Please tell me about Joel Osteen....

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Hi there. It seems like most Catholics are divided on the issue of Joel Osteen. He is a famous/popular preacher on tv. He has the biggest church in the USA there in Houston Texas.

He is a prosperity preacher, but he also sounds like a motivational speaker as well.

But it’s also reported somewhere that the people who go to his church only go for 1-3 years and then they leave and go somewhere else.

Why is that???

But it seems like a lot of catholics like him-Joel Osteen but a lot of catholics don’t like him as well.

Can you all expalin that to me?

And do Catholics believe that God wants to bless us and prosper us even in this life now??

Thanks…
 
I was flipping channels the other night, and ran across his service.

To be honest, I couldn’t get past the first couple of minutes when he had everyone in the audience lift their Bibles up and start saying some sort of oath or creed.

We don’t worship the Bible, we worship God.

Not to mention, when the camera zoomed in on him, he had waaaaayyyyy too much makeup on.
 
If you follow Osteen carefully, you’ll notice two things:
  1. His wife absolutely owns him. He’s whipped like no other.
  2. He only has one sermon, and he preaches it every single week and at every speaking engagement. His sermon is “think your happy thought and feel good about yourself, because God wants to bless you.” That message wouldn’t last 10 seconds in places where the Church is severely persecuted, but it works for rich, suburban, shallow Postmodernist Americans. They keep buying his books and enriching him while he tells them that God “wants” them to get richer too.
 
blazerdave;66245542.:
He only has one sermon, and he preaches it every single week and at every speaking engagement. His sermon is “think your happy thought and feel good about yourself, because God wants to bless you.” That message wouldn’t last 10 seconds in places where the Church is severely persecuted, but it works for rich, suburban, shallow Postmodernist Americans. They keep buying his books and enriching him while he tells them that God “wants” them to get richer too.
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Maybe this explains the report the OP was talking about, where his members leave after a few years. They’re looking for something, and not finding it.
 
twopekinguys said:
I was flipping channels the other night, and ran across his service.

To be honest, I couldn’t get past the first couple of minutes when he had everyone in the audience lift their Bibles up and start saying some sort of oath or creed.

We don’t worship the Bible, we worship God.

Not to mention, when the camera zoomed in on him, he had waaaaayyyyy too much makeup on.
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Besides the fact that everything he teaches contradicts about 80% of what the Bible he is holding up says.
 
You’re probably right. I had the misfortune of having to keep up with this guy when my Baptist grandparents got too old to go to church easily. They were watching all sorts of bad preachers on TV, and they asked what I thought about Osteen. He really does just have that one message, like a motivational speaker. So I think you’ve hit the nail on the head: hearing that message week after week, year after year, while nothing changes in your life, would get really old really fast. There’s no gospel there, only a self-help Pelagianism.
 
twopekinguys said:
Maybe this explains the report the OP was talking about, where his members leave after a few years. They’re looking for something, and not finding it.
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You’re probably right. I had the misfortune of having to keep up with this guy when my Baptist grandparents got too old to go to church easily. They were watching all sorts of bad preachers on TV, and they asked what I thought about Osteen. He really does just have that one message, like a motivational speaker. So I think you’ve hit the nail on the head: hearing that message week after week, year after year, while nothing changes in your life, would get really old really fast. There’s no gospel there, only a self-help Pelagianism.
 
blazerdave said:
You’re probably right. I had the misfortune of having to keep up with this guy when my Baptist grandparents got too old to go to church easily. They were watching all sorts of bad preachers on TV, and they asked what I thought about Osteen. He really does just have that one message, like a motivational speaker. So I think you’ve hit the nail on the head: hearing that message week after week, year after year, while nothing changes in your life, would get really old really fast. There’s no gospel there, only a self-help Pelagianism.
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LOL, you brought up a funny memory with this.

My grandmother was in a nursing home, couldn’t walk well, couldn’t make it to church. My grandfather who was a Presbyterian minister had already passed away.

I went to visit her quite often, and one time she was watching “The PTL Club”, with Jim and Tammy Faye. Without even thinking, I said…“Oh! You’re watching Pass The Loot!!”

I’m not sure, but I think her head spun around 3 times before she started yelling at me. After a while though, she got it figured out, and stopped watching them.
 
twopekinguys said:
LOL, you brought up a funny memory with this.

My grandmother was in a nursing home, couldn’t walk well, couldn’t make it to church. My grandfather who was a Presbyterian minister had already passed away.

I went to visit her quite often, and one time she was watching “The PTL Club”, with Jim and Tammy Faye. Without even thinking, I said…“Oh! You’re watching Pass The Loot!!”

I’m not sure, but I think her head spun around 3 times before she started yelling at me. After a while though, she got it figured out, and stopped watching them.
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HAHAHAHA that sounds like something I would have done (and the response I would have received!!!). Very good! 👍😃
 
I watched one sermon by Joel Osteen while I was staying in a hotel.

He lost me when he said that Christians need to avoid being around the sick, the poor, the depressed, and the prisoners because these people will bring us down. He said we should surround ourselves with successful, beautiful, energetic people because they will help us to stay positive and achieve success.

This is completely opposite of what Jesus said and did.
 
You know, the only time I watched Osteen, I noticed one thing. He does his “creed” thing holding up his bible… and then only quoted from it ONCE during the entire broadcast. And THAT was only a paraphrase.

Ugh. Can’t stand him. There are very few preachers I would actually choose to watch or listen to. Fr Corapi, Fr. Larry Richards, Ravi Zacharias, and Paul Washer. That’s about it.
Steph
 
“go, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me” Mark 10:21

That’s how I understand prosperity in this life and the next. Joel Osteen could just be making excuses for himself. I’m not judging him or any wealthy person, I just think that prosperity in this life means finding the “pearl of great value”. Carthusians are probably the most prosperous.
 
About 6 years ago, I was a lapsed Catholic who was just beginning to feel the promptings of the Holy Spirit. I was interested in all things having to do with faith, and when I somehow stumbled across Joel Osteen’s show on TV, I eagerly tuned in for several weeks. Gradually, I became aware that what he was preaching was not quite “right.”

What finally clinched it for me was when he was telling the story of the time he was stuck at an airport due to some sort of problem that came up, and he and a crowd of other people were facing a long wait. He approached the airline’s service desk and managed to get a seat on the next outbound flight. And how was he able to do this, you ask, since all the flights were full and a hundred other people were clamoring for seats as well? Because, Jesus smiled on him because he is such a good Christian.

When I heard that I could not believe my ears. I knew this man’s message was not the Gospel message, and I never watched his program again.
jason197754 said:
And do Catholics believe that God wants to bless us and prosper us even in this life now??
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Mother Teresa said, “God does not call us to be successful, he calls us to be faithful.” In other words, success is all well and good, but that’s not what our faith is about. Faith is about being in union with God, and following the two greatest commandments “Love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength; and love your neighbor as yourself.” God should be central to our lives, not our success.
 
I think of Joel Osteen as a sort of “economic” version of preachers who teach the watered-down Gospel that doesn’t hold people morally accountable. While some preachers have a “feel-good” message that says we shouldn’t think of homosexuality, premarital sex, etc., as sins, but just “get along,” Osteen preaches a “feel-good” message that says we shouldn’t expect to suffer or have hardship in our own lives, but we should just expect God to bless us with health and prosperity.

When you think about it, that’s really the Old Testament Jewish understanding of God’s favor. To the Jews, if you were wealthy, had lots of descendants, and experienced prosperity in life, that was God’s way of showing He favored you. Osteen has completely missed the transition that Jesus brought with him into the New Testament.
 
jason197754 said:
He is a prosperity preacher, but he also sounds like a motivational speaker as well.
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He is a snake oil salesman, nothing else.
But it’s also reported somewhere that the people who go to his church only go for 1-3 years and then they leave and go somewhere else.
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Why is that???
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So very simple. He is not preaching the Truth. People hunger for Truth - and the fullness of Truth can only be found in the Catholic Church. He is only selling fluff and fantasy - and that doesn’t fill hearts or souls. Once people realize this, they leave. You can hardly blame them.

Check out THIS Google search for him and the topic of sin. It is amazing that everyone out there seems to realize that he won’t touch the topic with a ten foot poll except for him!!! :rolleyes:

He is a money maker - a liar - don’t waste any time watching his parade.

~Liza
 
tundramom said:
You know, the only time I watched Osteen, I noticed one thing. He does his “creed” thing holding up his bible… and then only quoted from it ONCE during the entire broadcast. And THAT was only a paraphrase.

Ugh. Can’t stand him. There are very few preachers I would actually choose to watch or listen to. Fr Corapi, Fr. Larry Richards, Ravi Zacharias, and Paul Washer. That’s about it.
Steph
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I’m with you on Corapi and Zacharias. Paul Washer…bleah
 
I really don’t know much about Osteen as I could never listen long enough to get an idea of what he is saying. I can’t get past his voice. He has the strangest half-whispering tone of voice that sounds like some sort of hypnosis tape to me. How do people sit and listen to him drone on for hours, and then tune in or go back week after week? I really don’t think I could endure that voice if he were the greatest preacher on earth, and he clearly isn’t.
 
Peace be with you,
I can tell you that Joel Osteen is a Lire if you do not have the teachings of the catholic church your whole so called religion is fake. There are only the church fathers who gave us the bible IT DID NOT FALL FROM THE SKY. Were i am getting at is since Joel does not have the catholic teaching he is fake and is his so called church.

P.S. He is only after money so do not waste your time i would watch EWTN and learn more on the catholic faith.
 
jpjd said:
… when I somehow stumbled across Joel Osteen’s show on TV, I eagerly tuned in for several weeks. Gradually, I became aware that what he was preaching was not quite “right.”

What finally clinched it for me was when he was telling the story of the time he was stuck at an airport due to some sort of problem that came up, and he and a crowd of other people were facing a long wait. He approached the airline’s service desk and managed to get a seat on the next outbound flight. And how was he able to do this, you ask, since all the flights were full and a hundred other people were clamoring for seats as well? Because, Jesus smiled on him because he is such a good Christian.
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During one of Joel Osteen’s TV sermons, he said that it didn’t rain on Sunday for X number of weeks because of his request to the Lord for it not to rain because it prevented people from going to church. The sermon was about the power of faith – and getting what you ask for. In this case, he prayed for no rain and the Lord purportedly granted Joel his request.

This next statement is not made in malice, however… have you ever noticed that each time Joel Osteen blinks, he appears to have a mini seizure-like flinch in his face?
 
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