Page updated 24 September 2018

Page Suggestions: false doctrines, False prophets, False teachers, Wolves in Sheep's Clothing

False Teacher Joel Osteen

Joel Osteen's teachings are false because health, wealth, peace and success are the same things the false prophets in the Old Testament promised. Read Jeremiah 6:13 Bible quote For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one [is] given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.Jeremiah 6 verse 13, Jeremiah 7:1-11(verse 1) The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

(verse 2) Stand in the gate of the LORD'S house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all [ye of] Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the LORD.

(verse 3) Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.

(verse 4) Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, [are] these.

(verse 5) For if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour;

(verse 6) [If] ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt:

(verse 7) Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.

(verse 8) Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit.

(verse 9) Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not;

(verse 10) And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?

(verse 11) Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen [it], saith the LORD.Jeremiah 7 verses 1-11, Ezekiel 22:23-29 Bible quote (verse 23) And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

(verse 24) Son of man, say unto her, Thou [art] the land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation.

(verse 25) [There is] a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made her many widows in the midst thereof.

(verse 26) Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed [difference] between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.

(verse 27) Her princes in the midst thereof [are] like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, [and] to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.

(verse 28) And her prophets have daubed them with untempered [morter], seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord GOD, when the LORD hath not spoken.

(verse 29) The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.Ezekiel 22 verses 23-29, Micah 3:9-11 Bible quote (verse 9) Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity.

(verse 10) They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.

(verse 11) The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, [Is] not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us.Micah 3 verses 9-11, 2 Peter 2:1-3 Bible quote (verse 1) But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

(verse 2) And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.

(verse 3) And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.2 Peter 2 verses 1-3.

It appears to me that the 'word of faith' stuff was purposely designed to retrain people's minds so they would accept the prosperity lie. Remember the book "The Power of Positive Thinking" by Norman Vincent Peale? My mother and grandmother owned that book. What is wrong with positive thinking? Nothing, of course, but there is a fine line between positive thinking and witchcraft. (Refer to occult terms.)

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From the June 20, 2005 Larry King Interview on CNN^†:

King: But you're not fire and brimstone, right? You're not pound the decks and hell and damnation?

Osteen: No. That's not me. It's never been me. I've always been an encourager at heart. And when I took over from my father he came from the Southern Baptist background and back 40, 50 years ago there was a lot more of that. But, you know, I just -- I don't believe in that. I don't believe -- maybe it was for a time. But I don't have it in my heart to condemn people. I'm there to encourage them. I see myself more as a coach, as a motivator to help them experience the life God has for us.

King: But don't you think if people don't believe as you believe, they're somehow condemned?

Osteen: You know, I think that happens in our society. But I try not to do that. I tell people all the time, preached a couple Sundays about it. I'm for everybody. You may not agree with me, but to me it's not my job to try to straighten everybody out. The Gospel called the good news. My message is a message of hope, that's God's for you. You can live a good life no matter what's happened to you. And so I don't know. I know there is condemnation but I don't feel that's my place.

King: You've been criticized for that, haven't you?

Osteen: I have. I have. Because I don't know.

. . .

King: Where were you ordained?

Osteen: I was ordained from the church there, Lakewood, under my dad's ministry.

King: So you didn't go to seminary?

Osteen: No, sir, I didn't.

King: They can just make you a minister?

Osteen: You can, you can.

King: That's kind of an easy way in.

. . .

King: Our guest, Joel Osteen. Why do you think "Your Best Life Now" did as well as it did?

Osteen: It surprised me.

King: There's a lot of books about improving yourself.

Osteen: Yeah. I don't know. I think coming from the Christian base, and I think the fact that I don't know, it's a book of encouragement and inspiration. And to me it seems like there's so much pulling us down in our society today. There's so much negative. Most of my book is about how you can live a good life today in spite of all that. So I think that had a big part of it.

King: But it doesn't quote a lot of biblical passages until the back of the book, right?

Osteen: It doesn't do a whole lot of it. My message, I wanted to reach the mainstream. We've reached the church audience. So I just try to, what I do is just try to teach practical principles. I may not bring the scripture in until the end of my sermon and i might feel bad about that. Here's the thought. I talked yesterday about living to give. That's what a life should be about. I brought in at the end about some of the scriptures that talk about that. But same principal in the book.

END INTERVIEW

The Bible explains that we are already condemned and Jesus Christ is the answer to salvation (being saved from the condemnation).

He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. John 3:18

Joel Osteen says "I don't have it in my heart to condemn people." Not only does he not understand that these people are already condemned to hell, but he trust in his own heart.

The heart [is] deceitful above all [things], and desperately wicked: who can know it? Jeremiah 17:9

Despite this lack of understanding he preaches to millions of listeners.

Endnotes

^†Original interview transcript available in its' entirety at www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0506/20/lkl.01.html