Level 5 - Life Stories
This Level 5 page contains encouraging life stories of people's journey towards God
DECEIVED BY THE LIES OF THE NEW AGE MOVEMENT - by Rose
I was born into a Catholic family, christened and confirmed like everybody else in my church. My parents were pretty devout, my dad was an acolyte at the altar with the job of swinging the incense around so I grew up with a lot of religious paraphernalia around me. At the age of 16 or so, I fell in love with God and even decided I wanted to be a nun as I didn't see any other options as a female in the Catholic Church to serve God. But I must have felt something was missing because I often found myself at the library looking at the spiritual books which were right next to the New Age section.
So one thing led to another and my mind was blown as I read about a whole new world outside the Catholic limited teachings. Unfortunately, I didn't read the Bible in all my researching - well not much of it. I did try once, but got stuck somewhere around the book of Numbers! I still felt a strong love for God and I felt a pull to know more, a desire to get closer but I looked in all the wrong places.
I floated around in the New Age teachings for years, from about 1996 until 2004 when I came across the Summit Lighthouse stuff (also known as "Church Universal and Triumphant" (CUT)). Not long after I stumbled across a website rather boldly called "Ask the Real Jesus". It claimed to have messages from Jesus channelled through a Danish guy, and people could write in and ask him questions! Reading a few of his answers, I was impressed by the detail so I kept on reading pages and pages of that stuff.
It turns out the Danish man had been a follower of the Summit Lighthouse but had left after its leader had retired due to sickness, and was setting himself up as a messenger instead. His wife was also taking 'dictations' from other 'Ascended Masters', and that is where I first heard of that term. Jesus I was comfortable with, but it took a while to get used to the idea of there being other masters who claimed to be on an equal with him. Looking back I was so naive! But as I looked into the Summit Lighthouse, there were many testimonials and stories from its followers, although I was rather put off by the lady who led it, looking so glamorous with shiny rings on all her fingers. And so I decided to pray for the truth to be shown me.
That night I had a dream with this lady (her name was Elizabeth Prophet). I was in a church with my mother and she was sitting behind me. My mother was looking at the pamphlets on the bench which were all from this Summit Lighthouse organisation, and she exclaimed in my dream that it was all true. Turning behind me I saw Elizabeth Prophet sitting there, and she said to me, "isn't that wonderful?" and gave me a hug.
So from that point, I took it as a sign that this was the right path to take. For that reason now years later, I am very slow to trust dreams anymore!
I never actually joined that organisation, however, but carried on following the Danish man and his wife, who claimed to have taken over the role of messenger for the Ascended Masters. So fast forward many years. The Danish man (Kim) and his wife (Lorraine) got divorced, and the community that had grown up around them (mostly internet-based) split in two, some following Kim and some following Lorraine. I went with Lorraine who continued to get messages for a couple more years although they were getting stranger and stranger. In the meantime I had got married to a lovely man.
Finally, Lorraine started getting messages about the Tribulation coming, and that it was time to start preparing for economic collapse and all sorts. A group of us decided that we might get together and rent a house in England and start preparing. So in 2013 we rented a big house in a village in the UK and I finally was able to move back to England from the Continent. After a year of living in the UK and upon deciding that the Tribulation wasn't quite around the corner after all, I moved into a nearby city where we had found work. Lorraine had stopped taking messages and suddenly removed all her websites from the internet. She also cut off all communication with us.
It was not until two years later that she suddenly reappeared online with a new website, with a shocking message that she was renouncing the 'ascended masters' and all her previous teachings, and becoming a Christian. She had taken the time to study the bible and see the contradictions with what it teaches and what she had been teaching. So her new website goes through everything she had been through and believed, and examines them in the light of the Christian Gospel, as set out in the New Testament portion of the Bible.
My husband and I were really shocked but obediently picked up our bible and started to study it, reading first the New Testament. It was clear to us that Lorraine was right but it took months to process everything, and figure out what it all meant. We had done years of spiritual work at that point, hours and hours of these prayers called decrees and rosaries etc. We had been doing works to try to get to heaven but the bible made it clear that it wasn't the way.
I'd been trying to get closer to God all along, but missed the only Way - having faith in Jesus Christ of the Bible alone. It was a relief to let go all the complicated practices we had been doing, but I was deeply grieved to realise I must have been following Satan when I thought I was doing God's will. Repentance was a process that took months as we had to release all our beliefs one by one.
This all started at the beginning of 2018, and at the end of that year I started having chats with the pastor of a local church. I had prayed to God to lead us to a new community where we could serve, one that followed the beliefs of the first Christians that I had read about in Acts. I wasn't sure if this was it but the pastor was so friendly and down to earth.
His enthusiasm for the Good News quickly rubbed off on me and wanting to quickly get right with God again, I asked him to baptise me. But he insisted I do an 'Exploring Christianity' course first, which ended up taking half a year.
We still had the teaching books from our time in the New Age, but we eventually decided to burn them as part of cutting off our past.
The reason I have written this testimony is to warn others of the deception practised by these New Age teachers. On the surface many things can look attractive, but the Bible clearly warns us that Satan can come "as an angel of light". The teachings I had received from them included mention of Jesus and the Holy Spirit but these were not the Jesus and Holy Spirit of the Bible, so beware!
If you have been deceived as I was, it is really important that you acknowledge your mistakes by confessing to the real Jesus Christ your sin in doing this, and ask him for complete forgiveness. See this webpage here
Three tests of the purity of knowledge that comes from the spirit world are:
1. Consistency with the Bible (Bible reference: 2 Timothy 3:16). If it contradicts the Bible, stay clear of it.
2. Jesus is the Word and the Word is God (Bible reference: John 1:1).
If it lowers Jesus Christ from His position of Godhead, stay clear of it.
3. The blood and atonement of Jesus (Bible reference: Revelation 5:8-
10; John 14:6). Redemption is not by good works but through the blood of the Lamb of God
(Bible reference: Revelation 5:12; Hebrews 9:14; 10:10, 19).
Evil spirits set out to deceive and so you cannot trust them to tell you the truth. The Bible warns against this kind of deception in the New Testament, the book of 1 John Chapter 4 verses 1, 2 and 3, written by the Apostle John:
"Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world."
The way to challenge a spirit that appears to be of God is to ask it three questions:
a. Is Jesus Christ, the Son of Father God?
b. Did Jesus Christ come in the flesh and die for the sins of the whole world?
c. Is Jesus Christ, God?
If it is an enemy spirit, you will likely hear an angry response, or there will be silence and no reply.
If it is God speaking to you, there will be no angry reply. God may well turn each question into an affirmation, such as:
a. Yes, Jesus Christ, is the Son of Father God.
b. Yes, Jesus Christ came in the flesh and died for the sins of the whole world.
c. Yes, Jesus Christ is God.
Thank you for reading my story,
Rose
