Do You Know The Secret?

A friend of mine asked me to help her Bible study leader have something to say about all the Christian women who are asking her about The Secret by Rhonda Byrne (Atria Books, 2006), a book heavily pushed by the likes of Ellen DeGeneres, Larry King and especially Oprah Winfrey to the tune of becoming the fastest-selling self-help book in the history of publishing with 1.75 million copies projected to be in print by March 2 (just over 3 months since it debuted) and 1.5 million DVDs sold (source: msnbc.com).

What follows is a summary of the book's high points as well as its pros and cons compared to to Christianity. Before I begin, in the interest of full disclose I did not read The Secret. For some of you, that's enough for you to read no further and that's fine. I did read half a dozen websites from trusted sources, both secular and Christian, for this post. I simply could not read the book in time to help the Bible study leader above. However, if you'd like a read an article by someone who did read the book and critiqued it very well, please click here. It is by far the best.

After an extensive search, I found no evangelical churches supporting The Secret, but click here to see a church website advertising that their women's ministry is going through the book, here to see an ad to come watch The Secret DVD at a church's Movie & a Meal day, here to see a church's bookstore that's selling it, and here for a Myspace page of a woman who highly recommends the Bible and The Secret.

It seems to me that the religious groups most pushing this book right now are Religious Science and The Unity School of Christianity, both of which are finding new life with the publication of The Secret because it teaches what they've been saying for decades.

Summary

So, what is The Secret? According to the author The Secret has been out for thousands of years (since at least 3500 BC!), but suppressed and conspired against. Ms. Byrne stumbled across the secret of The Secret a couple of years ago when she hit bottom, and was given a long-neglected book dating back to 1910 called The Science of Getting Rich.

If you picture a building, The Secret's structure is what Byrne calls "the law of attraction." Through this "law" you can manipulate objective physical reality—the numbers in a lottery drawing, the actions of other people who may not even know you exist—through your thoughts and feelings. You attract what you think about; your thoughts determine your destiny--think about money and it's yours, think about cars and they're yours, think about love and it's yours.

Byrne writes, "Nothing can come into your experience unless you summon it through persistent thoughts" (p. 28), "Your current reality or your current life is a result of the thoughts you have been thinking" (p. 71). By The Secret, "you will come to know how you can have, be, or do anything you want" (p. xii) because there "isn't a single thing that you cannot do with this knowledge" (p. xi).

Critique

There are some positive aspects of The Secret that all Christians can embrace. First, it has a strong emphasis on gratitude and the importance of our thought life which resembles 1 Thessalonians 5:18, Philippians 4:8 and Romans 12:2. Second, it strongly emphasizes seeing the good in others, even your enemies, which sounds a lot like Matthew 5:44 and Matthew 22:39.

Finally, many acknowledges the larger point, that "the coherence and effectiveness of our thinking is crucial to our success in life” so that “if you're profoundly open to opportunity, then when ambiguous events occur, you notice them. I think what positive thinking does is raise your consciousness to possibilities so they can snag your attention" (msnbc.com).

However, the negative aspects of The Secret far outweigh the positive.

Logically speaking, after reading many blogs about the positive effects The Secret's had in people's lives, one has to remember that just because something works or produces positive results, does not make it true, right or good.

Ethically speaking, The Secret is appauling. Aside from its self-centered absorption in Western materialism--concerning itself almost entirely with "attracting" houses, cars, vacations, health and relationships (msnbc.com)--the law of attraction works both ways: we attract evil by our thoughts as well.

With an understanding of the world that is striking similar to the karma of Eastern pantheism and the New Age movement, are we willing to say that Jessica Lunsford attracted her rapist-murderer John Cooey to her by her thoughts? Are we going to tell people who have had their hands chopped off and brains beaten during a bout of ethnic cleansing, “You brought that fate down on yourself”? (msnbc.com)

In response to a question about Rwanda, Byrne said, "The law of attraction is that each one of us is determining the frequency that we're on by what we're thinking and feeling. If we are in fear, if we're feeling in our lives that we're victims and feeling powerless, then we are on a frequency of attracting those things to us" (msnbc.com).

Religiously, while many including Oprah--"perhaps the greatest vehicle keeping New Age mysticism and relativism alive" (aomin.org)--want us to think it doesn’t oppose Christianity (but only supports all religions by explaining the secret laws taught by all religious teachers just with more current vernacular), The Secret really does the exact opposite. When we're done, I hope you'll see The Secret, rather than supporting, completely contradicts Christianity.

In The Secret, Christianity is NOT God’s one true religion, as Byrne believes all religions and their scriptures basically teach the same thing.

In The Secret, the Bible is NOT uniquely & supernaturally God’s Word, but equal to any and all human scriptures and philosophies. Since it's just another human book, the Bible is NOT authoritative, but is only be taken seriously where it affirms The Secret. And, the Bible is NOT sufficient to grant us “everything pertaining to life and godliness" (2 Pet 1:3), since it must be supplemented by The Secret.

In The Secret, the cause of all problems is NOT sin, but bad thinking, specifically the failure to recognize and appropriately use the law of attraction. Also, there is NO final judgment to be saved from because "no one will stand in judgment of [your life], now or ever" (p. 177).

In The Secret, Jesus is NOT the One in whom are "hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col 2:3), but one in a long line of great teachers who taught The Secret. Also, He is NOT the one true God in the flesh (John 20:28; Titus 2:13; 2 Pet 1:1), but a human who should be listened to when He supports The Secret. Next, He is NOT the only way of salvation (John 14:6; Acts 4:12), but a teacher of the real way of salvation, The Secret. Finally, Jesus is NOT the Savior of the world (John 1:29, 3:17, 4:42; 1 John 4:14) because without human sin there is no need for a Savior, a substitute, or a sacrifice, making the cross and resurrection of Jesus totally irrelevant to The Secret as well (biblicalspirituality.org).

Finally, salvation is NOT found in the gospel of Jesus' death to pay the penalty for our sins to a holy God who demands complete and total trust in Him alone to be delivered from hell, but is found in, you guessed it, The Secret.

Conclusion

The Secret is the exact opposite of, and therefore, totally incompatible with Christianity. There is no middle ground! Though denied by the author and all who read it, The Secret does NOT respect Jesus or Christianity because it denies every central doctrine and offers salvation apart from Jesus, who is the core, the center, the sine qua non, of Christianity.

The Secret is nothing more than Name It & Claim It, Positive-Confession, Prosperity Gospel without the God of the Bible because it is built on the foundation of New Age self-deification. It's another version of what some TV preachers have taught for decades, that if you will sustain the right thoughts, words, and feelings, you will receive whatever you want (biblicalspirituality.org).

Before we end, did you stop at that hyphenated word "self-deification?" Going back to the picture of a building, the structure of "the law of attraction" is built on The Secret's foundation: your thoughts can bring anything into your life because you are god. That’s the real secret of The Secret! You are God!

Don't believe me? Listen to Byrne in her own words:

“You are God in a physical body. You are Spirit in the flesh. You are Eternal Life expressing itself as You. You are a cosmic being. You are all power. You are all wisdom. You are all intelligence. You are perfection. You are magnificence. You are the creator, and you are creating the creation of You on this planet” (p. 164).

And just in case we missed it, she repeats herself:

“The earth turns on its orbit for You. The oceans ebb and flow for You. The birds sing for You. The sun rises and it sets for You. The stars come out for You. Every beautiful thing you see, every wondrous thing you experience, is all there for You. Take a look around. None of it can exist, without You. No matter who you thought you were, now you know the Truth of Who You Really Are. You are the master of the Universe. You are the heir to the kingdom. You are the perfection of Life. And now you know The Secret” (p. 183).

Now you know the real secret of The Secret. However, Byrne's "secret" has been out far longer than 5000 years. It's Satan's old lie, "You will be like God" (Gen 3:5), and it's the same lie Christians are saved from, not one they should be embracing whole-heartedly and studying in church small groups.