"THE SECRET" IS OUT
by Pastor
Rick Sams
On the "New York Times best-seller list for over 20
weeks, The Secret, by Australian TV producer Rhonda Byrne, is anything
but a secret. Oprah Winfrey�s love affair with this book have assured that
Byrnes "secret is out, that she�s received well over her 15 minutes
of fame, and has cashed in big on one of the oldest scams in
history.
The Secret is really very well known and very old. It
goes way back to the ancient Babylonian mystery religions, which the modern New
Age movement is patterned after. Both of those are direct off-shoots of the
original temptation in the Garden of Eden where the First Tempter told Adam and
Eve they could be God: "For God knows that when you eat of it [the forbidden
fruit] your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and
evil (Genesis 3:5).
"What�s wrong with knowing good and evil?
you might ask. Nothing, unless…you want to know ALL good and evil, thus putting
yourself up there with God.
This is the root problem of The
Secret. We are told WE can be God. It is our thoughts that are all-powerful.
What we think, we become. To paraphrase Socrates: "I think, therefore I
GET. Good things come to us through our thought power. It�s The Power
of Positive Thinking dusted off. Except Peale identified the power from whom
all blessings flow is not us: it is God.
The dark side of The
Secret is that we are also responsible for all the tragedies that come our
way. God cancer? You brought it on by your sick, negative thinking. Drowned in a
tsunami? Well you were sending out signals that lined up your negative thought
waves with ocean waves, which turned into a tsunami. (I wouldn�t want to be on
the beach with you!)
I�m not surprised so many are duped by The
Secret, but I get real concerned when people who claim allegiance to Jesus
and the teachings of the Bible are so sucked in. Byrne�s bible says put yourself
first, and look out for your own needs first (mostly all material). Our Master�s
thesis was to seek His kingdom, then every thing we needed He would provide
(Matthew 6:33).
It�s also upsetting when TV and popular Christian pastors
feed the feel-good frenzy that books like this foster, and which our selfish
(sin) side savors. Christians are salivating like so many Pavlovian dogs over
these sermons; sermons that sound strangely like The Secret.
We
should know better. They should be ashamed.
"But seek first his kingdom
and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well
(Matthew 6:33).