Joel Osteen KEEPS Using The Same Old TRICKS!

Joel Osteen’s Claim That Nothing Can Stop God’s Will

Hey guys, Colin here, and welcome back to Fight For Truth, the channel where we bring you Christian commentary about the things that matter. In today's video, we're going to be talking about Joel Osteen's sermon entitled, quote, It's Still Going To Happen.

This was preached about a month ago, and we've already made one video analyzing a segment of this sermon. If you'd like to watch that video, we will link it in the description. Specifically for today, we'll be considering and investigating some claims that Joel makes about the will of God and about prayer in the Christian life.

The main question we're asking is this, does Joel's teaching on these topics best reflect the Bible's teaching on these topics? We're going to play the clips for you today and offer you some of our perspective, but at the end of the day, you decide.

Let us know what you think in the comment section. And without any further ado, let's watch the first clip. Watch this.

It's still going to happen. You're saying, God, my hope is in you. I know you're the all powerful creator of the universe. What you promise will come to pass. No person can stop him. No sickness, no addiction, no delay.

All the forces of darkness cannot stop what God has purposed for your life.

So Joel says that nothing can stop God's will for your life, and that is undoubtedly true. Job 42 verse 2 says, quote, I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted, end quote.

So that is accurate. It's true. However, many evangelicals will hear a general statement like this and miss the obvious next question. What exactly is God's will for your life specifically? In other words, what is God promised to every Christian that they should be expecting?

Promises of Promotion, Healing, and Higher Education

Well, in the next clip, Joel Osteen offers his answer to that question. Let's rewind the tape just a little bit, and you'll see what I mean. Watch this.

I want to talk to you today about it's still going to happen. We all have things that we're believing for. We prayed, we've done our best, but the medical report hasn't improved. We didn't get the promotion.

We haven't met the right person. We wanted to go back to school, but nobody supported us. Tried to start our business. We had opposition, delays, people did us wrong. Now we think it wasn't meant to be, but we may have given up.

The good news is God hasn't given up.

So now we have our answer. Joel says that quote, we may have given up, but God hasn't given up. And what exactly are the things God has not and will not give up on? Here are just a few examples from Joel's own words.

Promotion, improved medical reports, going back to school, etc. So to put this all together, Joel Osteen is effectively promising the entire congregation that if they want it bad enough, God has guaranteed them promotions at their job, medical healing, and the opportunity to pursue higher education.

Joel Osteen is correct when he says that nothing can stop God's will for your life. The problem lies in exactly what Joel Osteen believes God's will is. But it doesn't stop there. In the next clip, Joel does virtually the same thing.

Watch this.

Believe that it's still going to happen. Despite the giants, I'm still going to go into my promised land. Despite this medical report, I'm still going to get well. Despite the opposition, I'm still going to accomplish my dreams.

Let me declare it over you. Despite the delays, the setbacks, how you were raised, you're still going to live a blessed, fulfilled, victorious life.

So now Joel says that all Christians are promised a, quote, blessed, fulfilled, and victorious life. And generally speaking, this is, again, 100 correct. From Galatians 5, we know that all Christians are blessed tremendously with the fruit of the Spirit.

In Colossians 3 .17, we see that Christians are offered ultimate fulfillment and purpose in life through glorifying Christ in every word and deed. And in 1 Corinthians 15 .57, we learn that every believer is given ultimate victory in Christ.

So are all Christians then promised blessing, victory, and fulfillment of various kinds by faith in Jesus? Absolutely. But this is not what Joel Osteen is referring to, at least not in the biblical way.

As we've already demonstrated, he's talking about material and physical blessing, fulfillment, and victory. The kind of blessing and victory that gives you unlimited promotions, schooling, health, wealth, etc.

Job, Haggai, and the Misuse of “Latter Days”

But at this point, we reach a serious issue. Where exactly does the Bible promise all of these things to all Christians at all times? Well, shockingly, Joel Osteen attempts to add biblical support in the next clip.

Watch this.

The hurts, the loneliness, that's not how your story ends. That's one chapter, but you have a whole book. You're still going to meet someone great. You're still going to laugh again, love again, dream again.

God says your latter days will be better than your former days.

So yes, you're going to get promotion, healing, and material success in life because, quote, God said your latter days would be better than your former days. In my research, I found at least two potential passages he might be referring to.

Let's see if these passages lend any credibility to his argument. The first potential text is Job 8 -7. In this verse, a man named Bildad is speaking to Job and he says this, quote,. And though your beginning was small, your latter days will be very great.

End quote. Even more curious than this is the fact that Bildad's statement seems to mirror, in some sense, what happened to Job later in the book. Job 42 verse 12 says this, quote,. And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning.

End quote. So was Job given latter days more materially prosperous than his former days? Yes, that is undeniable. But keep in mind, this does not come close to proving what Joel implied here. Because now we're stuck with a new question.

Where exactly is the evidence that Job's material success is promised to all Christians in the same way? To the best of my knowledge, the grand majority of the disciples of Christ, for example, could not be considered rich or successful.

Definitely not to the extent that Job was. Paul was certainly not rich, and he wrote more books in the New Testament than anyone else. So if we take this as a normative example for the Christian life, that your latter days should be much more materially successful than your former days, why did this not happen to Paul?

And again, what is the actual biblical justification for applying God's blessing to Job to all Christians? Well, to answer that, Joel offers absolutely no compelling evidence for this. Not a single scrap.

And as a result, we probably shouldn't find his statement convincing. Now, there's also another passage I found that he could be referring to here. Haggai 2 .9 says, quote, The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts.

End quote. This passage, in context, is talking about the future glory of the temple. That is, the house being referred to. But once again, this can hardly be taken as good, solid proof for all Christians being rich and successful.

There's nothing in the immediate context of this passage that would indicate this promise applying to Christians in the way that Joel Osteen implies. So upon closer examination, none of the biblical support, or so-called support, offered by Joel Osteen here is conclusive.

In fact, it's not even compelling. He does not meet his burden of proof, or even give a small sliver of it. Again, his arguments are simply not convincing if this is what they boil down to. This is a classic prosperity teacher strategy.

You need to be made aware of this. They simply take small statements out of usually the Old Testament, and then apply them across the board to Christians in a materialistic and individual way, without any good evidence or necessary qualifications.

At best, this is merely accidental. At worst, they are intentionally ripping scriptures out of context to pad their pockets with more money. Either way, this simply doesn't pass the biblical smell test.

Self-Attesting Words and the Authority of God

But moving right along, Joel attempts to offer more evidence for his position. Watch this.

He's saying it's still going to happen. It's not too late. The giants aren't too big. The opposition is not too strong. He's in control. You wouldn't be hearing this if there wasn't something amazing about to happen.

New doors are about to open. The right people are about to show up. Your health is going to suddenly turn around. A shift in your finances, your career, where you're suddenly catapulted where you never dreamed.

So, Joel says, quote, you wouldn't be hearing this if something amazing wasn't about to happen in your life. This too does not come close to meeting the burden of proof required to defend Joel's grand theological claims.

And this is also a classic prosperity teacher strategy. They effectively say that you hearing their message is proof that something great is about to happen for you. But this seems to indicate a very concerning and dangerous trend in their teaching.

In fact, it almost appears as though they're claiming to be divine to a certain extent. Effectively, they're implying that their words are self-attestingly true. Look at the logic here. Something big is about to happen for you.

That's what I'm saying. And how do you know it's true? Well, you know it's true because I'm saying it. And again, the circle goes round and round and round. But as human beings, our words do not have self-attesting truth.

That title only belongs to one being, God. Our words are true only to the extent that they affirm God's truth. Psalm 119, verse 60 says, quote,. The entirety of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous judgments endures forever.

End quote. Also, Hebrews 6 .13 says, quote,. For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself. You see, God doesn't have to give you an argument in favor of these things.

There is no higher argument, no higher authority of truth or reality than God Himself. He couldn't possibly appeal to anything greater. He is the greatest. He is the highest authority there is by definition.

Therefore, when God speaks, His word is self-attesting. How do we know it's true? Well, because God said it. It must be true. But this does not, and frankly should not, apply to Joel Osteen. He does not have the divine right to say, my words are true, something great is going to happen for you, and the proof for that lies in the very fact that I am speaking.

No, instead, the proof should lie in the fact that God's Word confirms His statement, if indeed it does. In other words, Joel should be appealing to the highest authority, God. Instead, he seems to be appealing to the ultimate authority of himself.

And it is very dangerous that Joel and many other teachers would make such grandiose statements with no real biblical support. And with that, let's move along and see the next clip. Watch this.

God’s Timing Does Not Mean God Always Says Yes

Now, you may be in a silent season as well. You don't see anything improving, no good breaks, no open doors, your health, family finances just the same. You're about to see a shift. God is doing a new thing.

The silence was all a part of His plan. The delays, closed doors, people that walked away were necessary. It was setting you up for this moment. The delay doesn't mean that God said no, it just wasn't the right time.

He's saying, you're still going to accomplish that dream.

Now, just for the record, as far as I can tell, this view has been popularized recently by Mike Todd of Transformation Church, whose teaching is very similar to Joel Osteen here. Basically, the argument goes something like this.

You are, quote, believing God for something and praying diligently to receive it, but He has not given it to you. The reason, then, that He has not given it to you is because if He gave it to you now at this point in time, you wouldn't be able to handle it for one reason or another.

As Joel said in the clip, quote, it just wasn't the right time. And here's the response I would offer. As is the case with all false teaching, there is a seed of truth in this. God may withhold things because it is not the right time.

That's biblical. For example, in Matthew 16, 20, Jesus, quote, strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that He was the Christ, end quote. And that's curious. Why would Jesus want them to not tell people He was the Savior?

Isn't that the reason He came to earth in the first place? But then later, even more curiously, the disciples would be charged in the Great Commission, detailed in Matthew 28, to go tell all the nations, all the peoples, about Jesus being the Christ.

So we can safely say, then, that it was simply not time for this to happen in Matthew 16. That is the seed of truth in this teaching from Joel Osteen and Mike Todd. God does, in fact, have His own timing, and we should honor that.

The problem with their teaching, though, lies in this simple fact. Joel acknowledges that God may be waiting to answer your prayer with a yes, but He does not acknowledge the fact that God may never give you a yes.

In other words, in Joel's view, when you ask for something from God, God can only respond with either yes or yes but later. He can never really just say no permanently to whatever you're asking for. But this view of prayer does not line up with several passages of Scripture.

For example, David, a man after God's own heart, pleaded for the life of his infant son in 2 Samuel 12, 16. And yet, by verse 18, the child died nonetheless. God wasn't waiting for the right time to say yes to David.

His answer was simply no. Likewise, in 2 Corinthians 12, Paul pleads with God to take away his thorn in the flesh. Yet God would not take it away. And to the best of our knowledge, God never took it away, telling Paul His power was made perfect in his weakness.

In other words, God's answer can be yes. It can be yes but later. And it can also simply be no. The point is that we should be acknowledging who is actually in charge, who gets to give the answer. By the standard of Joel Osteen and Mike Todd and other teachers like them, it seems to sound like we are in charge as human beings.

God is simply a yes-man, a butler, who has to give us what we want. And our only task is to faithfully give Him our grocery list of blessings, and God will be sure to bring them back for us now or later.

But the idea that He would simply refuse to get one of the items on our list, well that doesn't occur to teachers like them. And this is a very dangerous theology to have. It's incredibly man-centered.

In any case, I hope this video has shown you why I personally don't think Joel's teaching or exposition is very convincing. More often than not, he's simply offering platitudes and colloquial statements based in Old Testament Scriptures that he rips out of context.

At the very least, he did not convincingly prove his point using the Bible as his standard, which is the requirement. And that alone should be enough for us to call this into question. I pray that this has been a blessing to you, and please know that this video isn't meant as a sinful attack, but rather as a Biblical critique.

And let's pray for Joel, that he would stop his false teaching by God's grace and turn to the truth of God's Word. Thank you so much for watching that video. Please give us a like and subscribe so that you don't miss any content.

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