# What Is the New Age Movement? > People use New Age for practices that treat human thought, numbers, or cards as a way to shape life or receive a message. Christians confess that God alone creates and reveals. - Canonical: https://apologetics.wiki/new-age/what-is-the-new-age-movement - Religions: none - Denominations: none - Beliefs: New Age - Tags: new-age, manifestation - Updated: 2026-10-09 - Author: [Paul Ambrose](https://apologetics.wiki/author/hi-its-paul) ([GitHub](https://github.com/hi-its-paul)) 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](https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/59844/pg59844.txt) 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](/bible/john/1) says the Word was God and that all things were made by him. - [Genesis 1:1](/bible/genesis/1/1) says, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” - [Deuteronomy 18:10–12](/bible/deuteronomy/18) forbids divination, observing times, and witchcraft, and calls those practices an abomination to the LORD. - [Is manifesting a sin?](/new-age/manifestation-and-the-law-of-attraction) quotes Wattles at length. [Are angel numbers biblical?](/new-age/angel-numbers-tarot-and-numerology) quotes the divination laws. - A Theosophical book was not verified for this page, so it is not quoted. The Christian confession is [the Trinity](/christianity/the-trinity): Jesus is God. ## What the published claim says [Wallace D. Wattles, *The Science of Getting Rich*](https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/59844/pg59844.txt) (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. 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 1:1](/bible/genesis/1/1) (King James Version) says: > In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. [John 1:1–3](/bible/john/1) (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 1:14](/bible/john/1/14) says the Word was made flesh. [John 14:6](/bible/john/14/6) records Jesus: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” [Deuteronomy 18:10–12](/bible/deuteronomy/18) names divination, enchantment, witchcraft, and necromancy, and says all who do these things are an abomination to the LORD. [Isaiah 47:13](/bible/isaiah/47/13) 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 1:3](/bible/john/1/3) gives the creating act to the Word, and [John 1:1](/bible/john/1/1) says the Word was God. Christians confess that this Word is Jesus, God the Son. That is [the deity of Christ](/christianity/deity-of-christ). [Can Christians believe in evolution?](/moral-questions/evolution-and-creation) 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](/new-age/manifestation-and-the-law-of-attraction) and [angel numbers, numerology, and tarot](/new-age/angel-numbers-tarot-and-numerology) are the two practices people search. ### Does the Bible say God created by speaking? [Genesis 1:1](/bible/genesis/1/1) says God created the heaven and the earth. [John 1:3](/bible/john/1/3) says all things were made by the Word. [Psalm 33](/bible/psalms/33) is the chapter that says the heavens were made by the word of the LORD. ## Passages quoted on this page ### John 1:1–3 King James Version. > [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. ### Deuteronomy 18:10–12 King James Version. > [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. ### John 1:14 King James Version. > And 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 14:6 King James Version. > Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. ### Isaiah 47:13 King James Version. > Thou 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. ## Sources Numbered to match the HTML References list. Item 1 is `#ref-1` under `#references`. Scripture links to the King James Version on this site. 1. [Wallace D. Wattles, The Science of Getting Rich, 1910, the summary of the thinking-stuff claim](https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/59844/pg59844.txt) (Public domain. Project Gutenberg ebook 59844.) 2. [Gospel of John, 1:1–3](https://apologetics.wiki/bible/john/1). King James Version 3. [Book of Deuteronomy, 18:10–12](https://apologetics.wiki/bible/deuteronomy/18). King James Version ## See also - [Is Manifesting a Sin? Manifestation and the Law of Attraction](https://apologetics.wiki/new-age/manifestation-and-the-law-of-attraction) — Wallace D. Wattles wrote in 1910 that a thought in a thinking substance produces the thing imagined. The Bible says the Word who was God made all things. - [Are Angel Numbers Biblical? Angel Numbers, Numerology and Tarot](https://apologetics.wiki/new-age/angel-numbers-tarot-and-numerology) — Deuteronomy 18 forbids divination, observing times, and consulting spirits. Isaiah 47 challenges astrologers and monthly prognosticators to save anyone. ## History [View history on GitHub](https://github.com/Apologetics-Wiki/apologetics-wiki/commits/main/src/content/articles/what-is-the-new-age-movement.md)