POSITIVE THINKING & POSITIVE CONFESSION (PART V)

“Calleth Those Things Which Be Not As Though They Were”

By Akin Ojumu

In the impulsive, inattentive, and restless world that we live in, everyone is looking for shortcuts. Our collective propensity for instant gratification and immediate reward causes us to pursue alternative means to avoid challenges, circumvent obstacles, and outflank difficulties. Because patience and waiting are considered antiquated, we always find ways to get or do things in a hurry. 

Fast food, fast shopping, and fast delivery are rapidly evolving modern trends. The good old days of physically going to the stores to buy your stuff are long gone. There’s an app for just about everything you need these days. And at the blink of an eye, it’s right there on your doorsteps.

It’s this same mindset of shortcuts that’s behind the positive thinking and positive confession motif. Impatient to wait for the will and the purposes of God to unfold in their lives, adherents of positive thinking and positive confession take their fate into their own hands by conjuring up a fast-track technique, a secret formular, that will turn their wishes into reality. In the process, they borrow rites and rituals from the world of occult and magic, baptize them, and then turn them into acceptable Christian practice.

The late R.C. Sproul said it best when he wrote:

“Our innate desire since the fall for autonomy, to be masters of our own fates, drives us to search out soul-building techniques that will improve us. We see our faith not as an end in itself but as a means to greater fulfillment. Evangelists routinely implore people to come to Christ, saying that He will make them happier, more confident in themselves, and more spiritual. Jesus becomes a means to improve our marriages and finances while releasing us from all manner of compulsions and negative character traits.”

The positive thinking and positive confession ethos is one of those occultic practices that have been syncretically mixed with biblical Christianity. Those who believe in such New Thought mysticism support their position with the following Bible passages:

Proverbs 23:7

“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he…”

Proverbs 18:21

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.”

Romans 4:17

“As it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations” – in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.””

Last time, we exegetically examined Proverbs 18:21. In today’s commentary, we’ll do the same with Romans 4:17. We’ll search the Scripture to see whether this Bible text actually supports the positive thinking and positive confession doctrine.

When we read in Romans 4:17 that God gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist, what this text is referring to is God’s sovereign ability to declare a repentant sinner righteous by imputing on them the righteousness of Christ even though they are not of themselves righteous, the same way He declared Jesus sin and punished Him, though He was not a sinner.

Ephesians 2:4-6

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

2 Corinthians 5:21

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

God alone is He who is able to quicken a dead sinner and raise him from spiritual death to eternal life. And this is the contextual interpretation and the proper understanding of Romans 4:17.

Yet, if I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard someone quote Romans 4:17 to declare their ability to speak their wishes into reality or to make their dreams come true, I’d be a multimillionaire sipping Piña Colada at some beach somewhere in the Caribbean by now. I can think of only a handful of Bible passages that are more abused and misused than Romans 4:17. This is the go-to text of the “I declare and decree” braggadocios of the modern-day Church, windbags who think their tongues are imbued with magical power to create something out of nothing.

Of course, many of these loudmouths base their vaunted power on a faulty interpretation of Romans 4:17. The very premise of their beliefs is a distorted understanding of this verse. Whereas the verse explicitly says that God is the One who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were, in the typical narcigesistic fashion, i.e., narcissistic eisegesis, these narcissists insert themselves into the text and make it seem as though it applies to them. Having personalized the passage, they go on to misappropriate it by claiming authority to give life to the dead and call into existence the things that do not exist, thus equating themselves with God.

This blasphemous idea of equating oneself with God is the mainstay of the Word of Faith/Charismatic/ New Apostolic Reformation Movement. And it stems from the erroneous belief that the moment someone gives their life to God, they become a little god. 

According to Got Questions:

“The basic idea behind this controversial fallacy is that humans are actually divine, created “in the image of God” (Genesis 1:27) not only in having a soul, having dominion over the earth, or living in relationship with others, but by being of the same “spiritual class” as God Himself. Biblical theologians decry this concept as misguided at best, and heretical and cultic at worst.”

As we pointed out in Part II of this commentary series, the divinity of humanity is one of the core tenets of the New Thought Movement of Phineas Parkhurst Quimby. The devotees of this metaphysical cult believe that because humans are divine, the power of God is available and accessible to them. 

If you’ve been following this commentary, you’d recall that we did say that the Word of Faith Movement is an offspring of the New Thought Movement. So, it shouldn’t surprise you that the two demon-spurned movements share come beliefs.

I’d like to conclude today’s commentary by stating it as unambiguously as I possibly can. Creative power is the exclusive preserve of the Creator. No man born of woman has the power to create something out of nothing. It is delusional for any mortal man to believe he has the authority to speak things into existence.

Stay tuned till next time.