HERE A “CHRIST,” THERE A “CHRIST,” EVERYWHERE A “CHRIST-CHRIST”!

In contrast to the plethora of christs advocated by proponents of mystical spirituality, Peter designated, and John affirmed, that Jesus is ” the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Emphasis mine, Matthew 16:16; Compare 1 John 2:22-23; 5:1.)[3] The one God has one Son, and the one Son is the one Christ. There can be no other “christs”! Jesus is as John says, “the only begotten from the Father” (John 1:14,18; 3:16, 18; See Hebrews 11:17; 1 John 4:9.), and “only begotten” (Greek, monogenes) means “unique, only one of His kind” (Compare Philippians 2:9-11.).

Given the Gnosticism, Immanentism, and Messianism of the new spirituality of the New Age[4], Christ’s prophetic warning becomes relevant. He stated, “Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not” (Matthew 24:26). Jesus warned His disciples not to look for the Messiah in two places: either “in the desert” or “in the secret chambers.” So in light of the popular rise of mystic religion in America during the last half-century, and when compared to the Bible’s teaching there’s but “one” Christ, the two places where Jesus predicted Christ could not be found become most interesting.

First, disciples are not to think that Christ is hidden somewhere in “the desert.” He will not be found, or experienced, by engaging  the disciplines, solitude, and silence of ascetic monks who choose, like the Essenes and Desert Fathers, to separate themselves from the corrupting and distracting influences of a worldly civilization and church. Christ will not be found in some personal-mystical experience in a barren desert. Jesus Christ told His disciples, “Don’t look for Me there.”

Second, He, that is Christ, will not be discovered in “the secret chambers.” The two words in the English Bible, translated “secret  chambers” (KJV and ASV) or “inner rooms” (NASB, NIV, NKJV, and NRSV), are one word in the Greek text (tameiois). In the New Testament the word is rare (See Matthew 6:6; Luke 12:3.) As a plural noun, the word literally reads, “the secrets.” So we can understand Jesus to have warned the disciples: “Don’t believe it when the false prophets tell you, ‘Look, Christ is in the secrets!'” (Matthew 24:26). About “the secrets,” one scholar wrote that Jesus was warning people that false prophets would attempt to lead them astray by, “claiming that they [i.e. the false prophets] have special knowledge; whereas ordinary people do not know where the Messiah is, they do. If people will only trust them, they will lead them to him.”[5] Thus, we can see that Jesus’ warning is relevant to the spiritual gnosticism (i.e., “knowing”) which advocates that there resides a secret christ within, “far deeper than thought,” as Tolle puts it, awaiting the awakening of the new consciousness

These days, many peddle a secret Jesus lost in history and shrouded in mystery. This christ, the popular notion goes, is waiting to be revealed, exposed, and unwrapped via some new historical evidence, innovative spiritual program, or radical shift of consciousness. Of such consciousness, Eckhart Tolle also wrote, “The ‘second coming’ of Christ is a transformation of human consciousness, a shift from time to presence, from thinking to pure consciousness, not the arrival of some man or woman. If ‘Christ’ were to return tomorrow in some externalized form, what could he or she say to you other than this: ‘I am the Truth. I am divine presence. I am eternal life. I am within you. I am here. I am now.'”[6] Guess what? Jesus tells us that we won’t find Christ “in the secrets.” Messiah is not mentalist. By human imagining, He cannot be reproduced over and over and over again in billions of human minds and hearts. About the deception that Christ can be found in the secret recesses of human consciousness, Jesus says, “Don’t you believe it!” As He first warned in His prophetic sermon, “Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many” (Matthew 24-4b-5).

The Messiah’s coming was not, is not, and will not be secreted. Rather, in contradiction to Tolle’s dictum, His coming will be “externalized.”[7] His coming will not be realized by internally developing a consensus of christ-consciousness on earth below. But as described by the apostle John, Christ will come externally from heaven above. “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him” (Revelation 1:7). The Christ will come openly and publicly for all to see, and this after true believers have already met “the Lord in the air” (1 Thessalonians 4:17). So in the meantime, and as ordered by Jesus, believers are not to go about looking for Christ in “deserts” or “secrets.”