Joel Osteen’s Preaching

Katie Couric is one of the most biased people I have ever heard. She gives liberals clear sailing on most issues. She chews up and spits out conservatives—whether political or religious. And yet many people in the media ask, "How can you argue that there is bias in the media?" If you have any doubt about whether the media are liberal on virtually every issue, you must read Bernard Goldberg's two books, Arrogance: Rescuing America from the Media Elite (New York: Warner Books, Inc., 2003) and Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2002). In his book, Arrogance, Bernard Goldberg is particularly critical of Katie Couric (pp. 6, 164, 173, 198).

On Tuesday, May 9, 2006, Katie Couric interviewed Joel Osteen, the "senior pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas," to use the language he employs of himself. She asked him why he did not get involved in political issues, such as, abortion and same-sex marriage. He said that God had called him to encourage people, to preach a positive message, not to be involved in controversial issues. Have you ever wondered why no prophet in Old Testament times and no preacher in New Testament times ever had such a call? Has God called Joel Osteen to ignore the critical issues that are tearing this nation apart and destroying the lives of millions of Americans? Does Joel Osteen not know that failing to preach the whole counsel of God contributes to the moral deterioration of our culture? Does he not know that silence can be sinful?

Please understand that I have no personal ill will toward Joel Osteen. He is a very articulate young man who preaches to approximately 30,000 people in the meetinghouse at Houston and to millions on television each week. His book, Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential (New York: Warner Books, 2004), has become a national bestseller—not because it has any depth of meaning and certainly not because of any literary merit—but because of his popularity on television. I bought the book several months ago, read about fifty pages and decided it was not worth my time. Besides, there are serious flaws in the book. For example, Osteen insists: David, the man after God's own heart, "didn't focus on his faults or on the things he had done wrong" (p. 48). As a matter of fact, king David did focus on the wrongs he had done. I wonder what Joel Osteen thinks David had in mind when he wrote: "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving-kindness: according to the multitude of my transgressions. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me." David further prayed: "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out my iniquities. Create in me a new heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me" (Psa. 51:1-2, 7-10). Had Joel Osteen ever read that Psalm and others where David confesses his grievous sins against God and against others? There are numerous examples of mysticism in the first fifty pages of the book, but I shall have to wait for another time to discuss them.

Have you ever examined God's calling of the great prophets of the Old Testament? Not one of them—not Isaiah nor Jeremiah nor Amos nor Malachi—was called to preach what many modern preachers call "positive messages." Isaiah, the great Messianic prophet, appeared on the scene about 750 years before Christ came into the world. In Isaiah 6 the prophet records his call into the prophetic ministry. It is one of the most spectacular scenes in the word of God. Isaiah complained that he was not worthy for the great task God had assigned to him. He said, "Woe is unto me! For I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." The Lord sent an angel to touch the lips of Isaiah and purged the sin from his life. He heard the Lord ask, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Isaiah responded: "Here am I; send me" (Isa. 6:5-8). Please listen carefully to the mission the Lord assigned to Isaiah. "Go, and tell this people, Hear indeed, but understand not; and see indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. Then I said, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate. And the Lord have moved men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land" (Isa. 6:9-12).

The sad truth is that many modern people are like to ancient Israelites to whom Isaiah preached. Isaiah vigorously condemned the Israelites for their hypocrisy (Isa. 1:1-15). He castigated them for attempting to make alliances with Egypt instead of trusting in God for their deliverance (Isa. 30:1-7). He called them "rebellious people, lying children, children who will not hear the law of the Lord." He accused them of saying to the prophets, "Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth (or pleasant) things, prophesy deceits: get out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us" (Isa. 30:9-11). What was the Lord's response to the hardheartedness of the Israelite people? "Wherefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, because you despise my word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon: therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly at an instant. And he shall break it as the breaking of the potter's vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit" (Isa. 30:12-14). Isaiah's message is very positive indeed, but is it the kind of message Joel Osteen, Robert Schuler and other so-called "positive thinkers" would preach?

God called Jeremiah into the prophetic ministry approximately 150 years after he called Isaiah to preach to the nation of Israel. At the time of Jeremiah's call, the nation was on the brink of the Babylonian exile. It was a critical time in the history of the Israelite nation. When the Lord called Jeremiah, the prophet said, "Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child." The Lord rebuked Jeremiah for calling himself a child. God commanded Jeremiah to go where he was sent and to speak what he was told to say. He promised to put his words in Jeremiah's mouth. Please listen to the mission God gave to the prophet Jeremiah. "See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant" (Jer. 1:5-10).

Did you take note of the negative commands God gave to Jeremiah—"to root out, the pull down, to destroy and to throw down?" God used six terms to describe Jeremiah's ministry. Four of them would be considered negative and two—only two— positive. Is that the balance one hears in the preaching of Joel Osteen and of Robert Schuler? Do we not find the same balance in Paul's charge to Timothy? "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts will they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away from the truth, and shall be turned into fables" (2 Tim. 4:2-4). Am I arguing that two-thirds of our preaching should be negative and one-third positive? Absolutely not! But I am arguing that we must condemn error and immorality when they rear their ugly heads in our culture. What do you think would have happened to Isaiah and to Jeremiah had they failed to deliver the very words of God to the people of God? Can modern preachers do less and expect to have God's approval? Are we not obligated to preach the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27)? Is Joel Osteen preaching the whole counsel of God when he fails to condemn serious moral behavior and doctrinal errors?

Very few preachers in the history of the world were more outspoken against sin that the eighth century prophet Amos. The prophet condemned Damascus, the cites of the Philistines—Gaza, Ashdod, Askhelon, and Ekron—and other places, such as, Tyre, Edom, Moab, Judah and Israel (Amos 1:3-2:8). A Jewish priest by the name of Amaziah was upset with the preaching of Amos. He urged him to go back home to earn his living. He demanded that Amos prophesy not again at Bethel: "for it is the king's chapel, and it is the king's court. Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was not prophet, neither was I a prophet's son; but I was a shepherd, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit: and the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel. Now therefore hear the word of the Lord: You say, Prophesy not against Israel, and drop not your word against the house of Isaac. Therefore thus says the Lord, Your wife shall be a harlot in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided by line; and you shall die in a polluted land: and Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his land" (Amos 7:10-17). Is that positive preaching? It is positively negative.

We have no record of Malachi's calling, but we know he was a faithful prophet of God. I shall take time to read one brief excerpt from his book. Malachi told the priests in Israel: "If you will not hear, and if you will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, says the Lord of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because you do not lay it to heart. Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it.....For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. But you have departed out of the way; you have caused many to stumble at the law; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts. Therefore I have made you contemptible and base before all people, according as you have not kept my ways, and have been partial in the law" (Mal. 2:2-3, 7-9). Is there any possibility you will ever hear that kind of preaching from the mouth of Joel Osteen or of Robert Schuler or of the other so-called "positive thinkers?" How can any man claim to be a gospel preacher when he neglects the great themes of God's word—when he fails to oppose what the apostles opposed and fails to uphold the great truths they taught?

All serious Bible students are acquainted with the conversion of Saul of Tarsus and of his call to serve God as an apostle and as gospel preacher. When Paul was on trial before king Agrippa, he revealed what Christ called him to do. Christ commanded Saul: "Rise, and stand upon your feet: for I have appeared unto you for this purpose, to make you a minister (or servant) and a witness both of these things that you have seen, and of those in the which I will appear unto you; delivering you from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom I now send you, to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them who are sanctified by faith that is in me" (Acts 26:16-18). Is there any doubt in your mind that Saul (who later became Paul) obeyed the commands of the Lord Jesus Christ? Let us take a brief look at some of Paul's letters—both to churches and to individuals.

The church at Corinth had many serious problems. They were apparently divided over preachers. They were saying, "I belong to Paul, and I belong to Apollos; and I belong to Cephas (or Peter); and I belong to Christ" (1 Cor. 1:12). Was that sectarian spirit contrary to the will of God? If you have any doubt about it, please listen to Paul's rebuke of the Corinthians. "And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto you were not able to bear it, neither yet now are you able. For whereas there is among you envying, strife and divisions, are you not carnal, and walk as men" (1 Cor. 3:1-3)? Do you honestly believe Joel Osteen would call anyone in his vast audiences "carnal?" If he preached that some of them were acting like babies, how many of them would be back for his next sermon? But calling people carnal and babies is too negative, is it not? It is if they are not carnal and acting like babies. Did the Holy Spirit inspire Paul to preach what the Corinthians needed? A careful reading of 2 Corinthians 7:7-10 will show that Paul's preaching produced genuine repentance on the part of the Corinthians. Is that not what gospel preaching is supposed to accomplish? Preachers who fail to encourage change of minds and change of behavior are wasting people's time and betraying the Lord.

If you claim to be a Christian, do you not believe in the sacredness of the Lord's supper? How should people behave when they gather to commemorate the death of our Lord? There was confusion in the church at Corinth. Paul wrote: "Now in this I declare unto you I praise you not, that you come together not for the better, but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that there are divisions among you; and I partly believe it." Paul asked them: "Do you not have houses to eat and to drink in? Or do you despise the church of God, and shame the ones who have not? What shall I say unto you? Shall I praise you in this" (1 Cor. 11:17-18, 22)? How would the so-called "positive preachers" respond to Paul questions? Would they praise where praise was not appropriate? Surely they would not accuse anyone of sin. Paul stated very emphatically: "I praise you not" (1 Cor. 11:22).

Paul urged the Corinthians to examine themselves as they prepared to eat the Lord's supper. "For he who eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body." Now please listen carefully. "For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep" (1 Cor. 11:29-30). Is such preaching negative? On the contrary, nothing Paul could have done would have been more positive in promoting spirituality than what he told the Corinthians. Their situation was desperate. They were in danger of being lost if they did not repent. Paul's powerful and uncompromising preaching led to repentance, as I have already indicated. Can I or any other preacher do less if we have the welfare of our listeners in our hearts and if we are concerned about our own salvation?

No book in the New Testament more strongly condemns immorality and religious error than Paul's letter to the Galatians. How many of you who have heard Joel Osteen or Robert Schuler believe either of them would preach like this: "I marvel that you are so soon removed from him who called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: which is not another; but there are some who trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him be accursed" (Gal. 1:6-9)? Does Joel Osteen believe that all the teaching on television is the pure gospel of Christ? Does he understand the conflict between those who preach salvation by grace alone through faith alone and those who deny that doctrine? Do the many false doctrines that are promoted on television bother him? Does he not believe he ought to respond to error whenever and wherever it raises its ugly head? Does he know how Christ and his apostles responded to false doctrine?

How many positive thinkers would tell their audiences: "O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth, crucified among you" (Gal. 3:1)? The Greek word translated "foolish" literally means "stupid." Are you aware that Jesus used the same word of some of his disciples? "O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory" (Lk. 24:25-26)? In his Word Pictures of the New Testament (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1930) Dr. A. T. Robertson says the word translated "foolish" means "without sense" (volume 2, p. 293). If Joel Osteen were to use that kind of language—even if some members of his audience deserved it—his audience the next time he preached would be greatly reduced. And how could he pay for that multi-million dollar church building?

But maybe Paul did not love the Corinthians or the Galatians so much as Joel Osteen loves the people to whom he preaches? Nobody—not Joel Osteen nor Robert Schuler nor any sane person—would ever be so foolish as to maintain that position. They know Paul loved all people—both Jews and Gentiles—enough to sacrifice his life for them. That was his reason for preaching the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth on every occasion. That also permitted him to write: "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge will give unto me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them who love his appearance" (2 Tim. 4:7-8). Can modern preachers do less and expect to receive the crown of righteousness?

Winford Claiborne

The International Gospel Hour

P.O. Box 118

Fayetteville, TN 37334