Posted on 01/13/2006 6:17:24 AM PST by sheltonmac
I am continually amazed at what passes for Christian teaching these days. Now, I'm sure that Robert Schuller has read the Bible (or portions of it) at some point in his life, but I have yet to hear him convey accurately the truth it contains.
The following is an excerpt from his latest "sermon." (FYI, the emphasis is Schuller's):
When the stimulation and excitement is offered to you by secularism, how do they do that? Through something that works through your glands, maybe a pill, maybe a drink, maybe sexual activity. All these will do you more harm than good. Stimulation through secularism is not the answer.
The answer comes through a spiritual faith. How does that work? Spirituality through the Christian faith alone provides stimulation from boredom, through salvation from guilt...and that delivers self esteem, dignity and self respect, to do God's dream for your life. Now you are truly stimulated!
I'm talking about the deepest human need that will never go away, not in one thousand years—not in ten thousand years. The human being needs to be stimulated or he will be bored and that is the road to hell. To be stimulated, you need salvation. What holds us back more than anything else is lack of internal harmony, which we call salvation? Yes, get rid of a thing called guilt because next to boredom it is guilt that holds the human being back. When your internal emotions and spiritual system is in harmony, and not internally conflicted, then you'll end up with self esteem, self respect, and dignity. Live that way! Then, "You can come to the end of your life with pride behind you, love around you and hope ahead of you." (I delivered these lines at Senator Hubert Humphrey’s funeral in 1978.)
Only the Christian faith can deliver this kind of a life...stimulation, salvation and self-esteem!
Having trouble finding the nuggets of biblical truth in Schuller's message? That's because there aren't any.
Rather than talk about man's sinful nature, Christ's atoning sacrifice and the need for faith and repentance, he talks about things like "boredom," "guilt" and "self esteem." Has it ever occurred to him that human beings feel bored because we are not rejoicing in the promises of our Heavenly Father? Could it be that we feel guilty because we are guilty? We have all violated God's law, but Schuller's concept of sin centers around our failure to be positive and our failure to engage in what he calls "possibility thinking."
Schuller goes on to say that one of the reasons he is stepping down as president of the "ministry" at Crystal Cathedral—he's passing the torch to (who else?) his son—is that he wants to focus more on writing: "I have theological concepts that have never been written and I think I need to write them." Here's a tip: Anytime someone starts talking about a "new" theological concept, what they are really talking about is an "extra-biblical" theological concept. As Solomon wrote, "There is nothing new under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 1:9).
It is sad that we can no longer expect even a rudimentary presentation of the gospel in most churches today. Thankfully, the rock of our salvation is not Robert Schuller but Jesus Christ, and our guide for living is not a book of inane, post-modern psycho-babble but the living Word of God. Perhaps it's time we got back to basics.
Hm. I think your complaint says more about you than it does about Mr. Schuller. Perhaps you're just bored. I know I am -- but I have the option to forget about this thread.
At least she didn't try to promote homosexuality that week. I'm shopping for a new church, but it's hard to leave this one. (She's only been there a little while).
Funny. I thought the number on problem was pride. The only reason people may be bored is simply because they think they know everything already.
Haven't you heard the saying, "Boredom comes before a fall"?
Hmmmm....I was curious and looked up boredom in scripture. Nobody seems to have been bored. Maybe Schuller longs for the days when a plague of locust was right around the corner or a Babylonian army was coming to carry you off to captivity. It certainly seem to have solved their boredom.
I suspect that Schuller thinks that boredom is the main problem because of the number of people who fall asleep during his sermons.
I wish Schuller's program would come on at night, then at least his sermons could serve a useful purpose in combating the second biggest problem for the human family... insomnia.
If you're not too far from the RI border, I can recommend some Biblically sound churches that won't be too far of a drive.
You complaint says more about you than it does about Sheltonmac...
Yawn.
>>The answer comes through a spiritual faith. How does that work? Spirituality through the Christian faith alone provides stimulation from boredom, through salvation from guilt...and that delivers self esteem, dignity and self respect, to do God's dream for your life. Now you are truly stimulated!<<
Good grief - I don't even know where to begin...
"Spirituality" is becoming the new meaning for Christian.
I've asked people before if they consider themselves a Christian, and I've gotten "I'm a spiritual person, if that's what you're asking". It's becoming mysticism, mixed with paganism and feel-good phychiatry.
It's still blasphemous, regardless of what you call it, IMO.
>>Yawn.<<
Are you bored? :-)
I suppose Paul was bored when he asked for the scrolls and parchments.
With the ultra-Calvinists? Yeah, I guess I am: why waste time debating a belief that, by its own tenets, cannot be debated?
Cannot be debated? It's been debated for hundreds of years.
Personally, I prefer "Hyper-Calvinist" or "Neo-Puritan" to ultra-Calvinist.
True. But if the "Hyper-Calvinists" are right, then there's literally no point to the debate. And if they're wrong... there's, uh, literally no point to the debate.
I suppose the same could be said for any two opposing viewpoints. That's what makes the free exchange of ideas so much fun.
Except when one of the sides is based on the idea that nothing one does can possibly matter -- and that's what the "no free will" aspects of the hyper-Calvinist position basically boil down to. (See the endless FR threads if you doubt me....)
>>Except when one of the sides is based on the idea that nothing one does can possibly matter -- and that's what the "no free will" aspects of the hyper-Calvinist position basically boil down to<<
I think you're just seeing the premise incorrectly, and with different definitions.
The concept of Free Will is largely a myth, but the basic premise is that while we decide on a particular course of action, the results of that action have already been pre-determined. Most notably in the case of salvation, but less notably in the seemingly mundane aspects of human life.
We may think we plan our steps, but the Lord determines where they fall and how successful they are, if at all. That's what His Sovereignty is all about.
We may decide to commit a certain sin, but the act of committing the sin, as well as teh repurcussions of it, are already known to God. To say otherwise would limit his omniscience and omnipotence.
Quite the contrary, what we do DOES matter, when viewed in the life of sin, salvation, and repentence.
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