I know of several people who think Joel Osteen is the greatest thing since sliced bread. They use the same adjectives this lady used in her post . . . his never changing character,  his joy, full of peace, ad nauseam. The only thing this guy is full of is deceit and showmanship style . . . absolutely no substance at all. He’s a fraud and a charlatan.
The people I know personally who adore this guy are so shallow, naive, gullible and totally ignorant of the Scriptures. If you mention to them terms like propitiation, sanctification, justification and they stare at you like zombies . . . duh! Mention the word “sin” and they cringe and think you’re a legalistic bigot.

So, right on Richard! For far too long has the church become too tolerant of the flood of false teachers that permeate the airways  and the pulpit. It needs to stop before it’s too late. Thanks for being an advocate for Christ!

The rest of what you posted has no bearing on my “non-relation” to Mr. Osteen – I owe him nothing. He has staked his claim to what he has decided is the truth; and that also has nothing at all to do with me. I don’t honor the man or his teaching, his writings or his show business acumen; and I haven’t heard him teach the truth since I have been paying any attention to him. I am not party to his teachings and I cannot find the truth in it, so I steer far afield of him and any others of his type. Therefore I have no fellowship with him and I owe him nothing. I am told by that same Jesus you mention not to have fellowship with the “unfruitful works of darkness.” By the way, I also owe the Pope nothing, any fervent Mormon nothing; nothing to 7th Day Adventists, and the same to a host of other false teachers.

You do know that Old Israel believed a lie when he was told that Joseph (his favorite) was dead? Joseph’s conniving brothers brothers lied to their father. Question: did the lie have the same effect on father Jacob as the truth? Answer: of course it did. Did Jacob’s not knowing it was a lie make any difference? No. He accepted the word of his sons. Question: will we accept a lie just as easily as we will accept the truth, if we do not know it is a lie? Answer that one for yourself.

I might remind you that the same Jesus you mention also said, “Cast not your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn and happily rend you.” How does that sit with you? And what do you suppose the Son of God was warning his disciples about with that one? The point of this response is – you cannot make your own rules even where there are none, regardless of whether you can quote scripture with it or not. Nor can I.

What you imply from the teachings of Jesus has no bearing on what you claim. You don’t get the luxury of deciding what honors or dishonors God – he has told us what will and will not serve to accomplish those things. And God says all liars and false teachers will end up “in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone.” What does that mean? To reiterate, God does nothing on my terms — nothing. He will also do nothing on your terms. It is all on his terms; and his terms are plainly stated so that “wayfaring men cannot err therein.”

I am not interested in being mean, and I have no interest in dissuading you and you sister from your inquiries. But don’t cast off without a rudder or map. You have the right to choose to do well or to do anything else. But I would persuade you to study the word of God. You will never come to the truth of the word of God by going outside of it – whether with Joel Osteen at your side, with me or through CMS. Your singular duty is to verify what is the truth and then to seek it out and to do it and it alone. God has said “His word is truth.” Therefore I suggest you need to concentrate on the Word of God. Leave Joel Osteen to his own devices. With that noted, I suggest that you will not get very far within the Word until you will find any number of things that comdemn Mr. Osteen and his like – and none of it comes from me. The evidence is empirical in nature. I am simply reflecting and instucting on what I see and hear. I plan to continue to do just exactly that.

By the way, if Joel Osteen is a man of God, what then is Benny Hinn, Oral Roberts (Sr. or Jr.), Creflo Dollar, & c. & c.?

The man is not a Christian, whether you choose to accept it or not.

Regards,

Christian love has nothing at all to do with what you have described. The biblical description of love is that it is the unconditional giving of things that will sustain another person, the giving of things that will give life. To give some context in a Christian point of view, let us note that Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except by me.” How many is “no one?”

It seems plain to me that Mr. Osteen’s teaching will not sustain anyone except himself and his cadre. And there is no gossip or criticism of Christians on this site. Gossip is the passing of false information with the intent to do harm – prattle and empty talking. None of what follows is empty or false or intended to harm.

Christ said “Not everyone who says to Me, `Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders n Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

“Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.

“Now everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.” (Mt. 7:21 – 27)

With that and any other of a very large number of scriptures kept in mind; according to the Bible I study, Mr. Osteen is not a Christian at all, and therefore is already judged by the Word of God – not by anyone here at CMS or by an adjudicating group or other individuals. He is (I am sure) exactly what he appears to be, just as I am exactly what I appear to be. The Word of God is sometimes direct and harsh. Mr. Osteen needs to submit to Christ and to repent.

Mr. Osteen and company do not teach the gospel of Christ. They teach the Gospel of the Osteen family, which is a very popular gospel largely of their own invention. That is the truth of things. The world is chock full of this kind of teaching and its adherents – too bad it has nothing at all to do with the gospel of Christ. You cannot and will not find any of it in the NT, search though you may. As his father had done before him, so does he. He does not each teach God’s plan of salvation, not submission to God and Christ, not repentance, not baptism, and not a good many other things beyond a smooth message of expendiency and some counsel of present day do-and-feel-good. In short, he teaches Joel Osteen. And as the apostle Paul therefore had said “let him be accursed.” Now, what does that mean?

As unfortunate as it sounds, how is that anything other than accurate? Why would you bother defending his teaching, unless you have fallen for his mannerisms and personna? The man does not teach the truth of Christ; how much plainer can that be put? And, if I am not correct, how is it that I am not?

However, you are so right in noting that God will judge him. I don’t intend to pull on God’s end of the rope, and neither does anyone else here. But, the evidence says that Mr. Osteen is no more “of Christ” than are the majority of televangelists or the current Pope, any of his predecessors or any of his successors to come. They will, everyone of them, talk you into a false submission, probably take your money, pat you on the head, if you like; and then retire to their mansions to count the dough. While, if you or anyone else continues to align to them without seeking out whether or not what they teach is true by the Word of God — then you and everyone else that does so will land squarely in Hell when they die. The Word of God is the judge as to who is and who is not; but we are told to have our eyes and ears open as there are wolves all around. How would wolves get through the door, if we don’t leave it open, I wonder?

Please study the word, “…which is able to save your soul.” It would be our hope that Mr. Osteen would do the same. Without doing that, as Christ very plainly put it, “you shall all surely die.” I suspect that includes me, you, Joel Osteen and everybody else who does something different or that is not found in the teachings of Christ.

Regards,

Many people will follow Joel’s teaching and think they are saved. They will be the ones about whom Jesus spoke when He said: “many will say Lord, Lord, but I will say I never knew you!”