Heritage Presbyterian Church Adult Sunday School

1. P e t e r J o n e s
Director of truthXchange
A Worldview & Culture Teaching Series by Ligonier Ministries
Adult Sunday School
Summer 2019

2. Lesson Slide
5 2
Paganism in the Spotlight
The Big Question
How can we make sense of the
breakneck spiritual and social changes
happening right now in our culture?
and
How should Christians respond?

3. Lesson Slide
5 3
Paganism in the Spotlight
Lessons in the Series
1. Explaining Modern
Culture
2. The Rise & Fall of
Secular Humanism
3. Carl Jung’s Alternative
Spirituality
4. Paganism in the
Shadows
5. Paganism in the
Spotlight
6. Pagan Sexuality
7. From Personal
Spirituality to
Worldview
8. Where Is Society
Headed?
9. Unbiblical Responses
10.Articulating a Biblical
Worldview
11.Living in Holiness
12.Thinking with a
Discerning Mind

4. Lesson Slide
5 4
Paganism in the Spotlight
Lesson Introduction
• The 1960s saw what some have called a pagan
revival, and what others have described as a
cataclysmic change
• It was a period in which the influence of Christianity
waned and alternative spiritualities filled the void
• Many modern spiritual movements began during this
time, and embodied the pagan ideology of Carl Jung
• By examining the history and influence of these
religions, one can better grasp their similarities and
understand how they have had such an influence on
modern culture

5. Lesson Slide
5 5
Paganism in the Spotlight
Scripture Reading
• As it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one; no
one understands; no one seeks for God. All have
turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good, not even one." "Their throat is an
open grave; they use their tongues to deceive." "The
venom of asps is under their lips." "Their mouth is full
of curses and bitterness." "Their feet are swift to
shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and
the way of peace they have not known." "There is no
fear of God before their eyes."
Romans 3:10-18

6. Lesson Slide
5 6
Paganism in the Spotlight
Teaching Objectives
1. To show that the spiritual movement of the
1960s was a pagan revival
2. To show the drastic change in spirituality
during the 1960s
3. To demonstrate how what was marginal in
the 1960s has become mainstream in the
present

7. Lesson Slide
5 7
Paganism in the Spotlight
Watch Lecture 5

8. Lesson Slide
5 8
Paganism in the Spotlight
A Spiritual Tsunami
• Joseph Campbell popularized Jung’s ideas about mythology
• Wildly successful books
• 1988 PBS documentary The Power of Myth
• Campbell was translating Jung’s esoteric language of
transpersonal psychology into layman’s terms
• Inner problems and inner mysteries need the guideposts that
myths provide
• Myths are the search for meaning by human beings throughout
the ages
• Myths are not to be seen as mere purveyors of rational meaning;
rather, they create the experience of being alive
• The recent publication of the Nag Hammadi Gnostic texts,
making available a heretical form of Christianity
• Hippies go East and the gurus go West—led to proliferation
of scores of alternative spiritualities

9. Lesson Slide
5 9
Paganism in the Spotlight
Hindu America?
• Jung was fascinated with yoga, Hindu spirituality, and the
culture of India, where he traveled in 1937-1938
• Documenting the “Hindu conversion” of America
• Philip Goldberg, American Veda
• Colin Campbell, The Easternization of the West
• We all now experience the effects in our everyday lives,
whether we realize it or not, in our thinking and
vocabulary of concepts (mantra, avatar, karma)
• Though techniques like yoga, mindfulness, Eastern
meditation, healing touch, and Ayurveda seem innocent
enough and may even accomplish some pragmatic ends,
their worldview assumptions are Oneist. The New Age
movement has morphed and gone mainstream.

10. Lesson Slide
5 10
Paganism in the Spotlight
Not Heterodox Deviations,
But a Paradigm Shift
1. The old enemy, secularism, is on the way out
2. A new spiritual enemy has appeared—paganism
3. Christianity no longer occupies a privileged position
in Western society
4. Some Christians, mesmerized by the success and
apparent beauty of this cultural spiritual movement,
fail to see that its basic religious vision stems from a
deliberate attempt to undermine the Christian faith
and the civilization it helped to engender
5. The new religious option is massive in its conception
and breathtaking in its intentions. It is bent on
seizing ideological power—all, of course, “for the
good of humanity.”

11. Lesson Slide
5 11
Paganism in the Spotlight
Not Heterodox Deviations,
But a Paradigm Shift
6. Leaving Bible tracts on park benches, referring to
“the old, old story” or having pleasant but shallow
conversations with our neighbors will not be
sufficient witness in a post-Christian cultural
situation of widespread antagonism toward the
gospel
7. Understanding our culture’s deep commitment to
Oneism and developing an appropriate Twoist
response is essential both for evangelism and for
cultural renewal
• This spiritual phenomenon is variously called
• The Fourth Awakening
• The Great Emergence
• The Great Shift
• The New Pentecost

12. Lesson Slide
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Paganism in the Spotlight
Study Question Answers
1. The pagan vision of the world is now being applied
to all areas—science, law, education, politics,
sexuality, ecology, and ethics. True
2. Some have called the present-day spiritual
movement The Fourth Great Awakening.
3. The new spirituality is content to let everyone
practice their own religion. False
4. A characteristic phrase of the new spirituality is
“We’re spiritual but not religious”.
5. The Age of Aquarius refers to the moment in the
zodiacal system where the Age of Pisces,
represented by a fish, is superseded by the age of
the goddess who brings spiritual drink. True

13. Lesson Slide
5 13
Paganism in the Spotlight
Discussion Questions
1. One of the characteristics of the new spirituality is
that people claim to practice spirituality without
being religious. Have you seen a parallel in the
church? What are the dangers of this sort of thinking?
2. Have you participated in or witnessed an interfaith
movement? Do you think such movements help or
hurt the spread of the Christian faith and worldview?
3. Many in today’s society want to see Christianity
conform to the idea that all forms of religion are
equally valid expressions. How should Christians
combat this view?
4. How can Christians demonstrate that their refusal to
conform is actually an expression of love for others?

14. Lesson Slide
5 14
Paganism in the Spotlight
Next Lesson
The contemporary belief of some in the church that there are
no categorical sexual and gender distinctions fails the test of
biblical faithfulness. It tramples over Genesis 1:27 (male and
female in God’s image), which grants deep religious meaning
to sexual distinctiveness and complementarity.

15. Lesson Slide
5 15
Paganism in the Spotlight
Resources by Peter Jones
• Only Two Religions (study guide)
• Only Two Religions (evangelism tool)
• truthxchange.com (website)
• heritage-pca.org (website)
• The Other Worldview (book)
• The Pagan Heart of Today’s Culture
(booklet)