Victoria Osteen and Her Joy-Robbing Brand of Cheap Christianity

There was a time earlier on in my Christian life where I was quite the zealous little theology cop. I would blast Joel Osteen and the likes of him with their biblically deficient statements about God on my blog, twitter, Facebook — any outlet I could find. I thought it was my job to stand firm and "defend God's truth," calling out every bit of erroneous teaching I came across. I'm not that person anymore.

Don't get me wrong, I definitely think that there is a place for exposing false teaching (and to be clear, I think that most of what I've heard of Joel Osteen's teaching is false). But I think it needs to be done out of a love for Christ and a desire for people to know Him in truth, not out of a egocentric desire to just be "right."

So, before I go into Victoria Osteen's comments, I want to say that my intention is not to put her on blast or to publicly declare her a blasphemous bimbo. There's enough of that on the Internet already. My intention is to discuss the cheap view of God that fuels the kind of comments she made in that video.

There is an element of truth to her statements about God desiring us to be happy and Him taking pleasure in our happiness. The Lord does not want His people be a mopey, despairing, steel-faced, jaw-clenched, stick-up-butt bunch of folks. Throughout the entirety of the Bible you see The Lord repeatedly commanding people to take delight in The Lord. David said that at the right hand of God are pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11)! Jesus said that He came and spoke truth to us that His joy may be in us and that our joy may be made full (John 15:11). When Paul wrote letters to the early Church, he did so for their progress and joy in the faith (Philippians 1:25). The concept of joy and the command to pursue it plagues the bible. You can't read it without realizing that the one true God is a happy God that desires his people to be happy as well.

So it's true — overwhelmingly true — that God wants us to be happy. But, the problem is that people like Victoria take this truth and slant it, ever so subtly, away from the God-centered-happiness that the Bible prescribes and toward a me-centered-happiness that the Bible condemns. God's greatest pleasure is not in our happiness (although He does desire that), but in His own glory. He wants His glory to be the fuel that our joy-appetites feed on. He wants His presence to be the longing of our souls. God wants us to be happy in Him.

"As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?" – Pslam 42:1-2

We were designed to be joy hungry creatures that fervently feast upon the glory of God. We were intended to be people that draw fresh life, day after day, from all the ways that God graciously manifests Himself to us. We were created to be people that are full out, head over heels obsessed with God. We were to seek Him constantly, pray to Him without ceasing, meditate on Him endlessly and do everything we do to see and experience more of His glory. And we were to enjoy living our lives this way.

But let's all be honest with ourselves, we naturally hate the idea of living our lives this way. Because sin has deformed our hearts. Before the fall, man had a heart that was outwardly directed toward God, but when sin entered in, our hearts folded inwardly and gazed upon ourselves. From the moment Adam's teeth sunk into the fruit of self-autonomy, the heart of mankind has sought happiness in and through himself, other people and everything around him. Anywhere but in God.

And I'm not just talking about meth addicts or porn addicts or prostitutes or crooked businessmen. Lots of people seek happiness apart from God but throw His name all over it. Using God for His this-side-of-glory gifts (aka the American Dream) without any real love for Him or desire to know Him doesn't count as seeking happiness in God. He takes no pleasure in that. But this is what I fear is happening in an incredibly large number of American Churches. This is what I fear is happening in the Osteen Church, based on the many things I have heard both Joel and Victoria say over the years. I won't pronounce judgment on them before the time (1 Corinthians 4:5), but I will say with certainty that taking the immutable, unstoppable and infinitely holy God of the Bible and reducing Him down to a three-wish celestial butler who is only here to make us happy — without us really having to surrender to, worship, adore or enjoy Him — is absolute heresy. There is a massive difference between enjoying God for who He is and "enjoying God" for what temporary or material blessings He can give you.

But this heresy is the 'gospel' of today's western spirituality. We refuse to worship a God who is opposed in any way to how we wish to live our lives. "God" is just this generic divine being who is here to affirm and bless whatever we feel like He should. We get to decide what we feel like is right or worthy of our worship, and then we yank the Holy One down off His throne and demand Him to bow at our feet and bless us our god-forsaken pursuits of purpose and joy.

A great example of this is this emergence of the idea that someone can be a "gay Christian"; a person who claims to worship Jesus Christ but refuses to actually worship Him by surrendering all that they are — like their fallen sexual impulses — to His authority and Lordship. But this kind of mentality goes far and beyond the same-sex attracted population. You'll find it among the dishonest business owners hustling for financial success, the twenty-something guidos pining after that GTL life, the straight guys manipulating girl after girl while trying to build up their 'I got some of that' trophy case — you'll find all walks and kinds of people living for godless pursuits, but still want a lil-bit-a Jesus on Sundays.

The cheap 'gospel' of western spirituality says that the path to happiness is accepting and loving yourself as you are, and believing that God wants to affirm you in whatever way that you choose to live out your life. But the real truth, the biblical truth, is that true joy is found not in self-acceptance, but self-denial. Not the insane, pleasure less I'm-gonna-beat-myself-with-a-stick-every-time-I-have-a-bad-thought kind self-denial, but the denial of sinful, me-centered thrills and spills for the sake of experiencing a better, pure, God-centered joy.

The reality is that if we're seeking happiness outside of God Himself, we're short changing ourselves. We're being cheap happiness chasers — living our lives for fleeting, momentary pleasures that can't satisfy our God-given capacities for God-centered joy. The void in our souls where true, God-centered joy was made to dwell is far too deep and wide for anything or anyone in this world to fill it. We will never be satisfied living our lives for ourselves. You will not be able to find contentment. We will always thirst for more. We were made to live for so much more than ourselves.

The Bible points us to a life of obsession with the beauty and glory of God because it's only when we lose ourselves in Him that we will ever actually find ourselves and, in turn, grasp true joy. Coming to God through the reconciling work of Jesus and feasting, day after day, upon all that He is for us — that will satisfy our souls. That will quench our thirst.

The call of the true gospel is not to be all that we can be and throw a little Jesus on it — it's to be reconciled to God through the work of Jesus Christ and to enjoy Him forever! God is the most valuable being in the universe. He's not boring or stiff or tame. He's outrageously interesting and the greatness of all that He is can (and will) be chased after for eternity. The best that He can give us is Himself, and that's exactly what He does in the gospel. If we want true satisfaction and lasting joy, we will not find it in going to church to "worship God for us" or in "doing good for ourselves." We won't find it in deciding for ourselves who and what we are. We will only find it in and through the Person of Jesus Christ.

True joy is wrapped up in knowing and savoring the Person of God. It can be found nowhere else.

I don't write this as someone who's got it all figured out. I love Jesus and have tasted of His goodness, but I still struggle to go to Him when my soul is dry. I still tend to so easily bend toward seeking out comfort for my heart in the cheap pleasures and pursuits of the world. But my hope is that this incredibly patient and merciful Source of all true joy will keep breathing fresh waves of mercy over my heart, re-shaping and re-creating me to be increasingly inclined to find all that I need and desire in the greatness of who He is.

Ah, dear friend - there is much truth in what you say. But it is a very shallow description of the truth.

The clarification that is needed is that there are two kinds of happiness/blessing.

One is that which the the unbeliever, the world knows. It is a blessing and happiness that comes from one’s circumstances and is dependent on material things, externals, and even very good things like family and friendships. Health and wealth.

Jesus blew that definition of happiness and blessing to smithereens in Matt. 5:3 - 12 and the corresponding verses in Luke. His whole point was that the blessing and happiness of God was of another realm, and a result of the relationship with God Himself - and not due to circumstances. The religious Pharisees had their understanding of blessing and happiness - defined by externals. Jesus clearly destroyed this view.

What He communicated in these verses is repeated throughout the NT - “Silver and gold have I none - but such as I have give I thee .....rise up and walk.....” Paul & Silas singing in jail where they possibly faced torture and death.

In fact, Jesus mildly rebuked John the Baptist when, imprisoned, not knowing what he faced, waivered in his faith in the Lord to where he asked, “Are you really the Messiah?” after having proclaimed his Messiahship loudly and strongly for a long time. John’s mindset had apparently become, “How could this be happening to me if Jesus really is the Messiah? This isn’t what I expected....” To which Jesus responded, “Blessed is he who is not offended in Me....”.......when things don’t turn out like you expected, and the going gets rough.

Was John blessed? Yes. Happy? No. Were Paul & Silas blessed? Yes. Happy? Yes - but only in the Lord. Not based on circumstances which change like the wind. Sometimes we are happy due to externals - sometimes the externals make typical happiness impossible.

Are we still blessed in the Lord if everything is going wrong? Yes. We are blessed with every blessing that is in Christ. It’s a fact.

There is no man alive more blessed than I am. Above and beyond imagination. But not because of my circumstances. Because I am in Christ, and am one of His beloved’s.

The error is to equate what the world and unbelievers call happy with what the NT calls happy - blessed.

Paul wrote of once despairing even of life itself, and “to this present hour we are both hungry and thirsty, and are poorly clothed and are roughly treated, and are homeless.” II Corin. 4:7-10 is revealing of true blessedness: “ But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God, and NOT of ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed, always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, THAT THE LIFE OF JESUS ALSO MAY BE MANIFESTED IN OUR BODY.”

This is the blessedness and happiness of the kingdom of God, not the kingdom of this earth.

Even more are described in the Hebrews 11 “hall of faith” who wholly contradict the shallow, worldly view of happiness and blessedness (36-39), after a list of those who lived great victories of faith that we all want to live and be - a list that turns to faith and blessings of another kind: “and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. And ALL THESE, HAVING GAINED APPROVAL through their faith, DID NOT RECEIVE WHAT WAS PROMISED.” They received it not in this life - but in the next.

In fact, this passage best describes the life of our Lord Jesus - our example. Yes, He never ceased to be blessed and happy - except perhaps in Gethsemane and on the cross - but He was always in the center of His Father’s will.

A whole different aspect too long to address is the groaning and agony that are the calling and the life of an intercessor before God who cries out to Him day and night over either the lost in the world or over the terrible, sad condition of God’s church today that has no spiritual depth or character, that lives and looks just like the unbelieving world, that is dominated by leaders who lust for power, position, control and glory like Diotrophes who “loved first place among the brethren.” Such people literally agonize in prayer because they share the very agony found in God’s heart for His own. Is this the “happiness” as defined by the world?

No. The “happy and blessed” of the New Covenant is something completely different from and in contrast to the world’s definition of the word.

But hulagirl and the Bible both plead with God’s people to stop condemning other Christians.

We are to test the spirits to see if they are from God or not. Jesus and Paul both warned plenty about false teachers, wolves in sheeps clothing.

Sure, some of what the Osteens say is true, but much is wrong and Jesus is hardly mentioned.

But that is like Satan's tactic, to mix enough truth with his lies that he can deceive people. If he just outright lied, people would see through it in a heartbeat.

Sure, he says lots of positive uplifting things, but any motivational speaker can do that, throw in a few Scripture verses to make it feel all warm and fuzzy, and slap a *in Jesus name* on it for good measure.

That doesn't make them Christians.

Their message is sadly lacking in a call for repentance and confession of sin, mention of sin except what it does to hurt you, and mention of Jesus.

It's all about the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

If Joel is not your cup of tea, move on, but be careful about attacking God’s anointed.

Ah, the old fallback when nothing else works.

If you're going to claim that he is God's anointed, then you'd better be absolutely POSITIVE that he IS anointed by God, and that he is God's because if he's not, you're going to be on dangerous ground attributing to God something that is not.

Hebrews 11:32-40 And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

The prosperity gospel is a false gospel.

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