Joel Osteen Doesn’t Understand God AT ALL!

Fight For Truth

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Hey guys, Colin here, and welcome back to the channel where the Bible and critical thinking meet to give you real

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Christian commentary about the things that matter. Thanks so much for watching, let's get into the video. So Joel Osteen, the most popular heretic in the

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United States, he wants you to change your view of God. Yes, you heard that right, Pastor Joel Osteen thinks that your view of God is wrong and it ought to be changed to something more positive.

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Watch this video. Make sure you have the right image of God. He's for you, he has a great plan for your life, he's not focused on all your failures, he has mercy for every mistake, he's waiting to gladly welcome you.

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All you have to do is take that step toward him. No more hiding, no more living condemned, feeling unworthy, go to God with boldness and receive this mercy.

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So in this video, we're going to refute Joel Osteen's dangerous claims and compare them to scripture.

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Joel puts himself forward as this like uber nice super compassionate pastor who knows the secret about how to live your best life now by the power of God.

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In reality, he's an arrogant false teacher who wouldn't know what proper biblical exegesis looked like if it slapped him in the face at the

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Oscars. He's a deceiver who's leading people straight to hell. Don't be fooled by this man and his prosperity gospel.

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The first thing we have to cover is who Joel Osteen is talking to. He's talking to people who are estranged from God, or who at least feel that way.

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More specifically, these are people who actively attend a church that is led by a rank heretic.

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These are individuals who feel as though they have not received God's mercy yet, who feel under condemnation.

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That's what Joel himself says. And that's probably a good thing. No one who attends Joel Osteen's church should be a spiritually confident person.

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They are literally receiving the teaching of a heretic weekly every time they go to church and they believe it.

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This is a very important point to emphasize. Joel is to a major degree here talking to people who don't have any good reason to believe that they are forgiven by Jesus, or at least most of them do not.

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And many of them could be unbelievers who have not submitted to Christ at all. These are the people who

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Joel is instructing on how to see God. And now that we've seen what the context is, let's read

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Joel's first statement, which says, quote, make sure you have the right image of God. My response to that would be simple.

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Sure, Joel, but you first. If you don't have a right image of God, then you have no business telling other people about how they should see him.

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I mean, seriously, looking to Joel Osteen for an example of how to approach God is like looking at a fish for an example of how to climb a tree.

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He has literally no idea what he's talking about. And then Joel says, quote, he's for you.

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He has a great plan for your life. He's not focused on all your mistakes. First off, if you're not an

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Orthodox Christian, as I'm sure most people in his congregation are not, then what assurance do you have exactly that God has a great plan for your life?

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Romans 8, 28 says, quote, and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose and quote, make no mistake about it.

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God does indeed have a great plan for every Christian according to his will and his perspective.

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But this good plan is strictly for those who are called by him and adopted by him.

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Joel, of course, conveniently skips over this fact and tells everyone there wholesale, regardless of their submission to Christ or lack thereof, that God has a great plan for their life.

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This is dangerously false. Make no mistake about it. God does have a plan for unbelievers as well.

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But this plan involves more fire, weeping, and gnashing of teeth. In Matthew 13, 42,

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Jesus says as much when he says, quote, and throw them into the fiery furnace in that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth and quote.

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So it is clear that there are some people, many people for whom God does not have such a lovely plan, at least certainly not the same plan that he has for his people.

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And that is why it's so important to follow Jesus Christ, because he is the only way to escape the just punishment for our sins.

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As we've already covered, the statement Joel is making goes out to everyone who doesn't think they've received the mercy of Jesus Christ or who isn't confident in where they're at spiritually.

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This includes confused believers, but most likely unbelievers as well. Many of these people do not know

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Jesus at all and are hellbound as Joel speaks. Many of these people have bought into the prosperity gospel 100%.

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And all Joel can do to help these people is assure them that God has a great plan for their life and everything's hunky -dory.

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What a horrible thing to do. Joel has the appearance of compassion, but he's lacking in the substance of it.

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He smiles at you and tells you what you want to hear while he sends you on your way to hell, of course feeling much better than you did previously.

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And as far as his statement about he's not focused on all your mistakes, this is a ridiculous statement for at least two reasons.

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One, using the word mistakes in place of the word sins may sound nicer, but it doesn't actually remove one ounce of the spiritual guilt that we all have for sinning against a holy

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God. Changing the word does not change the reality. Romans 3 .23 says, quote, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, end quote.

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It doesn't say everyone makes mistakes, everyone makes a boo -boo sometimes. No, it says very clearly everyone has sinned.

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Joel Osteen's effeminate sugarcoating isn't going to help anybody. The second reason this comment is ridiculous is that it's just plain untrue.

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God does definitely care about the fact that you commit sins, or as Joel calls them, mistakes. If God wasn't at all focused on the problem of sin, then he wouldn't have sent

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Jesus to die to forgive our sins. Saying God's not focused on your mistakes, well, that sounds really nice in theory, but in reality, it removes the underlying problem for which the gospel is the solution.

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In 1 Timothy 1 .15, Paul says, quote, the saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom

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I am the foremost, end quote. This tells us that if there is no emphasis on sin, if sin is devalued, there's no big deal about you sinning, then there's no need for Christ.

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That's why Christ came, to save sinners. And the apostle Paul does not completely forget that he was a sinner after he gets saved.

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He calls himself the foremost sinner in his letter to Timothy, and this is even after he had long been forgiven.

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The fact is, the pseudo -teaching of Joel Osteen with regards to sin is just as weak, just as pitiful as the rest of the nonsense that he preaches.

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Then he goes on saying, quote, he's waiting to gladly welcome you, no more hiding, no more feeling condemned and unworthy.

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Again, the problem with this advice is that it's horribly simplistic and deeply unbiblical.

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If you're not a Christian, then you should most definitely feel condemned and feel unworthy. The grand majority of Joel Osteen's congregation should feel condemned and should feel unworthy.

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Make no mistake about that, because they follow the false teaching of a heretic and not the sound teaching of Christ's church.

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Again, we have Joel Osteen arrogantly pronouncing innocence upon other people that they have no reason to feel condemned or unworthy.

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In reality, there are several perfectly biblical and rational reasons that many of these people should feel condemned and they should feel unworthy.

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And he's ignoring all of those things. Romans 8, 1 says, quote, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, end quote.

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Joel loves the first part, but he clearly hates or at least ignores the second part. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ.

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Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. That's an amazing thing. But this clearly implies that there is nothing but condemnation for those who are not in Christ.

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Again, when you assure everyone, wholesale, as Joel Osteen does, that they're awesome and great and worthy and beautiful, separate from Christ, you give them no reason to accept

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Christ. And again, it's worth noting that Joel himself admitted, even in his own view, that he's talking in this clip to many people who have not received

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Christ's mercy. He is assuring even unbelievers that they're doing just fine, when in fact they are hellbound.

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Joel's final comment, though, is perhaps his most grievous one. He says, quote, go to God with boldness and receive this mercy.

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This is absolutely unbiblical. You do not have the right to approach the Almighty God in this way when you are in the same spiritual position of many of the people

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Joel is speaking to. Let me explain why. Joel is probably speaking about the scripture from Hebrews 4 16, which says, quote, let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in a time of need.

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End quote. Now you might respond to this by saying, see, there you have it, Colin. Joel's right. Joel's biblical. And you're wrong.

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The Bible says we should approach the throne of God boldly. Not so fast there, cowboy. Let's read the context of that passage.

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Remember that Joel is talking to many people who are unsaved and deceived as they follow a prosperity gospel heretic.

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Keep this in mind. He's talking to many people who have not submitted their lives to Christ truly.

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Now let's read the previous passage. Hebrews 4 14, it says, quote, since then we have a high priest who has passed through the heavens.

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Jesus, the son of God. Let us hold fast to our confession for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one whom in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin.

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Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in a time of need.

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End quote. So that's the ever so important context. Yes, we can absolutely approach the throne of grace with confidence, but that is only being offered as an option to a group of people who have already accepted

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Christ as their high priest and who have, according to the passage, confessed that Jesus is their savior and the son of God.

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These are serious, committed first century Christians that Paul's talking to. Not modern prosperity gospel

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Christians who follow a heretic who constantly manipulates the word of God. We're talking about two very different things.

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And what you should tell these two different groups of people should be worlds apart. In other words, yes, we can boldly receive

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Christ's mercy, but only once we've acknowledged him as our priest and our king. It is not on our terms or Joel Osteen's terms that we approach

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God's throne. It is on God's terms that he is approached. Imagine the arrogance that one needs to have in order to tell virtually everyone, regardless of their submission to or respect for Jesus, to confidently approach his throne.

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If you have not yet received mercy from Christ and a pardon of your sin through him, you don't need to approach him with any kind of boldness.

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You need to approach him with humility and ask him for forgiveness. Anything else would be a dangerous exercise in pride.

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Proverbs 15, 33 says, quote, The fear of the Lord is instruction and wisdom, and humility comes before honor, end quote.

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So stay away from the sugar -coated, feel -good heresy that Joel Osteen offers. He is a deceiver, and his ideas about God and his

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Word are virtually all wrong. And pray for him earnestly, that he would repent and turn to the truth of God's Word.

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And until next time, fight for truth, never surrender, and keep your eyes open. Thank you and God bless.