Oprah and Friends

Sun Jan 6 18:52:09 PST 2008

*"TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE" MINISTRIES*

*Jim & Marie Watt*

*PO Box **25116 – Federal Way** **WA** **98093-2116***

*Tel: 253.874.4265 – Email: jmbetter at gmail.com*

Web: *www.2rbetter.org* <http://www.2rbetter.org/> – January 6, 2008

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*"Oprah and Friends" to teach course on New Age Christ*

*By Warren Smith*

*November 2007*

*See also
<http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/006/warren-smith/6-reinventing-global-renaissance.htm>Reinventing
Jesus Christ: The New Gospel*

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*O*prah Winfrey will be letting out all the stops on her XM Satellite Radio
program this coming year. Beginning January 1, 2008,
<http://www2.oprah.com/xm/xm_landing.jhtml>"Oprah & Friends" will offer a
year-long course on the New Age teachings of
<http://marianne.com/book/index.htm>*A Course in Miracles*. 1 A lesson a day
throughout the year will completely cover the 365 lessons from the*Course in
Miracles *"Workbook." For example, Lesson #29 asks you to go through your
day affirming that *"God is in everything I see."*2 Lesson #61 tells each
person to repeat the affirmation *"I am the light of the world."*3 Lesson
#70 teaches the student to say and believe *"My salvation comes from me."*4

By the end of the year, "Oprah & Friends" listeners will have completed all
of the lessons laid out in the *Course in Miracles* Workbook. Those who
finish the Course will have a wholly redefined spiritual mindset—a New Age
worldview that includes the belief that there is no sin, no evil, no devil,
and that God is "in" everyone and everything. *A Course in Miracles* teaches
its students to <http://www.rethinkconference.com/>*rethink* everything they
believe about God and life. The *Course *Workbook bluntly states:*"This is a
course in mind training"* 5 and is dedicated to *"thought reversal."*6

Teaching *A Course in Miracles* will be Oprah's longtime friend and special
XM Satellite Radio reporter
<http://www.crossroad.to/Books/TwistofFaith/6-Confess.html#victims>Marianne
Williamson—who also happens to be one of today's premier New Age leaders.
She and *Conversations with God *author
<http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/05/indigo.htm>Neale Donald Walsch
co-founded the American Renaissance Alliance in 1997, that later became the
<http://www.peacealliancefound.org/>Global Renaissance Alliance of New Age
leaders, that changed its name again in 2005 to the
<http://www.thepeacealliance.org/>Peace Alliance. This Peace Alliance seeks
to usher in an era of global peace founded on the principles of a New
Age/New Spirituality that they are now referring to as a "civil rights
movement for the soul."7They all agree that the principles of this New
Age/New Spirituality are clearly articulated in *A Course in Miracles*—which
is fast becoming the New Age Bible. So what is *A Course in Miracles* and
what does it teach?

*A Course in Miracles* is allegedly "new revelation" from "Jesus" to help
humanity work through these troubled times. This "Jesus"—who bears no
doctrinal resemblance to the Bible's Jesus Christ—began delivering his
channeled teachings in 1965 to a Columbia University Professor of Medical
Psychology by the name of Helen Schucman.

One day Schucman heard an "inner voice" stating, "This is a course in
miracles. Please take notes."8 For seven years she diligently took spiritual
dictation from this inner voice that described himself as "Jesus." *A Course
in Miracles* was quietly published in 1975 by the Foundation for Inner
Peace. For many years "the Course" was an underground cult classic for New
Age seekers who studied "the Course" individually, with friends, or in small
study groups.

As a <http://shop.wnd.com/store/item.asp?ITEM_ID=2241&RELATED_ITEM_ID=2242>former
New Age follower and devoted student of* A Course in Miracles*, I eventually
discovered that the *Course in Miracles* was—in reality—the truth of the
Bible turned upside down. Not having a true understanding of the Bible at
the time of my involvement, I was led to believe that *A Course in
Miracles*was "a gift from God" to help everyone understand the "real"
meaning of the
Bible and to help bring peace to the world. Little did I know that the New
Age "Christ" and the New Age teachings of *A Course in Miracles* were
everything the real Jesus Christ warned us to watch out for. In Matthew 24
Jesus warned about false teachers, false teachings and the false "Christs"
who would pretend to be Him.

When I left the New Age "Christ" to follow the Bible's Jesus Christ, I had
come to understand that the "Jesus" of *A Course in Miracles* was a false
"Christ," and that his *Course in Miracles* was dangerously deceptive. Here
are some quotes from the "Jesus" of *A Course in Miracles*:

·         "There is *no sin*. . . " 9

·          A "slain Christ has *no meaning*."10

·          "The journey to the cross should be the last '*useless*journey."11

·         "Do not make the pathetic error of 'clinging to the old rugged
cross.'"12

·         "The Name of Jesus Christ as such is but a symbol... It is a
symbol that is safely used as a replacement for the many names of *all the
gods to which you pray*."13

·         "*God is in everything* I see."14

·         "The recognition of *God is* the recognition of *yourself*."15

·         "The oneness of the Creator and the creation is your wholeness,
your sanity and your limitless power."16

·         "The Atonement is the final lesson he [man] need learn, for it
teaches him that, never having sinned, he has no need of salvation."17

Most Christians recognize that these teachings are the *opposite of what the
Bible teaches*. In the Bible, Jesus Christ's atoning death on the cross of
Calvary was hardly a "useless journey." His triumph on the cross provides
salvation to all those who confess their sin, accept Him and follow Him as
their Lord and Saviour. His victory on the cross rings throughout the New
Testament. It has been gloriously sung about in beloved hymns through the
ages and is at the heart of our Christian testimony.

I found the Jesus of the Bible to be wholly believable as He taught God's
truth and warned about the spiritual deception that would come in His name.
The "Jesus" of *A Course in Miracles* reveals himself to be an
*imposter*when he blasphemes the true Jesus Christ by saying that a
"slain Christ has
no meaning" and that we are all "God" and that we are all "Christ." It was
by reading the Bible's true teachings of Jesus Christ that I came to
understand how deceived I had been by A Course in Miracles and my other New
Age teachings.

I was introduced to *A Course in Miracles* by Dr. Gerald Jampolsky's book *Love
is Letting Go of Fear*. Jampolsky declared in his easy-to-read book how the
teachings of* A Course in Miracles* had changed his life. As an ambassador
for *A Course in Miracles* over the years, Jampolsky has been featured not
only in New Age circles but at least twice on Robert Schuller's Hour of
Power. While Schuller introduced Jampolsky and his
<http://www.hourofpower.org/interviews/interviews_detail.cfm?ArticleID=3079>
"fabulous"18 Course in Miracles-based books to his worldwide television
audience, it was Marianne Williamson's appearance on a 1992 Oprah Winfrey
Show that really shook the rafters.

On that program, Oprah enthusiastically endorsed Williamson's book, A Return
to Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles. Oprah told
her television audience that Williamson's book about A Course in Miracles
was one of her favorite books, and that she had already bought a thousand
copies and would be handing them out to everyone in her studio audience.
Oprah's endorsement skyrocketed Williamson's book about A Course in Miracles
to the top of the New York Times bestseller list. Ironically, all of this
was happening after I had left the Course and the New Age. In fact, I was
doing the final editing on my book
<http://shop.wnd.com/store/item.asp?ITEM_ID=2241&RELATED_ITEM_ID=2242>The
Light That Was Dark that warned about the dangers of the New Age—and in
particular A Course in Miracles.

After being introduced to the world on Oprah,
<http://www.crossroad.to/Books/TwistofFaith/6-Confess.html#victims>Marianne
Williamson has continued to grow in popularity and, as previously mentioned,
has become one of today's foremost New Age leaders. Williamson credits
Winfrey for bringing her book about *A Course in Miracles* before the world:
"For that, my deepest thanks to Oprah Winfrey. Her enthusiasm and generosity
have given the book, and me, an audience we would never otherwise have had."
19 In her 2004 book, *The Gift of Change,* Williamson wrote:

"Twenty years ago, I saw the guidance of the Course as key to changing one's
personal life; today, I see its guidance as
<http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/05/teichrib/messiah.htm>key to changing
the world. More than anything else, I see how deeply the two are connected."
20

Thus the New Age teachings of *A Course in Miracles* are about to be taught
by Marianne Williamson to millions of listeners on Oprah's XM Satellite
Radio program. Listeners are encouraged to buy *A Course in Miracles* for
the year-long course. An audio version of *A Course in Miracles* recited by
Richard (John Boy Walton) Thomas is also available on compact disc.

Popular author Wayne Dyer told his PBS television audience that the
"brilliant writing" of A Course in Miracles would produce more peace in the
world.21Williamson's New Age colleague,
<http://www.crossroad.to/Quotes/spirituality/Occult.html>Neale Donald
Walsch, said his "God" stated that "*the era of the Single Saviour is over*"
22 and that he ("God") was responsible for authoring the teachings of A
Course in Miracles. 23

Meanwhile, Gerald Jampolsky's Course in Miracles-based book,
*<http://search.store.yahoo.com/cgi-bin/nsearch?catalog=cathedral-gifts&query=Jerry+Jampolsky&submit=Search&.autodone=http://store.yahoo.com/cathedral-gifts/nsearch.html>
Forgiveness*, continues to be sold in Robert Schuller's Crystal Cathedral
bookstore as Schuller prepares to host a January 17-19, 2008,
<http://www.rethinkconference.com/>"Rethink Conference" at his Crystal
Cathedral.24

At this critical time in the history of the world, the New Gospel/New
Spirituality is coming right at the world and the church with its New Age
teachings and its New Age Peace Plan. But this New Age Peace Plan has at its
deceptive core the bottom-line teaching from A Course in Miracles that "we
are all one" because God is "in" everyone and everything. But the Bible is
clear that we are not God (Ezekiel 28:2; Hosea 11:9). And per Galatians
3:26-28, our only oneness is in Jesus Christ—not in ourselves as "God" and
"Christ." What Oprah and Marianne Williamson and the world will learn one
day is that humanity's only real and lasting peace is with the true Jesus
Christ who is described and quoted in the Holy Bible (Romans 5:1).

Oprah Winfrey's misplaced faith in Marianne Williamson and the New Age
teachings of *A Course in Miracles* is a sure sign of the times. But an even
surer sign of the times is that most Christians are not taking heed to what
is happening in the world and in the church. We are not contending for the
faith as the Bible admonishes us to do (Jude 3).

It is time for all of our Purpose-Driven and Emerging church pastors to
address the real issue of the day. *Our true Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is
being reinvented, redefined, and blasphemed right in front of our eyes and
hardly anyone seems to notice or care*. If we want the world to know who
Jesus Christ is, we need to also warn them about who He is not. There is a
false New Age "Christ" making huge inroads into the world and into the
church. The Apostle Paul said that "it is a shame" we have to even talk
about these things, but talk about them we must (Ephesians 5:12-16).

If people want to follow Oprah Winfrey and the New Age "Christ" of *A Course
in Miracles* they certainly have that right. But let them be warned that the
New Age "Christ" they are following is not the same Jesus Christ who is so
clearly and authoritatively presented in the pages of the Bible.
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Warren Smith is a former New Age follower who at one time was deeply
involved in the New Age teachings of A Course in Miracles. He is the author
of <http://shop.wnd.com/store/item.asp?ITEM_ID=2241&RELATED_ITEM_ID=2242>The
Light That Was Dark: From the New Age to Amazing Grace and
<http://shop.wnd.com/store/item.asp?DEPARTMENT_ID=6&SUBDEPARTMENT_ID=23&ITEM_ID=2242>Deceived
on Purpose: The New Age Implications of the Purpose-Driven Church. His book
Reinventing Jesus Christ: The New Gospel is available free online at
<http://www.reinventingjesuschrist.com/>www.reinventingjesuschrist.com

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