I’ve always wanted to write the book, The Power of Negative Thinking. It would be a response to the enormously popular, The Power of Positive Thinking. And the reason I want to write with this title is to highlight the fact that negative thinking is just as powerful as positive thinking. I’m amazed at the number of Christians who will criticize Norman Vincent Peale’s concept, while at the same time reject the idea that their negativity about something is just as powerful as the positivism that Peale encourages. Some people are just positively negative about being positive.
Among other things, I teach children to play the piano. I take them and work with them, and expect them to be successful. From time to time you get a student who says, “I can’t do this.” But behind that comment is an attitude, “I really don’t want to do this.” It is the unstated attitude that drives the verbal comment.
You never thought I’d make that suggestion, did you?
Now before you write me off as a complete heretic instead of a partial one, at least give me a chance to explain myself.
One of the problems we have in Christian theology is understanding the relationship between the Old and the New Testaments. At least since the second century with Marcion, there have been debates about the continuity of the Old Testament, especially the law, into the New Testament era.
Now a good part of the problem is words. The words “old” and “new” carry with them the connotation of replacement. Or at least, that is how it is now understood. The New Testament somehow replaces the Old. And if you’re not careful, you end up with a form of “replacement” theology.
In order for better understanding, then, it’s time to join a crowd that says let’s abolish the name, Old Testament. We could creatively find new names for it, such as “Permanent Testament” or something along these lines. Then we could get creative with the New Testament and call it the “Fulfilled Testament.”
I think we might also get rid of the word “Testament” completely and call it the alternative, “Covenant.” Then we could have the “Permanent and Fulfilled Covenants.”
Now, doesn’t that give you a better idea of the relationships between the books of the Bible?
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