"Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons" (1 Tim. 4:1, ESV).
Virtually every spiritual experience of Christianity is duplicated and counterfeited by false religions.--don't be fooled by mystics of any faith! The Buddhists claim visions and to "see the light of God;" the Hindus and other faiths claim to "speak in unknown tongues;" the Muslims claim to experience the "spirit of Muhammad" and that he lives in their heart! Transmigration, as anything, or reincarnation, or as a person ("better luck next time!") replaces evolution or sanctification, whichever the case may be. Pantheism, or that the universe is God and all is God or that we are all One replaces theism.
The concept of yin/yang replaces the biblical concept of evil being the corruption/perversion/deviation/negation of good. It's a parasite on goodness. There isn't much daylight between believing all is God and there is no God. The incarnation of Christ becomes the latest of many avatars or personifications of the gods. The experiences of Eastern religion have begun to replace illicit drugs such as LSD. Prophecy is replaced with tarot cards, palmistry, and mediums. Hearing voices is most likely a sign of an experiment or an opened door with the occult, drug world, or mental illness, then a sign of a spiritual encounter with God on a personal level--it's too subjective to trust. Faith in karma, which replaces Judgment Day, is then the Eastern answer to Providence. The goal is to be freed from the law of karma (i.e., reunion with Brahma or extinction of desire or being in some kind of Nirvana). In Buddhism enlightenment replaces salvation.
Virtually every spiritual experience of Christianity is duplicated and counterfeited by false religions.--don't be fooled by mystics of any faith! The Buddhists claim visions and to "see the light of God;" the Hindus and other faiths claim to "speak in unknown tongues;" the Muslims claim to experience the "spirit of Muhammad" and that he lives in their heart! Transmigration, as anything, or reincarnation, or as a person ("better luck next time!") replaces evolution or sanctification, whichever the case may be. Pantheism, or that the universe is God and all is God or that we are all One replaces theism.
The concept of yin/yang replaces the biblical concept of evil being the corruption/perversion/deviation/negation of good. It's a parasite on goodness. There isn't much daylight between believing all is God and there is no God. The incarnation of Christ becomes the latest of many avatars or personifications of the gods. The experiences of Eastern religion have begun to replace illicit drugs such as LSD. Prophecy is replaced with tarot cards, palmistry, and mediums. Hearing voices is most likely a sign of an experiment or an opened door with the occult, drug world, or mental illness, then a sign of a spiritual encounter with God on a personal level--it's too subjective to trust. Faith in karma, which replaces Judgment Day, is then the Eastern answer to Providence. The goal is to be freed from the law of karma (i.e., reunion with Brahma or extinction of desire or being in some kind of Nirvana). In Buddhism enlightenment replaces salvation.
People generally perceive God in one of five ways: a critic who is detached and impersonal and even judgmental and harsh; a life coach that is a positive influence and encouraging; a projection of some person we see a need for such as a father figure or friend; a force that is impersonal and we cannot know or have a relationship with and cannot love us; or a principle to live by and code of conduct to make us feel good about ourselves.
Christian Science downgrades Jesus to just a divine principle and no more divine than we can be. While the Unity School of Christianity believers say that Jesus is a force. New Age adherents such as Shirley MacLaine--as the life-giving cosmic energy of the cosmos. George Lucus, the originator of the Star Wars sagas, believes all religions are right, and that God is just some impersonal force to be tapped into, either the good or dark side (there's no yin/yang-like struggle of equals). If all religions are right, that is saying none are right: all can be wrong, but logically, with the contradictions (Islam denies that Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead), they all cannot be right! The Baha'i faith believes that all religions basically teach the same thing concerning God--another cop-out from facing the real issue of sin and salvation, which is the crux of the problem. They can have things in common and be contradictory at the same time.
The Holy Spirit, the animating principle agent in creation and salvation, is not some blase, passive force, but a living personage equal with the Father and the Son in the deity. Some Christians do believe that the Holy Spirit is just the Spirit of God or a manifestation of Him, but the Bible clearly teaches that the Paraclete, Counselor, and Comforter is a person who has a will, thoughts, and emotions. When you say tongue-in-cheek or not, that you wish the "Force" to be with someone, you are relegating God (which is idolatry) to a blind force like the blind kismet or impersonal fate of Islam and this force cannot love you, and it's an impersonal fate, or the fatalism of Stoicism. The unbeliever cannot share in the power of God and the nature of the Divinity--for he is dead spiritually!
Where am I headed here? We are not to witness based upon subjective feeling or experience, nor to base our assurance upon it--there is too much false assurance out there! The thing that makes Christianity unique is not our experience in Christ, but that it is based upon objective, the historical fact--the resurrection! Christianity is the only faith-based upon history and evidence that can stand up in a court of law when before unbiased jurors. Christianity is history or it is nothing! We are not mystics who claim some surreal experience, but a transformed life in Christ that cannot be matched by counterfeit experiences.
When you say, "The Force be with you!" we are welcoming and approving the devil's work and inviting danger by the flirtation with it. The whole point in Christianity is that you can know God on a personal level, which is denied by all other faiths except Judaism--an impersonal force or God cannot love anyone. Our faith is not measured by our experience but by our obedience. The issue is not what kind of experience you had, but do you KNOW God? Soli Deo Gloria!
Christian Science downgrades Jesus to just a divine principle and no more divine than we can be. While the Unity School of Christianity believers say that Jesus is a force. New Age adherents such as Shirley MacLaine--as the life-giving cosmic energy of the cosmos. George Lucus, the originator of the Star Wars sagas, believes all religions are right, and that God is just some impersonal force to be tapped into, either the good or dark side (there's no yin/yang-like struggle of equals). If all religions are right, that is saying none are right: all can be wrong, but logically, with the contradictions (Islam denies that Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead), they all cannot be right! The Baha'i faith believes that all religions basically teach the same thing concerning God--another cop-out from facing the real issue of sin and salvation, which is the crux of the problem. They can have things in common and be contradictory at the same time.
The Holy Spirit, the animating principle agent in creation and salvation, is not some blase, passive force, but a living personage equal with the Father and the Son in the deity. Some Christians do believe that the Holy Spirit is just the Spirit of God or a manifestation of Him, but the Bible clearly teaches that the Paraclete, Counselor, and Comforter is a person who has a will, thoughts, and emotions. When you say tongue-in-cheek or not, that you wish the "Force" to be with someone, you are relegating God (which is idolatry) to a blind force like the blind kismet or impersonal fate of Islam and this force cannot love you, and it's an impersonal fate, or the fatalism of Stoicism. The unbeliever cannot share in the power of God and the nature of the Divinity--for he is dead spiritually!
Where am I headed here? We are not to witness based upon subjective feeling or experience, nor to base our assurance upon it--there is too much false assurance out there! The thing that makes Christianity unique is not our experience in Christ, but that it is based upon objective, the historical fact--the resurrection! Christianity is the only faith-based upon history and evidence that can stand up in a court of law when before unbiased jurors. Christianity is history or it is nothing! We are not mystics who claim some surreal experience, but a transformed life in Christ that cannot be matched by counterfeit experiences.
When you say, "The Force be with you!" we are welcoming and approving the devil's work and inviting danger by the flirtation with it. The whole point in Christianity is that you can know God on a personal level, which is denied by all other faiths except Judaism--an impersonal force or God cannot love anyone. Our faith is not measured by our experience but by our obedience. The issue is not what kind of experience you had, but do you KNOW God? Soli Deo Gloria!