Wicca: 3rd Largest Religion in 5 Years

About two weeks ago practitioners of Wicca won a court battle to have a five-pointed star become one of the over 40 symbols that can adorn the tombstones of fallen soldiers.

This article demonstrates that this is a symptom of the major Wiccan revival taking place in America.

If you don't know what Wicca is, I strongly recommend the books Witchcraft and Goddess Worship by Craig Hawkins. I've read them both and they are excellent.

As Christians, we can no longer see the major world religions and the older cults as groups to be ready to give an answer to, especially if Wicca is growing at the enormous rates this article suggests.

Augustine on Horoscopes II

Augustine has some more helpful observations about the fallacious reasoning behind horoscopes when he writes:

"I then turned my thoughts to those that are born twins, who generally come out of the womb so near the one to the other that the short interval between them—whatever importance they may ascribe to it in the nature of things—cannot be noted by human observation or expressed in those tables which the astrologer uses to examine when he undertakes to pronounce the truth. But such pronouncements cannot be true. For looking into the same horoscopes, he must have foretold the same future for Esau and Jacob, whereas the same future did not turn out for them. He must therefore speak falsely. If he is to speak truly, then he must read contrary predictions into the same horoscopes. But this would mean that it was not by art, but by chance, that he would speak truly."

I loved how he used the very clear biblical example of Jacob and Esau to refute horoscopes. Brilliant!!!

Do you know The Secret yet?

UPDATE: Mohler's blogged on The Secret again here.

If you haven't heard about the current literary phenomenon, The Secret by Rhonda Byrne, or a response to it by a well-meaning and thoughtful Christian (and therefore, didn't read the post on it below), Al Mohler's weighed in on it here.

Augustine on Horoscopes

Here, in para. VI of the Confessions' 7th chapter, Augustine exposes some interesting, devastating and very timely refutations of horoscopes.

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.

Creepy Reincarnation Song

I'll be teaching on Eastern religious worldviews and their New Age spawns in the West in a couple weeks, and I like to have songs that illustrate some aspect of the worldview to mix things up for the students.

Well, I heard this song on Coast To Coast AM last weekend and knew it was perfect so I got it on iTunes. The only problem is, I get a deep and creepy feeling every time I listen to it.

Here are the words. The name of the song is "Highwayman," and it was recorded in 1985 by The Highwaymen. I'm sure you'll see why I'll use it in these upcoming classes once you read it.

I was a highwayman. Along the coach roads I did ride
With sword and pistol by my side
Many a young maid lost her baubles to my trade
Many a soldier shed his lifeblood on my blade
The bastards hung me in the spring of twenty-five
But I am still alive.

I was a sailor. I was born upon the tide
And with the sea I did abide.
I sailed a schooner round the Horn to Mexico
I went aloft and furled the mainsail in a blow
And when the yards broke off they said that I got killed
But I am living still.

I was a dam builder across the river deep and wide
Where steel and water did collide
A place called Boulder on the wild Colorado
I slipped and fell into the wet concrete below
They buried me in that great tomb that knows no sound
But I am still around..I'll always be around..and around and around and around and around

I fly a starship across the Universe divide
And when I reach the other side
I'll find a place to rest my spirit if I can
Perhaps I may become a highwayman again
Or I may simply be a single drop of rain
But I will remain
And I'll be back again, and again and again and again and again.

What do you think? Is it creepy, or am I just a wuss?