Thoughts on Osteen Gate Wells Ramblings for Aug 29 2014 Not defending Victoria Osteen, or the latest viral fad thats flourished over the last 48 hrs, but in our critiques lets keep a few things in mind: 1. None of us are perfectly sound in our theology, no matter how much we may insist we are. 2. Some of the views of the church fathers and reformers were nearly as problematic. Luther, for example, was great, but most quotes we mine from Luther are the ones that are easy to AMEN, and we ignore some of the other more, er, troubling ones. 3. The Osteens are, by their own admission, almost completely theologically illiterate. 4. Joy in worship IS a virtue--worship should certainly produce joy in us. (Psalm 98:4) 5. Obedience should be driven by a desire to experience the joy of knowing we are obedient and God is glorified. Jesus practiced this all the way to Calvary (Heb. 12:2) 6. Although God is to be the object of our worship, worship is for us to the extent that we derive the joy God intends for us to have when we adore Him, treasure His Son, and are reminded of the astonishing grace that has been granted us.(Rom. 15:13) 7. Much of the problems with Osteen theology stem from ignorance more than malice for Scripture--I cant prove this but strongly suspect it. 8. Osteen theology didnt originate with him, Robert Schuller was producing it in the infamous Hour of Power when Osteen was still in diapers. 9. Christians DO need to stress joyful worship experiences. 10. There are far worse false teachers than the Osteens, and many of these people, in spite of prominent television, radio, and internet exposure, are rarely mentioned by evangelicals, and are, by default, given a pass to continue on. 11. PRAY for the Osteens, pray God would show them the same grace He showed you. 12. Be compassionate in your critiques, and motivated by love, not love for false doctrine, but love for people who are enemies of the gospel, either by design or by default.(Jude 1:22-23) 13. Remember the Lord CAN convert false teachers---Paul was a legalistic Jew who utterly rejected Christianity and even persecuted those who preached it. (1st Tim 1:13). One final point---and this is specifically for my Baptist brothers and sisters as that is my frame of reference as a Baptist minister myself. When our local Baptist pastors, who would be quick to condemn the Osteens, but get up on Sunday mornings and produce trite, life application only,(minus the Cross) gospel lite sermons, they are being hypocritical, and their people are being hypocritical for affirming them. When Baptist ministers get up and preach LAW without Gospel (which is still a prominent dynamic in the Bible belt), they arent doing any better than the Osteens. When God is presented to the people as someone to obey so you wont go to Hell, and Jesus is not presented as the One who became your perfect obedience already, that preacher is not preaching the Gospel any more approximate to Scripture than Osteen. When Baptist preachers distort the text by sloppy exposition, poor exegesis, and shoddy preparation, and then call out people like Osteen in their sermon illustrations, those pastors/preachers are acting hypocritically. Your shabby preaching is not excused by Osteens shabby preaching. Your anemic understanding or capacity to present the doctrine of the Trinity, the Atonement of Christ, sovereign grace, imputed righteousness, or other core doctrines of the faith is not excused in the courtroom of God simply because there is a dentally glossy, smiling Texas fellow you tend to loathe failing to delve very far into the Gospel. His failure to get past the 2 ft. mark in the pool of theology is no excuse for you to urinate in the same pool. You probably have the education he doesnt have, so you of all people are without excuse. (This goes for the author as well, I hasten to add). Correct, admonish, exhort, but do so with love, not bitterness. We dont need to commend the Osteens, but we do need to have compassion for them. We dont need to buy into their doctrine, but we can acknowledge and affirm the things they get right, rare as they may be. We should never, under any circumstances, viciously mock, revile, jeer, or otherwise lampoon false teachers---though their doctrine may be murky, confused, and at times tragically heretical (Ken Copeland, et al) there is a properly Biblical way of addressing them that does not sink to the level of childish jocularity. If we truly value Gods Word, we will treat these matters with absolute sobriety.
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 16:24:29 +0000