Tag: new age

Posted in theology

A teaching on ‘Soul Ties’ has no business being in a Christian book: On Evangelical fads

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Fads exist of course in the secular world. I have seen so many ‘evangelical fads’ come and go. There are so many, and mainly they are all false. Most of them have emerged from a different religion and been adapted in some way to be made palatable to Christian ears and eyes.

Today is about one such unChristian fad I spotted in a well-known ‘Christian’ teacher’s book. When we are IN a fad, IN an era, we often do not realize it. It’s why many pastors say to ‘read the old dead guys’. We can see their foibles and emphases from the vantage point of hindsight. As they say, hindsight is 20/20.

RESOURCE: Servants of Grace, Jason Garwood, Why Christians Should Read the Dead Guys

But we can still work hard to stick with scripture which is always truth, and check against whatever might be the fad of the day is. Will it pass away as shallow, or align with scripture?

Remember Prayer of Jabez? Prayer rugs? Seeker-sensitive? Purpose driven?

A fad is defined as “style, activity, product, or interest that becomes extremely popular for a short time and then fades away quickly”

Beth Moore is a false teacher. Today I focus on a little known and rarely spoken of reason: Moore frequently jumps on evangelical fads.

This post is not solely about Beth Moore, but I’m using her as an example to warn you that your discernment should be honed to alert you to any teacher who seems to be jumping on a fad.

Beth Moore’s past jumping on fads and then leaves them when they diminish in popularity, included fads such as saying mantras, family altars, Lectio Divina, Contemplative Spirituality, blue bracelets, Enneagram, and so on.

Today I’ll show you that another evangelical fad which was popular for a while but then passed away- “soul ties”.

Many of the fads that infiltrate Christendom have roots in Mysticism. Lectio Divina did, Enneagram did, Contemplative Spirituality did. So does ‘Soul Ties’. Sadly, it’s the women Bible teachers who tend to jump on these secular or New Age fads and re-brand them into Christianity. Remember circle-making? Popular around 2012.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss in 2012 leading other female Bible teachers in a wiccan-originated circle making prayer moment: source FMI

Soul ties are allegedly some kind of tie between people that connect them at a soul level. The connection is usually based on sexual union. It is some kind of intense connection that supposedly entwines one person with another. As this article explains,

In popular usage, a soul tie is a deep emotional or spiritual connection between two individuals. It is believed to bond people on a level that transcends ordinary relationships, often persisting long after a relationship ends. What sets a soul tie apart in popular belief is its intensity, longevity, and impact. … A key point is that a soul tie isn’t always positive or healthy; it can be uplifting or toxic, reflecting the nature of the relationship bond.

In Beth Moore’s book Praying God’s Word (published 2000) on p. 277-278 Moore is discussing sexual strongholds. She used the term soul ties as one of the reasons people sin sexually. This of course is a Mystical/New Age term and has no business in any Christian book. The only soul we are tied to is Jesus after salvation, as the Holy Spirit comes to indwell us. Even the marital union is one that makes the man and the woman “one flesh,” not ‘one soul’

Here are the screen shots from Moore’s book:

Do you see how an allegedly ‘Christian’ Bible teacher takes a New Age fad and then uses scripture around it to make it a candy coated nugget of garbage? The Corinthians verse is God’s word, but soul ties are Satan’s.

Doreen Virtue was a deeply committed New Ager who blessedly was shown the true faith and she repented. She has renounced all her previous dark teachings and now focuses on the Light of Jesus and His Word. Here on Facebook she mentions ‘soul ties’. I’ll link it but if you don’t have Facebook here is what she said:

The concept of “soul ties” is a new age, not Biblical, belief. Soul ties are NOT in the Bible! Jonathan and David’s friendship and “shall become one flesh” are not about “soul ties.” I should know, because when I was a new age teacher before I was saved, I taught and wrote extensively about soul ties, twin flames, cord connections, etc. I repent and apologize for these false teachings that have now seeped into the church.”

Doreen has a 15 minute video explaining why ‘soul ties’ are not biblical, here.

Soul ties have New Age roots. In the early 1980s many New Age metaphysical books came out. They became influential and propelled ideas from New Age into the mainstream American consciousness. Shirley MacLaine’s Out on a Limb was one of these that became hugely influential, as well as Richard Bach’s metaphysical musings on soul mates in The Bridge Across Forever. From that we morphed into the notion that soul ties are cords of energy linking two people on the planet and even after death linking auras across lifetimes in the cosmos.

GotQuestions has a good essay on soul ties, which they call soul links: What is a soul link?

Fads come and go, but the word of God remains forever.

Phil Johnson, The Flaws of a fad-driven church, part 2: “But that’s how all these fads are crafted. They are deliberately dumbed down, made soft and generic and nonthreatening, so that they don’t rebuke anyone’s sin; they don’t endanger anyone’s shallowness; they don’t threaten anyone’s comfort zone; and they don’t challenge anyone’s worldliness. That’s the way both the publishers and the people want it.“

Friends, when you work in honing your discernment, pray to the Spirit to help you detect if the teacher you are following is properly presenting eternal truths, or teaching passing unbiblical fads wrapped in Christianese talk. They may even (mis)use scripture to do it. Fads are almost always from a different religion. These ideas enter in and try to pollute the faithful, alter the doctrines of God, and sway you from the path of righteousness.

As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of people, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, that is, Christ, (Ephesians 4:14-15).

Do not be misled by varied and strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, through which those who were so occupied were not benefited. (Hebrews 13:9)

Further Resources

Trying to Understand why Evangelicals quickly chase fads and what actually works

The Flaws of a fad-driven church, part 1

Posted in theology

Being a ‘Crunchy’ Christian and avoiding New Age Influences

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Doreen “Dee” Virtue is a former New Age adherent who used to write books about angel spirituality. She converted to Christianity 9 years ago and with the scales having fallen from her eyes, now is a Christian. Virtue has renounced all her New Age beliefs, books, and practices, and is happily and unashamedly a Christian. She has a Youtube channel, here.

Ashley Sheatz, wife to Trevor and his ministry On the Mount, mom to 3, has several social media accounts. Facebook, Instagram, On the Mount ‘s Youtube.

Angela Mitchell’s ministry is called Raising Apologists. She is a married stay-at-home-mom, who writes on Instagram, Facebook, and her blog called Raising Apologists, on the topics of discernment, homeschooling, and encouraging mothers and women.

These three ladies, well versed in a biblical worldview and walking uprightly in Jesus, discussed “Crunchy Christians Avoiding New Age Deception“. They talked about what is crunchy Christianity, discerning good wellness advice vs. unhealthy advice, and how New Age ideas can seep into even the most well-meaning mother’s worldview, corrupting it with syncretism.

Doreen Virtue has a knack for asking insightful questions, illustrating her skill to deeply listen then follow up with a question that elicits even more information. Her choice of guests is also wise. The two ladies here explain themselves so well I decided to transcribe portions of the discussion that impacted me, and interspersed with my own thoughts. I urge you to listen to the entire conversation. It will be even more impactful when you hear it in context.

In this first quote, I loved what was being said. Social media has risen to levels that greatly affect us. People with large followings are even called “influencers”. The influence is to entice listeners to buy their product, read their book, heed their advice. Many times their books or advice is good. But sometimes the advice is unfounded, unscientific, or unChristian. We must learn to research widely, and confirm what we hear or see from social media from credible sources.

For example, many people know of Dr. Josh Axe. He usually places the honorific in front of his name. People use the honorific when speaking of him. But he is not a Doctor of Medicine. He cannot diagnose or treat medical conditions or prescribe pharmaceutical drugs. He holds a Dr. of Chiropractic degree, a Dr. of Natural medicine and is a certified nutritionist. But not a medical doctor. Some people don’t research, see the ‘Dr.’ and believe all his advice is trustworthy. It isn’t.

Many social media accounts either purposely or unintentionally add other spiritualities into their advice. Even practicing Christians do this.

2020 was hard on us all, and we lost our trust in the medical profession. Ashley and Angela both speak to this. Nature abhors a vacuum, so the hole has to be filled with something else. Hence, the rise of social media medical advice from people who may or may not be credentialed professionals, or even credible.

ASHLEY SHEATZ:

My warning is don’t get all of your health advice from Instagram because you’re probably going to be led astray. You need to back it up with also your own research and googling stuff and verifying it. There’s a lot of false information on Instagram. But I think one of the key takeaways if you are on Instagram and you are getting a lot of good health knowledge- because there is a lot of it out there- is sticking to accounts that are focusing on just whole foods or more ingredient focused rather than bringing their spirituality into it. So I think that’s a good way to guard your mind is to not even as a Christian to not even follow accounts that are talking about a false spirituality or are saying things that contradict the Bible.

There are so many great Instagram accounts that are just very health food focused. And if you are a Christian, there are also great biblical Christians who are in the health world and who do bring their faith in to the word of God. We just have to be really cautious with following people who are saying they’re spiritual, right?

If you’re married, talk to your husband with what you’re reading about and what you’re ingesting because God has placed your husband as your spiritual head to protect you. And if you’re just on your phone and you’re researching all these things and you don’t ever talk to him about it, I feel like there’s already like an open door for the devil and demons, honestly, to attack you there if you’re not open with your husband.

It’s hard for some people to let go of the teacher/advice/books etc from a favored teacher or influencer if told they aren’t the healthiest for your soul. They have invested and do not want to let go. They invest time, money, or reputation in this teacher or influencer and they don’t want to hear they have been deceived. Deception by investment has a powerful pull.

Often I’ll hear back that “But this teacher is good because his method worked… But my prayer came true… But my thing resolved…”

ANGELA MITCHELL

They’ve really put some trust in this method and they’ll say, “But it works.” And my push back to that is always we’re not pragmatists, which means we don’t just do something because it works. We’re Christians. We have to ask why. We have to ask, ‘Is this ‘glorifying the Lord?’ ‘Is this changing my worldview?’ And so, a lot of the times what I’m seeing is women is, their worldviews are changing.

There’s syncretism. Now syncretism is when you take parts of one religion and you’re mixing it with Christianity. But we know in Deuteronomy and Exodus that the Lord specifically warns against syncretism. I mean we see in Exodus where Aaron creates a golden calf and says, “We’re going to use this to worship God.” And God says absolutely not. This is disobedience. It’s the same thing when we go to something for help that isn’t of God. It’s idolatry.

I see some rigid perfectionism in this crunchy movement. Women become involved with it, then absorbed in it, then myopic about it, having tunnel vision. That’s ground ripe for Legalism. A rigid adherence to a protocol, tradition, or method that the person thinks will save them, or gain ‘points’ with Jesus (or her church).

I understand the ‘crunchy’ movement is wide, with varying levels of commitment or a variety of applications. But sometimes I hear women adhering to a rigid method and thinking that if they achieve it 100% this will somehow put them in better standing with Jesus.

DOREEN VIRTUE:

How do we guard against taking our eyes off the cross and instead thinking that if we just make everything in our house and our diet 100% perfect that that will somehow save us.

ASHLEY SHEATZ:

So as the unbeliever, they are searching and seeking to control all aspects of their life. This is the only life to them and they want to make it long and healthy. But I mean even if you are doing all the right things, some of the most healthy people in the world still get cancer. I mean even you could do all the healthy things in the world and still die in a car crash tomorrow. So there’s certain things that are just completely out of our control. And God has also given us blessings to enjoy in this life. Like if you enjoy going to Chipotle. I use Chipotle because I love Chipotle.

If you enjoy those things and you can sit down and enjoy that meal with joy…how we guard against perfectionism is realizing we’ll literally never be perfect in this life and the reason why you want to have good health and pursue good and healthy foods is to feel good today so you can serve the Lord later. It’s not about preserving your life. Our days are already numbered.

That rigidness rears its head. I’ve heard of women who won’t attend a dinner at someone’s house because their food is served from plastic containers, or their eggs are from a store. That’s perfectionism again, where your preference for something interferes with your ‘one another’.

ANGELA MITCHELL:

I think keeping in mind what stewardship looks like per family is going to be different. And now I’ve had people say that it’s more biblical to raise your own meat, to live on a farm. Kind of like a tradlife culture. Like, ‘you need to not buy eggs from the store’. I can’t do that. I live with an HOA. They won’t allow chickens. So we have to be really careful what we say is biblical and what we say is God-glorifying because we all have different circumstances.

The key word here is “preference”. Desiring to eat or feed your family farm fresh eggs, for example, or locally butchered meat, is a preference. Nothing in the New Testament commands you one way or another on that level of specificity of food or lifestyle.

ANGELA MITCHELL:

There there’s things with hospitality that we have to think- are my preferences ruling out love? I’m seeing a rise in eating disorders because of crunchy culture because it can just take over your mind. Everything becomes about what you’re putting in your body, and that can lead to idolatry. And anytime we create a disordered thinking where we’re thinking about all the time. It’s controlling our thoughts. It’s controlling our behaviors. It’s controlling our speech. We’ve created a functional God. And I would really caution women in crunchy culture to not do that to each other and to not do that to themselves.

Doreen asked about women who may be listening or watching to the video who are going through a health challenge and is becoming desperate. Many times when we go through an unexpected illness or health issue and prayer, patience, and standard medicine is not working, we become desperate. That is a risky time, because our decision making is clouded.

ANGELA MITCHELL:

I would also encourage women, if you have a woman in your life that’s suffering, she needs your prayers. She needs your friendship. She needs you to point her to God’s word before giving her crunchy advice.

I would say what do we believe about God? Do we believe that he actually means to do us good and not harm? Do we believe he’s in control? Do we believe we can trust him? Is he a good God?

I do like to ask questions. What is your desire for being crunchy? Is it a fear of death? Are do you think that you control can control getting cancer? Do you think you can control not getting disease? Do you think your good choices is going to somehow sway the hand of God even though he says you can’t add one hour to your life? I think sometimes we can have a real fear of death and crunchy culture kind of pacifies us with that. But as believers, we know where we’re going. We’re going to be with our God. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. And to live is gain and to die is gain. And I just want my sisters in Christ to remember that that God loves you and he cares for you and he cares for your health. 

It was a great conversation. I encourage you all to take a listen here Crunchy Christians Avoiding New Age Deception“. All three women are a good follow. They are consistent with encouragement and advice from a biblical worldview.