I just received an email from the Valley View Casino Center in San Diego inviting me to purchase tickets for “A Night of Hope” with Pastors Joel and Victoria Osteen:
“A Night of Hope” with Joel and Victoria Osteen is an outreach of Joel Osteen Ministries and is an exciting time of praise and worship where attendees will hear an inspirational message from Joel and Victoria along with the electrifying music of Dove Award winning Cindy Cruse Ratcliff, Steve Crawford, Da’dra Greathouse, and the Lakewood Band and Ensemble.
Joel and Victoria Osteen are pastors for a new generation. Referred to by many as a voice of hope, they reach one of the largest audiences in the U.S. and across the globe. . . .”
Tempting as it may be, I think I’ll pass driving the 13 hours to San Diego to catch Joel and Victoria share their inspirational message of hope. And, hope is what they are selling. Literally. It will cost you $15 to experience all that the Osteens have to offer. While that doesn’t sound like much (the price or the offer), Joel and Victoria have found a way to sell hope to a “new generation.”
It’s easy for these “pastors” to sell hope to a “new generation,” particularly when those who are members of this generation are largely Biblically illiterate. Not that the Osteens are Bible scholars by any stretch of the imagination (just watch any of the painful interviews that the Osteens have given to Larry King), but they certainly know how to twist Scripture in such a way as give the illusion that the hope that they are selling is the real deal.
However, what the Osteens are selling is not real hope (Hope is, after all, a person — Jesus Christ). And, the inspirational messages of hope that Joel and Victoria continue to peddle will not change the lives of those whose ears continue to be tickled. The Apostle Paul would not be amused.
I do have to give credit to Mr. Osteen for his remarkable ability to communicate in such a way that most people who listen (in person and on television) to him speak do not have any idea of just how horribly he butchers God’s Word.
I do not make it a habit to watch Joel Osteen, but I do occasionally linger on his show when I am channel surfing. Every now and then, I like to watch for a few minutes — that is all I can really stomach — to see and hear how he has managed to rip Scripture out of context. Such was the case earlier this week when I heard Joel so mangle the inerrant, inspired Word of God that he turned King Ahab into a man of faith!
Anyone with a passing knowledge of the Old Testament or Hebrew Scriptures (which Joel or someone on his research staff should have) would quickly recognize that King Ahab was Israel’s most evil king:
“And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD, more than all who were before him. . . . And Ahab made an Asherah. Ahab did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.” 1 Kings 16:30, 33 (ESV)
Ahab was a faithless king who worshipped the false god Baal. With his blessing, Ahab’s wife, Jezebel, killed the LORD’s prophets. No where in Scripture can you find a positive word concerning Ahab or Jezebel. Well, that is until now. Leave it to Joel Osteen to find an inspirational message about Ahab.
My wife and I could not believe what we heard come out of Mr. Osteen’s mouth. Now granted, I have heard some pretty amazing (and non-Biblical) things spew forth from this man, but this was truly unbelievable. I recorded the end of Joel’s message so that I would not misquote what he said about King Ahab.
Concluding his feel-good message, Mr. Osteen used the first part of 1 Kings 18:42 (“So Ahab went up to eat and to drink”) as his proof-text for arguing that Ahab was a man of faith, celebrating what God was about to do in his life. In Joel’s mind, Ahab went out and “prepared a great feast.” Why did he prepare this great feast? Because he had faith in the word that the prophet Elijah had given to him, namely that it would begin to rain. Given that Israel was in the midst of a 3 1/2 year drought, this was significant.
However, the context within which Elijah’s “word” came to Ahab was following the confrontation of Elijah with the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel and slaughter of those prophets. Elijah was mocking King Ahab, telling him to go get something to eat and drink before it started raining and the king got all wet.
No where in Scripture does it say that Ahab prepared a feast because he believed the word of Elijah that is was going to rain. However, Joel Osteen so twists the Word of God to suit his own shallow purposes that he has turned Ahab into some sort of man of deep faith and conviction. I wish I was making this up, but here are Joel’s own words:
“That took a lot of nerve to prepare a feast in the midst of the drought. Other people complaining, negative, depressed, bitter. Here’s Ahab over here celebrating. This is what faith is all about. You can’t wait to see it, then you’re going to believe. You have to believe and then you’ll see it. I’m asking you to do like Ahab. Get your hopes up. Start celebrating what God is about to do.”
I truly have never heard a supposedly Christian pastor exhort someone to “do like Ahab.” What hope did Ahab have? What celebration was there for this evil, wicked king? Ahab and his wife, Jezebel, were opponents of the one true God — Yahweh — and they continued to oppose God’s prophet, Elijah. How any of this was a cause of hope and celebration for Ahab is beyond my comprehension.
But, apparently not beyond Joel Osteen’s comprehension. That neither Mr. Osteen nor anyone on his staff, including “Pastor” Victoria, could comprehend that using King Ahab as a positive example of faith is not only wrong, but spiritually deluded. The reason for this delusion may just be that the Osteens are already following Joel’s advice to “do like Ahab” (and Jezebel). But, I don’t think that’s anything to celebrate!
Odd thing happened the other day. A friend of mine sent me this by email and I read it and thought, “I’ve got to find out who wrote this and post it at Voices.” So, I looked back over the article and found that it was written by none other than Howell Scott!
So, here it is!
Maybe Howell’s post will help us all find “Your Best Life Now.”
Wow, Howell. I have seen some real doozies from Joel, but this takes the cake I think. The one post at my blog that seems to get the most daily traffic is a post that asks “what translation of the Bible does Joel Osteen use?” So far, no one has been able to answer the question except to suggest that he doesn’t use one at all. At best he picks and chooses his “quotes” carefully and I have even seen him put a “passage” on screen one time with an ellipses in it (…), which I went to check on as soon as I saw it and realized that the omitted part of the passage was a direct contradiction to his message that day. I do not envy the man when he stands before God to answer for how he has treated His Word and for those he has led astray.
When you start with the assumption that the Bible means whatever it means to me, it can mean just about anything.
Hermeneutics, baby!
Until I went to seminary, I might have thought that was the study of Pee Wee. 🙂
But now, I got me some book learning too.
Isn’t Peewee the governor of North Dakota now?
That wasn’t the guy I voted for. We just sent our last governor to DC. Still waiting to see how this new guy turns out. But we are still the only state that hasn’t lost jobs, even in the downturn in the economy, so I guess they are doing something right.
“I introduce to you Ahab, the vile human toad who squatted upon the throne of his nation — the worst of Israel’s kings. King Ahab had command of a nation’s wealth and a nation’s army, but he had no command of his lusts and appetites. Ahab wore rich robes, but he had a sinning and wicked and troubled heart beneath them. He ate the finest food the world could supply — and this food was served to him in dishes splendid by servants obedient to his every beck and nod — but he had a starved soul. He lived in palaces sumptuous within and without, yet he tormented himself for one bit of land more. Ahab was a king with a throne and a crown and a scepter, yet he lived nearly all of his life under the thumb of a wicked woman — a tool in her hands. Ahab pilloried himself in the contempt of all God-fearing men as a mean and selfish rascal who was the curse of his country. The Bible introduces him to us in words more appropriate than these when it says:
But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. And he did very abominably in following idols, according to all things as did the Amorites, whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel . . . And Ahab made a grove; and Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him (I Kings 21:25,26; 16:33).”
R.G. Lee, “Payday Someday”
This is how Dr. Lee started his sermon – introducing the characters Naboth, Ahab, Jezebel, Elijah etc.
What a profound error and complete lack of understanding.
College and Seminary would have helped our brother greatly.
Just watched that sermon again. Video was bad but I was still spellbnound for 56 minutes.
“A Night of Hope” is being held at a casino – so after hearing the Osteens you go into the casino and God will make you a winner???
I saw a sign outside of an SBC church that said “You have to have faith to eat stew”. The pastor was trying to put a positive spin on Esau selling his birthright. I guess the writer of Hebrews was mistaken when he called him a “profane” man, huh?
Let’s not just pick on Joel. Look at some of the “twisted Scripture” that has come out of the Church Growth Movement, and the SBC version, Purpose Driven.
I am basically a fan of the primary principles of both these movements, but it seems that the more a movement is successful in Christianity, the more it drifts from sound, Biblical truth.
It seems nothing is more desired and yet more dangerous to a preacher than “a crowd.” Joel has a big crowd and that presents a big problem especially if he has a big ego.
This is why I’m becoming more and more a fan of smaller, neighborhood churches.
PS–This is not a “pile on Rick Warren” post. I don’t put him in the same category as Olsteen, though he does seem to have a penchant for using texts to serve his purposes. In fairness to him, he’s never presented himself as a “theologian.”
Frank,
As much as I want to beat you senseless on one comment thread, I’m going to have to agree with you on this one.
The Purpose Driven movement did have some flaws in their theological framework but they also had some flaws in their practical framework where it pertained to churches.
Someone forgot to put the Caveat “One size does not fit all” on the books as churches and leadership began implementing some of the practical elements of the Purpose Driven movement into their churches’ structures.
In the church I was working at during this time, the Purpose Driven movement managed to created controversies where none truly existed before as in a schism was created in the early and late services concerning worship styles, use of hymnals, staging elements, flowers on or off the stage, and the size of the pulpit. None of this is heaven/hell issues but you would have thought that they were.
Bill, we do not permit beating people senseless at SBC Voices, unless they are Red Sox fans, in which case they are already senseless and the rules do not apply.
Then some days I’ll make sure to picture Frank with a Red Sox jersey…
I don’t think you should picture even your worst enemy in a Red Sox jersey.
Alright, well, since I’m a Dodgers fan, I’ll just picture them wearing Giants uniforms…
That’s bad enough.
Bill, (your violent tendencies aside), I agree with you agreeing with me.
To be fair, I heard Rick say many times that “one size does not fit all,” and to NOT try to duplicate the “methods” of Saddleback. However, when someone becomes a celebrity–even a Christian celebrity–their words often go unheeded and their actions are imitated.
When “success” (crowds, influence, etc.) is pushed as with the huge throng at Olsteen’s church, it inevitably corrupts because it plays to man’s (my) weaknesses rather than my strengths.
A little error in a little church may be easily overcome, but when you multiply anything by 1000’s, a small error becomes a grave error and takes on a life of its own.
I am trying to take your advice in the last sentence and to realize that some things (many things) are not heaven/hell issues. I have strong opinions but I do hope I have even stronger love.
I just preached this week on “Seasoned with Love” about dealing with “gray area” issues (1Cor. 8). I hope I was listening.
I’m having a hard time with certain pastors because I’ve so thoroughly enjoyed their earlier material and/or sermons.
One that I will point to is Ed Young, Jr.
I loved his stuff coming out of Fellowship from eight, ten years ago and advocated using a lot of the material in our Sunday school classes because I felt the literature was better (at the time) than anything LifeWay was putting out there.
Now, while I still have my gripes about LifeWay, I just not as high on the Fellowship material as I used to be because of some stances and sermon points that Ed has made over the past year or so.
Preachers & Politicians maneuver their respective positions some without no real knowledge of either – and Both suffer. Diff. subject.
So gross misrepresentation of the gospel is bad, I get that. I also agree wholeheartedly with that. I thumbed through some of his books and was just amazed at what’s being passed off these days.
But, if Joel Osteen had just outright lied about himself, his past, and just profited from that, it’d be okay?
Yeah, because that was totally the ponit of the post. It even says that in the last paragraph–“Of course, this only serves to reinforce the ponit that Caner did nothing really that wrong–not like Olsteen has done.”
Oh, wait, it didn’t say that!!! In fact, no one has said that. I’m pretty sure that Howell didn’t defend Caner so only someone with the IQ of mayonaise would even bring that issue up.
Hmm…
This coming from a man who openly advocates attacking fellow believers in Christ if they disagree…
I just don’t know how I’ll sleep tonight…
Caner is not part of this post, is he?
Let’s not open that Can’er worms, please.
Bill,
I don’t know if you were alluding to the Ergun Caner mess (as Joe seems to think), but if you were, I would invite you to read my posts about that at http://www.fromlaw2grace.com. Joe is right in his assessment that I did not defend Caner and in fact was fairly hard on both him and his defenders.
Even if you are referring to someone other than Ergun Caner, I would wholeheartedly agree that it is morally wrong to outright lie and profit from that. And, it doesn’t excuse the lies or “misstatements” even if we happen to like the person or are otherwise sympathetic to that person’s theology or doctrine. God bless,
Howell
I still haven’t sorted out the difference between a ‘lie’ and a ‘mis-statement’ as discussed on certain Southern Baptist blogs.
I expect that in reality, it has to do with ‘intent to deceive’ rather than just being wrong about something.
Joel Olsteen, I am not familiar with. What religion is he (denomination)? Maybe for his preaching, he uses a different ‘translation’ of the Bible like the one that the Jehovah’s Witnesses use, where whole sections are re-worded to fit their doctrine. (?)
From this post and comments, sounds like he is a ‘prosperity’ preacher and that this is something that is not acceptable to Southern Baptist teachings.
Osteen is an independant charismatic ie: no denominational heirarchy to maintain accountability.
Good southern baptists believe that, to quote the crew from HeHaw, “gloom, dispair and agony on end” make one a good Christian by building character. Much like their cousins, the shiite muslims flagellating themselves during some of their rituals.
(Editor’s Note: I made a spelling correction here. When typing the word “shiite”, it just looks better if you use the letter “i” twice, as is proper – the reasons for that will probably be clear to all).
Dear Editor,
If you are going to correct my lack of spelling skills please do it correctly yourself. Shi’ite is the actual correct spelling. Laughing all the way…..just jerking your editorial chain.
I didn’t want to let your spelling go, just in case we had some British readers.
I was partially referring to Ergun Caner to be honest. I was also referring to the numerous sermons that I’ve heard that have been clearly either plagiarized from other sermons that I’ve also happened to hear or from sites like Sermon Spice where the pastor has tried to make the story “his” during the context of the sermon.
Ergun Caner is just the most “famous” example that’s out there short of Mike Warnke.
Bill,
Thanks for the clarification. I think you make a good point about pastors who clearly plagiarize others works without attribution (don’t we have sites that sell or give away the sermons of others) or who do make up stories and claim them as their own or even make up stories they know that no one else can verify. There are many less “famous” examples that we could come up with I’m sure. Thanks,
Howell
I’m not defending Mr. Osteen, but I do think it would behoove us all to pray for him. Prayer is more powerful than all of our critiques put together.
Prayer is a mark of love and compassion, and while criticism isn’t necessarily a lack thererof, a balance of diagnosis (of untruth) and application (doing something about the untruth) is perhaps the best way of dealing with an issue such as this.
I’ve only watched Joel Osteen a couple of times and am actually more familiar with him through his television appearances on talk shows where he receives softball questions and delivers false hope with a smile and a glossy pitch that could part a drunkard and his last dollar. His followers are the ones who need our prayers because they think they are getting something real, and they are not. Yet, he presents with such confidence, why would they challenge? Just lean back and take the spoon-feeding. This too shall pass, but at great cost.
I know some very good people who questioned Osteen until they watch him in his interviews and they become mesmerized and clearly the facts no longer get in the way. If he were selling cars or time-shares, I might be able to handle his slickness. I must say, however, that I have heard far-less-slick pastors twist the Word of God to make a personal point and get past another Sunday.
The dear brother who quoted Dr. R.G. Lee’s Payday Some Day deserves a medal. What a contrast between the truth as Dr. Lee presented it from the Bible and the menacing mealy-mouthings of Osteen. Yes, they are menacing for all of being mealy-mouthings as they misrepresent Holy Scripture. Osteen’s fancy twistings and turnings constitute a corrupting and corrosive contamination of all correct considerations of Holy Scripture. I had the privilege of meeting with Dr. Lee and my ordaining pastor for an hour once in Eldon, Mo. in 1965. What a privilege! We had heard him preach (I heard him a number of times across the years while he was alive) that morning, and we sat and talked with him afterwards. A meeting with Osteen and his soft-soaping, shallow, and superficial surmisings on Scripture would be the very antithesis of that hour spent with Dr. Lee after hearing him preach.
Thom, I agree that Osteen’s followers need our prayers (that they would see the whole truth of Scripture), but don’t you feel that Osteen needs our prayers as well?
Ed Goodman – for reasons I do not understand, your comments were going into the SPAM folder. I hope all will be well now, as I have approved them. But it has happened recently to several comments – yours are the most recent.
I have not place your comments on moderation – there would be no reason to.
It must be gremlins!
Ed,
Definitely, Joel Osteen does need prayer. He does have great skill and a huge following. If he also had wisdom, he could preach truth and impact those people in very positive ways. He’s put together a successful formula . . . but it’s just a formula.
At the risk of angering a few people, I would encourage about 3 or 4 of you to STOP IT.
We write about topics here. When you start making your comments about another person who comments, you generally help in taking the comment stream off topic.
Plus, I have to go back, delete stuff and write these nasty notes. So, STOP IT!!
Debbie,
I understand you do not think I am fair. I’m probably not. I did not go back through and read every comment. I just deleted two comments each by you and Joe, and a couple by a couple of others.
My intent was not to declare a winner, it was to stop the fighting. I did not go back and analyse where it all started. I just deleted a string of 6 or 7 comments which I thought were not genuine discussion.
So, that is that for this subject here. You (and anyone else) are welcome to email me to discuss this more, but people want to have serious discussions of spiritual issues and so we are going to move on – as unfair as that seems.
.
Joel Osteen’s a miracle!
Like it or not!
Believe it or not!
Joel changes peoples lives daily all over the world!
How many lives have you, skeptics, changed, impacted, or won over to Christ?
Stop whining and give credit where it’s due!
Finally, there’s gotcha be reason(s) why he leads the largest church in US; you skeptics – of Joel – ought to find that out & let us know?
.
Amos,
I find your argument wanting for one simple reason:
For some reason after I read that I find it hard to take comfort in the fact that he has the “largest church in the US.”
When I keep reading the passage it gets even worse for my estimation of his preaching. I am not his judge, and I don’t envy him either, but I will pray for him.
I almost didn’t post this, but the fact is that there are a lot of people out there willing to look past doctrinal standards and worship at the altar of any celebrity pastor out there.
Amos’ post demonstrates clearly the problem.
Sound doctrine and uncompromising truth is the solution.
And if Amos is like some of the “drive-by” commenters who comment on my lone post about Joel at my own blog, he will never come back and respond to this either.
Yep
You aint gonna draw me into an argument to increase traffic to your blog!
No, am no quitter or “drive-by” commentator.
Tis my 1st time I’ve chanced into your blog.
Nways, it’d be better – Messrs Miller & Musgrave – if you’d stop the self-serving, glorified commentators!
And pls don’t throw the Bible at me, quoting verses to justify your quest to right or draw ppl to your view point.
Accept the fact that Joel’s has more influence in America and the world over that you two’s put together!
Yu still aint game enuf to answer my questions;
(1) How many ppl have you impacted or brought to the Lord Jesus? and
(2) Why do Joel and Victoria lead the largest church in US?
Rather than sit behind 4-corner comp-screen blogging away, go out there ‘find out what makes Joes Osteen Ministries to be what it is today’, come back and blog the answers so we’ll – readers – may make informed decisions.
It’s sad how success always draws the worst out people who’d find reason, whatever it is, to discredit and drag on sneer campaigns that serves no purpose but their egos, like your.
Take it from me; no one knows me (Amos), and yous both (Miller & Musgrave). Period!
But millions the world over knows Joel Osteen!
He’s the best thing that has happened to the Christian faith in America and the world!
Give credit where credit is due and stop whining coz you aint gonna do anything bout it!
God bless you poor, vile and envious souls.
Amos
Amos,
I think you are using the wrong grid to measure success.
Even still I’ll venture to answer your questions
(1) 0. Same as Joel Osteen, same as you. The Spirit brings people to the Lord Jesus. The better question is, am I faithful to preaching the revealed word of God that points to Jesus.
(2) No clue. Why did Hitler lead Germany? I’m not intending to compare Osteen to Hitler, but to expose the lunacy of this question. Just because you lead a large number of people doesn’t mean that you are being biblically faithful.
And I’ll give credit where it is due.
1) Joel Osteen is bold. Dude still wears a mullet.
2) He has a nice smile
3) He’s persuasive.
4) He’s a pretty good speaker as far as public speaking goes.
5) I’m guessing he’s a pretty good leader too.
Ultimately I won’t stand as judge over Osteen on the last day, nor will you. But I do believe that Christ has called us to observe fruit (that’s not numbers but covenant faithfulness) and to reject those that preach a false gospel.
Wow. Troll much?
Besides, Joel and Victoria got their church because Joel’s daddy gave it to him.
If you want to be serious about it, which I doubt you do there, Amos.
Amos,
Don’t forget Jim Jones. He had a pretty large following too.
Not that this is going to make any difference to you, because you are obviously using a pseudonym and you are probably a regular poster here who’s just trying to pull a fast one on us – (why else would you talk like that?!)
But, if you did actually DO believe the things you are writing, here would be how I would respond.
Jesus said that God was looking for worshipers who worshiped in spirit AND truth. In fact, I remember Jesus turning away thousands of people who wanted to follow Him on false pretenses.
Make no mistake, Jesus is very concerned about leading you into truth. He IS truth. When we say “truth doesn’t matter”, we say “Jesus doesn’t matter.” If a preacher such as Osteen wants to go off into prosperity gospel garbage, that’s his perogative.
We, as Christians, are called to rightly divide the word of truth, and Osteen does not do that. Sure, people may come to faith in spite of his error, that does not justify his error.
But just because God draws straight lines with crooked sticks doesn’t mean we should go around using crooked sticks. (I wish I could take credit for that, but I originally heard it from James White of AOMin fame)
1) I don’t have a count, I never bothered to stop and count them before and I don’t plan to now. I am not sure how many Joel has led to Jesus either as opposed to just collecting followers of himself.
2) I already answered it with Scripture, but you said you don’t like quoting Scripture (which proves my other point I suppose). Since Joel doesn’t feel the need to quote or use Scripture accurately, I don’t expect his followers to do so either. I think Jeremy’s answer below fits as well (the biblical phrase is “itching ears”). I imagine you won’t agree, but that is no skin off my hide.
I am quite OK with that. I don’t care if anyone knows my name besides Jesus, because it isn’t about me at all.
“”Take it from me; no one knows me (Amos), and yous both (Miller & Musgrave). Period! But millions the world over knows Joel Osteen””
I suspect that millions of people the world over know Ghadafi by now also. Does that qualify him to be an example of anything–much less a preacher of the gospel.
The popularity card really doesn’t play well in the Christian game in my humble (nobody has a clue who I am) opinion.
Millions may know Ghadafi, but I don’t know if anyone knows the real correct spelling of his name. Not saying yours is wrong, but it seems like if you got three people spelling it, you will get at least five different spellings. 🙂
I maintain that he (Libyan Dictator) spells it differently than the rest of us and all of the protesters.
He’s holed up, somewhere, thinking “Who is this Ghadafi they want to get rid of? Can’t they leave me alone?”
Yep, he’s that delusional.
I know you are kidding Doug, but I heard a news report today that said that he doesn’t understand what they want him to “resign” from because he sees himself as just a colonel and not the person in charge, so you might be right about that.
Amos, though you are a bit scary I’m game enuf to answer your questions: though I doubt you really care about the possiblity you might be wrong. But here goes:
Yu still aint game enuf to answer my questions;
(1) How many ppl have you impacted or brought to the Lord Jesus?
Answer: None. God and God alone does that.
and
(2) Why do Joel and Victoria lead the largest church in US?
Answer: Because they give people what they want even though it is not what they need.
“”Take it from me; no one knows me (Amos), and yous both (Miller & Musgrave). Period!””
I’m going to go out on a limb and say this post should be discredited because of a cosmic-sized exaggeration.
I’m almost certain “somebody” knows Amos, Miller, and Musgrave.
Here’s a shocker: you probably won’t find anybody in my church that is impressed with Joel Olsteen–if they even know who he is. Also, I’m guessing that more than 6 Billion people do not know Olsteen, nearly the same statistical number that don’t know me.
So, here’s my conclusion: I’m more popular than Amos gives me credit for and statistically (what’s 50,000 out of 6 billion) no less known than Joel Olsteen.
Keep sending in those donations 🙂
Joel Osteen is a great guy, I am sure, and does his dead level best. However, any church that teaches the sort of soft-serve, poor tasting theology and doctrine that Joel spreads runs the risk of not being a church. We are permitted freedom in many, many things, but to take black-letter statements in the Bible (which records the founding of the church) and twist them to mean the opposite is just bad form.
Paul, who wrote much of the Bible that we, Joel and, I assume, Amos uses reminds teachers and preachers of a higher standard. At this point, based on a comparison between Joel’s words and the Bible, Mr. Osteen is not rising high enough. And I’m sorry to have to say it.
Oh, and Amos, the reason they lead the largest church in America today (and I have no idea if that is really factual) is because they teach something that produces good feelings without demanding the sacrifice that Christianity requires.
Does what Joel Osteen leads actually count as a church?
Or is that a question we don’t want to get into?
Yeow.
My envy ends at remembering something about a rich man, a camel, and an eye of the needle.
My envy right now extends to Kevin Vandam and his ability to haul in bass almost out of anywhere.
I’m sure he was there helping out with the feeding of the 5000…
by the way, Osteen ministries consist of:
You can buy his books.
You can buy his DVDs.
You can buy his studies which are ghostwritten by others with his name on it since he has ZERO seminary background.
You can pay to come here him speak.
You can watch him on TV.
He has no less than fifty staff members between him and the average member of that church. You cannot, I repeat, CANNOT schedule a meeting with Osteen unless you are a person of significance, i.e. money, power, or a combination thereof.
He is a gifted communicator with a wealth of knowledge in television which is what he headed up until his daddy gave him that church.
He cannot even get the basic story of King Ahab right and that’s basically a children’s sunday school lesson!
That would be like hiring an accountant who failed college algebra and Accounting I.
Bill, that’s a great post. Are you saying his favorite subject is the “Sweet Buy and Buy?”
In fairness that seems to be a favorite hymn of many mega-church personalities.