I received an email today regarding a topic of Oprah on her radio program. (http://www2.oprah.com/index_du.jhtml). It was talking about a year long study called "A Course in Miracles" from a book by Marianne Williamson. The issue with this program is the theology behind it. The letter was written by Warren Smith. Mr. Smith was involved in the New Age movement prior to becoming a Christian. His letter is written as warning to all Christians and the Church about this study. As I have not heard of this gentleman before today, I have included a link to his letter for you to check out for yourself. http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/007/smith-oprah.htm
This may open up a can of worms but I am going to begin the discussion anyway. I looked through the first 10 lessons. They seem to be fairly innocent enough. However, some of the quotes provided by Mr. Smith in his letter are extremely disturbing. Is this a false teaching? Is this course presenting an alternative to Christ that is completely opposite of the Bible's teachings of Jesus Christ? I am going to have to do some more studying on this before I can answer those questions for myself. However, I know that several of the readers of this blog are Christians and probably far more mature in their faith than I am. I hope to be able to open a discussion about this course and determine the accuracy of their teachings and the theology behind those teachings.
As Christians, we are called to be "Salt and Light to a darkened world!" We have to be willing to be out in the world but not be of the world in order to make changes. If this is one way I can be salt to the world around me, then I want God to have all the glory. All my "good deeds" are like filthy rags before the holiness of Almighty God. In order to be a light, we also have to be willing to speak out for those things that are right and against those things that are wrong. What a change could be had if we were just willing to do this one thing?
6 comments:
I would like to look into this more closely when I have more time later today. Personally, I don't care to watch O.W.'s show anymore or listen to anything she has to say.
I was wondering where you went to look at those first 10 lessons? I clicked on that Marianne Williamson's website link and it didn't take long for things I saw there to scream loud and clear to me that this is anti-Christianity. You know, I heard someone saying recently that when they teach someone to recognize counterfeit money, they go about it by getting them so familiar with the real thing that it's easy to recognize when something is counterfeit. It's that way with Christianity. You have to study the Word of God and know what is in there to be able to recognize when something is a false teaching.
In order to be light, we need a source for our illumination, and that source is Jesus Christ. We cannot light ourselves and this is what that material is suggesting.
There is no way we can make permanent changes under our own power. We will always revert back to the way we were or even worse.
We need a recharge every day. That recharge comes from constant communion with God, and not self.
Right on. I fear that is what is happening in our society today. Our younger people are greatly backing Hussein Obama (I use that name to keep in mind that he is Musilim - whether he claims it or not) and in that backing I fear that they are pushing into the presidency a person who does not believe like the majority of Americans claim to believe. This will be another step in the internal taking of America away from a Christian nation and pushing it toward an Islamic Nation.
This scares me - we need to be on our knees praying!
Thanks for you post.
CDO
If you would like to see how reliable Warren Smith is, particularly with regard to his views on Rick Warren, please see the following articles:
"The Rick Warren-Antichrist Conspiracy"
http://abanes.com/warrensmith_conspiracy.html
"Deception in Sacramento"
http://abanes.com/ccsac.html
"Still Self-Deceived On Purpose"
http://abanes.com/warrensmith_morelies.html
"Self-Deceived On Purpose"
http://abanes.com/warrensmith.html
Thank you,
Richard Abanes
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