I was a little uneasy when I learned that a couple of my family members were getting into Joel Osteen. But I was wrong. I should have been very uneasy.
I have just read The Osteenification of American Christianity by Hank Hanegraaff, radio’s “The Bible Answer Man.” You can read this little book in a sitting, and it’s available from Hank’s ministry at http://www.equip.org .
There’s plenty of Joel Osteen video on the Internet. Here is a mercifully brief example, http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/video/joel-osteen-faith-positive-thinking-14524517 .
OK, I’m not much for worship service that looks like a rock concert. But there’s something about this whole enterprise that stinks. Maybe it’s that cheesy grin that’s always on his face. Or maybe it’s just Osteen’s message, a combination of New Age superstition, mangled and distorted Scripture, and what Hank Hanegraaff charitably calls “urban legends” but are more accurately described as pure B.S.
Really, you’d think any 10-year-old of average intelligence could see through one of these stories. Like the one about the guy who froze to death in the refrigerated railroad car that wasn’t turned on and wasn’t cold, just because he thought he was going to freeze. Presto, human popsicle–because whatever you say or think, claims Osteen, good or bad, is just naturally gonna come to pass.
This guy’s theology is so far out of the Biblical mainstream, it can’t properly be called Christianity at all. Osteen borrows Christian names and terminology, but what he’s selling is a kind of mish-mosh paganism. He couldn’t be less Christian if he performed sacrifices to Zeus.
That this man is so widely successful, so influential, so big, says a lot about the dereliction of duty by America’s churches. There should be no way this guy should be able to hoodwink Christians. But Biblical illiteracy and loosy-goosy doctrine have done their work only too well.
After all, you don’t have to go to Osteen’s mega-church to find idolatry and paganism.
It’s on the menu of a mainline church near you.
Lee, you are very correct in your assessment of Osteen. I remember the days when his father, John, was on TV and I was a new believer and watched or listened to everything that remotely sounded Christian. I had a very wide diversity of messages to evaluate, and believe me, there are myriads of not only new age, but Eastern mysticism and everything from satanism disguised to namby pamby lets all be friends nonsense. It breaks my heart as I remember the Lord’s question of whether He would find any faith on the earth at His return. It seems from present perspective that it is unlikely. He once told me (no twice) “there will only be a small remnant…” Obviously, this is the case.
Erlene, if you go back to this blog’s archives, back to the beginning, you’ll find a series of articles I wrote on goddess-worship and other forms of paganism in the churches of many denominations. It’s enough to make you cry out loud.
I will look for them, thanks.
Lee, sadly the concluding sentences of this article are spot on. Dare point it out – shunning results. After all, how can men erect temples unto themselves with a saints refuse to go along to get along!