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What are your thoughts on Joel Osteen?


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I think hes the same as the other TV pastors- Meyer, etc. They might preach a good message, but they teach people to be LAZY.

 

No maybe in the bible it doesnt say you have to go to a church to hear the word, but it also doesnt say you can sit on your couch eating Ho-Hos and claim thats church and youre saved.

 

JMO. :001_smile:

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I think hes the same as the other TV pastors- Meyer, etc. They might preach a good message, but they teach people to be LAZY.

 

No maybe in the bible it doesnt say you have to go to a church to hear the word, but it also doesnt say you can sit on your couch eating Ho-Hos and claim thats church and youre saved.

 

JMO. :001_smile:

 

Um, I'm not sure I get your point here. Your beef with Osteen is that people can watch him at home instead of going to a building to hear a sermon? And that makes people lazy?

 

Please clarify.

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I think hes the same as the other TV pastors- Meyer, etc. They might preach a good message, but they teach people to be LAZY.

 

No maybe in the bible it doesnt say you have to go to a church to hear the word, but it also doesnt say you can sit on your couch eating Ho-Hos and claim thats church and youre saved.

 

JMO. :001_smile:

 

 

This is an insulting, angry, judgmental, ridiculous statement.

 

Beck

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Georgiana D: So help me understand....

 

Does Joel say that if you believe in Jesus as your savior that nothing bad will happen and you will receive everything you pray for?

 

No.

 

I don't know anyone at all who has ever said that.

 

I haven't listened to him enough to know. I HAVE heard him say something to the effect that God will help you through great difficulties.

 

Yes, and that is the encouragement. Not talking specifically about Joel here, because I haven't seen him in years, but talking about the great lack of encouragement that I have encountered.

 

If I can just get through this day, things will turn around. "Count it all joy when you encounter various trials (I've had a lot of "joy" today, can you tell?)...and all that. Not because it IS joyful at the moment, but faith encourages us to see around the corner "the evidence of things not seen", not only for ourselves, but others too. Jesus experienced the same thing when he endured the cross: "looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."

 

Jesus made it through THAT. We can make it through this.

 

I'd assume there is more to his church and his teachings than what we see in 23 mins of TV, but I have no first hand experience. TBH, I stopped watching after he spent an entire show talking about eating healthy or some such fluff.

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Xapis10:

 

Here is a fair amount of info on MacArthur. http://withchrist.org/MJS/index.htm

It is certainly easier to respect him than Osteen, since he shares much Biblical truth, but unfortunately he gets muddy on the gospel (Lordship, etc).

 

I don't respect the fact that he feels his ministry is that of the harsh correction of others. He calls people names.

 

This is why I don't know if we could say Osteen is helpful. His help is not permanent, so in the end it could be more harmful!

 

How could you possibly know this?

 

After encountering 5 different "just hanging on, suffering til I die" Christians in a day, maybe someone turned on happy, smiling Joel who said that "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" and that tomorrow would be a better day, and then decided not to take his life. I'd call that pretty helpful.

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I don't think he blesses people when he makes them feel good without calling them to repentance. A crossless Christianity is not the Gospel.

 

No one ever feels good without repentance, anyway...and I don't know what the "crossless" part means, here, especially considering Osteen's heritage. Feeling hope, as in there must be a better way, instead of hopeless would seem to be a precursor to repentance, in my view.

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I think hes the same as the other TV pastors- Meyer, etc. They might preach a good message, but they teach people to be LAZY.

 

No maybe in the bible it doesnt say you have to go to a church to hear the word, but it also doesnt say you can sit on your couch eating Ho-Hos and claim thats church and youre saved.

 

JMO. :001_smile:

 

If you think going into a building is what gets you saved, I really don't know how to respond to that. I guess all those early Christians - and lots today - just didn't have a conversion experience after all because they weren't in a building on Sunday morning.

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I kind of agree with the wolf comment on Osteen. He gives off a greasy used car salesman vibe to me, and I have never heard a solid message come from him. He has a feel-good, Oprah-esqe quality about his messages that do not point toward the cross. Although he may have led a very few to true faith, I think he leads many more to believe in a name it and claim it faith that isn't real.

 

My step-dad watched him a lot during his battle with cancer. He spent a lot of money in donations to these types of preachers. (I found the check copies and letters after his death) These types of preachers had my brother and my step-dad's girlfriend both convinced that if they prayed hard enough and had the right people praying for them, that my step-dad would be cured. You cannot imagine the struggles with guilt, and struggles with God that this caused in them after my step-dad died.

 

I have little respect for those who claim to preach the Word of God, but only expound on the good bits. It does no favors, and gives you hope in the wrong thing.

 

MacArthur does come across as harsh, but I have yet to read or hear anything from him that is not theologically sound.

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