Examining A New Earth - Chapter One, Part 1
Last week I shared with you that I have started to read Oprah’s book of the month - A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose by Eckhart Tolle, and so far, I have to tell you that it’s a very interesting piece of fiction. In fact, fiction at it’s best. The problem however, is that the masses are falling for this fiction as if it were fact. It’s not, and I will tell you why as our review continues.
The purpose of my review is to examine this book in light of what the Bible teaches. So where ever there is a mention of Jesus Christ or any scriptural reference, I am looking at how it is being used - and actually, misused is really the problem. So here we go…
Chapter one has 23 pages within it, and numerous references to Jesus and the bible. The author clearly takes an evolutionary point of view, as he discusses numerous times about the “evolution” of fish to walking mammals, and the Earth existing merely 114 million years ago.
Tolle begins his tale of fiction by talking about the flower, and how the flower is like the human consciousness as it blooms. He writes, “As the consciousness of human beings developed, flowers were most likely the first thing they came to value that had no utilitarian purpose for them, that is to say, was not linked in some way to survival.” (p.2)
Let’s look at the flaws in this statement. In regards to flowers not having any utilitarian purpose except beauty, or scent, the author fails to realize or maybe isn’t aware, that flowers are part of the ecosystem that God created. Flowers are not around simply to give humans something nice to look at or to smell. Bees pollinate flowers and flowers, as well as other vegetation help convert carbon dioxide into oxygen. Oxygen helps humans to live.
Tolle goes on to say concerning flowers, “Jesus tells us to contemplate the flowers and learn from them how to live.” (p.2) What the Jesus actually said is in Matthew 6:25-34 which is a passage of scripture on worry. And the emphasis that Jesus was making wasn’t about looking at flowers to learn how to live, it was to look at how the flowers were clothed and how humans should not worry about our life, or where we will get our food or clothing.
“For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, {as to} what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, {as to} what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
Mat 6:26 “Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and {yet} your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? Mat 6:27 “And who of you by being worried can add a {single} hour to his life? Mat 6:28 “And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, Mat 6:29 yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. Mat 6:30 “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is {alive} today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, {will He} not much more {clothe} you? You of little faith!
Mat 6:31 “Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’
Mat 6:32 “For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. Mat 6:33 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Mat 6:34 “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Stay tuned for part two.
Please do not toss the baby with the bath water. It is sure that Mr. Tolle is NOT a Christian. However, someone once said to me, “Larry, you’ve got to chew the meat and spit the bones.” That said — there is meat in what Tolle has written. There are PLENTY of bones as well.
Please do a couple things here:
1) Read the ENTIRE book BEFORE giving your review here.
2) Read for BOTH the meat and the bones. Keep the meat and spit the bones.
3) Read without predisposition, bias or offense. Just READ! Then chew, spit, digest and come back here to share.
I will point this out as well: The language and words that Tolle uses are many things. It is NOT Christian, it IS somewhat or largely “New Age”, but — the words are pointers. See where they point.
For instance: What does he mean by the word “Ego” and what corresponding words are in scripture? What does he mean by the phrase “Pain Body” and what corresponding words are used in scripture?
Consider some of what Tolle says from later chapters and chew, spit, digest, reflect and share.
For instance: Page 93 of the “Role Playing” chapter, Tolle says, “If you are aware enough, aware enough, to be able to observe how you interact with other people, you may detect subtle changes in your speech, attitude, and behaviour depending on the person you are interacting with.”
What does he mean? What is he talking about? How does it fit with his major thesis and theme? What is he pointing at inside himself and inside us? Does any of it line up with what Jesus said and did, how he lived and behaved, what he taught and exemplified?
I have been a Christian since 1983. I believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. Jesus IS God (”I Am”). Jesus IS Lord of All, King of Kings and Master over All. Yet, even believing this I blew apart my family, ended a marriage in divorce, spent months in jail and nearly destroyed my life. I am NOT alone. There are plenty of “Christians” out there who are living lies, shame, guilt, sin and lusts. They are both out in the open and deeply hidden. It is words (not all — but some) coming from people like Eckhart Tolle, Byron Katie and Thomas Sandberg and others that have helped me to SEE the reality of HOW I am broken. I implore to you read what Tolle has written with your apparent and seeming prejudgements, biases and such. I invite you to be inclusive and unifying in your words and living instead of utterly divisive and attacking.
Peace be to you in Jesus Christ, Lord, Saviour, Master and I AM!
“Larry”,
Thanks for your commentary. It certainly is interesting, but obviously unbiblical. Since it’s my blog, I will continue to examine the New Age teachings of Tolle and bring the truth of Christ to the readers of this blog.
Comment deleted by Stacy because this blog comment area won’t be used to advance false teaching. Sorry Larry.
First I’d like to say a few (no actually a ton of) words to Larry. It’s true that one should not throw out the baby with the bath water. I’m not sure I see that in what Stacy wrote here (I’ll address that later). But, when I read your commentary, it made me wonder what you were talking about. I used to be a big Tolle fan (Power of Now seemed more honest to me, though I still didn’t agree with all of it). But in a New Earth Tolle is more clearly misusing the teachings of Jesus. It seems almost just a way to get Christians to listen to his shtick and shtick a lot of it is. I’m glad it helped you, but the bath water is very confusing for many and may actually lead to being worse off later on after experience proves or disproves this way of living.
My first problem with Tolle’s message is with the idea that Jesus is just like the Buddha. For many of us, this is plainly not true. Jesus did not sit in meditation for years to then discover that he has access to “The Christ” within. His is Christ. If you didn’t catch this, read A New Earth again with an eye for it, you will see it. Here is an example of this:
“The Truth is inseparable from who you you are. Yes, you are [are is italicized in the print] the Truth. If you look for it elsewhere, you will be deceived every time. The very Being that you are is Truth. Jesus tried to convey that when he said ‘I am the way and the truth of life.” These words uttered by Jesus are one of the most powerful pointers to the Truth, if understood correctly. If misinterpreted, however, they become a great obstacle. Jesus speaks of the innermost I Am, the essence identity of every man and woman, every life form, in fact. He speaks of the life that you are. Some Christian mystics have called it the Christ within . . . . “
This is not so terribly apparently out of tune with Jesus’ message at first glance, but if you look closely, you’ll see the distortion (or if you prefer Tolle’s opinion/belief!) I can’t see Jesus being so terribly happy to see us talk about ourselves as if we were the Truth. Jesus is the Truth. I am not the Truth. Does the Truth reside within me, walk beside me, carry me in times of need? Absolutely, but I am not the I AM.
I would never go so far to accuse Tolle of being a devil in disguise because I read him as self delusional like the rest of us and the spirit of his message appears well-intentioned. However, his philosophy comes really close to what I understand was the mistake of Lucifer himself. That is to say that there is no God because we each can be the complete determiner of our own destiny, we each ARE GOD.
This is completely out of tune with Jesus’ teaching. It couldn’t be further from what he says. God is our Father. This is not a Christian distortion of what Jesus says as Tolle would like to have us think. Jesus uses the term Father to describe God’s relationship to us for some really good reasons. One of the reasons is so we don’t get carried away and think that we ARE the Father. We are the children. We are some really confused, ignorant, creative, learning, well loved children.
Don’t let Tolle confuse you in this way. Jesus is Truth, God incarnate. The Buddha is not, I am not, and you are not. God is within you, but you are not He. There is an essential underlying arrogance in the belief that we are in essence actually God. This to me unveils the truth about Tolle’s own ego.
Second, as you said, he is not a Christian, but he speaks as if he is an authority on Jesus’ teachings. Wouldn’t that make him a Christian? Isn’t that what he claims the Christian Churches mistakenly did, set themselves up as the authority on Jesus? What is Tolle pointing to? What did you find that was so in line with Jesus’ message? I found very little. For instance, nowhere does Tolle talk about loving others as Jesus commanded us to “Love your neighbor . . . .” In fact, Tolle talks about love very little. Jesus did a lot.
You may have nearly destroyed your life while believing that Jesus is Lord, but you would hardly continue down the path of self-destruction in your life if you looked to understand and live by (this is the hard part!) His teachings a little bit more each day.
By the way, you are NOT broken. You are just learning like the rest of us. Jesus did not implore us to let go of our egos and our beliefs, he asked us to grow in faith. What does that mean? It means to be of service to each other. It means to learn to love one more of your fellows each day that you can. It means to learn not to be so selfish that you can’t see another’s point of view. It means that being right is not always what’s most important. I send my best wishes to you in hopes that your life is waking up in true peace. If Tolle is a part of that, great, but do beware of the bath water and there’s more of it than you might think.
Stacy, sorry to run away with my lengthy comments here, I hope you don’t mind. You may or may not agree with what I’ve said to Larry, but I felt compelled to say it to him so I hope it doesn’t clash too much with your idea of true teaching and end up in the deleted bin. If it does, so be it, you are the master of your blog.
The only thing I wanted to say about your post is that I think in this case Tolle means to say that we shouldn’t worry when he says Jesus says we should learn how to live from flowers. He just doesn’t explain that very well. Tolle means that Jesus’ message about how to live is free from worry. He just left out the “free from worry” part.
Smiles.
Censorship. You cannot allow folks to make up thier own minds. Delete. Delete. Delete. Delete. Delete. Delete. Delete. Delete. Delete. Delete. Delete.
When you don’t like what you read, you delete it. You don’t TRULY respond, you delete. What a crock. What a bunch of nonsense and hooey.
You did not read what I wrote. You did not respond to what I wrote. I won’t even take the time to respond to your nonsense words, clueless words and words that are so out of touch with reality as it is. You are bound to your religious thoughts. You feed on them.
Go ahead delete this as well. As you do, you will be asleep to the reason you are deleting them, just as you were when you deleted the others. You are ASLEEP to your own self and how you work.
“Larry” what I find funny about your response is this…
First, you can’t stand by your new age teachings as a “Christian” openly and publically because you fail to use your real name. So anonymous commentary is meaningless.
Second, your hissyfit above just shows you lack discernment and that you are asleep to the truth not me.
Third, if you want to share your new age ideas, feel free to start your own blog.
It is so easy to spot lies and false teaching when one knows the teachings of God’s Word, the Bible. Good work Stacy!
It is those who are ignorant of what the Bible clearly teaches who will, unfortunately, be led astray by reprobate theology and New Age “spirituality.”
The truth in the Bible exposes Oprah and her New Age gurus and heresy.
In Ecclesiastes, Solomon told us that “there is nothing new under the sun.” The false religions in that day attempted to corrupt true faith in the God of the Bible. Today, false religions are still attempting to corrupt the True Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Jesus told us to watch for the signs of the end of the age. The signs are coming at us at an alarming rate!!
The book of Jude is the last epistle in the Bible. It is placed just before the book of Revelation for a reason. It serves as a warning for true believers to watch out that no one deceives us!
It is interesting to note that Jude begins his epistle with the intention of writing to the recipients about their common salvation.
Then, he abruptly changes his plans. He is led, by the Holy Spirit of God, to write about something else. He wrote, “…I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.”
Jude found it necessary to contend earnestly for the faith! To whom? To the saints - those who belong to Jesus Christ.
Notice the terminology. Was this any kind of “new revelation?” No! We are told to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.
There is nothing new under the sun to add to the true gospel of Christ - or, the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.
This illustrates the errors, falsehood, heresy, and apostasy being sold to the public by Oprah and her various guru false teachers!
“Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:” (Ephesians 2:2)
“For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus,whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel,which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.†(2 Corinthians 11:4)
Don’t be fooled people!
Read Jude and be forewarned!