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The False Doctrine of “Positive / Negative”
5/09/2006
Jeremiah 6:14 “They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ but there is no peace.”
1 John 2:21 I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth.
This is an issue which has “stuck in my craw” for a long time. It really bugs me when I hear preachers playing fast and loose with the truth and telling people how they just need to keep a positive outlook and not loose their “happy thoughts” and everything will be fine. This sort of Peter Pan advice (if I may borrow from Billy Joel) reminds me of a series of commercials MTV ran a few years back. One in particular showed a guy in an elevator which all of a sudden starts plunging down out of control. His fear shows on his face but as he begins to listen to the Muzak playing he starts to forget his fear. Soon he’s got a smile on his face and he’s nodding to the music as he continues to plunge to his death…
Listen to just about any sermon today and at some point you’ll hear the benefits of staying “positive” and a warning against being “negative.” The concepts are so intricately interwoven into our culture that they are just accepted as givens. But is that how God wants us to view ourselves, the world in which we live, His Word, and the Gospel? What about the truth?
Norman Vincent Peal was a Methodist minister who later converted to Dutch Reformed. He hosted a radio show called “The Art of Living” for 54 years and started the world’s largest religious magazine known as Guideposts. He died in 1993 at the age of 95, but he wrote over 46 books with his most popular one being The Power of Positive Thinking. It was written in 1952 and has sold more than 20 million copies in 41 languages. He was often referred to as “God’s Salesman” and pioneered the integration of Christianity and psychology with a strong emphasis on self-esteem.
Over the past 50 years the principles espoused in The Power of Positive Thinking have been accepted as “gospel” by sales and marketing people in all walks of life. They have proven their usefulness time and time again in persuading people to “buy” whatever they’re selling. As the church became more concerned with pragmatism than the integrity of the gospel, it began to integrate these principles into its approach. For those who have taken this path, the result has been phenomenal growth in both membership and income. That’s good isn’t it?
The “positive” gospel avoids anything “negative” which might offend people. Don’t say anything about sin and certainly don’t bring up specific sins (1 John 1:10, 1 Corinthians 6:9,10). If you have to mention sin then be sure and soften it by defining it as just “missing the mark”…hey, nobody’s perfect, right? Don’t tell people that if they wish to become a Christian and enter the kingdom of heaven then they must repent (Matthew 4:17, Luke 13:3, Luke 24:46,47, Acts 2:38, Acts 3:19, Revelation 2:16). That would imply that there is something wrong with them and that makes people uncomfortable. They didn’t come here to hear about what’s wrong with them. They came here to hear how much God loves them and what God can do for them. If you can’t avoid the word repent, then just tell them it means to “change your mind.” It doesn’t mean that you actually have to stop DOING the things that you know are wrong…just “change your mind” about it! Of course, don’t mention anything about self-denial (Matthew 16:24,25, Galatians 5:17). God doesn’t require you to deny yourself! He came here so that you could fulfill yourself! Be all that you can be! And if you forget everything else, NEVER bring up the topic of God’s judgment (1 Peter 4:17,18, Revelation 20:13, Hebrews 10:31, 2 Corinthians 5:10, Revelation 2:18,21-23)! After all, “God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him” (John 3:17).
Does any of this sound like what you’re hearing from your pulpit? I realize that I’m laying on the sarcasm a little thick, but it’s hard not to when such fundamental doctrines that are essential to understanding the nature of God, the world in which we live, and our own natures are completely left out by those who are responsible for leading the rest of us. As Jeremiah 6:14 states, we are attempting to heal people superficially by only giving them the part of the truth which we think they want to hear. There can be no true rebirth or wholeness without the whole truth.
“Stephen, buddy, we really don’t need the little history lesson and you’re not going to win any friends by accusing us of resisting the Spirit much less calling us betrayers and murders! Just who do you think you’re talking to? You know, if you don’t like it here then you might want to consider finding another church to go to.”
“Now, Paul, we all appreciate your service to the church. But what in the world were you thinking telling us that we need to deliver one of our members over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh because of his sin? Isn’t that a little extreme? We’re supposed to love the sinner but hate the sin, right? Where’s the love?”
“The name is, uh…Jonah, right? Listen, I don’t know who you are but you come waltzing in here and tell us that unless we repent we’ll be destroyed in 40 days and we’re supposed to believe you?! I mean, you look like you something the cat drug in and you smell…REALLY bad! Why don’t you just leave before we have to call the authorities, OK?”
2 Timothy 3:12 Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
2 Corinthians 4:8-10 we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.
Romans 5:3 And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance
Does God love us? Does God want to bless us? Are there wonderful promises of God which should encourage and sustain us? YES! But we can’t skip right over the parts of the gospel we don’t like in order to get to the “good” parts! God’s love is unconditional “in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” However, salvation is NOT unconditional. Let me say that once more for emphasis, salvation is NOT unconditional! It is “free” (Romans 6:23) in that it can’t be earned or bought, but it is NOT unconditional. Without an understanding that we have sinned against God (Psalm 51:3,4, 1 John 1:8-10), an understanding that our sin has condemned us to Hell (Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23, Revelation 21:8), and a willingness to repent (Matthew 4:17, Luke 13:3, Luke 24:46,47, Acts 2:38, Acts 3:19, Revelation 2:16) there can be no new birth and no salvation. Without understanding those basic concepts, then you don’t really know why Jesus died and why you need a Savior! To “accept Christ” without realizing that you have to repent is by definition impossible! You may walk the aisle, you may pray the sinners prayer, you may stop some bad habits and start some good ones, you might join the church and start attending regularly, you may close your eyes and raise your hands while you sing every Sunday…but if you haven’t understood that you have sinned and are righteously condemned for it and, therefore, are willing to repent and accept Jesus as both LORD and Savior then you are NOT saved! You have simply adopted a religious culture.
Galatians 4:16 So have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?
John 18:38 Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?”
John 17:17 “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.”
The Power of Positive Thinking
Just where did the whole concept of “being positive” come from? Those skilled in the art of persuasion throughout the ages have always realized the value of telling people what they want to hear. However, the one man most responsible for it’s insinuation into our culture would be Norman Vincent Peal.
The Positive Gospel
What are the earmarks of this increasingly popular “positive” gospel? In a nutshell, emphasize the positive and ignore the negative. Tell people how much God loves them, how He wants the best for them, how He wants to set them free to be the person they were meant to be, and best of all it’s all free! God wants you to be influential and important and prosperous! After all, He came “that you might have life and life more abundantly” (John 10:10)! He doesn’t want to take anything from you or deny you anything. In fact, just the opposite… “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things” (Romans 8:32)? He wants to give you “love, joy, and peace” (Galatians 5:22) if you will just receive Him.
That Was Then This Is Now
I wonder what kind of reaction the Old Testament prophets and great men of God in the New Testament would get in our churches today!
“You know, Isaiah…brother…I’m really picking up on a lot of negativity here. You know, the Bible says ‘judge not’ and you’re really coming down pretty hard on us, don’t you think? Why can’t you show a little compassion for your brothers and sisters? I mean none of us are perfect, are we? You’re just offending people and driving them away with these ‘fear tactics.’”
Enough already…you get the idea! Just like Jerusalem (Matthew 23:37), most of our churches today would reject anyone coming to them with a message of sin, repentance, and impending judgment. And the message we create for ourselves is the one we try to persuade the world with…at best a lopsided and incomplete gospel and at worst a false gospel. Consequently, our view of God is more comparable to the mythological figure known as Santa Claus (a kindly old grey-haired gentleman who is jolly all the time and just wants us to “be good”) than the holy Alpha and Omega who has righteously condemned all of mankind to eternal Hell (John 3:18, Romans 3:9-18, Romans 5:16, Galatians 3:22, 2 Peter 2:4-9, Revelation 20:11-15) but has made a way of escape by providing His only Son as a sacrifice for our sins (Romans 5:8-10).
The Whole Counsel of God
Many times God will call you to experience, do, or say things that would be considered “positive” (for example, enjoy His handiwork in a sunset, help someone, or speak a word of encouragement to a brother). However, just as often He may call you to experience, do, or say things that you might consider “negative” (for example, suffer the loss of a loved one, do just the opposite of what you want to do, or rebuke a brother who is teaching false doctrine). All of these things are part of God’s plan for you and to deny the “negative” is to deny a large part of God’s work in your life.
John 16:33 “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
Many people view “positive thinking” and faith as synonymous. They’re not. “Positive thinking” is the false hope that believing or thinking or visualizing something will somehow make it true. Faith is trusting that what God says is true and that you can depend on it.
Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’”
That’s why it is IMPERATIVE that we preach the WHOLE “counsel of God.” The words “positive” and “negative” are NOT in the Bible and to try and filter your understanding of God and the gospel you preach to others through these philosophical sieves is to deny more than half of the truth of God’s Word! Brothers and sisters, we MUST reclaim the parts of the Gospel which we have shunted to the side in the name of appealing to a larger audience! We need to deprogram ourselves from this “positive thinking” doctrine created by men and throw the words “positive” and “negative” into the trash and never bring them out again. They serve to only distract us from what we need to be focused on…God’s truth! The integrity of the Gospel! The whole counsel of God!
Acts 20:26,27 Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God.
Don’t determine to stay “positive” no matter what…resolve instead to be obedient to God whether what He calls you to do is pleasant or unpleasant, popular or condemned, easy or hard…and leave the results to God.
1 Corinthians 6:19,20 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.