Posted on 09/19/2014 1:21:41 PM PDT by servo1969
Mega-church pastor Joel Osteen may lead the largest Protestant church in the United States, but a recent Facebook post shows he might need to go back to Sunday school.
A Monday post to his verified Facebook page, Joel Osteen ministries, read: “God said in Numbers 11:23, ‘Moses, is there any limit to My power?’ He was saying, ‘Moses, you saw Me part the Red Sea, stop the sun for Joshua, keep three Hebrew teenagers safe in a fiery furnace, don’t you realize that I can bring water without rain?’ There’s no limit to God’s power.”
As of Friday afternoon, the post had over 317,000 likes and 52,000 shares.
There’s just one problem: According to the Bible, Moses was dead before Joshua asked God to stop the setting of the sun, and long before the three Hebrew youths were burned in the furnace.
The Old Testament Book of Joshua explains that God appointed Joshua as Moses’s successor after Moses’s death (the first sentence literally begins, “After the death of Moses…”), who led the Israelites into battle against the Amorites, during which he commanded the sun and the moon not to move. “So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the people had revenge upon their enemies,” (Joshua 10:13).
The story of the “three holy children,” as the Hebrew youths are sometimes known, is told in the Old Testament Book of Daniel. According to the passage, the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar, who reigned around the 6th century B.C. (long, long after the projected time of Moses), ordered his people to worship a large golden idol, “and whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace,” (Daniel 3:6). The three Hebrew youths refused to worship the idol and were thrown into the furnace, but were not burned.
In many Christian traditions this passage is particularly important because it is understood to prefigure Christ — when the king asked whether the three were burned, one of his counselors replied “I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God,” (Daniel 3:25).
Some of Osteen’s followers noticed the error, with one commenter asking “Bro, do you even Scripture?”
Osteen, who has neither a bachelor’s nor a divinity degree, lives in a $10 million dollar mansion in Houston, Texas, and has an estimated net worth of $40 million. Nearly 50,000 people attend services at Lakewood Church every week, and millions more watch his televised sermons. Lakewood, whose “central campus” is a 16,000-seat arena, is notable for its total lack of crosses and other Christian symbols or imagery.
Picture yourself in 33 AD. You’ve never heard of Jesus until recently. From what you could tell, he’d never done anything really “bad”. You happen to see a parade going by with this guy in the middle who has been beaten to a bloody pulp, spit upon, reviled as a blasphemer and an apostate, and they’re going to kill him.
You think, why don’t they just ignore this guy Jesus and leave him alone if they didn’t agree with him?
And that’s a good question. Why did the scribes, Pharisees, and religious rulers and leaders loathe, despise, and hate Jesus to the point of killing him?
One reason: ENVY (Matt 27:18, Mark 15:10).
Same reason they hated and tried to assassinate Joseph, Paul, and Jason (Acts 7:9, 14:45, 17:5).
Same with Joel today.
Oh, for Pete’s sake. Joel Osteen, a martyr for Christ? He’s a motivational speaker sporting a thin veneer of lukewarm Christianity. I’ve heard it all now.
What a wonderful testimony. God bless you.
All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution (2 Tim 3:12).
Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets (Luke 6:26).
Yea, I’d say he qualifies.
Or, perhaps he really is a feel-good impostor who is merely tickling your ears with what you want to hear.
I wouldn’t go so far as saying Joel is a martyr for Christ but I will post this.
Lord Jesus.
I repent of my sins.
Come into my heart.
I make You my Lord and Savior.
What is the problem with that prayer?
I pray it every day...at LEAST once!
But if I enjoy Joel....??????
Good grief...how many nits can the Joel bashers pick?
Saw him once when going through the channels. I couldn’t stand that snarky smile. I was afraid to listen - had the TV on mute.
Enjoying his motivational speaking peppered with vague Christian references and placing faith in his spiritual leadership as a Christian are two entirely different things.
That said, you want a pastor that will lead you to Christ as LORD and Saviour. Not just as Saviour - but as LORD and king of your life. IF Jesus is your Lord - you will want to know all about Him, and to know what you can do to please and obey Him. The Lord preached more about Hell than any prophet. He spoke about sin and damnation. The Lord, God manifest in the flesh, and being the brightness of the Glory of God the Father, was merciful and gracious to sinners -- but He also told us to go and sin no more.
I have not sat through an entire Joel Osteen 'sermon' - but the portions that I have watched I've seen a smooth speaker with a warm smile. He seemed to be very affirming and encouraging that all things will work out well ... but I have never heard him warn his flock about the dangers in the world. No warnings that sinful behaviour will separate one from God. Just encouraging attaboys.
If he is truly leading you to Christ as LORD and Saviour, and feeding you with the Word - and not just platitudes of the world - then that is good. It is just not what I saw and heard. You may want to checkout some of the sermons on sermonaudio.com, John Greer; or Alan Cairns, for example, but on the risk of being branded a Pharisee (Paul was a Pharisee, by the way) I don't retract my earlier comments. The interposing of the stopping the Sun for a day (Joshua's battle in Canaan), or Daniel's 3 friends in the furnace, as events that happened in Moses' time, is troubling. It is akin to an historian relaying that in George Washington's Farewell address he spoke about how America had defeated the British at Yorktown, and the Germans at the Battle of the Bulge. It would tell me that this "historian" did not spend much time reading history, as it tells me that this person does not spend time in Scripture. Could the Lord still mightily use such a person as a Pastor. Sure, but I'd be extremely suspicious. I.e., it is a good part of the Pastor's job to be steeped in the Word, and to feed his flock with it. If he is not, yes, God can work with whatever He has -- but I also know that there are many charlatans and sheep in wolf clothing out there - and we need to be careful not fall under the spell of any of these deceivers. The way we do that is to gauge their faithfulness to the Word of God.
This is vague?
Lord Jesus.
I repent of my sins.
Come into my heart.
I make You my Lord and Savior.
Pick another nit including that I didn’t post AMEN.
Perhaps, but without at least a preponderance of evidence to support a scripture-based argument for your accusations and attacks, you are at risk of joining the ranks of the accuser of the brethren who has been doing this for thousands of years, as noted.
We also need to be careful not to join the ranks of the accuser of the brethren which happens when joining a chorus and flood of accusations and attacks, not unlike that against Jesus and Paul, without at least a preponderance of evidence to support a scripture-based argument that such is the case with Joel.
Way bigger than co-opting God’s Word? Corrupt Government pales in comparison to corrupting God’s word.
Please.
OK, I’ll bite. What is co-opting about this ????
Lord Jesus
I repent of my sins
Come into my heart
I make You my Lord and Savior.
“For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.” 2 Timothy 4:3
“You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.” Revelation 3:17-18
The ESV says it that way too.
Here’s what you are ignoring.
When you take a glass of water, and it’s 100% pure, and you ADD to it a little arsenic, you have a glass of water that is poison. Nothing is wrong with the water, what is wrong is what has been added to it.
What you mention IS the Water of Life (the Gospel), but what you are ignoring is the arsenic added - the prosperity gospel.
So, are you arguing that Osteen does not preach the gospel of prosperity?
https://www.google.com/#q=osteen+doctrine+of+prosperity
No G_D made him take the 40 million dollar bank account and the 10 million dollar house. And his god made him say stupid shit as his god is the spirit of ANTICHRIST. In the last days if they were not shortened even the elect would fall away. If he is a man of the true One G_D let him give back the 501-c-3 and not be a brother to the devils at the IRS. You can not make mistakes when you are the leader of so many people. How do you do that? Study the word and spend your life on you knees. This man will never be a Black Robe!
A bible based preacher’s analysis of Osteen’s “word faith” and “property” gospel.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDuDN2FtrIo
“We have bigger fish to fry.”
There is no bigger fish than a false prophet.
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