Discovering the New Age Movement / New World Order, Part Two

 

Submitted by Craig “Lee” Dorsheimer

 

This is the second part of this series which takes the bulk of its information from a video of the 2006 Radio Liberty Conference in Aptos, California by attorney, author and speaker Constance Cumbey titled “Discovering the New Age Movement.”  You can view the video here.[1]

 

You may want to first read Part One of this series located Here.

 

Connection to Nazism

 

According to Foster Bailey’s book Running God’s Plan, Cumbey states, “One of the goals of their hierarchy was to have a unified Europe… ‘We tried this before working through a disciple using the Rhine River valley and the inhabitants of that valley as a binding factor.  That attempt was unsuccessful; but, now another attempt is in full swing namely the six nation European Common Market.’”[1]  Quite obviously Bailey, husband to Alice A. Bailey, was referring to Adolph Hitler.  Hitler’s Fascism was an attempt at creating a New World Order.

 

It is well known that Hitler was dabbling in the occult before he came to power.  At the height of his regime many have noted his strange magnetism.  People were drawn to him.  Some have suggested he was under demonic power, even possessed.  Hitler was inspired by the occultic/esoteric writings of Madame Helena Blavatsky, the founder of Theosophy in 1875[2], and kept a copy of her book The Secret Doctrine at his bedside.[3]  

 

For a pop music connection: Joy Division, a Manchester, England based punk/post-punk band from 1977 to 1980, got their name from a term used in a novel by Karol Cetinskys titled House of Dolls.  According to the novel, Joy Division was the term used for the brothels of WWII era Nazis who used concentration camp victims as prostitutes.  The band name had been changed from their previous moniker of Warsaw.  By 1979, Joy Division had become an underground success.[4]

 

Lead vocalist/lyricist Ian Curtis was a frenetic performer energizing their live shows.[4]  His lyrics were very dark as evidenced in the opening track “Disorder” from their first full length album Unknown Pleasures:

 

            I’ve been waiting for a guide to come and take me by the hand

            Could these sensations make me feel the pleasures of a normal man

            These sensations barely interest me for another day

            I got the spirit, lose the feeling, take the shock away

            …Until the spirit – new sensation – takes hold, then you know

…I got the spirit, don’t lose the feeling

I got the spirit, don’t lose the feeling…[5] [Emphasis mine]

 

According to Jon Savage, pop music critic, who was in audience at an October 27, 1979 gig:

 

Joy Division walk out and launch into “Dead Souls”. The peculiarity of this song is that it has a long, rolling introduction that allows the group to orient themselves in their environment for the night…

 

… building up to the moment when, transported by the music, he [Curtis] launches himself into the void – arms flailing and legs pumping.

 

Then he begins to sing… The lyric to “Dead Souls” is an unsettling evocation of psychic possession and the presence of past lives. The chorus is an anguished chant: “They keep calling me”.[6] [Emphasis mine]

 

Here are some of the lyrics for “Dead Souls” from their posthumously released Still:

           

            Someone take these dreams away

            And point me to another day

            Back to the personalities

            That stretch our true realities

            …they keep calling me

They keep calling me…[7] [Emphasis mine]

 

Bernard Sumner, guitarist for the band: “Ian [Curtis] said to me that doing this album [Closer, their second full length release] felt very strange because he felt that all his words were writing themselves…”[6]  [Emphasis mine]

 

12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms [Ephesians 6:12 NIV]

 

After Curtis’ suicide on the eve of their first North American tour, the remaining members of the band found a replacement for Curtis, renamed themselves New Order – an obvious reference to Nazism if their previous name wasn’t – and became one of the more successful bands of the 1980s releasing the best selling 12” release of all time in “Blue Monday” in 1983.  They continued to record into the 21st century.[8]   There are many other references to occultism, neo-Nazism and the New Age permeating the pop music industry.

 

A New Age Christ

 

Cumbey again, “…Reflections on the Christ by David Spangler, who you could carry into any Christian service and not attract a lot of attention except they might think you were really pious.  But, inside that book – a chapter titled ‘Lucifer, Christ and God’ – and he [Spangler] said ‘Lucifer came to give us the final gift of wholeness if we accept it we are free and he is free. …the Luciferic initiation is a required entry point into the New Age.’”[1]

 

Not wanting to rely on just one source, Cumbey eventually found the Alice A. Bailey books from Lucis Trust – which originally went by the name ‘Lucifer Publishing’ which they denied for a time although Cumbey now has 3 books in her personal library with this designation.[1]  It is now plainly stated on their website:

 

…However, for a brief time period of two or three years in the early 1920’s, when Alice and Foster Bailey were beginning to publish the books published under her name, they named their fledgling publishing company “Lucifer Publishing Company”. [sic]  By 1925 the name was changed to Lucis Publishing Company and has remained so ever since.[9] [Emphasis mine]

 

Lucis Trust is one of the United Nations’ non-governmental organizations (NGO).  Their “Main Activity” according the Department of Public Information section of the UN is listed as “Humanitarian Affairs.”[10]  One has to wonder why the UN would endorse an openly Luciferic organization.

 

According to Cumbey’s book The Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow, on April 24, 1982, there appeared a full page advertisement proclaiming “The Christ is Now Here!” in major newspapers across the world.  This ran in more than twenty major cities; and, the advertisement itself listed four different addresses at the bottom as “information centers” in Amsterdam, London, New York City and North Hollywood, California.[11]  Here are some quotes from the ad:

 

            …He comes not to judge but to aid and inspire.

 

…At the center of this “Spiritual Hierarchy” stands the World Teacher, LORD MAITREYA, known by Christians as the CHRIST.  And as Christians await the Second Coming, so the Jews await the MESSIAH, the Buddhists the FIFTH BUDDHA, the Moslems the IMAM MAHDI, and the Hindus await KRISHNA.  These are all names for one individual.  His presence in the world guarantees there will be no third World War.[11]  [All quotes and caps in original; underlining and bolding mine][11]

 

After coming across a book by Benjamin Crème titled The Reappearance of the Christ, she found a section titled ‘How The Plan is Working Out’ which spoke of the political developments going on at the time.  She knew she had to see him in person.[1]

 

She picked up a flyer sponsored by the local Unity church which detailed a local appearance and she attended along with eight other Christians.  It was standing room only.  Cumbey recognized many prominent people in the audience.  She asked one individual she knew what he was doing there and he replied, “Because, I’m taking A Course in Miracles…” It was a “requirement” in a “spiritual growth” class he was taking.[1]

 

When Crème walked in, he made a ‘wave’ with his hand and the crowd immediately went into a deep trance save for Cumbey and her eight associates.  She made noises in attempts to get the other attendees out of their trance but to no avail.[1]  The whole account is rather unsettling.

 

After taking a break, Crème was to lead the audience into a “mass recitation of ‘The Great Invocation’”[12] which is a prayer by Alice Bailey for “the Antichrist to come and take the world for Lucifer.”[1]  From the Lucis Trust site regarding “The Use and Significance of the Great Invocation:”

 

The Great Invocation if given widespread distribution, can be to the new world religion what the Lord’s Prayer has been to Christianity and the 23rd Psalm has been to the spiritually minded Jew.[13 ]

 

Crème declared there would be a ‘transmission’ from Maitreya the Christ as soon as the prayer was finished.  “…His literature said that he had been ‘overshadowed’ by Maitreya the Christ” in previous meetings.  As the people began their prayer, Cumbey instead loudly prayed the first four stanzas of the ‘Lord’s Prayer.’  During the last two lines of their prayer she said instead, “May Jesus Christ return to earth and end the evil present in this room tonight.”[1]

 

Then, according to Cumbey the “spookiest thing of the evening happened” – actually it didn’t happen.  Crème “waited and waited;” but, the ‘overshadowing’ never occurred.  He finally “dismissed the crowd and said, ‘That will be all.’”[1]   The sword of the Spirit – the Word of God [Ephesians 6:17] – prevailed!  You have to admire the courage of Constance Cumbey to take a stand amidst the foes.

 

12For the Word of God is living and active.  Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.  [Hebrews 4:12 NIV]

 

Commenting to negative remarks after the event, Cumbey said, “Well, if your new Maitreya the Christ, Betray-a the Christ, or whatever his name’s supposed to be, were everything he’s cracked up to be, one lousy Christian in the room reciting the ‘Lord’s Prayer’ shouldn’t have stopped him.”[1]

 

A Syncretism of the New Age and Christendom 

 

Unfortunately, Cumbey met with opposition within the Evangelical community.[1]  I suppose it should not have been a surprise given that she’d seen these New Age infused books at an evangelical bookstore initially.

 

In Cumbey’s second book A Planned Deception, she recounts, “…One Seattle Evangelical bookstore sells The Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow under the counter in a plain brown paper bag, stapled shut and enclosed with a critical review from Christianity Today.”[14] However, the heretical books of Matthew Fox were taking up an increasing amount of space.[14]

 

As recently as 1999, Christianity Today has inferred that the NAM was no longer a threat stating “the New Age Movement has been replaced by Neopaganism”[15] – as if Neopaganism wasn’t a part of the movement to begin with!  To continue to deny the existence of the New Age Movement by a major Christian magazine is downright disgraceful to the body of Christ.  All one has to do is look at Oprah’s TV show to find out about the latest New Age guru.  Yet the magazine has no trouble referencing New Ager[16] Ken Blanchard.[17, 18]

 

Going back to Cumbey’s first book, in the chapter titled Deluded… or Deceivers? she writes:

 

“The New Age Movement is pushing for, among other things: global agencies to handle distribution of global resources, redistribution of the world’s wealth, a new world religion, experiential religion (as opposed to religion based on scriptural authority and tradition), a universal tax… …a teaching that all things are part of one whole, an emphasis on universal interdependence…

 

“All these concepts are beginning to rear their ugly heads in evangelical Christian books and publications…”[19] [Emphasis mine]

 

Further in this same chapter she speaks of “a trend today toward a social exegesis of the Gospel.”[20]  This has only grown worse in the past 25 years as evidenced by the examples of Rick Warren[21] and Joel Osteen[22] among others.

 

In Year of Jubilee or Age of Aquarius Disguised? from her A Secret Kingdom? chapter in Cumbey’s second book she relates some research on then associate pastor of a Unity church in Kansas City.  In his “Research Report #2,” Reverend Ernest Ramsey “tells of something he was led to by a spirit guide…”  He was referring to ‘Manifest Sons of God’ teaching of ‘Neo-Pentecostalism.’  “Ramsey concludes based on even less evidence than I have personally collected that this is part of the New Age Movement.”[23]

 

On March 14, 1999, Rich Nathan, Senior Pastor of Columbus Vineyard Church, began delivering a sermon series sounding an alarm regarding the New Age Movement.  He begins by quoting a brief account of Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary, who witnessed a man with the Playboy Bunny emblem on the bumper of his vehicle and the Virgin Mary dangling from his dash thinking that to be quite a dichotomy.[24]  Nathan then launches into the meat of his sermon:

 

Churches that use both Eastern and Western scriptures are growing; one example is the Unity Church. Fifteen years ago, there were 400 Unity Churches, and now there are a thousand catering to people who “don’t feel comfortable using one particular label for a Higher Being.” There is an Episcopalian Church in San Francisco called St. Gregory of Nyssan, where the two senior ministers have created a service that includes the worship of Jesus Christ and the ringing of Buddhist symbols. This church was built to the two ministers specifications four years ago. The Wall Street Journal reports, “St. Gregory’s has an interior decorated to Eastern Orthodox icons, a Shinto shrine and Tibetan gongs. The ministers wear tie-dyed African vestments. The congregation sings the Shema, which is an ancient Jewish prayer. People dance forward to partake of the Eucharist, which is open to believers in every religion, not just Christians. And the Episcopalian priests and the congregations invoke many different deities, not just Jesus, because as the pastor says, “In the end, they are all the same.”

 

The last common denominator that I would say is a mark of much New Age belief and much New Age spirituality is the tendency to create your own biblical interpretation. The bible is viewed by many people today in America as being like a Rorschach Ink Blot test. Many people who are into New Age spirituality will find in the Bible some really unusual and esoteric interpretation of a verse. The perspective is that everyone’s interpretation of the Bible is equally legitimate.[24] [All emphasis mine]

 

While this sort of thing is encouraging, these warnings to the flock are few and far between.  This minor victory, however, was to be short-lived as Nathan would later openly endorse false ecumenism[25] while Mouw’s Fuller Theological Seminary would openly endorse religious pluralism.[26]  This will be covered in part three.

 

 

 

[1] <http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8937919448007045479>

 

[2] <http://www.blavatsky.net/>

 

[3] <http://www.freemasonrywatch.org/thenewage.html>

 

[4] Joy Division; biography. All Music Guide < http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:gbfuxql5ldje~T1>

 

[5] Curtis, Ian/Joy Division. “Disorder.” Unknown Pleasures; Factory Records, Manchester, England; FACT 10; 1979.

 

[6] <http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/dark-star-the-final-days-of-ian-curtis-by-his-joy-division-bandmates-394281.html>

 

[7] Curtis, Ian/Joy Division. “Dead Souls.” Still. Factory Records, Manchester, England; FACD 07/08; 1981.

 

[8]  New Order; biography. All Music Guide < http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:0ifqxqr5ld6e~T1>

 

[9] <http://www.lucistrust.org/en/arcane_school/talks_and_articles/the_esoteric_meaning_of_lucifer>

 

[10] <http://www.un.org/dpi/ngosection/asp/form.asp?RegID=all&CnID=CH&AcID=-1&kw=&NGOID=3902>

 

[11] Cumbey, Constance E. “Preface.” The Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow. Huntington House. Shreveport, LA. 1983, revised

edition. pp 13-15

 

[12] < http://www.uriel.org/Invocation/index.htm>

 

[13] <http://www.lucistrust.org/en/service_activities/the_great_invocation__1/the_use_and_significance_of_the_great_invocation>

 

[14]  Cumbey, Constance E. “The Incredible Heresies of Matthew Fox.” A Planned Deception: the Staging of a New Age “Messiah.” Pointe Publishers, Inc, East Detroit, MI. 1985. p 131

 

[15] <http://www.christianresearchservice.com/KenBlanchard7.htm>

 

[16] <http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/1999/decemberweb-only/22.0a.html>

 

[17] <http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/february/27.24.html>

 

[18] http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/mayweb-only/24.0c.html

 

[19] Ibid. Cumbey “Deluded… or Deceivers?” The Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow.  p 145

 

[20] Ibid. Cumbey p. 156

 

[21] <http://herescope.blogspot.com/2006/12/cfr-and-social-gospel-part-1.html>

 

[22] Van Biema, David & Jeff Chu. “Does God Want You to be Rich?” Time. 09/10/2006  <http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1533448,00.html>

 

[23] Ibid. Cumbey. “Year of Jubilee? or Age of Aquarius?” A Planned Deception. pp 171-172

 

[24] Nathan, Rich. “Christ Confronts the New Age” sermon.  March 14, 1999.  Online version Copyright 2008. <http://www.vineyardcolumbus.org/resources/sermons/sermon_detail.asp?id=309>

 

[25] <http://www.acommonword.com/lib/downloads/fullpageadbold18..pdf>

 

[26] <http://www.fullerseminary.net/news/html/religiousplurality.asp>