The Secret

I've recently had a couple different friends tell me about a recent episode of Oprah in which she had individuals involved in a teaching called The Secret featured. This teaching is very misleading and very well may pull in individuals who are searching for God, but are not fully grounded in His Word. I'm especially worried as Oprah is endorsing this teaching and I know how many individuals in our country look to her for guidance. That in itself for many is a kind of worship.

This teaching claims to have been around for quite awhile (hundreds if not thousands of years) and is tied to the Rosicrucian Order. It claims to be "an inner knowledge of your own potential to achieve wisdom, strength, compassion and peace." (quoted directly from The Secret Organization website). This may appear to be something really good on first glimpse to some, however it is teaching us to rely on ourselves, our own inner knowledge. God's Word teaches us to rely on Him, not ourselves and our flawed logic and reason.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him,and he will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength. (1 Corinthians 1:25)

On Oprah's show a Christian woman asked about the fact that this seems to be teaching us to rely on ourselves instead of God. Below is an excerpt from the show which I've taken directly from Oprah's website. Note, the person answering Maureen is Michael Beckwith, know as Rev. Dr. Michael Beckwith, D.D. Visionary on the Secret Movie website. He is described on the site as a non-aligned, trans-religious progressive, who founded the Agape International Spiritual Center.

Maureen has a question many people want answered: "[My family puts] our faith in God, and it seems that The Secret teaches you to put your faith in yourself. And so I was wondering, is God anywhere in this?"

Michael says The Secret involves the laws of the universe and they, in turn, describe the nature
of how God works. "[Jesus] said, 'Pray believing that ye have that ye may receive.' That's The Secret in a nutshell," he says. "Pray believing and feeling and sensing that you already have it, and then you're available to receive it."

Michael says The Secret isn't about contradicting religion—it supports it. "It actually goes underneath the culture and explains to you the sacred laws that these wonderful teachers have brought to us," he says. According to James, The Secret is about supporting the great spiritual
traditions in a more modern form. "It really is just putting Christianity, Judaism, all the great teachings into a current vernacular," he says.

Once again, on the surface to someone not grounded in God's Word this probably sounds very appealing and logical. However to those of us who follow the Lord and live by His Word, warning bells should be going off with lots of flashing red lights!

I know this thinking is not anything new, the enemy has been whispering lies cleverly disguised as the truth (many times truth twisted into lies for his purposes) to us since the time of the Garden. The Lord has just put this on my heart for a matter of prayer. As I said, I'm especially worried because I know how many people look up to Oprah. I'm sure this "teaching" had a lot of followers already (they claim to have had DaVinci, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and many others as part of their following), however Oprah endorsing this will just spread these misleading teachings further in our society.

In addition, they have made a movie called The Secret which is now available for those seeking to know "the Great Secret of the Universe". What they call "the Secret to everything - the secret to unlimited joy, health, money, relationships, love, youth: everything you have ever wanted."

I fully believe we as Christians must keep an open mind since we are human and can never claim to have it all 100% correct (only God can claim that) however when searching for Truth, please remember to always take it back to God's Word for comparison and take it to God in prayer. His is the only true knowledge and way to hope, peace and love.

The Secret and Oprah