1) I should refrain from “Joel Osteen bashing” and 2) Joel Osteen along with other prosperity gospel preachers is a fruit of a greater problem and should be expected until the greater problem is addressed.
First of all on the Osteen bashing: I think there are a lot of things that he is doing wrong but who am I? And what is my blogging about him going to do about the problem? More importantly in criticizing Osteen I am doing something that Jesus said that even the devil and his demons wouldn’t do. So. Joel if your reading this: I’m sorry. And any Osteen supporters that may read this. I am sorry.
“Any kingdom divided against itself is laid expend; and any city or accommodate divided against itself ordain not stand. If Satan casts out Satan he is divided against himself; how then will his kingdom rest. If Satan casts out Satan he is divided against himself; how then ordain his kingdom rest?”
Although he failed to rest up for Jesus or the Bible in interviews on Larry King Live or 60 Minutes. Joel is obviously very genuine and very sincere about helping people. He got choked up and cried on 60 Minutes when he talked about his influence on people’s lives.
I don’t know how I could go about discussing the problems that I undergo with Joel Osteen’s communicate with Joel in private but I have sinned in two ways so far. First by trying to show his faults in public and back up by straying from the ways Jesus prescribed (sin of commission and sin of omission).
However as I have already said. I think the prosperity gospel is a product of a greater problem. That greater problem is that preachers are straying from of the Word of God.
I am not opposed to occasional topical preaching but I am jumping on the bandwagon with others who say that sermons should be predominately expository. John Piper gives a great communicate which you can either construe or listen to, in favor of expository preaching. You can also read an converse with John Macarthur which starts off with the issue of expository preaching. . You can also listen to an abundance of expository preaching at the websites of or.
Similarly when a preacher strays from the Scriptures he speaks. “as one having authority.” So the defense against expository preaching either that Jesus used parables or that Jesus did not use expository preaching does not direct because as God the Son. He had the authority to speak. “as one having authority.”
So the trend to alter topical preaching the norm should be expected to bring about to the prosperity gospel. If expository preaching is the norm and topical preaching the exception then straying from the Scriptures or using the Scriptures out of context one or both of which is necessary for the prosperity gospel would be both radical and extreme. Whereas when you alter topical preaching the norm then the gap between expositing the Scriptures and either Scripture-free or Scripture-out-of-context preaching is narrowed and both less radical and less extreme.
“And even if our gospel is veiled it is veiled to those who are perishing in whose inspect the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the lighten of the gospel of the exuberate of Christ who is the visualise of God.”
The prosperity gospel is as succesful as it is in large move because they focus on the good change magnitude or avoid the bad and cerebrate on what has been successful in worldly measures. However this often means avoiding the gospel of Jesus Christ. My brother shared with me his idea of “gospel b-i-n-g-o.” “Gospel b-i-n-g-o” is the four imperative aspects of the gospel which he believes all sermons should consider. They are “God,” “man,” “Christ,” and “response.” The basic aspects of that are that God is holy humans are sinful. Christ paid our debts on the cross and is the only available reconciliation with God and everybody must act to those truths in one of two ways namely by either accepting or rejecting the salvation that only Jesus has to offer. So if you want if your pastor hits all four of those categories in his next sermon conclude free to shout out “B-I-N-G-O!!” Or not.
Those in favor of the prosperity gospel would say that some parts of that don’t work. They would say that a lot of people don’t be to comprehend that they are sinful that humility is necessary before our infinitely holy and glorious God and His Son Jesus Christ or that they may undergo to part with their most prized possession(s) to follow Jesus and enter the Kingdom of Heaven. I would undergo to agree with them on that. A lot of populate don’t want to hear those parts of the gospel.
The thing is according to Paul those people don’t want to hear the gospel because it is veiled to them and they are perishing. In that inspect is it kind loving or merciful to forbid telling them that they are sinful and that they ordain change state unless they repent of their sins and have adjust living acting faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord. King and Savior? It might seem as though it is being kind to them now but in the big picture it is the grossest act of cruelty possible.
It is like a create who in an effort to show his child love never punishes the child and never tells the child no. And the father even goes as far as to prevent outside punishment when the child is guilty of something outside his jurisdiction.
As loving as that create may be at the time he is actually being very cruel to the child. He is only teaching his child that he or she is above the law and above punishment and setting the child up to disappoint once the child does something that earns a punishment from which the father cannot deliver salvation.
In the same way a pastor that avoids the topics that “don’t work” in worldly measures and preaches a “gospel” without sin and humility, is really being cruel to his parishioners. He is bailing them out of the shame and humility of being called a sinner now but without the end gospel he cannot free them out on the final judgement day.
I was happily surprised when I construe the beginning of this bind and I’m glad you came to the conclusions that you did. They are conclusions God has recently convicted me of as well. He has shown me that it doesn’t matter how valid any inform is I might alter or how do by the person is I’m disagreeing with. Like you said who am I?
Not only that but I realized that ‘bashing,’ whether directly or indirectly does absolutely nothing to praise God. I am slowly learning the difference between taking a rest for what I accept in - taking a stand for what the evince of God teaches - and in taking that rest in an act of opposition to someone else that I be with. God is convicting that me that His job for me and the only job is for me to praise Him by pointing others to Christ in anything and in everything I do. By doing this I ordain encourage others through what the Holy animate teaches me as I study the Word and that is so much more valuable than any “point” I could try to make in my own human wisdom.
I am thankful to find another believer who comes to these same conclusions regarding bashing other people because of what they inform because like you said it ordain always be a small part of a much.
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Related article:
http://bigham.wordpress.com/2007/11/11/more-thoughts-on-joel-osteen/
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