I was watching the news the other night (Wednesday I think) when CBS News did a piece on The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. The story talked about the ideas in the book and movie and their popularity, complete with testimonials.
The basic idea behind the book is that there are fragments throughout world religion, philosophy, literature and oral traditions that are parts to a great secret that, once understood, allows the individual to use the secret to help them in every aspect of their life including (but not limited to) money, relationships and health.
The testimonials on the news were to the effect of "Practicing what I know about The Secret, I am asking the universe for $100,000 knowing that the universe will give it to me." Groups are forming around this book and the practice of the principles it teaches and apparently even Oprah has weighed in on how great the book is.
The fact of the matter is that this kind of philosophy has been around awhile under different guises, so this is nothing new. It hasn't always revolved around the issues that The Secret seems to focus on, but at its root is the desire to control our circumstances through special knowledge.
The day after seeing the news broadcast, I was reading (Re)Understanding Prayer by Kyle Lake and came across a similar line of thinking in the church known by the monikers "Positive Confession", "Word-Faith", "Name It and Claim It" or "Confess It and Possess It". All are forms of prosperity theology that take verses like Matthew 21:21-22 to mean something a bit too simplistic to be Biblical. Kyle writes:
There are many peculiar ideas and practices in the Word-Faith theology, but what really sets it apart from much of mainstream Christianity is the shift of power, where God must dance to man's attempts to manipulate the spiritual laws of the universe. In my opinion, it's the same song, eighteenth verse. Think: fundamental problem in the story of the Garden of Eden.
The thing that scares me is that whether presented in Word-Faith theology or in The Secret I believe that Satan is only too willing to play along if it will keep us from a true understanding of our place in the creation. He loves for us to believe that God is able to be manipulated and is not the sovereign, holy God that He has revealed Himself to be through Scripture and orthodox Christianity.
In the case of The Secret, Satan's best strategy is to give people what they want and let them believe that they can get what they want without God even entering the picture. Unfortunately, it seems to be working in many cases.
3 comments:
I have seen this info on The Secret the last few weeks as well. The thoughts that I have had on it is that it is based on a part of our being that God created. The idea is that whatever you want to attain, you need to focus your mind and attention on that. The more you can imagine it, view it, think about it the more likely it is that you will be able to attain it.
Isn't that what God wants us to do. In answer to what is the greatest command Jesus answers in Luke 10:27
27 He answered: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind';"
To me "The Secret" is basically capitalizing on the idea of "Your treasure is where your heart is."
I agree, Satan is using something God create for Himself, and trying to distort it to take the focus of of Him.
I ran across (re)Understanding Prayer right after Kyle Lake died... I didn't know for sure when I picked the book up that he was the one electrocuted in the Baptismal, but I knew that it happened at Crowder's church in Waco... It was a very refreshing read--The part where he talks about how we praise so many as "Prayer Warriors" who are really prayer ignorant caught my attention: How many times do we assume that things have to be one way, when in reality it's not what God had in mind at all?? Especially in regards to our prayer lives...
If you think about it, keep Fred in your prayers... He's really started to get confronted by the district superintendent because of the Summit decisions that have been made...
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