Extraterrestrial Biblical Hermeneutics and the Making of Heaven's Gate

2010 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 34-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin E. Zeller
Keyword(s):  
New Age ◽  
Religious Movement ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Biblical Hermeneutics ◽  
Extraterrestrial Life ◽  
Close Encounters ◽  
The Bible ◽  
New Age Movement ◽  
Heaven's Gate

The new religious movement popularly called Heaven's Gate emerged in the mid-1970s. This article argues that its two co-founders, Marshall Herff Applewhite (1932––1997) and Bonnie Lu Nettles (1928––1985), employed what I call extraterrestrial biblical hermeneutics in constructing the theological worldview of Heaven's Gate. This hermeneutics developed out of the New Age movement and its broader interest in ufology, extraterrestrial life, and alien visitation, and postulates a series of close encounters and alien visitations. Borrowing from its New Age and ufological origins, the hermeneutics assumes an extraterrestrial interest in assisting human beings to self-develop, as well as a technological materialism antithetical to supernaturalist readings of the Bible. As I argue here, this extraterrestrial biblical hermeneutics led Applewhite and Nettles to read the Bible as supporting a message of alien visitation, self-transformation, and ultimately extraterrestrial technological rapture.

scholarly journals Does the Christian worldview provide a place for the law of attraction? (Part 1): An apologetic evaluation of the roots of this doctrine

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dani�l J. Maritz ◽  
Henk G. Stoker
Keyword(s):  
New Age ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Biblical Law ◽  
Word Of Faith ◽  
New Age Movement ◽  
Christian Worldview ◽  
The Law ◽  
Law Of Attraction ◽  
Positive Confession

This article investigates the roots of the so-called spiritual law of attraction that some Christian preachers today describe as an important biblical law. One of the proponents of this idea, Pastor At Boshoff of the Christian Revival Church (CRC), refers in his sermons to the law of attraction as a powerful principle derived from the Word of God. This idea bears striking similarities to the positive confession doctrine as taught by popular Word of Faith preachers. The basic claim of this spiritual �law� is that human beings create their own future through their thoughts and words. The article shows the idea of a spiritual law of attraction as a New Age doctrine that flows from a New Age worldview. Preaching prosperity through the law of attraction is not in accordance with orthodox, historical Christianity or the Christian worldview.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The article challenges the secular view that intangible thoughts and words can take on tangible reality. This is important since this secular idea is infiltrating the Christian church. It is already being preached as biblical although the roots thereof are clearly shown to originate from the New Age movement.

Protestantism in America

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Fea
Keyword(s):  
18Th Century ◽  
The United States ◽  
Religious Movement ◽  
Protestant Reformation ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Political Liberty ◽  
Glorious Revolution ◽  
American Experience ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The 19Th Century

It is virtually impossible to understand the history of the American experience without Protestantism. The theological and religious descendants of the Protestant Reformation arrived in the United States in the early 17th century, shaped American culture in the 18th century, grew dramatically in the 19th century, and continued to be the guardians of American religious life in the 20th century. Protestantism, of course, is not monolithic. In fact, the very idea at the heart of Protestantism—the translation of the Bible into vernacular languages so it can be read and interpreted by all men and women—has resulted in thousands of different denominations, all claiming to be true to the teachings of scripture. Protestantism, with its emphasis on the belief that human beings can access God as individuals, flourished in a nation that celebrated democracy and freedom. During the period of British colonization, especially following the so-called Glorious Revolution of 1688, Protestantism went hand in hand with British concepts of political liberty. As the British people celebrated their rights-oriented philosophy of government and compared their freedoms with the tyranny of France and other absolute monarchies in Europe, they also extolled the religious freedom that they had to read and interpret the Bible for themselves. Following the American Revolution, this historic connection between political liberty and Protestant liberty proved to be compatible with the kind of democratic individualism that emerged in the decades preceding the Civil War and, in many respects, continues to define American political culture. Protestantism, of course, is first and foremost a religious movement. The proliferation of Protestant denominations provides the best support for G. K. Chesterton’s quip that “America is a nation with the soul of a church.” Spiritual individualism, a commitment to the authority of an inspired Bible, and the idea that faith in the Christian gospel is all that is needed to be saved from eternal punishment, has transformed the lives of millions and millions of ordinary Americans over the course of the last four hundred years.

Scaling Heaven's Gate: Individualism and Salvation in a New Religious Movement

2006 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Ethan Zeller
Keyword(s):  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Personal Autonomy ◽  
New Age ◽  
Religious History ◽  
Religious Movement ◽  
American Religious History ◽  
Heaven's Gate ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Religious Subcultures ◽  
Historical Antecedents

Abstract: This article considers the new religious movement popularly known as Heaven's Gate within the context of American religious history, focusing on its soteriology (scheme of salvation) and the place of the individual within it. I argue that this contextualization reveals a movement that held unusual yet clearly identifiable religious beliefs reflecting popular religious subcultures and possessing clear historical antecedents. Specifically, within Heaven's Gate's soteriology one finds a synthesis of elements drawn from New Age thinking, Christian beliefs, and popular attitudes, and built upon assumptions of individualism and personal autonomy that pervade American religion. Rather than being an aberration of American religious history, Heaven's Gate was quintessentially American, albeit outside the religious mainstream.

An example of a 'New Age' interpretation of the Bible

1997 ◽  
Vol 4 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 110-123
Author(s):  
H.C. Steyn
Keyword(s):  
New Age ◽  
The Bible ◽  
New Age Movement ◽  
Wisdom Tradition

AbstractThis article sketches the framework in terms of the New Age movement, the Ancient Wisdom tradition and the astrological background in which a 'NewAge' interpretation of the Bible is made by esotericist Corrine Heline. Her interpretation of the Christ and his mission on earth is explored and attention is given to the concept of salvation in this context. In conclusion, the necessary presuppositions for the validity of this type of exegesis are considered.

scholarly journals A participação dos animais na fraternidade em Cristo

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Afonso Tadeu Murad ◽  
Marco Túlio Brandão Samapaio Procópio
Keyword(s):  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Biblical Hermeneutics ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Christian Perspective ◽  
Peace And Justice ◽  
The Will ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Current Reality

O mistério da encarnação e da ressurreição tem repercussão nãosomente para a humanidade, mas para todas as criaturas. Há uma fraternidade cósmica que encontra respaldo não somente no relato da criação, mas também no mistério de Cristo. Particularmente os animais são colocados como verdadeiros irmãos e irmãs dos seres humanos por uma apropriada leitura teológica e hermenêutica bíblica. Entretanto, essa relação fraternal proposta pela tradição cristã depara-se com sua antítese expressa na atual relação de exploração animal. Os animais são hoje vítimas de um ciclo de sofrimento no mais alto grau, submetidos à escravidão, tortura e morte. A vontade de Deus expressa na Bíblia e em Cristo, porém, não é essa, mas de paz e justiça entre suas criaturas. Este trabalho apresenta a perspectiva cristã da relação entre os seres humanos e os animais, contrastando com a realidade atual e propondo caminhos de ação.Palavras-chave: Fraternidade cósmica. Teologia animal. Exploração animal. Ecoteologia.Abstract: The mystery of incarnation and resurrection has repercussions not only for humanity, but for all creatures. There is a cosmic fraternity that finds support not only in the account of creation, but also in the mystery of Christ. Particularly the animals are placed as true brothers and sisters of human beings by an appropriate theological reading and biblical hermeneutics. However, this fraternal relationship proposed by the Christian tradition is confronted with its antithesis expressed in the current relationship of animal exploitation. Animals today are victims of a cycle of suffering in the highest degree, subjected to slavery, torture and death. The will of God expressed in the Bible and in Christ, however, is not that, but peace and justice among his creatures. This work presents the Christian perspective on the relationship between human beings and animals, contrasting with current reality and proposing paths of action.Keywords: Cosmic fraternity. Animal theology. Animal exploitation. Ecotheology.

scholarly journals God se nuwe wereld as antwoord op die New Age - beweging

1992 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
G. J. C. Jordaan
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
New World ◽  
New Age ◽  
The Bible ◽  
New Age Movement ◽  
The World ◽  
The New Testament

The concept of the coming new age is not a creation of the New Age Movement, but is part of the biblical message of the new world of God. Evidence from especially the New Testament elucidates the fact that God has led the world into a New Age (aeon) of his kingdom with the coming of Jesus Christ. The new age which is propagated by the New Age Movement has much in common with the new age of the Bible, though only superficially. A comparison proves that the New Age Movement has given a meaning to the Scriptural concept of a new age contradictory to that of the Bible.

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