New Age spirituality is a diverse movement that rejects historical, dogmatic Christianity in favor of a self-centered, mystical worldview that often views humanity as evolving toward a higher state of consciousness. Reformed theology views this as a modern variation of ancient pantheism and gnosticism, where man seeks to find divinity within himself rather than reconciliation with God through Christ.
New Age thought often frames human existence as a process of evolving away from the 'material and low' toward a mystical, infinite consciousness. In his Lectures on Calvinism, Abraham Kuyper identifies that modern philosophy often seeks to restore social and ethical foundations by putting them on the basis of natural law or an 'ideal substratum' evolved from human speculation. This stands in direct opposition to the Christian confession of creation after the image of God. Where the gospel calls the sinner to repent and bow before the sovereign Lord, New Age spirituality encourages the individual to become their own lord and master, guided by their own 'free will and good pleasure.' This is described in the Institutes of the Christian Religion as a form of madness that rejects the objective, written Word of God in favor of subjective, 'dreaming notions' that satisfy the heart's desire to bypass the offense of the cross.
The core of the gospel is not the discovery of internal divinity, but the proclamation of an external Savior who reconciles rebellious sinners to a holy God. Any spirituality that points us inward to our own 'spark' ignores the reality of total depravity. As the Apostle Paul warned, we must beware of those who practice 'will-worship' and 'severity to the body' while failing to hold fast to the Head, Jesus Christ. Colossians 2:18-19 warns: 'Let no man rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility and worshipping of the angels, dwelling in the things which he hath seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast the Head, from whom all the body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and bands, increasing with the increase of God.' True spiritual growth is not found in secret knowledge or mystical self-expansion, but in the objective, sufficient grace of Christ.