Perilous Times and The Great Falling Away
Church hosts early meeting of rebellion against Oprah's Mystic New Age
Spirituality
Packed house listens to authors untwist teachings of a media empress
Posted: January 24, 2010
7:04 pm Eastern
By Alyssa Farah
© 2010 WorldNetDaily
McLEAN, Va. – Just outside of Washington, D.C., this week, two daring
authors took on a media empress.
Oprah Winfrey is one of the most powerful women in the world, with a
multi-billion dollar empire set to expand even further as she starts
her own Oprah Winfrey television network. She is viewed by many as a de
facto expert on matters ranging from politics to psychology to
spirituality.
But two authors have dared to go against the tide and call into
question Oprah's influence and Mystical New Age spirituality in a book
titled, "'O' God: A Dialogue on Truth and Oprah's Spirituality."
Friday evening, the co-authors of the book – renowned theologian Josh
McDowell and up-and-coming author and theologian Dave Sterrett – spoke
to a packed audience of more than 2,000 at McLean Bible Church in
Northern Virginia.
Josh McDowell kicked off the evening with his teaching titled, "The
Bible: Fact, Fiction or Fable," which explored the historical evidence
for the veracity of the Bible. The speech pulled from his best-selling
book, "New Evidence that Demands a Verdict."
The second part of the evening was a dialogue between McDowell and
Sterrett on Oprah Winfrey's spirituality. They discussed Oprah's power
and influence in pop culture, politics and the media: According to one
statistic, Oprah's endorsement of Barack Obama in the Democratic
primary alone garnered him over 1 million votes.
Their book "'O' God" recounts Oprah's early life in the Christian
church and how she fell away from the faith after hearing a sermon on
Exodus 34:14, which states that God is a jealous god. Since then she
has immersed herself in all different waves of philosophy and spiritual
beliefs and has promoted pantheistic views that "all is God and god is
all."
The authors of the book supported their assertions by showing just
three of the best-selling books Oprah has urged fans to read, all of
which teach anti-biblical messages.
"The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne was one of the books highlighted. It
teaches people to employ the power of positive thinking to alter
circumstances. According to McDowell and Sterrett, the book is full of
theologically incorrect beliefs.
Dave Sterrett referenced 2 Timothy 3:5, which states that sinners have
a "form of godliness but deny its power," then showed how Oprah's
spiritual beliefs state that if a person looks within themselves they
will see Christ. Christian doctrine, however, clearly states in 2
Corinthians 13:5 that people must look within themselves to see if
Christ is within them or if they are, in fact, reprobate.
In the first lecture of the night, Josh McDowell explained that over 17
years and after asking more than 4,000 people, only 6 responded to the
question, "why do you believe the Bible?" with a well-constructed,
logically-sound, satisfactory answer.
He gave facts from his book "New Evidence that Demands a Verdict"
comparing the Bible to other classic works and showing that the Bible
we have today is far more accurate from a historian's standpoint. He
noted that the Bible was compiled based on 24,633 manuscripts while
Homer's Iliad was based on around 600 manuscripts.
"'O' God" follows the conversations of two girl friends representing
the multitudes of Oprah fans who unwittingly place their faith in the
hodgepodge of spirituality embedded in her popular TV talk show,
magazine and webinars. In the end, a life-altering crisis helps
crystallize the truth from counterfeit teachings.
"As Christian apologists who believe that salvation is by God's grace
alone, through faith alone, and in Christ alone, we wanted to create a
fictional, almost Socratic dialogue that would cover many of the themes
of Oprah Winfrey's spiritual teaching in recent years," the authors say
in the book.
McDowell has spoken to more than 10 million young people in 84 nations
and on more than 700 university and college campuses. He's authored or
co-authored more than 110 books and workbooks, including the mega-hits
"More Than a Carpenter," "The New Evidence That Demands A Verdict," and
"Right From Wrong."
Sterrett is an educator, speaker and writer for Probe Ministries
International in Plano, Texas. He teaches on Christ-centered living,
Christian apologetics and true spirituality at conferences, schools and
churches. He contributed to the "Apologetics Study Bible for Students."
McLean Bible Church is a multi-campus, non-denominational, evangelical
church located in the Washington, D.C., area. The senior pastor is Lon
Solomon.