Osteen preaches a health-and-wealth/prosperity Gospel, which comes across even more strongly in this second book (as compared with Your Best Life Now).
Osteen changes the Christian Gospel by redefining orthodox terms such as faith, sin, salvation, blessing, deliverance, etc., into subjective, works-righteousness Pelagianism.
Behind the smile lurks a theology that will rob you of the Gospel’s joyous freedom. The seed of success is not deep within yourself, waiting for you to draw it out as Osteen would have you believe. The only seed that will save you from sin and death is the seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15), God’s own Son, who was “born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4-5 ESV).
Popular preacher Joel Osteen’s positive message packs 42,000 a week at his Houston Lakewood Church. But critics complain he’s dumbing down the faith. Byron Pitts reports.
A short portion of the full, 11-minute interview, including Dr. Horton’s critique of Osteen’s “cotton candy gospel” can be seen in this clip:
According to the Scriptures, there is no “prosperity,” blessing, hope, etc. without payment for sin, specifically, payment with blood.
Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins (Hebrews 9:22 ESV).
We cannot receive God’s blessing without first knowing God’s condemnation. God’s law clearly condemns all people as morally culpable (Romans 1-3). The wonder of the Gospel is that God incarnated Himself in Jesus Christ to come and bear sin’s curse on behalf of His people. Contrary to Osteen’s message of exclusive blessing, the Scriptures clearly teach that humiliation must come before exaltation, or else even Jesus’ coming to earth would not make any sense. Accordingly, when the apostle Paul reminds the Corinthians what the Gospel is, he speaks first not about blessing, prosperity, and the like, but of Christ’s death:
Now I would remind you, brothers,of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:1-3 ESV).
If Christ’s humiliation unto death is of “first importance” to Paul, no preacher of the Gospel can skip this point. Doing so makes one not a preacher of the Gospel, but a proclaimer of lies and a purveyor of curses. For, God does not and cannot promise to bless without first dealing with humanity’s moral guilt from sin. God has done so on the cross. And so Paul says:
For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. …but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles (1 Corinthians 1:17, 23 ESV).
Though the Gospel is more (much more) than Christ’s incarnation and death, it is not less. Without “Christ crucified” for sin, there is no Good News to preach. When it comes to the Gospel, half right is fully wrong; Osteen’s messages are Pelagian, not Christian.
I’ve tried to be kind to Osteen, but listening to sermons like this one…
…in which Osteen exhorts his parishioners to tap into the inward joy that is inside of them by singing happy songs, “whistling while you work,” etc., without any reference to the Gospel (Jesus’ incarnation, life, death, resurrection, ascension, and present reign according to the Scriptures) or man’s need for the Gospel (i.e. Romans 3:9-18), reveals Osteen’s penchant for rampant Pelagianism and moralism. This junk is NOT the Gospel of Jesus Christ revealed in the Holy Scriptures!
It is highly offensive to me that preachers like Osteen (and there are many!) masquerade under the banner of evangelical, “Bible-believing” Christianity because they do not teach what Jesus taught. Heck, in the “sermon” above Osteen did not even explain the text from Ephesians. These sort of prosperity preachers give Christianity (and Jesus Himself) a bad name, making the glorious Gospel of the King of Kings into a Dr. Phil/Oprah pep talk. And God does not take kindly to teachers who do not tell the whole truth about the Gospel.
On this program, Michael Horton begins by evaluating the popular message of televangelist Joel Osteen, and then moves to a larger discussion of the true nature of the Christian gospel. In addition to the regular White Horse Inn panelists, Michael also talks with Dr. D.A. Carson about his work with the newly formed Gospel Coalition. (See more free WHI resources related to this broadcast.)
Also, this Sunday (14 Oct. 2007) Joel Osteen will appear on 60 Minutes to answer his critics, one of whom is Dr. Michael Horton. It will be interesting to see whether Osteen will continue to shun all things related to Christian doctrine. I hope not, but we’ll see.
More White Horse Inn Resources on Joel Osteen and Similar “Christian” Teaching
Is Joel Osteen a Christian? Does he preach the Gospel? These questions continue to linger among conservative Evangelicals who are leery of Osteen’s lack of doctrine and penchant for moralism and “prosperity gospel.” Osteen has been a constant whipping boy of horribly unorthodox theology (rightly so, many times) among the student halls of my seminary; I have even cracked a few jokes about the famous preacher myself. These facts coupled with more recent mentions of him in a positive light in my preaching class (at Reformed Theological Seminary, nonetheless) have whetted my curiosity enough to look at two of Osteen’s public statements and to re-think one aspect of my quick judgments against him: Osteen’s relativism.
Osteen’s Blatant Relativism
On June 20, 2005, Joel Osteen, the pastor of the largest “evangelical” church in America, proclaimed that he did not believe Jesus Christ is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). Watch the segment of Larry King Live for yourself (read full ranscript):
Blatant question dodging and deflection on basic doctrinal questions such as the common confession of Christ as the exclusive Lord (Romans 10:9-10) rightly angered Christian ministers, who, according to the Scriptures, are to boldly proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. On Christian terms, Osteen’s words here are heretical.
Osteen’s further confused comment about the interrelation of faith and works belie a failure to understand the interrelation of Romans 3:28 and James 2:24.
When I saw the above clip, I joined my evangelical brothers in righteous anger, as King pointed out. Why could God allow so many thousands of people to be captured in the Pelagian web of a heretic?
A little further digging, however, offered a faint glimmer of hope that Osteen possibly could be a (very theologically immature) brother. (Maybe.)
Osteen’s (Weak?) Retraction of Relativism
Interestingly, Osteen reappeared on the Larry King Live show on December 22, 2006. King made a point to ask him why so many Evangelicals were upset at his denial of the exclusivity of Christian truth. I don’t have the video clip, but here’s the relevant snippet of the transcript (read full transcript):
KING: We’re back. On this program you angered some evangelicals two years ago when you did not say that accepting Jesus is the only way to heaven. This is the birth of Jesus coming up Monday. You still believe that?
J. OSTEEN: No. I believe that Jesus is the only way to heaven.
KING: So you misspoke?
J. OSTEEN: I thought that I said that. I said I believe in a personal relationship with Christ. You go back and pull things out of the transcript, it could look like that, but the foundation of the Christian faith is that Christ came as a sacrifice so that we can receive forgiveness.
KING: So you don’t believe, you don’t go to heaven?
J. OSTEEN: I believe it’s true what you’re saying, that you have to have a relationship with Christ. I mean, the “Scripture” is so clear. The most famous “Scripture” is God sent his son to, you know, forgive the world and if you believe in him, you will have everlasting life. And another place it talks about Jesus said, you can’t get to the father unless through me. So I do believe that. It’s the foundation of our faith.
KING: So was that out of context two years ago …
J. OSTEEN: I think that being young and …
KING: Did I trick you?
J. OSTEEN: No, I never felt like that whatsoever. I just think — and I was first to admit, if anybody took it like that, I’ll admit an oversight.
Osteen’s answer is timid and political-sounding, lacking the holy boldness that everywhere coexists with the heralds of the Gospel portrayed in the Sacred Scriptures. I want to puke reading his answers. However, his answer does offer a faint hope that mild orthodoxy might be seeping into Joel’s thinking. I have to admit that he admitted to “being young” and to making “an oversight.” He even said, “I believe that Jesus is the only way to heaven.”
Joel had better get this figured out, and fast. For, it was Jesus himself who said:
So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 10:32-33 ESV)
Osteen’s answers leave much (MUCH!) to be desired in terms of proving that he is a brother and not a heretic. Perhaps, though, the above comments should have us leaning with love on the side of the former rather than pouncing quickly to the side of the latter. Accordingly, I pray that someone will give him a Bible and a few theology 101 books and will then come along side him and disciple him in the Truth. Perhaps no one has ever loved him relentlessly enough to offer this.1
Footnotes
Don’t misunderstand me; it is a high Scriptural duty and a constant need to stomp out heresy. My point is that perhaps Joel has never been catechized in the basic truths of Christianity. Perhaps he has and is rejecting the truths. If so, let research be done and error exposed. Until then, it seems wise to avoid quick judgments (i.e. judgments without researched warrant). [↩ back]
As a follow up to his recent interview on 60 minutes regarding Joel Osteen’s heterodox theology, Dr. Mike Horton published a review of Osteen’s latest book, Become a Better You. The essence of Horton’s review comes as no surprise:
