The previous post was about a book and study that Oprah is promoting as "life changing". As I pulled up our ISP tonight, the headline was about another "spiritually enlightening" book that has now gone to the top of the charts because Oprah promoted the book on her show. This book is called "New Earth" by Eckhart Tolle. The title of the book reads "A New Earth - Awakening to Your Life's Purpose." I knew the post yesterday was about a book that is being promoted as a spiritual book (and actually claims to be a Christian book based on Christian principles). However, the spiritual foundation of this book and the one from today are not from the Bible I read. Nor do they represent the Jesus Christ I know as my personal Lord and Savior. Now as a disclaimer - I do not watch Oprah's show. I never have and now have even less desire (is that possible - can you go from zero to negative???) to watch her show, buy any of the products she promotes or believe her when she claims to be a Christian.
Kathy, from Kathy's Klavier, left some very good comments on yesterday's post. I truly appreciate her candor and her absolute stand for Christ. She said that in training officers to recognize counterfeit money, they must know what the real thing looks like, smells like, feels like, etc. They must become so familiar with the real thing that they immediately recognize what is false. In viewing books or teachings like those Oprah is promoting, the same thing is true of Christians. We have to be so familiar with God's Word, His Son - Jesus Christ, His teachings, His principles, His commands that we instantly recognize a false teacher. Unfortunately, in our world today, I will be criticized for calling Oprah a false prophet. That's okay - that is what she is. My fear is she will lead many to a false god and they will not be able to recognize the fact until it's too late. Philippians 2:10-11 states "that at the name of Jesus, every knee in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father". The note in my Bible says this: "God's design for us is that everyone should worship and serve Him. Ultimately all will acknowledge him as Lord, whether willingly or not."** That day will come when all will realize who the one true God is but it will be too late for their choice to be changed! The power and authority that has been given to her is being used to turn people away from the one true God and point them in the wrong direction!
Break our hearts, God, for the confused, hurting people who are being led away from you by those in positions of power and authority.
** Note from NIV Study Bible published by Zondervan Publishing House
3 comments:
Strawberry, I really appreciate you exposing this in your blog. But it needs to be told -- Oprah has so much influence in our society that it is scary sometimes. The really sad part is that people who don't know what the Bible says, or new believers, can so easily be swayed by these kinds of teachings that "sound good". We have to be teaching our children and new believers to make sure that anything they believe in can be backed up by the Word of God. We all need to remember that.
One more thing, I read that even Robert Schuller of the Crystal Cathedral is selling that Course in Miracles book at the bookstore of Crystal Cathedral. I haven't checked into that to see if it is true or not, but it is sad to see how many are being deceived.
Yep, it's no exaggeration to say that Oprah is the most influential theologian in the world today.
Interesting, isn't it, that influence doesn't necessarily correlate with expertise or credentials? And somewhere "the church" has missed the proverbial boat on how this whole thing works. Hmmmmm. . . .
GREAT posts as a reminder for us to be careful in today's world. I also feel sad since Oprah has a huge influence on people. :-(((
Post a Comment