Please tell me about Joel Osteen....

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TriuneUnity said:
I’m with you on Corapi and Zacharias. Paul Washer…bleah
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Yeah, there’s a lot of people who can’t stomach Paul Washer. I don’t agree with his particular type of calvinist theology, but I do like how he doesn’t make you have to listen through drivel to get to his point. It’s very plain and simple. But if I really want something to chew on I’ll take Zacharias any day. 👍

Steph
 
tundramom said:
Yeah, there’s a lot of people who can’t stomach Paul Washer. I don’t agree with his particular type of calvinist theology, but I do like how he doesn’t make you have to listen through drivel to get to his point. It’s very plain and simple. But if I really want something to chew on I’ll take Zacharias any day. 👍

Steph
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lol…that’s certainly true, he does speak well (of course, if you’re comparing that to Osteen, it probably isn’t saying much). It’s his endless law thundering that I can’t stomach. If Catholics are accused by Protestants of preaching works righteousness, Washer would’ve made John Tetzel a Lutheran.
 
I’ll right, I’m quoting fallible blogma again (I love this site):

fallibleblogma.com/index.php/is-joel-osteen-dangerous/

Here’s a quote from the post:

"Most people have heard of “Health and Wealth” Christianity. There are many Christian preachers who share a message of attaining great wealth and prosperity if only we will have faith in Jesus Christ and trust in the Lord. Then all of those good things you want to happen in your life will happen. “Expect great things,” says Joel Osteen.

Of course, such a message is an incomplete Christian message. Perhaps a dangerous one. Unfortunately, I think it sets up many people for a crisis of faith, rather than prosperity. And it is a common evangelization tactic for many Christian groups. Such a message can take advantage of the poor and suffering who are desperate for a way to fix their problems. It preys upon the human desire for wealth and prosperity instead of reordering it according to the Christian faith.

Good health and great wealth is probably more often a crutch than a spring board for us. Jesus never once sold Christianity as a path to physical health and material wealth in this life. Christianity is a path we take despite our health and despite our wealth. A true Christian message doesn’t just teach us how to avoid suffering. It teaches us how to embrace our suffering and to turn it into sanctification. It teaches us how to be joyful no matter how healthy or wealthy we are. That’s what we need. We don’t need to become even more obsessed with building up our treasure here on Earth.

Promising that health and wealth will improve if Jesus is embraced as Lord and Savior is just setting most people up for great disappointment. And more dangerously, it risks alienating them to what they mistakenly believe the Christian life to be."
 
:rotfl::rotfl:
TriuneUnity said:
lol…that’s certainly true, he does speak well (of course, if you’re comparing that to Osteen, it probably isn’t saying much). It’s his endless law thundering that I can’t stomach. If Catholics are accused by Protestants of preaching works righteousness, Washer would’ve made John Tetzel a Lutheran.
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:rotfl:
 
I remember my mom had us go to Lakewood church a few times back when John Osteen was pastor, and before they took over Compaq Center. I think John was a bit of a better preacher than his son is, and he certainly had a nicer voice (Joel’s sounds pretty weird). At the time I thought it was really strange to go to a church where you couldn’t go talk to the pastor.

I bet John started the ‘Bible creed’ so people would all bring their Bibles. It’s kind of awkward if you don’t have yours.
 
Cat said:
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.
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👍

It’s unfortunate. I know a lot of people that heed to this kind of thinking. They need much prayer.
 
Chopstick said:
I bet John started the ‘Bible creed’ so people would all bring their Bibles. It’s kind of awkward if you don’t have yours.
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That’s interesting. It makes me wonder if my congregation’s senior pastor gets some influences from this group.

He’ll get on the congregation during sermons every so often for not bringing their Bibles. Sometimes, he’ll declare that the pew Bibles should be taken away, calling them a crutch. He’s also made comments during Bible studies about how Lutherans don’t promote the spirit as much as they should. My LCMS parish is also a member of the Willow Creek Association.

Maybe these are signs that I need to run, run far away to safety.
 
jessep28 said:
That’s interesting. It makes me wonder if my congregation’s senior pastor gets some influences from this group.

He’ll get on the congregation during sermons every so often for not bringing their Bibles. Sometimes, he’ll declare that the pew Bibles should be taken away, calling them a crutch. He’s also made comments during Bible studies about how Lutherans don’t promote the spirit as much as they should. My LCMS parish is also a member of the Willow Creek Association.

Maybe these are signs that I need to run, run far away to safety.
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Unfortunately, this is the result of the LCMS’ recent practice of syncretism in absorbing mainstream American evangelicalism into our churches. It has no place in the church of the Lutheran confessions. It’s foreign to our theology, piety, and practice.
 
jason197754 said:
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…
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I don’t know of any Catholic who regards Osteen as a real Christian.
Properity as a goal is antithetical to the Christian message of love, service and suffering.
 
A couple of points.
  1. While Osteen has everybody hold up the Bible, he is more in the Peale tradition, which uses the Bible sparingly. And not like Graham, I should add, who is a Biblical preacher. In other words, while most people may think he is an evangelical preacher he really is more like a mainline Protestant preacher when it comes to the scriptures.
  2. Personally, I find Osteen a bit tedious. True, he tells some interesting stories, many based on his own experiences. Now and then I have to wonder: did all these things actually happen to him or was he ‘just preaching’. I hesitate to challenge his integrity since I don’t know the man personally.
  3. He is not a pentecostal-style preacher, which may be one reason he is so popular. He seems to appeal more to the moderates within Christianity - distinctly Protestant of course. He avoids yelling like a Swaggart or a Hagee. He has a mellow manner in the pulpit.
  4. Many people would find him a likeable youngish man who delivers an unsophisticated message of encouragement each week. I don’t see him all that often, as he comes on when I’m about ready to leave for church. He also conflicts in this area with ‘The Hour of Power’ with Dr. Schuller, who preaches a similar message though much less of the ‘gospel of prosperity’ emphasis.
  5. I am slow to judge TV preachers, though some of them obviously are frauds, mainly unscrupulous money-makers for themselves. I really don’t think Osteen is that. I think he is sincere. And he does encourage huge crowds who attend as well as millions by television. But I think I would tire of his ‘one sermon’ after awhile. However, Jesus did warn us about judging, so we need to be careful. There were, after all, those who thought Bishop Sheen was a self-centered egotist and intolerant dogmatist.
  6. Different strokes for different folks???
  7. God bless all of our brothers and sisters, whatever their creed, color or country.
 
jason197754 said:
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…
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He is a Tony Robbins with a twist of "religion’ to the mix. Seems more like a motivational speaker,than a ‘religious’ minister. If one wants to make $$$,he is your guy,but listening to the Gospel of Jesus,he is not even close.
 
Nicea325 said:
He is a Tony Robbins with a twist of "religion’ to the mix. Seems more like a motivational speaker,than a ‘religious’ minister. If one wants to make $$$,he is your guy,but listening to the Gospel of Jesus,he is not even close.
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Oddly enough, the Library of Congress is more perceptive than evangelicalism when it comes to Osteen. They categorize his book Become a Better You: 7 Keys to Improving Your Life Everyday as “1. Self-actualization (Psychology) - Religious Aspects - Christianity.”

His is a trivialization of both God’s law, and God’s gospel.
 
My friend who is a fundamentalist and can quote scripture very well called and told me that Joel Osteen was visiting her mega church. She was so excited. Her church likes to bring in big names to draw in people. I said nothing as I was less than impressed.

I don’t understand if she believes the bible how she can also believe in what Osteen is putting out there.

Yours in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary

Bernadette
 
TriuneUnity said:
Oddly enough, the Library of Congress is more perceptive than evangelicalism when it comes to Osteen. They categorize his book Become a Better You: 7 Keys to Improving Your Life Everyday as “1. Self-actualization (Psychology) - Religious Aspects - Christianity.”

His is a trivialization of both God’s law, and God’s gospel.
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Great quote.
I’ll add that his view is also a trivialization of Maslow’s self-actualization.
He loses in every category and on all counts.
 
lizaanne said:
He is a snake oil salesman, nothing else.

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
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How is it that he’s so slick that even the protestant heresy hunters don’t touch him? Why can’t I find anything point for point discrediting him?
Believe me, I’ve looked.
 
60 Minutes did an interview with him like 5-6 years ago. It’s out on YouTube. I think one of the more pragmatic criticisms of Osteen is that most of his stuff is very generic and more of what you would find in a self-help book.

The interviewer even confronted him on the lack of scripture in his stuff and his response was “it’s in there.”
 
CFXDrummer said:
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.
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thats why he is so popular, he is a feel-good preacher, people who listen to him want for God and in thier confusion the get caught up in this feel good message of his and forget that it is not that easy to be a true christian. i pray they stumble upon a good catholic sermon and eventually convert to the One true faith
 
RobBahoura said:
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.
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^that
 
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