Robert Schuller dies at 88, but his legacy of false teachings lives on...[2 Peter 2:1]

2 Peter 2:1 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

I am sad at the news of fellow Iowan Dr. Robert Schuller and pray for the comfort of the Lord on his family. However, I am very concerned for his soul. Dr. Robert Schuller was a prolific false teacher whose errant teachings destroyed thousands, if not millions (especially old ladies who could not drive to church who clung to his false TV teachings - some of whom I knew personally).

Dr. Schuller is gone, but the damage he wrought on the Christian Church persists in his younger disciples (e.g. Rick Warren, Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer, etc.) The following is a short subset of the many heretical teachings that this 'wolf in sheep's clothing' introduced...(please feel free to add your own Robert Schuller heresies)...

Schuller - We enter the Kingdom of God when we ‘have a dream…focus on the dream…[and] fuel the dream’ (Hour of Power TV broadcast 25/3/01) Schuller - The Church needs a theology that is man-centred, not God-centred (Hour of Power TV Broadcast)

Schuller - Self-love is the ultimate will of man (Self Esteem: The New Reformation, 1982).

Schuller - Transcendental Meditation, Zen Buddhism and yoga are valid methods for harnessing God’s divine laws.

Schuller - “Its time to go to the Pope and say, ‘what do we have to do to come home?’” (1987).

Schuller - If he came back and found his grandchildren were Muslims it wouldn’t bother him. (Hour of Power)

Schuller - When the Bible says a people without a vision perish it is talking about the ‘inner eye’ of visualisation (Psychology Today, 1985).

Schuller - “AND WHAT IS 'HELL'? IT IS THE LOSS OF PRIDE THAT NATURALLY FOLLOWS SEPARATION FROM GOD--the ultimate and unfailing source of our soul's sense of self-respect. (Schuller, Self-Esteem, pp. 14-15, 93).

Schuller - “What do I mean by sin? Answer: 'SIN IS ANY ACT OR THOUGHT THAT ROBS MYSELF OR ANOTHER HUMAN BEING OF HIS OR HER SELF-ESTEEM’” (Schuller, Self-Esteem, p. 14).

Schuller - THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD OFFERS A DEEP SPIRITUAL CURE FOR THE INFERIORITY COMPLEX AND LAYS THE FIRM FOUNDATION FOR A SOLID SPIRITUAL SELF-ESTEEM” (Schuller, Self-Esteem, p. 60).

Schuller - “Classical theology DEFINES SIN AS 'REBELLION AGAINST GOD.' The answer is not incorrect as much as IT IS SHALLOW AND INSULTING TO THE HUMAN BEING.(Schuller, Self-Esteem, p. 65).

Schuller - “The core of original sin, Lack of Trust. Or, it could be considered an innate inability to adequately value ourselves. Label it a 'negative self-image,' but DO NOT SAY THAT THE CENTRAL CORE OF THE HUMAN SOUL IS WICKEDNESS. ... POSITIVE CHRISTIANITY DOES NOT HOLD TO HUMAN DEPRAVITY, BUT TO HUMAN INABILITY. I am humanly unable to correct my negative self-image until I encounter a life-changing experience with non-judgmental love bestowed upon me by a Person whom I admire so much that to be unconditionally accepted by him is to be born again” (Schuller, Self-Esteem, p. 67).

Schuller - TO BE BORN AGAIN MEANS THAT WE MUST BE CHANGED FROM A NEGATIVE TO A POSITIVE SELF-IMAGE--from inferiority to self-esteem, from fear to love, from doubt to trust” (Schuller, Self-Esteem, p. 68).

Schuller - “THE CROSS SANCTIFIES THE EGO TRIP. FOR THE CROSS PROTECTED OUR LORD'S PERFECT SELF-ESTEEM FROM TURNING INTO SINFUL PRIDE” (Schuller, Self-Esteem, p. 75).

Schuller - ESSENTIALLY, IF CHRISTIANITY IS TO SUCCEED IN THE NEXT MILLENNIUM, IT MUST CEASE TO BE A NEGATIVE RELIGION AND MUST BECOME POSITIVE” (Schuller, Self-Esteem, p. 104).

Schuller - “JESUS NEVER CALLED A PERSON A SINNER. ... Rather he reserved his righteous rebuke for those who used their religious authority to generate guilt and caused people to lose their ability to taste and enjoy their right to dignity...” (Schuller, Self-Esteem, pp. 100,126).

Schuller - “Christ is the Ideal One, for HE WAS SELF-ESTEEM INCARNATE” (Schuller, Self-Esteem, p. 135).

Schuller - EXERCISING NARROW AUTHORITARIANISM IN DOCTRINES AND PRACTICES AND BY SOWING SEEDS OF SUSPICION AND DISSENSION IN THE RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY. (Schuller, Self-Esteem, pp. 153-154).

Schuller - “The classical error of historical Christianity is that we have never started with the value of the person. Rather, WE HAVE STARTED FROM THE 'UNWORTHINESS OF THE SINNER,' AND THAT STARTING POINT HAS SET THE STAGE FOR THE GLORIFICATION OF HUMAN SHAME in Christian theology” (Schuller, Self-Esteem, p. 162).

“I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.

But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, “In Isaac your seed shall be called.” That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed. For this is the word of promise: “At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son.”

And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls), it was said to her, “The older shall serve the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”

What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.” Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.

You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?

What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

As He says also in Hosea:

“I will call them My people, who were not My people,
And her beloved, who was not beloved.”
“And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them,
‘You are not My people,’
There they shall be called sons of the living God.”
Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel:

“Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea,
The remnant will be saved.
For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness,
Because the Lord will make a short work upon the earth.”
And as Isaiah said before:

“Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed,
We would have become like Sodom,
And we would have been made like Gomorrah.”
What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. As it is written:

“Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense,
And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”

I will take God’s word over mans opinion. It may not be palletable to you but I suggest you consider how palletable sin is to a thrice Holy God.

Do you know who the elect are? Neither do I. No one this side of Heaven knows that, that is why we share the Gospel with all.

Do you believe God forces man to act against his nature? I do not. However, God can change a man’s nature (”born again”), replacing the heart of stone with a heart of flesh.

So we preach the word in season and out of season. Those that repent have come to God because God has transformed them.

While I and others like me believe in the doctrine of predestination, we do not believe it is a passive doctrine. We believe that the elect are chosen for good works as part of God’s sovereign plan. And these works include spreading the Gospel and calling men and women to repentance.

Finally, this doctrine gives me comfort as a believer. I know that my destiny has been chosen by God. For the non-believer, I know that they are given what they have chosen by their nature.

Thanks for your response, metmom.

I myself think it's not an either-or thing, as if one could ask, "Which is more important, inhaling or exhaling?" or "which blade of the scissors is most essential?"

How is one saved? One is saved by Christ by being "in Christ," by being incorporated into Christ. Even to the extent that we can say, "I live: yet not 'I', but Christ lives in me."

And we are incorporated into Christ more and more, by all these things: faith-hope-love, being pure in spirit, being meek, being pure of heart and a peacemaker, being baptized, practicing the works of mercy (Matt. 25), by prayer, by the sacraments, by grace, by perseverance to the end, by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, by being merciful, by loving our neighbors and our enemies, by hungering and thirsting for justice, by eating Christ's Body and drinking His Blood, by offering ourselves to God, by forgiving, by praying always, by being joined together with all the other members of the Body of Christ, by being with Christ in His passion, death, and resurrection.

Have a good and holy Easter/Pascha weekend, metmom.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.