When I was in the New Age movement, I used…

When I was in the New Age movement, I used to believe I was God by nature. I believed God existed beyond the universe as “Source”, but that the universe itself emanated from His being such that all of creation was literally divine and made out of the substance of God. Jesus was God, but so was I, and so was this keyboard. This type of theology is technically called “panentheism”.

In New Age spirituality, man shares God’s ontology. They have the same nature. Everyone is an extension, embodiment, and manifestation of God. When we would say “Namaste”, it was a verbal acknowledge that the divine in me recognizes the divine in you. I believed that the “I Am” of Exodus 3:14 could be extrapolated to every single person who could say “I am”. I thought that wherever personal identify was present, the I Am as their ultimate identity. Jesus was the I Am, but I Am too, because I exist and the I Am is the essence of existence.

“I Am” means two primary different things in Hebrew. When God uses this phrase, it entails the self-existence of God (divine aseity), and the creative agency of God. To say God is the I Am is to say God is the eternally self-existent God who causes being itself to be. None of us are self-existent. We began to exist, and our existence is metaphysically contingent upon God. None of us caused being itself to be either. None of us created the universe. Yahweh alone can refer to Himself by the name “I Am”, for Yahweh alone has self-existence within Himself (divine aseity), and is the sole cause of being.

The Bible says a lot of things about the fundamental nature of man apart from being born-again in Christ, and while all of it is 100% true, none of it is flattering. It’s intended to show us our need for divine intervention. Jesus, John the Baptist, and all of the authors of the New Testament were in universal agreement about the nature of man apart from being born-again regenerated believers in Jesus Christ.

Here are over 30 verses of what the Bible says about the spiritual nature and condition of the unbeliever, those who are not born-again through a repentant faith in the Biblical Gospel. I share this not to condemn people, as all of this applied to me as well not too long ago. But it’s important we fundamentally know where we are at spiritually in the eyes of God so that we can ask God for help and see our need to receive the help he’s already offered in Christ.

The Bible teaches very clearly that while man is deeply loved by God, special to God, valuable to God, and precious to God, his fundamental spiritual condition because of his sin causes him to have the following relationship to God:

Colossians 1:21 – alienated from God

Ephesians 4:18 – alienated from the life of God

Jude 19 – devoid of the Spirit of God

Isaiah 59:2 – separated from God

Ephesians 2:1,5 – spiritually dead in sins

Colossians 2:13 – spiritually dead in sins

John 5:21 – spiritually dead

Ephesians 2:3 – child of wrath

John 3:36 – under the wrath of God

John 3:18 – under the condemnation of God

James 4:4 – enemy of God

Romans 1:30 – hater of God

Colossians 1:21 – hostile to God

Galatians 4:8 – no knowledge of God

1 Thessalonians. 4:5 – don’t know God

Romans 8:9 – do not belong to God

2 Cor 4:4 – spiritually blinded by Satan

Acts 26:18 – under the power of Satan

1 John 3:10 – child of Satan

Ephesians 2:1 – following Satan who is at work in them

2 Timothy 2:26 – ensnared and captured by Satan

Ephesians 5:8 – are themselves darkness

Matthew 4:16 – dwelling in darkness

John 8:12 – walk in darkness

John 12:46 – remain in darkness

Luke 1:79 – live in darkness in the shadow of death

Romans 1:21 – darkened heart

2 Corinthians 3:14 – hardened mind

John 8:34 – slave of sin

2 Peter 2:19 – slave of corruption

Titus 3:3 – foolish and led astray

Pslam 9:20 – mere men

Isaiah 31:3 – not God