Are we now living in the Great Apostasy? (4)

by Ray Caldwell

New Age authors offer an alternative to New Testament Christianity. Here I look at one such effort, A Course In Miracles Made Easy by Alan Cohen.

In this his twenty-something publication, Alan Cohen exhorts us to reappraise the 3 volume  A Course In Miracles, which was apparently channeled from Jesus Christ. This is because it sold millions, but hardly anyone read it. Alan Cohen’s job is to convince his audience that the course is what humanity actually needs, and because he is so smart, his latest book is going to make the long and exhausting course make easy sense.

Using a plumb line approach, I would judge that if you begin a hypothesis with the slightest error you are going to end up a long way from home. It’s like sending a rocket to Mars with a fractional miscalculation in the trajectory programmed at blast off. Where are you going to end up?

In similar consideration A Course In Miracles has probably as much likelihood of having Jesus Christ as its author as Alan John Miller of Australia (divinetruth.com) is the reincarnation of Jesus Christ, which he claims to be.

Alan Cohen, new age author

Alan Cohen, obviously an author of considerable standing in the field of ultimate insights and divine truth, writes with profound error. As if the above isn’t enough to make you see the wolf and Little Red Riding Hood by the bedside, here are some examples of the deranged assertions:

“The author of A Course In Miracles identifies himself as Jesus Christ.” Personally, except for the love of money, I would not even offer a pen-refill to anyone who proceeds on that belief.

“… ACIM clearly represents the man who walked the earth as Jesus.” In my view, about as much chance as Alan John Miller is the reincarnation of Jesus of Nazareth.. The New Testament Jesus is entirely different, as even a child could work out.

“This …. biblical Jesus through a sullied lens.” (sullied = defiled, tainted, soiled, stained) This is how he sees the church-going Christians' understanding of Jesus Christ.

“The Jesus behind A Course In Miracles represents love and only love.” (I think this is what people want).

“Being written in the voice of Jesus Christ..” “….the philosophy of A Course In Miracles is in some way akin to Advaita Vedanta and Buddhism”. I think we’ve missed Mars.

“The teachings of Sri Ramina are strikingly identical to A Course In Miracles.” I doff my cap.

“The Course serves as a correction to what Christianity has become”. Is there some baggage here, an axe to grind, an agenda?

“The truth is true, no matter who utters it.” Alan clearly believes that he is uttering the truth, and that Jesus, who asserted that He was the truth actually cannot claim exclusivity on the truth. Cohen is, of course, trying to refute the Messianic claims made by the New Testament Jesus. I wonder why?

“The Course embraces the best elements in Christianity”. Oh dear, here we have some best and worst, what he likes, what he dislikes: pick and mix.

“The course serves as a correction to what Christianity has become.” This is a bit sly, because Alan Cohen is clearly no fan of Christianity as it was in its original state, clearly refusing to believe in Jesus Christ’s messianic status, which is stipulated in the New Testament as the requirement for the salvation of one’s soul.

“Although Jesus delivered a pure healing message …” This statement is nonsense, as anyone who sensibly reads the New Testament will find out.

“Jesus dictated A Course In Miracles to get Christianity back on track with its true purpose of healing..” This is a very popular and wished for twist on New Testament Christianity: love and healing, period. Actually Cohen is “twisting my sobriety”. It’s rubbish. (Twisting My Sobriety by Tanita Tikeram).

“A Course In Miracles acknowledges and celebrates the God in all people, no matter their faith”. Well, one person has faith in Baal, another faith in Zeus, another in Isis, another in Hitler, another in Stalin or in the devil. Doesn’t it matter what you believe or what you have faith in? That is completely contrary to the Bible. This is just saying that we are all God. All parts of God. All gods and goddesses. Contrarily, the Bible says that we were created by God, from the soil, in God's image.

Alan Cohen’s books are many. You would be forgiven for assuming that hardly a word he speaks isn’t worth publishing. One need to buy all his books. About 500 quid.

Interestingly, Cohen relates how his publisher, Louise Hay, took him out for lunch and picked him up in a gold Rolls Royce in New York.

But Jesus said, ‘Build up treasures in heaven, where moth and rust can’t eat away, what’s the real use if you gain the whole world but throw the life of your soul away’ (Matt 6:19) (Marilyn Baker).

So, have Alan Cohen’s writings emerged out a neutral mental and emotional tank? The following quote refers to a specific time in Cohen’s life.

“When I set out on my spiritual path, I was inspired by the teachings of Jesus. I studied the New Testament, and I taped a small picture of Jesus on the dashboard of my car. My mother was not exactly pleased as punch to ride with Jesus as copilot. When I picked her up to take her shopping she made fun of the picture. “Were you cold out here last night, Jesus?” she mockingly asked the image, tapping it with her forefinger. “Would you like me to knit you a sweater? …. At the same time I was teaching Yoga and Meditation and telling people about unconditional love.”

The above does allow some insight as to what forces are at work in Alan Cohen, and what he is trying to maintain: an agreement with his mother while trying to rationalize Jesus, at the same time teaching Eastern religious practices and proclaiming unconditional love. Completely unconditional love seemingly allows one to commit atrocities. Even if you worship the devil, it’s for everyone. It gives license to all for everything. There was a dichotomy between himself and his mother and he took the path to appease her, perhaps.

Alan Cohen goes on to make wild assumptions, presented as facts:

“There was a time when you were not a body or an ego. You were a powerful spiritual being united with God and the entire universe.” Where did he work that out? Was I like the angel Gabriel?

And then we get his take on original sin, which he is quick to dismiss as utter rubbish: “The critical moment of immersion into illusion (conception or birth) has been called ‘original sin’ …”. What? “But of course this was not sin at all, and in reality the fall never occurred”.

Here he seems out of touch with the Genesis account of original sin, while assuming the position of complete authority on the subject. He expands:

“Proponents of the doctrine of original sin have concocted a vast array of gruesome fairy tales about the punishment you deserve for simply being born. Not a word is true.” (He is saying in effect, trust me, the Bible is lies). “Sin calls for punishment, but error simply requires correction”. In other words, all of humanities' evil-doings are errors or mistakes, not cold, calculated wrong-doings.

Finally, because this needs a certain brevity, I will cite Cohen’s call for “The Tummy Test” which displaces the need for conscience and the fear of God or God’s law. The tummy test works like this and I quote: “If he gets indigestion after dinner, he knows that the path he is considering is the wrong one for him”. Here the emphasis seems to be on him and not his victims. “If he digests and sleeps well, he knows this path is the right one.” Which choice would you recommend the perpetrators to make use of before their premeditated plans to unleash unspeakable sufferings on the victims of Auschwitz or for that matter the Gaza Strip? The fear of God, or the Tummy Test? 

And then Cohen falls back on the doctrine for which he could not claim authorship, the familiar dream and awakening concept: “The cure for the dream of sin is not to tighten the screws of fear that make the dream so real. The cure for the dream of sin is awakening.”

Paraphrased: sin is not real, it is a dream or illusion, we will all wake up one day to discover that it never happened. Do not have any fear of punishment for wrongdoing, because that makes it seem that the sin was real.

Perhaps I have got a chip on my shoulder, perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps I need to give Alan Cohen a fairer review by reading the other twenty-five books or so that he’s published. But I am not going to. I am going against the odds and continue to believe the New Testament.

Dear readers, what do you think about A Course In Miracles?  Is Alan Cohen right? Should we now dismiss the Biblical plan of salvation and buy the Course and put all our trust in it and Alan Cohen?