David Spangler and his
Anthroposophic Roots
Like Rudolf Steiner, David
Spangler understands Christ to be a cosmic spirit who utilized
Jesus' body to make the transfer from His own realm (the spiritual
realm) to Jesus' realm (the realm of matter).
Spangler sees the Christ as
a cosmic principle: "Any old Christ will not do, not
if we need to show that we have something better than the mainstream
Christian traditions. It must be a cosmic Christ, a universal
Christ, a New Age Christ."[13] The Christ is not so much
a religious figure, "but rather a cosmic principle, a spiritual
presence whose quality infuses and appears in various ways in
all the religions and philosophies that uplift humanity and seek
unity with spirit."[14]
Spangler believes a central
purpose of the Christ is to act as a "universal educator."
He uses "educate" in the sense of the Latin root educare,
which means "to lead out." Most often he speaks of the
Christ "leading out" man's "inner divinity."[15]
The "universal Presence that calls out of form and spirit
the higher potentials of Divine life waiting to be released into
expression, is the Christ."[16]
Like Steiner, Spangler believes
the Christ entered the etheric earth at the crucifixion. By so
doing, the Christ was able to reverse man's "downward trend"
toward a physical-oriented consciousness. The Christ is
thus an "occult savior."[17]
Spangler utilizes Christian
terms to describe what the Christ accomplished through Jesus.
For example, Spangler says that the Christ was occultly crucified
(which resulted in placing his cosmic presence within the cross
of matter, space, and time). The Christ was laid in a tomb
(the tomb representing a level of life characterized by "great
density" [i.e., the physical world], as opposed to the "low
density" spiritual realm he was accustomed to). There he
would stay until the resurrection (the outflowing of Christ-energies
from the etheric earth) and ascension (the ascension of
Christ-consciousness in humanity). Through this sacrifice,
the cosmic Christ became a savior in that he no longer
stood outside the evolution of the earth, but entered into that
evolution by becoming incarnate into the earth.[18] There
he would function as a guide of man's spiritual evolution.
Like Steiner, Spangler believes
the Christ is now incarnating into humanity from the etheric
realm. This is not unlike what occurred in Jesus 2,000 years ago,
for Jesus "was the prototype or the expression of the reality
of the Christ consciousness which is inherent in us all."[19]
Spangler concludes that human beings can actually become "the
Word made flesh." In fact, he says that the Word will eventually
be made all flesh.[20]
Elizabeth Clare Prophet
and her "I AM" Roots
While the Ballards' "I
AM" movement has considerably declined since its heyday in
the 1930s, another "I AM" movement has achieved high
visibility and much popularity in New Age circles. This is the
Church Universal and Triumphant, founded in 1958 by Mark Prophet
and now headed by his widow, Elizabeth Clare Prophet.
Foundationally, certain aspects
of the Prophets' theology can be traced directly to Theosophy.
These beliefs include (1) Masters who guide man's spiritual evolution;
(2) revelations to man from these Masters; (3) the Christ's use
of Jesus' body; (4) human evolution through progressive stages;
and (5) the belief that Blavatsky's revelations marked the beginning
of the Aquarian Age.
Beyond these similarities,
the Prophets derived most of their theology from the Ballards.
This is seen not only in their emphasis on the I AM Presence,
but also on the prominent role of Saint Germain.
Elizabeth Clare Prophet says
the I AM Presence has become hopelessly distorted within man due
to negative energies from within and without. These negative energies
impede spiritual progress, but are effectively combatted by the
"Violet Consuming Flame" which is poured out on the
world by Saint Germain. This Flame changes negative energy into
positive energy. It is therefore an antidote to sin.
This makes Jesus' work on
the cross unnecessary. In fact, Mark and Elizabeth Prophet dismiss
the idea of Jesus' atonement on the cross as an "erroneous
doctrine...which he himself never taught."[21] Like the Ballards,
the Prophets believe that Jesus attained Christhood as did other
Ascended Masters. The "Christ" of "I AM" theology
represents the divinity within all men: "God dwells
in every man and not alone in His son Jesus the Christ. The only
begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth, is the Christ
whose Image the Lord has reproduced over and over again as the
Christ-identity of every son and daughter who has come forth from
the infinite Spirit of the Father-Mother God."[22] The Prophets
conclude that "to become the Christ, then, is the goal of
every child of God."[23]
PHINEAS PARKHURST QUIMBY
Unquestionably, Theosophy
and the groups that emerged from it are the source of many of
the essential tenets of New Age Christology. But Phineas Parkhurst
Quimby (who died in 1866) and the "metaphysical" groups
his philosophy spawned also played a significant role.
Quimby espoused the metaphysical
idea that the source of physical healing lies in the mind. He
was convinced that physical diseases were caused by wrong thinking
or false beliefs. These false beliefs are remedied by "the
Christ."
Like other metaphysical writers,
Quimby distinguished Jesus from the Christ. Quimby credited Jesus
with discovering the "Truth" of how to correct the error
of sickness. "Not that He as a man was any better,"
said Quimby, "but He was the embodiment of a higher Wisdom,
more so than any man who has ever lived."[24] This "Truth"
or "higher Wisdom" discovered by Jesus was an impersonal
mind-principle Quimby called "the Christ." Quimby's
metaphysical concept of the Christ spawned several important movements.
New Thought
New Thought developed slowly
during the nineteenth century after Quimby's death in 1866. Quimby
did not create an organization himself. But individuals he helped
adopted his ideas and passed them on to others, adding to or modifying
them along the way. Mary Baker Eddy's Christian Science is a major
example of this, though this tradition is too exclusive to meld
with today's New Age movement. However, several smaller, more
inclusive metaphysical groups also emerged, and in the 1890s the
term "New Thought" surfaced as a way of describing them.
The Christ of New Thought
was an outgrowth of Quimby's metaphysics. The Christ was considered
not a person but an impersonal Divine Nature or Principle.
Jesus was believed to have embodied or appropriated the Christ-principle
as no human had before. He had fully realized his Christ-nature.
But Jesus was not a savior to mankind; he was merely a "way-shower."
Salvation is based not on Jesus but on the recognition of the
Divine Nature or Christ-principle within.
Unity School of Christianity
The Unity School of Christianity,
an offshoot of New Thought, was founded by Charles and Myrtle
Fillmore in 1891. They are distinguished from mainstream New Thought
by their belief in reincarnation.
In Unity, salvation is attained
by "at-one-ment" with God -- a reuniting of human consciousness
with God-consciousness. Jesus attained this; all men can: "The
difference between Jesus and us is not one of inherent spiritual
capacity, but in difference of demonstration of it. Jesus was
potentially perfect, and He expressed that perfection; we are
potentially perfect, [but] we have not yet expressed it."[25]
United Church of Religious
Science
The United Church of Religious
Science, another offshoot of New Thought, was founded by "Dr."
Ernest Holmes who wrote The Science of Mind in 1926. This
book later became the textbook for Religious Science. Holmes was
extremely eclectic, attempting to syncretize the metaphysical
ideas he sifted from New Thought with psychology, philosophy,
and the various world religions.
His ideas about Jesus, the
Christ, and mankind are similar to other New Thought groups: "Every
man is a potential Christ. From the least to the greatest the
same life runs through all, threading itself into the patterns
of our individuality. He is 'over all, in all and through all.'"[26]
Jesus was merely a way-shower who embodied the impersonal Christ.
NOTABLE MENTIONS
The groups and individuals
described above have all contributed to the emergence of a mystical
and esoteric theological climate. This has paved the way for numerous
other individuals and groups to hop on the New Age bandwagon and
offer their own reinterpretations of the person and work of Christ.
Two of the more notable developments are the following:
A Course in Miracles.
According to this New Age textbook, the "Son of God"
was created by God in a state of "wakefulness."
Later, however, the Son fell asleep and had a dream of being separate
from God. In the dream, the Son denied that he was created by
God, asserting instead that he created himself. This usurping
of God's role as Creator marked the beginning of ego, and
led the Son to conceive of himself as being separate from
God.
God then created and commissioned
the Holy Spirit to awaken the Son. But the Son wrongly interpreted
the coming of the Holy Spirit as judgment from God because the
Son thought he was guilty of usurping God's role as Creator.
The Son's ego then fragmented
into myriads of egos with physical bodies (i.e., human beings),
each believing themselves separate from each other and from God.
Humanity's basic problem then is its belief in being separate
from God. The solution to the problem is a rediscovery of one's
Christhood.[27] The Course sets out to help people attain
this.
Matthew Fox and the Institute
in Culture and Creation Spirituality.
The mystical orientation of Matthew Fox, a Dominican priest, leads
him to suggest that we abandon any further quest for the "historical
Jesus" and refocus our attention on a quest for the cosmic
Christ. He provides several definitions of the cosmic Christ,
the most important being "the pattern that connects."[28]
The Cosmic Christ connects "heaven and earth, past and future,
divinity and humanity, all of creation."[29] This definition
of Christ makes it possible for Fox to call for a "deep ecumenism,"
by which he means a genuine coming together of all persons of
all religions at a mystical level.[30] Thus, through Fox a New
Age view of Christ has made significant inroads into orthodox
(mostly Catholic, but also some Protestant) circles.
AN ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN RESPONSE
In responding to New Age claims
about Christ, it is best to focus on several key issues rather
than attempting to debate every nuance of New Age thought. The
following represents a starting point for an orthodox rebuttal
of New Age Christology.
An esoteric system of interpreting
the Bible is unreliable. The
primary problem with this kind of system (which seeks hidden,
inner meanings in Bible verses) is that it bypasses rationality
in favor of mysticism. In such a system, there is no
way to prove that a given interpretation is right or wrong
since "proof" presupposes rationality and objectivity.
James Sire comments that "there is no way to tell if the
system that derives from esotericism is really so or merely a
figment of the esotericist's imagination -- or worse -- a direct
plant by the Father of Lies."[31] Incidentally, Jesus --
whom New Agers claim to revere as a Master -- clearly believed
in a literal interpretation of Scripture (cf. Matt. 5:18).
Jesus was not a mere enlightened
Master. The New
Agers' rendition of Jesus as an "enlightened Master"
in a class with Buddha, Zoroaster, and others is a radical distortion
of the Jesus found in Scripture (which is to say, the Jesus of
historical record rather than the Jesus of the mystical
Akashic Records). The Jesus found in Scripture clearly
believed and taught that He alone among men is God (John 8:58;
10:30; 14:9-10). Douglas Groothuis comments: "If Jesus thought
he was uniquely God incarnate but he wasn't, he was far less than
'an enlightened master' -- he didn't even know who he was! If
he knew he was not uniquely God incarnate, but said he was, he
was a flaming fraud, and in no sense was he an 'enlightened master.'
Worse yet, he would have been a deceiver, leading a multitude
astray."[32]
Jesus alone is the Christ.
New Agers typically say "the Christ" came upon Jesus
at His baptism and departed three years later at the cross. But
even as a babe in Bethlehem -- decades before His baptism -- Jesus
is called Immanuel, "God with us" (Matt. 1:23). When
the angel announced the birth of Jesus to the shepherds he identified
Jesus this way: "Today in the town of David a Savior has
been born to you; he is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:11).
Simeon, who was filled with the Holy Spirit, recognized the babe
Jesus as Christ, in fulfillment of God's promise to him that "he
would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ"
(Luke 2:26).
John's first epistle warns
us: "Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus
is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist -- he denies the Father
and the Son" (1 John 2:22). This doesn't mean that David
Spangler, for example, is the Antichrist, but certainly
Spangler (like other New Age teachers) is an antichrist.
The Incarnation is personal
and permanent.
Contrary to the typical New Age scenario (a three-year incarnation
of an impersonal Christ in a human Jesus), Scripture
asserts that Jesus Christ -- personal and eternal
God -- became incarnate via the virgin birth, and this
incarnation lasts forever.
Of course, the real miracle
here is not the virgin birth, but the virgin conception.
Mary is told: 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power
of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the
holy offspring shall be called the Son of God' (Luke 1:35). This
is when the Incarnation occurred.
Moreover, the Incarnation
was not a temporary arrangement. After Christ resurrected He made
numerous appearances, proving beyond any doubt the continuance
of his human-divine union. Jesus ascended bodily into
heaven after the resurrection (Luke 24; John 20:22-28; Acts 1:1-11;
7:56). When Christ returns in glory, He will sit on the throne
as the Son of Man: "You will see the Son of Man sitting
at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of
heaven" (Matt. 26:64).
Jesus is uniquely and exclusively
man's only means of coming into a relationship with God.
Jesus asserted: "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no
one comes to the Father, but through me" (John 14:6).
A bold Peter proclaimed that "there is salvation in no
one else; for there is no other name under heaven that
has been given among men, by which we must be saved" (Acts
4:12). And recall that previous to the birth of Jesus, an angel
of the Lord appeared to Joseph saying, "you shall call His
name Jesus, for it is He [emphatic] who will save His people
from their sins" (Matt. 1:21). Paul likewise affirms that
"there is one God, and one mediator also between God and
men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Tim. 2:5).
Jesus Christ will come
again in glory.
In contrast with the New Age idea that the coming of Christ is
contingent on man's ability to prepare the earth spiritually for
this coming, Scripture says that Christ is coming as King of
kings and Lord of lords, and man has power neither
to invoke His coming nor to prevent it (Rev. 19:16).
The phrase "King of kings and Lord of lords" emphasizes
His supreme sovereignty and authority over mortal, weak
man.
In conclusion, the true Christ
is the Christ of the gospels. The many miraculous signs He performed
attested to His supreme identity, not some divine potential we
all possess: "These [miraculous signs] are written
that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the
Son of God, and that by believing you may have life
in his name" (John 20:31).
NOTES
1 H. P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1966), 168-89.
2 Annie Besant, Esoteric Christianity (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1953), 90-91.
3 Cited by Jan Karel Van Baalen, Chaos of the Cults (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1956), 52.
4 Rudolf Steiner, The Reappearance of the Christ in the Etheric (Spring Valley, NY: Anthroposophic Press, 1983), 127-28.
5 Rudolf Steiner, Jesus and Christ (Spring Valley, NY: Anthroposophic Press, 1976), 16-17.
6 Rudolf Steiner, The Four Sacrifices of Christ (Spring Valley, NY: Anthroposophic Press, 1944), 19-20.
7 Alice A. Bailey, The Externalisation of the Hierarchy (New York: Lucis Publishing Co., 1957), 222.
8 Ibid., 592.
9 Mrs. G. W. and Donald Ballard, Purpose of the Ascended Masters "I AM" Activity (Chicago: Saint Germain Press, 1942), 110.
10 Ibid., 35.
11 Benjamin Creme, The Reappearance of the Christ and the Masters of Wisdom (North Hollywood, CA: Tara Center, 1980), 47.
12 Alice Bailey, The Reappearance of the Christ (New York: Lucis Publishing Co., 1979), 188.
13 David Spangler, Reflections on the Christ (Forres, Scotland: Findhorn Publications, 1981), 107.
14 David Spangler, Conversations with John (Middleton, WI: Lorian Press, 1983), 5.
15 David Spangler, Revelation: The Birth of a New Age (Middleton, WI: Lorian Press, 1976), 117.
16 Ibid.
17 Ibid., 141.
18 Ibid., 121.
19 Spangler, Reflections on the Christ, 14-15.
20 Ibid., 86.
21 Mark and Elizabeth Prophet, Climb the Highest Mountain (Los Angeles: Summit University Press, 1974), 279-80.
22 Ibid., 228.
23 Ibid., 160.
24 Phineas P. Quimby, The Quimby Manuscripts, ed. Horatio W. Dresser (New Hyde Park, NY: University Books, 1961), 283.
25 Elizabeth Sand Turner, What Unity Teaches, Lee's Summit, MO: Unity School of Christianity, n.d., 3.
26 Ernest Holmes, What Religious Science Teaches (Los Angeles: Science of Mind Publications, 1975), 20.
27 Dean C. Halverson, "A Course in Miracles: Seeing Yourself as Sinless," SCP Journal 7, 1 (1987):18-27.
28 Matthew Fox, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1988), 133-35.
29 Ibid., 134.
30 Ibid., 228.
31 James W. Sire, Scripture Twisting (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1980), 113.
32 Douglas Groothuis, Confronting
the New Age (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1988),
121.
-------------
End of document, CRJ0035A.TXT (original CRI file name),
"The Christ of the New Age Movement"
release A, April 11, 1994
R. Poll, CRI
NOTE TO THE READER:
Since he wrote this article, Ron Rhodes has published a related
book on the subject titled The Counterfeit Christ of the New
Age Movement (Baker Book House, 1990).
(A special note of thanks
to Bob and Pat Hunter for their help in the preparation of this
ASCII file for BBS circulation.)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
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