The Man for All Ages

   Who do people say the Son of Man is?

— Matthew 16:13            

   It was a precarious place. Treacherous, risky. So placid one moment, so wild and foreboding the next. With scant warning, squalls came howling out of the funnel-like gorges, where deep ravines furrowed the landscape like corrugated steel, dumping heavy rains and fierce winds on the Sea of Galilee.

   That night, one of those sudden storms thundered out of the mountains ringing the sunken shoreline. Bursting from the heights, its shrieking winds whipped up waves that nearly swamped the small fishing vessel that heaved and pitched in the darkness.

   The fishermen in the boat despaired of ever reaching shore. Caught in the peril and crisis, they cried out in panic to the man who was sleeping soundly in the stern.

   "Master! Master! We're going to drown! . . . Don't you care?"

   Exhausted from the day's preaching, teaching, and healing, Jesus of Nazareth had slept through it all. At their cry, however, he awoke, rebuked the wind, and commanded the sea: "Peace! Be Still!"

   Then, out of the mystery of that man named Jesus, flowed an overwhelming calm and a question.

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   "Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?"

   And the disciples, who such a short while before had been clinging to the tossing boat, were filled with awe. They said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and sea obey him?"¹

   At the moment of their distress it seemed to the disciples that this enigmatic, itinerant preacher they followed was an absent Lord. In their buffeting and helplessness, he appeared uninvolved, uncaring — a sleeping Christ.

   But when they called out, he was there: accessible and responsive to their human insufficiencies and needs. At his command, turbulence gave way to calm, fear to assurance, and doubt to faith.

   The savage sea subsided, lapping into a lull of strange, quiet serenity. The raging fury of the elements had been tamed by a Higher Force, a Greater Power.

   Was it some Jesus Force? Was the Man from Galilee just one of many avatars, a periodic manifestation in the endless succession of God-gurus?

   "Who do people say that I am?" Jesus asked his followers. And since the days he strode the dusty streets of the Holy Land, men and women have sought to answer his question.

   The Jesus of history and faith has been coopted by nearly everyone wanting a towering figure from the past to confirm their own ideals of the present and vision of the future. "To Eastern-oriented religious groups, Jesus is an avator — one of many incarnations of God; to Christian Scientists, he is the Great Healer; to political revolutionaries, he is the Great Liberator; to Spiritualists, he is a first-rate medium; to one new consciousness philosopher, he is the prototype of Carlos Castaneda's Don Juan, a sorcerer who can restructure events in the world by mental exercise. Everyone, it seems, wants Jesus for themselves."²

   The Gospels, however, portray Jesus not as a man who attained "Christ consciousness," but as the incarnate Savior and Lord. He is "the Word made flesh" who "dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the father" (John 1:14, RSV).

   "But who do you say that I am?" Jesus asked his disciples.

   To Christians, Jesus is absolutely unique. He is the one mediator between God and humanity. The Narrow Way.

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   The New Age is right, however, in perceiving that the scandal of Christianity is its exclusiveness, asserts Douglas Groothuis.

   "Jesus Christ claimed to be 'the way and the truth and the life' and that no one could come to the Father apart from Him (John 14:6). The Apostle Peter proclaimed that 'salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved' (Acts 4:12). Christ will not join the pantheistic pantheon of counterfeit gods but instead stands above it in judgment. Yet Christ's exclusivity is our liberation. There is but one way, and God calls everyone to go through that narrow door that leads to life."³

   "He is not one avator among many," declares Gordon Melton, who is a walking encyclopedia of knowledge about religious groups. "He is God present, and definitely so. He did not manifest a Christ Principle, a modern abstraction of New Age values, he fully incarnated God. He is not primarily a moral example (though he is certainly that as well), but the connecting link by which humanity, warped and unable to fulfill the Divine intention, is brought back into touch with God."⁴

   In the New Testament, says theologian John Snyder, Jesus is depicted as " 'the one in whom is manifested' the Creator of the universe; the fullest disclosure of the character and person of God; the focal point of all that God had been doing in history; the chief personality in God's creation of the world; the ruler of natural forces; the watershed of human destiny, and the only path to the presence of God. Jesus is portrayed not simply as the greatest teacher, but as the foundation of all teaching — that is, truth itself."⁵

   The Scriptures say Jesus has power: power to change things and to change people. And power to change the forces that dominate people's lives.

   "Peace! Be still!" he said. And the storm was over.

   The disciples marveled among themselves: "Who then is this, that even the wind and sea obey him?"

   And if it was difficult in Jesus' time — with his very presence as confirmation — to believe that he had all power and authority, what about today?

   Is God in charge?

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   No, say many living in the New Age of the 1990s: Man is in charge.

   And as far back as twenty-five years ago, science fiction writer Ray Bradbury penned this:

   [T]he living God is not out there. He is here. God did not create us. The blind rotation of dead Creator flint, in bombardment of radiation, in downfall of strange rain, seeded earth and from that birthed a living God-child-man who lurked in seas and shrank in caves, wild and insanely afraid of a universe he must someday test and own.

   Man, living too close to himself, could not see that he was the godhead, that he was the Lord and himself Christ, and all the other glorious and glorified names of saints and leaders under whatever name, in whatever age, who filled the skies with fire and the souls with holy dread.

   But now very late in the scroll of Earth, phoenix man, who lives by burning, a true furnace of energy, stoking himself with chemistries, must stand as God.

   Not represent Him, not pretend to be Him, not deny Him, but simply, nobly, and frighteningly be Him . . . .

   We are more than water, we are more than earth, we are more than sun. We are God giving Himself a reason for being.⁶

   According to Bradbury, the biblical God is dead; man is God. Man has all glory and honor and power. And this is the insidious danger inherent in the New Age.

   The December 7, 1987, TIME cover story portrayed New Age as a benign, if somewhat amusing, exercise in arcane arts and self-help technologies — an "essentially harmless anthology of illusions."⁷ But the writers didn't deal seriously with the New Age worldview, which casts a long and ominous shadow over every aspect of human life. One's worldview determines what one believes, and what one believes has a great influence on individual behavior. The New Age worldview is that the self is all there is, that right and wrong are mere projections of whatever seems permissible to one at the time. From this perspective there are no rules or absolute moral imperatives, and therefore one is ultimately not responsible for one's actions.

   Since there is no reality beyond that of one's own making, all is ultimately illusion and without transcendent meaning.

   Unfortunately, such major-media articles further engrave

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upon mainstream American culture the acceptability of uncritical, superficial thinking, and the imprint of a vacuous spirituality. The payload the New Age movement carries is no trivial cosmic joke or magic show; it is the heavy stuff that determines the destinies of men, women, and nations — even the eternal salvation of humanity.

   Evangelical theologian Carl Henry puts it bluntly: "We must choose to cast our lot either with a society that admits only private faiths, and then simply add another idol to modernity's expanding God-shelf, or we must hoist a banner to a higher Sovereign, the Lord of lords and King of kings."⁸

   Gordon Melton is more conciliatory, but makes the same point: "While Christians can respect the beliefs of those who hold other faiths, and honor the contribution of members and leaders to culture and society, it must assert that in the long run, they have fallen short of the Divine for which the [New Age] movement seeks and that while they may be able to change society, they will fail in their goal of transforming it."⁹

   Jesus himself gave an astounding commentary on God's power when he stood before the Roman procurator, Pontius Pilate, who held the power of physical life and death over those brought before him.

   "Do you not know that I have power to release you, and power to crucify you?" Pilate asked Jesus.

   "You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above," Jesus replied (John 19:10-11, RSV).

   What a startling thing for a beaten and condemned prisoner to say to a representative of Imperial Rome! To tell him that his only power came from God — not the emperor! God was in control and was allowing this!

   Jesus' statement was incomprehensible to Pilate, who thought in terms of power politics, military might, and governmental law. And to the Jews looking on, it only confirmed their accusations that Jesus was not the Messiah, for he did not display earthly power to save himself. For them, it was blasphemous to think God could allow his chosen, anointed Messiah to be crucified. They did not foresee his resurrection.

   And Jesus' claim is foolishness to those moderns who consider him a dead hero, not a risen Savior. Indeed, Jesus' words to Pilate would be vain and empty if the story ended

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with the crucifixion. For then the forces of evil would have triumphed and the power of man would have prevailed over the power of God. Without the resurrection, Easter morning would echo with the hollowness of deluded fools!

   "The denial of eternal life . . . is not, as its adherents often claim, a nonegoistic, mature, realistic willingness to face the brutal limitations of finitude: rather, it amounts to a tragically unbelieving denial of God's honor — and thus of God's very existence . . . . Yet God's honor is at genuine risk. For the price of glory is high. God's own son must die to pay its price."¹⁰

   Not only was God's honor satisfied, but the demand from the beginning that a blood sacrifice be made to requite man's original estrangement from his Creator, was uniquely satisfied in the crucifixion.

   The Old Testament, through the prophet Isaiah, speaks of the vicarious sacrifice of Christ: "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed . . . because he hath poured out his soul unto death; and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors" (Isaiah 53:5, 12 KJV).

   The veil separating holy God and finite man was forever parted when Jesus' blood was shed on the cross in a once-for-all atonement for sin.¹¹

   Pilate's question — and Jesus' answer — take on fresh meaning from the perspective of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. The last word was not, "It is finished," but "He is risen!"

   The resurrection of Jesus Christ became "of such finality and decisiveness" to the early Christian community that it immediately came to be the cornerstone of the believer's proclamation and defense.¹²

   The disciples of Jesus were convinced — not because it is plausible for a dead man to live again — but because they saw, heard, and talked to, and touched the risen Christ.

   "Nothing less than sight convinced those who had the deepest desire to believe the tidings," notes Brooke Foss Westcott. "The resurrection was announced as a fact immediately after the Passion [three days after Christ's death].

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Nothing else will explain the origin of the Christian Church . . . Nothing can be more simply historic."¹³

   And because he lives, we shall live also.

   Jesus' resurrection means that the consequences of sin — humanity's attempt to "play God" in the garden of Eden — have been overcome. The chasm between a holy God and his creation has been spanned. It means evil does not have the final word. And it means there is a companion — a "Risen One" — who can be with us now. The Resurrection puts the stamp of authenticity on Jesus as the great comforter, sovereign Son of God, and royal King of Kings.

   This "Risen One" left his followers with a commission: to announce to the world that through himself, others, too, could share the life of the Kingdom, the "real" New Age. "The New Age is not the Kingdom. But the Kingdom can be said to be the New Age."¹⁴

   "When anyone is united to Christ," the apostle Paul taught, "there is a new act of creation; the old order has gone, and a new order has already begun" (2 Corinthians 5:17, NEB).

   The New Age of the Kingdom of God ultimately will be ushered in by the triumphant return of Jesus as the Redeemer-King (Rev. 22:20). Then there will be a new Heaven and a new Earth, and righteousness will reign supreme.

   Meanwhile, says John Stott, "We are living in the in between time of what he [Christ] has done already and what he is going to do . . . . We live between Kingdom come and Kingdom coming."¹⁵

   Charles Colson uses a familiar event from World War II history and an analogy for the two-stage process in the Kingdom of God strategy:

Christ's death and resurrection — the D-Day of human history — assure his ultimate victory. But we are still on the beaches. The enemy has not yet been vanquished, and the fighting is still ugly. Christ's invasion has assured the ultimate outcome, however — victory for God and his people at some future date.

The second stage, which will take place when Christ returns, will assert God's rule over all the universe, His Kingdom will be visible without imperfection. At that time there will be a final judgment of all people, peace on earth, and the restoration of harmony unknown since Eden.¹⁶

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   "Do you not know that I have power to crucify you?" Pilate asked Jesus.

   What Pilate did not know was that Jesus Christ has all power, authority, and dominion over all humanity and all time, forever and ever. He frees the rejected from loneliness, the sinful from their depravity, the rich from the shackles of wealth, and the sick from pain. He is the resurrection and the life, and whoever believes in him "shall never die" (John 11:25-26).

*      *      *

   The world still navigates that precarious sea between the hills of time. And out of the gorges comes the startling thunder of life's storms. As the tempest rages, we wayfarers huddle forlorn, unsure, quaking in the wind.

   But even in the eye of the hurricane there is a friend willing to travel with us. He is the Man for All Ages.

   "Where is your faith?" he asks when the wind howls and belief falters. "Be of good cheer."

   "Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the [new] age" (Matthew 28:20, NIV).

Table of Contents

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1. Matt. 8:23–27; Mark 4:35–41; Luke 8:22–25.

2. James W. Sire, Scripture Twisting (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1980), 24.

3. Douglas R. Groothuis, The New Age Movement (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, (1986), 22.

4. J. Gordon Melton, "Toward a Christian Response to the New Age Movement," 1985, 2–3.

5. John Snyder, Reincarnation vs. Resurrection (Chicago: Moody Press, 1984), 67.

6. Ray Bradbury, in a telephone conversation with author, 18 August 1988, said that he could not immediately determine the source of this quote but that he believed it was probably from an article he wrote for Life magazine in the early 1960s.

7. Otto Friedrich et al., "New Age Harmonies" (cover story), Time, 7 December 1987, 72.

8. Carl F.H. Henry, "Uneasy Conscience Revisited" (speech), 3 November 1987, fortieth anniversary of Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, Calif., 21.

9. Melton, "Toward A Christian Response to the New Age Movement," 2.

10. Ronald Goetz, "Cosmic Groanings," Christian Century, 2 December 1987, 1086–87.

11. Matt. 27:51; Mark 15:38; Luke 23:46.

12. Snyder, Reincarnation vs. Resurrection, 67.

13. Brooke Foss Westcott, Gospel of the Resurrection (New York: Macmillan, 1902), 97.

14. Alice Lawhead and Stephen Lawhead, Pilgrim's Guide to the New Age (Batavia, Ill.: Lion Publishing Corp., 1986), 198, 105.

15. John Stott, lecture given at All Saints by the Sea Episcopal Church, Santa Barbara, Calif., 14 November 1987.

16. Charles Colson, with Ellen Santilli Vaughn, Kingdoms in Conflict (New York: William Morrow; Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1987), 84–85.