In Ravi Zacharias’s latest book he states, “The New
Spirituality encourages a unified theory of God, which is actually a nondefined
entity, a made-to-measure religion for each and every person”. What this means is that through intuition or
introspection we can come in touch with our inner self, our spiritual self,
which is in effect our own god. How
convenient it is to be able to discover our own god and define it to our
liking. Our accountability is,
therefore, only to ourselves. And in
this era of relativism, each individual is able to define spirituality and
therefore god in their own way to suit whatever they deem necessary. Absolute truth is abandoned and does not
exist. Logic and reasoning are tossed to
the garbage heap, as feelings and self-worth and self-acceptance are trumpeted
as the most worthy of all pursuits.
There are many different proponents of these ideas with
varying degrees of success and appeal.
It is a type of pantheistic approach that combines a little from several
different worldviews with slight variations depending upon which version one
aspires. As Ravi says, “It is truly a
case of each one with his or her personal brand of spirituality, grabbing the
newest ancient source to appear more esoteric than the next. What is lost, in the end, is any distinction
between God, humanity, and the animal world”. This is why I often refer to the environmental
movement, or the animal rights movement, as a new religion. It is a worldview that incorporates all the
aspects of a religion, from its deity to its rituals to its beliefs. In environmentalism, the earth is the deity
and earth day, which is coming up on April 22, its major religious holiday.
The problem with all of this new spirituality is that truth
is abandoned. Any attempt to logically,
and with evidence, search for the truth is compromised for what feels
right. The apostle Paul, in his letter
to the church in Rome, warned of exactly the kind of thinking we see today. Nearly 2,000 years ago he wrote, “For since
the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and
divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made,
so that men are without excuse. For
although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God, nor gave thanks to him,
but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became
fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like
mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles”.
We have given ourselves over to worshipping things we have created
rather than the Creator.
When you look at a newborn, what is it you think? Do you marvel at the beauty of this new
life? Do you contemplate the enormous
and incredible complexity of the human being you hold in your arms? What do you think when you see a person with
a debilitating disease or enormous weight problem that may be caused by disease? Are you looking at that person wondering what
the problem is? Should we not be looking
in each of these cases through the
individual to the majesty and glory of the God who created them? For everyone has worth endowed by their
creator.
A good analogy is a telescope. Do you look at the telescope and see the
marvelous design and intricate workings of the machine; or do you look through
it to see the wonder that it helps you to see beyond the immediate? Without looking through the telescope all you
see is what your eye can see, but when you look through it, you can see much more.
The same is true of people you see and meet. You can look at them and see only what you
see, or you can look through that to the person inside, created by God for a
purpose, and attempt to discover what that might be. How do we do this? The answer is relationship. We are creatures designed for relationship,
and relationships are only meaningful if and when they get past the
surface. This is what Jesus meant by
“love thy neighbor as thyself”. We shouldn’t
accept people only for what they look like or what they do. We should go beyond that to what we find is
inside them. That is why the New
Spirituality is appealing. It attempts
to get us to seek the spirituality that is in all of us, placed there by
God. But we get sidetracked and lose
sight of the truth. God is the one in
control and the one who deserves our worship.
It has been said that everyone has a “god-sized hole” in
their heart that only god can fill.
Everyone throughout time has sought to understand the spiritual
realm. Most people recognize that there is
a spiritual side to our existence and they attempt to contact it. That is, in part, what the New Spirituality
tries to do and it is not a new thing!
So if relationship and spirituality are key ingredients to
meaning in life, then love has to be the supreme ethic. It is necessary for sense to be made out of
life. It is necessary for sense to be made
out of God and Jesus. It is not
guaranteed in life, nor is it always easy to find. Sometimes it can be a very difficult and
elusive thing to capture. We all seek it
and desire it. Yet it is there for all
of us in the One who never changes and is always by our side.
Some people will say this all a bunch of hooey. My answer is for that person to search for
the truth. As Lee Strobel so
appropriately stated in his book and DVD, “A Case for Christ”, that we should
do three things. First, make it a front
burner issue in our life to seek out the evidence and search for the
truth. Secondly, to enter the search
with an open mind and let the evidence take you wherever it takes you. Thirdly, to be willing to make a decision
regarding the evidence and be willing to make a change in your life based on
the evidence.
I spoke to someone the other day who was most concerned
about telling me what he “believed”.
That is fine. You can believe
anything you want to, but I have only one question. Is it true?
Does it reflect reality? Do you
have substantial historical and logically congruent evidence to support that
belief? I can believe in little green
men from Mars, but do I have enough evidence to create a plausible, logical,
and compelling case for the reality of that belief? It may make me feel good to believe it, but
that doesn’t make it true!
I urge everyone to open their minds and seek the truth in
all things. Be willing to seek the
evidence and look for the truth. Be
willing to listen to and explore both sides to see which is more logical and
has the supportive evidence. Don’t be
persuaded by what sounds good or feels good to do or believe. Ask yourself if it is true and can I find
evidence for it? That is the beauty of
the Christian worldview. It is
testable. You can search for and find
the evidence because it is not based on just theory; it is based on a person,
the person of Jesus. Just like Paul said
in Romans, the evidence is all around us.
It is there if you will look for it.
