Bancarz - Second Coming of the New Age, The

THE SECOND COMING OF THE NEW AGE: The Hidden Dangers of Alternative Spirituality in Contemporary America and Its Churches

By Steven Bancarz & Josh Peck

The Second Coming of the New Age: The Hidden Dangers of Alternative Spirituality inContemporary America and Its Churches

By Steven Bancarz & Josh Peck

Defender Publishing: Crane, MO 65633

2018 Thomas Horn, Defender Publishing. All rights reserved. Published 2018.

Printed in the United States of America.

ISBN: 978-1-948014-11-3

A CIP catalog record of this book is available from the Library of Congress.

Cover Illustration and design by Jeffrey Mardis.

All Scripture quotations from the English Standard Version unless otherwise noted.

Table of Contents

Josh Pecks Dedication and Acknowledgments

This book is dedicated to any and all out there seeking answers to the mysteries of life, death,and beyond.

As is always the case when I write a new book, the list of people Id love to thank individually lengthens to the point of being the length of a book all its own. I will just say here, first, I thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, without whom I would be nothing. Id also like to thank my incredible wife, Christina, and our beautiful children, Jaklynn, Nathan, and Adam. I owe a very big thank-you to my friend and coauthor Steven Bancarz, who is a constant inspiration and source of hope for the Church and young Christians of our generation. Another big thank-you goes out to Tom Horn, Defender Publishing, and my entire SkyWatchTV family (far too many to name individually here, but you all know who you are) for many more reasons than can be listed. I like to thank all of my personal friends and family who have kept me in prayers over the years and who have been instrumental in my being where I am today. Last, but certainly not least, I would like to thank my amazing audience, who has been a never-ending source of prayer, support, encouragement, constructive criticism, and above all, love, and who has helped me in more ways than they would ever be able to imagine.

Steven Bancarzs Dedication and Acknowledgments

Jesus Christ is the only reason my life is not broken beyond repair. He is my life now. I thank Him for saving me from the penalty of my sin, the power of my sin, my own self, and the forces of deception that were at work in my life keeping me away from the truth. I would also like to thank my Patreon supporters and all those who have been supporting me as I made the transition from New Age to Christianity. Without their generosity, I simply would not be able to serve the Lord as I do. My thanks also to the people online who have subscribed or followed my social media pages, as this has been extremely encouraging and edifying to me. In addition, I thank the people I am in ministry with for their continued support of me in Christ and the covering of prayer they have put over my head; my parentsfor raising me in a Christian home, being com-passionate toward me during my rebellion, and always believing in me as a person; Josh Peck, for presenting me with an opportunity as a brother in Christ to write my first published book; Skywatch TV and Tom Horn for influencing me early on in my walk with the Lord; my home church (Evangel) in Brantford, Ontario; and my pastor, Craig McKibbon, for being an instrument of the Lord to bring healing in my life. Thanks, too, to everyone who has ever taken the time to pray for God to move in my life.

Foreword: By Dr. Michael S. Heiser

Many who pick up this book may be inclined to ask the questions I did when I read the manuscript. Whats new about the New Age? Its been around since the 70s. If youre like me, youre old enough to remember that. Why talk about its second coming? It never really left.

All true.

But times have indeed changed, especially within the professing Church.

In 1985, I was finishing college. I can remember laughing with my roommates about Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, a self-professed god-man from India who had come to the United States to celebrate and popularize things like mindfulness, meditation, Eastern mysticism and, in particular, free sex. The Bhagwan came to the United States in 1981 and pretty much got into legal trouble immediately. At first the issue was public resistance over allowing the Bhagwan and his followers to build an ashram (think monastic community) in the state of Oregon. Opposition and countermeasures escalated to the point of death threats and an aborted assassination plot against a state official. The Bhagwan was eventually deported. My friends and I wanted one of the T-shirts that said We bagged the Bhagwan.

If you dont recall the Bhagwan, you probably remember Shirley MacLaine. By the time Americans had seen the last of the Bhagwan on our soil, we had been treated to two of her New Age bestsellers: Out on a Limb (1983) and Dancing in the Light (1986). MacLaine did more than any foreign guru in spreading New Age teachings on past lives, transcendental meditation, mediumship, and the mystical smorgasbord that is New Age spirituality. Out on a Limb became a five-hour mini-series (1987) in which MacLaine played herself. It was nominated for a Golden Globe award.

Whats the point? The Bhagwan was a national joke. What he taught was considered in-ane psychobabble by the vast majority of Americans, especially those within the Church.

MacLaines books were reviewed by mainstream critics, who described them with terms like

exasperating and fatuous. She was publicly poked on late night shows like David Letterman.

For Americans at the time, New Age spirituality was at best peripheral.

Times have changed.

If youre old enough to remember the Bhagwan and Shirley MacLaine, you might presume the New Age never really went away. Youd be correct. The Second Coming of the NewAge isnt trying to prove otherwise. Rather, Steven Bancarz and Josh Peck draw our attention to the fact that not only is the New Age still here and even more entrenched in popular culture, but its alive and well in our churches.

You might think most Christians can clearly distinguish the claims and practices of the New Age from biblical Christianity. If thats you, its time to look beyond your own immediate circle of friends and family. Times have indeed changed. So has the average Christians ability to think with theological clarity. Translation: Clear theological thinking is on life support in many congregations. What else can you conclude when, according to a recent Barna research study entitled Translating the Great Commission, 51 percent of American churchgoers do not know what the Great Commission is?1 The same study notes that 41 percent of Millennials do not know the Great Commission, while just 10 percent of the same demographic have heard of and remember [the words to] the Great Commission.

Contemporary theological illiteracy manifests in other ways as well. Many people who grow up in Christian contexts cannot see why there would be any tension between the Bible and New Age beliefs. A blend of the two worldviews is inconsequential to them. Many arent patient

enough for the Church to catch up to enlightenment and simply leave. Others who see differences a bit more clearly leave the Christian faith when Church leadership cannot probe New Age thinking for incoherence or who cant have a discussion about New Age spirituality without talking down to people attracted by it.

This set of circumstances does not bode well for our culture, which is already transition-ing out of the current post-Christian phase into an anti-Christian phase. The difference between those two cultural phases is subtle but real. The former speaks of tipping the scales from the dominance of a biblical/Christian worldview to a neopagan (New Age) worldview. The latter is concerned with displacing or eliminating Christianity from cultural relevance, not coexistence.