New Age research continues: Blavatsky dies, replaced

In her last days Blavatsky suffered from heart disease, rheumatism and Bright’s disease. It was probably the complications from influenza, however, that took her life May 8, 1891. Theosophists commemorate her death on May 8, with White Lotus Day.

Blavatsky was succeeded as head of the Theosophical Society by Annie Wood Besant (1847-1933), who actively supported progressive causes, bringing another generation of liberal intellectuals into the society.

At 19 Annie Wood married Rev. Frank Besant, a Church of England clergyman. It was an ill-fated marriage, however, because her independent spirit clashed with the traditional views of her husband. She began to question her religious beliefs and when she refused to attend communion, her husband dismissed her from his house. After that Besant completely rejected Christianity and joined the Secular Society in 1874. In 1877 she published the Gospel of Atheism and The Fruits of Philosophy, Charles Knowlton’s book promoting birth control. She then published her own book on the same subject, The Laws of Population.

Somewhere around 1889 Besant joined the Theosophical Society. She quickly applied her energy, skills and enthusiasm to this new religious cause. She soon moved to India to study Hindu ideas (karma, reincarnation, nirvana) which were foundational to Theosophy. She returned to England often to speak for Theosophy and social reform. She was active in the British suffrage movement where she was considered an important speaker.

While in India Annie joined the struggle for Indian Home Rule, and during the First World War was jailed by the British authorities for her seditious acts. She lived in India until her death in 1933.

Alice Bailey (1880-xxxx) was another English woman who discovered the works of Madame Blavatsky and became active in the Theosophical Society. And like Annie Besant, her marriage to an Episcopal clergyman ended in divorce. Her husband, Walter Evans, was a wife-beater so the church moved him far away from Alice and her three daughters. She considered Christianity, which she had previously followed, too narrow and dogmatic. She felt the Theosophical Society offered her wider spiritual horizons, though the figure of Christ remained central to her beliefs.

Born Alice Ann La Trobe-Bateman in 1880, she was raised in a wealthy home and orthodox Christian environment. At an early age she started questioning the meaning of life and the validity of the religious doctrines of her time. She was a very intelligent, but unhappy, bad tempered girl, for whom life wasn’t worth living. All this plus a certain amount of curiosity about life and death led her to attempt suicide three times before she was 15.

Bateman had a memorable experience when she was 15 while sitting in the drawing room reading. The door opened and in walked a tall man dressed in European clothes but with a tall turban on his head. “He told me there was some work that was planned that I could do in the world but that it would entail my changing my disposition considerably; I would have to give up being such an unpleasant little girl and must try to get some measure of self-control. My future usefulness to him and to the world was dependent on how I handled myself and the changes I could manage to make. He said, ‘that if I could achieve real self-control I could then be trusted and that I would travel all over the world and visit many countries doing your Master’s work all the time.’ He added that he would be in touch with her at intervals of seven years apart,” she said.

Blavatsky’s doctrine of occult masters led her to identify the man, Kut Humi (or Koot Humi) who was really a spirit, who had guided her since the age of 15. “I discovered he was not the Master Jesus, as I had naturally suspected.” In 1919 she was contacted by the spirit of another individual who she called ‘the Tibetan’ by the name of Djwhal Khul (or Master DK). After some reluctance she agreed to be his subject. The result of the agreement was a series of 19 books which she claims the Tibetan dictated to her through an inner voice.

“I remain in full control of my senses of perception . . . I simply listen and take down the words that I hear and register the thoughts which are dropped one by one into my brain . . . I have never changed anything that the Tibetan has ever given to me . . . I do not always understand what is given. I do not always agree. But I record it all honestly and then discover it does make sense and evokes intuitive response.” This is a clear example of a channeled communication, incorporating elements from the medium’s subconscious with an elevated entity expressing itself through her subconscious.

Bateman’s first job at the center was as a vegetarian cook, scrubbing the bottom of garbage pails. She was a good pupil and soon rose through the ranks to become the editor of the American Theosophists’ newspaper. She later grew disillusioned with the intrigues of the Theosophical Society and ceased to play an active part in it, but she always recognized the “valuable part” that Theosophy had played in her life.

Bateman met Foster Bailey around the time she started working at the Theosophy Center. He was a lawyer and a 33rd degree Scottish Rite Freemason who devoted his life to ancient wisdom. They were married in 1920. By 1922 the Baileys had started the Lucis Trust Publishing Company, the Arcane School in 1923, and by 1932 the World Goodwill. Bailey spent the majority of her years working out what she referred to as “The Plan.”

The term “New Age” at one time referred to a movement started by followers of Alice Bailey’s ideas concerning the coming New Age. Since the late 1960’s, the New Age Movement has broadened its current meaning. No longer a single belief system, it is an aggregate of beliefs and practices (syncretism) which are drawn from earlier myths and religions.

Next segment will include more on the Bailey's influence, not only inside the coming New Agement, but in the world at large (the United Nations).


Bug-a-bugs lose this one

I want to report a positive ending, or should I say episode, to my computer dilemma of last week. I got my computer back, and low and behold, my files were back. I don't know what happened, i'm just happy that they are back. Seemingly the computer is back to normal. Although I have spent considerable time on the phone with AT&T working on browser problems. As of this morning I think they are fixed.

Forgive my lateness in getting back to the blog. I have added another time-consuming duty into my schedule. I'm now teaching an adult class at my church. Adults today are well educated and they deserve a good lesson. So I am spending several hours a week preparing to teach them. Eventually I'll get it down to where I know what I'm doing. Naturally I'm learning more than anyone. And I'm getting to know some fantastic people.

Check out the article below about the church and cultural issues. We are facing a major problem with cultural issues. This problem will only become more acute as the so-called "Mexican invasion" continues. Read it carfully and prayerfully and then decide how you can help your church deal with the situation.

Yesterday's SS lesson was from Acts 2. You remember how "they" were in the upper room awaiting the coming of the Holy Spirit. And how they were in "one accord"? What if we, in our churches, could all be in one accord today? What do you think might, or at least could happen? Roll that around in your mind for awhile and get back to me. I dare you to think about it.

Take care and God bless. Until the next time.
Buddy Vance Norville

Ya Gotta Do Both: Biblical Fidelity AND Cultural Relevance

NOTE: This was written about the SBC; but I think it really applies to all churches.

“Southern Baptists may have decided the battle for biblical faithfulness, but the future will be “bleak” if the organized church does not begin to break cultural barriers and become relevant to its community,” said missiologist, Ed Stetzer
“We have got to be known as the convention that believes in biblical fidelity and engaging people in the culture.”

Stetzer, research team director at the North American Mission Board in Alpharetta, Ga, was the keynote speaker April 7 at the “Missional Ministry in Emerging Culture” conference at Chets Creek Church in Jacksonville, FL.
He grounded his discussion in two scripture passages: Jude 3, which speaks to biblical faithfulness, and 1 Cor. 9:22-23, which addresses cultural relevance or contextualization. “We must contend for the faith and at the same time contextualize for the culture,” he explained.

The church is not the center of God’s plan, Setzer said, “but central to God’s plan.”

Yet, he said, others wonder if the church matters today. He cited statistics that the percentage of Christians in the U.S. population dropped nine percent from 1990 to 2000 and highlighted George Barna’s findings that the number of unchurched persons in the U.S. has almost doubled from 1991 to 2004.

Nor do people see the church making a difference in the lives of the Christian believer, Setzer said. As an example, born-again church members divorce at a higher rate than the unchurched. According to Barna, 10 million persons who characterize themselves as born-again Christians have not been to church in the past six months, other than on Easter and Christmas.

Churches must “break the code” to reverse their declining influence in the culture and among its own people, he said. “Breaking the code means that we have to recognize that there are cultural barriers, in addition to spiritual ones, that hinder blind people from understanding the Gospel. Our task is to find the right way to break through those cultural barriers while addressing the spiritual and theological ones as well.”

Stetzer suggested that the local church adopt a “missional” approach of studying the culture of its community, much like international missionaries do when they enter a new place of service. “Just as missionaries take the Gospel to a new culture, the church must become a missionary in its own community.”
“We have forbidden North American pastors to do what we have trained international missionaries to do,” he said.

Stetzer said that if a church does not regularly examine its culture, it will become a “culture unto itself. He describes such in his soon to be released book Breaking the Missional Code.

“Soon the church is filled with people who pray in the King James English, call the pastor ‘brother’ to show respect and forbid women from wearing pants to church. They are still relating to cultural issues that were relevant one hundred years before. However, that culture and those issues have long since disappeared – everywhere that is except within the church.”

The church instead needs regularly to ask: “Are we faithfully proclaiming the faith in the place where we find ourselves today?” Stetzer said. “A church will be completely faithful only when it is faithful to its God, its Scripture and its mission in the world.”

Music conflicts within churches reflect a lack of cultural sensitivity, Stetzer said. “Every generation condemns the music of the next generation,” he explained. “Generally, styles of music are not used in most churches until two generations after it was popular in the culture.”

Instead he suggested Christians “let go of our own preferences” and begin reaching the culture with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, “It not about us; it’s about the Gospel.”

Stetzer also encouraged churches to find God’s unique vision for their congregation, warning against imitating effective church models. “Churches should function differently from location to location. When it comes to the kingdom of God, uniformity is not a value.”

Tim Patterson, who was recently called as pastor of Hillcrest Baptist Church on Jacksonville’s Westside, brought five staff members to the conference “to hear and understand my heart for taking our church to where it will impact the culture.”

Saying the church as a whole “is satisfied with who they are with a culture that is not reality,” Patterson added, “we must be culturally relevant but absolutely and unequivocally sound in theology. We will not compromise one Biblical conviction, but we will be culturally relevant. We must do what we can do to reach this generation and the next generation for the cause of Christ.”

John Long, associate pastor at First Baptist Church of Belleview, said he attended the conference because he was “burdened by the fact that when Jesus came to our world He had to go around the church to accomplish His kingdom. I don’t want Him to go around me to accomplish what He wants. He was culturally relevant in his day. I want to be culturally relevant in mine.”

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