(CIEF-Chile, February 2, 2007) On January 22-24 Robert Schuller hosted a grossly mis-named Faith Forward Forum that brought together 34 speakers. The meeting was otherwise titled "The Robert Harold Schuller Forum for Possibility Thinking Leadership."

The objective was "to bring the classical, contemporary, and emerging churches together." Advertised as "the broadest group of thinkers ever brought together," the speakers definitely formed a diverse group, including Pentecostal Brian Houston of Hillsong Church in Sydney; Southern Baptist Pastor Ed Young, Jr.; Emerging Church leader Chris Seay; Todd Hunter, president of Alpha USA and former president of the National Association of Vineyard Churches; Fuller Seminary professor Eddie Gibbs; female pastor Judah Smith of Seattle; United Church pastor Michael Ward of Calgary; Catholic priest C. Lou Martin of Baltimore; and Kevin Mannoia, former president of the National Association of Evangelicals.

This is clear evidence of the widespread apostasy within evangelicalism today, but you will wait in vain to hear a clear warning from the syndicated radio speakers and authors such as Chuck Swindoll or Max Lucado. Robert Schuller is a dangerous heretic who has redefined the gospel to fit his Norman Vincent Peale-inspired theology. He put this theology into print for all to see in his 1982 book "Self Esteem: The New Reformation," a book he has never repudiated. To Schuller, sin is "any act or thought that robs me of self-esteem." He says it is insulting to define sin as rebellion against God. His Christ is a psycho-savior who "was self-esteem incarnate."

To be born again is to "be changed from a negative to a positive self-image." Hell "is the loss of pride that naturally follows separation from God." In Christianity Today, October 5, 1984, Schuller said, "I don't think anything has been done in the name of Christ 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."

If Robert Schuller is not a false teacher and heretic, under the curse of Galatians 1, there is no such thing. But evangelicalism today, for the most part, considers heresy an interesting intellectual problem rather than damnable error.

(Friday Church News Notes, www.wayoflife.org)