New Age Cults and Religions

by Texe Marrs

  Keefer went on to say that “faithful Christians who first come to know about A Course in Miracles must feel uncomfortable with the thought that the Jesus-in-spirit is not at all like the man of flesh and blood they came to know from reading the Bible.” He adds that the new Jesus presented in A Course in Miracles gives many “an uneasy feeling.” Indeed, the Course presents another Jesus—a radically different Christ—and encourages readers to reject the old Jesus. Evidently, hundreds of thousands of people with a New Age bent of mind like what they see in the new Jesus.

  A number of New Age organizations have sprung up to promote A Course in Miracles, and there are a number of big names involved. One is Tara Singh, a teacher from India who claims to have lived in the Himalayas, Central America, and Europe before coming to the United States in 1947. Singh had a close relationship with such luminaries as Theosophist leader Krishnamurti, India’s Prime Minister Nehru, and British occultist author Aldous Huxley. In 1976 Singh came into contact with A Course in Miracles. Since then, he has published a number of books, videos, and other products praising the work. One is entitled Raising the Child for the New Age; another is How to Raise a Child of God.

  Perhaps the biggest promoter of A Course in Miracles is a group called The Foundation for Inner Peace, headed by Judith Skutch-Whitson, its president. Skutch-Whitson is also affiliated with the New Age’s Institute of Noetic Sciences, an organization headed by former astronaut Edgar Mitchell among others, and she is a member of the Board of Directors of the American Society for Cyclical Research. Skutch-Whitson’s Foundation for Inner Peace publishes and distributes A Course in Miracles around the world. She also is frequently interviewed by television, radio, and New Age magazines on behalf of the Course.

  There are many others involved in A Course in Miracles, for example, pop-psychologist Gerald Jampolsky. Jampolsky has written a bestselling book, Love is Letting Go of Fear, and is a personal friend of the Crystal Cathedral’s Robert Schuller. Indeed, Jampolsky has appeared on Schuller’s “Hour of Power” television program. Jampolsky is a frequent guest of Unity churches and other New Age groups. He stalks the nation selling his books and enthusiastically touting the message of the Course.

  Yet another big name in the New Age who is a believer in the Course is Kenneth Wapnick, who has taken this new bible and interpreted it for the masses in a number of bestselling books. Wapnick claims to be a Catholic Christian. But in an interview with the SCP Journal in 1987, Wapnick frankly admitted that:

  The Course is not compatible with Biblical Christianity. There are three basic reasons. One is the Course’s idea that God did not create the world. The second is the Course’s teaching that Jesus was not the only Son of God. The third involves the Course’s assertion that Jesus did not suffer and die for our sins.

  It appears that in this one statement alone, Wapnick has shown us the reason why A Course in Miracles has decidedly hellish origins. A Course in Miracles claims to be a legitimate revelation of the true Jesus Christ, but the truth is, this is one of the most heretical courses and the most diabolically seducing that I have ever personally come across.

  The Origins of the Course

  How did A Course of Miracles come into the world? Its origins are undisputed. In the mid-1960s, a Jewish, atheist psychologist named Helen Schucman, a professor from a university in the state of New York, claimed that a spirit entity began to send her visions and speak to her mind. Asked who this spirit was, Schucman revealingly exclaimed “It said it was Jesus.” The Voice (as she called it) told Schucman to “take notes,” that she was to give a profound teaching to the world.

  For almost ten years Helen Schucman dutifully took down the notes of the Voice inside her brain. The results were published in 1975, and by 1980 over 60,000 sets of books had been distributed—without the benefits of media advertising and mainly on the basis of recommendations by enthusiastic students of the Course.

  Although a do-it-yourself New Age Course, A Course in Miracles is also now being taught in many New Age churches throughout America as well as Europe. Its influence is especially deeply felt in Unitarian churches and such New Age-oriented denominations as the Church of Religious Science, Unity, and others. However, the course has also caught on with such liberal Christian denominations as the Methodists, Episcopals, Disciples of Christ, and some Lutheran groups. It is also increasingly popular within the Catholic Church. In fact, it is now common as I travel around America for faithful Catholics to come up to me and say that they left their local church after a priest or a nun began teaching A Course in Miracles, causing great distress and sadness and the eventual breaking away of the individual from the Catholic Church.

  The Course comes in three volumes which sell for about $30. Volume I, the principal text, has 622 pages. Volume II, a workbook for students, is 478 pages in length. There is also a Manual for Teachers (88 pages). This is really a set of teachings promoting the basic premises of Hinduism and Buddhism, but it is deceptively presented in Western terminology and does not easily give itself away as a doctrinal Hindu/Eastern Mystical text. Indeed, it comes across as a very holy and loving text which promises peace and contentment for its students. Those who are unfamiliar with the Holy Bible and have rejected traditional Christian doctrines are almost sitting ducks for A Course in Miracles because of the seductive nature in which it presents its teachings.

  The Teachings of A Course in Miracles

  It is important that we take a look at those teachings. First, the Course claims that we are in charge of and are part of our own atonement. It insists that Jesus’crucifixion was not for the sins of the world and that we individually are responsible for our own salvation. Obviously, this is at direct variance from the Bible which tells us that all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God, but that through His grace and through the redemption that comes by Jesus Christ, we are saved through faith in Him (Romans 3:23-25).

  The Course also claims that God does not condemn us for our evil or even hold us personally to blame for our bad deeds. It also rejects the Biblical account of Adam and Eve being driven out of the garden. Judgment is depicted not as something that God undertakes, but something we ourselves must determine. However, the Bible says that Jesus has been appointed as Judge of both the living and the dead (Acts 10:42, and see II Corinthians 5:10).

  Like all New Age teachings, the Course proclaims that everyone has God’s Word written on their hearts and that salvation is universal. All will be saved. But the Bible says that the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him and he cannot understand them. Only he who is born again through the free gift given by God (John 3:3 and I Corinthians 2:14) have God’s Word inside as a testimony, a witness, and a guide.

  The Course also teaches another cardinal New Age doctrine—that there are “Teachers” in the spirit world whom we can call on for assistance and help. This is necromancy, or communication with familiar spirits (demons), a practice which is expressly prohibited in the Bible (see Deuteronomy 18).

  The Course vs. The Bible

  Here are a number of other discrepancies in A Course in Miracles as compared to the truth of the Bible:

  The Course teaches that the world we see is simply an illusion, that material matter does not exist. God did not create it. When we turn to scripture we see, however, that the heavens declare the glory of God and are the work of his hand (Psalm 19:1; John 1:1-3; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:2-3).

  Jesus is Christ but not the only Christ—we are all Christs, author Helen Schucman was told by her spirit guide who called itself “Jesus.” Yet, the Bible shows clearly that Jesus is the only Christ. For example, John the Baptist freely confessed that he was not the Christ and that a greater one than he was to come (John 1:20). Jesus Himself in Matthew 24:4-5 warned that in the last days many would come in His name claiming to be the Christ and would deceive many.

  The Course maintains that the Word (or thought) could not have been made flesh and that this i
s a false belief. However, the Bible testifies that the Word (Jesus) was in the beginning, that the Word was God, and was with God (John 1). Moreover, every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, the Bible teaches, and every spirit that does not acknowledge that Jesus Christ came in the flesh as God is the spirit of the Antichrist (I John 4:1-3; John 1:1-18).

  According to the Course, Jesus was not punished on the cross because of our sins or because we are bad. This, it says, is a distortion. Obviously this is in direct contradiction with John 3:16 and with a score of other biblical passages.

  The Course tells its readers that their works and their holiness will result in their individual salvation. For example, it states “My salvation comes from me. It cannot come from anywhere else.” Clearly, this is heresy for we see in God’s Word that salvation is found in no one else but Jesus Christ, for there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved (see Acts 4:10-12 and John 3,14).

  We are all part of God, says the Course. “You are part of Him who is all power and glory, and are therefore unlimited as He is.” Furthermore, the Course teaches that “God’s name is holy, but no holier than yours. To call upon His name is but to call upon your own.” These teachings can be found nowhere in the Bible; just the reverse is true. To worship ourselves as God and to exalt ourselves in this manner is simply to defame and blaspheme God. God alone, the Bible teaches, is holy. (See Romans 1:25; Ezekiel 28:2; Psalms 143:2; Jeremiah 17:9; Revelation 15:3,4; and Ephesians 2:1-13, 4:18).

  According to A Course in Miracles, all our sins are washed away by realizing that they were merely “mistakes.” Sins are but dreams, said the false Jesus who came to Helen Schucman, and no one will be punished for their sins, for no one is a sinner. How deceptive is this teaching, for if we are not sinners then Jesus died on the cross in vain, and He was either a fool or a lunatic. However, the Bible testifies to the Truth—that if we claim to be without sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sin, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sin and cleanse us from our unrighteousness (see I John 1:8-10; Romans 3:23; 6:23; and Ephesians 4:18).

  Naturally, since it is a New Age bible, the Course teaches that there is no death, that man is an eternal creature who will live on and on. This is simply a reiteration of the Hindu and New Age belief in reincarnation and karma. Easily we see that this is a lie, for Hebrews 9:27 says that man will live one life on this earth and afterward will face the judgment of God.

  A Counterfeit Bible

  A Course in Miracles is most definitely a counterfeit bible. This is a false bible that even comes with a new type of Lord’s Prayer. Helen Schucman has stated that when she received the new Lord’s Prayer from the Voice that claimed it was Jesus, she literally burst into tears. “The beauty of the language,” she remarked, “the profundity of the thoughts—in a sense the equivalence of the Lord’s Prayer for the Course-seemed to be so clear.” This new Lord’s Prayer is certainly different from the original. Below is just a part of it.

  Forgive us our illusions, Father, and help us to accept our true relationship with You in which there are no illusions and where none can ever enter. Our holiness is Yours. What can there be in us that needs forgiveness when Yours is perfect? The sleep of forgetfulness is only our willingness to accept Your forgiveness and Your Love. Let us not wonder at temptations, for the temptation of the Son of God is not Your will And let us receive only what You have given and accept this into the mind You love. Amen.

  Forget All That You Have Learned

  The discrepancies between what A Course in Miracles teaches and the truth of the Bible is casually dismissed by the followers of this new religion. The Course itself encourages its readers to forget all that they have ever learned and to willingly accept its new conceptions of spirituality:

  Let us be still an instant and forget all things we have ever learned, all thoughts we have and every preconception we hold of what things mean and what their purpose is. Let us remember not our own ideas of what the world is for. We do not know. Let every image held by everyone be loosened from our minds and swept away. Be innocent of judgment, unaware of any thoughts of evil or of good that ever crossed your mind of anyone...

  Moreover, to make it even more palatable to the doubter, the proponents of the Course say that you can pick and choose whatever parts of the Course suit your own lifestyle and worldview. For example, John Macri, who started an Indianapolis group to study the Course, told an interviewer, “It doesn’t go against any religion. There is nothing anti-religious about it. You can accept whatever parts you want to. If you have problems with parts, that is okay.”

  According to Macri, it is acceptable simply to believe in this one principle from the Course: “God is in everything I see because God is in my mind.”

  Is it “Christian”?

  It is difficult to understand how some who call themselves “Christian” can embrace this clearly heretical new bible. We can only assume that either they are greatly deceived as Christians or that these disciples of the Course are simply deceiving themselves in their insistence that they are Christians. Today, the very term “Christian” has come into disrepute because of the machinations and deceptions of those who seek to mislead and confuse us. Certainly those who would promote and teach A Course in Miracles are not born-again believers as Jesus taught in John 3:3. The fact that this new bible is 1,188 pages long is ample evidence that spirit entities and intellectuals such as Dr. Helen Schucman who have rejected the One True God are dogged, determined, and will persevere to bring their views into this world under the guise of “Christianity.”

  The Course and Christian Science

  Ultimately, A Course in Miracles is simply a more refined and sophisticated type of Christian Science. Judith Skutch-Whitson, president of the Foundation for Inner Peace, the group which publishes A Course in Miracles, has said that, “Sickness is incorrect thinking and can be healed by correct thinking. It is a mistake that must be corrected at its source. Healing is of the mind, since only the mind can make mistakes.” Clearly, this is the same philosophy taught by Mary Baker Eddy’s Christian Science and by Ernest Holmes in his Science of Mind.

  Another similarity between the Course and other New Age teachings is the emphasis by the Course on experience rather than salvation by grace as a free gift from God. As Skutch-Whitson has remarked, “The Course states that a universal theology is impossible, but that a universal experience is imperative.”

  It is also apparent that this new bible is a dramatic attempt to water down and homogenize traditional Christianity. Skutch-Whitson herself gives an indication of this when she states:

  Christianity is the dominant religion in the Western world and history but some of its beliefs are not very Christian. The Course tries to help us understand spiritual teachings without the distortions...

  Some Biblical scholars, in fact, have told us that the material seems to be very close to what the early Christians probably believed... And when people are ready, they can feel the essence of a teaching rather than be distracted by the words.

  What we see here, then, is a New Age bible that misuses Christian terms such as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, turning the meaning of these words upside-down to present another gospel and another Jesus.

  Chapter 2: THE ACADEMY FOR FUTURE SCIENCE (THE KEYS OF ENOCH)

  In January, 1973, J. J. Hurtag was lifted from the earth by a “Light being,” who called himself the master Enoch, and swept away into the stormy constellations of the sky, soon to find himself standing before the almighty Divine Father. This is the testimony of the man who is the founder of The Academy for Future Science. J. J. Hurtag, an engineer, is also the author of a false New Age bible, The Book of Knowledge: The Keys of Enoch, about 600 pages, color illustrated, which includes some of the most sophisticated and most confusing gobbledygook known to man.

  The title page of The Book of Knowledge: The Keys of Enoch claims it to be “a teachi
ng given on seven levels to be read and visualized in preparation for the Brotherhood of Light, to be delivered for the quickening of the People of Light.” According to Hurtag, this complicated “bible” contains “the biocomputer keys to our consciousness time zone revealed to me by master control messengers: Metatron and Ophanim Enoch.”

  He goes on to say that this is an ancient scroll in the language of light. The Keys of Enoch is claimed to be a blueprint of the many levels of spiritual consciousness as taught by “two higher teachers of universal intelligence called Enoch and Metatron.” Enoch identified himself to Hurtag as the same Enoch mentioned in the Holy Bible.

  According to The Academy for Future Science, The Keys of Enoch is a tool for “the building of communities of light to prepare the human race for the externalization or appearance of the Masters from other worlds of light.” The Academy teaches that humanity is moving into a new spiritual cycle when all will collectively become “the Christ.” In this new era of higher human evolution, mankind will be connected with the Master Plan and will become united with other great worlds populated throughout the galaxy.