"Positive Thinking" And Modern Evangelism.

The power to succeed through positive mental attitudes (PMA) has been promoted in many business and professional contexts in modern times. It is based on the premise that "we may translate into physical reality the thoughts and attitudes we hold in our mind, no matter what they are". By persevering in deep belief that we will have great success, we shall certainly achieve it. Following this ethos of "mind power" many claim to have transformed their lives and gained positions of wealth and influence.

In recent years there has been an unwelcome intrusion of such ideas into the evangelical world. Linking the promises of God regarding faith and prayer with promises of material prosperity for the godly, it is being widely proclaimed that acceptance of the gospel is the highway to health, wealth and happiness. Believe that you are going to be physically fit and you will enjoy good health. Believe that you are going to prosper in your business or profession and God will ensure that this happens. The Lord is interested not only in our spiritual well-being but also in our physical and temporal welfare. Claim for yourself the material prosperity God wishes all His children to enjoy and it will come to you, if only you keep on maintaining the right attitude of faith.

We cannot but contrast this with the One who was meek and lowly in heart, and came to preach good tidings to the poor. The foxes had holes, and

the birds of the air their nests, but the Son of Man had nowhere to lay His head. Far from offering His followers any guarantee of earthly prosperity, He said: "If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whosoever would save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for My sake, the same shall save it". In His witness to the truth He was cut off and had nothing, and His body was buried in a borrowed tomb. Faithfully following their Master's footsteps, His apostles were characterized "as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things" (2 Cor. 6:9,10).

To many disciples in the "western world" today, God has granted a comfortable standard of living; to a few He has entrusted considerable wealth; to some He has appointed that they glorify Him in comparatively needy situations. But what of the noble army of believers persecuted and deprived for the sake of the Name under oppressive regimes? Or the thousands of dedicated Christians in countries where the general standard of living is low? Is it not true of them as of many Christians in the first century that God has chosen "them that are poor as to the world to be rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to them that love Him"? (James 2:5).

The application of PMA principles to the gospel of Christ runs counter to these scriptural considerations, and its practical effects are often devastating. As one sound evangelical commentator puts it: "There are hundreds of thousands of wounded Christians for whom it didn't work". They are left disillusioned and shaken.

Perhaps even more sinister is the result of applying PMA principles to subvert the very foundations of the gospel of Christ which declares the total depravity of man in God's sight because of sin. "The mind of the flesh is enmity against God" (Rom. 8:7). U.S. Evangelist Robert Schuller arrives through PMA at a blatant reversal of this basic gospel truth. He regards emphasis on sin and judgement as negative thinking, a destructive influence in the human personality. This amounts of course to "another gospel", essentially different from the true message of Christ, yet it masquerades under the banner of evangelistic activities. By this means Satan seeks to blur the issues of the gospel, and traditional evangelicals are profoundly disturbed by, the trend.

Nor is this PMA influence on the Christian message confined to the United States. It has overspilled to Europe and other areas. Within recent months it was the subject of a BBC debate, when a spokesman in favour of the "prosperity theology" advanced the same range of arguments now so familiar on certain United States TV religious programmes. "Name it and claim it" could well summarize the message. The seeds of this distorted teaching have found fertile soil among some of the "house church" movements which have mushroomed in Britain in recent years.

In the face of such trends we share the apostolic concern "that we may be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine" (Eph. 4:14), but remain nourished in the words of the faith, and of the good doctrine...followed until now" (1 Tim. 4:6).

unknown | Jul 1986
Focus