It’s a misnomer to think that all New Agers believe and practice exactly the same thing.  I remember Robert Stewart, one of my seminary professors, once saying, “Trying to define the New Age Movement is like trying to nail Jell-O to the wall.”  You see, the New Age Movement (NAM) is not a centralized organization.  There are no creeds or sacred scriptures.  You can find literally hundreds of publications by various groups that fall into this somewhat nebulous crowd.

Maybe the clearest way to think about NAM is to understand that it is essentially an American, fast-food version of Eastern mystical religions (e.g., Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism), as well as Western Occultism.  So, while in traditional Eastern religions reaching Enlightenment takes many recurring lives to attain (hence, reincarnation), in NAM you can reach Enlightenment in this life now (this is the focus of most New Age books). 

The most basic belief of NAM is this: All is God and God is all.  This is called Pantheism (pan = all; theism = belief in God).  However, within Pantheism, “God” is not personal as He is within Christianity, Islam, or even Islam.  Rather than HE being like a person, IT is more like a force.  And since humanity is part of the “all”, we are each divine and perfect, and the problem usually stems simply from our ignorance of our own divinity.  So, we must remember that we are God. 

However, lest we think NAM is new, we should remember King Solomon’s words in Ecclesiastes, “There’s nothing new under the sun.”  The first place we see the roots of NAM is in the book of Genesis.  When our first parents were tempted by Satan in the garden, they were promised three things if they would only submit and bow the knee to the Enemy: (1) Authority—“Did God really say…”; (2) Immortality—“You will not surely die…”; (3) Enlightenment—“Your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God…”.  You don’t have to pour through too many books on NAM to realize that these are three cardinal components of the movement, and the big selling points for intended readers.

The ironic part of the Genesis 3 account is that Adam and Eve already had these three things, and when they clenched their fists on these bestowed gifts by God, the gifts vanished.  The promise of Satan in the garden was the same sort of promise that sin always sells us.  Sin promises to serve, but in reality, in enslaves.  It’s like the ring of power in Tolkien’s Trilogy, “The Lord of the Rings.”  It is our vanity that thinks we can take the helm in control of our lives, only to discover that we’re tied to the wheel and the ship is quickly sinking.

Jesus’ message is not one of personal autonomy or self-rule.  Rather, Jesus’ command is to give up the right of ownership over your very life.  This is why a Christian can never say, “My body . . . my choice!” or for that matter, “My soul, mind, character, vocation, family, lifestyle . . . my choice!”  Therefore, we read Paul commenting on Jesus’ message in in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “You are not your own; you were bought at a price.”

FURTHER READING ON NAM:
The New Age Movement, Profile by Watchman Fellowship