I took the liberty to summarize and paraphrase one chapter of the book, Counterfeit Kingdom authored by Holly Pivec and R Douglas Geivett, which detailed the new age teachings of the NAR movement. I did so in the hope that the summary could give a quick understanding of the danger of such teachings.
Occultic Practices
Biblical teachings about miraculous gifts and the NAR new age teachings are worlds apart. The Christian gifts are given to serve and build up the church. However, God forbid occultic practices that seek to obtain supernatural power and secret knowledge such as fortune telling and communicating with the dead using various methods of divination. Deut 18: 9-12. They are forbidden because they are usually associated with the activity of demons. Deut 32:17; Ps 106:34-43; Acts 16:16-18; 1 Cor 10: 19-21; 9:20-21. The stranger thing is that these NAR prophets acknowledged that all such practices were stolen from the Christians. Jonathan Welton in one of the chapters of the book, The Physics Of Heaven, said that spirit guide, trances, meditation, auras, power objects, etc, were actually stolen and cleverly repackaged by the New Agers. As such, many NAR prophets believe they have to reclaim these practices to advance the Kingdom of God. The Christian gifts are given by the Holy Spirit and nowhere does the Bible teaches that they can be activated.
Levitation And Teleportation
A generation growing up with Harry Porter would surely be drawn to the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry (BSSM). It is no surprise that these BSSM students attempt to practice levitating coins and guitar picks and walking through walls. Bethel leaders merely laughed them off when questioned by the media.
Psychic Fairs And “Spirit Readings”
After the BSSM students are activated with a prophetic gift, they are sent out to the Bethel community to “prophesy “ to strangers. Usually they will go undercover to set up booths in psychic fairs to offer dream interpretation and spirit readings. They will claim that they are involved in a creative way to reach the New Agers with the gospel. And that is strange because in blending in, they won’t say anything religious and refer to God as Spirit of Creation. By not sharing about Jesus, wonder what is the gospel they are sharing ?
Destiny Cards
At these fairs, the BSSM students used a Christianized version of the tarot cards, the “Destiny Cards” designed by a Christian organization named Christalignment. The card images of angels, animals and nature scenes have symbolic meanings and functions much like tarot in the hands of prophetic readers. Through Christalignment readings, clients can receive answers to questions like “Have I chosen the right career ?” or “Will I have any more children ?”. The following description of one deck of Destiny Cards appeared on an early version of Christalignment”s website : “Psalm readings are similar to Tarot in that cards are counted out according to your birth date…Only three cards are used and these will represent your past, present and future.” This controversy erupted in 2017 when it came to light that many BSSM students had joined Christalignment teams over the years and Bethel Church prophets Kris Vallaton and Theresa Dedmon published statements online defending Ken and Jenny Hodge, the founders of Christalignment and their Destiny Cards.
Telepathy
Mind reading or telepathy is taught by Seth Dahl (a BSSM graduate) and co-author with Bill Johnson of the children’s book, God Is Really Good. In one Facebook video in 2017, Dahl told parents that the practice is helpful with children who are very young or sick or have trouble verbalizing their needs. He said he used it successfully with his son who was one and a half year old then. His son could not sleep and they communicated spiritually with each other and his son psychically told him to stay near his crib and rub his back, and his son fell asleep within minutes. How absurd ! It is just plain common sense.
Seeing Dead People
Ben Armstrong, the Bethel Church’s Prophetic Ministry Director, shared in a video about stories of Christians who have seen and talked to dead people. The deceased people they encountered were Christian “revivalists” including faith healers such as Maria Woodworth-Erter and Kathryn Kuhlman. Such practice known as necromancy is strictly forbidden by Scripture. Deut 18:9-12; Gal 5:19-20; Acts 19:19.
