Robert Schuller
"No matter what has happened in your life you are not 'A complete failure,' 'A Hopeless sinner,' 'A Total washout.' After twenty years in the field of people-counseling I have heard that exaggerated, distorted, destructive lie repeated many hundreds of times."
(Dr. Robert Schuller, "Self-Love," Page 10)
"Christians abound who are walking cases of uptight, defensive, angry, fearful, neurotic meanies. Why is this? What else can we expect if the call to conversion is a blatant appeal to a person's 'depraved, unworthy, totally sinful nature?' If the seeds of evangelism are dropped in the smelly swamps of self-shame, we can expect the emerging convert, who has been 'born-again' in a womb of shame, to be saturated with a negative self-image."
(Robert Schuller, "Self-Esteem: the New Reformation," page 152)
"One night I prayed, 'Dear Jesus Christ, if you're alive, and I can't even prove you are, I pray that you'll reach into my mind and take out this horrible fear. Save me'"
(Robert Schuller, "Self-Esteem: the New Reformation," page 130)
Note: This is a prayer by Robert Schuller while he was the pastor of his church in Garden Grove. How can a pastor not know if Jesus is alive? Is not belief in the resurrection essential to our faith? Can you be a Christian and a pastor and not know if Jesus is alive at the right hand of the Father?
"Yes, here is a theology for church growth. Here is a theology for success, for the secret of success is to find a need and fill it. Truly, when the church reforms and refines all of its theological expressions around every person's daily need for self-affirmation, it shall flourish 'like trees planted by rivers of water.'"
(Robert Schuller, "Self-Esteem: the New Reformation," page 175)
"Today the sincere, Christian believer is a minority. So the church must be willing to die as a church and be born again as a mission. We cannot speak out with a 'Thus saith The Lord' strategy when we are talking to people who couldn't care less about the Lord! We cannot start with 'What does the text say?' If we're talking to persons who aren't about to affirm respect for or unquestioning obeisance to 'the text.'"
(Robert Schuller, "Self-Esteem: the New Reformation," page 13)
Note: This sure sound like today's seeker sensitive guru's.
"Love yourself or die--physically and spiritually!...Love yourself or you will die spiritually."
(Dr. Robert Schuller, "Self-Love," Page 43)
"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."
(Robert Schuller, "Self-Esteem: the New Reformation," page 68)
"The most serious sin is one that causes me to say, 'I am unworthy. I may have no claim to divine sonship if you examine me at my worst.' For once a person believes he is an 'unworthy sinner,' it is doubtful if he can really honestly accept the saving grace God offers in Jesus Christ."
(Robert Schuller, "Self-Esteem: the New Reformation," page 98)
"Classical theology has erred in its insistence that theology be 'God-centered,' not 'man-centered'."
(Robert Schuller, "Self-Esteem: the New Reformation," page 64)
"The Cross sanctifies the ego trip. For the Cross protected our Lord’s perfect self-esteem from turning into sinful pride."
(Robert Schuller, "Self-Esteem: the New Reformation," page 75)
"What we need is a theology of salvation that begins and ends with a recognition of every person's hunger for glory."
(Robert Schuller, "Self-Esteem: the New Reformation," page 26-27)
"All of the problems, pressures, and perils addressed in the preceding questions arise from a basic defect in much of modern Christianity. What is that basic flaw? I believe it is the failure to proclaim the gospel in a way that can satisfy every person's deepest need - one's spiritual hunger for glory. Rather than glorify God's highest creation - the human being - Christian liturgies, hymns, prayers, and scriptural interpretations have often insensitively and destructively offended the dignity of the person..."
(Robert Schuller, "Self-Esteem: the New Reformation," page 31)
"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."
(Robert Schuller, "Self-Esteem: the New Reformation," page 162)
"If the gospel of Jesus Christ can be proclaimed as a theology of self-esteem, imagine the health this could generate in society!"
(Robert Schuller, "Self-Esteem: the New Reformation," page 47)
"And what is hell?...A person is in hell when he has lost his self-esteem."(Robert Schuller, "Self-Esteem: the New Reformation," page 14-15)
"Self-esteem then, or 'pride in being a human being,' is the single greatest need facing the human race today."
(Robert Schuller, "Self-Esteem: the New Reformation," page 19)
"What the church needs, more than anything else, is a new reformation--nothing less will do! Without a new thoelogical reformation, the Christian church as the authentic body of Christ may not survive."
(Robert Schuller, "Self-Esteem: the New Reformation," page 25)
"Other classical systematic theologians would begin with the doctrine of God. But this is part of the reason the church is in the predicament it is in today. The problems facing the church will never be respectfully discussed and constructively dealt with by starting from this theological position."
(Robert Schuller, "Self-Esteem: the New Reformation," page 36)
"This book can provide answers for the clergymen. If your job is to save souls, you can do this when you liberate them from the sin of self-degradation and lift them to salvation and self-esteem. Come to the understanding that self-will is sin, self-love is salvation!"
(Dr. Robert Schuller, "Self-Love," Page 12)
"I strongly suggest that self-love is the ultimate will of man--that what you really want more than anything else in the world is awareness that you are a worthy person."
(Dr. Robert Schuller, "Self-Love," Page 18)
"The deepest need you have is the need for selfworth, self-respect, and self-esteem."
(Dr. Robert Schuller, "I'll Come Alive! Part V," July 27, 2004)
"Self-love is a crowning sense of self-worth. It is an ennobling emotion of self-respect. It is a divine awareness of personal dignity. It is what the Greeks called a reverence for the self. It is an abiding faith in yourself. It is a sincere belief in yourself. It comes through self-discovery, self-discipline, self-forgiveness and self-acceptance. It produces self-reliance, self-confidence and inner security, calm as the night."
(Dr. Robert Schuller, "Self-Love," Page 27)
"So the urge for greatness, the compulsion to create, the passion for excellence, the desire for recognition, the discontent with imperfection, the demand for personal freedom, the need to give and receive love, even the desire to rule and dominate--all originate with our ancestral divine heritage when God made man to be great, glorious and perfectly proud."
(Dr. Robert Schuller, "Self-Love," Page 23)
"Self-love is, or should be, the basic will in human life. Unfortunately, civilization has so clouded and obscured this motivational force that we must explore our inner self to uncover it."
(Dr. Robert Schuller, "Self-Love," Page 24)
"A professional counselor, sensitive pastor or qualified psychiatrist can help you to discover if guilt is the cause of your lack of self-love."
(Dr. Robert Schuller, "Self-Love," Page 82)
"Why does God want to forgive us? Because in forgiving us He helps us to love ourselves. And only when we love ourselves will we dare to believe that we can and will become the sons of God that we were created to be."
(Dr. Robert Schuller, "Self-Love," Page 84)
"So real self-love is not man's high hat--it is man's halo! No wonder true self-love brings that satifaction which promotes belief in self, which in turn makes you realize that you can do what you set out to do."
(Dr. Robert Schuller, "Self-Love," Page 33)
"Carefully study Jesus' life. Psychoanalyze His acceptance into society - the way people put Him down, misinterpreted Him, and criticized Him. He was a sure candidate to grow up emotionally deprived, prone to violence, soaked with frustration, and destined to be a reactionary - a revolutionary who would lead the guerrillas out of the desert to attack the Romans at night. He'd be a radical terrorist with a cause of liberation that would build an army of men to march through the streets and assault Pilate's camp in Jerusalem. Jesus could have easily turned out to be a terrorist."
(Dr. Robert Schuller, "The Greatest Possibility Thinker Part IV" August 23, 2004)
"Christ gives us 'relieving power.' What does that mean? It means, He relieves us from original sin. You may have heard it said that the church teaches that people are conceived and born in sin. Original sin means that we are born with a negative spirituality. It means we don't have the inherent trust that we should have. To be conceived and born in sin is to be born with a negative self-image. Adam committed a sin. When he did, he became guilty. When he became guilty, he hid in the bushes, having lost his "trusting nature." Immediately, he was infected with a negative self-image. The result you have is what is normally called a sinner, somebody who is really rebelling against God."
(Dr. Robert Schuller, "Relieving Power Part II," September 2, 2004)
"Relieving power produces 'believing power.' Relieved of your basic distrust, you can begin to believe that you are a worthy person. You deserve to succeed!"
(Dr. Robert Schuller, "Believing Power Part I," September 5, 2004)
"There are other people who are such losers that the only way they know how to win is to keep on losing. Now that may sound strange, but listen carefully: The only way they know how to win is to lose. By losing, they say to people, "I told you I couldn't do it." It gives them a moment of "winning" in their "failing." When you have relieving power, you have believing power. You begin to believe YOU can do it. What happens when you think you can do it? You begin to run into people who believe in you! People aren't going to believe in you if you keep telling them you can't do it. Insecure people attract insecure people. The first thing that happens is that you're attracted to positive thinking people. They affirm you! They love you! They see the potential in you, and they begin to love you because of it!"
(Dr. Robert Schuller, "Believing Power Part I," September 5, 2004)
"I am not trying to convert anyone from another religion, I am only try to reach people who have no religion."
"Luther and Calvin, we know, looked to the Book of Romans in the Bible for their primary inspiration. Were they, unknowingly, possessed more by the spirit of St. Paul than by the Spirit of Jesus Christ?"
(Robert Schuller, "Self-Esteem: the New Reformation," page 39)
"Classical Reformed Theology declares that we are conceived and born rebellious sinners. But that answer is too shallow."
(Robert Schuller, "Self-Esteem: the New Reformation," page 63)
"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."
(Robert Schuller, "Self-Esteem: the New Reformation," page 65)
"People who have studied our work and read our materials have said that historically we are not like other churches. Denominations and religions started with teaching a theology about God. Whenever there was disagreement with each other about a certain detail, the result was to establish a new religion or branch thereof, so today there are many different denominations and lots of different religions. When I started this ministry, I chose to focus on human need and said, "Let's ask what a human being really is? What does he need?" And is there a God who can provide for those needs and what kind of God does he need? So we started talking about the needs in humanity and we defined the single deepest need of the human being."
(Robert Schuller, "Mirror or Window People: Which Are You?" August 2, 2004)
"I don't think anything has been done in the name of Christ that and under the banner of Christianity that has proven more destructive to human personality and, hence, counterproductive to the evangelism enterprise than the often crude, uncouth, and unchristian strategy of attempting to make people aware of their lost and sinful condition."
(Robert Schuller, Time, March 18, 1985)
"Historical theology has too often failed to interpret repentance as a positive creative force....Essentially, if Christianity is to succeed in the next millennium, it must cease to be a negative religion and must become positive.
(Robert Schuller, "Self-Esteem: the New Reformation," page 104)
"Too many prayers of confession of sin and repentance have been destructive to the emotional health of Christians by feeding their sense of nonworth."
(Robert Schuller, "Self-Esteem: the New Reformation," page 104)
"Forty years ago in 1953, the seminal book was published, The Power of Positive Thinking. Twenty years later, a book was published, Move Ahead with Possibility Thinking, and now 20 years later in 1993, there's a book Achieve Your True Potential Through Power Thinking or Power Thoughts . So it's from positive thinking to possibility thinking, to power thinking, and each is a level. ... Positive thinking says, 'Hey. I am somebody. I can do it.' Possibility thinking picks up on it and says, 'Okay, how is it possible and how can we make it possible,' and power thinking says, 'Okay. I am. I can. It's possible. Okay, let's you and me do it. Let's just make it happen.'... I sum up this in a sentence. Faith plus focus plus follow through equals achievement, and many people fail because they just don't have the faith in themselves, and others have the faith in themselves, but they don't focus."
(Robert Schuller, Larry King Live, January 28, 1994)
"An undisputed historical fact is that I am the founder, really, of the church-growth movement in this country...I advocated and launched what has become known as the marketing approach in Christianity."
(Robert Schuller, Pritchard, Willow Creek seeker services 1998, page 51)
"Christ is the Ideal One, for he was Self-Esteem Incarnate."
(Robert Schuller, "Self-Esteem: the New Reformation," page 135)
I invite you to pray this Easter prayer today:
Lord, this is going to become the most important Easter of my life. Something has been missing in my life. I need a person I can talk to when I am alone, anytime, day or night. So I’m opening my heart, I’m choosing to be a believer in You, Jesus Christ. I’m walking away from a life filled with questions and more questions, and doubts and skepticism. I’m going to become like a child, trusting You God, the Bible and Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. Amen. [Where is the mention of sin?]
(Robert Schuller, Easter Prayer, Hour of Power April 11, 2004.)
Note: Where is the mention of sin? How can a person come to Jesus without admitting their sin and need of a savior? The answer is that they can't.
"Jesus Christ makes all the difference in the world! He is the greatest possibility thinker who ever lived. The truth is He had every reason to grow up to be an impossibility thinker."
(Dr. Robert Schuller, "The Greatest Possibility Thinker Part I")
"An impossibility thinker is someone with a terribly negative self-image, who is not only emotionally deprived, but filled with frustration and saturated with hostility. He is intuitively tuned in to trouble, certain that nothing will work, and definitely his own worst enemy. By definition, this should have been Jesus Christ. By all odds, He should have been a classical negative thinker."
(Dr. Robert Schuller, "The Greatest Possibility Thinker Part I," August 18, 2004)
"This week, we'll be examining the life of Jesus closely. The facts will show that many elements in His childhood and adult life could have contributed to His becoming a negative person."
(Dr. Robert Schuller, "The Greatest Possibility Thinker Part I," August 18, 2004)
"He was untraveled and possibly uneducated. We know He could read, for He went to the synagogue to read from the Scriptures, but apart from that, we know nothing of his education. His environment was a negative one. How did Jesus cope?"
(Dr. Robert Schuller, "The Greatest Possibility Thinker Part II," August 19, 2004)
Note: How did Jesus cope? Jesus was God in the flesh that could not sin, his trials were only to prove that He could not sin, not to see if He could. This questions that are raised about Jesus by Robert Schuller seem to assume that Jesus could have sinned and become a "negative person."
"He [Jesus] never married. He never had the emotional nourishment and strength that can be drawn from a spouse. He never had the comfort of a close, intimate friend - one whom He could embrace and hold close. He never knew the pride that comes from fathering a son or daughter, especially in a society where a man's real wealth was his children."
(Dr. Robert Schuller, "The Greatest Possibility Thinker Part III," August 20, 2004)
"I remember attending a psychiatric congress in a foreign country some time ago. One psychiatrist said, 'The basic problem in human nature is insecurity and guilt.' And I nodded my head and thought, 'Right on!'...When you are delivered of guilt, you are relieved of your basic distrust, which is the core of your negative self-image."
(Dr. Robert Schuller, "Relieving Power Part IV," September 4, 2004)
"That's possibility thinking! That's turning an obstacle into an opportunity - a problem into a possibility. A positive attitude can take anything and turn it into an advantage. That's faith! That is what Jesus Christ did with the cross. Show me any other person who lived such a simple life, died such a shameful death, and is so super-famous today. You can't. Nobody comes close to Him."
(Dr. Robert Schuller, "I'll Thrive! Part III," July 12, 2004)
"Relieving power produces believing power. Believing power is the beginning of success! Because the person you see in your mind is the person you will be!"
(Dr. Robert Schuller, "Believing Power Part II," September 6, 2004)
"What kind of life are you living today? Make a decision to forget about the debates, forget about the questions, forget about the disagreements, just make a decision to meet Jesus Christ. Nobody can top Him. Accept Him and your life will turn upside down. Jesus Christ will transform you and you will be living life at its best. You will sparkle because Christ lives in your life. That's real!
Try praying this prayer today and life will change for you: "God, You're getting through to me. I realize there is a God who cares about me. There is a person called Jesus Christ, very much alive, living in people whose faces twinkle, sparkle and generate enormous energy. O God, I need my strength renewed so I come to You. Transform me from a mirror person to a window person. I want to do something for the hurting in the world. Amen."
(Robert Schuller, "Mirror or Window People: Which Are You?" August 2, 2004)
Note: Where is the mention of sin? How can a person come to Jesus without admitting their sin and need of a savior? The answer is that they can't.
"But in two-way prayer, you ask questions. "Lord, am I moving in the right to direction?" - and you hear the voice say "yes" or "no." You may think you are talking to yourself, but you're not. That's one of the exciting things that Victor Frankl said in his book. He said, in effect, that unless you are aware of the fact that the conscience is a transcendence that results from your original divine heritage, you will think that you are only talking to yourself. But, in fact, you are not talking to yourself. It is God speaking to you."
(Robert Schuller, "Actualize Part I," June 27, 2004)
"One busy morning, I realized I was running late. I started praying, "God, I want to spend about fifteen or twenty minutes praying, but I have a problem, because I should get out and start running again this morning. I haven't been running for two weeks. But I have an appointment in the office. If I spend fifteen minutes meditating and thirty minutes running, I'll be late. I don't know what to do." All I heard was, "Get out and run." "But, Lord, if I get out and run now I won't spend enough time praying." Again He said, "Get out and run." I said, "But God, you mean you don't want me to spend fifteen minutes meditating and praying?" And He said, "Get out and run, I can talk to you while you're running, too." I said, "Okay, Lord." I jumped out of bed and went out to run. And you wouldn't believe what I accomplished that day in my office!"
(Robert Schuller, "Harmonize Part X," June 22, 2004)
"Let's pray. Close your eyes. Go into a meditation in your own way. Relax your body. Remember the soul is trapped in your body. Sometimes God can't get through the tension of the muscles to get to the core of your soul. Be very open and informal with God."
(Robert Schuller, "Sterilize Part VI," June 11, 2004)
"Now what is that gift that everybody has? In neuroscience we now recognize that each human being has what we call a "heart" that is capable of sensing and receiving and welcoming a spirit. This spirit can change your whole being and in the process, turn you into a very creative person, even if you haven’t been educated in a certain talent. It is phenomenal."
(Robert Schuller, "Parables for Everyday Living - Part VI," June 6, 2004)
"Affirmation of your belief in personal success is the first step toward a winning attitude. Say to yourself, 'I want to succeed. I will succeed.' In a paper first published in 1915, Freud very wisely and correctly pointed out that there are people who actually are 'fear seekers.' Just when it looks like they will reach the pinnacle of success, they blow it. They make a wrong decision. They plant their feet firmly and refuse to move forward, to sign the contract, or take the challenge. The psychological explanation for this phenomenon would fill volumes, so the best I can do is give you a swift, therapeutic, healing technique to help you overcome this fear of success. That technique is the positive affirmation of your desire and will to succeed. Affirm to yourself that you will dare to succeed. You desire to succeed, because you deserve to succeed. Practice positive affirmation. It works. When God created you, He gave you a subconscious and a conscious mind which will respond to this kind of treatment."
(Robert Schuller, "Transforming Power Part VII," September 18, 2004)
