F4F | Victoria Osteen Rolling Away Stones

Fighting for the Faith

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:15

Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith. My name is Chris Roseborough. I am your servant in Jesus Christ.

00:21

This is the channel that compares what people are saying in the name of God to the Word of God. So we're going to head over to Lakewood, and we're not going to hear

00:30

Joel Osteen today. We're going to hear Victoria Osteen doing something she's not permitted to do by Scripture.

00:37

We'll note the passage that says that. And then we'll note how she's twisting up the

00:42

Scriptures. And one of the things I enjoy doing here at Fighting for the Faith is showing you how the

00:48

Bible is so much better, more amazing than any false teacher can ever teach.

00:55

Because the false teachers, you know what they're ultimately trying to do, is play to your ego. Because they know that if they stroke your ego and they tell you what your itching ears want to hear, that you will reward them greatly for telling them what they want to hear rather than what they need to hear.

01:13

And as a result of it, false teachers are clueless, and I mean totally in the dark, when it comes to rightly understanding what the

01:21

Word is about and how it all connects to Christ. Case in point, we're going to be listening to a portion of a message given by Victoria Osteen about how

01:31

Mary Magdalene and the women who went to anoint Jesus' body after He had been crucified, how there was a stone in front of the tomb.

01:42

And how apparently that stone equals an obstacle to the thing that you're supposed to do.

01:49

Those stones are trying to keep you from doing stuff, you know. It's so absurd that it's ridiculous.

01:57

But what we'll do is we'll make a connection to the book of Daniel and the story of Daniel in the lion's den.

02:03

And we'll show you in the types and shadows how Christ's death and resurrection, even the sealing of the tomb, was all foreshadowed in the story of Daniel in the lion's den.

02:14

Which again, will give you a greater appreciation for what the Bible really does teach, and teach you to avoid people who are ear -tickling, ear -scratchers like Victoria Osteen.

02:25

Now a little bit of a note, and that is that in this episode we have to warp Victoria because the folks over at Lakewood think that they are above the law and that fair use doesn't apply to them.

02:39

But it does. So we transmogrify things for the purpose of making it more difficult for them to try to come after us with copyright claims because we're well within the use of fair use when it comes to critiquing

02:56

Victoria Osteen. So no, we're not doing this in order to make her look unflattering.

03:01

We're doing this because the folks over at Lakewood think that they're above the law. So keep that in mind.

03:07

So let me whirl up the desktop here and let's get the web browser open. And here's

03:13

Victoria Osteen and her message titled, Roll Away the

03:19

Stone. And it's so bad. It's just... All right, here we go.

03:27

One day after the Sabbath, she woke up early in the morning. The Bible says... This is talking about Mary Magdalene.

03:32

The sun had just come up and she and that band of women, they gathered spices. They wanted to anoint Jesus' body one last time.

03:40

They were on their way to the tomb. I can imagine it was still misty in the air, there was still dew on the grass.

03:45

They had all their stuff. They knew their assignment. They knew what their heart was beating for and they were on their way.

03:52

All right. Now, we'll note the text in question that she's actually working through is

03:58

Mark 16. When the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome, brought spices so that they might go and anoint him.

04:08

That's Jesus. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb and they were saying to one another, who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?

04:21

And this is where Victoria Osteen is going to spend all of her time. And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away.

04:28

So keep this in mind. They were wondering about, because this is a big, very heavy stone, and they were concerned about being able to roll it away to anoint

04:37

Jesus' body and stuff. But it was worrisomeness for no particular reason.

04:43

So Jesus told them long before the resurrection that he was going to die and that he was going to rise again on the third day.

04:51

Jesus told them this. You think back to the Gospel of Matthew when Jesus, you know, when

04:56

Peter makes that great confession, you are the Christ, the son of the living God, and blessed are you, Simon bar Jennifer, flesh and blood hasn't revealed this to you, right?

05:04

And then Jesus then at this point begins to tell them that he's going to go to Jerusalem, that he's going to be handed over to the

05:10

Gentiles, he's going to be crucified and died. Peter says, this will never happen to you, Lord. And Jesus says, get behind me,

05:17

Satan. That's all the way, what, Matthew 16, middle of the Gospel of Matthew.

05:23

So Jesus has been telling his disciples that he was going to die and rise again. But they didn't understand what he was saying.

05:30

This legitimately wasn't registering in their minds. What does he mean by rising from the dead? And so as a result of it, they were caught off guard by the resurrection when they shouldn't have.

05:41

But that's a whole other sermon. So all that being said, I said we would note something here.

05:47

First Corinthians chapter 14, halfway through verse 33 states, as in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silent in the churches, they are not permitted to speak.

05:59

Now this is in the churches. Women are not permitted to give sermons or be pastors and things like this.

06:05

And then watch who the command comes from. This isn't from the Apostle Paul, it's from a different source. For they're not permitted to speak, but they should be in submission as the law also says.

06:14

If there's anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. It is shameful for a woman to speak in church.

06:20

Or was it from you that the word of God came? Or are you the only ones it's reached? If anyone thinks that he's a prophet or a spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things

06:28

I am writing to you are a command of the Lord. And the Apostle Paul is a true apostle of Jesus Christ, can give commands of the

06:35

Lord and he's doing that. So Paul is not the primary member of the he -man woman haters club.

06:43

No, far from it. This is an actual command of the Lord. Jesus wills that women remain silent in the church.

06:50

This is his command. So Victoria Osteen, what she's doing here is she's defying a command of Christ.

06:57

No way around it, but that's exactly what she's doing. So keep this in mind, but we continue.

07:03

But on that path to the tomb, they remembered something. They remembered the large stone that sealed the entrance of that tomb.

07:11

And they began to gasp, gasp. Well, no, there's a stone. Talking among themselves about that big obstacle.

07:18

They began thinking, how in the world are we going to move that stone? Why don't you just read the text?

07:25

The Bible says in Mark 16, 4, they said among themselves, who will help us roll away the stone?

07:32

You see, that stone represented a block to them. As long as... This is what false teachers want to do all the time.

07:43

So she's taking this historical narrative. Indeed, there was a stone that was rolled in front of Christ's tomb, and it was sealed.

07:53

And the whole point was by being sealed, that was to keep the disciples from engaging in chicanery, because the

08:01

Pharisees told Pontius Pilate that they were afraid that the disciples were going to come and steal the body.

08:08

And so the stone is rolled in front of the tomb, and it's sealed. There's a guard posted and everything.

08:15

And so here's what she's doing, is she's taking the stone now, and she's allegorizing it, and she's engaging in a

08:23

Bible -twisting technique called eisegesis. But since it's a self -focused eisegesis, we call it narcissistic eisegesis, or narsegesis for short.

08:34

And so she's going to somehow make the connection that there are stones in your life that are trying to keep you from doing stuff and things.

08:45

And it's just totally absurd. That's not what this passage is about at all.

08:50

This is a narcissistic, eisegetical way of looking at this text, which evacuates it of its true meaning, because the whole point is, the tomb was empty!

09:01

You know, not even Houdini has figured out how to escape death. Christ did it on the third day.

09:08

So it's kind of a big deal. But that's not where she's going to put the emphasis.

09:14

She's not going to put the emphasis on the empty tomb and the fact that Christ rose bodily from the grave. No, we're going to put it on the stone, and we're going to pour in all kinds of weird, absurd meaning into this thing that is not there in the text.

09:27

That stone was there. They couldn't enter the tomb and anoint the body of Jesus. That stone was too big for them to move themselves.

09:37

Have you ever felt that way before? I've never. I wasn't there when

09:43

Jesus's tomb was sealed with the stone. So, no, nope,

09:50

I've never felt any, in fact, I've never even felt a twinge of anxiety related to moving large tombstones.

10:00

Nope, I cannot relate at all. And neither can you. Has something ever blocked your life?

10:07

Maybe you've heard your own self saying, who's going to help me move this thing? Ugh, I just, why does anybody take this woman and her husband seriously?

10:22

I don't, I don't understand it at all. How is this a megachurch? This is just boneheadedly dumb.

10:28

I mean, seriously, the stone doesn't represent anything in my life. Not even one thing.

10:36

Have you ever had a block in your life? Maybe you wanted to start a new business, but you kept hitting obstacles, draining your resources.

10:44

Right. So the stone is an obstacle to your business. No, it's not. Again, she's putting the emphasis on the wrong syllable here.

10:54

Hello, this text is about the fact that Christ rose from the dead. Let me come back to the text that she was quoting.

11:03

Okay. So, and so looking up, they saw the stone that had been rolled back. It was very large.

11:09

And then entering, entering into the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side dressed in a white robe and they were alarmed.

11:20

And he said to them, do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified.

11:26

That's right. Christ is forever known then as the one who's crucified for your sins and mine. He bore your sins and mine in his body on the cross so that we can be forgiven, pardoned, and literally made white by the blood of Jesus, by the blood of the lamb.

11:41

So you seek Jesus of Nazareth who is crucified. He is risen. He's not here.

11:47

See the place where they laid him, but go tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee.

11:53

There you will see him just as he told you. And they went out and fled from the tomb for trembling and astonishment had seized them.

12:01

And they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid. But what a... Hello?

12:06

I mean, he is risen. He's risen indeed. Hallelujah. Christ defeated death.

12:14

He rose bodily from the grave. The tomb is empty. And where is Victoria Osteen tripping up on?

12:22

Oh, well, they were worried because there was a stone and they didn't know who was going to move it for them.

12:29

It was already moved. This is like a complete non -issue. And so now she thinks the stone has to do with the obstacles in your life to like your business and things and stuff.

12:41

This is just absurd. Maybe you had a stone of an unwanted divorce, a stone of a bad...

12:48

Oh, this is so bad. How about the stone of a Bible twisting by a hard hearted, stone hearted woman who clearly has no clue what the

12:59

Bible is about? Medical report, stone of fear, stone of debt. See those stones, they're real.

13:06

They come in different shapes and different sizes. Maybe the stone you're facing today is not as big as the one at the tomb.

13:12

Maybe it is. But can I tell you, it's a stone that wants to block you. It's real.

13:20

Stones want to block me? Correct me if I'm wrong.

13:26

But isn't it like a mental illness when you have like paranoid delusions? So if you were to like have a talk with your mental health professional and say,

13:36

I know that that stone, it's trying to block me. What stone?

13:43

The one over there. It's huge. It's trying to keep me from...

13:48

It has it out for me. It's a stone. But still it's trying to stop me.

13:55

Uh -huh. People get taken away for a long time and put in institutions where there's padded rooms and stuff like this if they're talking like that.

14:04

Stones don't do stuff and they don't try to oppose people and things. They're inanimate objects.

14:15

But can I tell you, it's a stone that wants to block you. It's real. They come in different shapes.

14:21

They come in different sizes. But you know what the purpose is? The purpose is to stop us. The purpose is to trap us, thinking that we'll never overcome that stone.

14:29

It's too big. The challenge is too hard. We must... There's the stone. Mwahaha. You'll never overcome my challenge.

14:36

Mwahaha. I will wreck your business and keep you from having success. Mwahaha. I am stone.

14:44

Hear me roar. Bonkers. We'll quit now. You know what I loved about Mary and Martha, uh,

14:51

Mary and Mary was the fact that when they remembered the stone, they didn't stop. They kept going. And when they got to the tomb, the

14:57

Bible says that they looked up and they were so surprised. The stone had been rolled away.

15:03

The stone was not blocking the tomb anymore. The obstacle that was trying to defeat them. The stone wasn't trying to do anything.

15:16

The stone was put there and it was sealed by the will of human beings to keep the disciples from stealing

15:26

Jesus's body. What on earth? Had been rolled away. Think about that just a minute.

15:33

What they were worried about, what was there is now gone. Mary walked into the tomb and saw the angel and the angel declared to her, are you looking for Jesus?

15:42

He's not here. He's risen. He's risen. He's risen. So that means the stones in your life are going to get rolled away all too, you know, you see the problem that she was facing that day was met with the promise, the promise of the resurrection.

16:02

As soon as the angel told her he's not here, he's risen. The Bible says that she was reminded of the promises of Jesus.

16:10

He said, I'll rise again. He said the temple will be built back in three days. See, when she heard it, she remembered.

16:16

So are there promises of Jesus to roll away stones in my life? Remembered the promise. Sometimes when you're walking through a difficult situation and there's obstacles in your path, it's hard to remember those resurrection promises.

16:29

Are there resurrection promises regarding stones getting in the way of my business?

16:36

Trying to wreck my finances or my marriage and things and stuff? No, not at all.

16:43

And so you can see what's going on here. Maybe that's the reason why this place is packed because, oh, this woman is scratching, itching ears.

16:51

We spend so little talking about the resurrected Christ and talk about how God wants to move stones out of your life so that your business can succeed, so that your finances can flourish and stuff and things.

17:03

Those are not the promises of the gospel. So by the way, I already said this, but I'll make the point again.

17:09

The Bible is so much better than this. So much better. And in fact, let me do this.

17:15

I'm going to hunt for something here. Tomb. I'm going to look for tomb and I'm going to narrow my search to the gospels.

17:24

All right, there we go. And it's just made Matthew 27. All right,

17:30

Matthew 27. Let me read this out from Matthew 27. It's at the tail end of this passage.

17:37

Okay. Next day, that is after, okay, let's see, the next day, that is the day after the preparation, the chief priests and the

17:43

Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, sir, we remember how that imposter said while he was still alive, after three days,

17:51

I will rise, therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people he has risen from the dead and then the last fraud will be worse than the first.

18:04

Pilate said to them, you have a guard of soldiers, go and make it secure as you can. So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard.

18:12

All right, that's kind of an important little feature. We now know the history of Christ's crucifixion and in the aftermath of his death, what took place when he was placed into the tomb.

18:22

Let's take a look at the types and shadows on this in the book of Daniel chapter six. This is amazing.

18:30

All right, here's what it says in Daniel six. First it pleased Darius to set over the kingdom 120 satraps to be throughout the whole kingdom and over them three high officials of whom

18:41

Daniel was one to whom the satraps should give an account so that the king might suffer no loss.

18:48

Then this Daniel became distinguished above all the other high officials and the satraps because an excellent spirit was in him and the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom.

19:00

Then the high officials and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom.

19:08

They were jealous of the fact that he had been advanced and that he could just out excel them in all kinds of ways.

19:17

But they found no ground for complaint or any fault because he was faithful.

19:23

You can kind of think of this, Daniel was, he's not truly sinless, but in this regard there was no fault that they can find against him and no error or fault was found in him.

19:32

So then these men said, we shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his

19:40

God. So then these high officials and satraps came by agreement to the king and said to him, oh, king

19:47

Darius, may you live forever and all the high officials of the kingdom and the prefects and the satraps and the councils and the governors are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an injunction that whoever makes petition to any

20:01

God or man for 30 days, except for to you, oh, king shall be cast into the den of lions.

20:11

Now, oh, king, establish the injunction, sign the document so that it cannot be changed according to the law of the

20:17

Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked. Therefore, king Darius signed the document and the injunction.

20:23

And when Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem.

20:32

He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he had done previously.

20:39

And then these men came by agreement and found Daniel making petition and plea before his

20:45

God. So as soon as it was illegal for Daniel to pray to God, you know what he did?

20:50

He prayed to God. And not only that, he didn't even hide it. Okay. So then they came near and said before the king concerning the injunction, oh, king, did you not sign an injunction that anyone who makes petition to any

21:05

God or man within 30 days, except to you, oh, king shall be cast into the den of lions?

21:11

The murderous plot now becomes known. So the king answered and said, well, the thing stands fast according to the law of the

21:18

Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked. So then they answered and said before the king,

21:23

Daniel, who's one of the exiles from Judah, he pays no attention to you, oh, king, or the injunction that you've signed, but he makes his petition three times a day.

21:35

Oh, now he recognizes what was really going on. So then the king, when he heard these words was much distress and set his mind to deliver

21:42

Daniel and he labored until the sun went down to rescue him. And then these men came by agreement to the king and said to the king, no, oh, king, that it is a law of the

21:55

Medes and the Persians that no injunction or ordinance that the king establishes can be changed.

22:01

So then the king commanded and Daniel was brought and cast into the den of lions. And the king declared to Daniel, may your

22:09

God whom you serve continually, may he deliver you. And a stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den and the king sealed it with his own signet and with the signet of his

22:21

Lord's so that nothing might be changed concerning Daniel. That sounds a lot like what happened to Jesus's body.

22:28

I wonder why there's such a coincidence. You know why? Because there are no coincidences in scripture. The scriptures are about Christ.

22:36

This is a type and shadow pointing us to Christ's crucifixion, to his burial, his death and his resurrection.

22:45

Right? So then the king went to his palace, he spent the night fasting, no diversions were brought to him and sleep fled from him.

22:53

And then at daybreak, the break of day, just kind of like with Christ, right? The king arose and went in haste to the den of lions.

23:01

And as he came near to the den where Daniel was, he cried out in a tone of anguish.

23:08

The king declared to Daniel, oh Daniel, servant of the living

23:13

God, has your God whom you serve continually been able to deliver you from the lions? And Daniel said to the king, oh king, may you live forever.

23:22

My God sent his angel and shut the lion's mouths and they have not harmed me because I was found blameless before him and also before you, oh king,

23:33

I have done no harm. And then the king was exceedingly glad and commanded that Daniel be taken up out of the den.

23:40

So Daniel was taken up out of the den and no kind of harm was found on him because he had trusted in his

23:46

God. And the king commanded and those men who had maliciously accused Daniel were brought and cast into the den of lions, they and their children and their wives.

23:56

And before they reached the bottom of the den, the lions overpowered them and broke all their bones in pieces.

24:03

And then King Darius wrote to all the people's nations and languages that dwell in all the earth.

24:09

Peace be multiplied to you. I make a decree that in all my royal dominion, people are to tremble and to fear before the

24:16

God of Daniel for he is the living God enduring forever. His kingdom shall never be destroyed and his dominion shall be to the end.

24:24

He delivers and he rescues. He works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth. He who has saved

24:31

Daniel from the power of the lions. So this Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus, the

24:36

Persian. Great story. And you cannot help but read this and go, man, that sounds a lot like the details regarding Christ's own tomb being sealed with a large stone.

24:49

And indeed it was. In fact, one of the church fathers, a church father by the name of Afrahat, here's what he wrote in regards to this passage.

25:01

Daniel also was persecuted as Jesus was persecuted. Daniel, they cast into the pit of lions and he was delivered and came up out of its midst uninjured.

25:12

And Jesus they sent down into the pit of the abode of the dead and he ascended and the death had no dominion over him.

25:20

Concerning Daniel, they expected that when he had fallen into the pit, he would not come up again.

25:25

And concerning Jesus, they said, since he has fallen, he shall not rise again. From harming

25:31

Daniel, the mouths of the ravenous and destructive lions were closed. And from harming Jesus was closed the mouth of death.

25:39

Though ravenous and destructive of living forms, they sealed the pit of Daniel and guarded it with diligence.

25:46

And they guarded the grave of Jesus with diligence, as they said, set guards to watch at the tomb.

25:52

When Daniel came up, his accusers were ashamed. And when Jesus rose, all who had crucified him were ashamed.

26:00

You see, there's such great connections. The Bible is so much better than what this goofy woman is trying to tell these people.

26:12

And Victoria Osteen, not a sound teacher, you shouldn't be listening to her.

26:17

By the fact that she's preaching at all there at Lakewood, shows that she's in rebellion to the

26:22

Word of God. Can you expect to hear a wholesome, true gospel,

26:29

Christ -centered message from a woman whose very presence at the platform shows that she's in rebellion to Christ?

26:37

Of course not. So you can't expect her to do anything but twist the scriptures and not make it about Christ, but make it about something completely goofy about how

26:46

God's going to roll away stones in your life. Baloney! That's not true at all. Christ is risen from the grave, alleluia.

26:54

And that's the point of the text, not about some stone in your life that's keeping your business and blocking it from being successful.

27:02

I think you get the point. So hopefully you found this helpful. If so, all the information on how you can share the video is down below in the description.

27:10

And a quick shout out to all of you who support Fighting for the Faith financially. You make it possible for us to keep doing what we are doing here, in warning people about false teachers, comparing what people are saying in the name of God to the

27:23

Word of God. If it weren't for your partnership, we would not even be here at all. So I want to thank you for making it possible for us to keep doing what we're doing.

27:31

If you would like to financially support us and join our crew, there's a link down below that will take you to our website, and you can join our crew.

27:37

And when you do, again, thank you for supporting us. We can't be here without you. So until next time, may

27:42

God richly bless you in the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ and His vicarious death on the cross for all of your sins.