Kate Orson shares how a fellow Christian convert’s return to New Age spirituality led her to investigate the teachings of A Course in Miracles, a hugely influential book endorsed by figures such as Oprah Winfrey. She explores why its message can sound remarkably Christian on the surface while presenting a radically different view of Jesus, sin and salvation.
When I first left the New Age and became a Christian, I connected with another recent convert who had been a New Age influencer. When she became a Christian, she started to use her online platform to share the Gospel. She was a passionate evangelist, and I know of at least one of her followers who became a Christian through her posts.
It was to my surprise that a few years in, she unfriended me and her other Christian friends and went back to her New Age practices. Yet she kept talking about her relationship with Jesus. What was going on?
It became clear after she referenced a book called A Course in Miracles (ACIM). The text was written as a collaboration between psychologists Dr Helen Schucman and Dr William Thetford, who worked at Columbia University in the US. Helen grew up with a mother who was interested in Theosophy and Christian Science. Since childhood, she had very vivid dreams and visions, although she rejected God as a young adult. She also began having psychic experiences; for example, predicting that Thetford’s friend was going to commit suicide. They were able to reach him in time and save his life.
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One day, a voice in a vision told Helen to take notes for A Course in Miracles. While Helen was frightened at first, with Thetford’s encouragement she began the seven-year process of writing down the words that would become A Course in Miracles, the text that has been promoted by New Agers such as Oprah Winfrey, Marianne Williamson and Elizabeth Gilbert.
The voice told Schucman that he was Jesus, and A Course in Miracles makes many references to God, Jesus, love and forgiveness.
The voice told Schucman that he was Jesus, and A Course in Miracles makes many references to God, Jesus, love and forgiveness. At first glance, it sounds like it could be Christian, and some churches have even promoted the course either directly or indirectly by platforming teachers who have been influenced by it.
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But is it actually Christian? Here are a few key differences: ACIM is based on the idea that there is no separation between God and his creation; we are all one. In other words, according to the book, the Fall never happened. From this perspective, there is no such thing as sin and evil; they only occur from a lack of love. What humanity needs to do is wake up to the fact that we are all ‘one’, we are all ‘god’, love more, and all the problems of the world will disappear. In this philosophy, there isn’t just one Jesus Christ; we are all Christ if we just ‘wake up’ to the divinity within. This is Satan’s lie from the Garden of Eden: ‘you will be like God, knowing good and evil’ (Genesis 3:5).
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I wonder if this is what Jesus warns about when he says, ‘For many will come in My name, saying, “I am the Christ,” and will deceive many’ (Matthew 24:5).
I wonder if this is what Jesus warns about when he says, ‘For many will come in My name, saying, “I am the Christ,” and will deceive many’ (Matthew 24:5). One thing’s for sure: the book is completely antithetical to the Christian Christ. There are blasphemous quotes about the Jesus of the Bible, saying that it is a ‘pathetic error’ to cling to the ‘rugged cross’ and describing the journey to the cross as useless.
Many New Agers have never actually read ACIM, but the ideas are so widespread in the New Age that most people have absorbed the belief system without consciously being aware of where it comes from. I know I picked up ideas about the ‘Christ within’ and ‘Christ consciousness’. These ideas can sound loving and ‘ear-tickling’, but there’s a sinister undertone to the belief system that most New Agers may not be fully aware of. There is an implication that anyone who does not ‘unify’ with this philosophy is a problem that needs to be either ‘healed’ or ‘removed’.
Warren B. Smith, a teacher of A Course in Miracles, came across the book The Beautiful Side of Evil by Johanna Michaelsen, which describes her experiences with ‘another’ Jesus. After converting to Christianity, he recounts how it was the Scripture included in her book that convicted him of who the real Jesus was. As the New Age becomes more and more popular, sharing Bible verses about the real Jesus is the powerful antidote for those who have ears to hear.
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