BW3 weighs in on Osteen.
We need to stop listening to the siren song of our culture about the goodness of personal wealth and material prosperity. We need to advocate a theology of stewardship which puts other people’s necessities before our luxuries. We need to simplify our lifestyles and get a clear grasp on God’s prioirties including God’s especial concern for the poor and destitute of the world. We need to realize that what Jesus promised us if we seek the kingdom is not prosperity,but rather ‘just enough’ to take care of our basic needs. We need to remember that the Lord’s prayer teaches us to pray for daily bread, not for resources today that I could not possibly use in 10,000 lifetimes. We need to heed all the warnings about how wealth can destroy the soul of an inherently self centered and acquistive creature– namely any human being. We need to renounce the false gospel of wealth and health— it is a disease of our American culture, it is not a solution or answer to life’s problems.
Click here for the full article.
HT:MS
*UPDATE* - I also recommend the Internet Monk’s post on the recent 60 Minutes interview with Osteen and Michael Horton.
Nice quote from Ben. The only thing I disagree with is the statment that prosperity gospel is a deseas of American culture - well, I suppose it is. But it’s not only a disease of American culture. You would think that sort of nonsense would only go over in the US and in wealthy neighborhoods where the resourses are already there anyway. Actually, it’s huge in Latin America and Africa. Case in point: There is a huge Spanish church associated with Osteen’s church and the pastor of that church is one of the most famous Christian leaders in LA.
[...] You can read some more reactions here & here. [...]
Once again, Joel Osteen’s utter failure to uphold Christian truth in an age of apostacy only further supports what is all too clear about his teaching: it is spiritually bankrupt.
Here is a link to articles our ministry has created on Osteen’s heretical compromise that is anointed as “Christianity” today.
http://www.spiritwatch.org/behindsmile.htm
thanks, Rafael…I’m eager to see what you put together. it’s going to be interesting to see what happens with Osteen in the long run. will he be left alone? will we see something like the ancient church councils convene about him and the rest of the health and wealth movement?
No, I fear BW that in a day and age in which the superficial and the pragmatic and the cult of self-fulfillment are the Asherahs erected in much of the chuch nowadays, I fully expect Osteen will be embraced as a kindler and gentler Billy Graham, and for him to start a long, slow slide into universalism, culminating in characters like Carlton Pearson to eventually take refuge under his wing ..
Jesus said it would be like this .. Matthew 24.4