--Oprah Winfrey; Heretic, Hell Bound, and dragging millions with her.
Here is a woman who despite her gender, her race, and her weight has achieved a measure of fame and success few people ever do. The amount of influence she commands and wields is breathtaking; whatever she endorses sells through the roof. Likewise, whatever she dislikes, plummets. People listen to Oprah. And they believe what she says. Which is why her current edition of 'Oprah's Favorite Things' is so damnably dangerous.
Firstly, she has rejected Christianity: in her own words, "I took God out of the box..," [a favorite mantra of ER]. Oprah has rejected salvation, the cross, and Jesus as the ONLY way, the ONLY truth, and the ONLY light. And people are listening... and believing.
Because of her influence, she is perhaps the most dangerous woman in the world.
Secondly, she is leading millions away from the truth that in NO other name-- the name of Jesus Christ --is salvation to be found. Salvation that erases sin and allows sinful men to stand justified before the throne of God... as sons and daughters. But Oprah even rejects the "notion" of Sin. If the Antichrist could be a woman...!? Yet truly, she is nonetheless dangerous. And truly lost.
How many has she deceived? Thousands? Surely more than that! Hundreds of thousands? Millions? More? Watch the video... at least ONE woman in the audience of a past show stood up and defended that truth. Jesus is the ONLY way.
So what can we do?
Pray! First and foremost.
Here's my list:
1) That her message be silenced
2) That her audience not be deceived
3) That Oprah find true salvation through the shed blood of Jesus Christ
4) That those whom God calls will stand up in counterpoint to the deception she is teaching, in such a way that her acolytes may be turned from the lies to embrace the truth
5) That in our counterpoint we deliberately and unashamedly proclaim the true Gospel just as that woman in Oprah's audience did... even though the truth she told was not received.
There is only one way. And it is a narrow way. Necessarily narrow. Pray for Oprah-- diligently! And pray for all those she is leading pied piperish into the gaping maw of hell.
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Thanks go to Ingrid Schlueter, and Mark.
She doesn't offer any evidence at all for her beliefs, and everyone gives her a pass!
Re, "I took God out of the box..," [a favorite mantra of ER)
No. I sometimes assert hat fundamentalists keep God trapped in boxes of their making. But I don't think I've ever insisted that you take God out.
Just don't insist that I cram God in there.
As for Oprah, I have no real opinion. But to think she has the power to mislead zillions is to give her too much credit. Think about it: Anyone who is swayed was swayable in the first place. If not Oprah, then someone else.
On the other hand, I'd have to spend some time actually listening to what she's saying, and read some of whatever author she's touting -- as I assume you have, for you to have such a strong, confident opinion -- before I'd judge her.
My own view: One Way. Yes. Absolutely. But many paths to that One Way.
Grace is greater than all my sin. It's also greater than all my knowledge and understanding.
And, of COURSE we each have a spark of holiness within, as part of the Creation! Yes, we do.
"Sin" -- as word. Eh. I can take it or leave it. Something keeps us apart from God except through Christ. Sin? OK. But others, including me sometimes, think of it more as incompletion -- as in, our holiness as part of the Creation is stunted by our separation from God, however exactly it comes about.
Ah, well. I'm glad Oprah has given you an object for your angsts, EL. Punch her lights out as you see fit. :-) But she's no more "dangerous" than anyone else on a pedestal in pop culture.
xxxxx
Could you briefly share with us the main experiences you bad that led you to become a spiritual teacher? You have a recently published book titled. The Power of Now: a Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment. In your book, you mentioned a very profound experience, or a "shift" that took place.
Yes. I was about twenty-nine, and had gone through years of depression and anxiety. I had even achieved some successes, like graduating with the highest mark at London University. Then an offer came for a Cambridge scholarship to do research. But the whole motivating power behind my academic success was fear and unhappiness.
It all changed one night when I woke up in the middle of the night. The fear, anxiety and heaviness of depression were becoming so intense, it was almost unbearable. And it is hard to describe that "state" where the world is felt to be so alien, just looking at a physical environment like a room. Everything was totally alien and almost hostile. I later saw a book written by Jean-Paul Sartre called Nausea. That was the state that I was in, nausea of the world. [Chuckle] And the thought came into my head, "I can't live with myself any longer." That thought kept repeating itself again and again.
And (then suddenly there was a "standing back" from the thought and Looking at that thought, at the structure of that thought," If I cannot live with myself, who is that self that I cannot live with? Who am I? Am I one—or two?" And I saw that I was "two." There was an "I," and (here was a self. And the self was deeply unhappy, the miserable self. And the burden of that I could not live with. At that moment, a dis-identification happened. "I" consciousness withdrew from its identification with the self, the mind-made fictitious entity, the unhappy "little me" and its story. And the fictitious entity collapsed completely in that moment, just as if a plug had been pulled out of an inflatable toy. What remained was a single sense of presence or "Beingness" which is pure consciousness prior to identification with form—the eternal I AM. I didn't know all of that at the time, of course. It just happened, and for a long time there was no understanding of what had happened.
As the self collapsed, there was still a moment of intense fear—after all, it was the death of "me." I felt like being sucked into a hole. But a voice from within said, "Resist nothing." So I let go. It was almost like I was being sucked into a void, not an external void, but a void within. And then fear disappeared and there was nothing that I remember after that except waking up in the morning in a state of total and complete "newness."
I woke up in a state of incredible inner peace, bliss in fact. With my eyes still closed, I heard the sound of a bird and realized how precious that was. And then I opened my eyes and saw the sunlight coming through the curtains and felt: There is far more to that than we realize. It felt like love coming through the curtains. And then as I walked around the old familiar objects in the room I realized I had never really seen them before. It was as if I had just been born into this world; a state of wonder. And then I went for a walk in the city. I was still in London. Everything was miraculous, deeply peaceful. Even the traffic. [Chuckle]
I knew something incredible had happened, although I didn't understand it. I even started writing down in a diary, "Something incredible has happened. I just want to write this down," I said, "in case it leaves me again or I lose it." And only later did I realize (that my thought processes after waking up that morning had been reduced by about eighty to ninety percent. So a lot of the time I was walking around in a state of inner stillness, and perceiving the world through inner stillness.
And that is the peace, the deep peace that comes when there is no longer anybody commenting on sense perceptions or anything that happens. No labeling, no need to interpret what is happening, it just is as it is and it is fine. [Laughter] There was no longer a "me" entity.
After that transformation happened, I could not have said anything about it. "Something happened. I am totally at peace. I don't know what it means." That is all I could have said. And it took years before there was some "understanding." And it took more years before it evolved into a "spiritual teaching ."That took time. The basic state is the same as then, but the external manifestation of the state as a teaching and the power of a teaching, that took time. It had to mature. So when I talk about it now to some extent, I add something to it. When I talk about the "original experience" something is added to it that I didn't know then.
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Interesting quote. You said: "Dang near sounds like he was born again..." Sure, but born again to what? The I AM within himself?
The experience he describes has more a feel of "Awakening" than being "Born Again" in the biblical sense. Even after wading through his description, I still see nothing remotely similar to being born again, by God. There's no acknowledgment of sin or a need for a savior, no asking God to forgive him, no statement of faith in God's ability to save him from his sin. It looks to me as though he's created a god, and that god is himself.
And for the record. I'm not interested in punching Oprah's lights out. What I'm interested in is countering the lies and heresy she and Tolle are propagating... that, and seeing them both soundly saved.
For real.
Do you see how rife with jargon the following is? And, I promise I'm not trying to be snarky. But, man! All these words mean something to you, and to me, because of the culture we grew up in. But so much of it is all so much jargon and mumbo-jumbo to those who did not:
"I still see nothing remotely similar to being born again, by God. There's no acknowledgment of sin or a need for a savior, no asking God to forgive him, no statement of faith in God's ability to save him from his sin."
A couple of things come to mind:
"Liberty" itself had no meaning to many of the slaves who were set free, for they knew not that they were in bondage.
And "sin" has no meaning for one who has no concept of lack of worth before God, or "God," or whatever word one chooses to use for the Great Other. Paul his own self credited, and blamed, the Law, for making him aware of his own sin! I will not force that "awareness" on anyone -- because just because it worked for Paul does not mean it is meant to be the vehicle for God's Grace to everybody. Especially that part about the Law! The HEBREW law. I am not a Jew.
If I were to read further into this Tolle's writings, but I don't plan to, I'd look for hints that though stumbling, though prideful, though not totally on the right track, he is closer to The Way than not -- just as I believe you are, and I am.
Seekers find. It's those who've quit looking, or who never had-accepted-acknowledged the spark to look, who are lost.
For you, or anyone, to call Oprah, or anyone, "lost" is outlandish and outrageous. I don't givre a damn what you think the Bible "says." You do not hafve the mind of God -- not do I. You are not fully holy, nor I am. You are not empowered to draw such lines in the sand, nor am I!
Quit pretending to defend the Gospel. You are not. You are defending your own interpretations, your own view, your own pitiful, puny thoughts about the barely fathomable -- no more, I hasten to add, pitiful or puny than my own -- and your dang pride is sloshing everywhere.
Quit thinking you're right! Quiot accusing me and others of thinking WE'RE right based on how emphatic we can be!
Bottom line: I don't know shit. And you don't either. And thank God Almighty God's Self that that's not any of our feeble faith is about in the first place.
Huff, puff, sorry for the rant.
Only in America. God bless them both here on earth. They already have the only reward they will ever have.
For the record. I agree with ER. He doesn't take God out of the box. He does, however, often puts God into a finite box of his own creation. They are similar in that neither Oprah or ER seem to understand that God transcends mortal understanding.
"Our puny and pathetic human minds cannot even begin to conceive of God, let alone understand Him."
--The Book of ER, Paraphrase
But while this is true, God HAS chosen to reveal much of Himself, through the people he took a personal interest, and direct hand, in guiding. And it's the Bible that gives us the only clear picture we'll ever get [this side of heaven], or ever need. There is plenty we can know of a certain, and more we can discern from His character. But as nod to ER, there is plenty we still don't know, nor will know this side of heaven, but I submit to everyone reading this, it does not matter what we do not know. What we DO know is sufficient unto grace.
Re, "What we DO know is sufficient unto grace."
Rather, Grace is sufficient to cover what we don't know!
I'll swan but you and me are gonna stumble across the finish line, with carts and horses all in a tumbling wreck! LOL
Exactly what I was thinking, EL. Not even a mention of Jesus.
You must remember the maturity level of commenters like ER. And the high pedestal they put themselves on. His inner-"I AM" is better than Jesus Christ, eh?
Dude, if I thought, based on the words you say and the way you act, that you knew Jesus as more than a word, I'd give a big grunt what you thought. But, you don't. So I won't. You joke.