A New Earth, An Old Deception: Awakening to the Dangers of Eckhart Tolle and His #1 Bestseller – by Richard Abanes – Bethany House – ISBN: 978-0-7642-0664-1 – 2008 – 190 pages – Trade paperback: $4.80 on Amazon.com
“Well, I am a Christian who believes that there are certainly many more paths to God other than Christianity.” — Oprah Winfrey, webcast, 2008
So saith a popular icon and would-be arbiter of the culture who enjoys a bully pulpit on national television. Winfrey occasionally uses her cachet to promote dreck such as Eckhart Tolle’s mashup of “Christian” religion and New Age sophistry, A New Earth.
Richard Abanes’ book about Tolle and his thinking completely dismantles every major argument Tolle proffers; in eighty detailed responses, he shows how far from true, Biblical Christianity Tolle has strayed. The sad thing is, Tolle’s sincerity in wanting to help people, which is probably genuine, has led him away from Biblical truth, resulting in self-deception (of himself) and engendering deception of others. Note a possibly relevant Biblical prophecy:
Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils…. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.—1 and 2 Timothy (KJV)
Abanes continually contrasts Tolle’s dubious doctrines with what the Bible says, and in every instance Tolle loses. It’s interesting, as Abanes notes, that Tolle quotes Scripture more than twenty times in his book, with Shakespeare being referred to only twice—and every time, Tolle twists the Bible quotes to fit into his own peculiar philosophy.
So, what can be gained by listening to Tolle? Here’s Abane’s summary of what Tolle claims to offer:
… an end to suffering, solutions to psychological troubles, and even cures for physical ailments. Total peace and happiness are there for the taking as well. Addictions can become a thing of the past, and everything desired can be achieved…. But there is more to be gained. According to Tolle, if enough people become enlightened to his Truth, then humanity will be able to achieve worldwide peace and harmony—i.e., a New Earth populated by “a new species” of human being. Crime will be eradicated. Wars will cease. Selfishness and greed will no longer reign in our governments.
Clearly, Tolle thinks he has the answers to all of life’s problems, and Oprah evidently thinks so, too. This sort of megalomaniacal pursuit of universal altruism has been common throughout human history, and it typically leads to disaster.
As for the sources of Tolle’s knowledge (a word that contradicts his constant injunction to his students to stop thinking), Abanes shows how syncretistic and self-contradictory the writer’s notions are:
Eckhart Tolle is a highly eclectic New Ager whose bedrock belief is that “there is and always has been only one spiritual teaching.” To reveal this one teaching, however, he borrows liberally from a wide array of sources scattered far and wide across the religious-philosophical landscape. He is a remarkably skillful mixologist, in fact, when it comes to using different strains of spirituality and faith, adroitly taking quotes from not only spiritual luminaries of today, but religious leaders of the past…. Indeed, Tolle’s views are very old. To be specific, his spiritual elixir of “Truth” has been brewed using ingredients distilled from Buddhism, Hinduism, Sufism, Mystical Islam, Christianity, Gnosticism, and Taoism. And for an extra kick of pluralistic flavoring, he has added elements refined from the teachings of assorted Eastern gurus, fellow New Agers, ancient holy texts, and modern self-help books [including but not limited to] Marianne Williamson, … Meister Eckhart, … A Course in Miracles, … Ram Dass, . . . the Bible, . . . the Bhagavad Gita, . . . the Tao Te Ching, . . . Ramana Maharashi and J. Krishnamurti, . . . and the Kabbalah. [Emphasis added.]
If Oprah is actually buying Tolle’s snake oil, then she truly does believe “that there are certainly many more paths to God other than Christianity.” This is not a trivial, merely intellectual concern. Winfrey’s close friend President Obama has made it known that he shares her belief in the “many paths to God” idea, as noted in a 2004 article in the Chicago Sun-Times featuring an interview with Obama when he was running for the U.S. Senate:
“I’m rooted in the Christian tradition [said Obama]. I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people. That there are values that transcend race or culture, that move us forward, and there’s an obligation for all of us individually as well as collectively to take responsibility to make those values lived.” …. It’s perhaps an unlikely theological position for someone who places his faith squarely at the feet of Jesus to take, saying essentially that all people of faith—Christians, Jews, Muslims, animists, everyone—know the same God. [Emphasis added]
Yes, it is. Despite Obama’s characteristically equivocal language, it’s plain that the current President of the United States subscribes to at least one of the underlying doctrines promoted by Winfrey and her spiritual guide, Eckhart Tolle. Make of that what you will.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Appendix:
The reviews of A New Earth, An Old Deception on Amazon.com are overwhelmingly negative—which, when considering the sources, I find encouraging. Typical is this one:
Richard Abanes has produced a completely predictable and unsubtle fundamentalist Christian attack on Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth. He doesn’t look in much detail at Tolle’s overall work but selects phrases he wants to be quite superior and snide about. He seems to love throwing around the phrase ‘New Age’ as a term of self-evident foolishness. His brief and amateur analysis of Tolle’s experience in terms of near death experience and false self is utterly superficial. His attitude towards Tolle (and by implication towards others like Krishnmaurti) is wholly unloving. Of course, understood from his own framework of Biblical literalism, it all makes sense, and I imagine it appealing only to those wishing to be confirmed in that unintelligent and unyielding framework. Abanes is also highly selective regarding Biblical texts, avoiding all liberal Christian generosity. Tolle is not without his faults (he also has some areas of superficial analysis and a rather facile belief in democratic access to the now) but Tolle gives off far more love and understanding than Abanes.
Behold the ad hominem buzzwords and phrases that are used as substitutes for analysis: “unsubtle fundamentalist Christian”; “doesn’t look”; “superior and snide”; “utterly superficial”; “wholly unloving”; “Biblical literalism”; “unintelligent and unyielding framework”; “avoiding all liberal Christian generosity”; and “far more love and understanding.” I’d say Richard Abanes, in a righteous cause, has struck a nerve: “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me [Jesus] before it hated you.” — John 15:18 (KJV)
~~~~~~~~~~
Richard Abanes’ Amazon.com author page is here.
The Chicago Sun-Times interview with Barack Obama is here.
—Mike Gray
Bill — What’s the point the author “has completely missed”? What’s the other point he has proven?
“He/she uses religion as a way to be right, a way to be better than other people, a way to differentiate friends and enemies. Is that what Jesus did? Is that what Jesus would do now?”
Jesus himself differentiated between friends (of whom He had so few) and enemies (of whom there were millions in His day and billions nowadays). Moreover, He said explicitly:
“Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to SET A MAN AT VARIANCE AGAINST HIS FATHER, AND THE DAUGHTER AGAINST HER MOTHER, AND THE DAUGHTER IN LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER IN LAW. And A MAN’S FOES SHALL BE THEY OF HIS OWN HOUSEHOLD. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” (Matthew 10:34-37).
Since Jesus was the embodiment of Truth, everything He said was the Truth. The “sword” He spoke of was Truth itself.
Jesus did all He could when He was on earth to bring Truth to humanity and His was a finished work. “What would Jesus do?” is, therefore, a pointless question.
— Mike Gray
Well, the author of this article/blog post/whatever has completely missed one point and proven another. He/she uses religion as a way to be right, a way to be better than other people, a way to differentiate friends and enemies. Is that what Jesus did? Is that what Jesus would do now?
Eckhart Tolle review
Eckhart Tolle’s book is an attempt to awaken you to your life’s purpose but there are no meaningful instructions to take you there. Eckhart is focused on a symptom of the problem that he believes is the problem, “the ego” and I would suggest that this manifestation of the problem is certainly a red flag. However there was never a doctor who could cure patience’s problem by treating their symptoms. Like many doctors, Tolle misdiagnoses the patience and falls victim to the very thing that he makes confident assertions about. Eckhart suggests a treatment to close the hole of self only to discover there are always more openings.
“I think therefore I am” – thought is a product of the mind and without the mind there would be no perception of self or the body you possess. It was God who said “Come now, and let us reason together” (Isaiah 1:18) because He engineered your body and wants you to operate in the mechanics of His design so He can receive the glory. If we do not obey before we know (faith) it will be the mind that is responsible in producing the misperception of who you are this illusory sense of identity. This illusory sense of self or the arrogance that could be called the ego that Albert Einstein referred to as “an optical illusion of consciousness”. And Tolle’s statement “That illusory self then becomes the basis for all further interpretations, or rather misinterpretations of reality, all thought processes, interactions, and relationships, your reality becomes a reflection of the original illusion,” is certainly true. Tolle may not have the answer but I believe he has a good understanding of the problem. Tolle also quotes Jesus in an attempt to give validity to his theology along with many others, but it was only Jesus who said in John 14:6 “I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.”
Eckhart’s solution to dissolve this illusion all come down to the word “‘if’ you can recognize illusion as illusion, it dissolves. The recognition of illusion is also its ending.” Nobody would disagree with his deduction. But a simple illustration of a man walking through a desert without water can test his deduction. It is not until he receives a drink of water can he believe that what he sees is nothing more than an optical illusion stemming from he imbalance state of body and mind.
If the mind or the brain is still in the same physical state that produced this illusion of self then it has no ability to see itself relative to truth. The fact that the mind in its unbalanced physical state has produced an ego is irrelevant and to try to recognize the countless illusions the mind is capable of generating is in itself absurd.
Unbelief comes from a polluted mind or a body that lacks the energy to maintain a balanced state. A mind cannot change its state without acting on the knowledge of the truth but the mind will not recognize truth as knowledge because it has been chemically programmed to reconfigure truth.
Purification comes with a cost of suffering, by the effects of a chemical withdrawal, in order to break our self-conceived ideas on how we see reality. A mind that has not been re-wired has no ability to be enlightened by divine teaching, because it is already programmed to arrange any new knowledge within its own pre-established formula, as to preserve its addictions, and therefore cannot discern the between the holy and the profane. Romans16:18 For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting. Tolle and many other men come across so convincing because they have no idea they are completely controlled by their addictions to their own appetites. Our so called wise and learned men come across completely sincere because they have no idea their judgment have been impaired. Their rational seems logical and is received with applause because they are appealing to an audience who baths in the same pool of impediments. 2 Cor10:12 For we are not bold to class or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves; but when they measure themselves by themselves, and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding. Pro16:25 There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.
Joh8:34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. Only a relatively short period of time is needed in practicing sin, (or letting the flesh choose) before the brain sets up receivers to accommodate this new chemical addiction that reinforces the appetite. Like a drug addict on the street you are trapped and enslaved to serve your habit by the law of cause and effect.
It is easy to sit back and tell someone that they do not have and answer to the problem and never using our own logic or deduction of reasoning to find the answer. Jesus tells us that we need to follow Him through regeneration, Mat19:28 Truly I tell you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration … We were once there as little children. One of the parts which will be renewed is the mind, Rom12:2 “… but transformed by the renewing of your mind … All regeneration and renewing is centered around “things” in you that are not of your DNA but make up almost 50% of your dry body weight. They turn out to be little separate creatures that are the engine that drives every one of your cells, including your brain cells. Without them doing their job, the human body could not exist and to deplete there numbers is to take us to the depth of depravity. 1 Cor1:27 But God chose the foolish things of this world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are so that no one may boast before him. The problem is these creatures replicate, privately, in their own fashion and if you do not provide the environment they need to regenerate you will never have a mind or thought process “that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom12:2). If man could live on bread alone we would not need the word of God to instruct us. But food alone brings only a degenerate state.
Each of us has three witnesses about us, which cannot lie, The Holy Spirit, your urine and your blood. All three will bare witness and will be in agreement as to your regeneration, relative to the standard. Tolle’s meditation and mindless approach to consciousness will certainly cause the blood and water to bare a different witness but what about the Spirit, and relative to what? If you do not know what will be acceptable then you cannot evaluate his method.
For an in-depth comprehensible study on the standard, the environment needed and how the Spirit logically led me to this place of surrender please go to http://www.freedomcatchthespirit.com
Robert Sinnamon
[email protected]
I read a bit of this book because my Christian friend sent it to me. I couldn’t even get through it because I felt so sorry for the author. I used to be a Christian, until I actually read the bible. I went to bible study and minister would read a passage and tell us what was meant by it. Now, I never went to seminary school, but when I read those same passages, they meant something completely different to me. Who’s interpretation is right? If the words in the bible need to be explained to me, and if Christianity is something my logical mind needs to be convinced of, then I can’t believe in something I have to be talked into, that’s manipulation. If you were to read the original ‘A New Earth’ and are actually spiritually ready, you don’t need to be convinced of anything.
The man compared the feeling of ‘Being’ that Eckhart described to ‘burning in the bussom’ that mormans claim in their faith. I had to laugh when I read this argument because I know what Eckhart meant by ‘feeling your self’ and the author of ‘an old deception’ is thinking too much and needs to turn off all the chatter that has been driven into his head by his religion and just be in the moment with his self so he can know the truth of his existence.
Another argument was that eckhart is just borrowing ideas from other religions and this is true (however, he has made it simpler for the average american). He never said it was a new idea, it actually proves that it’s not just his false prophet ways, but a truth that precedes Christianity. Jesus was very misunderstood and that was a point Eckhart made in the book. Why was my pastor the one who got what Jesus meant? How do any of us know what his parables meant, they were sometimes very vague. The guy that wrote this other book actually used the exact same verse from the bible Eckhart did, except he twisted it around to criticize Eckhart.
Another thing he did that was pretty funny, is that he put words into Eckhart’s mouth and then called him a hypocrite for it.
All in all, this book is Christianity in a nutshell: manipulate words and scripture to convince others that something is evil just because you don’t understand it.
the religion of my grandfather is Hinduism and he says that it is a great religion.-‘~