What Is the New Age Movement?

People use “New Age” for a loose set of practices that treat human thought, repeating numbers, or cards as a way to shape life or to receive a message. A public-domain New Thought book, Wallace D. Wattles’s The Science of Getting Rich (1910), states the thought-creates-things claim those practices repeat. Christians confess that the Word who was God made all things.

Key points

• Wattles writes, “There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made,” and that a thought in that substance produces the thing imaged.
• John 1:1–3^1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ^1:2 The same was in the beginning with God. ^1:3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.John 1:1–3 · King James Version says the Word was God and that all things were made by him.
• Genesis 1:1In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.Genesis 1:1 · King James Version says, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
• Deuteronomy 18:10–12^18:10 There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch. ^18:11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. ^18:12 For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.Deuteronomy 18:10–12 · King James Version forbids divination, observing times, and witchcraft, and calls those practices an abomination to the LORD.
• Is manifesting a sin? quotes Wattles at length. Are angel numbers biblical? quotes the divination laws.
• A Theosophical book was not verified for this page, so it is not quoted. The Christian confession is the Trinity: Jesus is God.

What the published claim says

Wallace D. Wattles, The Science of Getting Rich (1910), summarizes the claim this way:

There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made, and which, in its original state, permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the universe. A thought, in this substance, produces the thing that is imaged by the thought. Man can form things in his thought, and, by impressing his thought upon formless substance, can cause the thing he thinks about to be created.

Wallace D. Wattles, The Science of Getting Rich

That is a New Thought sentence from 1910. Later books repeat the idea that a held thought produces the thing. This page does not quote those later books.

What the Bible says

Genesis 1:1In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.Genesis 1:1 · King James Version (King James Version) says:

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Genesis 1:1 · King James Version

John 1:1–3^1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ^1:2 The same was in the beginning with God. ^1:3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.John 1:1–3 · King James Version (King James Version) says:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

John 1:14And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.John 1:14 · King James Version says the Word was made flesh. John 14:6Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.John 14:6 · King James Version records Jesus: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” Deuteronomy 18:10–12^18:10 There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch. ^18:11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. ^18:12 For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.Deuteronomy 18:10–12 · King James Version names divination, enchantment, witchcraft, and necromancy, and says all who do these things are an abomination to the LORD. Isaiah 47:13Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee.Isaiah 47:13 · King James Version addresses astrologers and monthly prognosticators and asks them to stand up and save.

The Christian claim

Wattles’s sentences give the creating act to a person’s thought pressing on a formless substance. John 1:3All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.John 1:3 · King James Version gives the creating act to the Word, and John 1:1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.John 1:1 · King James Version says the Word was God. Christians confess that this Word is Jesus, God the Son. That is the deity of Christ. Can Christians believe in evolution? is the churches’ own words on creation.

Frequently asked questions

Is the New Age one church?

The pages on this shelf do not quote a creed that all of these practices share. They quote Wattles on thought, and the Bible on creation and on divination. Manifestation and angel numbers, numerology, and tarot are the two practices people search.

Does the Bible say God created by speaking?

Genesis 1:1In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.Genesis 1:1 · King James Version says God created the heaven and the earth. John 1:3All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.John 1:3 · King James Version says all things were made by the Word. Psalm 33 is the chapter that says the heavens were made by the word of the LORD.