To research some background on a recent blog essay, I listened to a short interview by a reporter from the Wall Street Journal blog and Joel Osteen of Lakewood Church in Houston. He was being interviewed on the occasion of the release of his latest book (October 2013) "Break Out!" In the interview, the reporter asked Osteen what he thought of the (then) new Pope, Francis. Osteen lauded the new pope. He loved the Pope's "inclusive" message and how he got out "among the people."The reporter picked up on Osteen's mention of inclusiveness and asked him how to reconcile what the bible says about, say, gay people, and welcoming same sex couples to church. 'How do you walk that line?' the reporter asked.
Osteen said, "Jesus said ‘you will know them by their love for one another’ so you have to say, you know, I may not agree with you, but I’m going to accept you and I’m going to love you. We believe what the bible teaches but we also we believe the bible says to accept and love everyone.”
The scripture Osteen was twisting here is "you will know them by their fruits". (Matthew 7:16). Jesus most assuredly did NOT say you will know them by their love.
Does the bible teach us to accept everyone? It sounds nice, but no. "Accepting" same sex couples in church is accepting that they are deliberately flaunting their sin in direct opposition to God's holy standards. It is the same with any unrepentant person. If a drunk were to come drunk to church every singe week, with a vodka bottle, saying "I'm PROUD of my drunkenness!" would you accept that as God-honoring church behavior? This is why we have a process for church discipline, to bring that person to repentance. If they do not repent, we excommunicate them. We do NOT accept flagrant sin. It dishonors the name of Christ, and it also allows sin to spread like a cancer. God wants His bride to remain pure and undefiled. (Ephesians 5:25-27). We never "accept" sin. Never. Christ's blood is too precious.
More to the point, accepting people's sin is paving the way to hell for them. The Lord will richly repay Joel Osteen for his evil deeds.
Asked about why he is successful, he said,
“I try to make my message not heavy on doctrine necessarily”
Well, of course. "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires," (1 Timothy 4:3)
I hope you will not even post one quote from Mr Osteen on your Facebook page, or buy one book of his, or listen to even one more second of his "sermons." He is a scripture twisting, hell paving, evil minister of darkness. He is untaught and unstable.
The untaught and unstable twist them to their own destruction, as they also do with the rest of the Scriptures. (2 Peter 3:16)
