Pastor Joel Osteen

It'd be alright if the guy could preach---but he can't!! Motivate he may can---preach he "no can do!!"

Blackbird

 

ROFL! That is an apt description.

 

Back in March 2005, there was a long thread on the subject of Joel Osteen. I saved some parts of the discussions in that thread and will post some of it below. It explains better than I can exactly what Osteen teaches. (the thread is in the archives and I can't bring it up as a link to post here):

posted March 20, 2005 09:46 PM
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I spent about 2 hrs. today reading several chapters in Osteen's book.
First of all, the renewing of our mind comes through the Holy Spirit, not through techniques taught by men like Osteen. Secondly, when Osteen says "your best life now" he means wealth, health, and worldly success. That is what he is talking about. Is that what the NT is talking about?

Osteens also says, "Do your part and God will do his part." He says this in the context of his teaching that if we want something, God will give it to us if we do certain things such as:
Speak blessings out loud (if we don't, we can't get blessed)

Do something to get money: he actually suggests that if we want financial abundance, maybe we should buy someone a cup of coffee

Give so you can get. That's one of the messages of the book.

Speak positive things out loud or you can't get them or won't get "blessed."

Abundance is in terms of material and sensual satisfaction.

Osteen's book is full of New Thought teachings about affirmations, how negative thoughts will bring negative things, and how you can give to get. It's a book of techniques. This is what New Thought is, particularly the New Thought techniques taught by Ernest Holmes, founder of the Church of Religious Science, and big influence on Norman V. Peale and Robert Schuller.

It's a very mechanical religion -- do this and get that, pull that string and God does that, say this and get that. And it's all about you, you, you.

I recently gave a talk and Osteen came up in the Q & A. Afterwards, a woman came up to me and said she had been listening to Osteen and she had become afraid to say anything negative, for fear she would bring about some kind of disaster on herself. She was even afraid to confess fears and worries to God. This is the kind of consequence of these kind of teachings.

There is no biblical truth in the things I have put in this post from Osteen's book. They are a perversion of God's word; they are not God's word.

Oh, it might also interest those of you defending Osteen to know this: On Bill O'Reilley's show, O'Reilley asked Osteen: "If I don't believe in Jesus, would I go to hell?" And Osteen replied, "I wouldn't want to say anything like that."

Osteen's beliefs also explain why he did not want to say on TV that someone who does not believe in Jesus will go to hell. He does not want to say anything negative. The guy is in bondage to his own teachings and is merely teaching more bondage to others.

Where does the Bible say we renew our own minds through techniques like declaring things out loud and never saying anything negative? Is the Bible a book of positive vs. negative? It's a book of sin vs. the righteousness of God and our need for redemption. But Osteen does not talk about this. He does not talk about sin or God's wrath on sin. If your preacher never talked about God's wrath on sin and how we don't deserve God's grace but only said we need to be positive and God's blessings will come our way, would that be okay with you?

This is about consequences to our actions. That is not what Osteen is talking about. He's talking about the consequences of negative thinking and negative words: If you say something negative, something negative will happen. This is actually occultic thinking; I know, I thought this way for years. It's part of the occult and of New Thought, and of word of faith. This is not about you say something mean and someone gets mad. No, it's like this: You think that maybe you are sick, so you get sick. You think a negative thought like "I'm not a good person" and someone hits your car. You think, "Sharon is not a nice person" and you get robbed.
He has publically made statements that he will not preach on repentance, blood, etc. I have no respect for him.

I am still waiting for him and others like him to preach a sermon on a passage such as 2 Timothy 3:12 "And indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted."
---------------------------------------------------------------------
I gave a quote of his sermon where he teaches that you must have faith in your words rather than faith in Christ. The man is a heretic. Faith in words is not sound doctrine, and needs to be exposed, and exposed publicly. Because he preaches publicly he needs to be exposed publicly.
--------------------------------------------------
And I heard, with my own ears, his whole sermon on how our thoughts affect material reality. He told two stories to illustrate this, the second one being how a man made his wife die because he was so afraid he would lose her (she was young and died unexpectedly and suddenly). This is part of word of faith beliefs (and comes from New Thought).
"God's hands are tied until we loose them" is part of word of faith teachings. They say this all the time. They believe that we must "loose" God's hands with our mouths, by speaking things we want so God can do them.

Their view of God is that he is limited because he lost his rights on earth with the Fall. They believe that God depended on man for the salvation plan to work out and that he is still limited because Satan is around. So we have to help God by speaking things so he can do them.

So, not accepting these teachings has nothing to do with whether Osteen is in another church or not. It has to do with him preaching false teachings, such as the WoF teachings. They are unbiblical; they bring bondage; they damage people; and I reject them.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
For those of you who say that you just haven't heard Osteen say these things:
quote:
"Fear a force just like faith is a force. If you give into fear and start to dwell on that junk and start to act on it, that fear can actually bring things to pass just like faith can bring things to pass."
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Well, guess what? This is EXACTLY what is taught in the New Age, and what I and my friends believed in the New Age (these are actually principles of New Thought, as I have said several times). If you have negative thoughts, or you repress negative thoughts and fears, you will attract negative things to you.

Also, faith is NOT a force! The WoF teachers teach you to wield faith as though it's a magical force.

Sure, Osteen says some things that are true, but he has so much poisonous stuff insidiously mixed in that it taints most of what he says.

 

On Joel Osteen's telecast today, he preached a message clearly advocating "name it and claim it." If anyone doubted the he is a Word Faith preacher, today's message should erase all doubt.

 

RE: Joel Osteen

"His theology is a mile wide and a millimeter deep."

I agree fully with this statement. He is clearly "preaching prosperity" from his "proserity gospel".

He is a very good motivator, but he is not a good preacher.

His reference to the Holy Bible is maybe one scripture here and there.


raying:


I believe you could talk about Osteen until the Good Lord comes back and never convience some people about him. I know some people that base there "religion" solely on what Osteen says.

 

But, 'they' claim he is baptist . . .

 

I read something about Joel's father John Osteen which said he was originally Baptist. Never heard that about Joel.

They don't call themselves Baptist. In fact, they don't call themselves anything.

Baptists are identified by their distinctive beliefs, and "name it and claim it" is not one of them.

 

joel aint nothing, because he was not called by God to preach.. he has never said he was...

He just says he took over his daddy's business.