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This week presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren explained why God sends some people to Heaven and others to "another place."
Presidential candidate Marianne Williamson is teaching her New Age gospel on the campaign trail.
You've never heard of Marianne? Perhaps you've heard of some of her followers: Oprah, Brooke Shields, Tennis great Andre Agassi, Bill, and Hillary Clinton...and there are many other notable disciples.
Will either of these two candidates be our next president? Not likely.
But people are listening to them. And powerful people follow them.
Be informed.
Elizabeth Warren's different path to salvation.
In a town hall meeting this week in Jackson, Miss.---sponsored by CNN--Jake Tapper with CNN asked Warren what role her faith plays in her life.
Warren said she was raised a Methodist, went to church regularly, and ultimately became a fifth grade Sunday School teacher at her church.
And she said she also raised her kids in the Methodist Church.
Then she said this: "What is important for me is the importance of the lessons we learn when we remember our values when we remember our faith."
She continued:
"The story for me is Matthew 26, and I'm sure some of you, a lot of you know this story. You know, this is the one where the shepherd is dividing the world into the sheep and the goats. And as we all know, sheep are going to heaven, goats, nah, they're not."
"As the sheep ask him, why us? Why us, Lord? Why did you pick us? We look like those, those other guys," Elizabeth explained. "And the shepherd, the Lord answers back by saying, 'I was hungry, and you gave me food. I was thirsty, and you gave me water. I was in prison, and you visited me, naked and you clothed me. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of these, the least my brethren, you have done it unto me'."
Jesus is not teaching that these acts of kindness and compassion are the path to eternal salvation. He is teaching that those who are truly "born again" will do these things in His name.
She further elaborated, placing great emphasis on taking action. It is true, Christians must have an active faith---faith without works is dead, however, that is not the path to salvation---God "deciding where to send us in the afterlife," as she suggests.
First, that teaching is not in Matthew 26, it's in Matthew 25.
And the teaching in Matthew 25 has to do with the judgment of the nations, not the path to eternal salvation. That comes only through faith in Jesus Christ---by accepting Him as our personal Savior, believing that He is the only begotten Son of God, that He died for our sins and was resurrected from the dead.
There is no other way to come to God than through acceptance of His Son Jesus Christ.
John Wesley, the founder of her Methodist Church, preached hundreds of sermons that inspired Christians to action. I have a 14 volume set of his sermons in my personal library.
However, his own personal testimony speaks to how he had become depressed, discouraged, and burned out with preaching a gospel of works and actions only until he heard the message of salvation through personal faith in Jesus Christ.
A group of Moravian Christians showed Wesley---from the teachings of Martin Luther, how the just shall live by faith. He later explained that as he embraced that Truth, his heart was warmed and his ministry changed.
He was released and empowered to do the work of God because he became a new creature in Christ.
To further understand the teaching in Matthew 25---concerning the Judgment of the Nations, I strongly recommend you go to seminary for 5 minutes or less and read this explanation by Dr. John F. Walvoord.
Dr. Walvoord was the longtime president of Dallas Theological Seminary and was considered one of the most influential and prominent evangelical leaders of his generation.
Candidate Marianne Williamson's New Age Spirituality.
Some people have never heard of Marianne Williamson---who is---yes, also running for President of the United States.
Most likely neither she nor Warren will capture the highest office in the land, but they will influence a good number of people.
Williamson has an impressive group of followers. I named some of them above. There are many more.
The best snapshot I could find, in the volumes that have been written about Williamson---including Bob Woodward's book about Hillary Clinton's spiritual communication with Eleanor Roosevelt (The Choice) which also includes Marianne Williamson---was an article written by Pastor Erwin Lutzer a number of years ago for Moody.
Erwin is actually writing about Oprah's expanding New Age influence in America.
In it, he gives an overview of Williamson's influence.
In 1965, an atheist psychologist named Helen Schucman began dabbling in the occult. A spirit guide (whom she believed to be Jesus) dictated to her the book, "A Course in Miracles," which became the "bible" of the New Age movement.
Oprah promoted it worldwide.
Marianne Williamson wrote a book about "The Course in Miracles." She and Oprah teamed up and began a team teaching course of both books. Millions watched and embraced their teaching.
Lutzer wrote:
"There is no doubt in my mind that a demon dictated the book to Helen Schucman, even though she thought it came from Jesus Christ. When you hold it in your hands, you can be assured that you are holding a satanic bible."
I agree with him. Throughout the book, it ridicules the sacrifice of Christ and the cross. In one segment, "Atonement without Sacrifice," Jesus is quoted as saying that the notion of sacrifice is totally unknown to God, and furthermore, "Those who represent the lamb as blood-stained do not understand the meaning of the symbol, it is a very simple symbol that speaks of innocence," not sacrifice.
Regarding the cross, the spirit dictated:
"Do not make the pathetic error of clinging to the old rugged cross. The only message of the crucifixion is that you can overcome the cross. Until then you are free to crucify yourself as often as you choose."
Millions have embraced these teachings as being "harmonized" with Scripture---A way of better understanding God and ourselves.
There's much more in these teachings.
But the last point is critical: In these teachings, sin, evil, and death do not exist but are an illusionary dream from which we must simply awaken.
When a New Ager says, "I am essentially a spiritual being," he or she means that because evil does not have actual existence, there is no need for repentance or God's forgiveness. The real me is simply my mind, my consciousness.
There's nothing "new" about the New Age teaching. It's as old as human history.
It's biblical thought woven together with humanism and Eastern mysticism. It is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The writers of the New Testament consistently addressed the false teachers.
John wrote (I John 4:1),
"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world."
Be Discerning. Be Informed. Be Vigilant. Be Prayerful.