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Robert Schuller claimed that positive thinking could change outcomes: “Success comes from the way you think! . . . Tough times never last, but tough people do!” This sounds like a slogan from a secular motivational speaker rather than biblical teaching from a preacher. Yet Schuller was a pastor in the Reformed Church of America. His message was all about positivity because he thought that was how non-believers would become believers. Schuller was heavily influenced by preacher Norman Vincent Peale’s bestselling book The Power of Positive Thinking. As I (Doug) recall, when Schuller’s book Self Esteem: The New Reformation was released in the early 1980s, it was sent to many pastors across the US for free. Unfortunately, that means his bad ideas, which distorted the truths of the Bible, infiltrated many church pulpits.
Perhaps the most harmful part of Schuller’s message was his spin on sin. He wrote,
What do I mean by sin? Answer: Any human condition or act that robs God of glory by stripping one of his children of their right to divine dignity. . . . I can offer still another answer: “Sin is any act or thought that robs myself or another human being of his or her self-esteem.”
Schuller’s focus was on self-esteem. Jesus’ focus, though, was on redemption. He said, “When he [the Holy Spirit] comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me” (John 16:8-9).
We need Jesus—not to make us feel better about ourselves, but to help us realize our inadequacy and recognize his magnificence and his role as our Savior. When we recognize the destructive nature of sin—not that it simply makes us feel bad about ourselves but that it separates us from God—we recognize that we cannot achieve success through mere positive thinking. As pastor and author Joseph Gudel wrote in his analysis of Schuller’s theology:
Man’s greatest need is not to have his self-esteem built up or to have his “lost glory” restored. His greatest need is to have his sins forgiven and thus be reconciled to God! The joy of forgiveness and of restored fellowship with our Creator is the greatest joy man can experience.
Clearly, positive thinking is a false gospel, but it’s not the only false gospel permeating our churches today.
Word of Faith and the Prosperity Gospel
The 2018 documentary American Gospel: Christ Alone offers a deep dive into the Word of Faith movement as well as the prosperity gospel. It features video clips of pastor Joel Osteen saying, “I’m strong. I’m healthy. I’m blessed. I’m favored. I am a victor, not a victim. I’m gonna live a long, productive faith-filled life,” and televangelist Kenneth Copeland screaming from the pulpit, “Money cometh to me!” This false theology teaches that if you have enough faith, what you want will be yours. In essence, your faith becomes works, so if you do enough, you will get what you want. Historically, the doing required has taken the form of giving money to ministries to receive healing or blessings in return. This theology removes God’s authority and divine providence in our lives and places the authority squarely on our own shoulders. As a former Word of Faith devotee stated, “The Word of Faith gospel negates one three-letter word, which is found in the words of Christ in John 16:23-24: ask. Jesus instructed His people to ask in His Name. The Word of Faith doctrine teaches people to command God (i.e., declare it to be so) and then use the name of Jesus as the ‘passcode’ for getting whatever it is they desire.”
The prosperity gospel teaches that wealth, health, and happiness are a result of having enough faith in God and giving money to Christian ministries. This is usually described as “sowing seeds” in a particular ministry so that we may experience our own financial blessings at home, often at sevenfold or tenfold. As pastor and author Joe Carter puts it, “Essentially, it represents a transactional relationship between the believer and God, facilitated through a financial gift.”
With the prosperity gospel, if you have enough faith, whatever you want can happen. Professor and author Kate Bowler notes, “The prosperity gospel looks at the world as it is and promises a solution. It guarantees that faith will always make a way. If you believe, and you leap, you will land on your feet. If you believe, you will be healed.” Bowler writes from experience as a Christian who endured years of cancer treatment and chronic pain, trusting God through it all.
To support their claims, Word of Faith and prosperity gospel proponents take Scripture out of context. For example, two verses often cited by supporters of the movements are “O ye of little faith” (Matthew 8:26, KJV) and “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, . . . nothing will be impossible for you” (Matthew 17:20). But context matters. The verse in Matthew 8 is about doubts due to circumstances that cause fear, while in Matthew 17, Jesus was reminding his disciples that they needed to trust God. Neither verse supports health and wealth theology. What’s more, Jesus directly warned against a misguided pursuit of wealth and prosperity. He said,
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Matthew 6:19-21
. . . Does God Want to Bless Us?
The short answer is, yes, God does want to bless us. But we need to consider what blessings really are, according to Scripture. Blessings are God’s desire to restore humanity to our intended state prior to the fall in Genesis 3. Sometimes these have to do with our temporal welfare. Take, for example, Abram in Genesis 12. God calls him to go to the Promised Land and tells Abram that his family will be blessed and his name will be great (Genesis 12:1-3). Other times, God’s blessings are spiritual in nature, such as the blessing it is to be saved by grace through Christ.
Jesus himself spoke of blessings, so we know that God continues to want to bless us. For example, in the beatitudes (Matthew 5), the blessings Jesus pronounces—such as “blessed are the poor in spirit”—are for those who already possess that state of blessedness. The Greek word translated “blessed” in the Beatitudes is makarios. Theologian Friedrich Hauck said, “The special feature of . . . makarios . . . in the NT [New Testament] is that it refers overwhelmingly to the distinctive religious joy which accrues to man from his share in the salvation of the kingdom of God.” In other words, we cannot earn God’s favor, which means the perception that we can somehow earn blessings from God is wrong.
Blessings are gifts that come with salvation, both in this life and in eternity. This isn’t to say that we can’t ask the Lord for his help in our times of need. The Lord already knows what we need (Matthew 6:8). However, our focus should be on the hope of God’s goodness to us, received in the blessing of salvation. James wrote, “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him” (James 1:12, ESV). Our ultimate reward is in heaven. We don’t have to earn that because it has been freely given to us.
— Douglas Groothuis is University Research Professor of Apologetics and Christian Worldview at Cornerstone University and is the author of numerous books, including Beyond the Wager: The Christian Brilliance of Blaise Pascal and Christian Apologetics, 2nd ed.
— Lindsey Medenwaldt is an assistant professor of business and economics at Northwestern College in Iowa and the author of Bridge-Building Apologetics (Harvest House, 2024). Lindsey holds a master's degree in apologetics and ethics from Denver Seminary, a doctorate in jurisprudence from St. Mary's University School of Law, and a master's degree in public administration from Midwestern State University.
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Excerpted from What If Jesus Is Right? Examining Jesus’ Claims About Himself in a World Full of Falsehoods by Douglas Groothuis and Lindsey Medenwaldt (Tyndale Elevate, 2026). Used by permission.
Jesus is such an influential figure that even today groups fight over whether Jesus is on their side. An excellent apologetics resource for anyone curious about Christianity, What If Jesus Is Right? explores the claims people make about Jesus and compares those ideas to what Jesus actually said about himself. The book presents four of the most popular false claims about Jesus and what the Bible says about him.
In What If Jesus Is Right?, you will:
- explore the most common false claims about Jesus
- study why Jesus is divine and not a mere moral teacher
- learn why what Jesus said does not align with radical inclusivity
- discover why you can trust Jesus
- study the actual words of Jesus and what they mean for your life
What does Jesus say about himself? This book is your invitation to discover the truth and explore in depth the Jesus of the Bible.
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“Here’s your chance to meet the real Jesus, not the caricature of Him that culture likes to offer. Douglas Groothuis and Lindsey Medenwaldt strip away the fabrications and misunderstandings that tend to obscure the identity of the Nazarene, revealing instead His true identity and His claims that will rock your world. With clarity and creativity, they set forth the eternal hope that can be found only in Him.”
— Lee Strobel, bestselling author of The Case for Christ and Seeing the Supernatural
Every new generation in Christianity needs its own apologists. Many skeptical questions and their answers remain timeless; others vary, depending on social trends. Little in What If Jesus Is Right? is new; if it were, it would be suspect! But veteran philosopher Doug Groothuis teams up with his former student Lindsey Medenwaldt, who well understands her generation’s issues, to provide this wonderfully incisive and succinct survey of key reasons to believe Jesus and then to follow him.
— Craig L. Blomberg, distinguished professor emeritus of New Testament, Denver Seminary
Find What If Jesus Is Right? at Tyndale, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Christianbook.com, Books-A-Million, and Walmart.
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