The following is originally posted on Herescope and republished with permission:

By Pastor Larry DeBruyn

Neale Donald Walsch peddles New Age spirituality in books, recording, dialogs or “conversations” he had with “God.” The books are formatted so that his conversations and musings are typeset in normal characters while God’s statements appear in bold print. Walsch notes one physicist:

has proposed a conception of the universe that he has called “observer-participancy,” or a closed-loop participatory universe in which—as quantum physics would have it—nothing that is observed is unaffected by the observer. In other words, the Creator and the Created are One, each creating the other.[70]

After stating that along with the rest of humanity, he is a conscious Part of the System, and that as one energy unit he can affect the System via intelligent-consciousness, Walsch states: “And then along come chaos theory and quantum physics.” To this, Walsch’s god responds:

Yes. And quantum physics is simply the scientific explanation for how God—“the System,” if you please—looks at Its individual parts and watches Itself impacting those Parts.You would call this phenomenon, in spiritual terms, a “higher level of consciousness,” or “increased self-awareness.” It is when That Which Is Aware experiences the fact that It affects that of which It IS aware. [71]

Walsch then muses, “‘Nothing which is observed is unaffected by the observer.’ The first law of quantum physics.”[72]

According to the New Spirituality, if the system is to run right, the human mind is essential. Whether individual or collective, consciousness is the key. If the system should find itself in trouble, then human consciousness can become the means to transform, even save, the system. As has already been pointed out, the new consciousness can be induced by engaging in meditative spiritual exercises designed to empty one’s mind and thereby create a mental state (i.e., a tabula rasa) in which fresh—perhaps environmentally sensitive—spiritual awareness can emerge. New Age spirituality believes that imagination and visualization, states of mind peculiar to the human species (the conscious part of the system), possess the power to transform reality. As stated in one New Age presentation on quantum spirituality:

Your consciousness influences others around you. It influences material properties. It influences your future. You are co-creating your future.[73]

Again it is stated:

I am much more than I think I am. I can be much more even than that. I can influence my environment, the people. I can influence space itself. I can influence the future. I am responsible for all these things. I and “the surround” are not separate. They’re part of one. I’m connected to it all. I’m not alone.[74]

Consciousness affects cosmos; mind influences matter, perhaps to the extent that whether real or imagined, a person might take a quantum walk on water. (The Shack, 140-141) With the new awareness, expectation of help from outside the system, from God, becomes an “afterthought.” Consciousness doesn’t need the Creator because it is believed that consciousness is the creator (Contra 2 Peter 3:10-13.). Via the exercising of their consciousness (their inner divinity) and not unlike those within the Word of Faith Movement, humans suppose themselves to be gods.[75]

This mixing of science and spirituality results in a cosmic-humanist worldview which exalts humanity and diminishes the Deity. In fact, all that is needed to breed order out of chaos is that humans develop the resident control mechanism in their minds—the supra-consciousness, the Gnostic knowing—by which they as gods (i.e., “Christs”) can stimulate the system to evolve to the next level (See Genesis 3:5.). Applying fractal theory to the potential of our species to evolve one biologist states: “Evolution’s repetitive, fractal patterns allow us to predict that humans will figure out how to expand their consciousness in order to climb another rung of the evolutionary ladder.”[76] When achieved, this awareness is considered “enlightenment.” Regarding the potential of a developed new consciousness, both individual and collective, it could be said, “They thought, and it was so.” By developing their consciousness, humanity can create a brave new world.

This is how the New Age/New Spirituality attempts to cross fertilize with quantum physics. Like the discordant sounds of musicians tuning their instruments before a concert, the conductor (i.e., human consciousness) takes control, directs, and transforms the cacophony (chaos) into a symphony (a fractal). In a symphony of thought (a harmonic convergence), little “christs” can first imagine and then transform chaos into order. As Emergent Church leader Leonard Sweet puts it:

The coming together of the new biology and the new physics is providing the basic metaphors for this new global civilization that esteems and encourages whole-brain experiences, full-life expectations, personalized expressions, and a globalized consciousness.[77]

In a recent article, Dr. Martin Erdmann concludes that since the late 1970s and early 1980s:

spiritualization of science . . . has unquestionably made great strides. Its proposed change from a traditional value system based on analytical and rational thinking to a holistic view which imagines all aspects of intellectual pursuit to be in harmony with the mystical underpinnings of monism has led to the emergence of a global community having a heightened sense of cosmic spirituality that supposedly permeates all existence.[78]

THE SCRIPTURES

Contemplating the Cosmos
We turn now turn to evaluate, biblically and theologically, the new “scientific spirituality” and the worldview it promotes.

Because the universe is there—after all, we humans are the consciousness of it—questions arise. Why is it there? Why not nothing? The Bible gives a very direct answer to the questions: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1, KJV; Compare John 1:1 ff.).

The New Spiritualists presuppose that reality is “one thing” (i.e., monism), that it is “It.” The historical Jesus however contradicted this understanding when He stated that reality consists of two worlds (i.e., dualism). To a divided and dualistic reality, Jesus gave the following witness to the Jews:[79]

Where I am going, you cannot come? . . . You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. I said therefore to you, that you shall die in your sins . . . (John 8:22b-24a)

The things of earth lie within our ability to observe and understand. But heaven lies beyond our ability to observe and comprehend. While some things on earth below might be considered the shadow of things in heaven above, the one is not the replicate of the other (See Hebrews 8:5.). The reality of earth may infer the reality of heaven, but the realities are separate, not “one.”

New Age spiritualists reject this understanding of the two realities. They suppose that reality is one unified sphere (as above, so below), that “here-is-there” and that “there-is-here.” In their view, two different realities do not comprise the universe. The cosmos is but a divinized “One.” Science and spirituality are viewed to be but two aspects of the same cosmic One. This humanistic holism ends up believing that whether in a pantheistic or panentheistic sense, nature is God.

Ain’t So . . . As Above, So Below

But the Bible describes reality as two separate spheres; first, heaven above, the dwelling place of God, and then earth beneath, the abode of man. Only in the Lord Jesus Christ do the two spheres connect. New Ageism therefore rejects the belief in the one-time incarnation of the historical Jesus Christ who came from above (See John 1:14, 18). And this is, as John stated in his first letter, “the spirit of the Antichrist” which resides perpetually in this world. The apostle wrote:

Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. (1 John 3:2-3, NKJV; See 2 John 7.)

Allow it to be stated that though God is “around” all things—He is omnipresent—He is not “in” or “through all things”—which is panentheism. If God is God, then the Creator-creation distinction must be maintained.

Solomon both asked and declared at the dedication of the Temple, “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain Thee, how much less this house which I have built!” (Emphasis Mine, 1 Kings 8:27, KJV). Solomon’s wise words put to flight any idea that matter is the panentheistic container of God.[80]

On Mars Hill, Paul addressed the Athenian philosophers and speculators, “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; neither is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all life and breath and all things” (Emphasis Mine, Acts 17:24-25, NASB.).

The holy God is before, above, and beyond time, matter, and space, and is therefore transcendent and separate from His creation. As one theologian remarks of God’s immensity:

Just as in the case of eternity there was a qualitative difference between it and time, there is a qualitative difference between God’s immensity and space. God’s immensity is uncreated, and space [like matter] is created. Created space [and matter], therefore, cannot be the place of his residence.[81]

If it is believed that God indwells everything in the universe, then God’s transcendence is sacrificed for immanence, and distinctions between the Creator, His creation, and His creatures are obliterated. If separation is ignored or denied, then the attribute of God’s holiness—His being separate from His creation and creatures—is lost. Spirituality is left with sacred places, spaces, and times. But these are meaningless to the Holy God who as Spirit can be worshipped everywhere and all the time!

Neither does divinity reside in energy (i.e., the Force) and/or in matter (i.e., idols). This helps explain why Jesus mandated true believers to worship the non-locative and imageless God in Spirit and in Truth (John 4:26). Idolatrously, both panentheism and pantheism materialize God in creation.

Quantum spirituality is based upon the world, not the Word, upon science and not the Scriptures. According to the New Spirituality, the opening of John’s gospel might be paraphrased:

In the beginning was the Cosmos, and the Cosmos was with Consciousness, and the Cosmos was Consciousness. The same was in the beginning with Consciousness. All things were made by It, and without It nothing came into being that comes into being. (My paraphrase, compare John 1:1-3.)

The Truth:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:1-3)*

To be continued. . . .

Endnotes:
70. Neale Donald Walsch, Tomorrow’s God, Our Greatest Spiritual Challenge (New York: Atria Books, 2004) 24.71. Ibid. 84.
72. Ibid. 85.
73. What the Bleep do we know!? DVD (Beverly Hills, California: © 20th Century Fox, 2004).
74. Ibid.
75. Members of the Word of Faith Movement believe that through the power of their spoken word they as little gods they can “name it and claim it.” The daughter of Charles Capps writes in her booklet, “Your words are energy and they affect the matter in your life.” Again, “The thoughts and beliefs that you carry also produce energy around you.” And again, “Faith is an unseen energy force. It is not matter, but it creates matter and actually becomes matter.” See Annette Capps, Quantum Faith (England, Arkansas: Capps Publishing, 2003) 7, 9, 22.
76. Bruce H. Lipton, The Biology of Belief, Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter & Miracles (Carlsbad, California: Hay House, Inc., 2008) 168.
77. Sweet, SoulTsunami, 121.
78. Martin Erdmann, “The Spiritualization of Science, Technology, and Education in a One-World Society,” European Journal of Nanomedicine. Volume 2, 2009, 36 (http://www.clinam.org/journal/index.php/NanoJournal/article/view/.7/33). See also (http://herescope.blogspot.com/2009/05/spiritualization-of-science.html).
79. If the two separate realities of heaven and earth are merged into one thing that’s there (i.e., monism), then not only is the Holy God compromised (paving the way for idolatry), but also the incarnation of God in Jesus is made impossible and unnecessary. After all, how can we speak of Jesus coming into the world if a so-called “cosmic Christ” like that envisioned by Matthew Fox was/is pervasively present in the world?
80. The Hebrew word for “contain” (e.g., kûl) means “to contain as a vessel.” See John N. Oswalt, “962 (kûl),” Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, R. Laird Harris, Editor (Chicago: Moody Press, 1980) 1.432.
81. Morton H. Smith, Systematic Theology, Volume One (Greenville, South Carolina: Greenville Seminary Press, 1994) 135.
*This Bible verse was added to the original text. Links were also added.

Reprinted with permission. This article series is from a chapter in Pastor Larry DeBruyn’s book, UNSHACKLED: Breaking Away From Seductive Spirituality, which is available from Discernment Ministries for a gift of $10.00 plus $2.50 for shipping. Orders can be placed by phoning: 903-567-6423. Bulk discounts are available. Book sales directly benefit “Eastern European Ministries,” a very special mission project that is close to Pastor DeBruyn’s heart.

See also:

FROM COSMOS, TO CHAOS, TO CONSCIOUSNESS: PART 1

FROM COSMOS, TO CHAOS, TO CONSCIOUSNESS: PART 2

FROM COSMOS, TO CHAOS, TO CONSCIOUSNESS: PART 3

FROM COSMOS, TO CHAOS, TO CONSCIOUSNESS: PART 4