Quotes and Excerpts from
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New Thought - Its Roots and Close Cousins:
Close Cousins: Unity Church, Christian Science, Divine Science, Science of Mind, Word of Faith, New SpiritualityMore distant cousins: Secret societies, Freemasons...
New Thought Movement Home Page: "The New Thought movement... is a more than century-old, practically oriented spirituality that promotes fullness of all aspects of living, through constructive thinking, meditating, and other ways of realizing the presence of God. New Thought includes Unity, Religious Science (Science of Mind), Divine Science, and other groups and individuals. It was recognized as 'The Religion of Healthy-Mindedness' by William James in The Varieties of Religious Experience. New Thought involves habitual God -- good -- aligned mental self-discipline." Charles Fillmore 1854- 1948: "The Unity movement was founded by Charles and Myrtle Fillmore in the late 1880s."
New Thought books: "The writers featured on this site range -
Tracing the
Principle of All-Sufficiency
(by John Randolph Price) "The Ancients taught that to
understand one's self was to understand God, and through
the process of meditation, one could release the
divine energy from within and transmute discord into
harmony, ignorance into wisdom, fear into love, and lack
into abundance. The initiate was trained to conceive the
highest and noblest ideas as the vision for manifestation,
and then to identify the symbols of the vision with the
Master Spirit within - the Source of all..... "From the Gospel of Philip, we are reminded of the esoteric practice of transforming vision into manifest form: "...what you see you shall become." The Gnostics worshipped the pure spiritual Light of the indwelling Christ, and through their knowledge of thought-form energy and the principles of manifestation, they were able to cooperate with Spirit in the releasing of the creative powers -- at least for nearly 300 years following Jesus' time on Earth. ..."What is known today as a "prosperity consciousness" -- the realization of God as the Source of all good -- was almost non-existent. ... The western mind was kept "in the dark" until the institutional structure began to crack in the 1500's and the eternal principles of Oneness and Unity began to resurface. "The Rosicrucians.... Following the traditions of the ancient Egyptians and the Christian Gnostics, members of the secret society were known to transcend the limitations of the physical world through their spiritual awakening.... "Freemasonry -- "more ancient than any of the world's living religions" according to Albert Pike -- continued the chain of the sacred Mysteries. Through an understanding of spiritual Reality and a dedication to Wisdom, Love and Service, the Master Masons attained "supernatural" powers.... The race mind was beginning to feel the effect of this new Light of Understanding. "By the 1800's esoteric philosophy and practical mysticism were moving across Europe and America like a tidal wave. The Transcendental Movement led by Ralph Waldo Emerson began in New England; the Metaphysical Movement was ushered in by Phineas Quimby; H. P. Blavatsky and Henry Olcott founded the Theosophical Society... the New Thought Movement blossomed through the work and teachings of Charles and Myrtle Fillmore (Unity).... Alice Bailey established the Arcane School; Rudolph Steiner formed the Anthroposophical Society; Paramahansa Yogananda founded the Self-Realization Fellowship; and out of the wealth of material in the Edgar Cayce files grew the Association for Research and Enlightenment -- to name but a few contributors to the New Age of spiritual unfoldment. "It is now estimated that at least 25 percent of the population America is involved in some measure with what is considered Esoteric Philosophy or New Thought Religion.... "The Truth and the Law.... Your outer world of form and experience is a reflection of your inner world of thoughts and feelings. As above, so below. As within, so without. That is the Law."
The last two excerpts below are not strictly "New Thought" but they do show its similarities to the "prosperity preachers," "Word of Faith," and "name it and claim it" movements.
The Gospel according to Joel Osteen: "...the image of God in humanity has been marred by an historic space-time Fall, something Osteen never addresses. In this sense, he has a truncated view of man that emphasizes the positive and omits the negative. For example, Osteen says, 'You must learn to cast down those negative thoughts and begin to see yourself as God sees you – a winner, an overcomer'. Instead of saying 'sin,' he apparently prefers the less offensive terms 'faults and weaknesses.'... "Osteen shares a weakness common to all prosperity preachers. In this emphasis on the image of God and exclusion of the Fall, I hear a distant echo of the 'New Thought' teachers of the mid-1800’s which provide the historical origins for many concepts present in the prosperity Gospel. In fairness, Osteen seems to have a sincere desire for people to be saved and includes a prayer at the end of the book encouraging people to 'repent' of their sins (310). Thus, he apparently believes people are sinners and need to be forgiven, though this message is not as clear as I would prefer in BLN."
New thought and its evolution: "Deception in the Church Ministries provided us with the larger chart of New Thought progression with the notable exception of Guru Pa Norman Vincent Peale (shown with his protégé Robert Schuller) and his disciples Robert H Schuller, Bill Hybels, and Rick Warren as well as the later Schuller clone, Joel Osteen. Check out those charts to discern where your favorite ministers might be. Kenneth Hagin and Oral Roberts would be the Senior's of the Pentecostal Faith Movement as we know it today but there are a lot of these guys still around. They are the Health and Wealth gospel which bares little resemblance to the true gospel of Jesus Christ..... Still, those of the Faith Movement shudder when ministries inform the public that their roots are in the likes of Mary Baker Eddy and Charles Fillmore. New Thought is akin to the game of domino's. Each domino falls on another until the whole row is down. Where New Thought is concerned, those domino's each come with a slightly different appearance but the core essence is of the doctrine of Phineas Quimby who was a mesmerist."
Todd Bentley and The Beautiful Side of Evil: "What's driving Todd Bentley? Why do thousands of people flock to his revival meetings? Some reasons are obvious. Many seek healing, financial success, spiritual experiences, prophetic knowledge and sensual entertainment. After all, Bentley puts on quite a show! Known for his heavenly visions, angelic .partners,. mystical tattoos, and irreverent .teaching,. he makes them laugh. "One of his many Youtube performances includes this outrageous dialogue with an unbiblical 'God': 'The woman was standing in the back of the room when the faith of God hit the meeting, and her tumor exploded out of her right leg, slid down her leg onto the floor! ... [God] said, '...I want you to grab that lady's crippled legs and bang them up-and-down on the platform like a baseball bat.' [loud laughter] I walked up and I grabbed her legs, and I started going, BAM! BAM! ...banging them.... She got healed!"
God's warnings to ancient Israel fit our times well:
"An astonishing and
'horrible thing has been committed in the land: See also A New Mask for an Ancient Secret | From God's Truth to the "New Spirituality"New Spirituality for an Awakening Planet? | Tolle's New Earth fuels New Age revival Deceived by a counterfeit "Jesus" - The twisted "truths" of The Shack & A Course in Miracles |