Vol.6 No.5

Q. How does Christianity's view of nature differ from eastern philosophy's view?

A. When we look at a flower, we usually think, "Oh, what a beautiful flower!" But many do not realize that they are responding to a glimpse of beauty that is God's character. God made all things in the beginning by His word (Psalms 33:9). Therefore everything He made reveals Him, just as a piece of artwork, such as a painting, reveals something about the artist.

Now this does not mean that the flower is God, anymore than the painting is the artist. It simply shows us something about God's personality or character. Wisdom and beauty, greatness and majesty, power, purity and honor are written on everything that God's hand has touched. It is written for us to read the thoughts and feelings of His great love-that we should behold our invisible God through His visible creation.

Eastern philosophy, on the other hand, does not differentiate between matter and spirit, the created and the Creator. The eastern god is not a personal being, but an "'energy," or life force. Eastern mysticism-the foundation of New Age beliefs-teaches that the "divine energy"' in rocks, trees, the sun, moon and stars, animals, humans, insects, and birds makes up divinity, or the cosmos.

There is no room in eastern philosophy for a special creation, sin, salvation, a savior, heaven, hell, or a new earth. Any mixing of Christian theology with New Age concepts will destroy belief in an all powerful Creator and Redeemer-the essentials of Christianity. New Age concepts are not new at all. They are a return to the pagan ideas that rivaled the advance of early Christianity in apostolic days.