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How Jesus Transformed the Life of Former New Age Leader Steven Bancarz

Screenshot from CBN YouTube

How Jesus Transformed the Life of Former New Age Leader Steven Bancarz

By Movieguide® Staff

Note: This story is part of our Faith in Hollywood series. For similar stories, click here.

At 19-years-old, Steven Bancarz dedicated his life to New Age beliefs and sharing his spiritual wisdom with his blog community, where 200,000 to 300,000 people visited his site per day.

The New Age worldview is a popular anti-Christian worldview that’s present in many movies and television shows.

According to Movieguide®, the New Age worldview presents a combination of spiritual beliefs that range from the belief in spiritualism and reincarnation to advocating for holistic approaches to medicine and the environment.

Bancarz fascination with the New Age began with what he saw in media as he began to research aliens and UFOs.

“I believed that I was God and that we could all become Christ – if only we realized this inherent connection we have to to God,” Bancarz told CBN.

His false theology began to make him money, and he rapidly rose in the New Age ranks to become a leading blogger in the movement.

Bancarz added that the financial success was God thanking him for his teaching.

“I was getting 200,000 to 300,000 views on it a day and the income to me was an affirmation from God,” Bancarz said. “I believe God was rewarding me with helping wake people up into a higher state of consciousness. It gave me a sense of power, a sense of purpose and a sense of meaning and value.”

Despite diving headfirst into UFOlogy and New Age worldviews, Bancarz did not entirely reject Jesus. However, Bancarz revealed that he fashioned an idolized version of Jesus that catered to his sin.

“I didn’t really reject Him but I didn’t accept Him for who He truly was,” Bancarz said. “I created an idol out of Jesus to suit my own preferences, to suit myself and to suit my sin. This Jesus was politically correct, he was a Universalist, I wanted to be my own guide and I didn’t want to have to play by somebody else’s rules.”

However, as his blog began to do well financially, Bancarz grew unhappier.

“I was a lust addict for 10 years or so,” Bancarz said. “I was a really broken person. I didn’t realize how broken that I truly was but I was depraved, I was miserable, I had depression and anxiety that I was suppressing I had all this quote/unquote spiritual knowledge all of this information and it wasn’t bearing any real fruit in my life. I felt like something was missing, I felt a little bit dead inside.

“I realized that I wasn’t in control, that this stuff is more powerful than I was, that these forces were real and that they didn’t care for my well-being, they didn’t need my permission I was in their playground,” Bancarz said. “I would sleep with the Bible under my pillow because I knew there was something there that was authoritative that was true and that was secure and that had power over anything that I was scared of.”

Finally, Bancarz agreed to attend church with his mother, and a few days after, he surrendered his life to Christ.

“I just decided in my head intellectually that I was going to soften up to Him but I still held all the same New Age beliefs, I still believed in everything. I wanted a little bit more of Him but I guess I still didn’t want all of him,” Bancarz said. “I reached a point in my life where the brokenness was weighing on me so much that I needed to stop playing games with my life and just stop playing games with God and stop playing games with Jesus, and I just decided to go outside and to just fall on my face before Jesus and just weep. I was just weeping like a baby. I was submitting, I was repenting, I was tired, I was sorry, I was broken, and I couldn’t do this alone anymore and I was crying out for him. wanted him in that moment.

“I could feel that he was Lord over me and he was Lord over all creation. I could feel that He was concerned for me but I could feel that He was king I knew that he was king over creation that the whole universe was under His feet and the wind was just totally infused with his presence and the thing that stuck out for me that made me realize that I was dealing with God was how the wind and the trees, the sounds outside, the birds, the crickets they sounded like they were glorifying him like he was he was there with me.”

Bancarz life changed forever, and he started by burning all of his new age books and apologizing to his online community for misleading them.

“I told people within a few days of that experience ‘I’m sorry for misleading all of you astray this \ stuff is not of God, they’re tools of demons to deceive us and lead us away from Jesus and Jesus is the Son of God and he’s exactly who he claimed to be,'” Bancarz said.

Despite some backlash, Bancarz is now dedicated to spreading the truth of the Gospel and the real Jesus through his website, “Reasons for Jesus.”

“He delivered me from the stronghold of New Ageism and of a cult philosophy,” Bancarz said. “I’m the happiest I’ve ever been in my life I feel more whole than I’ve ever been in my life. If there’s hope for me there’s hope for anybody. I was the most lost person that I knew and the Lord drew me to himself and had mercy on me.”

He added: “We come to the Lord he forgives us he, gives us his spirit and he wants to help us heal and restore us and walk us through these traumas and these pains. He wants to accept us and welcome us into a relationship with him. Not into dry religious rule keeping but into a supernatural, intimate relationship Jesus Christ and his presence.”

Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.

What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.

Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.


Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.

What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.

Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.