AMERICA’S SPIRITUAL PRIESTESS – Pt 2

One of the newest books that has been given the “thumbs up” from Oprah is a book called A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose by Eckhart Tolle.

I happened to go to Eckhart’s web site and here’s what I found:

“Building on the astonishing success of The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle presents readers with an honest look at the current state of humanity: He implores us to see and accept that this state, which is based on an erroneous identification with the egoic mind, is one of dangerous insanity.

Tolle tells us there is good news, however. There is an alternative to this potentially dire situation. Humanity now, perhaps more than in any previous time, has an opportunity to create a new, saner, more loving world. This will involve a radical inner leap from the current egoic consciousness to an entirely new one.

In illuminating the nature of this shift in consciousness, Tolle describes in detail how our current ego-based state of consciousness operates. Then gently, and in very practical terms, he leads us into this new consciousness. We will come to experience who we truly are—which is something infinitely greater than anything we currently think we are—and learn to live and breathe freely.” [http://eckharttolle.com/a_new_earth]

Apparently we are all going to go crazy, if not already there! He probably does not realize how true this may be. Watching and listening to the news nowadays, one might very well come to that conclusion, but his insanity concept is not just one of merely losing one’s mind. He’s talking about a change in what we know to be true, a totally new way of thinking, changing our outlook on life as we know it to something more. That somehow this “inner leap” will get us there and thus it will be a “new earth” in a sense. What he does not realize is that this is not something new that he has come upon. This idea has been around for ages! In current times we know it as New Age! But really, we should start changing that to ‘Old Age’ because it’s becoming just that, old! Better yet, ‘Recycled Age’! It’s the same thing packaged and repackaged and then fed to the world as something new. It all leads to the same conclusion: we are on the way to destroying ourselves as a race and the only way we can save ourselves is to come together as one, join our minds in one powerful burst of energy (I guess) and bring about peace and prosperity to all mankind! What a wonderful thing! Oh, and of course, we would need a new leader that would keep that new earth on its rightful path!

Tolle says the following:

In the Gospel story of Mary and Martha, Jesus says to Martha, “You are anxious and troubled about many things, but only one thing is needful.” (Luke 10:41)

As I was writing A New Earth, people would sometimes ask me, “What is the new book about?” And invariably, my answer would be, “I only ever write or speak about one thing.” What is that one thing? Spiritual awakening. Can a person be awakened spiritually by a book? Yes, if three conditions are met:
[http://eckharttolle.com/a_new_earth]

Is it not interesting how all these people seem to always turn to the Bible in order to explain some of their far fetched ideas? As if the Bible was there to back up their claims! As always, this passage in Luke is taken out of context. A very typical and common mistake among those that try to use the Bible as proof for their idiotic ideas! According to Tolle, the “one thing” that is needed is “spiritual awakening”! But, this spiritual awakening is not the spiritual awakening you find when you come to Jesus or study His Word.

This is what the passage in Luke 10 is really about:

In this particular event that Tolle is quoting, Jesus has come to Bethany and has stopped by the home of some dear friends; Lazarus, Mary, & Martha. As per usual, Jesus began to teach while waiting for the meal to be prepared and served. Mary decides to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to His teaching rather than to do the normal womanly task, which was the preparation and serving of the evening meal. Her sister, Martha, by the way, was doing just that. Martha was going about, probably going out of her mind and frantic because she is doing it all herself with no help from her sister! As Martha becomes totally frustrated, she comes to Jesus to complain about her dear sister. It is here that Jesus tells her that although the meal was important and she was right by going about her duties, it was more important for all of them to be ‘fed’ spiritually and then the body. In other words, Jesus is telling Martha, (in our current idiom) “girl, sit down and chill! The grub can wait!” : ) He is certainly NOT telling her that she needs to read Eckhart’s book which will then awaken her to that “one thing” she needs, a spiritual consciousness!

It is true that mankind needs only “one thing”, but that “one thing” is Jesus! If Eckhart and his readers, along with Oprah, wish to attain a new earth, then all that needs to be done is to trust in Christ for salvation and He will eventually create a new earth in His future kingdom!

Stay tuned for Part 3! The 3 conditions for a spiritual awakening (according to Eckhart) will be discussed!

6/30/2008
James

Joke - IF NOAH WERE AROUND TODAY

In the year 2008, the Lord came unto Noah, who was now living in the United States, and said:

“Once again, the earth has become wicked and over-populated, and I see the end of all flesh before me. Build another Ark and save 2 of every living thing along with a few good humans.” He gave Noah the blueprints, saying: “You have 6 months to build the Ark before I will start the unending rain for 40 days and 40 nights.”

Six months later, the Lord looked down and saw Noah weeping in his yard - but no Ark.

“Noah!” He roared, “I'm about to start the rain! Where is the Ark?”

“Forgive me, Lord”, begged Noah, “but things have changed”. “I needed a building permit. I've been arguing with the inspector about the need for a sprinkler system.”

“My neighbors claim that I've violated the neighborhood zoning laws by building the Ark in my back yard and exceeding the height limitations. We had to go to the Development Appeal Board for a decision. Then the Department of Transportation demanded a bond be posted for the future costs of moving power lines and other overhead obstructions, to clear the passage for the Ark's move to the sea. I told them that the sea would be coming to us, but they would hear nothing of it.”

“Getting the wood was another problem. There's a ban on cutting local trees in order to save the spotted owl. I tried to convince the environmentalists that I needed the wood to save the owls - but no go!”

“When I started gathering the animals, an animal rights group sued me. They insisted that I was confining wild animals against their will. They argued the accommodations were too restrictive, and it was cruel and inhumane to put so many animals in a confined space.”

“Then the EPA ruled that I couldn't build the Ark until they'd conducted an environmental impact study on your proposed flood.”

“I'm still trying to resolve a complaint with the Human Rights Commission on how many minorities I'm supposed to hire for my building crew. Immigration and Naturalization are checking the green-card status of most of the people who want to work.”

“The trades unions say I can't use my sons. They insist I have to hire only Union workers with Ark-building experience.”

“To make matters worse, the IRS seized all my assets, claiming I'm trying to leave the country illegally with endangered species.”

“So, forgive me, Lord, but it would take at least 10 years for me to finish this Ark.”

Suddenly the skies cleared, the sun began to shine, and a rainbow stretched across the sky.

Noah looked up in wonder and asked, “You mean you're not going to destroy the world?”

“No”, said the Lord. The government beat me to it!”

AMERICA'S SPIRITUAL PRIESTESS - PT 1

In case you haven’t heard, there is a spiritual “priestess” that has been rising on the horizon for quite some time now. We all know her as Oprah. She has been called the most influential woman in the world. That, my friends, is no small title! She is a television host, media mogul, and philanthropist. Her internationally-syndicated talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, has earned her multiple Emmy Awards and is the highest-rated talk show in the history of television. She is also an influential book critic, an Academy Award-nominated actress, and a magazine publisher. She has been ranked the richest African American of the 20^th century, the most philanthropic African American of all time, and the world’s only black billionaire for three straight years. This track record certainly earns her the title of ‘most influential woman’.

How influential is Oprah, you might ask? Well, take for example a show aired in April 16, 1996 about mad cow disease with Howard Lyman, Oprah exclaimed, “It has just stopped me cold from eating another burger!” Texas cattlemen sued her and Lyman in early 1998 for “false defamation of perishable food” and “business disparagement”, claiming that Oprah’s remarks subsequently sent cattle prices tumbling, costing beef producers some $12 million US dollars. If she can create such a fuss on just hamburgers, think of what else she can do in other areas of more importance. Here’s another example. In late 1996, she introduced a new segment on her TV show called Oprah’s Book Club. It focused on new books as well as classics, and often brought obscure novels to popular attention. The book club became such a powerful force that whenever Oprah introduced a new book as her book-club selection, it instantly became a best-seller! Being recognized by her often means a million additional book sales for an author! This has come to be known as the “Oprah Effect”.

But now, it seems like she is ready to add yet another title under her belt, that of America’s spiritual priestess. If it were any other person, it probably wouldn’t be much of a big deal, but we’re talking about Oprah here! And here is where the problem exists. In 2002, Christianity Today published an article called “The Church of O” in which they concluded that Oprah had emerged as an influential spiritual leader. The magazine said the following, “Since 1994, when she abandoned traditional talk-show fare for more edifying content, and 1998, when she began ‘Change Your Life TV’, Oprah’s most significant role has become that of a spiritual leader. To her audience of more than 22 million mostly female viewers, she has become a postmodern priestess-an icon of church-free spirituality.” On the season premier of her 13^th season Roseanne Barr told Oprah “you’re the African Mother Goddess of us all” inspiring much enthusiasm from the studio audience. The animated series ‘Futurama’ alluded to her spiritual influence by suggesting that, a thousand years from now, a religion known as “Oprahism” exists. I am here to tell you that you need not wait a thousand years, it is here now!

6/8/2008
James

{All information & quotes are from Wikipedia.com, the free online encyclopedia}