Mention the New Age movement and you're likely to get amused condescension:  "Oh yes, crystals."  "Oh yes, astrology."  To many people, the New Age movement means trendy gimmicks and silly superstitions.  That should concern us.  For the New Age movement is more than a matter of this technique or that gimmick. What underlies all these surface phenomena is a way of looking at life, a philosophy, a world view, a faith.  And it is a faith hostile to Christian faith.

I can think of no better way to explain the New Age world view than by quoting extensively from a children's book I just read.  A classic, I might add. (And you thought you could trust the classics to be harmless?) It's entitled The Secret Garden, by Francis Hodgson Burnett.

Most of you who have children will probably recognize the title.  But how many of you noticed that about two-thirds of the way through the book, the author launches into a straightforward explication of Hindu pantheism? (Do you know what your children are reading?)

Sex is for marriage, and marriage is for life. In adultery you are married but betray your spouse by having an affair, by fantasizing about someone or panting after pornography, or by divorcing a faithful spouse and marrying someone else. In fornication you are single but selfishly seek sex without a lifelong marriage commitment, through impure dating, prostitution, or "living together." In homosexualism you want someone of the same gender to satisfy your romantic and sexual longings. God forbids all such sins. He commands his people to have sexual union only in a faithful marriage to a fellow Christian of the opposite sex, or else to remain single and abstain from sexual relations.

If you are a Christian, Jesus didn't just buy your soul; he bought your body. You body is the Holy Spirit's temple. Indeed, your body is a member of Christ himself. So before doing something with your body, be sure it pleases the Lord within you and not just your sinful nature. Once you unite yourself to the Lord in spirit, you must not unite your body to anyone unless that person is a spouse of the opposite sex who is also united to Jesus in spirit.