Oprah’s Christianity

In Session One of New Earth: A worldwide web event, Oprah commented that she’s a Christian, but not one that believes Christianity is the only way.

My question to Oprah is this: How can anyone be a Christian and believe there are other ways to God than through Jesus Christ? How can there be any other way, if you subscribe to Christianity, when Jesus himself said “I am the way, the truth, and the life. Now one come to the Father except through me.”? (John 14:5).

You see, Christianity is not about a good moral teaching or about how to live according to any set of rules. It’s not even about how we interact with those around us. Rather, Christianity is about our relationship with God, and how that works out. Through that relationship the other pieces of life are going to be affected, such as the way we interact with other people.

The real issue is being willing to accept the full teaching of Christianity, not just a piece. Christianity is an all-or-nothing proposition. You can’t just take the things that seem easy or nice, and leave the difficult parts behind. If so you try, you’re into legalism, not Christianity

All Roads Lead to.....

One of the classic teachings of the New Age movement is that all roads lead to the same place. This is simply not true. Eckhart Tolle, in his webast with Oprah Winfrey, stated in session 1 that his teaching is not at odds with those of religion, but "goes deeper". He stated that if you follow each religion deep enough, they all basically end at the same place.

If this is true, than how can those religions have different ends? In Christianity, the end is a relationship with the Living God, and ultimately spending eternity in His presence. In Buddhism, the end is ultimate enlightenment and the cessation of existing. Wicca, on the other hand, strives to bring oneself into communion with nature.

Knowing this, how can these all lead to the same place? If that place is God, no matter how you see that entity, how can some of these lead there if they don't have any consideration for a God?

You see, not all roads lead to the same place. Rather, they each lead in one of two ways: 1) toward God or 1) Away from God. The question is really this, which way are you going to head?

Christianity holds one thing to be true that no other religion has: it's not about us or what we can do. Any other religion is about what I can do. I can be good enough, or I can follow enough rules, or I can do this or that. In Christianity it's about what God can do, and our dependence on Him. We cannot do it on our own, and as soon as we recognize that, we can truly experience freedom from trying to do it ourself.

Tolle, while he's expressing that there is some deeper meaning in life, is still trying to do it on his own. Give up trying, and start relying.

More than Doctrine

In session 1 of New Earth, Eckhart Tolle comments that we need more than the doctrine, which is simply the body of teachings, that religion provides. I will not dispute this statement. He then goes on to talk about how we need to improve our consciousness, and that goes beyond the doctrine.

The problem I have here is that we need to be aware of what we're conscious to. I agree that doctrine in and of itself is bad. In fact Jesus himself taught that just "following the rules" was not enough. Rather, it's not just about the rules and regulations, it is about the relationship. You see, Jesus didn't come just to show us "enlightenment", but rather He came to show us how to have a relationship with God. If you look at the narrative of the entire Bible, you'll see that this is the prevailing theme, people's relationship with and to God.

Oprah on Jesus

When I was attending the University of Michigan, I always loved to debate my literature profs as to what an author meant by a story or book they wrote. The question becomes, how do they know what the author meant unless the author specifically says?

This is directly related to Oprah’s view on Jesus. In session 1 of the New Earth webcast, Oprah said that she didn’t think that Jesus came to start Christianity, but came to show us the “universal consciousness”. I have a direct issue with this view.

Jesus himself said “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one come to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). There is no mincing words here, Jesus is telling us that He is the only way to God. Oprah and Tolle have said that all religious roads lead to the same place. If this is true, than Jesus was lying when He said that He was the only way.

If Jesus was lying, than how can he be trusted to show us the “Consciousness”? The fact is this: either Jesus is who He said He is, or we can’t trust anything He taught. There is no in between.

God being Jeaolous

Exodus 34:14 says that God is jealous. However what does this mean? If you were listening to the first session of Oprah Winfrey's webcast on Eckhart Tolle's New Earth, you'll remember that one of the things that caused her to start searching for something was when she was in church and that pastor said that God is jealous. Her take of this was that God was jealous of her.

This view is off the mark of what that passage says. If you take into context the whole passage, God is telling Moses to destroy the idols that the Hebrews had been worshiping. He wanted to enter into a covenant with the Hebrews, but wanted their loyalty and faithfulness, much like a husband or wife wants loyalty and faithfulness from their spouse. So God told Moses that He is a jealous God, meaning he doesn't want His people to run after other so-called gods.

Again, it's important to take things in context of what's being communicated. If I just said "Cut her open", that sound absurd and violent. But taken into context of a surgery, now it makes sense. As you read and hear of things, I pray that you'll be wise enough to actually explore what's going on, to look at the context of things people quote, and be fully informed.

Misquotes of Jesus

Have you ever quoted someone and then found out you misquoted them? It drives me nuts when people purposely do this. Eckhart Tolle did just that in session 1 of Oprah Winfrey's new webcast on his book New Earth.

During this conversation, Oprah asked Tolle about why he uses flowers in his book as a relevant analogy. He said that the flower is less dense than other things, which is true, and therefore is more ethereal, which makes them a link to the spiritual world. He then references Jesus from Matthew 6 and says that even Jesus pointed to this. This is simply not true.

In Matthew 6: 28-34, Jesus is talking to people about worrying. He then points to both the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, and points out how neither one of these worries about what it's going to eat or what it'll wear. He continues on to say that if God provides so much for these, how much more will He provide us.

Let's get the quotes right, and put things into proper context, not just fly off by the seat of our pants to make what seems like a good point.

Listening for Life's purpose

In session 1, Tolle was telling Oprah how we have to have times of stillness in our lives in order to hear life's purpose for us. I've already discussed my unease with asking 'life' for my purpose. However, Tolle went on to discuss it even further.

It seems that when we're listening to 'life', we have to be careful and not act on all of our impulses. They can be wrong based on our mental noise and other such things. However, when told he needed to move to the west coast of North America, Tolle apparently was able to discern that this was truly 'the consciousness' talking to him.

So here's today's question. If we have to be able to discern what is truly life telling us to do something, and what is not, how are we to know? Where does the discernment come from? In Christianity we know. When we sense that God is leading us to do something, we check it against scripture and against Godly counsel. If the thing we're being asked to do doesn't line up with what's laid out for us in scripture, than it cannot be God telling us that.

So who are you going to listen to? Something you don't know and hope you're hearing it correctly, or the Creator of all that we know, who wrote the book on how to live?