Recently, I stumbled upon the testimony of Steven Bancarz, a former new age guru. He used to run a website teaching about New Age, and he had a huge following. When he became a Christian in 2015, he gave up his thriving website and started to call out the deceptions and dangers of New Age.
His coming out created not a small feat. It rocked the New Age community at first, and slowly but surely, the Christian community started listening to him in awe.
I was taken aback by his depth of knowledge of Scripture. He is in his mid twenties now, only a toddler in the Christian walk, but he spoke the truth with such boldness and clarity, I got goosebumps. God surely is using him to minister to his generation!
His story is very important because New Age is everywhere. In blockbuster movies, music, in bestseller books, taught in school. And also, endorsed in most churches. No wonder so many churches are asleep. No wonder we are losing the young generation en masse. They have grown up listening to “spirits of Christ” without ever learning of a personal Jesus.
His story hit a homerun in my own life also. I was reminded of so many times in my life where I stumbled upon New Age materials, and a tugging in my heart kept me from pursuing further. I always had a magnetic fascination for the supernatural. It was fear that kept me from studying deeper. And it was the knowledge that God had forbidden us to play with fire.
For many years, I had taken this ‘sheltering’ from the Holy Spirit for granted. I simply thought God gave me discernment to know the truth from the counterfeit. Hadn’t it been for God who protected me from such a young age, I might have been too far gone.
I feel many people view New Age materials superficially and they are (apparently) unscathed. I am not a superficial viewer. I like analyzing and re-watching things. What for many would have been a small burn with a match, I would have been badly burnt.
That is why I refused reading books like Harry Porter or the story of Merlin and King Arthur. That is why I don’t celebrate Halloween with my children. And this is the reason I stayed away from Yoga.
Nevertheless, as much as I try to avoid, New Age is everywhere. May God give me the wisdom to face them without fear, and refute them through the Scriptures.
To God be the Glory!
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Steven Bancarz, testimony:
He made the following short video about “Why Jesus Had to Die.” (Main Picture from this video)
He also wrote the book: https://www.amazon.com/Second-Coming-New-Age-Spirituality/dp/1948014114
His Website: https://reasonsforjesus.com/
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Biblical passages about divination and fortune telling:
Leviticus 19:31 ESV
Do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God.
Deuteronomy 18:9-12 ESV
When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you.
JESUS IS LORD 