Posted on 11/05/2014 5:18:11 PM PST by Gamecock
Pastor Joel Osteen’s TV ad announcing his new show on Sirius Radio begins with the promise, “We can have victory every single day.” Next come scenes of his pastoral team on stage during a church service, followed by a long shot of the congregation that looks as if it was filmed in the Super Bowl with every seat filled. (He reportedly has the largest congregation in the United States.)
Finally, he comes back on screen and declares to the audience, “There is a power in you greater than any power that comes against you.”
After seeing the ad for about the 200th time, I sent the following email message to some friends:
I’ve seen the Osteen ad many, many times and my reaction has been the same each time—I have felt a powerful urge to convert . . . . . . to Buddhism!
What made me descend to such curmudgeonly pique? Was it because Osteen’s face appears locked in a smile that shouts “insincere” (at least to me) or because he and his wife call to mind the 1970s and 80s preaching duo of unhappy memory, Jim and Tammy Bakker? Was it because Osteen’s trademark black hair is beautifully coiffed and boasts innumerable curls in the back? Might I be jealous of that?
The honest answer to all three questions is “yes.” But there is another, more substantive reason for my negative reaction. It is that Osteen’s message is presumptuous and misleading, not to mention smarmy and glib. (I know, I know, smarminess and glibness are not serious flaws, so let’s put them aside.)
First, presumptuous. The line “you have power in you greater than any power that can come against you” obviously refers to more than simple talent and potential and probably to more than being created in the image and likeness of God. The most likely intended meaning is the gift of the Holy Spirit that Christians call grace.
The problem, however, is his notion that this “power” (grace) is automatically in us by virtue of our being alive. In contrast, Christianity teaches that grace is a gift that God gives us but does not force upon us. We either accept it or reject it, and that choice determines whether we experience its power. This crucial fact Osteen seems to ignore when he presumes that everyone possesses grace automatically.
Now let’s consider misleading. At the heart of Osteen’s message is the promise of daily success in life: “We can have victory every single day.” Surely he is not referring to the victory of being received into paradise, which comes only once (if we are lucky), after death. What then does he mean? I consulted Osteen’s website for the answer and found this:
You have been blessed for unprecedented success. God has healing with your name on it, new dreams with your name on it [sic], promotions with your name on it [sic]. You are a child of Almighty God. He has already gone before you and lined up promotion, victory, and favor in your life.
With the exception of healing, these things come under the heading “worldly success,” so that is what Osteen must mean by “victory.” Oddly, however, he denies that this is his meaning. For example, he has said, “If prosperity means God wants us to be blessed and healthy and have good relationships then yes, I’m a prosperity teacher. But if it’s about money, no, I never preach about money . . .”
Osteen is being disingenuous. His themes may technically not be about money, but they are about “promotion,” “favor,” “abundance,” etc., so they might as well be about money. Consider a more specific example from Osteen’s Message # 619, “It’s Already Yours”:
Psalm 8:5 says, “You have crowned him with favor and honor.” What does this mean for you today? It means right now, there are blessings with your name on them—healing, promotion, good breaks, houses, businesses, contracts—that already belong to you. The question is, when are you going to go get what’s already yours? [Bold added]
The word “money” doesn’t appear in this passage, but the words in bold certainly stand for financial success and that spells financial prosperity, also known as money.
At this point readers who embrace Osteen’s “prosperity gospel” would no doubt respond “What’s wrong with saying God rewards those who love him with prosperity?” My first impulse is to respond, “If there is nothing wrong with the prosperity gospel, why is Osteen so determined not to be associated with it?” But here is a more meaningful response:
What is wrong with prosperity preaching is that it grossly distorts the Christian message.
To begin with, Isaiah didn’t prophesy a prosperous Christ but a suffering servant who would be “despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.” (Isaiah 53: 3)
Then, too, Jesus was born in a stable and lived a modest life with Mary and Joseph, so it is a reasonable assumption that neither Joseph nor Jesus was the sort of carpenter whose work brought that age’s equivalent of Ethan Allen or Thomasville prices.
In the most famous of all sermons, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, not a single one of the blessings mentioned suggests daily victory of any kind, let alone financial victory. They speak instead of daily spiritual stress, mourning, hunger, and persecution. The fact that Jesus called those who suffer these burdens “blessed” is best understood as a promise of eventual consolation or reward beyond this vale of tears.
The only place in Scripture where Jesus and prosperity are mentioned together is when Satan offers it to Him—“The devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. ‘All this I will give you,’ he said, ‘if you will bow down and worship me.’” (Matthew 4: 8-9) In rejecting Satan’s offer Jesus did not condemn prosperity, to be sure, but He certainly didn’t laud it either.
Jesus did, of course, tell his disciples that they could achieve anything if they had sufficient faith. For example, he said that they could move a mountain. (Matthew 21: 21-22) But in the next breath He added that the way to do so is to “ask in prayer, believing,” underscoring that the power obviously resides in God rather than in us.
Jesus often reminded his disciples that the way to follow him was to deny themselves and take up their crosses every day. (Matthew 10:38 and 16:24, Luke 9:23, Luke 14: 27 and 18:18-22) The references to crosses obviously did not concern daily victories but, on the contrary, disappointments and sufferings. In our time those would include unemployment, accidents, the wounds of war, deadly diseases, emotional disorders, and the infirmities of old age.
Jesus provided the supreme example of suffering courageously as He prayed, sweating blood, in the Garden of Gethsemane, was mercilessly scourged at the pillar and humiliated by the Roman soldiers, crowned with thorns, and nailed to a cross. Moreover, in the final throes of suffocation and exsanguination, He felt forsaken by God.
Down through the centuries, the message that has framed the Christian perspective on living has been Jesus’ words, “take up your cross and follow me.” His disciples were the first to do so, and every one of them suffered a violent death. The early Christians were required to practice their faith in secret or face imprisonment and death. And Christian martyrdom continues in our time. In 2013 alone, 2,123 Christians were murdered for practicing their faith.
Promising daily victory and worldly success insults all those who maintain their faith in Jesus despite suffering and disappointment. Rather than raising their spirits and giving them hope, it tempts them to think, “If I am not prospering, maybe God doesn’t love me.” Worse, it tempts the wealthy and successful to believe that they really are more virtuous and deserving than the poor and thus to adopt the attitude of the Pharisee: “God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.” (Luke: 18:11)
Whenever I hear Osteen or others preach the prosperity gospel, I am reminded of Jesus’ advice to the young man who lived honorably and wondered what more he could do to achieve an even better spiritual state. Jesus did not tell him to claim and enjoy the first century equivalent of “promotion[s], good breaks, houses, businesses, contracts.” Instead, he advised him to “go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” (Mark 10: 21-22)
The prosperity gospel is understandably appealing in this self-absorbed age, but because it replaces the cross with a dollar sign, it bears no resemblance to the Gospel of Jesus.
Good perspective from a Roman Catholic source.
Someone should send him a copy of Foxes Book of Martyrs!
Interesting too that nowhere in the bible is there a mention of an infallible Pope.
My pastor has always stated that prosperity is having enough to meet your needs and a little left over to help someone else.
I like that definition.
Wish that you’d get this through to the person who posts daily Joel Osteen threads.
He’s not Biblical.
“‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.
Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”
Today’s Osteen devotional teaches what I’ve heard acquaintances of mine talk about in their giving, and that is that they are sowing *seed money*.
When they give, they think of the thing they’ve been *believing for* and designate (or something) that money toward that need or want, and expect that the return they are getting that they think God has promised in Malachi, is going to show up in that area.
One of that group also was going on about how she *deserved* (fill in the blank) because she’s a child of God.
Osteen’s prosperity gospel didn’t work out too well for the apostles, did it? Not to mention the Lord Himself.
Osteen should go over to Iraq and preach that to the parents who watched their children get beheaded by ISIS for being a Christian.
Truth is truth regardless of the source. “All truth is God’s truth...” Jesus Himself said He Himself IS the truth.....
And actually - the main reason He came was to TESTIFY to the truth (John 18:37) - which, when He stated this to Pilate motivated Pilate to ask, “What is truth?” - implying that truth could not be known or determined.
Satan’s greatest deceptions are truth mixed with hidden or subtle lies. This is what the Prosperity Gospel is - though to most believers, the lies are fairly obvious. Only the naive and self-motivated buy into them.....
My only question is why do the owners of FR allow someone to continually post daily messages from Olsteen on this website? Allowing it gives the appearance of agreement and/or approval of Olsteen’s heretical message.
He’s up there with Rev. Ike ... pie in the sky and I want it now ....
Same could be said about catholicism with its false teachings on Mary, indulgences, etc.
This article explains very well what I couldn't quite figure out about many of the "mega-Church" preachers and ministries...so many people become involved with them, but they make me a little bothered and uneasy because something doesn't ring quite true...
On a lighter note, time to change my tag-line...DONE! Great job, fellow FReepers!
That ad really, really bothers me because he is paraphrasing an actual verse in the Bible 1 John 4:4 that says “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” He that is in us is The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a person of the Godhead. He is not a blind power in us that is at our command. He is God and has a will, a will to do what is good and right for the Kingdom of God, to God’s glory. When Osteen speaks about us having a “power” in us he is suggesting that we have a power that we wield. The power is God and it is God who wields power, not us. The way Osteen puts it we might as well be new agers believing that we are all gods and goddesses who have personal power that we wield. This is disgusting to the Word of God and to me.
Doctrinally, though, I am surprised at the lack of Biblical knowledge this assertion reveals:
First, presumptuous. The line “you have power in you greater than any power that can come against you” obviously refers to more than simple talent and potential and probably to more than being created in the image and likeness of God. The most likely intended meaning is the gift of the Holy Spirit that Christians call grace.
Catholics err for they do not know the scriptures, or the power of God (Matt 22:29). Whilst they obsess over various sacraments of Grace, Mary, their human papa (latin:pope) in Rome (see Matt 23:9), and their church, they miss out on Jesus Christ! We sons of God have much more than grace in us!
Perhaps Joel O was talking to Christians and was referring to 1 John 4:4 "Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. ?
And who is in us? Colossians 1:27 declares "To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."1 Corinthians 6:19 further explains "Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
Or, perhaps Joel is intentionally or accidentally in error, through deception or semantics, when he claims “you have power in you greater than any power that can come against you”, for this is not inanimate power, rather, it is the Spirit of Christ, who is the way, the truth and the life! Amen!
“Whenever I hear Osteen or others preach the prosperity gospel, I am reminded of Jesus’ advice to the young man who lived honorably and wondered what more he could do to achieve an even better spiritual state. Jesus did not tell him to claim and enjoy the first century equivalent of “promotion[s], good breaks, houses, businesses, contracts.” Instead, he advised him to “go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” (Mark 10: 21-22”
The author might try reading a little further into the chapter to see what the result would’ve been had the young man simply trusted God:
Mark 10:30 -
“But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.”
Great prosperity was available to him at that time, even more wealth than he had possessed, and it wasn’t about the young mans own works to achieve an even better spiritual state, but that God would provide for him through trust and faith. God was prepared to bless him hundredfold more had he simply trusted God over his own wealth.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.