Michael Nissim, December 2024, Nahariya

(All quotes are from NKJV unless stated otherwise.)

Quite a few years ago I visited a congregation which I consider to be good. After the songs, my children went to classes while I heard a very good sermon from the pastor. When the service was over, I asked my children what they learned in their classes. My daughter told me they learned about a little wooden doll called Punchinello, on which people were sticking grey stickers. I thought it strange that they didn’t learn a story from the Bible, or memorise a verse. However, I know that sometimes, when a mother doesn’t have the time to prepare a proper Bible lesson for children at church, she can grab some Christian children’s story and use that instead. It’s not ideal, but that’s reality.

Years later, my daughter was now a teen. She went to the children’s summer camps, and there it was again. The story of Punchinello was presented to them on the last evening, together with a gospel call. The kids were told they are so special, that God made them the way He wanted them to be; that God literally sat down and took the time to design each and every one of them. He loves them so dearly. Won’t they give their lives to Him? It touched their hearts and tears rolled off the girls’ cheeks.

So I went to check out what this story is about. Apparently it’s “You are Special”, by Max Lucado. I found I could listen to the whole story online for free in only 8 minutes, so I did.

Max Lucado’s “You Are Special”

“You Are Special” is about a village full of wooden dolls, all made by someone called Eli (Eli in Hebrew means “my God”). In the village, people are busy sticking stickers on each other: golden stars for looking great, or being able to do impressive things; grey dots for those who look bad or cannot impress anyone. Punchinello receives only grey dots and is distraught about it. His friend (who doesn’t have any stickers on her) tells him he needs to talk to Eli. Punchinello plucks up the courage to go and see Eli in his house at the top of the mountain. He’s scared at first but then he hears Eli’s soft, loving voice. Eli puts him on his lap and tells him, among other things, “Remember, you are special because I made you, and I don’t make mistakes.” Punchinello feels much better with himself, and more confident. Eli tells him he should come every day so that he can tell him how much he loves him, how special he is, etc. At the end of this meeting, one grey sticker already falls off Punchinello as he heads out, and so the story ends.

What shocked me was that this story was used as the basis for a gospel call. The last evening of the summer camps often is. Yet, the story has no mention of sin whatsoever. The only sin implied is how people judge Punchinello. Punchinello (and this is important) represents a non-believer, because he didn’t know his creator Eli and never talked to him. However, when he approaches Eli, all he receives from him is acceptance and love. Unconditional love. Eli has nothing to say about sin. The story says nothing of the need to repent and change your ways. There are no pointers to the cross, the blood, God’s sacrifice. There is only affirmation.

This, I believe, is part of a new gospel – a gospel of self-esteem.

Max Lucado is a known Christian author with an overemphasis on God’s love (or in his own words, God’s “being in love with you”). He recently has come out supporting gays and transgenders. He spoke in a church that celebrates gays and which has gays on their leadership; he publicly apologised for a sermon he gave many years ago in which he condemned their lifestyle. You see, then, where Punchinello’s story comes from and where it leads.ⁱ

What the Youth in Israel are Being Taught

“You are Special” is one of a few complementary messages that the believing youth in Israel are being pounded with. The accompanying messages are “you have high value” and “you are important”.

In recent months and years, the youth in Israel were invited to a “VIP Conference” as they called it, the message being “you are all very important persons.” They were told there is no one like them in all the world – each one of them is unique. In one of those conferences, a female speaker told the youth it took her several years of standing in front of the mirror and saying “You are a wonderful creation of God” until she believed it. The youth were even told that if anyone tells them anything contrary to these messages then “it’s from the devil”!

The peak of this trend was when the pastor of a large church in Israel was invited to speak before the youth. Here is what he said (free translation from Hebrew):

“You cannot downgrade yourself. You cannot decide that you have no worth, or decide that something will cause you to be worth less than what God says you are worth. Listen carefully: there is nothing you can do that will lower your value as the image of God – nothing! Perhaps some of you disagree. Think hard about this. There is nothing you can do, nothing the devil can do to you, there is nothing the devil can do in your heart and in your life, that will lower your worth and your status as the image of God.”

He didn’t stop there. He continued:

“There is no way, however evil and crooked, that you can choose to walk in that will lower your value. There is no way of life that you can choose, no sin that you can live in, there is nothing so unthinkable that you can ever come up with in your mind to do, however Satanic and evil and crooked and twisted – that can lower your value in the eyes of God.”ⁱⁱ

I find it strange that when speaking to a crowd of youths, some of whom have been born again and some of whom have not, who are constantly bombarded through the schools and media with transgenderism and how desirable a gay lifestyle is, that this pastor should think it highly appropriate to ensure them that, no matter how twisted their deeds might become, they will not lose their worth in God’s eyes. It sounds more like a nudge to go ahead with whatever they desire to do, no matter how angering to God it might be. That is besides the fact that these very acts of homosexuality, and particularly transgenderism, are specifically aimed at corrupting the image of God in man.

Not long after that conference, there was another youth conference where a speaker taught that when the prodigal son said he was unworthy of his father’s love, he was mistaken. “He was indeed worthy,” said the speaker, “you all are!” They were taught that their worth has nothing to do with their deeds – they have “infinite worth” simply because they were created by God. Added now to the “You are special/important/of great worth” message is this: “you are worthy.” We have a song in Israel praising God with the words, “You are Worthy” – perhaps from now on we should start singing it about ourselves?ⁱⁱⁱ

So, from my limited view here on the periphery, I can understand the following:

That a new gospel – a gospel of self-esteem – has already made its inroads into the churches in Israel, and
That it’s happening in the better churches, camps and conferences – the ones I normally recommend going to.

Man’s Condition

What do the Scriptures say about the state of man?

In John 3, the unregenerate man is described as “condemned already” (v. 18). He doesn’t have to do anything special to become so. Until a man believes, “the wrath of God abides on him” (v. 36) – this is a dire state to be in.

Within three verses in Ephesians 2 we find some more descriptions of man:

Verse 1: he is “dead in trespasses and sins”. In other places, the unregenerate man is simply defined as “dead” (Luke 9:60, 15:24, 32 and other places).
Verse 2: “sons of disobedience”, doing the will of the Devil.
Verse 3: “children of wrath”, meaning, children who are deserving of wrath and destined to it unless they change course, because they walk according to the desires of their flesh and mind.

Romans 5, too, has four unflattering descriptions within five verses (6-10):

Verse 6: “without strength”, in the sense that we cannot save ourselves or overcome sin.
“ungodly”, also in verse 6.
Verse 8: “sinners”, in that sin characterises our lives because it’s our nature.
Verse 10: “enemies”. Not God-seekers. Not truth-seekers. The unregenerate man, however pleasant he might seem to us, is an enemy of God. Similar to Colossians 1:21: “And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works…”

Also according to Romans 5, the love of God toward us is despite what we are, not because of what we are. This is an important point in our discussion because it negates the teaching that “you are worthy”.

In addition, Isaiah 64:6 calls us an “unclean thing”^iv and Jeremiah says our hearts are “deceitful” and “desperately sick” (17:9). Perhaps part of this deceitfulness is persuading ourselves that we’re important?

Finally, our Lord Jesus puts it very simply by calling us “evil” (Matthew 17:11, “ye, being evil”).

Man’s Great Worth?

Let’s talk about man’s great worth.

1. Psalm 62 calls men a “vapor” and “a lie”:

“Surely men of low degree are a vapor, men of high degree are a lie; If they are weighed on the scales, they are altogether lighter than vapor.” (v. 10)

Rather than boosting self-esteem, this verse, like many other Scriptures, takes care to insult man’s pride.

2. Psalm 103 calls men “dust” and likens us to grass.

“For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.” (vv. 14-16)

These verses are obviously designed to teach us to be humble by remembering that we are transient, fading, short-lived, mortal beings. Again, Scripture takes care to lower any lofty thoughts we might have of ourselves.

In the next verses, 17-18, notice for whom God’s grace and loving-kindness is intended:

“But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, and His righteousness to children’s children, to such as keep His covenant, and to those who remember His commandments to do them.”

These verses are a few of many that teach that God shows mercy to those who love Him and keep his commandments. This stands opposed to the message we are bombarded with today – that God’s love is unconditional toward every person, regardless of what he does (Mat. 12:50, John 14:15, 21, 23, 15:10, 14, James 4:6, Pr 3:34).

3. Psalm 144 likens man to a breath and a shadow.

“Lord, what is man, that You take knowledge of him? Or the son of man, that You are mindful of him? Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.” (vv. 3-4)

Again, these Scriptures don’t speak of man’s great worth but rather ask what man is that God should take notice of him. Man is gone in an instant, like a shadow.

4. Isaiah 2 questions why we would esteem any man.

“Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?” (v. 22, quoting the KJV which is more accurate here).

“Cease ye” would carry the sense of “turn away from him, he has nothing to offer you”. Man perishes. Man is weak and worthless. Therefore there is nothing on account of which we should esteem him.

5. Isaiah 40 also calls man “grass”.

“All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, because the breath of the Lord blows upon it; Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.” (vv. 6-8)

6. Daniel 4 considers us to be “nothing”.

“All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing” (35)

7. The Lord’s half-brother affirms these thoughts.

“… For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.” (James 4:14)

As with the other writers of Scripture, James fails to mention man’s great value.

So we see very clearly that the Biblical message contradicts the one presented in the Punchinello story. Man’s uniqueness, worth and importance amount to nothing when you understand that he’s evil, condemned and considered by God to be dead. The latter truths are obviously more pressing for men to hear, and offer a more relevant description of his condition.

Objections Considered

1. “But God counts the hairs on my head! (Luke 12:7) That shows that I’m important. God counts my tears and puts them in His bottle (Psalm 56:8 )! If I wasn’t important to Him why would He do that?”

Answer. True it is that the Scriptures teach our importance in the eyes of God. “You are of more value than many sparrows” (Mat. 10:31) is one of many examples. However, it’s important to note that a good deal of these verses, both from the Old and New Testaments, are intended for those who follow the Lord. They were never intended to be used as blanket statements that include unbelievers as well; neither were they intended to boost our self-esteem in order to make us feel better with ourselves, nor to draw unbelievers to the faith. In other words, non-believers should never be lured with a “God counts your tears” message. These verses should be used as encouragements to those who already follow in God’s ways.

2. “Christ’s blood determines my value. Christ wouldn’t have paid with His blood had I not been worth it. That shows I have great value.”

Answer. This is a proud thought popularised by false teachers like Todd White. It turns around God’s sacrificial love in Christ’s death from a great act of mercy to one of a “worthwhile investment”. It’s as though a person of means had pity on a homeless beggar in the street, washed him, gave him a place to live, furnished his house, provided him with all he needs and gave him a job; later that beggar turns around and says “I must have very high value if he did all of that!”. The sheer audacity! Now, it’s true that the redemption of a soul made in the image of God is indeed costly (Psalm 49:8). However, one should never mistake the great price it took to redeem us from the depth of sin to claim that “Christ got what He paid for.” This is an inversion of the truth that comes from the pit of Hell! We should always consider ourselves unworthy of His grace (see Mark 1:7, John 1:27, Mat. 8:8, Luke 5:8, 1 Cor 15:9).

3. “God took care to make me the way I am, because it is written that I am fearfully and wonderfully made. That means I am special.” (Psalm 139:14).

Answer. Psalm 139 marvels at God’s omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence. This Psalm was never intended to teach how special man is or to marvel at our wonderful bodies. We shouldn’t take the focus of the Psalm away from God, where it belongs, and divert it to man. When the Scriptures do indeed regard our human bodies, they use unflattering terms such as “vile body”, “earthen vessel”, “body of sin”, “body of death”, “flesh”^v and others (mentioned above).

There is another problem with the thought “God took great care to design you exactly the way you are”. This would imply that God is directly responsible for bodily defects, hereditary diseases, etc. We know, of course, that God can use our weaknesses for His glory (John 9:1-3), but we cannot ascribe the effects of sin to His intentional design. If a child suffers physically throughout his life because of his parents’ substance abuse, or because of industrial chemicals in the area, or because of genetic disorders – these are all the effects on our bodies caused by our living in a world that is fallen because of man’s sin. They are not the results of God’s special design. When God will raise His elect on the last day, He will not raise them with a single defect. They’ll all enjoy perfect bodies.

4. “But each one is unique and that’s a fact. No one in the world has the same fingerprint or iris, etc. which proves God made us special and we have value.”

The Bible never argues we have value because we’re unique. For that matter, every cow and every snowflake is unique. Man’s life has value because he’s made in the image of God, not because he’s unique. Or, let’s reverse the argument: say there were millions of people just like you, would that make them worthless? Or if someone is highly unique but unsaved, does he have any advantage over one who is saved? Uniqueness is neither biblical nor relevant. What matters is salvation and God-fearing.

5. “The self-esteem of the youth is hurt because of social media. Raising their self-esteem might prevent them committing suicide.”

Answer. The idea that we need to raise our self-esteem, stems from the very same humanistic philosophies and practices that have brought much hopelessness and despair to our modern world in the first place. The answer to suicide is not the use of Christianised psychology and humanism, but rather offering the hope of eternal life and reconciliation with God through the Gospel. One who’s learned to fear and love the Lord will not fear man’s opinion on social media but will be confident in God’s love for him (Ps. 3:3, Pr. 29:25, Mat. 12:50, John 14:21, 23, 15:10, 1 Pet. 5:6,).

The Dangers of This Gospel

Let’s look at the nature of the gospel of self-esteem, as well as some of its effects and purposes:

It serves only to puff one up. The messages of “You are important/special/of great worth” are irrelevant to one’s salvation and holiness. They serve only to elevate man, and this will necessarily come at the expense of the glory of God. This is done in direct contradiction to Scripture, which takes care to humble any appearance of man’s pride. “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.” (Ja. 4:6) See also Nebuchadnezzar’s humiliation in Daniel ch. 4, and his conclusion.
It supplants the truegospel. The true gospel starts with “You are a sinner”. But this new, humanistic gospel starts with “You’re important, you’re special, you’re of great worth”. It leads people astray with the pleasant voice of another shepherd. If people don’t understand that they are UNworthy sinners and are told – on the contrary, they ARE worthy, then how will they ever understand they are in desperate need of God’s unmerited grace?
It ignores the results of original sin and personal sin. “God made me the way He wanted me to be” conveys the message that our sinful desires were designed by God and are part of what make us so special. It encourages self-acceptance, regardless of sin. See the lyrics of Lady Gaga’s famous song “Born This Way” to understand the philosophy it represents. Today, however, Christian youth don’t need to acquire this philosophy from the world because they might well hear it from their youth leaders and pastors.
It presents a false God. When our perception of God is wrong, imagining God to be something other than He is, we are not worshipping the God of the Bible but a god that we have created in our minds. Presenting God to ourselves and others as an all-loving, always loving grandpa-figure who can’t wait to tell everyone how much he loves them is not faithfully representing the God of the Bible. God is also a consuming fire. He is indignant every day because of man’s sin. (Hebrew 12:29, Psalms 7:11^vi)
It will lead to false conversions. When youngsters are called to believe based on “You’re special, God loves you” and not “repent and believe the Gospel”, they will be “Christianised” and join churches, ministries and youth camps without really being saved. When someone thinks he’s saved and he is not – that is the most dangerous position to be in – more so than if he were simply a non-believer. I hate to think how many of our young people are already walking around believing they were converted when they were not.
It is against God’s holiness. Youth, who are anyway bombarded with the message of inclusion and self-acceptance in the schools, are not encouraged by messages like Punchinello’s to be transformed (Romans 12:1-2), to battle against sin (Romans 6:12-14, Colossians 3:5) and to pursue holiness (Hebrews 12:14).
It comes from the world, not from Scripture. Messages of the uniqueness of man, the value of man, self-acceptance, boosting self-esteem – all come from the world of humanism and psychology, not from the Bible. Techniques such as telling yourself good things in order to boost your morale and self-esteem come from the world of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), positive affirmation and positive thinking. These are worldly philosophies and techniques, not biblical thought. The Bible, however, is sufficient for our spiritual journey^vii and should be the only authority over our lives.

The body of Messiah should be warned that, if it continues to walk down the Punchinello path, it won’t be long until the youth will be invited to self-fulfilment conferences, “love yourself” conferences and the like.

Finally, low self-esteem is good

God esteems highly those who have a low opinion of themselves!

A few examples:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). “Blessed are the poor in spirit” stands in direct opposition to the gospel of self-esteem.
“Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time” (1 Peter 5:6). Not “Therefore look in the mirror and tell yourself good things until you feel better with yourself”.
What are servants to say, after they have done what they were told? “We are unprofitable servants.” (Luke 17:10). Not, “we have done great things for the Lord” (Mat. 7:21-23).
God chose the mean things of this world, the lowly and despised. We should rejoice in being such (1 Corinthians 1:26-31).

Conclusion

The new, humanistic gospel of self-esteem contradicts the Bible. It should be examined and rejected, otherwise it will lead people away from the true Gospel of the cross and from true God-fearing and humility. We should walk humbly before God (Micah 6:8), remain faithful and not allow anyone to present before us any new gospel other than the Gospel we received (Galatians 1:8).

Footnotes

i It isn’t surprising that the publisher of “You Are Special” in Hebrew, Maoz Publishing, bear most of the responsibility for spreading far and wide the prosperity gospel and dominion theology in Israel through their books.

ii“בלתי אפשר להשתנמך. אתה לא יכול לשנמך את עצמך, להחליט שאני לא שווה, להחליט שזה וזה וזה גורם לי עכשיו להיות פחות ממה שאלוהים אומר שאני. תקשיב טוב: אין דבר שאתה יכול לעשות, שיוריד מהערך שלך כצלם אלוהים. אין! אולי חלק מכם לא מסכימים. תחשבו טוב טוב. אין דבר שאת יכולה לעשות, אין דבר שהשטן יכול לעשות לך, אין דבר שהשטן יכול לעשות בלב שלך ובחיים שלך, שיוריד מהערך שלך והרמה שלך כצלם אלוהים. אין דרך כל כך רעה ועקומה שאתה יכול לבחור ללכת בה שתוריד מהערך שלך. אין דרך חיים שאת יכולה לבחור בה, אין חטא שאת יכולה לחיות בו, אין דבר הכי הזוי שאת יכולה לעלות על דעתך כמה שטני ורע ועקום ומעוות שיכול להיות שישנמך את הערך שלך בעיני אלוהים.”
I have to add to this, that there were no severe warnings against a sinful lifestyle in his sermon.

iii I reached out personally to all three pastors/speakers with no favourable response.

iv “But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” Although this verse is taken from what is yet a future, prophetic confession of Israel when they repent and plead for Messiah’s return, the poor state they recognise themselves to be in is obviously not limited to them alone but rather describes the state of man in general as being a defiled and unclean thing.

v Philippians 3:21, 2 Corinthians 4:7, Romans 6:6, 7:24.

vi In Psalm 7:11 the words “with the wicked” are not in the original Hebrew. The Hebrew word for angry is a stronger word.

vii 2 Timothy 3:16-17.

The Gospel of Self-Esteem