Bethany House Publishers, a division of Baker Publishing Group, is releasing this month a response to Eckhart Tolle's best-selling A New Earth, which was catapulted to new heights and into the homes of millions of Americans after being featured by Oprah Winfrey on her television show.

The book has caused alarm in Christian circles for mixing aspects of Christianity with New Age beliefs-prompting Abanes' A New Earth, An Old Deception. The author of The Truth Behind The Da Vinci Code, Abanes said a major concern was the number of Christians buying into the concepts of the Tolle book.

"A lot of them are accepting what (he) is saying, not understanding where there are problems," he said. "The answers people are getting from Tolle and Oprah are false. I felt like something needed to get put out there right away to combat that."

Tolle, a popular author in the New Age movement, teaches pantheism-everyone is one in essence, including God, Abanes said. From that, there's no absolute evil or right or wrong. Most troubling, Abanes said, is Tolle's penchant for quoting the Bible.

"He often quotes Scripture to support his teachings, but he interprets and makes the Bible say what he wants it to say," he said.

Read more in the July 7 issue of Christian Retailing International.

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