Oprah's Full Blown New Age Beliefs

There is no doubt that Oprah Winfrey has a HUGE following in America today. She has become the guide for many, many women throughout our country and is seen as a very positive influence. Recently, she has been hawking a book called "The New Earth" by Eckhart Tolle that repackages gnostic and new age teaching.  This is an enlightening segment:

Of course, we have heard this before: There are many ways to heaven, Jesus only embodied the God-consciousness that showed us how God wanted us to live, Jesus is not the only way to God, Christianity is a restrictive ideology that actually keeps us from God, God is bigger than religion, all religions should be sampled, there is no authority except for yourself and you can choose from different religions to piece together what is best for you, you listen within for your own definitions of spirituality, etc., etc. Everyday, Oprah is speaking this to millions and millions of people. In reality, this book is really just a restating of Buddhism (we must escape desire to enter enlightenment). Eckhart just says that we have to bypass our "ego" to tap into our true self where true peace and spiritual enlightenment is attainable. Again, straight Buddhism and Oprah thinks it's wonderful and has made it compatible with her new form of "Christianity." If you combine Oprah's philosophy with that of the prosperity gospel that also tells people that life is all about us and that we can gain God's blessings through our gifts, our thoughts on spirituality in America are devolving into a mish-mash of heresy and paganism. Yes, America has become quite the mission field, hasn't it? How will we respond?

Comments

[Antje]

As a former Oprah-fan and zen-sympathizer, I would would like to share my little story.
Until 7 years ago I would have embraced everything Oprah is telling us here. Once you start thinking for yourself, I thought, you just can`t belief that the Bible is the word of God. So I had created my fusion philosophy (Zen + a few other elements). It really worked well for 20 years. Then I felt empty and tired.

At 35 I made a u-turn (my friends are still in shock :-)). I came to understand that I was not to create my own "spirituality" based on my feelings or "knowledge". There IS a God, and He is real. How did I find out? I thought I´d give it a try, and if somebody is listening to my prayer, he might lead me...
And boy, he did!

I have learned that I can trust Him (and His word) even if I don`t always agree with Him - which is exactly the opposite of the common practice, I´m afraid.

It was the best decision of my entire life, though I did not really know what I was doing back then. I sort of jumped. Hope many more will follow.

Greetings from Holland

[from the middle east]

Brother Alan,

Thanks for putting this up. Another friend of mine put this up today as well. Definitely appealing to postmoderns (on a few fronts it appears). But definitely just far eastern pantheism repackaged. I need to go pick this book up and give it a good read if so many are being influenced by it. Thanks for the heads-up!

His grace, mercy, love and peace be with you,
From the Middle East

[Lisa]

Sad Sad Sad....there are some other videos on You Tube. Christians we need to pray for Oprah. She is a very genuine, giving person. BUT...she is very deceived. We need to pray and be careful not to bring her farther away from Christ. Thanks Alan, for your genuine but truthful opinion!
Lisa