The Real Jesus: Is The New Age Jesus The Same Jesus Of The Bible?
The title of this section of the website is "The Real Jesus". Throughout the centuries many thinkers have formed their opinions on whether Jesus was just a man who embodied the Son of God; the Son of God who became man; or that he was just a myth. Many have died for their beliefs about Jesus or even imprisoned and tortured for them. Knowing the real Jesus is important for a Christian.
Christianity first became divided in the Great Schism into the Eastern Orthodox and Western Roman Catholics. Then later the West divided into Roman Catholics and a variety of Protestant groups. Today, it appears, if a person or group doesn't agree with one aspect of their chosen denomination they can just go out and start their own church and beliefs and easily attract a number of followers. Or they may join some New Age group that will sell you whatever lie you want to believe about God and Jesus. While there are hundreds of denominations, Christians, to be a follower of Jesus Christ of the New Testament, should have the common belief in Jesus as their Lord and Savior and that He is the Son of God.
The disagreement between Christians usually arises over doctrinal differences as well as how they believe we should practice our faith and beliefs. For example, some like to focus on rituals and traditions; others on sharing, oneness, and the Holy Spirit. Quiet, reserved people are not going to feel right in a Pentecostal movement where their faith and worship centers on an experiential spirituality. Nor would Pentecostals likely feel comfortable attending a Roman Catholic ritualistic service. This is part of our human nature and how we differ in culture, personalities, talents, and passions. Yet when a certain cult claims Jesus is not God but the first created being, as the Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons believe, as well as that God was once a man who became God, can they really call themselves a Christian?
I don't believe any one of us can say we absolutely know the real Jesus or we can absolutely discern Him from the many voices in the land that may claim "I know the real Jesus", especially if coming from esoteric sources claiming secret knowledge that has been hidden from the masses. Thus, since the beginning of Christianity, those who called themselves Christians have differed in who they believe the historical Jesus was and His purpose for living and dying. I hope to share some insights in this article on what the Bible leads us to understand about who Jesus is and how some beliefs truly aren't in the Bible. Although there are some passages that can be construed to appear to have an esoteric (meaning hidden) message available only to the spiritually advanced.
Ultimately, the real Jesus is only known through Scripture and His personal relationship with you through the Word and His Presence. If you think that is impossible, it is not. In fact, if you read and study Scripture a lot, and look up terms on the Internet and what people believe about certain Christian doctrines and beliefs you will invariably come across testimonies of those who have found Christ—personally. In other words, Jesus has come to those who seek Him above their confusion, pain, sickness, addictions, and loneliness.
Testimonies of Christ's Healing
Recently, I read the story of Ema McKinley in Rush of Heaven: One Woman’s Miraculous Encounter with Jesus. While at work, Ema was injured when she fell from on top of some storage units from a blast of heater air hanging unconscious for hours by one leg. Her foot never healed properly and over the years her spine became severely bent, her foot deformed and multiple complications developed, including not being able to breathe properly. She was in constant severe pain and eventually confined to a wheelchair 24/7.
Doctors diagnosed Ema with reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD), an extremely painful trauma-induced disease. Eighteen years after her accident she was alone Christmas Eve when she accidentally fell out of her wheelchair. For eight hours she lay on the floor and prayed and called out to Jesus. Then He appeared. She saw His bright white robe and felt His Presence and then He straightened her foot, her spine, neck, and her one hand clenched hand which had been closed for 18 years. Then He knelt beside her on one knee and said, "Ema, give me your hand." They joined hands and then he helped her up and every bone in her body moved back into its proper place. Emma was restored with her mobility.
Ema met and was healed by the real Jesus. It is almost unimaginable what she endured for all those years of suffering and yet never losing faith in Christ Jesus or allowed herself to get angry with God for what happened.
The following is a testimony from a woman who was caught in the New Age and found freedom through the Presence of Jesus.
While all of these things [practices of the New Age] promised joy, all I felt was sadness when I realized that I couldn’t manifest my perfect life by following their methods. Thankfully, Jesus found me and rescued me from this lifestyle. After a series of spiritual attacks, one night I found myself pleading to Jesus as I sat on my living room couch. I was tired, confused, and weak in spirit. I said a prayer that would change my life: “Jesus, if you are real, I want to meet you. Show yourself.” Moments after, my living room filled with God’s loving and peaceful presence and all I could do was cry. Well, it was more like a sob. I finally found the relief I had been looking for all these years. The next few months consisted of unlearning the New Age beliefs and getting to know God through His Word. Chelsea Christen
The New Age movement is more likely to put down the Bible as the true Word of God starting with the first few words, "In the beginning God created" (Gen. 1:1), as lacking in true reality rather than it is based on objective truths. If God is everything (pantheism) then everything is God, including themselves. There is thus a strong emphasis on the spiritual authority of the self. While Christianity is monotheistic believing in one God (Triune God of Father, Son, Holy Spirit). New Agers have a pantheistic view of God (seeing God as part of creation) or a panentheistic view (seeing God as the creator of the universe separate but also a part of it). Paul admonished the wicked for worshiping created beings, not the Creator, saying, “They exchanged truth about God for a lie” (Romans 1:25). In other words, the Creator is distinguished from His creation. Therefore, all cannot possibly be God. The god of the New Age is impersonal, not the personal God of Christianity. This previous article on God explains the different theisms.
Universal Christ and I AM
The reason I chose this section title, The Real Jesus, is for two reasons. As I explained in past articles under the section "The Ascended Masters" I belonged to a New Age movement where we were taught that Jesus was not the only Son of God, just one of the Ascended Masters (albeit with high attainment) and was a wayshower to the universal Christ. These "masters" explicitly said, in their discourses to those they were trying to reach to convince them of their "truth", that Jesus became the Christ showing all how to embody the Christ consciousness. We are all supposed to be "sons and daughters of God" and part of the Universal Christ that Jesus became. He was still our "Lord and Savior" but not in the traditional Christian understanding. The New Age teaching of Mark and Elizabeth Prophet, the messenger's for the Summit Lighthouse commented:
It is also true that avatars are born in every age–or a single avatar for each two-thousand-year period. Therefore, the prophecy is pertinent to us in that our Saviour, Jesus Christ, was born to be the avatar (incarnation of God) for the age of Pisces. Because he was born and lived and has carried our karma these two thousand years, we are saved.
Elizabeth Clare Prophet speaking on their weekly radio show:
Jesus was not the only Begotten Son of God who ascended into the white-fire core, the central sun of being. There have been many sons and daughters of God both before and after his birth who have attained to this oneness. These sons and daughters of God are our brothers and sisters on the Path.
They are not exceptions to the rule but they are the personification of the rule, or the Logos, the Word of God itself. They have had the same resources that we have—a threefold flame of the Trinity within the heart; a Real Self, who is the anointed one, the Christ, the Buddha; and an I AM Presence, whom Moses saw in the bush that burned but was not consumed.
The Prophets (Mark's real surname) dismisses the idea of Jesus' atonement on the cross as an "erroneous doctrine which he himself never taught." And that "God dwells in every man and not alone in His son Jesus the Christ. The only begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth, [who] is the Christ whose Image the Lord has reproduced over and over again as the Christ-identity of every son and daughter who has come forth from the infinite Spirit of the Father-Mother God."1
Like the Ballards of the "I AM" Movement, the Prophets taught to their followers that Jesus attained Christhood as did all other Ascended Masters and He was showing us the way of becoming the Christ, the goal for every child of God. The "Christ" of the "I AM" theology represents the divinity within all men. God revealed to Moses His name, the great I AM and the Ballards created the idea that our true spiritual selves are little I AMs of the great I AM.
Affirmation of Jesus as the Christ
One can look and study Scripture and find it very difficult to refute their theology. When Jesus said words like, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6) He was supposedly referring to God's name "I AM" (and also as our true self) as the way to the Father. Thus, to some New Agers Jesus was not exclusively the embodiment of I AM or Christ. The only begotten Son of the Father that Jesus embodied on earth is said to be the Christ. The I AM is said to be our real self while the Christ is the mediator between our embodied lower self in form and the spiritual self, I AM, in Spirit. In this respect, we don't need Jesus to get to the Father, we already have a Christ self to lead us to the I AM and thus to I AM THAT I AM.
The word Christ is a title and an English adaptation of the Greek word Christos. The Hebrew word for this king was Messiah and means “the anointed (chosen) one.” In the Old Testament, the Jewish people believed and anticipated the day when God would send a King. In the New Testament, the word Messiah was later translated into the Greek word, Christos. Christos always refers to a singular person. The real Jesus found in Scripture clearly believed and taught that He was this one and only Messiah and that He alone among men is God (John 8:58; 10:30; 14:9-10).
John 17:3 says,
“Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”
In 1 John 4 and Luke 2, which contains an account of Jesus's birth, it is proclaimed that Jesus is Christ, that they are the name and title of one and the same divine person. Jesus refers back to the name of God I AM several times to reveal He is one with God I AM. One well-known response of Jesus to the Pharisees' question “Who do you think you are?” upset them so much that they started to throw stones to kill Him.
'Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.’ ‘You are not yet fifty years old,’ the Jews said to him, ‘and you have seen Abraham!’ ‘I tell you the truth,’ Jesus answered, ‘before Abraham was born, I am!’ At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds” (John 8:56-59).
All these following affirmations of being the Christ and one with God I AM were given to us with the intention by Jesus or the disciples that Jesus was and is the one and only Christ.
"For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father" (John 5:21)
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live" (John 11:25).
"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand" (John 10:27).
"For it is my Father's will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day" (John 6:40).
Contemplating the intention and meaning of what Jesus' words mean, it becomes clear that if we all were really one in this universal Christ, after ascending into this Christ and I AM would we not all have the power to "give life to whom we will", "judge others", "give eternal life" and raise all up on the last day. Truly, if we all were I AM and the Christ, would not God have told us rather than keeping it hidden? Doesn't Genesis tell us that God created us apart from Himself?
So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. (Gen. 1:27)
We are created beings, created to fill God's creation and be co-creators on earth and be like Him in character and nature. God is Spirit and we are spirit but there can be none that replicate Him because He is beyond creation. It really is not Biblical to say that we are all like corpuscles in the body of God with the idea that God divided Himself into individual "I am" presences before the creation of man, and making "I am" our real self. God is One. There is only one Son with many created and adoptive sons in His likeness.
Only Begotten Son and Christ Jesus
The New Age philosophy generally believes that Christians are being misled throughout Christianity in that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God. The real truth for many of them is that Christ is the Word and the only begotten Son of God. In other words, the Christ (that Jesus embodied) is the Savior, the redeemer of mankind—not Jesus alone. Jesus just showed us the way to embody the Christ and transcend this cycle of karma and karma balancing.
The phrase “only begotten Son” occurs in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." The word "begotten" is an English translation of the Greek word monogenes. One definition of it is "pertaining to being the only one of its kind within a specific relationship." Isaac was called Abraham’s "only begotten son" even though Abraham had Ishmael first with his wife's handmaid, Hagar. It is used to have the same meaning to Abraham's son as God the Father has to Jesus.
Monos means only or single and gennao or genao means “beget”. Therefore, we know that Jesus is the only-begotten, not a "created" being but is the unique Son of God the Father. This is the meaning of "only begotten Son" connected with John 3:16 and does not refer to birth, being conceived, or created.
However, scholars today are questioning the "genes" part of monogenes. Monogenes they say really means "being the only one of its kind or class, unique in kind". So you will see many translations of this verse that will not be translated "only begotten" but something like "unique son".
Denny Burk, Professor of Biblical Studies disagrees. The etymological argument is that the –genēs portion of monogenēs comes from genos (“kind”) rather than gennao (“beget”). The new translation began early in the 20th century when a professor named Dale Moody claimed that John would have used the term monogennetos, not monogenes, if he had meant “only begotten”. I will link Burk's article on this for those interested as there are several reasons cited for Moody's misinterpretation. One is that monogennetos does not appear to be attested in ancient Greek literature before the second century. If John were to have used the term, he would have had to coin it!
Charles Lee Irons (PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary) also disagrees with the new translations. He said "This argument collapses once it is recognized that both genos and gennao derive from a common Indo-European root, ǵenh (“beget, arise”). This root produces a fair number of Greek words having to do with biological concepts of begetting, birth, and offspring. In John’s one use of the term Genos, it clearly refers to “offspring” or “one that is begotten from another” (Revelation 22:16).
Christians see Jesus as God’s uniquely generated Son of God, begotten, not made, before all ages. This is a core belief of Christianity as well as that Jesus, God, came into the world to die for us and save us from our sinning propensity that separates us from God and leads to death.
Forgiveness of Sins
The Lord God had to die for us because He alone could embody as a man and remain sinless. Some teachers of the New Age do not accept that Jesus was sinless. The Ascended Masters through the Summit Lighthouse taught that Jesus was born with sin from previous lives in order to embody or He would not have been able to reincarnate. If one has no sin they would have already ascended. Thus, Jesus was not the Christ when He was born. He became the Christ. Scripture refutes this premise with the announcement of Christ's birth to the shepherds, not someone who will "become" the Christ at some future date. He was the Christ at his birth and had always been the Christ, the only Christ.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. (Luke 2:10-14)
We learn from both the Old and New Testament that man cannot save himself because he is a sinner. Solomon, both king and prophet, shared from the wisdom God had given to him, “there is no one who does not sin” (1 Kings 8:46). The apostle John warned the people, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves” and “make Him a liar” (1 John 1:8, 10). The apostle Paul also said, “None is righteous, no, not one” (Rom. 3:10). Yet, when the Son of God took to Himself a human nature, a sinless man entered into time and space. Jesus alone is the only man ever born that has lived a sinless life because He is God.
Scripture draws no distinction between Jesus and Christ. Jesus did not separate the Christ from Himself in any of His words. Not only did Jesus not separate the "Christ" from Himself but He affirmed that He was the promised Messiah that was to come, the Son of God and the Son of Man. (John 4:25-26, Matt. 26:63-66).
So it was that when Jesus was interrogated before the elders and their council, Caiaphas, the high priest said to him,
‘I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.’ ‘Yes, it is as you say,’ Jesus replied. ‘But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.’ Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, ‘He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?’ ‘He is worthy of death,’ they answered.
Only God can forgive sins. God’s forgiveness is supreme in that He cleanses one from sin or “blots out your transgressions” (Isaiah 43:25). This authority is reserved for God. As Mark 2:7 states, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Jesus is saying that He, as the Son of Man, has been given the authority from the Father to "forgive sins" and to "execute judgment", and as such, He was exercising a delegated power.
After Jesus had told a man who was sick with palsy that his sins were forgiven, Jesus, knowing the thoughts of judgment from the scribes who witnessed it spoke of himself:
"...that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins"--he then said to the paralytic--"Rise, pick up your bed and go home." And he rose and went home" (Matt. 9:6-7).
Son of Man
The phrase "son of man" is used both in the Old and New Testament. In the Old Testament God calls the prophet Ezekiel "son of man" more than 90 times. There it is used as a Hebrew phrase that means human being. In the gospels, the term son of man is used by Jesus over 80 times and here it is associated with the definite article, the. Jesus uses the phrase Son of God only on a few occasions. When He used the phrase Son of Man he was always referring to Himself. A few times it is clear that Jesus is alluding back to Daniel 7:13-14 where Daniel saw in a dream the Son of man had come with the clouds of heaven and he was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him.
Some of the first century Jews identified the Son of Man as also the Christ or Messiah. Son of Man was thought to be a well-known, readily recognizable title for a messiah of a heavenly type.
Jesus understood the phrase 'Son of Man' to exist prior to His human birth when He said, "No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man" (John 3:13).
Jesus also directly prayed that He co-existed with the Father, “And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed” (John 17:5). His acknowledgment of this paternal relationship before He came to earth affirms His unique status as Son in a divine relationship.
Ask the Real Jesus
The way the Ascended Master Teachings, and their messengers (who channeled these "masters"), intertwined passages from Scripture in their teachings and interpreted them was easily convincing. One line fed to us was that we all had been duped for thousands of years by bad translations of the Bible and even by manipulation of what books were and were not included in the Canon. I also experienced personally the insertion of ideas about Jesus that were not in Scripture through my husband's published works, and the second personal reason for this section title, The Real Jesus.
Previously, I shared in The Ascended Masters section, that my former husband of twenty years, Kim Michaels, created a website called "Ask the Real Jesus" where he believed he was channeling the real Jesus and giving the answers to life from the mundane to the spiritual. If life was only so easy that Jesus could answer all our questions!
Kim's Jesus was confusing to me and convinced me that the messages were not pure and from the "real Jesus" in their entirety but had a great element of the consciousness of the one who was taking the messages—if not entirely. As I believe we were meant to come together in marriage I also look back and see quite clearly we were meant to separate and that separation began in earnest in 2002 when we both started receiving contradictory messages. I had been audibly hearing these masters for years. Who was really speaking to me I hope to share one day a more definitive answer. At times, I heard direction that protected me from danger when I followed that direction. At times, I received comfort and love during trying times or inspiration and some truth about a matter that enlightened me. Still, other times I received far-reaching directions such as sell your house and move to another state, which in one instance just happened to be the state that I knew from my teens that I was to move to one day.
After 2002 my inner hearing stopped and I went through my messengership stage where I would take dictations from someplace in my consciousness, where I could only hope at the time that it was from the place where messages from heaven were supposedly received from these "masters". I did not speak the words out loud or have any entity take over my mind, voice, or person. I just wrote words down from my thoughts.
I was led to focus on Being and eventually opened up a School of Being. By then my husband and I were very far apart in our teachings. I reasoned Kim was just reaching a different audience, and in order to remain in peace and trust that God was in control, I tried to put aside my questions and trust in the Lord. Seven years into our messengership Kim took the step to end our marriage when he found another relationship. He continues today to still channel these "ascended" masters and maintain his Ask the Real Jesus website, as well as many other websites.
I give a few examples below of Kim Michaels' messages from his "real" Jesus. Yet Kim is just one of many claiming they have the "true" teachings of Christ from either Jesus, ascended masters, or some spirit being. "Jesus" claimed through Kim that he was 1) not God, 2) did "so-called miracles" not real miracles that could be seen as coming from God 3) was not sinless "what nonsense is this!" he said, and 4) could have failed his mission. Everything I loved about Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior was being torn down as a lie beginning with the Summit Lighthouse and far worse with Kim's, which is why I began to question this "Jesus" even while still believing in the ascended masters.
Kim Michael's Jesus (Italics mine):
“I and my Father are One.” This was my statement of joy. And it was the proof that there is a God, the only proof that can ever be when you consider free will. There cannot be an ultimate argument. There cannot be some manifestation in the heavens that all can see and none can deny, for it would violate the very Law of Free Will itself. Thus, my beloved, understand that even my miracles – my so-called miracles – were only shown to a few at the time and were actually not meant to be used to set me apart from other human beings, turning me into some kind of a god, or rather a false god, for there is none good but God, so why callest thou me good? Why callest thou me god? When I myself said, “I can of my own self do nothing.” How can you then come out and claim that Jesus Christ was God from the very beginning and that he had never sinned and that he could never have failed in his mission? What nonsense is this! And I look to you to not be afraid to challenge this, but indeed to challenge it at every opportunity, my beloved.2
To clarify, Kim Michaels' ignorance with the true meaning of "why callest thou me good" from Luke 18:18-23, and what the real Scriptural Jesus' meaning was, do not align. Jesus was challenging the rich ruler on his calling Jesus "good". It was not because Jesus was disclaiming He was God. In John 10:14 Jesus is calling Himself "the good shepherd" using God's name I AM. "I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep." (I will speak more of Jesus as the shepherd in my upcoming article.) Rather, in this conversation with the rich man, Jesus knew this man's heart and that he did not believe Jesus was God or the Saviour because he called him "teacher". No rabbi is called good.
Everyone hearing or reading Jesus' words in scripture can also see and discern from this conversation that this rich man was asking Jesus what "good" works he could do that would get him to heaven. Jesus admonishes him to keep the commandments, which the man states he has. Jesus tells him he lacks one thing. To sell all his things and follow Him, yet the rich man can't. After he very sadly turns around and walks away Jesus turns to his disciples and states, "it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter heaven." Money was his god.
So forget this nonsense about me being born with the full measure of my Christhood. It is a complete fallacy, as any careful reading of the Scriptures will reveal.3
Kim's Jesus said he was not born with full Christhood. Unfortunately, he does not back this false claim with any scriptures to give the truth and point out the lie. In other words, here is an example of the New Age belief and teaching of Jesus the man who became the Christ—not the one and only Christ from birth, the only begotten Son of God, which was touched upon above.
In speaking of the real Jesus we cannot find anything on Jesus' youth in Scripture before 12 years old. That did not stop Kim Michaels' and his channeled Mary and Joseph from filling us in.
Joseph aka St. Germain through Kim Michaels:
...I, of course, was brought up in a traditional male-dominated culture, where the father was seen as the head of the household, which I can assure you that Jesus had no tolerance for whatsoever. He was a very headstrong boy. He was not anxious to listen to the elders.
But of course, it would be much easier for them, if they would listen somewhat to the elder generation, to gain some experience, to learn from our mistakes, so that they did not have to repeat them all over again.
Yet I can assure you, that this was not Jesus’ approach. I am not thereby saying he never listened, but I tell you, that there were many a time when I was ready to pull my hair out in frustration over his unwillingness to listen—not only to reason, but his unwillingness to listen to anyone who had experience. Jesus was a hands-on kind of person. If you told him not to touch something because it was hot, you could be absolutely certain that he would go touch it, to make sure it was hot.
...So here he was—suddenly gone. Mary thought he was with me, I thought he was with her, and we then met and realized, that he was with neither of us. Panic, my beloved—as any parent would experience. Running around, looking for him, finding him and then in our worry and concern hearing him say, with an absolute assuredness bordering on arrogance, “Wist ye not I must be about my Father’s business!” Well, I was about to show him right there what was his father’s business.4
"Mother Mary" through Kim Michaels:
For Jesus was as I have said before, an unruly child. And he needed to be shown, that there was a limit even for a child with a certain Christ attainment. And it was, indeed, my role in the family to take that role, which might seem like the role of the man. And this is not to say that Joseph did not also fulfill a role, but it was precisely my role as the woman to stand up to the person who had some Christ attainment, but was tempted to think that he knew all and thus did not need to be corrected by anything in this world.
For such is indeed the plight of many with spiritual attainment. And this is why you see some of them go the way of becoming more and more egotistical and self–centered, and therefore fail their mission. And I was determined to do everything in my power, so that Jesus would not fail his mission for lack of parental discipline and example. And I can assure you, that there were times, where there was a battle of wills, and I had to mount all of my Christ attainment to take a stand and say: “No, you will not cross this line.”5
Mary re the immaculate conception of Jesus:
I have spoken before of the fact, that Jesus was not conceived through the standard Catholic definition of the immaculate conception, but there is a deeper understanding, namely that Saint Germain, Saint Joseph, and I did indeed come together in a physical union. And therefore, the conception was through physical means.6
Kim Michaels' "Mary" and "Joseph" relate that Jesus was unruly, headstrong and not respectful of his parents. It leaves us with a very uncomfortable picture of a "difficult" youth who thought he knew more than his parents and one who sinned. Not a good impression of the loving Jesus we know from the gospels or the Christ who was able to resist evil and rebuke the devil. Claiming Jesus was born through a sexual union clearly goes outside the Bible.
Conclusion
After finding my way out of the New Age my quest has been to find the truth and the real Jesus through the Word in the Bible—and from those who study the Bible—and to stay far away from the New Age, especially channeling, and anything that could connect you to the lower spirit world and the impostors of Jesus. By spirit world, I am not referencing heaven, but a place where beings who are not in embodiment, nor reside beyond heaven's gate, may have their abode. These beings may access our minds and even our voice boxes if we let them. These beings could well be the "masters" of the New Age. Some Bible scholars have an explanation for who they believe they are from what the Bible says which I will also touch upon in my future article.
The New Age universal Christ Consciousness is easy to believe and hard to refute—unless you really know Scripture. There are so many other passages that can be addressed clearly with the meaning that there is only one Christ who is Jesus. Young people can be easily swayed because they don't have the wisdom and understanding that may come through a lifetime of Bible study or have the Holy Spirit.
My personal introduction to the idea came through Edgar Cayce's channeled teachings when I read his books during my teen years. I found a book someone gave to my father called "The Sleeping Prophet" and I was drawn to read it. From them I was also introduced to the "higher self" and the idea that we are not separate beings from God. Cayce was called the "sleeping prophet" because he would put himself to sleep and then his higher self supposedly spoke through him. Cayce's diagnosis of people's illnesses and how to help them heal was extraordinary and that was what initially drew me to him, especially that his advice included natural remedies.
Cayce's teaching that all is one is the pantheistic view of God that the New Age has espoused except Cayce's God was more personal and the New Age God is generally conceived as impersonal. Cayce and the New Age conception of God is "God is everything and everything is God". Jesus was the first to reach Christhood and His relationship to God is the pattern which all of us may attain. The eventual goal is gnosis, the highest form of knowledge, and for many, the equivalent of salvation. It involves a search for the oldest and highest tradition in philosophy with access to the divine by knowledge of hidden mysteries. Yet the Bible maintains a clear distinction between Jesus and other men. Jesus is the completely unique God-man; no other man is like Him as He was both fully divine and fully human (John 1:1, 14). He was sinless (Heb. 4:15); we are sinful (Rom. 3:23). He claimed to have come not merely to be our example, but “to save that which was lost” (Matt. 18:11).
I have learned to greatly appreciate the work of others in helping me understand God's Word in the Bible. This has taught me more compassion and understanding in our religious and spiritual choices as well as how to communicate better with others who have widely differing beliefs. Even though Edgar Cayce read the Bible from cover to cover many times in his life and was a Sunday School Bible teacher for over forty years he came to have a very different understanding of Christ and the life's purpose of Jesus. In the end, scripture is individually read and interpreted under our own umbrella of understanding from our life experiences. Yet, we have the Holy Spirit, which I believe some New Agers equate with intuition, to reveal the meaning in the Word.
Contrary to the Gnostics' belief that there was a mysterious or secret knowledge reserved for those with true understanding, leading to the salvation of the soul, Jesus was forthright in his teachings. He said to the high priest after his arrest, "I have spoken openly to the world: I always taught in synagogues, and in the temple, where all the Jews come together; and I spoke nothing in secret," (John 18:20).
C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) was one of the great human teachers of Christianity. In Mere Christianity he shared the basic premise that ‘mere’ Christianity meant those beliefs that have been common to all Christians. He wrote, “Ever since I became a Christian I have thought that the best, perhaps the only, service I could do for my unbelieving neighbours was to explain and defend the belief that has been common to nearly all Christians at all times…"
Lewis believed that through his Mere Christianity book he might take you to a hallway that had many doors. The hallway was representative of the basic Christian beliefs and each doorway was a Christian faith that each could choose to enter and warm by their fire and have a meal. He was not promoting any particular door to open yet he was encouraging opening a door and not remaining in the hallway. So, no matter our past choices and mistakes we can keep trying to find that straight and narrow path.
“You must keep praying for light: and, of course, even in the hall, you must begin trying to obey the rules which are common to the whole house. And above all, you must be asking which door is the true one; not which one pleases you best by its paint and panelling….The question should never be: ‘Do I like that kind of service, but ‘Are these doctrines true: Is holiness here? Does my conscience move me towards this? Is my reluctance to knock at this door due to my pride, or my mere taste, or my personal dislike of this particular door-keeper?'” C.S. Lewis
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1Mark and Elizabeth Prophet, Climb the Highest Mountain (Los Angeles: Summit University Press, 1974), 279-80.
2Ask the Real Jesus website "Jesus", "The Essential Service", January 2009.
3"Jesus" of Kim Michaels' Ask the Real Jesus website, "Nature was my church", October, 2009.
4"Joseph/St. Germain" of Kim Michaels' Ask the Real Jesus website, "How it was to be the father of Jesus", Oct. 2011.
5"Mother Mary" of Kim Michaels' Ask the Real Jesus website, Mother Mary was not a passive woman, Oct. 2011.
6"Mother Mary" of Kim Michaels' Ask the Real Jesus website, "The suppression of women must come to an end – in the Church and in the home", Feb. 2010.
7Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis, New York: Macmillan, 1952.