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Dr Robert Schuller
Posted by: AdminMagill on Sunday, June 27, 2004 - 07:54 PM |
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Ministry & Church
Crystal Cathedral
Hour of Power television show
Robert Schuller School of Preaching (Institute for Successful Christian Leadership)
Crystal Cathedral Academy (School for Children)
Crystal Cathedral High School
Beliefs & Key Doctrines
Possibility thinking
Self Esteem
Positive confession
Ministry Emphasis
Positive life examples
Achieving your dream/vision for your life
Television broadcasts
Ecumenism with an emphasis on monotheism
Books
Leader training emphasis
Books Authored
- 11 books written by Schuller, are listed on his web site. His most recent book is: Mountain Moving Faith: Here’s How it Works
Known Associates
- The Pope (Schuller has had a number of audiences with the Catholic Primate)
- Other Word-Faith teachers
- Bill Hybels (Schuller works closely with him)
Mentor
Norman Vincent Peale (deceased).
Strengths
Positive messages of hope and constructive living in this world.
Weaknesses
Little systematic bible-based teaching
A false self esteem gospel that is leading people to place their hope in themselves rather than the Christian God of salvation, through Christ Jesus
An unbiblical reliance on self development
Truth Watch: Assessment / Warning
Arguably, Dr Robert Schuller is the most dangerous leader within the Western Christian World. He reaches into the homes of millions with his TV programme, tapes, books and radio programmes.
His ‘self-esteem’ gospel is not the gospel of Jesus Christ, but it has a seductive power with its emphasis on salvation by feeling good about ones self through the power of positive thinking. Schuller’s saviour is his good friend and mentor, Norman Vincent Peale from whom he inherited his power of positive thinking teachings.
On his Hour of Power TV broadcast (25/3/01) Schuler preached that we enter the Kingdom of God when we ‘have a dream…focus on the dream…[and] fuel the dream’. Theologically, this is nonsense, but perfectly consistent with a man who is on record as saying that:- The Church needs a theology that is man-centred, not God-centred
- Jesus bore the cross to sanctify our self esteem
- Self-love is the ultimate will of man (Self Esteem: The New Reformation, 1982)
- He focuses on the things the major faiths can agree on
- Transendental Meditation, Zen Buddhism and yoga are valid methods for harnessing God’s divine laws
- "Its time to go to the Pope and say, ‘what do we have to do to come home?’" (1987)
- If he came back and found his grandchildren were Muslims it wouldn’t bother him
- When the Bible says a people without a vision perish it is talking about the ‘inner eye’ of visualisation (Psychology Today, 1985)
Schuller’s ‘doctrinal’ position on sin is so far from biblical truth that any mature Christian immediately recognises that it is part of “no gospel at all” (Galatians 1:7). It is a perversion of an essential part of the true gospel (Galatians 1:7). Schuller redefines sin as any human condition or act that robs someone of their divine dignity (c.f. 1 Timothy 1:9; Romans 5:19; 2 John 3:4 and 1 John 5:17 for descriptions of sin).
Schuller shamelessly maintains that repentance from sin is a positive, highly motivated redirection of ones life. What happened to turning to the cross, accepting the finished work Christ Jesus did to redeem us from our fallen natures and reconcile us to our Father in heaven?
Schuller is trying to please men and thus contradicts Paul’s warning that, “If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10).
Schuller’s false belief in the saving merits of self-esteem entirely contradicts Scripture which clearly tells us to deny self (Luke 9:23; 14:26). In the Great Commission our Lord Jesus already knows we love [respect and protect] ourselves. He tells us to respect and protect others in self-sacrifice not self-esteem (2 Timothy 3:2-5; Matthew 26:36-40). In 2 Timothy 3:2-5 Paul includes self-love in a long list of depraved behaviour. Perhaps it is significant that being “lovers of themselves” (NIV) heads the list.
Schuller elevates how we feel about ourselves above Scriptural injunctions to test our actions and thoughts against God’s word and bring ourselves into submissions to His righteous commands. It is by humbling ourselves before a holy God that we find true esteem – God’s esteem for us. It is on that basis alone that we can feel ‘good’ about ourselves. Schuller turns Scripture on its head.
Schuller’s mentor, Norman Vincent Peale, was heavily influenced by psychology, with strong links to both Freudian and Jungian psychiatry. The Scriptures played second fiddle to his positive thinking and positive confession gospel. Interviewed on the Phil Donahue show in 1984 Peale, a 33rd degree mason, is recorded as saying “Its not necessary to be born again. You have your way to God, I have mine. I found eternal peace in a Shinto Shrine”. Peale was merely religious. He defined religion as “…a scientific methodology for thinking your ways through problems” (Book: Stay alive All Your Life, p. 147). He also believed that Jews and Muslims and other non-Christians worship the true God. He denied the virgin birth, did not believe Christ was eternal and refused to accept that Jesus Christ’s death atoned for sin. Peale was no Christian despite being the pastor of a reformed church for 52 years. Schuller has done little more than repackage his mentor’s false theology.
Schuller’s positive confession-self-esteem teachings closely aligns with the ‘word-faith’ beliefs of men like Kenneth Haggin, Kenneth Copeland and their mentors E W Kenyon and William Branham. Biblical truth is replaced with the power of a positive confession. It is not what we believe in our hearts about the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ that saves us, it is the power of a positive confession. Whatever we confess with our mouths in faith will happen. This is witchcraft long before it even approaches anything remotely Christian.
Visualising what one wants and then speaking it into being has got everything to do with the magic arts and nothing to do with Christianity. If Christians want something from the Lord they pray to God in faith, trusting that the Lord’s will, shall be done. The operation of faith in a Christian context has nothing to do with visualisation (a Buddhist practice popularised in Charismatic circles by Yonggi Cho) and speaking things into being. Instead, the Christian relies not on their own power (Copeland’s the god within us) but the grace and good pleasure of an all powerful God who is not subject to the manipulation of a positive confession.
Schuller is just one of a pack of false teachers. Many born again believers are not fooled by men like him. Sadly some professing Christian are. If you are one of them refer to the following references and go back to the Scriptures. God’s word easily exposes Schuller’s false gospel.
References:
GeneralSelf-esteemNorman Vincent PealeWord-faith error
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