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Good afternoon, my name is Bill Kurth and
I'm here to introduce Carl Teichrib this afternoon.
Carl and I have friends for about 21 years
now, I met him at the Winnipeg Prophecy Conference,
he was one of the speakers there. And the
lady who ran the conference, I always told
her that she needed to give Carl more opportunity.
She only gave him one hour to talk at the
conference, he was too good a speaker and
should have had more time. She never did ever
give him more time but now we see Carl with
his new book out, Game of Gods, which is a
book each of you should get and read. He's
doing an excellent job and he's now on high
demand as a speaker. Carl is an excellent
on-the-ground investigator. When he investigates
something, he goes out and he finds out exactly
what is going on, and he does great as far
as documentation of it, his footnotes are
extensive. But I'll give you an example of
the uncanny ability he has to deal with people.
He had the opportunity to speak to Mormons
and tell them what was wrong with their religion
and why they should become Christians, accepting
Jesus Christ under the shed blood... the blood
saving them rather than the Mormon doctrine. When
he got done telling them how wrong they were,
they were still friends of his and still invited
him back. He was able to do the same thing
with the witch's coven. Now that is an ability that
I don't have, so get ready to hear a great
speaker and I'm sure you'll enjoy Carl.
Thank you very much! Carl?
Hi, I’m Carl Teichrib, the author of the
book Game of Gods: The Temple of Man in the
Age of Re-Enchantment, and I want to say thank
you! Thank you for participating in this presentation,
for watching it, for tuning into The Berean
Call virtual conference. It’s my hope and
my prayer that this event will have challenged
you, will have encouraged you, and will have
equipped you to being ambassadors for Christ
in our changing time.
This presentation will look at the question
of engaging as ambassadors, engaging in Christian
outreach, being truth tellers in what is now
increasingly a pagan world. How do we do this?
Are there models for us to look at, even biblically?
I don’t have a gifting in evangelism, so
I kind of feel a little strange giving a talk
like this. My gifting is in research. My gifting
is in writing. I feel comfortable in those
realms, but the idea of doing evangelism and
Christian outreach, that’s tougher. This
is a challenge now for me, this presentation,
if I’m honest about it, as much as it may
be a challenge for you.
In giving this talk, I am hoping we have—we
see a couple things happen. I’m hoping,
number one, that we are spurred on to be truth
tellers; two, engage in outreach when those
doors open up, and to recognize how those
doors are opening up. And then while we will
be giving a couple of examples from my research
on the ground where I have had those opportunities,
I’m also hoping that you’ll be better
equipped to understand the times we’re in
as we hit on a couple of pretty significant
movements in our culture today: interfaithism,
transhumanism, and evolutionary culture, specifically
through the Burning Man experience. So those
are going to be kind of where we’re going
to end up. And that’s part of the research
I do in terms of my “boots on the ground.”
Those are events I go to. Those are places
that I go to do research, to try to understand,
to analyze, document the world as it is changing
literally before our eyes.
So, let’s jump into this. There are three
primary models of doing outreach in the New
Testament, three primary models of truth-telling.
The first model is an appeal to scriptural
authority. It’s exhorting, it’s teaching.
The example of Jesus talking to the religious
rulers is probably the best example. When
He’s talking to the religious rulers or
His disciples, He is reminding them, “Have
you not read…?” And there is that appeal
back into Scripture. This is the model we
use when we are dealing with people who claim
to have some religious and preferably a biblical—or
at least they claim to have some biblical
reference point. That includes even the pseudo-Christian
cults like Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witnesses,
because they will claim that the Bible has
a position of importance in their religion.
So this is where we go with that group of
people. We use the appeal to Scripture.
Model number two is recognizing the personal.
This is the idea of giving truth with grace.
The example here is Jesus Christ when He goes
to the sinners. He is ministering to those
who are shunned, to those who have been mistrusted.
He’s dining with them, He’s spending time
with them. The woman at the well is a prime
example. He came to her in her place and He
engages with her at a very personal level,
and then He brings up who He is, and displays
His truth to her. Matthew 9 we read, “I
did not come to call the righteous but sinners….”
So that’s a model. That’s another model
that we use: the appeal or the recognition
of the personal.
Now, how do we do outreach in a pagan age,
where the worldview has more connections back
to the idea of oneness, where man, God, and
nature are all considered the same versus
the belief of, you know, from the Judeo-Christian
context? How do we now engage in that type
of truth-telling? Well, model number three
is Paul’s model when he goes to Athens and
when he engages with people in the pagan cultures.
And that is first the acknowledgment of God
as Creator, and he goes literally as an ambassador
of this God who is distinct. He goes as an
ambassador of Jesus Christ. He goes to tell
them the good news. And again, probably the
best example is Acts 17, though there are
other examples, like Paul and Barnabus in Lystra.
So what does it mean to be an ambassador for
Christ? Second Corinthians 5 says this: “Now
then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though
God were pleading through us: we implore you
on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin
for us, that we might become the righteousness
of God in Him.”
Do you notice that this isn’t a metaphor?
It’s not like Paul’s other descriptive
language talking about running the Christian
race, or being a soldier for Christ, or using
the idea or the metaphor of being a farm laborer—no!
No, Paul was saying, “You are an ambassador.”
He isn’t giving a metaphor, he is telling
us what—or, pardon me, who—we are. It
is our duty. It is what you and I actually
are as followers of Jesus Christ here on this
earth.
A number of years ago I had the opportunity
of listening to the US ambassador to Saudi
Arabia. Before he took his posting, he gave
a presentation in Chicago; I was there for
that event. And as he broke down what it meant
to be an ambassador, I walked away going,
“Wow! This is impressive! This is important!
This is what we are. If we are ambassadors,
what does this mean to be one?” And he explained
it. He broke it down, and I walked away going,
“Okay, this is a very important thing for
us as Christians to recognize.”
So what is an ambassador? Again, this is who
you are. You are the official and legal representative
of your government—literally, in terms of
Christianese, using the Christianese language,
you are the royal and official legal representative
of the King of kings and Lord of lords to
a foreign land. That is who you are. I can’t
think of a calling higher and more meaningful
than that.
What else does an ambassador do? Well, the
ambassador has to know his king’s power
and position. An ambassador represents his
king’s interests and not your own interests.
An ambassador takes the time to understand
the culture and the customs of a foreign land.
That position that he is now holding as that
representative, it does require some study.
It does require some homework, and that was
something that the US ambassador to Saudi
Arabia was emphasizing: how much time he was
spending working through their history, their
philosophy, their understanding of the cultural
nuances—not that he becomes that, not that
we become what the culture is around us. No!
We’re set apart from it. But we can’t
be uninformed as to its character or composition,
because we’re representatives in that land.
And so we have to understand the customs and
the culture, at least enough to know how to
engage as an ambassador in the space we find
ourselves.
And in all this, we do two things: first,
we are there to effectively communicate the
King’s message; that’s our primary goal.
And then second, to recognize challenges to
the King’s interest. And then you alert
all of those in His service, all the rest
of our diplomatic community, all the rest
of us who are brothers and sisters in Christ
to where those concerns are coming, so that
they can gird themselves up and be equipped,
and see where the dangers are, and then to
be able to respond biblically. So this is
the role and duty of being a royal ambassador.
It is literally your calling.
As I said earlier, Paul’s example in Acts
17 is a fantastic model for what it looks
like to be an ambassador in a pagan age. We
won’t read all of this. In fact, I’m going
to encourage you to go into Acts 17 later
on. And if you have the opportunity to watch
this again, pause on this slide and then go
through Acts 17, looking at each one of these
points.
So we know the story; we know the events.
I’ll just give it to you in a brief rundown.
Paul goes to Athens, and while he’s there,
he recognizes their spiritual situation. He
takes his time to engage with the Jewish and
the Gentile believers in the city. He’s
gone around, he’s surveyed the community.
He understands its spiritual setting, and
then he encounters the philosophers, the trendsetters
of the day. He is taken to the council of
Areopagus. Now, the background to this is
important: standing behind Paul, or maybe
even before Paul, because the Areopagus was
a shoulder of a hill, and on this hill are
a multitude of pagan temples, huge temples!
In the far background is the temple of Zeus,
there’s a temple of Nike. Paul’s foreground,
Paul’s image or visions around him, what
he is seeing, literally, are temples made
by human hands to pagan deities. The paganism
of that era was raw and real, and that is
what Paul finds himself in the midst of. And
so while he’s there being questioned by
the council of Areopagus, he acknowledges
their spiritual setting. He uses their spiritual
culture to launch into the gospel, referencing
the fact that he saw a monument to the “Unknown
God.” And then he presents the character
of the true God, the Creator, Lord of heaven
and earth, the one who gives life and breath.
He speaks about repentance, judgment, and
resurrection. In verse 28, he understands
their worldview. He even quotes their own
philosophers—he quotes the hymn of Zeus
to them. And then in verse 32, what is the
response? Well, some mocked, which is exactly
what people will do to you, right? Some mocked,
but some wanted to hear more. Ultimately,
it’s the Holy Spirit that does the change
of the heart. Paul was the messenger. Paul
was the truth-teller. He was the ambassador.
So recognizing now that we live in a pagan
or an enchanted world, we need to consider
that model that Paul gives us in Acts 17:
how can we engage—how can we leverage the
culture around us? It’s important to recognize,
and I brought this up in the first discussion,
that we live in an era of oneness: the pagan
view, or the re-enchanted view, that God,
man, and nature are all essentially the same,
whereas the biblical worldview is otherness—that
God is distinct, that He is unique.
My first taste of oneness took place back
in 1997. It was my first real research trip.
I traveled to Vancouver, British Columbia,
to attend the Global Citizenship 2000 Youth
Congress, and Robert Mueller, the retired
official from the United Nations, was there.
Now keep in mind the audience: the audience
is made up of schoolchildren, educators, even
university students, going all the way from
K up to grade 12, and then those who were
engaged in community activities, community
activism. It was really a conference of schools
from the lower mainland region of BC and Vancouver
as they were wrestling with, “What does
this look like to be a global citizen?”
We all received “earth passports,” symbolic
earth passports, and the wording in the passport
read this: “You are the earth becoming conscious
of herself. Unite, global citizens, to save
and heal planet Earth.” I hope at this point
right here, that causes you to pause, especially
the line, “…to save and heal planet Earth.”
Indeed, it is your task as an ambassador of
oneness, right? As a good global citizen?
You are an ambassador of the One who is other.
You recognize that it is Christ who saves
the world, it’s not through your endeavors.
It’s certainly not through your collective
actions.
And so we were taught oneness for the course
of this weekend. This is what Robert Mueller
told the children: “You are not children
of Canada, you are really living units of
the cosmos, because the earth is a cosmic
phenomenon. We are all cosmic units. This
is why religions tell you you are divine.
We are divine energy. It is in your hands
whether evolution on this planet continues
or not.”
And then over the course of the weekend, the
different schools would break out into working
groups to come up with ideas of what it means
to be a good global citizen. Each school came
up with different action plans, different
campaigns, slogans. All kinds of things were
happening. There was a lot of excitement in
the air as all these school children were
buzzing with what we could do. Robert Mueller
reminded everybody that you can have a fantastic
future, you just need to come up with an idea.
And Robert Mueller told everybody about how
involved he was at the United Nations, and
that he had helped to bring about the development
of all kinds of UN programs. And so these
schools brainstormed, and some of the ideas
were this: to start school-based interfaith
groups and school-based global citizenship
clubs, to foster earth pride, and form celebrations
around a planetary identity. One school suggested
we needed a zero world debt: replace money
with biometric cards and earth points. Others
described the idea of instilling global spiritual
and ethical values through public education.
The group that I was sitting with, which were
university students, recognized that what
we were talking about was really a religious
philosophical idea. And so one of the students
around my circle said this: “What we need
to do is take the global citizenship concept,
make it a virus. No inoculation—infect everyone.”
And at the end of the event, there was a celebration
in the concourse of the building, and we had
a theatrical troupe that came and presented
to us Ganesha, the Hindu deity, the god of
beginnings, the remover of obstacles. And
the schoolchildren were told, “I have been
around for thousands and thousands of years,
and you can call on me any time to remove
your thoughts of any obstacles if you should
ever worry or anguish. Or if life gets you
down, whisper an Om. Call on loving Ganesha,
who always is there, for Ganesha is none other
than you.”
What I had witnessed was an expression of
the original deception. Genesis 3 reads this
way: “Now the serpent was more cunning than
any beast of the field which the Lord God
had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Has
God indeed said, “You shall not eat of every
tree of the garden”?’ And the woman said
to the serpent, ‘We may eat the fruit of
the trees of the garden; but of the fruit
of the tree which is in the midst of the garden,
God has said, “You shall not eat it, nor
shall you touch it, lest you die.”’ Then
the serpent said to the woman, ‘You shall
not surely die. For God knows that in the
day you eat of it your eyes will be opened,
and you will be like God, knowing good and
evil.’”
Notice the tactics of deception, and the underlying
message that accompanies it. First, the focus
on doubt. Did God really say…? Did God really
command that? And then the alternative: You’re
not going to die—there’s another way forward.
Notice also the three interlocking points
in verse 5—Enlightenment: “Your eyes will
be opened.” A new vision will unfold. Deification,
or divine likeness. “You will be like or
as God. You will take upon yourself His identity.”
And then thirdly: “You will gain wisdom
through special knowledge, the knowledge of
good and evil.”
Two underlying messages also exist: in disobeying
God, we assert our divine selves. That God
can be challenged shows us that another path
is possible. And then by transgressing, we
transform. This is really important: by transgressing,
we transform. Humanity ascends by breaking
God’s laws. Revolution promises evolution.
In my last talk, I gave us examples of re-enchantment.
We talked about what re-enchantment looks
like, what it means. I want to remind you
of some of this, because in the examples that
I will be showing, they all are steeped in
re-enchantment. Re-enchantment is the development
of a new mythos, a new framing story, a new
truth claim wrapped up in a grand vision.
It’s our planetary interconnection, our
oneness, our wholeness. It’s a soul-like
sense of contact with natural processes, a
spiritual connection back to the earth, that
pagan veneration of nature. It’s a return
to Gaia, our sacred earth.
In re-enchantment, the self finds value in
the global community. We, all of us, collectively
are directing our evolution. There’s no
God outside of nature. Rather, it’s the
community of feelings that guides our ethics
and our values. Reality is valid, dated by
our experiences. Creation is divine. Salvation
is discovered in ourselves.
So in the next few minutes, I want to give
you snapshots of re-enchantment. And in the
three examples I’ll be giving, I also want
to show how doors were opened to present the
gospel, how doors were opened to do Christian
outreach, and how that kind of came about.
So we want to take a look at the Parliament
of World Religions and interfaithism. That
is our first example. The first Parliament
of World Religions took place in 1893 in Chicago
at the Chicago World’s Fair. This is one
of the statements from that event: “The
religion of the future will be universal in
every sense. It will embody all the thoughts
and aspirations and virtues and emotions of
all humanity. It will draw together all lands
and peoples and kindreds and tongues into
a universal brotherhood of love and service.
It will establish upon earth a heavenly order.”
In 2015, I attended the Parliament of the
World’s Religions in Salt Lake City. It
was a spectacle. In the picture you see here,
we have shamans coming in, leading a procession,
opening up the parliament, asking for the
guidance of Mother Earth, asking that there
would be a blessing on the activities that
take place. The main picture that you see
on the screen is just a small snapshot of
the people as they’re assembling. It’s
a big event!
Throughout the parliament we had different
places you could go for workshops, we had
lectures, there was all kinds of cultural
events happening—I mean, with a group of
10,000 people, it’s a busy place! One of
the things that struck me, and you couldn’t
miss it, was this repetitious reminder that
we are serving Mother Earth. You see a picture
here, one of them is in the hallway. We had
a hall all dedicated to the “goddess.”
I counted 85, but I believe there was more—I
must have miscounted—85 different murals
representing the goddess in her various stages.
We had the red tent temple, and the red tent
temple was the “womb” of the parliament,
and it was a gathering space for women. And
so over the course of that week you could
go to do yoga, you could go to hear workshops
in the red tent temple, there were ceremonies,
there were rituals as people came to assert
and recognize Mother Earth.
Here are a few statements from the parliament.
From Chief Paulette: “What is sin? The greatest
and the biggest sin that man can make is to
abuse Mother Earth.”
Marianne Williamson said this: “The divine
goddess is not just beautiful, she is fierce,
and when you mess with her babies and you
mess with her earth, she’s had enough. And
we are here on her behalf. You know what to
do. Go do it.”
Now, that was during the women’s plenary
session. I was there. Let me tell you, the
emotion of that was raw. Thousands of women
on their feet cheering Marianne. People were
sobbing, people were crying, fists were pumping
in the air. There were drummers in the background
pounding on drums. Somebody rose up the cheer,
“Marianne for president!” It was a really
emotionally charged gathering, that is for
certain.
Phil Goldberg said this in one of his workshops:
“I am you, you are me. It is that level
of unification and oneness that we wanted
to address this morning, because we thought
it is the most fundamental level of unity,
the most fundamental level of oneness, and
it’s not to be found just in reasoning or
in dialogue, it’s to be found in the direct
experience of that reality within ourselves.
To see the divinity in other people, that
is a wonderful thing.”
Christianity was represented. We had representatives
from the Vatican. There were Baptist representatives.
There were representatives from a multitude
of different proclaiming Christian faiths.
Brian McLaren gave a keynote address. He was
there to talk about his faith and the need
for a new framing story. So he told us this:
“The old stories that God gave the earth
to humans so they could use it however they
wanted for profit, those stories said that
God would soon destroy the earth, which gave
powerful people license to plunder it as if
it were a store going out of business.”
Then he went on to say, “Brothers and sisters,
the earth is singing to us, the earth is crying
to us, the earth is groaning to us.” And
he talked about how this new story needed
to be rooted in the diverse richness of our
various traditions for “common and joint
healing”—for joint action, pardon me—"heal
the world and protect all living things.”
Really? Really? What Brian was talking about,
what he was asserting was oneness. These are
oneness statements. This is a oneness paradigm.
“The old story, the old Christian story—uh-uh,
we’re done. The old Genesis story—uh-uh.
We’re done. It’s finished. Time to find
a new framing story.”
In 2018 I attended the parliament in Toronto.
There the theme was the promise of inclusion,
the power of love. Stick that in your back
pocket for two minutes. One of the statements
that arose was, “May the promise of oneness…may
the promise of the oneness of humanity guide
this parliament.” And it was a big deal—about
7,500 people attended. Again, faith leaders
from around the world, a lot of politicians,
a lot of people who are involved at the United
Nations, people engaged in all kinds of levels
of political activity lobbying. We had representatives
from the Canadian federal government who were
in attendance. Again, a lot of social activists,
faith and religious and spiritual teachers
from a multitude of different religions. This
is a carnival, literally a carnival of religions
coming together. This is the heartbeat of
the interfaith movement.
Jim Wallace from Sojourners, progressive Christian,
talked to us about, and this is…well, let
me just quickly give you some context. This
was during the US midterm elections, okay?
And so the place was abuzz about what was
happening with President Trump, what was happening
with the US election system. Jim Wallace talked
about how during the midterm elections, this
was a battle between angels and demons, and
those who support Trump, well, they’re demons.
Throughout the event we were told repeatedly
by many, many different speakers that there’s
no room for exclusive religious truth claims.
It’s time to end separating faiths. The
uniqueness of Jesus Christ, that’s divisive.
Nationalism, we were also told, is a great
threat, an evil scourge. The free market capitalist
system, we were told repeatedly, free enterprise
is immoral. Religious supremacy and national
supremacy, that was the language. You are,
if you hold those positions of a religious
truth claim and nationalism or a patriotism
to your nation, you are a supremacist.
In this slide, what you see is in the hallway
we have a Baptist minister, and she was expressing
her anger to Justice Kavanaugh. And what she
is doing is she is using the Buddhist sand
mandala art technique, taking little bowls
of colored sand and very gently pushing the
sand into a picture, making a picture out
of the sand. And in the picture is the Hindu
deity Kali, the deity of destruction and death.
And Kali is holding the severed head of Justice
Kavanaugh, and those other severed heads around
Kali’s waistband, those are the people who
confirmed Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh.
At the end of it—I was there for the wrap-up
of her art piece—at the end of it there
were 30 or so religious leaders from different
faiths, and they all did a song and a dance
and an invocation to Kali, calling upon “Kali,
Kali, Kali!” asking Kali to mete out justice.
Then they destroyed the art piece in a symbolic
act of healing and cleansing and of justice
against those people like Supreme Court Justice
Kavanaugh. Remember the title of the conference,
or the parliament, The Power of Love? And
here’s the book from the parliament: The
Promise of Inclusion: The Power of Love. Oh,
you could feel the love!
Repeatedly we were told that what we were
engaging in was a type of salvation action.
And a number of points emerged: the interfaith
agenda aligns with the vision of the United
Nations. We were told repeatedly that we are
global citizens, our loyalty is to Mother
Earth. The parliament brings legitimacy to
new religious movements and to religious pluralism,
religious universalism. In all this we were
told constantly about our connectedness, and
how oneness must be embraced, that we are
engaging in is collective unity.
A few different statements arose from the
parliament. One of them was a cardinal who
said that, “Pursuing interdependence, one
world with a common plan, that’s what we’re
doing!”
Swami Agnivesh said this to the parliament:
“We the peoples of the world need to unite
and demand a world government and a world
parliament based on an earth constitution.”
At the end of the event, Larry Greenfield,
the executive director of the parliament,
thanked all of us for our work to save the
world. He repeatedly used the word “salvation,”
that what we were doing was an act of salvation,
and he said to us, “Thanks to all of those
who are committed to the salvation of the
earth.” You see, you need to understand
that by saving the earth in re-enchantment,
we save ourselves.
In this slide, what I’m showing you is a
picture of myself, Don Veinot and a few others.
There are teams, small teams, that do go to
the parliament to do outreach. There’s a
picture—the one picture, Bill Honsberger
wearing a cap talking to a Buddhist representative.
In the bottom corner Don Veinot and my friends
Ryan and Audrey, who are also part of our
team liaisoning before the event begins. And
so at the 2015 parliament and at the 2018
parliament, we had groups who were going,
small groups who were there to present Jesus
Christ, to talk, to engage in conversations,
to look for conversations, because, hey, every
ten feet you step, you interact with somebody
from a different religion and they’re there
to tell you all about it! They’re excited
to tell you all about it. And so this becomes
a place for Christian outreach—guerilla
evangelism, so to speak. We walk into their
territory, we walk into their place—not
being disrespectful, not being loud or arrogant,
but we want to bring truth with grace, and
we want to begin to have those conversations.
And we’ve had some very good conversations.
This is a place where we can bring the gospel
of Jesus Christ, even though the gospel of
Jesus Christ is not welcomed in this setting.
Quickly we want to jump now into another area
of re-enchantment, and that is transhumanism.
For those who have read my book, you will
know what transhumanism is about. Let me share
with you a few key points. First of all, transhumanism
is premised on the belief that evolution is
true, that because man is a conscious being,
we can shape, we can direct our human evolution,
and we do this through science. We do this
through our technical advancements. In all
this, man plays God, man becomes God.
Now, transhumanism, which is an intellectual
movement, looks to the state of technology
and the future of technological developments
and through technology sees that mankind can
reshape himself. So transhumanism looks to
brain-computer interfacing, virtual reality,
augmented reality, advanced robotics, nanotechnology,
genetic changes, all this to upgrade our bodies
to enhance our cognitive abilities, possibly
to redesign babies in the womb, to eradicate
disease, to eradicate ailments, greatly expand
life times, and even, if possible, to destroy
death.
Just to show you the re-enchanting side of
transhumanism, a workshop from the Esalen
Institute in 1993—from their workshop entitled
Machine Dreams and Techno-shamanism: “Is
information immortal? What unexplored realms
of spirit will we encounter with amazing new
forms of computer and electronic hybermedia?
New myths will be needed, new mysteries will
be encountered. How can ancient models of
mind such as shamanism, Hinduism, or voodoo
help us comprehend silicon-based consciousness?
Why are neuroenhancers crucial tools for so
many computer innovators? Can humans share
an erotic relationship with a machine being?
Are earth’s spirits at play in fields of
photons and electronic spin? A neo-psychedelic
subculture is co-evolving with new technologies
to reveal glimpses of exotic futures.”
In 1996, another workshop held at Esalen,
this was in the Esalen catalog for that year.
It was entitled Techno-shamanism: Total Immersion
in Spiritual Technology. “To wholeheartedly
embrace technology may be the only way to
partake in the next phase of human evolution.
Participants will experience brain-machines,
the internet, computer fractals, virtual reality,
tarot, astrology, Yijing through computer
programs, chaos math, hemispheric alignment
audio, video games, and even new media. The
workshop will explore the techno-vision quest
and evaluate it as an adjunct to more traditional
spiritual practices. The weekend will conclude
with a techno-pagan rave dance. Participants
are encouraged to bring at least one item
of technology.”
We kind of laugh at that because now we’re
all carrying around items of technology, aren’t
we? We’re all connected into the web, aren’t
we? I mean, that’s what we’re even running
this conference through is the internet! And
so transhumanism has had this forward approach
to say technology is what will save us. And
in fact, technology has a spiritual application,
or—pardon me—a spiritual implications
to it.
I saw that at the 2045 Congress. The Global
Futures Congress took place in New York City
in 2013, and in this picture, you see a couple
of snapshots from some of their promotional
material. Notice the top one: “Human Evolution:
Who Do You Want Deciding Our Next Step?”
And we saw interesting technologies. In the
picture there we were given demonstrations
of advanced robotic arms, prostheses that
were really very advanced. In the other picture
we have a robotics inventor, Dr. Ishiguro
and his geminoid double, a robotic double
of himself. At the end of the event we had
an interfaith workshop where we had faith
leaders from four or five different religions
who came together to discuss what does this
mean for us? What does it mean as we consider
technology, evolution, and spirituality?
Here are a couple of statements: “We will
form a race of god-men and develop a godlike
civilization.” That’s what they were saying!
One of the speakers said this: “You are
the light. You are the truth. You are the
beginning. You are the end.” You’ve just
engaged in divine identity theft. Not only
that, you’re a plagiarizer! Those aren’t
your words! You’ve took the words of Jesus
Christ out of the gospels and you’ve mashed
them together in your own way to assert your
own claim of divinity. You are a divine identity
thief.
That same year I had the opportunity of going
to the Mormon Transhumanist Association’s
annual meeting in Salt Lake City. I had been
invited to attend as a religious critic of
religious transhumanism. The president at
the time of the Mormon Transhumanist Association
opened up the conference by saying this: “The
Mormon Transhumanist Association stands with
the proposition that we should learn to become
gods, and not just any kind of god….”
Back up. “The Mormon Transhumanist Association
stands for the proposition that we should
learn to become gods, and not just any kind
of god, not the god that would raise itself
above others, but rather the god that would
raise each other together. We should learn
to become Christ, saviors for each other,
consolers and healers as exemplified and invited
by Jesus.”
As I said, I had been brought on—been given
an invitation to speak as a critic of religious
transhumanism. If you have the opportunity,
look up my speech on the internet—you’ll
find it on YouTube—as I address the Mormon
Transhumanist Association in the space of
about 15 or 16 minutes. That’s all the time
I had, and that was for everybody. Everybody
had very short time periods to give their
statements and to make their arguments.
The bottom line was this, and this was what
I shared with the transhumanists: The core
difference is Jesus is the One who saves.
He alone saves. And I went back to Luke 23
where we see Jesus hanging on the cross, and
two thieves on each side. One thief is calling
down Christ, and the other thief is saying,
“Don’t you have any fear of God? This
Man [referring to Jesus] is an innocent man.”
And then there was a conversation back and
forth. But in that conversation, what did
Jesus—and this really struck me as I was
working through what to say to the Mormon
Transhumanists—what did Jesus not say to
the man? He didn’t say, “Oh, you need
to find a technical solution to your problem
of death.”
He didn’t say, “Go do good works.”
He didn’t say, “Well, you missed the mark,
you should have joined a religious order,
done rights and obligations, you didn’t
even get baptized! You’ve got no luck! You’re
out of it! You’re hanging on the cross beside
Me; you’re going to die.”
He didn’t say any of those things, did He?
No, He said, “Today you will be with Me.”
And it was a recognition that, in terms of
the thief, it was a recognition that the thief
himself could do nothing. It was Jesus and
Jesus alone, not Jesus plus technology, not
Jesus plus good works, not Jesus plus your
own self-righteousness, not Jesus plus any
of these things. There are no pluses. It’s
Jesus or nothing. And so that was the message
that was brought forward. Again, it was a
type of outreach. It was going into that open
door as it was given.
I want to move on to evolutionary culture,
the third example. What is evolutionary culture?
you might be wondering. It is literally the
celebration of oneness through festivals,
through art, through the medium of celebration
and the gathering together in groups to experience
now our ascension, to experience our divinity,
to experience this sacredness in community.
A range of festivals in evolutionary culture
from dedicated pagan gatherings like Starwood
and Pagan Spirit Gathering, which takes place
in the US-Midwest, to major festivals, art
festivals that have transforming elements
within it like Tomorrowland, which speaks
and preaches oneness all through the festivals.
We have Hindu and yoga festivals, and they’re
very open about how this is oneness and spirituality.
They’re not saying it’s health, they’re
not saying it’s just to stretch. They recognize,
no, this is spirituality.
And then we have mythical festivals like Gaiafest,
fairy festivals, and then in all this you
have what’s called “transformational festivals”
like Burning Man, Evolvefest, Lightning in
a Bottle.
Over the years, and I talk about this in chapter
14 of my book, over the years I’ve taken
the time from specifically 2013 to 2016 to
map out where these festivals take place in
Canada and the US. I had to quit in the middle
of 2016. The task was overwhelming. I had
265 pins on the map.
So what happens is transformation through
transgression. In these events, there is a
sense of communitas, an organic feeling of
oneness in community. It is the power of shared
experiential and ecstatic encounters. There
are sacred spaces, there are temples, there
are shrines. A lot of talk of unity and harmony
with nature. There’s yoga and reiki and
energy healing, there’s lots of shamanism
and plant medicines, psychedelics. You can
go to workshops and group discussions on all
kinds of curriculums. You can go to sharing
circles. When I go to Burning Man, I specifically
go to a lot of the workshops hosted by those
who are involved in the technology sector.
And there’s music—usually it’s electronic
dance music, and that becomes a driver for
communitas. All this is interlaced with visionary
art, and art becomes a vehicle for personal
transformation.
Jeet Kei Leung, an advocate of transformational
festivals, explains it this way: “No less
profound is this emergence of a new type of
spiritual culture in these festivals, a spiritual
culture completely uninterested in charismatic
leaders, dogmas, or doctrine. Where ritual
does not require that we surrender our autonomy
as critical thinking individuals, but instead
arises as a shared acknowledgement and honoring
of our sacred experience together.”
I’ve had the opportunity of going to a few
festivals and doing boots-on-the-ground surveys,
literally having a clipboard in my hand with
worldview questions. The thing that pops up
is how many people say that, on these surveys,
their past religion was Christian. And I’ve
listened as some of them are sharing stories
about which church they used to go, which
Bible study groups or which youth groups they
would be a part of and what they would do.
Again, past religion. And now they would say,
“Now I’m an atheist, or agnostic. Now
I’m a Buddhist, or I’m a New Ager, or
I’m a Wiccan.” Over and over again in
these worldview surveys, it repeatedly was,
“God is not separate from nature and me.
We’re all one. We’re all connected. We’re
all part of the single community of the cosmos.”
So let me take you briefly to the mothership
of transformational festivals, Burning Man.
In the picture you see here, that is the city,
Black Rock City, that forms around the man
effigy. Yes, there is a man in the middle,
and that man is ceremoniously burned at the
end of the week. Eighty thousand people gather
in the desert. I’ve been there for three
years. What’s it about? Well, Burning Man
is considered to be a container, a container
to explore art and creativity. And there is
a lot of art, and a lot of creativity. There
is no question it is really psychologically
overpowering, what you see and what you encounter.
It is an overload sensory experience. It’s
a place to model new forms of what community
looks like. It’s a place to encounter spirituality.
It’s a place to explore what sexuality is
all about, to expand consciousness. All of
this is experiential re-enchantment.
Larry Harvey, the cofounder of Burning Man,
said this: “This may be the essential genius
of Burning Man: Out of nothing, we created
everything.”
And in the center of that picture, that tall
effigy, that is the man from a few years ago.
And so this is the man last year. The man
was put on his pedestal. Last year’s theme
was metamorphosis, the idea that we will emerge
from our cocoon as a new being, as a new entity.
And so the man is arising, he’s arising—he’s
standing in an egg, and there’s more symbolism
here going on than meets the eye. The egg
has a spiral shape, and in the—the meaning
of it is the serpent around the egg, and the
man arising through this. And then at the
end of the week, the man is burned, and it’s
a celebration, it’s a party! Tens of thousands
of people around are cheering. The energy
is palpable. It is a place where people are
excited about what’s transpiring.
There’s also a temple. There are many temples
at Burning Man, but there is a primary temple.
In the top corner is…the one that has the
far-off shot, that’s the temple from 2017.
The other picture at night is a temple from
2019, and the bottom one, this spiral temple—
was called the temple of Galaxia—was from
2018. Massive, massive structures. And then
during the course of the event, the temple
starts—let’s say it this way: it starts
as a clean slate, bare walls. But all week
long, people are bringing pictures of lost
loved ones, pictures of those who have been
departed. They’ll hang poems, stories, they’ll
write out things on the walls, they’ll hang
wedding dresses, photo albums, personal journals.
All week long the temple becomes a place where
people pour their grief out, pour out their
longing, pour out their anguish, pour out
their hurt, and it’s like being at a funeral
all week long. It’s a very powerful setting.
People walk away from it shaken up. There’s
always tears at the temple. And at the end
of the week, the temple burns as well.
Larry Harvey wrote this, or said this, in
2017 regarding that year’s theme, which
was Radical Ritual: “The moral of our theme,
in fact, was that it doesn’t really matter
what you believe. It’s what you experience.
The whole point this year was to convince
people that Burning Man is a spiritual movement.
It’s not a religion, but is a spiritual
movement, and you know it when you see it.”
Now, for the past three years, I have been
part of a small team that goes to Burning
Man, and we set up a camp, and our camp is
titled The Camp of the Unknown God. Yes, it’s
taken out of Acts 17. And for the space of
that week we’re there interacting with the
people. We’re there doing outreach. Myself,
I’m doing research, but I’m also at the
same time looking for opportunities to have
discussions. We’re all engaged in doing
both.
And keep in mind, this is a raw place. It’s
in the middle of an alkaloid desert. The alkaloid
dust is extremely corrosive. We can have dust
storms. The heat can be very, very oppressive.
It’s a clothing-optional environment. This
is not for everybody to go to. But we wondered,
is there a model for how we engage an outreach
in what essentially is a pagan context? Yes!
Yes! I’m happy to say that we have had a
lot of really encouraging and really good
discussions at Burning Man, and we still are
engaged in some of those relationships that
have developed. People who have walked by
our camp have seen our sign and have literally
blurted out, “Who is the unknown God?”
And so we’ll say, “Come in, get in under
the…get in out of the sun! Get under the
shade! Here’s some Gatorade, here’s some
water.” We’ll engage in a conversation—it
might be 20 minutes long, it might be two
hours. It might be one time, it might be two,
it might be three times, it might be all week.
And so it has been encouraging; I have been
encouraged. Here we are—we’re just regular
people in a place where historically Christianity
is disparaged. This is one place where Christianity
is mocked, and yet I think we’ve only had
two, three times, maybe, of the many, many
dozens of conversations where people, when
they found out that we’re Christians, we’re
talking to them about Jesus Christ, say, “I’m
not interested,” and walk away. For the
most part though, people are hungry and are
willing to talk, are willing to listen. We
listen first, and then as we have gotten to
know them a little bit more, then we engage
in the conversation and bring them back around
to who this unknown God is.
Questions have popped up about what is spirituality?
I remember having a discussion with a Russian
artist, and I have this documented in the
book. He was a Oneist, and he was describing
to me his Oneist worldview. He was an esoteric
philosopher and an artist. And I stopped him
and I said, “Are you telling me that as
an artist, you and your artwork have the same
value? There is no fundamental difference
between you and your artwork?”
“Well, no, no, no, of course I have more
value than my artwork! I am the artist!”
And we had already been talking about one
and two, and using that as the foundation
stone to begin diving into the gospel. And
so I said to him, I said, “Look around us:
there is beauty here. Incredible beauty even
in this harsh desert. The sky is magnificent,
the mountains are amazing! We are in a very
incredible place just in terms of its natural
beauty, the raw, natural beauty.” I said,
“God is the ultimate artist. Are you telling
me that His creation and the Artist have the
same value?”
And he looked at me, and he goes, “I know
where you’re going. I see it.” We had
a good conversation, a really hard conversation
about temporary spirituality. Where is spiritual
meaning found? Is it found at Burning Man?
Is it found in your art? It’s so temporary
that you burn it at the end of the week. Or
is it found in a Person who is unchanging,
the same yesterday, today, and forever? Is
it found in the Person of Jesus Christ? Where
is your spirituality found?
Here are a few other pictures of our team,
different places in Burning Man. At one point
we had, in 2018, we had a couple of young
guys who stuck with us. They just met us there
by chance (it’s not chance). They met us
there and stuck with us for the entire event,
listening to us, engaging in conversations.
Finally, I think it was Wednesday night I
went out for a bicycle ride late at night
(there’s really not a lot of sleep at Burning
Man), and I had…one of the gentlemen came
with me, because you basically see all kinds
of things at night. Just…the place comes
alive. And as we’re going from art piece
to art piece, from different camp to different
camp, I stopped our bicycling and I said to
him, “Dude, what’s wrong with you? Here
you are, you’re at Burning Man! You have
every carnal pleasure under the sun. You have
all kinds of opportunities to do all kinds
of things, and you’re hanging with Christians
for the week?”
And he was like, “I’m learning so much
from you guys.” Wow!
Be encouraged. There’s opportunity. There’s
opportunity right in your backyard. You don’t
have to go to Burning Man. Not at all. You
have the same worldview right in your neighborhood,
right in your community, right in your family.
You are an ambassador for Christ. You need
to recognize your position as an ambassador.
You need to know the King’s message. You
represent His interests. You need to understand
the setting of the culture that you find yourself
in. It’s no longer Christian. This isn’t
the 1950s, is it? No, we have entered the
age of re-enchantment. You need to learn,
to observe, to listen. Find that cultural,
spiritual point of common interest. Ask questions
that invite meaningful conversations, then
present the God, the true God who is other
than creation, different, distinct, and bring
all that around to the hope that we have in
Jesus Christ, and doing so by engaging with
honesty, with respect, with grace, and with
truth.
Listen, folks: This is ultimately about salvation.
Humanity is searching for spirituality and
the world is offering an alternative salvation
message.
Let’s wrap this up. We want to wrap this
up with some Bible passages to just reinforce
the fact that the God we serve is indeed other.
He is distinct, He is exalted, He is holy.
Isaiah 44: “Thus says the Lord, the King
of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts:
‘I am the first, and I am the last; Besides
Me there is no God.’”
Isaiah 46: “To whom will you liken Me, and
make Me equal and compare Me, that we should
be alike?”
Isaiah 46:9-10: “For I am God, and there
is no other; I am God, and there is none like
Me, Declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things that are not
yet done, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
and I will do all my pleasure.’”
Psalm 96: “For the Lord is great and greatly
to be praised; He is to be feared above all
gods. For all the gods of the people are idols,
But the Lord made the heavens. Let the heavens
rejoice, let the earth be glad; Let the sea
roar and all its fullness; For He is coming,
He is coming to judge the earth. He shall
judge the world with righteousness, And the
people with His truth.”
Psalm 113: “From the rising of the sun to
its going down The Lord’s name is to be
praised. The Lord is high above all nations,
His glory above the heavens.”
And then we bring that around to Jesus Christ,
God made flesh: “For by Him all things were
created that are in heaven and that are on
earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones
or dominions or principalities or powers.
All things were created through Him and for
Him. And He is before all things, and in Him
all things consist. He is the head of the
body, the church, who is the beginning, the
firstborn from the dead, that in all things
He may have the preeminence.”
And then the passage that we all know well,
John 14:6-7: “Jesus said, ‘I am the way,
the truth, and the life. No one comes to the
Father except through Me. If you had known
Me, you would have known My Father also; and
from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”
Ladies and gentlemen, you are the messenger
of truth. You are the salt of the earth. You
are the city set on the hill. You are an ambassador
for Christ. This is the call of the Christian
ambassador taken from the Old Testament, from
Psalms 96. This is your calling: “O, sing
to the Lord a new song! Sing to the Lord,
all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless His
name; Proclaim the good news of His salvation
from day to day. Declare His glory among the
nations, His wonders among all peoples.”
Thank you for taking the time to go through
this presentation with me. I’m hoping that
it has challenged you and equipped you, that
is has encouraged you, and at the same time,
done likewise to myself that we need to recognize
that we are, first of all, ambassadors for
Christ, and be truth-tellers in an age of
re-enchantment.
I’m Carl Teichrib,
the author of Game of Gods.
