Emergent Monday: Joel Osteen - Pantheist, Pagan, Agent of Satan

“If you develop an image of success, health, abundance, joy, peace, happiness, nothing on earth will be able to hold those things from you,” - Joel Osteen Your Best Life Is Now

Peace, joy, happiness, wealth... I wish Joel Osteen would point out in the bible where this is promised. No, wait - I think I found it:

⁸ Again, the devil *took Him to a very high mountain and *showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory; ⁹ and he said to Him, “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.” (Matthew 4:8-9)

Joel Osteen and his fellow Word-Faith charlatans have taken Satan's litany of temptation and twisted it around to sound like heavenly blessings. Just the same as a tire-iron twisted around to look like a pretzel is no more a pretzel than Satan's gospel of temptation twisted around to sound like blessing. How can the leader of the biggest church in America be so ignorant to allow this kind of heresy to escape his mouth? Several reasons. First of all, he doesn't know what he's talking about.

Joel's father, John Osteen, was ordained a Southern Baptist pastor but he disassociated himself from the Baptists before Joel was born. John began preaching the Charismatic litany along with all the Charismatic antics necessary to lead a large herd of goats astray. When John fell ill he asked Joel to preach for him at Lakewood Church. Why he did that no one knows, because Joel has no biblical teaching at all. He spent one college quarter at Oral Roberts University taking television & radio and absorbing some Word-Faith heresy. So Joel got up in front of the audience and by his own admission he told stories. And the goats loved it. In fact Joel Osteen doesn't preach theology, he says "people are not looking for theology" 

Rather than salvation through faith in Jesus Christ and the grace of our Heavenly Father, Joel preaches "Blab It and Grab It" He won't come out and say God is going to dump a bushel of money in your lap, but he'll hint in that direction. "I don't believe I ever preached a message on money," he said. "But I do believe, you know what, God can want you to have a better house. God wants you to be able to send your kids to college." But his wife on the other hand is overseeing the most important part of a Joel Osteen ministry: the collection. "He not only wants to enrich you but do things for you you know nothing about," she said. "Let him breathe the breath of life into your finances and he'll give it back to you bigger than you could ever give it to him." and the plate is passed.

This is the essence of Joel Osteen's message:

I believe one of the main ways that we grow in favor is by declaring. It's not enough to just read it. It's not enough to just believe it. You've got to speak it out. Your words have creative power. One of the primary ways we release our faith is through our words. There is a divine connection between you declaring God's favor and seeing God's favor manifested in your life. And some of you are doing your best to please the Lord. You are living a holy consecrated life, but you're not really experiencing God's supernatural favor. And it's simply because you're not declaring it. You've got to give life to your faith by speaking it out. - Bible Answer-Man Apr 26,2004

If you can't find this in your bible that's because it's not in there. However the "Your words have creative power" just like God you say something into existence, that part is in the bible, That's one of Satan's favorite lies, first one he told humanity as a matter of fact.

⁴ “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. ⁵ “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:4)

John MacArthur put it best when talking about Osteen's message:

You need to understand that he is a pagan religionist in every sense.  He’s a quasi-pantheist.  Jesus is a footnote that satisfies his critics and deceives his followers.  The idea of his whole thing is that men have the power in themselves to change their lives.  In his definitive book Your Best Life Now, he says, and that ought to be a dead giveaway since the only way this could be your best life is if you’re going to hell.  He says, “that anyone can create by faith and words the dreams he desires.  Health, wealth, happiness success”…the list is always the same…
MacArthur continues, “What is the source of this?  Where does this come from?  Answer…Satan. This is not just off-center.  This is satanic.  Why do I say that?  Because health, wealth, prosperity, the fulfillment of all your dreams and desires…that’s what Satan always offers.  That’s called temptation based on the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.  That’s exactly what corrupt, fallen, unregenerate people want.  That’s why it works so well, right.  You can go right into Satan’s system make everybody feel religious and turn their desires, their temptations into somehow honorable desires.

So where does being a bible college dropout with no biblical teaching and a satanic message of prosperity get you? If you're Joel Osteen it gets you a position with the history channel as Biblical and Theology advisor to their production of The Bible. (Which explains why it was not so biblical)