August 19, 2007

Apologetics writer, Marcia Montenegro pointed this out in a recent exposé called "The Secret: Chicken Bones for the Hungry Soul," that was published in the Spring 2007 issue of the Midwest Christian Outreach Journal. "The Secret" is the latest new age craze that made a splash on the Oprah Winfrey television show. Marcia pointed out that the DVD of "The Secret" "forcefully dramatizes this as something kept underground for centuries with only handfuls of people aware of it." Then Marcia documented how the secrets of "The Secret" are the same ones that have been "discovered" by various cults and isms over the millennia such as the Science of Mind cults, New Thought, Christ Science, Church of Religious Science, and TM’s idea of "Christ Consciousness." 

I chuckled when I read this because I had just returned from visiting the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum & Planetarium in San Jose, California, where all the literature and promotional DVDs playing in the museum made the same boast that the order of the Rosicrucians holds the secrets of the ancients for progressing in this life through initiations into the mysteries of the universe.

Doctrines of devils have certainly been with us since ancient times. Walking through that museum in San Jose was a reminder of man’s fallen condition and man’s quest to find out the mysteries of the unknown from ages past. The museum had artifacts from ancient Upper and Lower Egypt, Babylon, Medo-Persia and Assyria. I looked at votive figures of mother and child statues and thought of the modern use of the very same figures seen in Catholic bookstores in any city. There truly is nothing new under the sun!

That museum was a monument of man’s futility in trying to put God under the microscope to discover secret laws that can benefit his comfort in this life. All such things appeal to man’s pride and arrogance and demonstrate that people are not very interested in God’s revelation of Himself to us, but are more desirous of finding a God that can be totally understood and controlled.

Last weekend, two Jehovah’s Witnesses knocked on my door and we had an interesting discussion. I wouldn’t let them talk about all their peripheral differences that made them think they were unique among groups calling themselves Christian. I honed in on the deity of Christ and the truth of the Trinity. They let me know that their math does not allow 1+1+1 to equal 1. Like the mystics before them, they want a God they can dissect and analyze – one that makes sense to them. I reminded them that God’s ways are so much higher than our ways that we are in no position in the universe to figure out the One who created it and holds it all together. We must accept God’s revelation of Himself and not try to figure Him out by observing his creation seen and unseen. They still didn’t get it.

Charismatic Secrets

Now the latest craze has arisen that attempts to dissect the Almighty into pieces that they can grasp with their little minds. It’s this new fandangled Quantum Physics fad blowing through the apostolic/prophetic movement (see Quantum Alchemy Reflection). Even those calling themselves Bible-believing Christians have fallen for the doctrines of devils that tell them they too can tap into a force in the Universe that is God Himself. They can do that by learning how to use sounds to create reality, visualize what they want from God, and speak it into being. Even in Christian circles, this is nothing new. Remember back in the 1980s, books that made the Christian best-seller list like Pat Robertson’s "The Secret Kingdom" or Paul (David) Yonggi Cho’s "The Fourth Dimension." Both books were thoroughly debunked in Dave Hunt’s "The Seduction of Christianity" but those reviving these doctrines of devils today are hoping to reach a new generation that never read Seduction.

Montenegro revealed in her article on "The Secret" that the new age movement has always pointed to so-called "quantum physics" to back up their religious views with scientific sounding discoveries. "Efforts are made to link this to quantum physics," she wrote, "but quantum physics does not support these teachings. Although there are two quantum physicists associated with the book and DVD, one of them is…a follower of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation teachings." God is seen by new agers "as some kind of force or intelligence ‘out there’ that knew everything and was a bestower of both positive and negative experiences," she added. "The god of New Thought is impersonal…the ‘universal mind’ in The Secret [is] equated with energy and with God...or ‘One Energy Field’ is everywhere, and we are all ‘One.’"…"There is no personal Holy God in The Secret" and that is equally true of today’s Quantum Physics ‘prophets’ who have become popular in extreme charismatic circles, holding conferences throughout the world.

The same doctrines of devils coming out of extreme charismatic circles today have already been "discovered" by the new age movement, science of mind cults, and all the way back to ancient Egypt and Babylon. There is truly nothing new under the sun. We need to be able to recognize them when we see them wrapped in any outer casing. Whenever people speak of "new discoveries" in religion we can know that unless the Lord has revealed it to us in His Word, it is just more of the same devilish doctrines that elevate man’s view of himself and his wisdom that we’ve seen since Pharoah’s magicians mimicked God’s miracles at the hand of Moses.

When someone says "thus sayeth the hidden meanings in the Bible Codes," we can say "poppycock!"

When someone says "thus sayeth the mathematical principle of pi," we can say "hogwash!"

When someone says "thus sayeth the good vibrations of sound," we can say "nonsense!"

When someone says "thus sayeth the DNA realm of the prophetic," we can say "get off it!"

When someone says "thus sayeth the numeric hidden meaning of 6-6-6, 7-7-7, or 8-8-8," we can say "baloney!"

There is nothing new under the sun. We don’t need your new discoveries of unlocking the secrets of anything. Jesus did nothing in secret: "I spoke openly to the world. I always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where the Jews always meet, and in secret I have said nothing" (John 18:20)

God no longer speaks in dark sayings: "God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son" (Hebrews 1:1-2).

The doctrines of devils promise secret knowledge, but the truth of God is revealed in His Word and free for those who choose to hear and obey.

♥♥♥

"Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the Lord, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," says the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:6-9)

– "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils" (1Ti 4:1)

"When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord, and because of these detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the Lord your God. The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the Lord your God has not permitted you to do so." (Deuteronomy 18:9-14)