As mentioned last time, oneness is not new but simply repackaged pagan religion. A brief recap. Ancient state religion societies believed creation always existed. Society experienced repeating cycles of birth, development, decay, and death. These societies made their own god(s). Each god had a temple served by priests/priestesses. There was no worship as we know it today. Instead those serving a temple conducted rites on behalf of a client. They believed if a rite was performed correctly, a god could be made to enter an idol and be invoked by man.
Monotheism never developed in these religions because these gods were not substantial enough. Instead many gods developed, with the same roles found across societies—despite these societies sometimes being continents apart. These religions were inherently mystical, particularly those in the east. They were experiential. Their gods were part of the cosmos and normally had no interaction with man. There was no basis for a relationship. Instead man must transcend creation to glimpse oneness. This is very much like the second century thoughts of Plotinus about the One.[1] These notions exist within oneness.
Judaism and Christianity stood these notions on their head. Islam later developed in the seventh century. But while there is separation between creator and creation, there are many differences between it and the first two monotheistic religions.[2] We see Judeo-Christian principle corruption in Machiavelli’s writings, and later by many others. Ideas coming from Aristotle and other Greek philosophers, through Averroes (Islam) into Christianity in the thirteenth century. These ideas included accepting virtue as a mixing of good and evil, and man being bad so he must be ruled. Coerced to do what is right. Man creating heaven on earth. A return to ancient Roman society.
Early Twentieth Century
Carl Teichrib traces modern oneness to an interfaith conference in Chicago in 1893.[3] This began the many paths to salvation we see today. The conference’s attendees advocated a religion that would be universal in every sense. Man needed to create a heaven on earth, not Christ. By World War I men like Frederick Lynch and Samuel Batten preached creating a Christian world order. This notion underlay Wilson’s creating the League of Nations at that war’s end.
By World War II, this movement had expanded. Creating heaven on earth became a Christian duty. Such ideas were discussed and supported by the Federal Council of Churches, Methodists, and Northern Baptists among others. Christian churches within America supported creating the United Nations. An extract from the Southern Baptist World Peace Committee from 1946 reads as follows;
“[W]e should look sympathetically, hopefully, and cooperatively upon the United Nations as the best existing organization through which to secure a just and durable peace. We fully recognize that it is not perfect, that it has glaring defects, and may even be only a step toward the World Government which will later be found imperatively necessary to the peace and order of the world.”[4]
This passage serves as an example. A couple of articles ago I mentioned the Southern Baptist’s recent acceptance of critical theory, whose ideas align with oneness and today’s cancel culture. The above shows it, and other denominations, accepting oneness related ideas is not new, but rather the further evolution of an existing idea supporting global governance and oneness within the Christian community.
Today
Bring it forward to this past decade. The 2010 G8 World Religions Summit in Winnipeg (yes there is really such a summit) advocated religious unity through coexistence and social justice. Second, creating a global financial system, a concept failing every time it’s been tried. Third, supporting ecological justice. Oneness views man as earth’s parasite. Finally, empowering the United Nations to carry out all the above.[5] Oneness advocates for a global coordinator.[6] A global king or Caesar.
More disturbing is the list of participants. They included: All Africa Council of Churches; Canadian Baptist Ministries; Canadian Council of Churches; Canadian Council, Catholic Bishops; Church of England; National Council of Churches, USA; Mennonite Church, Canada; Salvation Army; and World Evangelical Alliance.
The 2015 and 2018 Parliaments of the World’s Religions went further. The first declared;
- Sin was abusing mother earth.
- We all speak the same language; we just have different doctrines.
- It’s our experiences that matter. Truth comes from those experiences.
And the second;
- Exclusive ideas are divisive. They have no place in human society and must be removed.
None of this is new either. Corruption occurring within both the spheres of religion and governance. Like Innocent III’s declaring his spiritual charge superseding all else in the thirteenth century. Another attempt at creating a Christian world order with Innocent as its head.
Religious leaders attending these conferences have gone down the same path. While they probably meant well, they shifted their faith from God to man. However, such ideas produced all the religious and political wars during what we call the Renaissance. The same ideas produce the same fruit.
Implications
I’m going to focus briefly on just two implications. Can man have a relationship with this supreme deity, and oneness impact on salvation.
Experience or Relationship?
Oneness doesn’t look at who or what God is, but rather what’s in the supreme deity. Nothing is permanent within this framework. All is temporary and becomes chasing experiences in order to find release. But man looks for what is permanent. It is part of his God given nature, and that permanence can be found in God alone. The one Being standing outside of time and universal dimensions.
God is love. It is His love that is experiential. That love can only be found through a relationship with Him. God desires we have a relationship with Him; that desire is a part of our nature—the way we were made. Like all collective deceptions, this one too looks at the end (love) while ignoring the means (relationship). This leaves the worshiper unfulfilled because they’ve turned away from what is true.
Salvation
This oneness corruption could have come straight from Islam. It, too, took in many pagan ideas. Within ideas like oneness, man’s reason becomes god. Original sin is not recognized. Without original sin, there is no fallen nature. Therefore, there is no need for the cross or a savior. There is no notion of grace. Instead, man’s salvation becomes his own works. As all nature is one, healing the earth becomes a virtuous act and violence a legitimate means to achieve this goal.
From a Christian perspective, this is simply heresy. It denies man’s history and the evidence. Again, denying the truth doesn’t change the truth. God not only created man, but created him in His image. That image is our ability to reason. There are several implications from this single act. They include (1) the need to know oneself, (2) we all possess an equality of nature, (3) we all have choice, and (4) we’ve all been given the gift of freedom. Denying God denies man’s nature and these implications as well.[7]
Oneness Idea Problems
Like all deception, oneness ideas present some logical, metaphysical, and moral inconsistencies. They can deny truth, but the denial doesn’t change it. These problems include;
- If oneness is all there is, then things can never get better than they are today. So how do we explain progress, or do we just deny it?
- If all religions are equally valid, then none of them are. Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection refute this notion, and was witnessed by many.
- Oneness asserts experience alone. But without a permanent relationship, man will always search but never find what he searches for—
- Without a set of morals greater than himself, man will seek but never find justice.
- Oneness denies man’s true nature, embracing a status quo and the kind of corruption leading to Rome’s decline and fall.
- Like all deception, oneness sows confusion and division—in a word, chaos. These do not come from God but man. Tools like critical theory and cancel culture create division; and oneness provides the religious underpinnings.
Oneness ideas directly challenge Christianity, including;
- Undermining God’s truth
- Undercutting the Great Commission to spread the Gospel
- Declaring Christ can only be a man, a prophet
- It is not man that is earth’s parasite, but his sin (Isa. 24:4-5)
We must become effective ambassadors for God. Not by proving our faith, but defending it. We see its proof in the Bible’s ideas and our history. We need to simply know them, live them, and stand for them.
Conclusion
Oneness professes salvation through saving mother earth, and Christ’s followers stand in the way of that salvation. Oneness considers our belief in Christ as God and Messiah divisive. An obstacle requiring removal at all cost. Love and unity wrapped in violent actions to achieve it. This is jihad.
Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George countered the oneness salvation claim in one of his Easter sermons. It points to truth and salvations real source.
“ [T]he beloved Lord who shows us that revealed truth and self-sacrificing love are more real, more trustworthy, than anything else. If the Earth is our mother, then the grave is our home and the world is a closed system turned in on itself. [But] if Christ is risen from the grave and the Church is our mother, then our destiny reaches beyond space and time, beyond what can be measured and controlled. And therein lies our hope.”[8]
Our present time is akin to the last days of the Roman Republic. When Caesar, Crassus, and Pompeii conspired to divide the Empire. Will we follow their course or remain true to God’s for us? It is time for all God’s people to come together as His Church, in His Truth and Love.
Footnotes:
[1] Plotinus, Translated by Armstrong, A.H., Enneads, Harvard University Press, 1984.
[2] See Wolf, Dan, Chapter 5, A War for God: A Christian View of Islam, Living Rightly Publications, 2017.
[3] This section’s information comes from Teichrib, Carl, Spiritual Politics and the Cult of World Order, Last Days Bible Conference, 6/3/2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzvp_ZZrmG0. Accessed November, 2020.
[4] Annual of the Southern Baptist Convention, World Peace Committee, 1946, p. 64, http://media2.sbhla.org.s3.amazonaws.com/annuals/SBC_Annual_1946.pdf. Accessed November, 2020.
[5] This section’s information comes from Teichrib, Carl, Spiritual Politics and the Cult of World Order, Last Days Bible Conference, 6/3/2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzvp_ZZrmG0, and Game of God’s, Encounters in Divine Identity Theft, Last Days Bible Conference, 6/4/2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqbrt4jDn18. Both accessed November, 2020.
[6] Sultanmurat, Yermentay, p. 25, Transformation of the World, 2000.
[7] Wolf, Dan, pp. 111-52, A War for God: A Christian View of Islam, Living Rightly Publications, 2017.
[8] Our Catholic Faith, Archbishop Sartain’s Homily at Cardinal George’s Funeral … We Only Take With Us What We Have Given Away, 5/6/2015. Accessed November, 2020.
