If You Ask and Believe...Will You Receive?

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Welcome to Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call featuring Dave Hunt and T. A. McMahon. I’m Gary Carmichael, we’re glad you could tune in. Coming up in this week’s broadcast in our Understanding the Scriptures segment, Dave and Tom will continue their in-depth study of the Book of Acts, and “Why did Paul tell the elders they would see him no more?” In Religion in the News, “Free-thinking vacation.” We’ll take a look at that story and examine the question: “Why does God create the unsaved?” We hope you can stay with us. Our ministry, The Berean Call, offers a wide variety of teaching materials, including books, tracts, audio and video disks, and copies of our weekly broadcast on compact disk or DVD. You may also subscribe to our monthly newsletter, which we offer free of charge. We’ll let you know how to order later in the program.

Now, this week’s Cover Article. Tom and Dave continue their new series of programs addressing the popular spiritual phenomenon known as “The Secret.” This week we focus on the question, “If you ask and believe, will you receive?” Along with Dave Hunt, here’s T. A. McMahon.

Tom:

Thanks, Gary . You’re listening to Search the Scriptures Daily, a program in which we encourage everyone who desires to know God’s truth to look to God’s Word for all that is essential for salvation and living one’s life in a way that is pleasing to Him. For the last few weeks we’ve been discussing The Secret which is both a video and a book based upon the video that has been on the New York Times Best Seller List for nearly two dozen weeks now and the DVD has sold more than two million copies. I believe the books are right around six million, if I’m not mistaken. What is the secret of The Secret ? Well, it’s a cleverly packaged and marketed presentation of some re-tread get rich, get successful, get whatever you want concepts that have been around for ages. It’s the old positive mental attitude and prosperity and healing teachings, only now marketed with elements taken from the very successful DaVinci Code movie. Dave, in last week’s evaluation of The Secret we were addressing the ploy of the book’s authors to convince the readers that the secrets contained in The Secret were found in the Bible. Although they referred to some verses that are in the Bible, in the New Testament, they were obvious examples of text proofing, yet many Christians are being seduced by this religious scam. For example, we’re told that the Bible says we are simply to ask, believe and receive, and they quote in their book Matthew:21:22And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive., “Whatsoever ye ask in prayer, believing ye shall receive.” And Mark 11:24 : “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” So that’s good enough for them and, Dave, sadly that’s convincing to many professing Christians.

Dave:

Well Tom, of course, the key word there is “believe” believing. Now why should I believe? I would kind of like a Rolls Royce, you know, so I’ve never driven one and never even sat in one, but it looks kind of classy, so why don’t I get a Rolls Royce? So I am going to ask and believe and receive. Now the obvious question is, Why would God give me a Rolls Royce? How can I believe that God is going to give me a Rolls Royce unless I know it’s His will? How can I ask God to do anything unless I know that it’s His will?

Tom:

Well Dave, you’re looking to other Bible verses here. Somehow, those two that they selected, they left out 1 John:5:14And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:, 15: “And this is the confidence that we have in Him, (and by the way, who is this “him” and who is this god they’re saying is going to give them the Rolls Royces, and so on) that, if we ask any thing according to his will, (Oh, there’s a god out there that has a will, Dave?) he heareth us.” “And if we know that he hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.”

Dave:

Well Tom, this is just another example of the dishonesty of this book, trying to get justification from the Bible. And yet, last week we quoted J Vitale, what’s his first name, Joseph?

Tom:

Joseph Vitale, right, one of the principles involved in both the video and the book.

Dave:

Right, and he was on the Larry King Live Show, and they asked him about this god, well, a caller asked: Where does God fit into this? And he says, Well, god is all of us, god is everything. That is not the God of the Bible. So, to take Bible verses to justify what you believe, but you don’t believe in the God of the Bible, and the Bible is very, very clear that God created this universe, He makes the Ten Commandments. We don’t make it up as we go along, but that’s the whole message of “The Secret” that you create your own reality. What would you like? You can be anything you want, do anything you want, have anything you want, and then of course, we talked about it last week, money! Oh, if I’m going to really get money I’ve got to love money. I’ve got to say, Money, I love you, Come on, money, money, and I’ve got to have money on my thoughts all the time. And the Bible that they’re quoting from, selectively, says, “The love of money is the root of all evil.” Now it doesn’t say money is the root of all evil, but the love of money, and they’re telling you that you’ve got to love money to get it to come to you. So Tom, everything they teach in that book is totally opposed to what the Bible teaches.

Tom:

But Dave, those are the negative things in the Bible. It almost reminds me of Thomas Jefferson, remember? He wrote his own New Testament.

Dave:

Well, he didn’t write it but he cut out what he didn’t want.

Tom:

Well, yeah, that’s what I am saying, he had his own New Testament, as you say, and he just cut out the things that didn’t agree with him.

Dave:

Right.

Tom:

Well, you have the same thing here, but the sad news is, back then in Jefferson’s time, people actually read the Bible, I mean, they were committed to reading the Bible, and we’re seeing less and less of that today. So, so called Christians, when I say so called, professing Christians, and even some true believers as they are being weaned off the Bible and don’t read it, they’re going to be ripe for a delusion like this.

Dave:

Well Tom, it’s dishonest on the part of these people, that’s the bottom line on that.

Tom:

Dave, let me go over a few other things in which they, you could say, well, they gravitate toward the Bible, they selectively bring certain things out. For example, we mentioned last week, they talk about an attitude of gratitude, that you need to be thankful for everything. Certainly the Bible says that we need to have a heart of gratitude, but who are they thanking? Is it the God of the Bible, is it the god of the forces out there, the trees, the plants, and so on? So, again Dave, they have methodologies, techniques that they claim are biblical, or that seem to reflect the Bible, but as you said, they pervert it, they distort these things.

Dave:

But Tom, they are not really talking about God at all, they are talking about laws, the law of reciprocity, the law of attraction, and so forth. Now you can’t be grateful to a law, it’s unthinking. In fact, they say it doesn’t have any mind of its own. You can think thoughts of murder and the universe will give it to you, whatever you want.

Tom:

Now Dave, why don’t they tell us that? Because that’s not saleable, I mean that might slow up some sales if you found that this could really be used for evil, don’t you think?

Dave:

Well, but that’s what they say. It doesn’t matter, it will give you whatever you want.

Tom:

That’s certainly more than the implications of what they are saying.

Dave:

Now Tom, it’s ridiculous of course, it’s like Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, they’ve got TM transcendental meditation, in prisons. Well, one of the things that he claims you can do for transcendental meditation is levitate. We’re going to have these prisoners levitating right over the wall and out into society! You can do anything you want. It reminds me of Agnes Sanford, we talked about her, she’s the founder of the inner healing movement. She trained Ruth Carter Stapleton and a lot of them out there. What did she say? Well, you can do anything—look, here’s how you deal with a burglar. When the burglar comes into your house, you just think thoughts of peace and love, in fact, you can turn him into a Christian with your thoughts. Tom, I’ve not ever heard of anyone who ever was able to make the promises in “The Secret” ever work. Nobody has ever done this! Now Tom, we’ve probably talked about it already, but one of the very important things—

Tom:

Excuse me, what about all their testimonies of, It worked here for this guy, and I mean, that’s what the video is all about. They’ve got testimony after testimony of how it worked.

Dave:

Sure, this is not scientific coincidence, we would have to have a lot more than this and that. But Tom, here’s the proof, how long did these men live? I’m sure, for example, Waddles, look, the crowning achievement of his life was a book he published of, The Secret of Riches , or whatever in 1910. I’m sure he would have liked to have been around a while to write a few more books.

Tom:

Or to reap all of the goodies from his so called “Secret”.

Dave:

Well, and to see people blessed by this and be able to put it into practice. He died a year later in 1911 at the age of 51. Now you can’t tell me he didn’t want to live longer, everybody wants to live longer. Now what happened to this “you can have whatever you want, you can be whatever you want, you can do whatever you want, the universe will give it to you, it doesn’t matter, you just think these thoughts? Why didn’t he think thoughts? And you’ve got Prentice, he died at the age of 57. Not one of them outlived the normal life expectancy!

Tom:

Dave, 22 years ago we wrote about all of this stuff, only then it was being promoted by books of Napoleon Hill, for example, who spent his last years in a nursing home, I think it was 15 years or more, and he died penniless. So obviously, it didn’t work for him.

Dave:

How about Emerson?

Tom:

Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Dave:

He’s one of the main guys that they quote, hold him up as an example. Well, the last ten years of his life, failing health. He didn’t die rich, well, he did live a little bit longer than most of them, 79, but that’s not—look, if I could really do this, Tom, if I could make this “Secret” work, let’s put it to the test. I’d like to live at least a hundred, I’d like to have perfect health during all of this time. How about 150? You could have anything you want, be anything you want, do anything you want. Come on, Tom, it I so absurd!

Tom:

Well, Dave, wait a minute, how about Mary Baker Eddy? She started her own religion, based on dealing with her health problems. Didn’t she solve her problems through “The Secret”?

Dave:

I don’t think so. I don’t remember at what age she died, but it wasn’t—

Tom:

But she was in complete misery the last years of her life. Not only that, but she was paranoid about everything, Dave. Our audience needs to check out her biography.

Dave:

She was relying on hypnosis, and hypnosis of course is a delusion of the mind, but what is it? It’s just making you think that you are, or can do, or can be something that you aren’t, that’s what hypnosis is. It’s a delusion, but there’s a limit to it, Tom. I can’t flap my arms and start flying, but according to “The Secret” there is no limit, this is what they say. It’s like the human potential movement, human potential is infinite. Well, somebody ought to, at least, high jump 50 feet high, I mean, if it’s infinite.

Tom:

Dave, it’s not only infinite, there’s no end to all of the goodies that are out there. For example, the writers of The Secret assure us that whoever, whatever they were thanking—remember, you said you needed an attitude of gratitude—has enough to go around. There’s a quote from the book: “The spiritual substance from which come all visible wealth is never depleted. It is right with you all the time in response to your faith in it, and your demands on it.”

Dave:

“Your faith in it”—now, Tom, I’d like to sit down and have a little discussion with these people.

Tom:

Well Dave, I just want to take this another step here. Charles Fillmore, you know who he is, the founder of Unity School of Christianity, along with his wife Myrtle, he goes through the scripture John:10:10The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly., Jesus saying that He came that we might have life and have it more abundantly, so there you go!

Dave:

Yeah, and Jesus also said, A man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things he possesseth. Now, all this spiritual substance, whatever that is, I would like to discuss it. What do you mean by “spiritual”? What do you mean by “substance”? And this spiritual substance, it will give you material things? But,—“I came that they might have life, and they might have it more abundantly.” Jesus is talking about something other than what they’re talking about, and He says, “A man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of things that he possesseth.” But all they can talk about in this book, Tom, is abundance of THINGS.

Tom:

And try and pick a phrase or verse here or there that is a proof text that supports their view. Dave, here’s another distortion, the golden rule, how about this. One of the video’s participants asked, Do you treat yourself the way you want others to treat you? And that’s their golden rule. You see, it’s all about you. I hope our audience caught that, I’ll say it again: Do you treat YOURSELF the way you want others to treat you?

Dave:

Well, what does the Bible say?

Tom:

It says: “Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” this is Matthew:7:12Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets..

Dave:

It’s not, I’m going to treat myself to what I want others to give me, but it’s, what I would like others to give me, that’s how I will treat others.

Tom:

Exactly, so they just twist it, they turn it around. Dave, here’s a quote from the book, “When you do not treat yourself the way you want others to treat you, you can never change the way things are. Your actions are your powerful thoughts, so if you do not treat yourself with love and respect, you are emitting a negative signal.”

Dave:

Tom, this stuff makes me sick, truly.

Tom:

Well, just the selfishness becomes nauseating after a while, doesn’t it.

Dave:

How can, what? six million or more? probably the book is still selling, how can people swallow this stuff? But Tom, the problem is, we’re self centered, we’re selfish, we’re avaricious, we want for ourselves, and now you’ve got a license, you’ve got a way to do it in “The Secret.” “The Secret” will tell you to get everything you want, and “The Secret” will justify it. We’ll throw in a few Bible verses here, and then we will give the example of some wealthy men, and so forth. Tom, it really is sickening.

Tom:

Dave, let me really get you nauseaus right now. They take selfishness to a level that’s incredible. I’m quoting again from the book: “Many people have sacrificed themselves for others thinking when they sacrifice themselves they are being a good person. Wrong! Sacrifice admits a signal of lack, (they say) give to yourself, and fill yourself up with fullness to where now you can overflow in giving.” In other words, what they are really saying here, Dave, If I can really be greedy enough, selfish enough, and get everything I want, then guess what? Then I’m going to turn to benevolence. Is that going to happen?

Dave:

Well Tom, how much do I have to have before I begin to give it to others? Oh, I think I need a little more—I don’t want to give just yet. I mean, think, if I had more, the more I have the more I could give.

Tom:

Dave, let’s wait until our pockets are bulging, until our cheeks are bulging, until we have enough—Come on! It’s absurd.

Dave:

Look, I need more, I’ve got to have more so I can give more. No, how can I—I don’t think I’ve got enough, if I had more I could give more, couldn’t I? It’s not going to work that way, Tom.

Tom:

Well, it’s an idea. Let’s all practice selfishness and covetousness so we can become more generous. Not in anybody’s lifetime is that going to happen! Well, Dave, where all of this is going, these are all rationalizations involved that are just mind boggling, but they all are based on something that you mentioned earlier. It has to do with love, Dave, has to do with loving ourselves, and they say it over and over and over again. I will quote, this is from Page 120 of the book: “The reason you have to love you is because it is impossible to feel good if you don’t love you. When you feel bad about yourself you are blocking all the love and all the good that the universe has for you. The universe being God again.

Dave:

Well yeah, but the universe isn’t God, God created the universe, they just undermine everything that the Bible teaches. Now, what is the very first commandment? Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all your strength, with all your might, and then, your neighbor as yourself, but you can’t love the universe. We’re broadcasting from Oregon , probably most of you know, and we’ve got “tree huggers” up here, people that actually hug trees. I don’t think a tree knows they are hugging it, I don’t think a tree can emit love in return, this is just pure nonsense. You know how I often say it, Tom, well, we’ve got to get back in touch with nature, you know, and well how do you cozy up to an erupting volcano, or overflowing lava, or you can pray to a tornado—really?

Tom:

Immerse in a tsunami, Dave?

Dave:

Yeah. No, the Bible says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” God is there, He doesn’t need anybody, He created the universe. The He created man, God said, Let us make man in our image, our likeness, and he said to man, Look, don’t eat of that tree. Not that there was something magic about that tree, No, we’ve gone over this many times, but it’s worth doing it again.

Tom:

Well, it’s the gospel.

Dave:

No, it was God saying, You must do what I command.

Tom:

If you love me, Jesus said, keep my commandments, it’s an act of love, obedience, that’s what its all about.

Dave:

Right. Now God created the universe, He makes the rules. This universe doesn’t make any rules, the universe they’re talking about just gives you what you want. Well, you’ve got to be grateful to it, but it doesn’t know you’re grateful. Aw, that’s part of another law, I guess, out there somehow, you’ve got to have an attitude of gratitude and that will make this thing work. Tom, this is anti-biblical, anti-Christian, it’s anti-rational, it doesn’t even make sense, and yet people by the millions are buying it.

Tom:

And why not, Dave, even though it’s ludicrous, it’s irrational, it’s absurd, it’s all these things, adjectives, that we’ve been throwing out here. There’s an appeal, it’s all about me, it’s all about self, it’s all about what I can get, and the heart of man, deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, as Jeremiah tells us. This is attractive and we are willing to dismiss reason, logic, all of these things because I’m going to get what I want, Dave!

Dave:

But none of the men or women that they quote in here have been able to do that, nobody in the history of the universe!

Tom:

Well Dave, maybe they weren’t doing it right, you know.

Dave:

Of course, but they are the experts that are being quoted. No one has ever been able to make this work.

Tom:

Dave, we’re going to close this out probably in the next program or two, but you know, I said at the beginning that this is the basis for the religion of the Antichrist. Somebody says, What are you talking about? But all the elements are there, being as God, loving self, getting what you want. The Antichrist is going to set himself up as God, to be worshipped as God, and it won’t be the Creator of the universe that he’s going to pretend to be, it’s going to be someone that we all can be, if we could just get these techniques down. He’s God and we can be just like Him if we learn these methodologies, techniques and so on. It’s a perfect set-up, Dave, for the religion of the Antichrist, I think.

Dave:

Actually, Satan did not pretend to be God, he knows he couldn’t get away with that, a god, one of the gods. So, we can all be gods, that’s what the message is, Satan love, and that’s what “The Secret” is about.

Tom:

That’s the lie.