The Heresy Hunter

Joel Osteen and the Seminary

On July 16th Lakewood Church in Houston, TX celebrated it's move to the Compaq Center. At the opening there were two interesting comments made by Joel's family. The first by his mother Dodie:

"I’m so proud of Joel. He’s just done such a tremendous job. He loves people. He hasn’t been to seminary. Thank God for that! I’m glad he hasn’t. He’s not a theologian and he’ll be the first one to tell you that. But you know what – he preaches out of his heart and he preaches messages that people need because he gives them hope. Hallelujah. We don’t beat people down. We don’t beat them down and tell them they’re going to hell because of their sins. We love them and teach them the Word of God so they will know the way to heaven."

The second comment was from his brother, Dr. Paul Osteen:

"We’ve never been ashamed of the full Gospel, God’s power to save, to heal and to deliver, that no one is beyond the reach of Jesus. This Bible (pointing to John Osteen’s Bible) was used to encourage and lift and strengthen us and never used to condemn us or to be (unintelligible). We remember that Lakewood Church has always been an oasis of love in a troubled world, a place where we don’t judge or we don’t condemn. We just open our arms and we embrace."

• Without proper biblical training how can Osteen feed the people he has in his charge? What little training he has came from listening to his father who was, himself, misled. In fact, prominent Word-Faith teacher R. W. Schambach was, at one time, on Lakewood's Board of Directors.
  
• Without the Law there is no Gospel, and since Lakewood doesn't proclaim the Law they don't proclaim the full Gospel, but a half-Gospel.
• If John Osteen's Bible was only used to encourage people, then it was misused, because Scripture doesn't hesitate to point out our sinful nature and the necessity for a Savior.
  

posted by Bob Hunter @ Tuesday, November 29, 2005