THE THEOLOGICAL ENGINEER
Joel Osteen
By Jeff Laird
Imagine buying a bag of M&Ms, only to find out each and every piece was nothing but a hollow candy shell. Those sweets may look like M&Ms, but they're missing the most important part. The whole point of the candy shell is to cover the chocolate, to get it into your mouth without melting. M&Ms without that core are empty, incomplete, and ultimately unsatisfying. Not to mention fake. Those lacking experience with real M&Ms would be especially prone to buying the hollow version. All the while, they'd assume what they have is as good as M&Ms get. Hollow M&Ms aren't "opposed" to real M&Ms. They're pretty. But they're drastically incomplete, and likely to turn people off, once they realize how insubstantial they really are.
Unfortunately, there exists a product, currently available on the "spiritual market", which is much like these theoretical, hollow M&Ms. Those who peddle it are extremely popular, even with Christians who ought to know better. In fact, these peddlers are so popular, and their product so attractive, that those who object to the hollow shell are met with hostility and anger. I'm expecting as much in response to this. But, as much as it might offend those who like his message, I have to say the foremost peddler of an empty, lookalike faith is none other than…
…Joel Osteen.
Osteen's message is superficially Christian, but that's it. All shell, no substance. When you don't talk about sin or even doctrine — and he purposefully does not — you're not preaching the Gospel. When there's no need for redemption, forgiveness, repentance, or submission, then there is no Gospel. In fact, much of what he says can easily be misinterpreted as an excuse to persist in sin — because it says God loves everything about us and we're perfect just the way we are. When you barely — if ever — call sin what it is, you're not helping anyone, least of all the sinner (2 Corinthians 4:3).
To be milquetoast on social issues is bad enough, But Osteen even has a hard time with the basics of the Gospel, as so famously demonstrated in his disastrous 2005 interview with Larry King (emphasis mine):
KING: What if you're Jewish or Muslim, you don't accept Christ at all?This is not a new convert speaking, it's the leader of a church of tens of thousands. He couldn't bring himself to support a fundamental doctrine of the faith he claims to be preaching. His words were not only blatant relativism, but profoundly poor Biblical scholarship. Of course, Osteen "clarified" the remarks later. But if Osteen has such a hard time standing up for Biblical ideas, or even articulating them, how can any sensible person claim he's really preaching them (1 Timothy 1:5-7)? And the Larry King incident wasn't the only time he's been caught putting his foot in his mouth on Christian basics.
OSTEEN: You know, I'm very careful about saying who would and wouldn't go to heaven. I don't know...
KING: If you believe you have to believe in Christ? They're wrong, aren't they?
OSTEEN: Well, I don't know if I believe they're wrong. I believe here's what the Bible teaches and from the Christian faith this is what I believe. But I just think that only God will judge a person's heart. I spent a lot of time in India with my father. I don't know all about their religion. But I know they love God. And I don't know. I've seen their sincerity. So I don't know. I know for me, and what the Bible teaches, I want to have a relationship with Jesus.
Osteen has stated that he chooses not to dwell on certain topics because he doesn't want to limit the appeal of his message. But what little Osteen does say about God or the Bible is grounded in Prosperity Theology, which is totally contradictory to the actual message of scripture (Luke 9:25; John 16:33). Listening to Osteen, a person would think God primarily wants to make poor people wealthy, sad people happy, and insecure people self-confident. But according to the Bible, God primarily wants to make dead people live (John 5:24). He wants to make wicked people righteous (Matthew 9:13). Happiness, self-assurance, and real prosperity, according to the Bible, come as a result of submission to God's will, starting with salvation (Matthew 6:33), and always in the context of His will (Hebrews 10:36). Preaching a Gospel of self-motivation and financial gain, without redemption or repentance, is just not the real deal.
Osteen's message is sweet, attractive, and pretty. It comes with the million-dollar smile, a heaping helping of the feel-goods, and all of the motivation of the best self-help gurus. That message is also hollow, weak, and devoid of any real value. The most important parts of the message are left out, because some people don't like them. Anyone depending on that message, without recognizing what's missing, is going to find themselves spiritually hungry, frustrated, and in dire straits when a real disaster strikes.
So, what Osteen pushes is a shell of legitimate Biblical Christianity, at best, and a dangerous counterfeit at worst. When all you have to offer is materialism and emotion, you're not an evangelist. You're a motivational speaker who borrows religious terminology. Now, there's nothing wrong with being a motivational speaker…unless what you're motivating people towards obscures the far more important message, harming them in the process. In days gone by, such people were called "snake-oil salesmen."
All that said, let's deal with typical reactions to criticism of Osteen:
- Yes, I do have a right to judge the content of his teaching. We're commanded in the Bible to separate good teaching from false teaching (1 John 4:1). Just because he calls himself a Christian doesn't make him above reproach.
Continue to Page Two
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Published 3-17-2014
