A revelation I received in 2004.

Having spent a considerable amount of time on Christian and Spiritual message boards for the past three and a half years, I began to see parallels between those of old age or mainstream Christianity and those of new age Christianity.  Those of the old age were claiming to be born again and saved.  Those of the new age were saying the same thing, but in a different language, claiming they were already spirit and perfect, they just had to remember it, and believe it.  While one group claimed to have the Holy Spirit, which is to say you have the Power of God, the other group claimed they were God.  And both groups showed little respect for the earth.  The one waiting to be whisked away in what they call the rapture, escaping the evil literally, the other calling the earth an illusion, escaping its evil through the power of their mind, denying that evil even exists, calling anything negative and destructive, such as disease, an illusion.  After seeing these parallels, I asked before going to sleep one night, “Lord, Why the parallels between these two groups of people?”  I awoke to the words, “It’s the two gold calves the king of Israel set up in Dan and Bethel.  It’s the same image; an old religious belief in a new age wrapping.” 

I understood the symbolism in the biblical story immediately.  And as time went by, I began to fully understand why it had come about.  For over fifteen hundred years now, the children of God have been humiliated and browbeaten by religion, stripped of their self-worth and self-esteem, stripped of their authentic power, controlled by fear.  Many of these children of God left the religious system in a very down-trodden emotional state, which made them overly susceptible to a belief that would make them feel good about themselves, their hearts eager to take on a belief that would tell them they were okay, they were not sinners bound for hell.  It was the perfect time for the arrival of a new belief, one that would tell them what they so desperately wanted, and needed to hear.  This belief helped them change the way they thought about themselves, gently patting them on the back, telling them they were perfect just the way they were.  This belief would also teach them that there was no such thing as evil, and that the world that had hurt them so badly was just an illusion, a dream, so they could set their mind at rest; they could be at peace in their mind.  This childish belief, while serving in part to help the children regain their self-confidence, self-esteem, and self-worth, was causing the children of God to push the boundaries, as children do.  They were taking it too far, impatiently proclaiming a spiritual state that can only be reached through spiritual works that change the heart.

The Church told them they had sin, but in the wrong spirit, and with no truthful word of instruction on how to purify themselves.  When one walks away from a religious belief, it is important to understand that the same emotional energy that gave power to the old belief is carried over, transferred to the new belief, which in this case was no different than the old belief, just spoken in a different language.  In both cases, the spiritual works that transform the negative and destructive energy of the heart into positive and constructive or creative energy are not being performed.  These two beliefs are one and the same, one existing at each end of a linear line.  Bringing the two ends together through their parallels reveals that they are at the same point or place; having the same state of mind— deluded, their erroneous beliefs powered by what the Bible calls “the energy of delusion,” providing the mind with a false peace that acts as a wall, separating the follower of such a belief from his own heart, which symbolized by the temple, is where we offer up the spiritual sacrifices that purify our heart.

Written by Sandra L. Butler © 2004