Last Monday night a team of us went to a New Age gathering where Benjamin Crème channeled the “Lord Maitreya” (demonic, counterfeit spirit of “the Christ”). For details on the speaker, Benjamin Crème, please go to:
http://austin.indymedia.org/newswire/display/20571/index.php.
I had a bag full of tracts called “New Age Quest” (the testimony of Tal Brooke’s experiences in India and how he became a Christian today, only to define in hindsight all of the miracles he witnessed in the East to be that of the occult. Matthew 24:24 became his life verse: “For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible the elect”). I also had a big stack of the booklets I compiled, “Meditate on This” which quote from the Satanic Bible to show that the New Age Movement is teaching the same thing essentially as Satanism.
We sat there listening to Benjamin Crème talk about how people are gods. It was interesting because he opened up his talk and said, “It is so good to be here in San Francisco .” The people said, “It is Santa Monica .” He said, “Oh yeah, Santa Monica .” I whispered to my friend, Amy, beside me, “He can’t be too enlightened, he doesn’t even know where he is!” I was thankful my God was better than this “god” of Benjamin Creme!
So, I wondered, how will we distribute these booklets and tracts? I looked around the room and prayed silently, “Lord, these people were created in your image. Have mercy on them.” I thought about giving everyone a booklet and/or tract as they left, but I realized I would get kicked out before reaching everyone with the truth! I thought about putting one on each chair when they took a break, and I was almost fully persuaded to act on the idea when Amy whispered, “You could go downstairs in the parking garage with Judy and put one on every car.” I hate it when people leave things on my car, but I thought it was a sure way of getting a biblical explanation and admonishment out to everyone, and I knew that God could use the effort for His glory, as He saw fit. Besides, it was a small parking garage underneath the conference center and easily accessible to us. Judy, another Christian from my church, and I headed down and left Mr. Crème still talking about the starvation of the children in Africa . (The whole speech was somewhat of an advertisement for socialism).
We got down to the garage, and we prayed. We put a tract on every car until we ran out of the booklets and tracts. Judy left early, and I returned upstairs to sit back down beside Amy. I leaned over and whispered mischievously, ” Mission accomplished!” She just laughed. And guess what? Benjamin Crème was still talking about the starvation of the children in Africa!
According to Crème, there have been apparitions of this “Lord Maitreya” here and there, and this is believed to be “the Christ” of the Age of Aquarius by the New Agers. I felt sort of wimpy putting the literature on cars, but it was better than getting kicked out without having the chance to give the tracts to everyone. There were too many people to reach individually through conversation.
It made me recall the Eckankar visit we made a while back with a stack of Walter Martin CDs on “The Riddle of Reincarnation” and the “Meditate on This” booklets. The room was small, and we had the chance then to hand every single person there a CD and even have conversation with them and ask the speaker questions in front of the whole group. It was an exhilarating time in the Lord from a mission standpoint. This group, however, was much too large for such an opportunity.
I was thankful the next day I did not have any hateful messages on my cell, since the number is on the back of the booklets. I looked around the room and realized the people were all searching. Sadly, though, they are searching in rebellion of the Bible and dabbling in the dangerous forbidden realm of the occult (Deut. 17, 18; Isaiah 47) enticing their egos and their flesh. If Jesus was no different from Buddha and this “Christ” in this “Lord Maitreya”, and if Jesus was just “highly evolved” and not God incarnate–the ONLY son of God–then why did Jesus allow the people to crucify Him? That is a question I have asked the New Agers and Mind Science folks only to hear such blasphemous answers like, “Well, He made a mistake on that; He shouldn’t have let them kill Him.”
So, if Jesus was like the other Gurus, what Guru died for the karma of the world? (I learned to ask that question from a seminary professor who used to be a friend of mine).
It made me wonder how anyone could even assume this “Lord Maitreya” could be synchronized with such a Savior as Jesus of Nazareth! It is interesting to me how all of these people want the “enlightenment” of Jesus and covet his glory (like Satan does, for that matter), but they don’t want the suffering.
A psychic at Venice told me recently that we can all be like Jesus with the “christed energy” or “christ consciousness”, and I answered, “Oh, really? We can all be beaten bloody and hung on a tree, and given vinegar to drink when we are thirsty, and have people spit on us, and call us names, and have spike nails driven in our wrists and feet. Wow! I never knew we could all be like Jesus so easily! …And we could have a crown of thorns put on our head with our scalp bleeding.” I smiled facetiously and said, “It so fun and easy to be like Jesus, isn’t it?” She didn’t respond flippantly to that.
Speaking of Venice , I worked recently with a wonderful youth group from Christian Fellowship Bible Church in Walnut, CA. We had a great time. They came for a day mission trip. They all memorized basic verses to lead someone to Jesus with just the Bible and no tract (see Giving Your Life Away program for details). They covered the whole boardwalk offering people the Gospel, defending the faith. There is an attached picture of a few of them contending with the Atheists United! It was a wonderful day in the Lord. I work with another youth group tomorrow at Venice , and an update with more pictures will follow.
“Also, we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.”
–Ephesians 1:11-12
Dwayna
