I won’t call his salvation into question, just whether or not he is really preaching the gospel, or just what his “flock” wants to hear.
another “Christian” envious of the osteen family success.
Great posting. Well said.
I'm sure he's got a lot of overhead to take care of, and if his congregation starts to thin out, he and his beautiful wife will be broke.
Osteen is a modern day prophet. The kind that hung around the court of the Northern king and told him how great he was, how with the Lord he was.
Joel is not teaching the gospel or the Bible. He is teaching humanism. Not sure exactly what spirits are influencing him, but the message is not pure. “Insufferable” characterizes him as far as I am concerned.
Osteen is the Werner Erhard of post-modern Christianity.
I have no problem with Joel Osteen. I see him more as a motivational speaker than anything else. The people I have a problem with are frauds like Rod Parsley. His broadcasts aren’t sermons - they’re infomercials. According to Parsley, God wants to bless me, but can’t do it until my check clears first.
Exactly right.
Jesus said that we should not judge what any person’s final fate will be. But He also said, according to Paul, that when a fellow Christian starts spreading obvious errors, the first thing you shoul do is quietly correct him. And then publicly correct him or even throw him out of the Church if he refuses to amend his errors.
To say that Mormons are Christians like everyone else simply is not true. It contradicts several Mormon teachings, including most importantly the teaching that Jesus is only another human being. No divinity for Jesus, no Trinity for God.
That is not to say that Mormons do not have a right to believe what they like, but rather to say that it is NOT Christian according to the normal sense of the word.
That's how I see it, too.
Green-eyed jealousy dressed in regal robes of self-righteousness.
SOME PEOPLE can’t stand to see someone actually LIVING out the promises of the Word.
John 10:10b I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
Psa 68:19 Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah.
Pro 10:22 The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.
Whenever I “hear” someone like this bad-mouthing a Christian for being prosperous and happy, I always conclude that the accusing person is NOT a tither, or if they ever did tithe, they did it grudgingly and not out of love and gratitude to God.
2nd Corinthians 9:6 But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.
2nd Corinthians 9:7 Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.
But the bottom line is: If you can’t stand to watch or listen to a happy prosperous Christian, DON’T WATCH IT!
This person would REALLY have had problems with Abraham, and Lot, and Isaac and Job, and R.G. LeTourneau and Stanley Tam, et al. The patriarchs, in today’s dollars, would make Joel look like a pauper.....except for his Joy in the Lord.
Prophets often died because they dared to preach the Gospel. If you can't love people enough to preach the Truth because you don't want to offend, then maybe you weren't called to preach. Allowing Mormons to die and spend eternity in hell because we didn't want to offend, puts their blood on our hands. Whether Romney is president or not has nothing to do with whether he follows a cult. It should say something about his discernment however.
If he has had trouble deciding that a baby is a human, or homosexuality is a sin, then why would anyone trust his judgement on tax policy or war in the ME. If one believes the Bible, then hearing the beliefs of Mormonism should be painful if you trust apostles that knew Jesus over someone in the 1800's telling a tall tale. If you preach Jesus' virgin birth, sinless life, sacrifice on the cross, death and resurrection, rising to the Right Hand of God to become King of Kings and Lord of Lords, then the other discrepancies can be argued over without a break from the covenant. How a religion treats Jesus is always the measure of Truth and Mormonism falls short just as Islam does.
If Osteen truly was called to preach the Gospel and allows known error in his church, then the punishment will be double on him. If you can't stand up to the world and preach Jesus and only Jesus, then you can't stand against the Antichrist and will take the mark to save your life. The spirit of Antichrist has been around since Jesus, and to preach anything but Jesus is to take part in that. To try to introduce grey areas is to rebel against Christ and blaspheme Him. Joseph Smith is that doctrine as much as Mohammedanism.
Judgemental people are the worst.
< donning flame suit >
I watch Joel Osteen every Sunday morning at 8am before heading out to church with my family.
As a Christian, I see Joel as a great messenger to open someone’s heart to Christ. Not one unsaved person I know wants to be a “miserable, poor and unhappy Christian”. Joel shows that you can be a happy and prosperous Christian as long as you give God all of the credit.
Joel Osteen closes every show with an alter call and instructions to join a Bible-based church. If he has saved souls with his method, then I don’t see how any Christian can find fault with it.
God uses everyone and everything to His purpose and we will not always understand with His Way of doing things - but we know that it is the right way.
To the ones on this thread criticising Joel, I ask that you tune in on Sunday morning and actually watch before jumping on the “beat the guy on our team” bandwagon.
Osteen lacks either backbone or discernment, maybe both!