I suspect thee doth read too much into Joel Osteen’s brief answer to an interviewer’s question.
My hunch is that he means simply that, yes, sinners do go to heaven.
I could be wrong.
There are many pastors who deserve benefit of the doubt. But Osteen....
saved sinners go to heaven.
We'd be wise to listen to our Lord as he replies to those that try to entrap him with divorce ...
Matthew 19:8
King James Version (KJV)
8 He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.
Personally, I think Jesus was allowing for a man's law because it was (apparently) lawful after Moses had decreed it ... but Jesus was reminding them ... it's not the way God wants it to be.
This is a common misconception of scripture! All people are not sinners. A sinner is a person that is in rebellion to God and from that attitude of rebellion, lives a life of sin!! A saint is a person that lives with an attitude that is in union with God and as a result is always striving to do God’s will. When a saint sin’s is not out of rebellion. It is out of ignorance, weakness and infirmity. The “saint” hates sin and is constantly trying to eradicate it from his/her life! A “saint” is learning to slough off the old carnal man and take on the new Spiritual man that is fashioned after the divine nature of God!! While these efforts in their own right would never earn them a place in heaven, they do meet the qualifications laid out in the Bible to be granted access to that that is truly able and does earn them a place in heaven, and that is the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Please see 1Jn 1:5-9, 2:1-5, 3:4-10 (ESV); Rom 12:1-2; 2Pet1:3-11 for starters. In every case in the NT in which the word “sinner” is used it is in the derogatory sense to describe those that are or were lost and/or in rebellion to God, not those that have truly accepted God and as His disciples strive to live according to His precepts, yet from there ignorance, weakness and infirmity do still sin!!
I agree that the original post is reading too much into Osteen’s remarks. I see Osteen as trying to measure his words so as to appeal to sinners but I haven’t heard him come out and say homosexuals, adulterers and the like don’t have to repent to go to heaven. If he said that he doesn’t talk about sin in his sermons, then that’s ridiculous. The cross of Christ has no context without speaking of the desperate need man has for salvation.
YES mbarker12474, SINNERS DO GO TO HEAVEN, BUT THE BIBLE STATES YOU MUST ACCEPT CRIST AS YOUR SAVIOR, WE ALL SIN NONE IS PERFECT BUT THROUGH GRACE WE ARE SAVED. OSTEEN IS A WHORE ONLY PANDERING TO THE MIGHTY DOLLAR.
While it is true we all sin in word thought and deed each day this is why the model prayer tells to confess daily.One who lives in open rebellion against God is not going to enter the kingdom of God as per 1 Corinthian ch 6.Only those that have repented of their sin and as scripture tells us If any man would come after me let him deny himself take up his cross and follow me, only those that have done so will enter the kingdom of heaven.
While it is true we all sin in word thought and deed each day this is why the model prayer tells to confess daily.One who lives in open rebellion against God is not going to enter the kingdom of God as per 1 Corinthian ch 6.Only those that have repented of their sin and as scripture tells us If any man would come after me let him deny himself take up his cross and follow me, only those that have done so will enter the kingdom of heaven.
We have all sinned at one time or another, but God does forgive sinners. We certainly need to ask God to forgive our sins.