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JESUS CHRIST: GOD-MAN - Vital Christianity

JESUS CHRIST: GOD-MAN - Vital Christianity

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39<br />

The Way International cult believes that <strong>Christianity</strong>, as we have come to know it, is a<br />

heretical institution that teaches unbiblical truths. It has robbed believers of many spiritual<br />

benefits and thus prevented them from hearing the complete counsel of God. By raising up The<br />

Way International Church God is teaching truth once again after 20 centuries of heretical and<br />

defective teaching.27<br />

The "Jesus" of the New Age is divine in exactly the sense that all human beings are<br />

divine. He is one of many great spiritual masters who have succeeded in tapping into their own<br />

godhood. New Agers generally separate the man Jesus from "the Christ." When they refer to<br />

Jesus as "the Christ," they do not think of Him as the only Messiah but rather as one of many<br />

manifestations of a universal power that they call God.<br />

Jesus then, is no more God than anyone else. The only difference between Jesus and the<br />

rest of humanity is that Jesus more fully realized and demonstrated the divine potential that we<br />

all have. Therefore His value to us is that of an example. And it is the desire of Jesus for the rest<br />

of humanity to become His equals, not to worship Him.<br />

Ken Wilber accuses the Christian clergy of changing <strong>Christianity</strong> from a mystical religion<br />

into a personality cult:<br />

"A religion that is merely at the mythic level—such as fundamentalist Protestantism<br />

or exoteric (nonmystical) Catholicism—then a living mystic is a real problem for<br />

you, because the mystic claims that everybody can become one with God, and<br />

that means bypassing the middleman: the priest and his collection plates . . . so<br />

the esoteric Christians did a clever thing: they allowed that Christ was one with<br />

God, but nobody else! Christ got 'kicked upstairs,' and from that time on, anybody<br />

who claimed to be one with God was pronounced heretical."28<br />

Jesus "Christhood" was the realization that he was divine while in human life. All people<br />

can also attain to such Christhood.<br />

According to the New Age, Jesus is a mystic medium. He is a guide to self-actualization.<br />

He is a channel—one of many ancients who give New Age adherents a "glimpse" of the past.<br />

Through previous incarnations Jesus attained a level of purity that is achievable by all.<br />

Shirley MacLaine's spirit guide, her Higher Self, explains,<br />

"Each soul is its own God. You must never worship anyone or anything other than<br />

self. For you are God. To love self is to love God."29

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