The Christ in Prophecy Journal

The New Age Church: Occultic Teachers

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I’m going to list below some of the guests that Oprah Winfrey features on her show.19 Keep in mind that Oprah enthusiastically endorsed each of these persons and their books. And her endorsement of their books caused an explosion in their sales.

Eric Butterworth — The New Age author whose book, Discover the Power Within You, was the turning point for Oprah’s introduction to New Age theology. In that book he wrote, “God isn’t ‘up there’…He exists inside each one of us, and it’s up to us to seek the divine within.” Butterworth was the senior minister of The Unity Center of New York City from 1961 until his death in 2003.

Shirley MacLaine — The movie star producer of the TV miniseries, Out on a Limb, which promoted spirit channeling, mental telepathy, astral projection, and reincarnation. It also contained the infamous scene where MacLaine stands on the ocean shore shouting, “I am God! I am God! I am God!”

Betty Eadie — A New Age Mormon and author of Embraced by the Light. She claims that she went to Heaven and talked personally with Jesus, and He assured her that there are many paths to God.

Raymond Moody — An occultist who advocates that communication with the dead is possible.

Caroline Myss — A New Age author who teaches the divinity of Man and the power of positive confession.

Debbie Ford — A New Age guru who advocates the divinity of Man. She also teaches that the answers we need to life can be found within us.

M. Scott Peck — The New Age author of The Road Less Traveled. He says, “God wants us to become Himself (or Herself or Itself). We are growing toward God. God is the ultimate goal of evolution.”

Gary Zukov — A regular guest whose book, The Seat of the Soul, shot to the top of the New York Times bestseller list after Oprah recommended it. He teaches reincarnation and channeling through spirit guides.

Iyanla Vangant — A New Age “life coach” who teaches a gospel of self-esteem. She is an ordained minister in the Yoruba priesthood. This is a polytheistic, ancestor-worshiping religion of western Africa.

Esther Hicks — Author of The Law of Attraction and a New Age channeler. She actually conducted a channeling session with Oprah on one of her programs in 2007.

John Edward — A psychic medium who says, “I act as a conduit between the physical world and what I call ‘the other world.'”

Deepak Chopra — A New Age author who says, “In reality, we are divinity in disguise, and the gods and goddesses in embryo that are contained within us seek to be fully materialized.”

Cheryl Richardson — A promoter of centering meditation which utilizes guided visualization to connect with one’s higher self or one’s spirit guide.

Rhonda Byrne — Author of The Secret, which teaches the “law of attraction.” She states in her book, “You are God in a physical body.”

Jack Canfield — The co-editor of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series of self-help books. He advocates meditation as the way to experience “the voice of God speaking to you through words, images, and sensations.”

Brian Weiss — A psychiatrist and author who believes in reincarnation. He says Heaven is all around us and Hell is “something that you don’t experience after you die unless you expect it.”

Shakti Gawain — A “personal development” expert who advocates “creative visualization” in order to become open to “accept the goodness of the universe.” She encourages people to trust their inner selves.

Don Curtis — A Unity minister and channeler who claims that the early Church believed in reincarnation, but that it was “thrown out” by the Council of Nicea in the 4th Century. (The Council did not even address the issue.)

Pema Chodron — An American woman who was divorced twice before becoming a Buddhist nun. Her goal is to “bring the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism to Western audiences.”

John Gray — An advocate of using transcendental meditation for developing higher states of consciousness.

Wayne Dyer — An advocate of Taoism who teaches, “If God is everywhere, then there is no place that God is not, and that includes you… When you are eating, you are ingesting God and replenishing God. When you sleep, you breathe God and allow God to rest.”

This is only a partial list of the New Age advocates Oprah has featured and endorsed on her program. And I haven’t even mentioned the two most important — Eckhart Tolle and Marianne Williamson.

As we continue to the last segment to probe into the extent of Oprah’s New Age Church, we’ll look particularly at the teachings of her two most favorite guests.

Notes

19) Lists of Oprah’s New Age guests are available on many sites on the Internet. David Cloud presents an extensive one in his article.

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Dr. David Reagan

Dr. David Reagan is the Founder and Evangelist Emeritus of Lamb & Lion Ministries. He is a life-long Bible student, teacher, and preacher and he led over 45 pilgrimages to Israel. Dr. Reagan was the host of the radio then television program Christ in Prophecy for nearly 40 years.

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