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Erik Raymond: "Pollyanna" Joel Osteen and his New Handbook for Hope without Jesus
this is from Erik Raymond of Omaha Bible Church 's irish calvinist blog
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Pollyanna Osteen and his New Handbook for Hope without Jesus
Posted by Erik in Irish Calvinist on Nov 4th, 2009 | 11 responses
With each new publication, broadcast, and church service we have Osteen–with
many more coins in the pocket and sounding more and more like the accursed old prophets.
Jer 50:6 “My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray, turning them away on the mountains. From mountain to hill they have gone. They have forgotten their fold.
Here is Osteen on Fox and Friends this am:
He actually almost said something there.
The new book It’s Your Time: Activate Your Faith, Achieve Your Dreams, and Increase in God’s Favor is out. But it is basically recycled Osteen anchored in the current economic crisis.
Osteen leads people away from Scripture as the sure guide, away from Christ as the sure Savior, and away from heaven as the sure hope.
Instead he leads people to trust in their dreams, be their own savior, and make this heaven. Our desires are inerrant and our potential is unbinding. The amount of subjective hot air that this guy blows into each sentence is amazing.
In terms of Jesus, there is little difference between what he does and Oprah.
Oprah denies Christ’s claims to be the only Savior, Sovereign, and Sufficient One.
Osteen sends Jesus to the bench and then drops the subjective Osteen eclipse on him as he prances around with his flowing mullet and detached subjective platitudes that weigh in at a combined 3 ounces.
One of the most biblically indefensible and frankly, staggering issues here is that he actually subtitles the book as a manual for ‘increasing in God’s favor.’
Um…I thought that was Jesus’ job.
The Bible makes it clear that we have neither the means nor the inclination to achieve God’s favor. We all are categorized as rebels and sinners by the God of the Bible (Rom. 3.10-13; Rom. 5.10; Eph. 2.1). The BEST we could do amounts to an unmentionable sanitary rag (Is. 64.6).
Instead it was Jesus’ job to earn, provide, and keep God’s favor. It is Jesus who is the substitute who lived and died for sinners. He is the one who makes an angry God propitious or favorable (Rom. 3.25). There is no other way to experience the favor of a holy, just, righteous, good God apart from Jesus (Acts 4.12; 1 Tim. 2.5).
Osteen’s shtick is nothing more than good old legalism.
Earn and keep God’s favor by what you do and think. We should all feel somewhat empowered and important, we are now our own Savior!
We should also feel the weight of God’s displeasure since this creed is actually anathamitized in the Bible (Gal. 1.6, 9). Ironically this actually undermines Osteen’s book.
The title is fitting: It’s Your Time.
Right now it is my time to give it a thumbs down.
And Mr Osteen, It’s Your Time to go away. And take your Jesus denying, legalistic, hopeless, broken, tired, Oprah-cloning message with you.
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