An Open Letter To Bo Sanchez

Written by Zhey Chua |Posted on September 25, 2008 | Comments

Dear Bo Sanchez,

Your teachings make me cringe.
In one of your posts, you wrote about having a “divine self-portrait” and not letting go of that “no matter what happens”. You say that each of us has a self-portrait which we must learn to love and that we must not believe that we are ugly, selfish, evil, poor… because to believe such will manifest and we will be faithful to that “lie”.

Furthermore, you charge your readers to: “Remember: God’s Portrait of you is very different from the Self-Portrait you carry about yourself. While yours is usually based on your past, His portrait of you is always based on your future. So He paints a Portrait of you that is always beautiful and amazing and lovely.”

Hmm… I wonder where on earth did you get all that, Bo? Let’s look at what is written in the Scriptures to see who we really are before God. In Romans 3:9-18, Paul wrote ” What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. As it is written:

“There is no one righteous, not even one;
there is no one who understands,
no one who seeks God.
All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.”
“Their throats are open graves;
their tongues practice deceit.”
“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”
“Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
ruin and misery mark their ways,
and the way of peace they do not know.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Now, how do I reconcile all of what is written in the Scriptures to what you wrote? You say that we are “always beautiful, amazing and lovely” and you even claim that God painted that portrait! Wow, Bo, you have quite a different god, don’t you? I can’t help but think your god is different from mine, you know. I’m just a little perplexed also about your statement which goes this way, and I quote: “Focus Your Eyes On Your Divine Self-Portrait” (emphasis added). Are you telling me to be more concerned about myself? Is that really what God wants from us? Ephesians 6:14-17 commands thus: “So stand firm. Put the belt of truth around your waist. Put the armor of godliness on your chest. Wear on your feet what will prepare you to tell the good news of peace. Also, pick up the shield of faith. With it you can put out all of the flaming arrows of the evil one. Put on the helmet of salvation. And take the sword of the Holy Spirit. The sword is God’s word.”, Where is the “divine self-portrait” in all of this?

Bo, here is another statement from you which I would like to quote and comment on, “No Matter What Happens,Never Give Up Your Divine Self-Portrait”, are you really teaching your readers to become good Christians or are you merely teaching them how to become worldly? I wrote this on the comment section of the very post where you wrote all the statements quoted and I will write it again here: …then you are not worthy of Christ. In Matthew 10:38, Christ himself said “and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me”, the “cross” signifies death during the time of Christ, therefore, what Christ is saying here is that anyone who is not ready to die for Christ is not worthy of Him. How can you be worthy of Christ if you refuse to give up your “divine self-portrait” no matter what happens?

I will be patiently and eagerly waiting and looking forward to your response to this letter. I am excited to hear what you have to say regarding the points I raised. Oh, and one more thing, would it be safe now for me to say that Bo Sanchez is just a motivational speaker or would you rather I say that you are a false preacher? Because I really think you are the latter.

Your former fan and book-reader,

Zhey

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. – 1 John 2:15-17