Is God worried about Oprah?

After reading the following article, please note my brief comments at the end.

Recently a Christian author has written that media icon Oprah Winfrey has become a false prophet for a false Jesus. Warren Smith, author of Reinventing Jesus Christ: The New Gospel, is a Christian who was saved from the new age movement. He says Oprah's search led her to Marianne Williamson and the new age teachings of A Course in Miracles.

Oprah told her audience that she has no problem reconciling the differences between the new age religion she is now promoting and the Christian faith she claims. "I reconciled it because I was able to open my mind about the, um, the absolute, indescribable hugeness of that which we call 'God,'" Oprah said. "I took God out of the box."

But Smith, appearing on the March 11 edition of the AFA Report, said the false teachings of A Course in Miracles should be obvious to any Christian. "Here are some of the lessons: Lesson 29, 'God is in everything I see.' Lesson 186, 'The salvation of the world depends on me.' 253, 'My self is the ruler of the universe.' 337, 'My sinless-ness protects me from all harm,'" Smith said, quoting from the lessons. "This is the Bible upside-down."

Smith also criticized Oprah for the selection of Eckhart Tolle's new age book A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose as her book of the month.

"It reminds me of Jeremiah 5 where he says, 'A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land, the prophets prophesy falsely and my people love to have it so,'" Smith explained. "What is more wonderful these days than Oprah? A wonderful and horrible thing is happening in the land, the prophets prophesy falsely. Oprah -- by now teaching this class with Eckhart Tolle -- is no longer a pointer to deception. She is a false prophet and part of it herself."

Christians have an obligation, Smith concluded, to point out the error of Oprah's new age "christianity," even if doing so means risking public ridicule.

"Unfortunately, Oprah does so many things that are really good [that] people make the mistake of thinking that she's on to something with this whole spiritual deal," Smith argued. "What she's doing is, she's creating a new worldview. They're calling it a 'shift' that will prepare people for when the next shoe drops.

"And this will be the way that world peace would be achieved," he said, explaining the new age philosophy behind A Course in Miracles, "by everybody adopting this view that 'we're all one because we're all god, we need to come together, we need to be in unity.'

"And the only people who are going to hinder that are the people who are saying, 'No, we're not God. Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior.'

Internet evangelist Bill Keller, appearing on Fox News Channel's Cavuto Report, echoed Smith's warnings, calling Oprah the queen of the new age gurus. "These new age teachings are really sucking in millions of people to these false philosophies, these false theologies, and they're literally leading people to Hell," Keller said. "Oprah, whether she knows it or not, is really being a conduit to lead people to Hell."

First of all, I think its obvious that Oprah Winfrey is using her influence to seduce people to believe in false teachings and beliefs. But I would also add that many in the media are doing this today and have been for awhile through movies, music, news programs, sitcoms, etc. So what Oprah's doing is nothing knew. The Apostle Paul wrote in Colossians 2:8, "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." I wrote a book a few years called "The Culture Crafters" that exposes all kinds of ways that different media seduces people toward false philosphies and beliefs.

If you are a Christian, I would encourage you to pray for Oprah. Jesus said there would be false prophets and teachers in the last days. The Apostle Paul tells us that the "...the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them" [2 Cor. 4:4]. As followers of Christ, we really should be less concerned with Oprah and more concerned that we are stedfast in our own faith in Christ. Paul writes, "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, [so] walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving." Colossians 2:6,7

What about all of those that she is misleading? Shouldn't we expose her false teachings? Absolutely, but as followers of Christ, lets not demonize her and those that hang on every word she says or promotes. Again, we must love them and pray for them that their eyes be open to the preaching of the gospel, that the Holy Spirit go before us and convict (persuade) of the Truth. I really don't think God is as worried about Oprah as is a lot of today's preachers and Christians. But I do believe He is more concerned with you and I letting the glorious light of the gospel shine forth through our words, deeds, and life in general.