{"id":202,"date":"2007-10-16T14:45:17","date_gmt":"2007-10-16T18:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/godandculture.wordpress.com\/2007\/10\/16\/for-osteen-theology-is-optional\/"},"modified":"2007-10-16T14:45:17","modified_gmt":"2007-10-16T18:45:17","slug":"for-osteen-theology-is-optional","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/for-osteen-theology-is-optional","title":{"rendered":"For Osteen, Theology is Optional"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI try to leave them better off than they were before,\u201d is how Joel Osteen defined the endgame for his multi-million dollar ministry of self-help and empowerment during a twelve minute segment on CBS\u2019 60 Minutes titled, \u201cJoel Osteen Answers His Critics.\u201d <\/a>Far from answering his critics, the segment may have given Osteen critics more fodder.<\/p>\n

In twelve short minutes Osteen managed to admit that his ministry is more about show than substance, that he has an aversion to doctrine and theology, that he has no gifting as a teacher of God\u2019s word, that he would rather inspire and motivate people than fulfill the biblical mandate given to pastors to reprove and rebuke, and that what he teaches is closer to Dr. Phil and Oprah than it is to Jesus or St. Paul. In plainer words, Joel Osteen, by his own admission, may be well-qualified as a motivational speaker but lacks many of the qualifications to be considered a shepherd and pastor of God\u2019s people.<\/p>\n

Byron Pitts, the correspondent for CBS News who interviewed Osteen for the segment, was relentless in pointing out where Osteen\u2019s teaching diverges from Scripture and historic orthodoxy. At one point Pitts read for Osteen an extended excerpt from Osteen\u2019s just released, Become a Better You, after which Pitts noted, \u201c[There\u2019s] not one mention of God in that. Not one mention of Jesus Christ in that.\u201d To which Osteen responded, \u201cThere is Scripture in there that backs it all up,\u201d a response which betrays the flippant yet dangerous way in which Osteen handles Holy Scripture.<\/p>\n

Osteen doesn\u2019t understand that we don\u2019t bring our conclusions about life and living to the Bible and seek Scripture to support them. We start with the Bible, handling the text very carefully, allowing the Holy Spirit, the author of the text, to give to us His conclusions about life and living. The Bible isn\u2019t supporting documentation for principles you\u2019ve dreamed up to produce your best life now.<\/p>\n

Osteen readily admits that he is ill-equipped to handle Scripture properly, telling Pitts, \u201c\u2026there\u2019s a lot better people qualified to say, ‘Here\u2019s a book that\u2019s going to explain the scriptures to you.’ I don\u2019t think that\u2019s my gifting.” He spends Wednesday through Saturday in his study at home preparing his weekly message. One might imagine that he is diligently studying the Scriptures. Not so. He told Byron Pitts, \u201c\u2026when I think about it, Sunday\u2019s in a few days and I gotta get back up here and feed everybody and be my best and inspire them and have some good stories, keep them listening\u2026\u201d No where in Scripture is the man of God commanded to \u201cbe my best\u201d and \u201cinspire them\u201d and \u201chave some good stories\u201d or even to \u201ckeep them listening.\u201d On the contrary, the word of God makes it clear that we are not sufficient in ourselves to proclaim God\u2019s word (2 Corinthians 3:5,6), it isn\u2019t our goal to inspire but rather to \u201creprove, rebuke, and exhort,\u201d and we accomplish that goal, not with \u201csome good stories,\u201d but with \u201call longsuffering and doctrine\u201d (2 Timothy 4:1-6). Doctrine is not even on Osteen\u2019s radar. Osteen told Pitts his calling is not to impress people with \u201cGreek words and with doctrine.\u201d Rather, he views his calling as helping people \u201chave the right thoughts today.\u201d While Osteen may not consider teaching God\u2019s word his gifting, God nonetheless demands that those who lead God\u2019s church have an ability to teach His word (1 Timothy 3:2; 2 Timothy 2:24). Osteen has disqualified himself on this point.<\/p>\n

Osteen measures the success of his ministry not by the spiritual growth of his congregation but by \u201chundreds of people tellin\u2019 ya ‘You changed my life.\u2019\u201d The tragedy is that the message which has supposedly changed so many lives is a placebo. Osteen described the substance of his message as one which encourages people to \u201cbe positive in a negative situation and it will help you stay filled with hope.\u201d Pitts pointed out to Osteen that there are many theologians who find his message dangerous, to which Osteen responded, \u201c”I don\u2019t know what can be so dangerous about giving people hope.”<\/p>\n

Hope is dangerous when it\u2019s a false hope. Keeping a positive mental attitude while my house burns down around me may give me hope, but the only thing that can save me is to get out of the burning house. Hope sustains, but it doesn\u2019t save. Osteen points people to their hopes as their salvation rather than to Jesus Christ as the only one who can deliver us from our sins (\u201cnegative situations\u201d in Osteen\u2019s parlance). Genuine assurance in the midst of life\u2019s tragedies and trials comes not from my believing in myself, but from believing in the One who raised Christ from the dead, knowing that I have been raised with Christ through faith in the powerful working of God, that God has cancelled the record of debt that stood against me by nailing it to the cross of His only Son (Colossians 2:8-15), making it impossible for anyone to bring a charge against me or to separate me from the love God has for me in Christ (Romans 8:31-39). In all of life\u2019s negative situations I am more than conqueror, not because I have altered my state of consciousness through repeated positive confessions, but because God always causes me to triumph based on the completed work of His Son on my behalf.<\/p>\n

Everything wrong with Osteen\u2019s teaching and ministry stems from the way he views serious theology as optional. If all we knew about Joel Osteen is the casual way in which he approaches and handles the word of God, we would know enough to steer clear of his ministry, a ministry which purports to prepare people for their best life now yet can do nothing to prepare them for an eternity beyond this life because all Osteen knows is this life. He hasn\u2019t taken the time to engage Scripture at a deep enough level to realize that \u201cif in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI try to leave them better off than they were before,\u201d is how Joel Osteen defined the endgame for his multi-million dollar ministry of self-help and empowerment during a twelve minute segment on CBS\u2019 60 Minutes titled, \u201cJoel Osteen Answers … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}