What is the Problem with Joel Osteen?
Joel Osteen’s books are popular. His ministry outreach is extensive and interdenominational. Catholics, Evangelicals and Pentecostals etc listen to him and buy his books. Even secular folk who don’t normally attend church listen to his sermons. This is because he makes people feel good and gives them hope, which isn’t a bad thing, right? So, why should anyone have a problem with Joel Osteen?
The problem is that he preaches a distorted gospel. In 2014 his wife Victoria made the following remarks to their large congregation:
I just want to encourage every one of us to realize when we obey God, we’re not doing it for God – I mean, that’s one way to look at it – we’re doing it for ourselves, because God takes pleasure when we are happy…That’s the thing that gives Him the greatest joy… So, I want you to know this morning – Just do good for your own self. Do good because God wants you to be happy…When you come to church, when you worship him, you’re not doing it for God really. You’re doing it for yourself, because that’s what makes God happy. Amen?
How would the Osteens counsel those persecuted Christians in the Middle East and in other parts of the world about happiness? What would he say to Pastor Saeed Abedini and Asia Bibi who are languishing in prison on account of their faith?
In his Epistle James wrote:
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. Jam 1:2-3
Blogger Matt Walsh observed of Osteen:
Joel Osteen has no answers for those who truly suffer. He can spew inane slogans like, “if you have a big challenge today, that just means you have a big destiny!” (actual quote), but he can’t offer any real hope to the tired, the poor, the sick, the persecuted, the lonely, the dying. He gives them a friendly slap on the back and tells them to pick their chin up because it will all get better, but then he goes home to his castle and things don’t get better — not in this life, anyway. The sick get sicker, the persecuted are seized, arrested, and beaten, the tired find no rest, the poor lose even what little they had, the dying die, the suffering suffer. This is the reality for most of the people on this Earth, and the Osteen Doctrine sounds like nonsense in the face of it.
Albert Mohler noted that:
Judged in theological terms, the Osteen message is the latest and slickest version of Prosperity Theology. That American heresy has now spread throughout much of the world, but it began in the context of American Pentecostalism in the early twentieth century. Prosperity theology, promising that God rewards faith with health and wealth, first appealed to those described as “the dispossessed” — the very poor. Now, its updated version appeals to the aspirational class of the suburbs. Whereas the early devotees of Prosperity Theology prayed for a roof over their heads that did not leak, the devotees of prosperity theology in the Age of Osteen pray for ever bigger houses. The story of how the Osteens exercised faith for a big house comes early in Joel Osteen’s best-seller, Your Best Life Now….
Mere happiness cannot bear the weight of the Gospel. The message of the real Gospel is found in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” That is a message that can be preached with a straight face, a courageous spirit, and an urgent heart in Munich, in Miami, or in Mosul…If our message cannot be preached with credibility in Mosul, it should not be preached in Houston. That is the Osteen Predicament.
John MacArthur said of Osteen:
You need to understand that he is a pagan religionist in every sense. He’s a quasi-pantheist. Jesus is a footnote that satisfies his critics and deceives his followers. The idea of this whole thing is that men have the power in themselves to change their lives. In his definitive book, Your Best Life Now, he says…and that ought to be a dead giveaway since the only way this could be your best life is if you’re going to hell. He says that anyone can create by faith and words the dreams he desires…health, wealth, happiness, success…the list is always the same.
The problem with Osteen is that he preaches happiness founded on ephemeral things. He has his priorities back to front. The gospel preaches the Blessed Hope to come (Titus 2:13). The true gospel is focused on Jesus Christ, not a transient worldly happiness. William Gurnall once wrote:
The peace which the gospel brings and speaks to the heart, will make the creature ready to wade through any trial or trouble that meets his Christian course. He who enjoys in his bosom the peace of the gospel, is the person, and the only person, that stands shod for all troubles and trials.
Be wary of Osteen’s false message!
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