Thursday, July 3, 2008

Truth Vs. Pantheistic Monism

Over the past several days I have been deeply troubled by Oprah's promotion of hypnosis as well as pantheistic monism in a broadcast titled "Remembering Past Lives." Here is how she interviews Brian Weise. He's a psychiatrist and the author of Many Lives, Many Masters and he's answering a question by Oprah on how hypnosis can be used to access past lives.

Oprah: How does hypnosis help one access the past lives?

Brian Weise:
It gives a direct line in because hypnosis - I was explaining to the audience - it’s just focusing your concentration while your body is relaxed. So it stops the clutter, the everyday mind, from getting in the way, and you go right to the subconscious. You can go right to where memories are. You’re still here. You’re safe. You don’t go anywhere. It’s not what you see in the movies.

Oprah:
Dong, dong, dong, dong, dong. Yeah.

Brian Weise:
No. It's not safe at all. In fact, when you are worked into an altered state of consciousness you become hypersuggestible, willing to believe whatever enters your mind, no matter how mundane or outlandish.

Oprah not only is promoting this past life regression, but she's also promoting and underscoring and giving credence to pantheistic monism.

Oprah: I think the biggest question that everybody has is where is God in all of
this? Your answer is?

Brian Weise:
I find God everywhere in this. I was meditating on this one day, and had a metaphor of ice cubes like people. Ice cubes they’re solid, they have sides, but if you melt them with heat energy, they just disappear into water, they become water. So if ice cubes are floating in water, and you heat the water, everything is water, the individuality has disappeared. And if you keep adding heat energy, even the water disappears and it all become steam. Invisible but it’s still the H20 molecule vibrating rapidly. It’s still there. And I think people are like the ice cubes. We're the
solid part, the condensed part — we think we are separate from everybody else. We’re not, because if you heat us with love energy, not heat energy, but love energy, we melt into a spiritual sea. Spirit and water has always been equated. And if you keep heating with love, you find God. God is the steam, God is beyond the steam, the organizing Wisdom that’s in every atom of our being, as well as every atom of this chair. This is who we are. God is in all of us. And so were not so separate, so distinct, we're not different from each other. We’re all souls, and souls are all connected.

Oprah:
Yeah, and I was just saying to the producers people get hung up on the word “masters” because people say there’s only one Master, and the truth is, yeah, we are all one. So you can all call them angels. I said, “You can call them angels. You can call them masters. You can call them Winnie the Pooh. It doesn’t matter.” The question we need to ask ourselves is "Do I have the ability to listen to this and discern between wheat and chaff, heat and light? Can I spot the error or does this simply wash over me as though it has little consequence?"



If pantheistic monism is true it has a very direct relationship to how lives are lived for this world and the next. Oprahfication of the culture is one thing, but I'm equally exorcised over Barack Obama's theological dictum that, in his words, "There are many paths to the same place" as well as Obama's denunciation of Christians who hold that those who haven't embraced Jesus Christ as their personal Savior are going to hell. I certainly believe that because God is not a cosmic rapist. He's not going to force people who reject Him in this life to be dragged into His loving presence for all eternity. If He were to do that, heaven wouldn't be heaven. Heaven would be hell. The righteous would inherit a counterfeit heaven and the unrighteous would be incarcerated in heaven against their will, which is a torment worse than death. In fact, I would say it could legitimately be called an eternal cosmic rape.

What did Jesus say? He said "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me." While Obama's obfuscation - and he said "I don't presume to have knowledge of what happens after I die" - might be politically correct, it's puzzling in the face of the box top of Scripture, the words of the Apostle John who said "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life."

I'm equally troubled by this liberation theology of the man Obama called his mentor. For Pastor Jeremiah Wright liberation theology and its horizontal, materialistic vision for humanity is king. His emphasis is not so much on liberation from the wrath of God through faith in Jesus Christ, but on liberation from what he describes as the government of the United States of White America, a government that he says has unleashed the AIDS virus on African-Americans, a government that victimizes victims, a government that oppresses the oppressed. In the end Wright's message is liberation through class struggle rather than liberation through Christ's sacrifice. Those who sit under the mentorship of men like Wright should carefully consider whether anger, disregard for truth, victimization theories are the path to victory, or whether it's the Gospel that sets us free to be all that God created us to be no matter what condition we find ourselves in.

It's truly remarkable that thousands of congregants applaud a man who openly garnered support for Louis Farrakhan who, of course, is the notorious leader of the Nation of Islam, a man who is blatantly anti-Semitic and subscribes to the notion that the White race was grafted into existence 6,000 years ago by a scientist named Dr. Yakub who allegedly created the white beast to be inherently deceptive and murderous. A man who has openly referred to Jews as "bloodsuckers" and Judaism as a "gutter religion," and Hitler as "a very great man," a man who characterizes Christianity as a White man's religion. A man who denies the afterlife and, as such, denies eternal consequences for the atrocities of despots and dictators. We've come a long way, baby. The question is, are we headed in the right direction.

So often it's easy for us to set up a we/they siege mentality against these kinds of philosophies which are now being openly espoused by leaders in the political realm, and pundits on television. But the truth of the matter is the culture is where it is not because of Obama and Oprah. They reflect the culture. The culture is where it is because Christians are unable, ill-equipped what they believe and then give answers, always ready to give an answer or reason for the hope that lies within them with gentleness and with respect. If we don't give a clear sound, who's going to follow? If we aren't those who can communicate the credibility of the words of Jesus Christ, who can answer obfuscation, who's going to do it?

5 comments:

Lynn said...

Hello Hank,

Before I comment on your post, I just want to say that I'm a little disappointed that the people who appreciate your ministry, or the people who take issue with your statements, do not comment much and discuss the things you are talking about on your blog (or whoever is writing this for you, based on your words). Maybe there's too much agreement with your viewpoints for there to be a discussion. Or maybe you aren't promoting your blog very much, if at all. I would hope to see more communication here. Anyway...

On the issue of past lives and reincarnation, as a believer in the Lord I would tend to believe what the Bible says on the issue, that "It is appointed unto man once to die, then the judgment." This statement reflects a spiritual principle, rather than a culturally-based precept, and I take this type of passage for what it is saying at face-value.

I also believe that all things are not necessarily as they appear to be in Scripture.

I have no doubt that I personally have the gift of one life, and then the judgment. This is something that I know innately, deep in my being, in my relationship with God.

It is interesting, though, that past life regressions involve many facts that the individual has no way of knowing. So we can only speculate why this is. Either this is one of those things that is not quite as it appears to be in Scripture, or there is elaborate demonic involvement in these experiences that people have, based on his knowledge of events in history, which would be solely for the sake of leading people away from the Lord and Savior. If this belief leads people away from Him, who is the source of life and salvation, readers should consider that this is perhaps a fabrication by the devil. Maybe your readers can throw out a thought or two on what is going on there.

As to your statement that "all people who have not embraced Jesus Christ as their Savior will be condemned to hell"...this is one of the things on which I have disagreed with you over the years. (Back when I used to listen to you regularly, I think there were about twenty-one things that I disagreed with you on. Maybe some of those things were duplicated in some way, but this was one of those things. For the record, I'll be getting back to listening again, which I'm sure you were wondering.)

I just want to say this, Hank: As a born-again believer in Jesus, who has experienced His presence in my life in profound ways, as have probably all true believers, I know with all certainty that no one will enter into heaven apart from Jesus Christ, who is exactly who He claimed to be. There is no other way to God.

I don't believe your explanation of how it is that "people who do not know Him personally, will be condemned to hell" makes sense. I think there is more to it than that. You have never given a satisfactory answer to this in my view, especially with regard to the fact that not all people will have a chance to know Him personally in their lifetime, and many people lived before His time. I'm sure you have an answer to that, but you seem to avoid addressing this question fully, at least to my satisfaction.

I'll leave it at that, in the interest of keeping this comment at least somewhat brief. But I will just say that there is no doubt in my mind, that God will be saving some people who were not believers in the gospel in their lifetime, and did not know the truth of His gospel. "He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy," and I think it is a bit presumptous to make the statement that you make.

We would agree that the glory of God is the goal, but I'm not sure you have fully addressed this question, and you seem to be avoiding some issues here.

I'll do a post on this sometime on my blog, maybe soon, and it will include a look your statements, and the statements of those who agree with you on this aspect of the faith.

In the meantime, I hope you will not mind if I call upon your apparently few readers here, to visit and read the discussion on my blog about the issue of homosexuality and the Bible. I am a gay, born-again believer in Jesus Christ, and I don't believe this issue has been addressed accurately or honestly by mainstream Christian leaders. I'm looking for the answers to the questions that I pose, if there are any answers to these very legitimate questions and observations. One of the chapters in my ebook is devoted to your words and writings on this, Hank. I hope you will read it sometime.

Hank, I hope you read your comments here. If not...never mind. But you do have a fascinating ministry, and I wish God's blessings to you and your ministry. (I've listened since the days of Dr. Martin, and I've spent a lot of time listening to you as well.)

In Christ,

Lynn

reality check said...

A one word comment on Lynn's rant..."RAELIAN"

www.rael.org

Lynn said...

Reality Check...you are calling this a rant? (are you sure you are in touch with "reality"?)

As far as your comparison of what I am saying to the Raelian teachings--I don't see the name of Jesus Christ lifted up and proclaimed there, and the truth of His gospel.

I have to believe that you are defending your pride, because you heard something that you didn't like, rather than the gospel of peace. Pridefulness and people with lying lips are the ones who will not do well with God on that day. There is no comparison between these teachings.

Also, you should be concerned if you are going to judge God on who He should save or not save, if that is what you are refering to here. If you have this attitude now, it will probably still be there on judgment day, and I don't believe you will be happy with God when He accepts His faithful gay and lesbian children on that day. Just a suggestion.

(by the way, there is a difference between a belief and an arrogent attitude)

Why don't you try to write something of substance concerning what I have said here.

Lynn said...

Reality Check, speaking a false judgment on someone who is proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ, as speaking falsely about salvation, is a serious sin. I believe you have placed yourself under judgment in doing so, and you should confess this to God and have your sin removed. Possibly you were blinded by hate and pride.

If you were paying any attention to what I wrote, and if your cared about the truth and the spirit of Christ at all, you would see that what I was speaking about was regarding people who did not have a chance to know the truth of His gospel in this lifetime. I was not speaking about people who had ample opportunity to know Him, and rejected His gospel...in which case, the final judgment is still God's and not yours. We are to preach the gospel, pray for people, and the rest is in His hands.

As far as this blog...it seems to be something of a a ghost town, and I will have to leave it. Either Hank doesn't care about a discussion about his teachings online, or no one else cares about it, so I will have to be leaving now. I'm sure I'll blog about your teachings at some point, Hank. It is a healthy thing, for the sake of bringing out more aspects of the doctrines and the issues.

Take care.

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