I must assume you heard of New Thought; For many, the Bible has been reinterpreted in such language (in the Mirror Bible, for example).
Salvation is a personal trust in Christ. He is a real person not an idea or force or thought. God’s names in the Old Testament more than describe his personality; they proclaim who He is in relation to us. The Old Testament record is a progressive revelation of the Great “I Am.” It is an introduction to the real God, not an evolving religious imagination. He is a personal God because He has personality. It is because we cannot know Him without a relationship with Him that images, both material and imagined, are forbidden! God is a personal God not an anthropomorphic expression.
When Yahweh came to Abraham in Genesis 18 to talk covenant, this was a meeting of one person to another. Persons have character and God’s is summed up in His Holiness, Mercy, and Love.
As regards His names, we have disabused the text in not recognizing, for example, His name QANA, “a zealous love” [Exodus 34:14] and giving Him a name He never called Himself [Genesis 22:14] because it sounds more to our liking, Jehovah-Jireh! His names are a revelation of Who He is—not Whom, the God, we wish He were, into which some theology reimagined Him to be. Study them carefully!
Universalism, the belief that all will be saved, rests in either a reincarnation [a do-over] or with others the erroneous idea that there is a spark of “light” in all of us—a measure of goodness? The Biblical message of a final resurrection flies in the face of this human idea. Resurrection and reincarnation (whatever it is known as) are mutually exclusive concepts. The Bible clarifies that without that trust in this personal God, Jesus, there is a final judgment that is necessary, and a hell prepared for many.
There is no spark of divine light in man as New Thought, the New Gnosticism, teaches. Jesus alone is the light! He is the “spark!” Hear John 1:4-5, 11-12: “In him, Jesus, was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shined in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. … He came unto his own, and his own received him not [no universalism]. But as many as received him, to them gave he power [the right not the power] to become the sons of [in relationship with] God, even to them that believe [trust] on his name [Who He is].”
In John 1:1 He is called “The Logos” which does not diminish His divinity but magnifies it! This is a shorthand way of saying all that is divine, its fulness, not in part, not distributed, not divided, not lessened, not temporary or with beginning, everything about God is equally true of Christ.
The Yaldabaoth of Gnostic thought of 2 gods [one cruel creator and one merciful savior] is myth not Scripture! John 1:1-3 Jesus, the Logos, was [from eternity past] God. The same was in the beginning [from eternity past] with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
And speaking of Covenant, the final covenant is the “New” covenant in Jeremiah 31:33. Don’t confuse “covenant” language [mutuality, offering, acceptance by faith] with “contract” language [reciprocity, compromise, and acceptance by agreement]. The word “covenant” in Scripture is in effect a “last will and testament” which cannot ever be altered or rewritten or in any sense negotiated nor abrogated. This is what “last” means! The Testator died to activate it and it was the Testator’s “offer.” The language here is not one of negotiation, mediation, or arbitration. Jesus gave us a “straight offer” of Salvation. Accept it or reject it.
Furthermore, there will be no other “covenants” drawn up as if Calvary was not the final offering! Every gift of God is provided in this one, new, covenant in Christ!
Prayer is not a new covenant but a covenantal provision of Christ from the Cross. Prayer is not an affirmation of our interests but a conversation with God over His. To see prayer as an affirmation of human thought is to deny both the Covenant and the Personhood of God in Christ and this denies the entire Old Testament message upon which the New Testament depends for inspiration and meaning. We do not contract with God when we talk to Him, we listen!
I plan no book on this topic. Whoever thinks this is all balderdash or dribble, I will just leave them to God—the Real One!
