And trust me there are so many it’s hard to know where to start. And not often I put out two posts in one week but some things are too important to keep sitting on for too long, and I just heard this tonight – courtesy of Sermon Audio (and Way of the Master Radio) so some of you may already have heard it:
All I can do is plead with any of you who consider Joel Osteen to be good – to remember that what the world deems good is not necessarily what GOD does! God requires His people who are called by His Name i.e. Christians, to heed His Word over and above the words of men, but also to recognise that the Gospel was paid for by a very high price – the highest possible to be paid – a Life! Joel Osteen is providing nothing more for his followers than any other good motivational speaker out there. He provides a false sense of security and is dooming his followers to at the very least – a huge judgement for their lack of discernment, at worst – eternal death because they believed a man’s words over God’s Word and Osteen gives the impression that God wants man to be happy not to have to confront their sins and repent in order to be saved! You should know that if you believe that, you are not going to get to heaven by any stretch. And telling God (if such a thing were even possible!) when He judges you that you weren’t aware of your mistake or that Osteen said all the right things and you thought he knew what he was talking about will serve you no good then. God provides everyone with ample opportunity to discover the Truth in the lifetime they’ve been given (bar those who die before an age of responsibility) and none of us will have any capacity to dare to try to defend ourselves at Judgement before a Just and Holy God the magnitude of Whom we have utterly no comprehension. We have dared to make God in our image and thus we dare to think He will deal with us as we would perhaps deal with someone here who’d made mistakes in their lives – but if you truly read scripture and especially those passages where God talks about Himself and His view of mankind you would learn otherwise.
And if you do desire to know Him better I would suggest you read His Word first, man’s words second and your own words last – in other words give God His rightful place in your life, listen to solid and truthful exposition by those who obviously do the same e.g. Paul Washer, John MacArthur, Chuck Missler etc, and learn to allow God to tailor your own views accordingly with continual prayer for discernment while doing so.
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December 2, 2007 at 21:05
bohemianprose
Here is an interesting little fact, I am not trying to judge here but was seriously in question. I went to Joel Osteens web site to look around after the release of his last book which I don’t buy into. On his site though there are up to nine or ten mentions of him on the front page and not a sinlge mention of God in fact on all of the pages all I could see was one mention of God and not one on Jesus. What bothered me was this, this is a (church) website being used for personal gain…have a blog, have an attachment to another site, have phone line, but using the churches webpage for your own gain??? Maybe they see it as a ministry, but I have often wondered how many, many churches are able to have a sermon or to preach the truth without use of the bible, paraphrase it say it in a new way but use it… this is what is meant when the bible says in the last days they will tickle your ears. Trust me I don’t have it all figured out but I know a good motivational speaker when I see one, what about the fear of God, what about truth, what about commandments, feel good message yeah it helps me to feel good but does it purify me and make me want to repent Lord knows I need to.
One more side note I e-mailed Joel Sosteens church web site with a question of why there was hardly any mention of God on it. They never Got back to me!
December 3, 2007 at 13:03
Andrew Alliance
I doubt that they will get back to you…
Great post TK.
December 3, 2007 at 17:55
andielle
Well written with truth!
Many are desperate and expect a quick fix with sound good answers . . . that’s why its important for those who know truth stand up and shout it.
Keep writing!
December 5, 2007 at 03:11
LorMarie
Joel Osteen is a fabulous motivational speaker. But that’s just it, only a motivational speaker. If he wants to be such then fine. But he’s leading a church with thousands of members for crying out loud. The church is not the place for Osteen’s message. His “sermons” always managed to leave me empty.
April 4, 2008 at 05:14
godpress
One more book I would highly recommend, but must state up front, that I don’t fully agree with everythign the writer says (I believe he was a calvanist), is The Sovereignty of God. It’s a harsh reality check about our Spiritual conditions, and God’s absolute soveriegn right to do what He does. It explains why God acts as He does, and points out our responsibilites quite thoroughly. The book also makes note of the many ‘revival meetings’ and feel good messages that swept through different coutnries, and points out that the God that is being preached in these feel good places of worship isn’t the true God of hte bible, and he explains why about as well as anyone I’ve seen, and he echos what I’ve felt about all the modern day feel good preachers that have cropped up in recent decades. I just always felt that God wasn’t quite the ‘anythign goes’ God that was being implied in recent messages, which people love to hear about, but was a God who really does demand certain standards (Not that we’ll lose our salvation if we fail to live to those standards, but the book gives good insight into the seriousness of sin and why it must be punished- somethign feel good preachers don’t liek to preach because they know their congregations want feel good messages, not hte harsh realities.)
As I said- Pink was I beleive, a Calvanist, and I don’t think some of Calvanist teachigns are correct, but I believe he had a deep love for God and an understanding of God such as I’ve not seen in many modern day preachers. Here’s an online version of his book if anyone’s itnerested: http://www.pbministries.org/books/pink/Sovereignty/sovereignty.htm
“The sovereignty of the God of Scripture is absolute, irresistible, infinite. When we say that God is sovereign we affirm His right to govern the universe, which He has made for His own glory, just as He pleases. We affirm that His right is the right of the Potter over the clay, i.e., that He may mould that clay into whatsoever form He chooses, fashioning out of the same lump one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor. We affirm that He is under no rule or law outside of His own will and nature, that God is a law unto Himself, and that He is under no obligation to give an account of His matters to any”
April 4, 2008 at 05:15
godpress
Woops- ‘godpress’ is me CottShop- GodPress was my old blog lol- Sacredscoop is my new one- Got to change my wordpress login account to my new nickname I guess lol
July 5, 2008 at 20:39
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