As I said, Willie, I was saved out of the New Age movement. No one wore a three piece suit, or laid down the law on me! Any more than any Christian tried to reach me at my “level” with Tarot/Destiny cards.
Instead, I heard amazing testimonies of people whom God saved. Others shared the Bible from their heart. Others gave a clear presentation of the gospel. Oh, and they were led of the Holy Spirit. Because in the end, God saved me, not some fast tap dance of “we’re New Age/we’re not!”
Funny thing, when I was a New Ager, I bought a deck of Tarot cards. I took a look at the first few, and threw them in the wood burning fireplace. I made sure they were completely burned. And when someone tried to read my cards, I always said no, and left them immediately.
In a transfer seminary course I took on World Religions, there was a full blooded native woman, saved out of native religions. She was an amazing woman. Someone brought up Tarot cards, and she jumped and said, “The are portals to evil!” I immediately realized that God must have been guiding me away from that evil, even before I was saved. Oh, my portal to evil was a Ouija Board. Started reading the Bible and memorizing scripture around age 12. Age 13, a school friend got me involved in Ouija boards. Within a few years, I no longer believed in God, although I believed in the paranormal. It took 13 years to get free of that, and for God to break that curse and bring me home.
I used to make silver jewelry, I was at all the fairs. I made an honest living doing that. So, wouldn’t it have been better for those people in that church to have made jewelry, or pottery, or sold weaving, instead of piggy backing on a portal to evil!? For that matter, if God wanted someone to be saved and sent a man wearing a three piece suit and waving a Scofield Bible, God could do that, too!
You limit God! Contextualizing the gospel does not mean getting in bed with evil! Here is what my God told me:
“Preach the message, be ready whether it is convenient or not, reprove, rebuke, exhort with complete patience and instruction. 3 For there will be a time when people will not tolerate sound teaching. Instead, following their own desires, they will accumulate teachers for themselves, because they have an insatiable curiosity to hear new things. 4 And they will turn away from hearing the truth, but on the other hand they will turn aside to myths.” 2 Tim 4:2-4 NET
Instead, I heard amazing testimonies of people whom God saved. Others shared the Bible from their heart. Others gave a clear presentation of the gospel. Oh, and they were led of the Holy Spirit. Because in the end, God saved me, not some fast tap dance of “we’re New Age/we’re not!”
Funny thing, when I was a New Ager, I bought a deck of Tarot cards. I took a look at the first few, and threw them in the wood burning fireplace. I made sure they were completely burned. And when someone tried to read my cards, I always said no, and left them immediately.
In a transfer seminary course I took on World Religions, there was a full blooded native woman, saved out of native religions. She was an amazing woman. Someone brought up Tarot cards, and she jumped and said, “The are portals to evil!” I immediately realized that God must have been guiding me away from that evil, even before I was saved. Oh, my portal to evil was a Ouija Board. Started reading the Bible and memorizing scripture around age 12. Age 13, a school friend got me involved in Ouija boards. Within a few years, I no longer believed in God, although I believed in the paranormal. It took 13 years to get free of that, and for God to break that curse and bring me home.
I used to make silver jewelry, I was at all the fairs. I made an honest living doing that. So, wouldn’t it have been better for those people in that church to have made jewelry, or pottery, or sold weaving, instead of piggy backing on a portal to evil!? For that matter, if God wanted someone to be saved and sent a man wearing a three piece suit and waving a Scofield Bible, God could do that, too!
You limit God! Contextualizing the gospel does not mean getting in bed with evil! Here is what my God told me:
“Preach the message, be ready whether it is convenient or not, reprove, rebuke, exhort with complete patience and instruction. 3 For there will be a time when people will not tolerate sound teaching. Instead, following their own desires, they will accumulate teachers for themselves, because they have an insatiable curiosity to hear new things. 4 And they will turn away from hearing the truth, but on the other hand they will turn aside to myths.” 2 Tim 4:2-4 NET