Damned PMA Gospel

I’ve been provoked by some folly I read recently. It was the PMA Gospel (PMA = Postive Mental Attitude). It’s a close friend to the Prosperity Gospel. It stands on the doctrine that mental and emotional feedback systems are somehow “spiritual warfare.” How you feel is not a goal of righteousness. The so-called “counsel of despair” is not in itself a sin, if the point is to remind yourself that flesh cannot be trusted.

The divine mission can include a glorious failure on the human level. It could well be the Lord wants you to go out and fail on the fleshly level so that His glory shines the way He wants it to shine. The divine call is to obedience, not to achievement. Yes, God does command us to do things that will not prosper in the eyes of man. God does call us to pursue things that appear futile. Spiritual victory is compelling the flesh to obey the Word. That’s it.

There’s nothing especially demonic about depression, if depression is part of your emotional structure. Human frailty cannot be overcome by human self-discipline. One of the greatest tragedies of Western Christian belief is the lack of faith, a complete lack of understanding it. I’m talking about faith as a separate faculty from the flesh. Faith does not reside in your head, though it will surely invade your mind from that higher faculty.

Have you read the Psalms? King David suffered from depression. That was not a sin; it’s human nature. The answer was not mere fleshly discipline, calling for a bright and sunny attitude in the midst of great sorrow. The answer was to trust in the Lord and be faithful, even when things didn’t work out the way they should have. It was never a question of outcomes, but being faithful to the revelation of God.

The heart can drive obedience. It can override the fallen fleshly nature. Don’t accept a false sense of guilt about fleshly failure. A strong sense of sorrow is not the hand of Satan, but false guilt over it is. Flesh fails; that is its nature. The penalty of the Fall is dragging around a mortal body with all its failures. This life is not precious; it’s just a nasty place we have to walk through on the way to eternity.

Nothing we can accomplish here matters. What matters is your commitment, your faithfulness in spite of flesh.

With that in your heart, you will understand what’s wrong with the Prosperity Gospel and the PMA Gospel. You will understand what’s wrong with drumming up the fury of the flesh against opposition. You’ll understand what’s wrong with all this happy talk nonsense. We are in a desperate time, and winning on the human level is something we should not care about. The only task before us is to remain faithful regardless of the outcome.

When you don’t care is when you’ve won. That’s what Paul meant when he wrote, “Be anxious for nothing” (Philippians 4:6-7). The good feelings are the reward from God for the victory over human care. Be confident in His power, not your own.