Rules For Living

"God does not demand any to repent,
For guilt would shame one's ego forever;
God judges not the act, nor the intent;
There's nothing to forgive; no sin ever!"
Said the New Ager, to my sheer dismay,
For I knew God demanded me abject
To forgive my sins, my guilt to wash away!
When I offend someone, as God's elect,
My duty is clear---he I must redress,
My requitement is due, to him and God;
I get no pardon, till his I request!
The New Ager in God's shoes thinks he's shod;
That he's the potter, Jehovah the clay,
When he proclaims rules for living God's way!

A false imitation of living for God today is called New Age, practiced and proclaimed by many celebrities; one is Oprah Winfrey, who sponsors Marianne Williamson's radio show. They claim to worship God, but they strip His guidelines for living to a mockery that He obviously cannot approve. Their objective seems to be to teach people how to live healthy emotional lives rather than healthy spiritual ones. Their teachings may make good therapy, but the Bible is a book that stresses repentance, which means being sorry for sins of commission and omission. New Age claims there is no such thing as sin, and that a person should never feel guilty, no matter if they know the commands of Jesus and fail to obey them.

Isaiah describes the New Age lifestyle very aptly in his book, Chapter 53, verse 6, when he says, "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned each one into our own way." In another fitting description of the New Age, he says:

"All of us have become like one unclean and all our righteous acts is like filthy rags." (Isaiah 64:6)

The Greek word from which "filthy" is translated means "excrement". The Bible labels sin as too ugly for God to look upon it; it makes abject repentance a necessary condition for salvation; considers guilt to be healthy for the Christian when he disobeys his Lord; and describes hell as "A Lake of Fire" where sinners will suffer for eternity.