"Oprah and Friends" To Teach Course on New Age Christ

[Henaynei]

By Warren Smith
http://herescope.blogspot.com/2007/11/oprah-and-friends-to-teach-course-on.html << full article and footnotes

(excerpt)
Oprah Winfrey will be letting out all the stops on her XM Satellite Radio program this coming year. Beginning January 1, 2008, “Oprah & Friends” (http://www2.oprah.com/xm/xm_landing.jhtml) will offer a year-long course on the New Age teachings of A Course in Miracles. (http://marianne.com/book/index.htm)1 A lesson a day throughout the year will completely cover the 365 lessons from the Course in Miracles “Workbook.” For example, Lesson #29 asks you to go through your day affirming that “God is in everything I see.”2 Lesson #61 tells each person to repeat the affirmation “I am the light of the world.”3 Lesson #70 teaches the student to say and believe “My salvation comes from me.”4

By the end of the year, “Oprah & Friends” listeners will have completed all of the lessons laid out in the Course in Miracles Workbook. Those who finish the Course will have a wholly redefined spiritual mindset—a New Age worldview that includes the belief that there is no sin, no evil, no devil, and that God is “in” everyone and everything. A Course in Miracles teaches its students to rethink (http://www.rethinkconference.com/) everything they believe about God and life. The Course Workbook bluntly states: “This is a course in mind training”5 and is dedicated to “thought reversal.”6


http://www.boxxet.com/XM_Satellite_Radio/Oprah_To_Teach_Course_on_New_Age_Christ.1cyho4.d
http://www.thebereancall.org/node/6213

[christianmomof3]

ick. Here is some more from that article:

A Course in Miracles is allegedly “new revelation” from “Jesus” to help humanity work through these troubled times. This “Jesus”—who bears no doctrinal resemblance to the Bible’s Jesus Christ—began delivering his channeled teachings in 1965 to a Columbia University Professor of Medical Psychology by the name of Helen Schucman. One day Schucman heard an “inner voice” stating, “This is a course in miracles. Please take notes.”8 For seven years she diligently took spiritual dictation from this inner voice that described himself as “Jesus.” A Course in Miracles was quietly published in 1975 by the Foundation for Inner Peace. For many years “the Course” was an underground cult classic for New Age seekers who studied “the Course” individually, with friends, or in small study groups.


and also

Oprah Winfrey’s misplaced faith in Marianne Williamson and the New Age teachings of A Course in Miracles is a sure sign of the times. But an even surer sign of the times is that most Christians are not taking heed to what is happening in the world and in the church. We are not contending for the faith as the Bible admonishes us to do (Jude 3). It is time for all of our Purpose-Driven and Emerging church pastors to address the real issue of the day. Our true Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is being reinvented, redefined, and blasphemed right in front of our eyes and hardly anyone seems to notice or care. If we want the world to know who Jesus Christ is, we need to also warn them about who He is not. There is a false New Age “Christ” making huge inroads into the world and into the church. The Apostle Paul said that “it is a shame” we have to even talk about these things, but talk about them we must (Ephesians 5:12-16).



It is rather sad that people are being decieved and lead astray by this.

[Henaynei]

my mother took this course back nearly 20 years ago - she was an infant christian and this totally diverted her into the Unity community and she became very self defined as far as who G-d is - her responses were always "my G-d wouldn't require that .." or "my G-d would never allow that..." and on and on ... it became obvious to me that instead of her being molded into His image she was daily creating a god in her own image - one who fit her relativistic definition of truth, fair, right/wrong, loving/king etc.... I was never able to successfully assist in any true redirection back to Truth ...

truth be told, however, I have heard a fair amount of this kind of "doctrine" from "fine upstanding" members of bible believing congregations too..... at least mom had the honesty to stay out such congregations and recognized her beliefs did not agree with what those congregations were supposed to represent.

[ORI]

By Warren Smith
http://herescope.blogspot.com/2007/11/oprah-and-friends-to-teach-course-on.html << full article and footnotes

(excerpt)
Oprah Winfrey will be letting out all the stops on her XM Satellite Radio program this coming year. Beginning January 1, 2008, “Oprah & Friends” (http://www2.oprah.com/xm/xm_landing.jhtml) will offer a year-long course on the New Age teachings of A Course in Miracles. (http://marianne.com/book/index.htm)1 A lesson a day throughout the year will completely cover the 365 lessons from the Course in Miracles “Workbook.” For example, Lesson #29 asks you to go through your day affirming that “God is in everything I see.”2 Lesson #61 tells each person to repeat the affirmation “I am the light of the world.”3 Lesson #70 teaches the student to say and believe “My salvation comes from me.”4

By the end of the year, “Oprah & Friends” listeners will have completed all of the lessons laid out in the Course in Miracles Workbook. Those who finish the Course will have a wholly redefined spiritual mindset—a New Age worldview that includes the belief that there is no sin, no evil, no devil, and that God is “in” everyone and everything. A Course in Miracles teaches its students to rethink (http://www.rethinkconference.com/) everything they believe about God and life. The Course Workbook bluntly states: “This is a course in mind training”5 and is dedicated to “thought reversal.”6


http://www.boxxet.com/XM_Satellite_Radio/Oprah_To_Teach_Course_on_New_Age_Christ.1cyho4.d
http://www.thebereancall.org/node/6213
Sad, vey sad. More smoke and mirrors for the un-learned.

[MrJim]

http://www.themiracletimes.com/A-Course-In-Miracles/A-Course-In-Miracles.htm

Check out the "Your Questions Answered" area...

[Henaynei]

A site that attempts to critique Course in Miracles - http://letusreason.org/BookR3.htm
The deception
The course uses common Christian terms with a completely new meaning that is metaphysical. With the intent of correcting errors in the Bible that have offended unbelievers because of their "narrow- mindedness.”There is no separation of god and His creation." (Text, p. 147). The underlying theme of the course is Hinduism disguised in Christian terminology." It teaches that all roads “lead to god in the end."

One learns all this by "Revelation induces only experience" ( Text, p. 7) "When revelation of your oneness comes, it will be known and fully understood" (Workbook, p. 324). This is the mystical pantheism experience where ones worldview changes by new knowledge, called the paradigm shift.
Christ of the Course
According to the Course, is merely "an elder brother entitled to respect for his greater experience." The of the Course explains, "There is nothing about me that you cannot attain. This leaves me in a state which is only potential in you. I bridge the distance as an elder brother to you on the one hand, and as a Son of god on the other" (A Course In Miracles, Vol. 1, p. 5).

“is a man, who is like all other men, and the *hrist idea, which all men possess and must be eventually demonstrated. He becomes the pattern for all of us. The man was used by the *hrist to demonstrate the illusion of the world. In actuality, man is still in heaven. It is simply the illusion of sin and death that have caused false senses of reality. However, when man gains his *hrist consciousness as did, and then according to the Course, man will also discover the illusion of sin."

So when you are enlightened you find that sin was never really apart of your nature but what kept you was ignorance of your divine self.
"The course teaches that *hrist is not the only begotten son "... became what all of you must be. ...Is he the *hrist? O yes, along with you. ...Is he god's only Helper? No, indeed, for *hrist takes many forms with different names...," (pp. 83-84).

"The Son of god ... is not but our combined *hrist consciousness."

The course teaches that there is no personal unique "only begotten Son of god" but includes everyone. The course separates *hrist from the person who is the only *hrist, the Son of god, “was an historical person, but the *hrist is an eternal transpersonal condition."

"The name refers to one who was a man but who saw the face of *hrist in all his brothers.... So he became identified with *hrist, a man no longer at one with god."

We are told that The Name of *hrist is only a symbol. “It is a symbol that is safely used as a replacement for the many names of all the gods to which you pray. (Manual, p. 58). So what we have here is inclusiveism, that it does not matter what name is used for god, is only one name among the many. "For *hrist takes many forms with different names..." (pp. 83-84).

No SIN
"If we could prove that the cause had no effect then the cause can no longer exist. If something is not a cause it is not real, because everything that is real must be a cause and thus have an effect. If we remove the effect we are also eliminating the cause.

We live in a world is an illusion or dream-state, then by necessity, everything that the physical body does in this make-believe world must also be an illusion. This would necessarily include the false concepts of sin and death. As Volume 2 of the Course demands, "...sin is not real, and all that you believe must come from sin will never happen, for it has no cause" (p. 179). A similar parallel is made about death. "Death is the central dream from which all illusions stem" (Vol. 3, p. 63).

“There is no sin; it has no consequence.” (Workbook, p. 183)
But contradicting this it teaches -”Sin is defined as `lack of Love.’” “Since love is all there is, sin in the sight of the Holy Spirit is a mistake to be corrected, rather than an evil to be punished," (A Course In Miracles, p. 8).

Further contradicting the statement that sin has no consequence Kenneth Wapnick, of the Foundation for Inner Peace, explains, "If we now attempt to follow the Holy Spirit's thinking, and we want to prove that the world is not real and that the sin of separation never happened, all that is needed is to prove that sin has no effect."

"Now, if the greatest effect of sin in this world is death, demonstrating that death is an illusion simultaneously demonstrates that there is no sin. This also says that the separation never occurred. We therefore need someone to show us that there is no death. By undoing death that person will also undo sin and will simultaneously show us that there is no separation; the separation never occurred and the only reality, the only true Cause, is god. That person was. And his mission was to show that there is no death."

[cyberlizard]

i remember reading this amongst other new age titles back in the 80's.

there was another thread on this subject on one of the other subforums recently and I cannot help but think it will shipwreck the faith of those not grounded in sound doctrine.

Steve

[Henaynei]

yes, the pejoration of Christianese will dull the vision and allay the concerns of many :(

[judahsgem]

Wow..i'm having flashes of my grandmother now. She practices 'medaphysics' (think that's how they spell it).
Anyhow..when I used to discuss my beliefs with her, she'd try to tell me Christ is 'everyone' and that if you evolve enough or even reincarnate enough, you will eventually be 'christed' as Jesus was. Like it was some final state of being for all humans to attain.
Always wondered where she got that strange and horrific idea from. Now I know.
Sad that Oprah will be spreading this to all her listeners. My grandmother has never, in over 40yrs turned from her ideas, no matter what we have shared with her (my family) about the TRUE Christ Jesus so I feel sad that so many may fall into this same trap and not come out of it.

[Tangeloper]

By Warren Smith
http://herescope.blogspot.com/2007/11/oprah-and-friends-to-teach-course-on.html << full article and footnotes

(excerpt)
Oprah Winfrey will be letting out all the stops on her XM Satellite Radio program this coming year. Beginning January 1, 2008, “Oprah & Friends” (http://www2.oprah.com/xm/xm_landing.jhtml) will offer a year-long course on the New Age teachings of A Course in Miracles. (http://marianne.com/book/index.htm)1 A lesson a day throughout the year will completely cover the 365 lessons from the Course in Miracles “Workbook.” For example, Lesson #29 asks you to go through your day affirming that “God is in everything I see.”2 Lesson #61 tells each person to repeat the affirmation “I am the light of the world.”3 Lesson #70 teaches the student to say and believe “My salvation comes from me.”4

By the end of the year, “Oprah & Friends” listeners will have completed all of the lessons laid out in the Course in Miracles Workbook. Those who finish the Course will have a wholly redefined spiritual mindset—a New Age worldview that includes the belief that there is no sin, no evil, no devil, and that God is “in” everyone and everything. A Course in Miracles teaches its students to rethink (http://www.rethinkconference.com/) everything they believe about God and life. The Course Workbook bluntly states: “This is a course in mind training”5 and is dedicated to “thought reversal.”6


http://www.boxxet.com/XM_Satellite_Radio/Oprah_To_Teach_Course_on_New_Age_Christ.1cyho4.d
http://www.thebereancall.org/node/6213
Due to her increasing tone of spirituality in her shows I was wondering how long it would take for her to become a religious "leader" as well as a social one... Not sure how I feel about this, really....

Hopefully, some good will come out of it, even if I disagree with some of the things that are taught... G-d can work with someone who is contemplating their spirituality, so that's a good thing in my views. Perhaps she could reach people who might otherwise never thing about the state of their soul, and how their lives affect those around them???

I still feel uncomfortable when celebrities start talking about faith or politics... As you mentioned due to her influence this could be a very bad thing for some people -- hopefully the L-rd will work on their hearts and lead them to the real truths??? I don't know... I'll just pray that good comes out of it...

[Henaynei]

Due to her increasing tone of spirituality in her shows I was wondering how long it would take for her to become a religious "leader" as well as a social one... Not sure how I feel about this, really....

Hopefully, some good will come out of it, even if I disagree with some of the things that are taught... G-d can work with someone who is contemplating their spirituality, so that's a good thing in my views. Perhaps she could reach people who might otherwise never thing about the state of their soul, and how their lives affect those around them???

I still feel uncomfortable when celebrities start talking about faith or politics... As you mentioned due to her influence this could be a very bad thing for some people -- hopefully the L-rd will work on their hearts and lead them to the real truths??? I don't know... I'll just pray that good comes out of it...what this course teaches is pure New Age... Moshiakh is NOTHING but an attitude one can attain, i.e. we can each become god, there is no need for salvation because sin is only one's attitude toward the actions of others, what we call reality is actually a dream state and everything our "physical bodies" do is also an illusion... this is not any kind of Christianity, it is Hinduism which pejorates Christian terminology to sell its goods....

a very few may depart this path and find the True G-d, but the vast majority who are indoctrinated into this become gods themselves and have no reason to seek further for Him ....