What is the “God Power Within” Movement?

The “god power within” movement is rooted in Pantheism.  God is not an individual, but a force of infinite intelligence and consciousness.  Since man is part of that force, god is within him, hence, man is god.

In an interview with Bill Moyers on PBS, Joseph Campbell is quoted as saying, “Heaven and Hell and all the gods are within us.”1  Man creates his own universe by revolutionizing his thinking which marks the early stages of consciousness rising.  Superconsciousness is full awareness of the self.

The New Age teaching of “god within us” leads New Agers to believe that they are gods and can exert power over all things.  Human potential is unlimited, and as Shirley MacLaine states, “you are unlimited.”2  Man ignores his sinful condition and also any awareness of personal sin.  Since there is only one Reality, man is not under a moral law.  To believe in good or evil is a dualistic concept that the New Ager finds repulsive.

The world will not accept negativity because New Agers are optimistic about their evolution.  By realizing that god is within all, man is able to raise his consciousness and combat the apocalypse.  By waking the divine within each person, man can usher in the New Age.  Man is believed to be at an exciting crossroad where he can actually control his own evolutionary progress.  Of course, to bring all this about there needs to be total unity—an one world government and an one world religion.

Scripture witnesses to a different fate of man if he tries to reach his full potential without Christ.  Roman 3:12, Psalm 39:5, and Isaiah 64:6 teach that man’s true nature is complete emptiness, that there is no good in man apart from the Father drawing men unto Himself by the Holy Spirit through the death and resurrection of Christ.  The true Christian is promised strength to overcome all things in this world once he is in God’s will (Phil. 4:13).  The anticipation of history for the church is the return of her Lord.  Scripture is quite clear that the only way to a true utopia is to enter the Kingdom of God by way of the cross (Jn. 3:3; 14:6).

1 Quoted in Tal Brooke, When the World Will Be as One (Eugene, OR:  Harvest House, 1989), p. 41.

2 MacLaine, Dancing, p. 133.