Recently, I got this question from a member of our church and thought my response might help others too. Here’s the question:
Jeff-
I received an email from a Ukrainian student that was my roommate.
She was on the border of accepting Christ but she recently wrote me
about how she saw this movie called the Secret and how it changed her
life. Do you know what the teachings are of “the Secret”? I don’t
know how to respond to her.
I’m familiar with the teachings and I have watched the movie… Here’s the gist of it.
“The Secret” is something called “The Law of Attraction” which means that what you put out into the universe is what you get back from the universe. Many people have fallen into the trap of thinking this is the underlying teaching behind many of the world’s religions and the film uses people from different faiths to talk about their own experience living by the law of attraction. Those who spiritualize it will say that God created the world to work this way.
It’s the same scam that has been going around for centuries, but now, it has a new name and “scientific” research behind it, and a movie, and Oprah’s support, yada, yada, yada.
If you know someone who has been “attracted” to this kind of thinking, or if you have been drawn to it yourself, here are a few questions to ask yourself to give you perspective.
- Jesus claimed to be the ONLY WAY to the Father. Can that be true if the Law of Attraction is true?
- Did Jesus live by the Law of Attraction? After all, he was crucified and died a terrible death.
- Did Jesus rise from the dead, and if so, how?
Paul the Apostle resolved to focus on nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2).
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. — 1 Corinthians 15:3-8
My technique when talking to anyone of any religious persuasion is to get back to Jesus. Did he live? Did he say the things he is quoted as having said? Did he die? Did he rise again? Does his resurrection vindicate his claims?
If the answer to all those things is yes, you can’t get around his claims to exclusivity! And if he died a gruesome death, that seems to tell us that either Jesus didn’t know the secret, didn’t use the secret or didn’t use it rightly! Not to mention, his resurrection couldn’t be the result of him using the secret because once he died, his biological mental thought processes would have ceased and the power of the law of attraction would have been eliminated.
Here are some additional links:
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