New Earth...Same Old Crap, Pt. 4

From A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle:

• ...a sacred sense of Presence, a deep peace and serenity and complete freedom from fear. This phenomenon must have been familiar to St. Paul, who used the expression "the peace of God which passeth all understanding." -pg. 56
• When forms around you die or death approaches, your sense of Beingness, of I Am, is freed from its entanglement with form: Spirit is released from its imprisonment in matter. You realize your essential identity as formless, as an all-pervasive Presence, of Being prior to all forms, all identifications. You realize your true identity as consciousness itself, rather than what consciousness had identified with. That's the peace of God. The ultimate truth of who you are is not I am this or I am that, but I Am. -pg. 57

This is just another example of Tolle asserting that, in fact, we ourselves are God. He continues to use Biblical language to convey this. First, by quoting Paul - which I found interesting because Paul, above any other Biblical personality, writes more to warn Christians against this very kind of teaching and boldly declares its evilness. Second by using Almighty God's chosen name for Himself - I Am. Tolle teaches that we are the I Am.

In my research I did on Tolle's background I found that while he does admit to being influenced by the Bible, his strongest influences, or the teachings he felt he most identified with, were Hindu sacred texts/teachings and Buddhist sacred texts. However, in A New Earth, the vast majority of quotes from sacred texts come from the Bible (I'd say the ratio is at least 3:1). He quotes the Old and New Testaments and loves quoting Jesus directly to reinforce his own world-view. Yet, by his own admission, the Judeo-Christian texts are not his biggest influence.

This is not by accident. It's a calculated move on his part to mislead Christians who may not be well-versed in the Scripture. By taking Biblical passages and twisting them, sometimes slightly - sometimes greatly, he is able to give naive Christians a false sense of security so they embrace his teachings as equal with the Bible.

2 Peter 2:1-3 (ESV) -- But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.