Should Christians Be Negative?

Illustration by Viktor Miller-Gausa

Ken Ham, President/CEO
Answers in Genesis

Recently, I’ve heard certain Christians claim that I shouldn’t be negative as I point out the LGBTQ movement, abortion activists, gender perversion, critical race theory, social justice, and the many other issues swirling around the culture in a tornado of moral relativism. I’m told I should stop being so negative and talk about love. Well, if this were correct, I would have to stop quoting God’s Word!

I remember as a child hearing the schoolmaster warning us about things we should not do unless we wanted to be disciplined. There sure were a lot of rules—a lot of negativity from the schoolmaster. Don’t do this or that, and if you do this, you will be disciplined this way, and so on. I wondered, “Why so many rules?”

Then as I read the Bible, I understood that God gave the Israelites numerous laws (rules). In fact, there are a lot of warnings and “do nots” throughout Scripture.

The Purpose of the Law

Galatians 3:24 in the King James Version reads, “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” We needed our “schoolmaster” to understand what is right and wrong. But we have a problem called sin. (No wonder the schoolmaster had a lot of rules for us, as he knew we weren’t perfect and were liable to do things we shouldn’t.)

The purpose of the law was to expose our sin (Romans 3:23 says “all have sinned”) and to show us that we can’t save ourselves since we can’t keep the law perfectly. The law was given to point us toward the righteousness that comes through faith in Christ alone. As the Apostle Paul states in Romans 5:1, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” I remember my father drumming into us that justification means “just as if I hadn’t sinned.”

In Genesis 4:7, God warns Cain, “If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.” Cain wanted to do things his way, and God was warning him that sin was about to have mastery over him. Cain didn’t listen to the warning God gave, and out of jealousy he killed his brother Abel.

Living in a Fallen World

My point is that, in a sense, there’s a lot of negativity throughout Scripture because we live in a fallen world. As a result of our sin nature, we are more prone to do what is wrong than what is right. We are more prone to be influenced by the fallen world than for us to impact the world with what is right. Jeremiah gave such a message to God’s people. Actually, I’ve heard people accuse Jeremiah of being too negative. But Jeremiah was a prophet of the Lord, and what he spoke is part of the inspired, inerrant, written Word of God.

Jeremiah warned the people, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Learn not the way of the nations,’” (Jeremiah 10:2) and “The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens” (Jeremiah 10:11).

Speaking of the true God, Jeremiah proclaimed, “It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens” (Jeremiah 10:12). Speaking of those who were worshipping false gods, Jeremiah stated, “Every man is stupid and without knowledge” (Jeremiah 10:14).

Many in the church today would claim that Jeremiah was being too negative. But Jeremiah, as a prophet, was pointing out the wrong things people were doing and then pointing them to the true God they needed to worship.

The Necessary “Negative” Message

There is a great need today for us to warn people about the evil happening around us in the culture.

There is a great need today for us to warn people about the evil happening around us in the culture “so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” (Ephesians 4:14). Because of our sin nature, we have to be diligent to ensure we don’t become captive to the evil ways of the world. We can so easily be influenced by that which is wrong.

We do need to warn people and give them the “negative” message. For instance, we need to warn people that they are sinners and, as such, would spend eternity separated from God. But to go with that, we teach the good (positive) news that our God, through his Son, provided a means of salvation for those who will receive it, so that we can spend eternity with the Lord.

We also need to warn people about the evils of certain movements that are impacting generations of kids (for example, LGBTQ, critical race theory, social justice, and gender issues), but also point them to the Word of God to help them build a truly Christian worldview and impact people around them—including their children and grandchildren—with the truth of God’s Word and the gospel.

So should Christians be negative? In a fallen world we need to be negative but for the right reason—to help people understand the evil consequences of sin and point them to the positive message of the saving gospel through the Lord Jesus Christ.