Happy are those who are excited and positive about the 2024 election results! Not so happy are those who mourn over the 2024 election results. Whatever our feelings might be, we can at least give President Trump a chance to fulfill his promises, can’t we? There’s no need to sob and pull out one’s hair. God is in control.
Let’s consider what the world might have in store for 2025—politics aside. Let’s talk about—the new age. These beliefs are becoming more and more popular, not only among both Christians and secularists, but are even infiltrating some otherwise conservative, fundamentally-based churches.
What Are the Signs?
The signs of the times seem to be coinciding with the signs of the end. We see many of the things Jesus warned us about happening in today’s world. Nothing remains to be prophetically fulfilled in order for the Rapture to occur, so that is one thing that could happen any time. (See the blog post of June 2024, “The Rapture of the Church”). Our country is obviously in a state of political turmoil during which anything could happen; we’ve seen an increase in earthquakes and unusual weather conditions; eruptions of volcanos, increased violence, pandemics (plagues), etc… just watch the news and there’s no telling what we might see.
We need to be vigilant and on our guard against things that would confuse us or give us cause to doubt our faith as events begin to unfold in this year and beyond. I want to focus on two specific areas that pose a danger to Christians, and both have to do with deception. One involves deception on a cosmic scale; the other is a subtler but equally sinister invasion of false teaching.
The Cosmic Deception
Most people who watch a certain channel on TV are familiar with “Ancient Aliens”. Admittedly I am one of them, but I watch it with my eyes wide open to its errors; I’ve mentioned before that they are so close to the truth, and yet so far! The proponents of the AA theory state that our solar system was visited eons ago by “star people” who either created or colonized the earth, or both, giving humans special knowledge reserved for the gods, especially in the area of technology. The aliens (gods) are expected to return at some point in time, to check out what we are doing to our planet or to further their own agenda, whatever that may be.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_astronauts
This halfway falls in line with what the Bible teaches about certain fallen angels who came to the earth, mated with human women and produced hybrid offspring called the Nephilim. (See Genesis 6:1-4). According to other reputable sources they instructed humans in subjects forbidden by God, such as sorcery, astrology, and weaponry.
The main difference between the ancient alien theory and the biblical record is that the aliens are in fact spiritual beings and not visitors from another planet or galaxy. Many biblical prophecy watchers expect these beings to return to the earth and profess to be aliens who have our best interests in mind and are here to help us. They may or may not acknowledge the existence of Jesus, but if they do, they will not acknowledge his identity as the resurrected Son of God (Yahweh, the one true God). Some scholars also predict another incursion of hybrid beings who may already live among us. These beings may have been created by genetic manipulation.
False Teachings
Heresy is defined as: an opinion, doctrine, or practice contrary to the truth or to generally accepted beliefs or standards. “Heresy.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, https://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/heresy. Accessed 31 Dec. 2024.
Different interpretations regarding biblical doctrine may not necessarily be heresy, even though they may still be wrong. We should be wary of anything that raises a red flag with us according to what we think the Bible teaches, and we should go straight to the Bible for the answer.
As an example, many people aren’t aware that yoga is a New Age practice.
“Yoga, is a ’science’ of achieving the transformation of finite man into the infinite One, has to be recognized as something intrinsically Indian or, as ’a specific dimension of the Indian mind.”
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- Mircea Eliade, source: Yoga: Immortality and Freedom, Mircea Eliade.Quoted from Gewali, Salil (2013). Great Minds on India. New Delhi: Penguin Random House.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Yoga#E
(Note: Ordinary stretching exercises such as those used in physical therapy are not the same as yoga.)
Karma (the belief we must spiritually atone for our own sins when Jesus has already fully atoned for them), telepathy, pantheism, out of body experiences, and even some near death experiences, are forms of New Age practices or experiences
“Wicca is one of the world’s most popular pagan religions.”
WICCA ON GOODREADS
CONCLUSION
We should be especially wary of the seemingly harmless practices which are becoming prevalent in today’s world. These practices open portals or gateways through which the supernatural (demonic entities) may freely enter. They’re just waiting for an invitation!
ABOUT THE DRONES: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14203841/ufo-ross-coulthart-warning.html. The mysterious lights which appeared for weeks along the East Coast and in other places seem to have disappeared from the headlines without being satisfactorily explained.
HAPPENING THIS MONTH: January 20, Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, in the United States, holiday (third Monday in January) honoring the achievements of Martin Luther King, Jr. A Baptist minister who advocated the use of nonviolent means to end racial segregation, he first came to national prominence during a bus boycott by African Americans in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955. He founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957 and led the 1963 March on Washington. The most influential of African American civil rights leaders during the 1960s, he was instrumental in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed discrimination in public accommodations, facilities, and employment, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. King was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1964. He was assassinated on April 4, 1968. (Britannica online).
NOTE: As I was working on this article January 1, the news came out that a truck had intentionally been plowed into a group of innocent bystanders on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing at least 14 people and severely injuring many others. Dear readers, let’s pray fervently for these people and their families…
Keep praying for the protection of Donald Trump and his family, J.D. Vance and his family, and their supporters and families.
RELEVANT BIBLE VERSES:
I Corinthians 10:20-21. “…I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.”
I Timothy 4:1. “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons.”
Romans 1:25. “…because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”
I John 4:1-3. “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.”
Jude 1:17-19.” But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions. It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.”
James 1:17.” Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”
John 14:10. “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.”
II Peter 1:3.” His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence.”