Planner's pulpit
It's no secret
Posted on November 8, 2007 by Rev. John F. Harrison, CFP®
It's a phenomenon. Rhonda Byrne's little book, The Secret, has sold millions of copies, spent months atop the New York Times best-seller list, and been made into a movie. Businesses are recommending it to empower their sales forces. People who embrace its message advocate for it with missionary zeal.
Many reviewers have dismissed the book as so much New Age fluff. It certainly contains a lot of unsupported assertions, and there are a lot of feel-good clichés recycled from earlier positive thinking gurus. If the book were trite but harmless, I would ignore it. But I don't think it's harmless. It's certainly incompatible with anything resembling biblical Christianity, despite the fact that it sprinkles a few scripture quotations among its pages.
Here are my primary objections to its message:
First, it replaces the personal sovereign God of the Bible with an impersonal energy field that we can manipulate with our thoughts. God works all things after the counsel of His own will, but New Age dogma posits a "god" that mechanically, automatically responds to our thinking the way a vending machine responds to coins. "The true supply is the invisible field, whether you call that The Universe, Supreme Mind, God, Infinite Intelligence, or whatever else" (page 163). The people quoted in The Secret think God and an energy field share "the same description, just different terminology" (page 159).
Second, it deifies humanity. "The earth turns on its orbit for You. The birds sing for You. You are the master of the universe. You are the heir to the kingdom. You are the perfection of life." These worshipful things are said, not about the God of the Bible, but about the reader of the book! And consider this quote from page 164: "You are God in a physical body. You are Spirit in the flesh. You are Eternal Life expressing itself as You." Bible-believing Christians agree that there is only one about whom those things can rightly be said. His name is Jesus, and you're not Him.
The Secret flatly and defiantly contradicts scripture. For instance, there are many places where the Bible affirms the reality of coming judgment. Here are two of them. "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ" (2nd Corinthians 5:10). And "...It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). Contrast that to this gem from page 177 of Byrne's book: "Your life will be what you create it as, and no one will stand in judgment of it, now or ever."
From a financial planning point of view, the danger lies in the delusion that the labor of earning, the tedium of budgeting, the self-discipline of saving and investing, and the patience of waiting are all unnecessary in the quest for prosperity. "All You require is You, and your ability to think things into being" (page 57).
But wait a minute. Church leaders should consider, before they cast the first stone at Ms. Byrne, whether they have peddled a similar brand of wishful thinking. Where she touts the "law of attraction" as the solution to your every need, some Christians tout the law of reciprocity as a financial panacea. When ministers suggest that "give and it shall be given unto you" is the only financial plan a believer needs, they are appealing to the same desire for effortless shortcuts to prosperity. I remember hearing a sermon in which the preacher said, "You don't need an IRA - you just need faith!" That was over twenty years ago. I wonder how he feels about it now?
It's no secret. Neither New Age fantasies nor Bible truths give anyone a personal exemption from financial reality. The road to financial security is paved with hard work, planning, saving, investing, giving, monitoring, and making adjustments based on wise counsel. It's tempting to think we can just believe our way past all of this work. "But wilt thou know, o vain man, that faith without works is dead?" (James 2:20)
It's no secret
Posted on November 8, 2007 by Rev. John F. Harrison, CFP®
It's a phenomenon. Rhonda Byrne's little book, The Secret, has sold millions of copies, spent months atop the New York Times best-seller list, and been made into a movie. Businesses are recommending it to empower their sales forces. People who embrace its message advocate for it with missionary zeal.
Many reviewers have dismissed the book as so much New Age fluff. It certainly contains a lot of unsupported assertions, and there are a lot of feel-good clichés recycled from earlier positive thinking gurus. If the book were trite but harmless, I would ignore it. But I don't think it's harmless. It's certainly incompatible with anything resembling biblical Christianity, despite the fact that it sprinkles a few scripture quotations among its pages.
Here are my primary objections to its message:
First, it replaces the personal sovereign God of the Bible with an impersonal energy field that we can manipulate with our thoughts. God works all things after the counsel of His own will, but New Age dogma posits a "god" that mechanically, automatically responds to our thinking the way a vending machine responds to coins. "The true supply is the invisible field, whether you call that The Universe, Supreme Mind, God, Infinite Intelligence, or whatever else" (page 163). The people quoted in The Secret think God and an energy field share "the same description, just different terminology" (page 159).
Second, it deifies humanity. "The earth turns on its orbit for You. The birds sing for You. You are the master of the universe. You are the heir to the kingdom. You are the perfection of life." These worshipful things are said, not about the God of the Bible, but about the reader of the book! And consider this quote from page 164: "You are God in a physical body. You are Spirit in the flesh. You are Eternal Life expressing itself as You." Bible-believing Christians agree that there is only one about whom those things can rightly be said. His name is Jesus, and you're not Him.
The Secret flatly and defiantly contradicts scripture. For instance, there are many places where the Bible affirms the reality of coming judgment. Here are two of them. "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ" (2nd Corinthians 5:10). And "...It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). Contrast that to this gem from page 177 of Byrne's book: "Your life will be what you create it as, and no one will stand in judgment of it, now or ever."
From a financial planning point of view, the danger lies in the delusion that the labor of earning, the tedium of budgeting, the self-discipline of saving and investing, and the patience of waiting are all unnecessary in the quest for prosperity. "All You require is You, and your ability to think things into being" (page 57).
But wait a minute. Church leaders should consider, before they cast the first stone at Ms. Byrne, whether they have peddled a similar brand of wishful thinking. Where she touts the "law of attraction" as the solution to your every need, some Christians tout the law of reciprocity as a financial panacea. When ministers suggest that "give and it shall be given unto you" is the only financial plan a believer needs, they are appealing to the same desire for effortless shortcuts to prosperity. I remember hearing a sermon in which the preacher said, "You don't need an IRA - you just need faith!" That was over twenty years ago. I wonder how he feels about it now?
It's no secret. Neither New Age fantasies nor Bible truths give anyone a personal exemption from financial reality. The road to financial security is paved with hard work, planning, saving, investing, giving, monitoring, and making adjustments based on wise counsel. It's tempting to think we can just believe our way past all of this work. "But wilt thou know, o vain man, that faith without works is dead?" (James 2:20)
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How bad is it?
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Is there a topic you'd like us to talk about? Email your suggestions or questions to us.