Osteen

[Mike Miller]

I am frequently asked my views about Joel Osteen. What do I think of him? Well, on the positive side, he's a very charismatic person who seems like a really nice guy. However, I consider him a false teacher when it comes to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Below is a link to a "60 Minutes" segment on him that reveals some of the ways in which he trivializes the Gospel. Some of the things to look for in the video:

• People telling Joel things like, "You saved my life," and his responding with "Thank you." Did Joel really save someone's life? Who gets the glory? You'll notice that Osteen frequently refers to what he calls "My message." And that's the problem. It's his message--not God's.
  

• As the interviewer points out, in his latest book, there is no mention of God or Jesus Christ. I do not know if there is absolutely zero mention, but Osteen does not contradict the interviewer.
  

• At a book signing, a man introduces his wife as a Catholic and himself as Jewish, and he says that they always watch Osteen. They are obviously fans. Can he really be preaching the Gospel if Jewish people like his message?
  

• There are intentionally no crosses or "religious" symbols in the church. Are those things necessary? No, but his aversion to the cross is telling.
  

• Osteen admits that his "gifting" is not to explain the Bible to people. Umm . . . and he's a pastor?
  

• I thought the interviewer's questions about being overly positive were right on. What about when life doesn't come up roses? Osteen's false Gospel fails to provide any meaningful response to that.
  

The true Gospel of Jesus Christ confronts us with our sin, then demands our lives. It is a Gospel of hope and peace and certainty, but it is not one of good health and prosperity. Jesus said that anyone who follows Him must take his cross daily and follow. The call to Jesus is a call to "come and die." If Osteen were to understand and preach the Bible, those things would come out.

You can watch the segment here: www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=3366025n

[david76]

That was a very interesting video. Osteen made the comment that we need to keep the gospel simple. The difficuly is that there are parts of the gospel that are very complex. In fact, some of those difficult concepts have been discussed on this board. Yes, we don't need to unnecessarily complicate God's message (as the pharisees did), but we must be faithful to the text even when the text is complicated. Mike, I remember you doing a series called "The Hard Sayings Of Jesus." As a pastor, a communicator of the Word, it would be easier if those passages weren't there. But they are, so we deal with them.
From the numbers given in the interview, it seems that the giving at Osteen's church is actually very close to our own when you break it down per person. I would think that if the prosperity gospel worked, people who subscribe to those beliefs would have more money to give than those of us who don't subscribe to that system of beliefs. But I guess not.
*EDIT*
I did some checking and Lakewood actually has about 52,000 regular attenders (multiple services and a Spanish language service). That drops their per person giving far below ours. If you include the 200 million world wide viewers the numbers look even worse. Something like .35 per person per year. Just found that interesting.
Also, I wonder if this church is involved in missions. I've never read or seen anything that indicates one way or the other.
By the way, I found this on Wikipedia:

"Joel Osteen was criticized, after a 2005 appearance on Larry King Live, for not being clear enough in saying that Jesus Christ is the only way to get to Heaven. He stated only God can look at somebody's heart, but that as a believer in the Christian faith, he believes in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. In late 2006, Osteen again appeared on Larry King Live and clarified his prior statement, saying he believes a personal relationship with Christ is the only way to Heaven."

So that's good.

[Mike Miller]

I just ran accross this video clip from Mark Driscoll about Osteen's theology. Check it out:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IuiUOapK1w

[Mike Miller]

For those of you who haven't seen it, when John Piper was speaking in Birmingham recently, he commented on the prosperity Gospel:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukcV-xtU3hc

[david76]

I was talking to my brother about the prosperity gospel yesterday and he told me some of the comments people made on the film The Secret. One quote was, "The Universe has limitless resources and they are at your disposal." Another was, "I believed I would be a millionaire and now I am." If this is true, my question is, why are you just a millionaire? Why not a billionaire? Why not be the supreme emperor of the world? Do you just lack the imagination? Why not wish for everyone to be rich? I know this film takes the ideas of of the prosperity gospel to a whole new level, but I think this demostrates how seductive and selfish these concepts really are.