⏱️ Estimated Reading Time: 5 min read
The Hidden Ways New Age Ideas Enter the Church
Contending for the Word Q&A with Doreen Virtue
Show Summary
Question: What draws so many Christians toward New Age ideas that are disguised as spiritual practices?
In this Contending for the Word Q&A episode, Doreen Virtue explains how New Age practices and beliefs quietly seep into the church. She shows how spiritual shortcuts, emotional experiences, cultural pressure, and false teaching create an environment where New Age deception can flourish. Drawing from her testimony and grounding everything in Scripture, she helps believers recognize these counterfeits and stay anchored in the Word of God.
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Key Scriptures
- Colossians 1:20
- Jeremiah 17:9
- Psalm 34:18
- Ephesians 5:11
- James 4:6
- Proverbs 3:5
- Psalm 119:105
Episode Highlights
- Spiritual shortcuts without repentance: New Age practices promise peace, healing, and empowerment while denying sin, repentance, judgment, and the reality of hell.
- Appeal to emotions and experiences: Feelings, intuition, and emotional highs are treated as spiritual truth rather than being tested by Scripture.
- Biblical language with New Age meanings: Words like meditation, energy, presence, manifestation, and mindfulness are used in ways that contradict biblical teaching.
- Hurt, trauma, and the search for comfort: Those who are wounded or anxious are often drawn to New Age techniques that seem soothing but are spiritual counterfeits.
- Cultural glamorizing of the occult: Astrology, crystals, oracle cards, yoga as spirituality, and manifestation are promoted as harmless wellness trends.
- Syncretism and false teachers: Some leaders mix New Age concepts with Christian language, confusing believers who are not grounded in Scripture.
- The pull of pride: New Age spirituality flatters the self, offering the illusion of secret knowledge, inner power, and goddess language instead of humble dependence on the Lord.
Full Article
New Age spirituality does not usually march into the church with an obvious label. Instead, it comes in quietly, wrapped in spiritual sounding language and promises of peace, healing, and empowerment. For many professing Christians, the attraction begins with a desire to feel better, to gain control, or to find comfort for real pain.
Doreen explains that the New Age denies the reality of sin and repentance and often blames historic Christianity for concepts like judgment and hell. In contrast, Scripture teaches that true peace comes only through the finished work of Jesus Christ, who reconciles sinners to God through the cross. Any spirituality that offers peace while denying the cross and repentance is a counterfeit.
New Age ideas also elevate experience over truth. People are encouraged to follow their hearts, look for signs, and trust their intuition. Yet God’s Word teaches that the heart is deceitful and that believers are to walk by faith in what God has revealed, not by shifting feelings. When Christians are not rooted in the Bible, emotional highs and euphoric experiences can be mistaken for the work of the Holy Spirit.
Another danger comes from the way New Age teachers borrow biblical vocabulary while redefining the terms. Meditation becomes emptying the mind instead of filling it with God’s Word. Manifestation becomes a way to attempt to bend reality toward personal desires, rather than praying for God’s will to be done. Energy work and similar practices present themselves as healing, but they are spiritual counterfeits that pull people away from trusting the Lord.
For many, the doorway into these practices is deep hurt. Those who have suffered trauma, anxiety, or physical illness may be drawn to anything that seems to offer quick relief. In a culture that glamorizes astrology, crystals, goddess language, and occult practices, it is easy to assume that these things are harmless. Scripture gives a very different picture and calls these works of darkness rather than neutral wellness tools.
Doreen also warns about the role of false teachers who mix New Age concepts with Christian language. When pastors and leaders introduce visualization, declarations, and energy concepts while calling them biblical prayer or Holy Spirit fire, believers who are not grounded in Scripture can be led astray. God’s Word warns that false teachers will arise from within the visible church and that their teaching must be tested by Scripture.
Ultimately, New Age spirituality appeals to human pride. It tells people that they are powerful, enlightened, and spiritually advanced. The Bible, however, calls believers to humility, repentance, and wholehearted trust in Christ. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble, and His Word is the lamp that keeps us from stumbling into spiritual darkness.
Understanding why these counterfeits are so attractive helps Christians recognize the danger, turn from deception, and cling to the Lord Jesus and His Word. As we hold fast to the Scriptures, we can lovingly warn others and point them to the only Savior who truly heals, forgives, and gives lasting peace.
Takeaways and Reflection Questions
- Where have you seen New Age ideas or practices presented as harmless or even Christian in your own circles?
- Are there areas in your life where you have been tempted to seek peace, comfort, or control apart from Christ and His Word?
- How can you better test spiritual teachings and experiences by Scripture rather than by how they make you feel?
- Who in your life might be vulnerable to New Age deception, and how can you gently point them back to the truth of God’s Word?
Call to Action
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Doreen Virtue holds a Master’s degree in Biblical & Theological Studies with highest honors from Western Seminary (56 units / 2021), and an MA in Counseling Psychology from Chapman University. Prior to being saved by God‘s grace and mercy in 2017, Doreen was a psychotherapist specializing in women’s issues, rated in the top 15 most influential living spiritual teachers by Watkins, and the top selling new age author in the world. She was born and raised in new thought churches which she attended for 33 years, before segueing to new age and Wicca in 1991 while touring with a mind-body-spirit conference organization. Before her salvation, Doreen frequently appeared on Oprah, CNN, The View, Coast to Coast and other liberal secular media. After the Holy Spirit convicted her of her sins, while she read Deuteronomy 18:10-12, Doreen repented and gave her life to Jesus as her Lord and Savior. Doreen has been helping professing Christians to identify and avoid new age and new thought deception. Doreen volunteers in discipling women who’ve been saved out of New Age in a private Facebook group. Doreen was a speaker at the Answers in Genesis 2025 women’s conference at the Ark Encounter. She has been featured on American Gospel 3, American Gospel TV, Daily Wire, Moody Radio, Spillover, Christianity Today, Cultish, New York Magazine, Spiritual Counterfeits Project, Servants of Grace, and other Christian media.
