Norma Vincent Peale wrote the pop-psychology "Christian" book called The Power of Positive Thinking. In this book the author attempts to harmonize liberal theology, affluence and psychoanalysis. Many people are gullible and gobbled this gobbledygook as if it was manna fom heaven. The "Christian" magazine Guideposts is the poison left over which still occupies coffee tables today. Since it's so positive in outlook, most Christians fail to see its damaging potential to orthodox Christian teachings! People are always searching for something new which will provide new or additional hope, but whatever comes forth is often in opposition to scripture:
Revelation 22:18 "For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book..."
Peale was very "loose" with his understanding of scripture. That's a characteristic of liberal theology. "Liberal Theology" is a by-product of The Enlightenment; the period in history where individualism and reason replaced orthodox beliefs. It's modernism. With that said "liberal theology" is an umbrella term for those who reject biblical mysticism, the divine inspiration of scripture and the inerrency of scripture. Human thought and reason is paramount to revealed truth from the creator. Many proponents of liberal theology have a happy blend of science, philosophy and Christianity, with Christianity having the short end of the stick. When these ideologies have conflicts liberal theologians tend to prioritize science, philosophy, then Christianity. This is indeed "another gospel".
Christ had no sooner died than liberal theology began to creep into Christianity (The Enlightenment incorporated many aspects of philosophy and gnosticism, not with secret knowledge, but with human knowledge and reason). Paul wrote this about those who were unorthodox:
2 Corinthians 11:3 (NIV) "But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 4 For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough. 5 I do not think I am in the least inferior to those “super-apostles.”
We are to be warey of super-gospels. Guess what? You are to be warey of what I write. You are to be discerning:
1 Corinthians 2:14 "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."
When I write something and it doesn't seem right (compared to scripture) don't accept it! My intent is to keep all commentary scriptural, but I am subject to bias and false thinking just as everyone else. What I wrote years ago astounds me now! Why? With spiritual growth, study and insight I'm more mature in my thinking and with the intense study of history, I see the mistakes of heresy and the dire consequences of propagating untruth.
Reason can be the enemy of Christianity, but reasonable people consider the possibility of the supernatural. "I don't believe in ghosts and spooks myself!" you say. Although ghosts and spooks are supernatural, so is God. That's the mystical part of scripture which "reason" rejects. The mystery of God is anathema to liberal theology. For them it doesn't make sense!
According to The New Heritage Dictionary "reason" is "the capacity for logical, rational, and analytic thought; intelligence." Using reason, the liberal theolgian places his view above God's. Does that sound familar? Here's the consequence of "reason":
Genesis 3:5 "For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."
Adam and Eve were punished for desiring to know the things that God knew. By knowing "good and evil" they could therefore reason for themselves, whereas before they were accepting. Knowing that God is a righteous God, what they knew before their disobedience was "good". Consequently, after their sin "bad" was introduced into their mind. Now, everytime they think, there is a choice made between what is righteous and unrighteous. "Reason" is confounded by the deceit of Satan, hence left to their own reason, man is prone to sin!
Since, "Reason" (the choice between good and evil-libert to make a choice) was chosen over God, then Adam and Eve had "other Gods before me" as The First Commandment warned. "Reason" is "other Gods". If one thinks that I'm stretching the truth for expediency, consider France's post-revolutionary First French Republic which adopted Culte de la Raison (Cult of Reason) as their national religion and the object of worship was the "God of Reason". This cult rejected the existence of a deity. It was founded on anti-Christian principles of The Enlightenment and was a rejection of orthodox Christianity. Many aspects of the Cult of Reason lives on in Liberterianism. In fact democracy is a product of The Enlightenment and itself leads to self-worship and survival of the fittest, heretical and evolutionary concepts, respectively. Complete liberty to do whatever each individual pleased was the Cult of Reason. That's pure liberterianism: individual truth and the pleasure principle.
I touched on the "mystery of God". We're not to be as gods and know all that God knows.
1 Corinthians 2:7 "But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory..."
Reason is against God. We aren't to know all about God: why he is, what was, what he looks like, what is spirit and the like. The mystery of God defies reason because it's beyond our human capacity! Back to "The Power of Positive Thinking". God is not a genie! He is not directed by what we think. That in itself is irrational for those who claim to be rational. If a "Christian" really believes in God it's silly to think that he can control God by thinking positive thoughts!
God is power, but mankind cannot direct that power. That would make man "as gods" in violation of The First Commandment! By faith we can move mountains! Is that in contradiction with "positive thinking? Faith is not to be confused with cognition. We have faith because our mind tells us that if we believe that Jesus died for us and that as a consequence we have the hope of salvation; eternal life. Yes, belief is based on cognition, but the power is not in the mind. It's in the power of the blood! The power of God:
Romans 3:25 "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God..."
Believing that we can go to heaven by believing in the power of the blood is irrational. Reason rejects this. However, that is one of the mysteries of God! His plan was to save mankind in this manner. Why did an invisible God do it that way? Short of heaven, we'll never know and heaven itself is irrational to the liberal theologian, but not nearly as irrational as hell!
The liberal theologian most often rejects the concept of hell. "God is a good God and he wouldn't send anybody to everlasting punishment!" That's liberal theology. That's "positive thinking". Because we think that hell doesn't exist doesn't make it so! "Positive thinking" is more of a mystery than is Christianity! Why would an all powerful God change things because a rebellious person calls him a liar! That thought is much as the Islamic believe in a "genie" who is an invisible spirit inhabiting the earth to influence mankind by appearing in human or animal form! I repeat: By believing that positive thinking changes outcomes is akin the belief in the Islamic genie!
Should we have negative thoughts? Why waste your time unless you're not a Christian? If you're an unbeliever it makes sense to worry about your eternal destiny. You might burn for hell and you need to think about that! If you have unsaved children you need to pray for them because they're going to hell if they don't accept Jesus. If a Christian sins, it's expedient to ask for forgiveness because you've wronged God (a negative thought). "Postitive thinking" in this case would be "I've sinned, but God is graceful. I can sin and still go to heaven." We're expected to repent. If we don't we jeopardize our communion with God. It may be that our prayers and worship cease to be effective, but with a life of sin, we may apostasize. Positive thinking can damn! We need pragmatic thought. Pragmaticism is an honest look at truth and dealing with it! It's being realistic.
Christianity is based on the irrational mysticism of God. That's called faith!
Hebrews 11:1 "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
Does faith sound "reasonable". From a scientific or philosophical standpoint, it's not! That's why it's called faith! From the standpoint of those who know Christ it's a different viewpoint:
Romans 12:1 "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service."
The "reasonable service" of a Christian is to dedicate ourselves as a living sacrifice unto an invisible God! That flies in the face of secular "reason" and is at odds with "The Cult of Reason"; liberal theology, to which "positive thinking" belongs!
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