I am going to start out this article by letting people know that I don't have a problem with being positive about things that God wants us to be positive about (like our salvation), but anyone who has read through the Bible should know that it contains both positive and negative truths. One example of a negative truth would be a verse that says, "evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived" (2 Timothy 3:13). Some other examples of this would be verses that warn about false teachers and false doctrines, such as 2 Peter 2:1-3 and 2 Timothy 4:3-4. Yet a common mentality in the church today is that we should only be "positive" about everything, including even false teaching, evidently. From the verses that I posted here so far, it should be clear that the "positive only" philosophy does not come from the Bible, and I find it telling that it is also promoted in a new age book titled The Secret.

One thing that I find so ironic about many who promote the positive only philosophy is that they are often very negative toward those who disagree with them, and it astonishes me to see how many people don't see how inconsistent they are being. If they are going to be honest, then they might as well call it selectively positive thinking. As one example of this, one of the teachers who has promoted the positive only philosophy (Robert Schuller) once stated that, "Dave Hunt is the Devil! I can see the serpent in his eyes!" In response to this statement, Dave Hunt said, "I found that a little bit encouraging, because I didn't even know he believed in the Devil". So I would say that Dave is the one who gave the more positive response here, but whether we are positive or negative is not what is important. What is important is whether or not we believe the truth! And truth is truth whether it is positive or not. That is the main point I am trying to get across here.

But I also want to make it clear that I am not trying to get people to just be negative about everything. Before coming to Christ, my interests were almost always morbid, and included things like horror movies, horror based novels, horror based video games, music based on hatred, bitterness, depression and even satanism in some cases. So I know from experience that it does no good to only dwell on the negative either. But my main point is that being "positive" about things that are false is no better than dwelling only on the negative. Many who do so are only setting themselves up for the "strong delusion" mentioned in 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12, and that verse has nothing "positive" to say about such a delusion. I have written this article because the positive only philosophy is too often used to shut up those who are concerned about false teaching, and some of the verses that I have posted here show concern about false teaching, not with those who correct it.