God and the New Age

Jonathan Welton's book “New Age Masquerade” argues that the paranormal phenomena associated with New Age, occultism, Satanism, Spiritualism or Wicca aren't necessarily “false” in the sense of not being real. They *are* real, but inspired by Satan and demons. More controversially, Welton also argues that one shouldn't reject paranormal phenomena just because their New Age versions are demonic and dangerous. Rather, such phenomena are counterfeits of divine powers and miracles. The demons are attempting to mimic God. By using spiritual discernment and trusting in Jesus as Lord, the Christian believer can embrace supernatural powers and happenings which truly are divine, while rejecting and confronting the counterfeits. Welton also believes that the Church has become irrelevant to youth due to its de facto rejection of the supernatural, leading young people to embrace occultism, Wicca and similar traditions. I assume Welton is a charismatic Christian. His ultimate goal is to evangelize and save New Age believers.

“New Age Masquerade” is essentially a mini-encyclopedia of various New Age, Spiritualist and occult claims, and the author's Christian commentary on the same. Some phenomena he rejects wholesale, thus he doesn't believe in zombies. Usually, however, the paranormal comes in two distinct versions, with the Biblical version always being the true one. God's prophecies are true, New Age prophecies are false. The divine version of the occult “Akashic Record” is the Book of Life mentioned in John's Revelation, accessible only through the power of divine revelation. Only true prophets can properly interpret dreams from God, etc. So far, the author is relatively uncontroversial, since few people would deny that, of course, some “prophets” are phony. The same is true of angels, the real ones being God's messengers, the false ones being demons in disguise.

What many Christians would find objectionable in Welton's book, I think, is that he accepts a long range of paranormal claims which are often seen as entirely demonic (or not real in any sense). Thus, the author accepts levitation, teleportation, telekinesis, orbs, trance states and out-of-body experiences. He believes that these phenomena can come from God. Miraculous healing through objects that have come in touch with a holy person is accepted. The objects are powered by the supernatural energy from that person. For some reason, he doesn't mention scrying or divination by the casting of lots, but he could have, since both activities are described in the Bible. He does mention and accept dowsing. Welton's view of astrology is less clear, since he indicates that God sometimes uses astrology for revelatory purposes, as when the Magi (who were astrologers) saw the Star of Bethlehem. Overall, however, he is more disdainful of astrological prediction.

It can hardly be denied that all of these paranormal phenomena do occur in the Bible. Many of the author's proof texts are about Elijah and Elisha. Others deal with Jesus or the apostles. Some Biblical miracles are extreme even by New Age standards (or indeed Charismatic standards), such as the claim that the deceased prophet Elisha's bones were so imbued with supernatural energy that dead people thrown into his tomb where immediately resurrected! Of course, cessationists will question the theological basis of “New Age Masquerade”. Note also that Welton believes that all believers today can acquire supernatural powers, while the Bible seems to limit them to specially anointed prophets and apostles…or to Jesus.

This little book never explains how we are supposed to distinguish between the real and the counterfeit. Aren't some Christians “counterfeit”, as well? Catholics or Mormons, perhaps? How can we tell them from the real thing? What about the local friendly neighborhood witch (or Buddhist dowser), who seem happy and contended? Are they really under the spell of demons? Since Welton says very little about these issues, his sole criterion for what's divine and what's demonic seems to be the dogmatic conviction that his (unspecified) brand of Jesus people have it all worked out.

Personally, I think the book became a bit tedious after a while, due to its encyclopedic style. Eventually, I nevertheless decided to give it the OK rating. If it will convince the New Age crowd still remains to be seen…