[Here is a brief extract from Chapter 3 in the upcoming Second Edition of my 750-page book, “The Serpent and the Cross: Religious Corruption in an Age of Evil” — an encyclopaedic expose of the historical development and modern growth from classical Gnosticism to the New Gnosticism (culminating in the real New Age Movement) in both the secular world and the visible church. It is hoped that this new edition of the book, originally published in its First Edition in 1994, will be ready for distribution in March 2025. If you would like to register your interest in receiving a copy, please contact Alan at diakrisis-project@outlook.com ].

THE CONCEPT OF AN OCCULT-INSPIRED COMING ‘NEW AGE’ ON THIS EARTH as it is presently constituted is no new idea. In fact, the very concept of a future Golden Age is a vital part of Satan’s plan, having been spawned by the old serpent in world-history as a counterfeit of the true New Age, which will be a completely ‘new heaven and new earth’, which will happen in a totally-reconstituted cosmos as prophesied in the Old Testament Book of Isaiah (Isaiah 65:17; 66:22), and vividly portrayed in the Book of Revelation (Revelation 21:1 – 22:5). Therefore, when anyone — whether a politician, philosopher, or occultist — speaks about a Golden Age coming on this earth as it is presently constituted, they are both liars and false prophets.

The fallen archangel, Satan, as a diligent student of Scripture, knows very well that his future doom, and that of all his followers, is openly marked out within its pages (Genesis 3:15; Isaiah 27:1; Revelation 12:12; 20:10). His aim, therefore, in proposing an alternative “heaven on earth”, is to lull the people of the world into a false sense of security so that they will not realise that instead of a “heaven on earth” there is actually a “wrath to come” from which they must flee (Matthew 3:7, where the ‘wrath to come’ is not only a reference to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 but also to the day of judgement at the end of this age). Because he has no real kingdom of his own to offer, the best Satan can do is to attempt to prevent as many souls as possible from entering the true kingdom of heaven inaugurated by the Christ. Thus, he holds out to the people of the world the false hope of a coming “heaven on earth” which he reckons will prove to be a more attractive proposition than the eternal life proclaimed in the Christian Gospel.

In keeping with this “dog-in-the-manger” aim, Neo-Gnostic writers have taken the interpretation of biblical prophecy on board in a big way, especially that which relates to their projected earthly millennium (which is very much akin to the spurious ‘millennium’ expected by many Christians due to their misinterpretation of the “thousand years” mentioned in chapter 20 of the Book of Revelation). The Book of Revelation is especially susceptible to this treatment by Gnostics, occultists, and Neo-Gnostics, only it is subjected to the most atrocious allegorisation. For example, in a typical Neo-Gnostic interpretation of the Book of Revelation, the New Age biologist Peter Russell writes:

“If the Revelation of St. John were to be considered metaphorically as well as literally, “Christ” would symbolise this inner source of wisdom. The dependent and conditioned mode of thought — the ego-mind — would then be symbolized by the “Antichrist”. It is that aspect of ourselves that stands against our inner knowing — it is anti-“the Christ within”… The good news is that St. John foresees the battle of Armageddon being won by Christ — suggesting that our higher knowing will eventually defeat the Antichrist within. Then Christ’s kingdom reigns. This we might interpret as a world freed from the dictates of our ego-mind, a world in which a liberated mind is the norm rather than the exception… There will, at last, be peace on earth — the inner peace we have been seeking all along” (Peter Russell, The White Hole in Time: Our Future Evolution and the Meaning of Now, Aquarian Press, 1992, p.178.).

In squeezing his psychologized pathway to a Golden Age on earth out of the Book of Revelation, Peter Russell has rendered an interpretation which may be compatible with the mindset of a graduate in philosophy, psychology, and comparative religion but one which would have been completely lost on the persecuted Christians of the late first century — or, indeed, of any era of the Church. The Apostle John was writing not because of any desire to be “free of the dictates of the ego-mind” in order to tap into an “inner source of wisdom”, but as a “companion in tribulation” (Revelation 1:9), for the comfort of all those among God’s people who suffer persecution because of their willingness to openly proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This highly cavalier approach to the Scriptures is yet another perennial hallmark of Gnosticism, whether old or new, and New Agers. When referring to the ancient Gnostics’ approach to the New Testament, the great J.L. Mosheim points out in his superlative “Ecclesiastical History” that they:

“not only interpreted these sacred books most absurdly, by neglecting the true spirit of the words and the intention of the writers, but also corrupted them in the most perfidious manner, by curtailing and adding, in order to remove what was unfavourable, or to produce something conformable to their pernicious and extravagant system” (J.L. Mosheim, An Ecclesiastical History, Ancient & Modern, from the Birth of Christ to the Beginning of the Eighteenth Century, Blackie, Fullarton & Co., 1827, Vol. I, p.39).

One of the main reasons why this Golden Age on earth has always grabbed so many people’s attention is because it represents ‘hope’ in an apparently hopeless and futile world of existential despair (what Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre would have called ‘Le Théâtre de l’Absurde’). As this book progresses, we will see this ‘hopium’-based Golden Age theme repeated in numerous guises. For the concept of a Golden Age on earth has a compelling universal attraction to Everyman of whatever religion or none. However, is it not somewhat ironic that in spite of the Gnostic view of matter as an intrinsically evil product of the Fall, the promoters of the New Age and Golden Age on earth should seek to anchor their “heaven” within the material confines of the universe as it is presently constituted? It seems that they have not considered this glaring contradiction. Contradictory as it is, Gnostics will always seek to “bring down heaven on earth” — this present material earth plane in a fallen cosmos. As Professor Wolfgang Smith so aptly puts it:

“In place of an Eschaton which ontologically transcends the confines of this world, the modern Gnostic envisions an End within history, an Eschaton, therefore, which is to be realized within the ontological plane of this visible universe”. (Wolfgang Smith, Teilhardism and the New Religion, TAN Books, 1988, p.238.)

Why should this be? Why is it that the Gnostic, Neo-Gnostic, or ‘Maitreyan Transformation’ type of New Ager — in spite of his or her belief that humanity is entrapped in coarse matter — will always seek to create heaven right here on earth in the midst of that very coarse matter? Surely, the reason is because it is the earth which is the sole domain of his master, Satan. Since Satan’s defeat by the Christ, he no longer has any access to heaven and his sphere of activity has been limited to the earth, its immediate environs, and etheric ‘air’ around it (See Revelation 12:7-9; cf. Ephesians 2:2. This etheric envelope referred to by Paul as “the air” was first referred to earlier in Chapter 2, §1 as the domain of demons, fallen angels who were cast down to the earth as revealed in Revelation 12 and as predicted by Jesus Himself before He went to the cross, Luke 10:18).

Thus, the old serpent, the devil and Satan, for all his self-styled ingenuity, can never promise a heaven in any other location than on the earth as it is presently constituted! That is the best he can ever offer, although it seems to be enough for all those who are duped by his wiles. This is also the reason for the current Neo-Gnostic obsession with the Earth as “The Great Mother”. Today, the “Greens” and ecologists have revived the ancient pantheistic concept of the planet as “Gaia” — the Greek goddess and name for Mother Earth (See, for example, J.E. Lovelock, Gaia, Oxford University Press, 1979), often referred to by polytheists as “the oldest of divinities” (Barbara G. Walker (ed.), The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, Harper & Row, 1983, p.332). This divinisation of the earth is a classic Gnostic stamping-ground. As the gnostic psychologist, occultist and OSS agent, C.G. Jung has written:

“According to [the alchemist] Basilius Valentinus, the earth (as prima materia) is not a dead body, but is inhabited by a spirit that is its life and soul. All created things, minerals included, draw their strength from this earth-spirit. This spirit is life…and it gives nourishment to all the living things it shelters in its womb” (C.G. Jung, Psychology and Alchemy, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1957, p.329).

Earth magic, leylines, power points, cosmic portals, nature spirits, the current obsession with the earth and its eco-system — all these fetishes and sacred cows of the Neo-Gnostic are intimately connected with the fact that the sole focus of Satan’s activity in this age is the earth as it is presently constituted. Although a healthy concern for the environment and its wildlife is a worthy one, and even a biblical one (Genesis 1:26-31; 2:15; Proverbs 12:10; Deuteronomy 25:4), the true disciple of Christ could never make a god or goddess out of the planet, having been exhorted to avoid idolatry and to set his or her affections on the things which are above (Exodus 20:3-4; Colossians 3:1-3). The grand irony is that in spite of the fact that the Gnostic believes in the inherent evil of matter and his great need to be liberated from entrapment in it, he is forever earthbound until he is released from his bondage to Satan, who is the god of this world and age and under whose power are all those who do not come to Christ (2 Corinthians 4:3-4; 1 John 5:19).

This earth is the full extent of Satan’s haunt, and he makes the most of it, offering there a pretended perfection, peace, and a future Golden Age, if only people will follow him. However, just as he could not fulfil his promise to our first parents of avoidance of death if they succumbed to his temptation in Eden (Genesis 3:4-6), so he cannot even deliver a “heaven on earth”, as history will finally prove (Revelation 18:21).

The promise of a future Golden Age on earth offered by Satan and his acolytes — whether they be Rosicrucian, political-liberationist, Neo-Gnostic, New Age advocate or otherwise — will always be a huge confidence trick. For it can only ever be, at best, the cosmic equivalent of a house-party on a sinking ship.

Throughout this present Age, human beings are being gathered into two spiritual bodies: One is the body of Christ (Ephesians 1:22-23), the other is the body of Antichrist (Revelation 13:4,8,12). One is an organism of quickened souls, the other is an organisation of dying rebels. The body being gathered by Antichrist is a counterfeit of the body being brought in by Christ. Thus, these two bodies are being prepared in entirely different ways and are working with entirely different material. The former is being gathered by the Holy Spirit, enabling all believers to be “baptized into one body” (1 Corinthians 12:13), whereas the latter is being unified and confederated by “the spirit of the Antichrist” (1 John 4:3), which is “the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2). The body of Christ is being prepared out of living material (1 Peter 2:4-5), having been “raised from the dead…[to] newness of life” (Romans 6:4; cf. Colossians 2:12); whereas the body of Antichrist is being built up with dying matter. Therefore, regardless of the aims of politicians or ideological visionaries to create a “New World Order”, a “Brotherhood of Man”, a “Great Society”, or a “Golden Age”, they can only ever construct their dreams on the foundations of decay. As one writer expresses it:

“Satan cannot create an organism; he can only form an organisation. Hence, he is drawing unquickened human beings together around the unifying idea of “fraternity”, or “co-operation”, or “society”, and is diligently propagating the belief that, when that great organisation takes shape, the permanent advantage of all mankind will be secured. When this body is formed (as it surely will be), then the expected leader or head will be brought forth, that ‘man of destiny’, ‘whose coming is according to the working of Satan, with all power and signs and wonders of falsehood, and in every deceit of unrighteousness in them that perish’” (Philip Mauro, The Number of Man: The Climax of Civilisation, Morgan & Scott, 1910, p.53).

Since the time of the Fall of Adam, the godless world has been an orphaned family without an earthly head. Having also rejected the One who came in His Father’s Name, when the time comes that their natural master ‘comes in his own name’, ‘him they will receive’ (John 5:43). Whereas the mass of people rejected the true Christ and put Him to death when He came among them with His faithful promises, they will welcome the advent of the Antichrist with his lying designs and hail him as their saviour.

Thus, Socio-Political Utopianism is a supreme illusion which can only ever give crumbs of false comfort before the inevitable collapse of human history. There can be no Golden Age until every vestige of evil, which is the leading principle of this present age (Galatians 1:4), has been wholly eradicated from the cosmos, as indeed it will be (Revelation 20:9 – 21:5).

[The above is a brief extract from Chapter 3 in the upcoming Second Edition of my 750-page book, “The Serpent and the Cross: Religious Corruption in an Age of Evil”. It is hoped that this new edition will be ready in March 2025. If you would like to register your interest in receiving a copy, please contact Alan at diakrisis-project@outlook.com ].

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© Copyright, Alan Morrison, 2023
[The copyright on my works is merely to protect them from any wanton plagiarism which could result in undesirable changes (as has actually happened!). Readers are free to reproduce my work, so long as it is in the same format and with the exact same content and its origin is acknowledged]

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