophecies reveal what is in store for those who will preach the real Jesus Christ and the Gospel of the true kingdom during this time. Jesus said in Matthew 24:9:
“Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for My name’s sake.”
This explanation would most likely annoy or even infuriate anyone involved with or attracted to New Age spirituality. After all, nowhere do you find New Agers saying they are going to kill anybody. It is left rather vague about how anyone will be removed.
The following channeled words by Neale Donald Walsch’s “God” explain the rationale for what most people would consider outrageous and impossible. In the widely read book and film, The Secret, Walsch is described as a “modern-day spiritual messenger.”
His Conversations with God books remain highly popular within the western world and are called “groundbreaking.”
Listen to his “God”: “There is no “death.” Life goes on forever and ever. Life is. You simply change form. . . . After you change form, consequences cease to exist. There is just Knowing.”
Alice Bailey’s religion has now come to the forefront of mainstream society. What this means according to those who are sympathetic with this is that if we are to be “spiritual,” we need to partake of Alice Bailey’s “new vital world religion.”
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God commands us not to serve other gods because there are no other gods except the ones we make ourselves.
Exodus 20:3
Psalm 40:4
Proverbs 3:5-6
Matthew 22:37
Acts 17:29
Galatians 1:7-9
Ephesians 5:11