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Stewart Best explained what he claims is God's purpose for the New Covenant:
The goal of the New Covenant then is the BESTOWMENT OF AGAPE LOVE, THE SPIRIT OF GOD, THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST. It is to bring us into a UNITY, A UNION, A ONENESS WITH CHRIST AND GOD THE FATHER.
(Quote source: hardcopy Dark Light chapter 12, pg 6)
Stewart unveiled exactly what he means by his oft-repeated phrase, "union with Christ" or "union with God." He stated that the Christian is to come into oneness with Christ and God the Father.
In the context above, union means:
an act or instance of uniting or joining two or more things into one
Oneness means:
the quality or state or fact of being one
Stewart Best says that God has given the New Covenant for the purpose of bringing man and God into oneness! The New Age movement, and indeed all world religions, also teach this doctrine. The central teaching in pagan world religions is that human beings:
can experience union with the divine Life Force.
How can this union with "God" be accomplished?
"Guides" from other dimensions assist in this.
(Quote source: New Age Vs Christianity) 1
To literally unite with God is to share in his divinity. Stewart wrote that the purpose of the New Covenant is the bestowment of agape love which brings the Christian into oneness with God! This is also the goal of New Agers:
Oneness is a goal to be achieved. Man and God are one.
(Quote source: Christ in a New Age) 2
It is no wonder that Stewart's Dark Light book contains such such scathing words about preachers of the gospel. He does not differentiate between preachers of the Left Behind "gospel" which teach that the grace of God reigns through unrighteousness, and real gospel preachers who teach that Jesus saves his people from their sins: the power of sin, the pursuit of sin, and the penalty of sin. He lumps both very different gospels together and calls them the broad way that leads to destruction. According to Best's Dark Light Series, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ of history is the culprit that leads "the many" to hell, and experiential union with "another aspect of Christ" leads the few to life.
Real gospel preachers will not accept New Age, gnostic doctrines, no matter how much scripture is wrapped around them. Fundamental Bible preachers rightly reject New Age tenets, esotericism, and mysticism couched as gospel preaching.
Oneness With God: An Occult Counterpart to the New Birth
Stewart says that most Christians are not really born again because they have not achieved "authentic union." He wrote:
As Christ said there was only one way to enter the New Covenant, and that was via the STRAIT gate and NARROW way, then we must conclude that these people NEVER ENTERED THE STRAIT GATE, NEVER WALKED THE NARROW WAY, BUT FOUND 'SOME OTHER WAY' INTO THE SHEEPFOLD. As a result, they never met the living Christ, they never found out what AGAPE love was, and they never entered into TRUE UNION.
(Quote source: online version of Dark Light False Salvation ~ Is it Possible? Part One)
Stewart teaches that repenting of sin and believing on the Lord Jesus Christ and sincerely serving him is the same thing as trying to climb into the sheepfold some "other way." He insists that the Christian must enter into what he terms, "true union" in order to be regenerated and escape eternal hellfire.
His explanation of how a Christian may become born again is as follows: one must go through a
seven step process (Stewart used the New Age term, "the Way" on his video, The Testimony) which culminates with the Christian going within himself and meeting "Christ" there in his inner man
(human spirit). It is there, deep within himself, that the Christian comes into "union with "God," or "oneness with God." It is in his inner man or spirit in which the very essence of Christ (agape) is said to be bestowed upon that Christian. This is when union with God is said to occur—when the Christian receives the "essence of Christ." Stewart chose a theosophical phrase to describe this essence, which he said is not Jesus Christ, but rather "another aspect of Christ." He called it the inner radiant essence, to be precise. Yes, the words, "radiant essence" is a theosophical term to describe their Luciferian "Christ":
Occultists seek to call forth and become united with "the Light of the Divine Radiant Essence."
(Source: "The "Light" of The Radiant One") 3
Lucifer refers to himself as essence:
"...for the essence of Lucifer shall be with you,..."
(Source: The Sermons of Lucifer, 8th paragraph) 4
The word essence is not found in the King James Holy Bible, but it is found in satanic writings, and it refers to Lucifer!
This so-called regeneration experience is definitely initiation because it requires an expansion or transformation of a person's consciousness. It also contains most of the elements of Psychic Birth, which is:
A quickening of spiritual or cosmic consciousness and power. This new consciousness is one that recognizes oneness with God and the universe. Psychic birth is an occult counterpart to the Christian new birth. (A Brief Dictionary of New Age Terminology) 5
Stewart Best actually
teaches an occult counterpart to the Christian new birth. I have already proven that he teaches initiation, but initiation is the "how to" part of occult regeneration. Now we will focus on regeneration itself, which Stewart teaches is an actual uniting and coming to oneness with God that is clearly perceived in the Christian's spirit.
Did Jesus Christ Teach the New Age "Oneness With God" Doctrine?
According to Stewart Best, Jesus prayed that his followers would come into union with God:
The prayer of Jesus is that ALL BELIEVERS WOULD COME INTO UNION WITH HIM.
(online version of Dark Light False Salvation ~ Is it Possible? Part One)
Here is the portion of the prayer Stewart cited in which he came to the conclusion that Jesus prayed that all believers would come into union with him:
"And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them" (John 17:26)
Jesus' prayer was beautiful, straightforward, and prophetic. It was not, however, a prayer with an esoteric meaning that teaches the basic tenet of Mysticism. Jesus was simply saying to his Heavenly Father that he declared his name unto his followers and that the love in which the Father loved Jesus would be in his disciples. Jesus prayed that his disciples would love others with the same quality of love the Father has. No more selfish, worldly "love," which seeks its own, but rather the love that is the fruit of the Holy Spirit: ""love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." (See Gal.5:22-23) This was the kind of love Jesus prayed would be in his disciples. And this kind of love is not magically imparted in an instant, and it is not an amoral,
New Age, unconditional, ecumenical love that shuns statutes and rules of moral conduct. It must be walked in daily:
And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. 2 John 1:6
To love the Lord is to walk in all his ways:
And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul. Deut. 10:2
We will get more deeply into this subject at a later date, but I will prove that the kind of "love" the "agape spirit" bestows is not God's love.
The statement, "the love...may be in them" has nothing to do with Stewart's mystical teaching that the love that is in the Father will be supernaturally bestowed upon the Christian. It also does not mean that this spirit which does the bestowing will be "another aspect of Christ" whose description is the same as Lucifer's.
Yes, Jesus prayed that he would be in them. We know by reading the rest of the New Testament that this occurred at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came to earth to abide in the bodies of the disciples. Jesus did not mean that he would physically reside in his followers, and he did not mean that a secret, hidden aspect of himself that was not the Holy Spirit, would come to his followers and be inside of them either.
I assure you that any spirit that seeks to enter into a Christian that is
not the Holy Spirit, is not of God! Stewart says that the spirit that must
enter into the Christian and regenerate him is the inner radiant essence of Christ. This kind of "Christ" must be rejected because he is tainted with the description of Lucifer.
Stewart tries to convince you that this spirit, which is not the Holy Spirit, is the
Agape Love spirit of Christ:
Salvation is based upon UNION WITH JESUS CHRIST. The union with CHRIST IS A UNION WITH THE AGAPE LOVE SPIRIT OF CHRIST.
(Quote source: FALSE SALVATION ~ Is it Possible? Part 1)
Stewart Best repeated his teaching that
it is NOT the Holy Spirit who bestows Agape Love to the believer:
The Holy Spirit does not reveal or bestow agape love to the
believer, because JESUS CHRIST WAS THE REDEEMER, AND UNION WITH CHRIST IS WHAT SAVES.
And who are we called to FELLOWSHIP WITH? Jesus Christ. Again we
find proof that it is NOT the Holy Spirit, but JESUS CHRIST WHO
REDEEMED US, AND WHO WE MUST HAVE UNION WITH.
(Quote source: Dark/Light chapter 12)
Now we must test this "Agape
Love spirit" and see if it is of God. This "Agape Love spirit" is not mentioned in the Bible. You will find no Bible teaching that an "Agape
Love spirit" saves or regenerates. The Bible says there is no other name than Jesus Christ whereby we must be saved:
Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. Acts 4:12
There is a name for a demon spirit that goes by the name of Agape:
Agape is even the name of a goddess (demon). Pagans teach the concept of agape, even though they do not know the one true God.
(Source: She of a Thousand Names—look under the subheading, Isis) 6
Jesus did not say that his followers would come into union with him. Jesus prayed that he would be in his disciples:
"I in them."
The Holy Spirit is God and the Christian is not. The Holy Spirit lives in the Christian's body—his temple. Even so, the Christian does not unite with the Holy Spirit and become one with him and partake of His divinity. Christians become partakers of the divine nature, but are not divine themselves via union with God. They must, however, walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the lusts of the flesh so that God's purposes will be accomplished in their lives.
The Bible says:
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:2
The "s" in Spirit is capitalized. The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus is the Holy Spirit. It is not some other spirit that while going by the name of Christ (Jesus said to test the spirits to see if they are of God) fails the test by bearing the same description as theosophist Alice Bailey's "Christ"—the inner radiant
reality. (Quote source: From Bethlehem to Calvary - Chapter Four - The Third Initiation - The Transfiguration)
According to Best, it is union with what he calls the Spirit of Christ (a radiant spirit) that saves you:
IT IS UNION WITH THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST, WHICH IS AGAPE LOVE WITHIN THAT SAVES YOU. (Hardcopy of Dark Light, chapter one, pg 25
What kind of union will the bestowment of a spirit that goes by the description of Lucifer (the inner radiant essence) achieve? A union of sorts with Satan. No, a Christian cannot actually become one with or achieve sameness with God or Satan, but he can unknowingly unite himself in allegiance to Satan by following Stewart Best's occult representation of the scriptures.
According to the Holy
Bible, you are saved/born
again when you exercise saving faith in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
you must endure in this faith until the end. Jesus Christ saves by grace through faith. You do not have "faith in your faith," but faith in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ who shed his blood for you on Calvary.
You are not saved by "union with God" which occurs when a spirit—that Best says is not the Holy Spirit—comes to you and calls your name and enters into your body and, as he worded it, "takes you over." What I have just described occurs when a person is consciously aware of a demon entering his body.
Being saved by grace gives no one a license to sin. It gives you the power to live a life that is pleasing in the sight of God:
But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they. Acts 15:11
Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) Eph. 2:5
Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, 2 Ti. 1:9
And no, the grace to be saved is not, as Stewart leads you to believe, the grace to keep on going agonizing on the "strait and narrow way" (the path within oneself) until one has suffered enough to merit "union with God"!
Please understand God's kindness in allowing you to find out that the description for the New Age Christ is the same one that Stewart chose to call his "Christ." You have a God-given opportunity to repent and renounce the time you have spent on Stewart's "Narrow Way" waiting for a "Christ" with a Luciferian description to appear to you and call you by your name and enter into your body.
Stewart Best replaces the Biblical Concept of Atonement with the New Age Concept of At-one-ment!
An online New Age dictionary properly makes a distinction between the Christian meaning of atonement and the New Age concept of oneness with God: -
At-One-ment:
-
A redefinition of the term atonement (the redemption of humanity by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ).
The term relates primarily to the New Age idea that complete oneness with God can be experienced by human beings.
(Quote source: New Age Lexicon) 8
Atonement is the term for the Christian doctrine that means to remove sin. Jesus atoned for the sins of the whole world by shedding his innocent blood:
And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
1 John 2:2
Christ's mediatorial work and sufferings are the ground or efficient cause of reconciliation with God. This atonement (reconciliation) is received by faith. (Rom. 5:1; Eph. 2:8,9)
At-one-ment is the term for the New Age doctrine that means to achieve
oneness with God.
If you are a Christian and have been trying to achieve oneness with God—and now realize that this is actually a New Age doctrine of devils—you can be set free from this deception and all the evil spirits you have unknowingly invited into your life.
We will apply James 4:7: Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
First: submit to God:
Confess your sin to God and ask him to forgive you for pursuing the goal of achieving the state of oneness with Him.
Next: resist the devil
Renounce the act of trying to achieve the Luciferic goal of becoming one with God. Command every evil spirit that has come into your life through this sin to leave in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is an example of how you can do this. Please include the following points in your renunciation, but be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit. He will help you to be thorough and might lead you to cover more areas than I have mentioned here. You must resist the devil so that he will flee from you:
"In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I renounce trying to become one with God. I also renounce studying Stewart Best's Dark Light doctrines and I renounce all the teachings that have been placed into my mind due to repetition. I renounce pursuing the "Agape" spirit which I now know is a counterfeit evil spirit, and is not an essence of Jesus Christ.
In Jesus' name every opening in my life that I have given to evil spirits
through my pursuit of Stewart Best's false narrow way doctrines is now
closed. Every evil spirit that has come into my life through these sins must now leave in Jesus' name.
Spend time in prayer with God daily and ask Him to show you all the areas you need to renounce regarding the doctrines taught in the Dark Light Series. Also ask Him to reveal any other satanic strongholds you may have erected in your life. The Holy Spirit will help you to be sensitive to His leading as you cleanse yourself from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit and perfect holiness in the fear of God. (2 Cor. 7:1)
Return to the first article in this series: Debunking Dark Light:
The Two Hearts Of Man Article 1
Debunking Darklight Index Page
Stewart Best & Todd Bentley Agree on
"White Light"
James Lloyd
warning
notes:
(1) http://www.gospelcom.net/rbc/ds/q1103/page3.html
(2) http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/nachrist.html
(3) http://venus.spaceports.com/~gored/light.htm
(4) http://www.churchofsatan.org/sermon15.html
(5) http://logosresourcepages.org/na-dict.html
(6) http://www.goddessworld.com/names.html
(7) http://laluni.helloyou.ws/netnews/bk/bethlehem/beth1046.html
(8)
http://web.archive.org/web/20020809052258/http:/www.
newageministry.org/
Urls to New Age/occult sites are for documentation purposes
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