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The New Age Cult

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Equip yourself with this handbook of New Age facts, doctrines, comparisons, and rebuttals. This manual will help you educate the precious souls that are being blinded by the dangerous New Age movement. Learn the difference between the Jesus they preach, and the Jesus we know.

Walter Ralston Martin (1928-1989) was perhaps the originator of the modern evangelical "countercult" ministry, having founded the Christian Research Institute in 1960, and acting as host of the "Bible Answer Man" radio program.

This was Martin's last book, published shortly before his death on June 26, 1989. He wrote in the Preface, "This is a very difficult book to write ... because so many people, Christian and non-Christian alike, know so little about the evils of New Age thinking... This small volume is obviously not intended to replace a select number of good, in-depth studies of the New Age movement... but it is theology in newspaper language, a popular layman's overview and refutation of a militant and growing problem for Christians everywhere."

Here are some additional quotations from the book:

"However, Krishnamurti declined the honor of Mrs. (Annie) Besant's anointing (as "World Teacher") due largely to the death of his brother and his subsequent disillusionment with the claims of Theosophy." (Pg. 17)
"Often New Age cultists ... persist in quoting scriptures to buttress their own position. Why quote for proof what you say is untrustworthy?" (Pg. 38)
"Very few people are aware that Robert Kennedy's assassin, Sirhan, was deeply involved with New Age thinking through the writings of the Theosophical Society." (Pg. 55)
"C.S. Lovett, while advocating mediation, confirms that the visualization he refers to is the same as that used by cults..." (Pg. 77)
"There is a danger that New Age thought could lead some to make God female, to totally abandon the biblical image of God. The Bible presents God with both feminine and masculine characteristics, but the male imagery is much stronger than the female. Losing sight of this truth would make Him less than He really is..." (Pg. 79)
"Praise the zeal, dedication, and (wherever possible) the goals of the New Age movement, because its basic nature is both messianic and millennial. The New Age cult is seeking the right things, but with the wrong methods and with wrong reasons." (Pg. 102)

I approached this book with some trepidation. Having been involved in the New Age movement in my younger years I know there is much that has been written about it that is simply wrong.

This book happily surprised me. Dr. Martin treats the New Age movement is a fair and even manner and tells the truth.

He begins with a quick overview of the New Age movement, then gives one entire chapter to the words of New Age teaches and proponents themselves, without any interpretation. Who better to state what they believe than New Agers themselves? The chapter following this gives the Biblical answers to these teachings and shows how they change and distort what Jesus has said.

He continues on with Jim Jones and Sirhan Sirhan were influenced by the New Age movement. We know the disasters consequences of these people well, but how they got there is a story most people don't hear.

After this Mr. Martin writes about how the New Age is making inroads in the public school system and society in general, and had an entire chapter devoted to reincarnation, what New Agers believe about it, and what the Bible says about it - all the passages dealing with it, not just selective ones that New Agers quote.

There is a chapter on how to approach New Agers to witness to them without turning them off. He than had a chapter on identifying New Age groups and leaders including a veritable glossary of people, organizations, books, and magazines.

He concludes with a glossary of many of the words New Agers use, and what they mean. For example, what is the "Age of Aquarius" or the "Akashic Record"? What are crystals used for and who is "Gaia"?

At the very end of the book is a recommended reading list of other books to read for more information on any aspect of the New Age you would like to know about.

Well written and surprisingly balanced given the strong Christian viewpoint of the author.

Walter Martin (1928-1989) was the twentieth century's eminent scholar on cults. This research began in the 1960s, when Martin was investigating the roots of the New Age movement: Unity School of Christianity, Christian Science, Spiritism, Bahaiism, and Rosicrucianism. Today over sixty million people dabble in New Age practices.

Walter Martin, the founder of the Christian Research Institute, is assisted by the staff of CRI. He describes New Age as a submerged iceberg during the 1960s, which surfaced full force in the 1980s. Throughout the book he highlights others' in-depth research for those seeking more detailed information. He exposes the New Age movement's direct contradictions to orthodox Christianity, including an quotations from Benjamin Creme.

The author even demonstrates New Age links to Jim Jones, the mass suicide he initiated in 1978, and to the philosophy of Sirhan Sirhan, the assassin of Robert F. Kennedy. There is also a chapter on reincarnation, followed by the Christian response to New Age philosophy.

Walter Martin achieves his goal, a concise overview of New Age, easily read by lay people; he suggests further reading for in-depth research. Martin died shortly after completing this book. A glossary of terms from Age of Aquarius to Yin, yang and yoga, proves valuable. If only for the extensive glossary, bibliography and list of New Age spokespersons and relevant organizations, this volume would be a valuable resource.

A condensed version of this book appears as chapter 11, "The New Age Cults," in Walter Martin's Kingdom of the Cults (Bethany House Publishers, 2002; ISBN: 0764289888).

So someone from the biggest CULT of all, Christianity, makes the usual errors about alternative spiritual paths he knows nothing about. Pure ignorance and bigotry!

Evangelical Christianity had done far more damage than the New Age ever could, by sowing seeds of discord and division. Their fear-based dogma keeps them blinded to the Light that is in others.

Their own book says GOD IS LOVE.

Therefore, where Love is, God is.

Where God is, Love is.

That's what the New Age is really all about. It's that simple.

But many Christians miss the boat. They are stuck in FEAR.

Perfect love casts out fear, right?

Didn't Jesus say to LOVE God and LOVE your neighbor?

Why, then, do so many Christians stay stuck in FEAR?

Why do they feel they must attack the spirituality of others? Why not just offer their own spirituality in LOVE to those who choose it, and respect the rights of others to follow the spiritual path of their choice?

Save your money, i'm not sure whats more disturbing the fact that a doctor wrote this garbage or that people will probably believe him.