America’s Plastic Pastor

As the music fades, and the high energy worship bands sings the last words, a pumped up crowd applauds and cheers as Joel Osteen, smiling and waving, steps onto the stage with his wife, Victoria. His message was a message of hope that he was bringing to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His purpose: to reach the unreached, and tell the untold.

Joel Osteen, 45, is an American best-selling author and senior pastor at Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. His Christian ministry reaches over 7 million broadcast media viewers weekly in the United States and untold millions more in over 100 nations around the world. Joel Osteen’s first book, Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential, was released in October 2004. In December 2006, he was named one of the year’s “Ten Most Fascinating People” by Barbara Walters. Presidential candidate John McCain has described Osteen as “inspirational”. Tonight, after passing out tracts to the hundreds going in to see him speak, I, along with two others, acquired free tickets. Interested to see what he had to say, we went in.

Osteen’s tour has been named “A Night of Hope.” The evening began with a worship band perfomingseveral energetic songs, while 3 huge screens in the background projected swirling images and smiling faces and positive phrases such is “Friend of God.” When the music faded, the two jumbo screens on each side of the stage showed Osteen and his wife walking out towards the cheering crowd. “If it fits you, take it.” Osteen said as he plunged into an inspirational speech of how God wants the best for us, and the reason we aren’t receiving His blessings is because we are allowing negative energy to influence us. “Look inside of you… Just look inside. See who you want to be, have faith, and God will make you into that person.” Then, as the next song was beginning, Victoria with passion, told the crowd “You all are the best looking crowd I’ve ever seen… Did ya’ll realize how great you look?”

Soft piano played in the background as Osteen continued to speak of God’s love, how “God is bigger then any mistake you’ve made….” and that “God is not mad at you, He’s madly in love with you.” The crowd broke out into applause and hundreds shouted in approval.

Between two songs, he offered to pray for the crowd “God, we know that right now you’re smiling down on us. Father, we need to make good decisions.” He prayed, as the music began to build. The drums got more powerful, and finally as he ended with a loud “Amen!” the music came in full force and people clapped and cheered and Osteen smiled down at them all.

Sadly, however, the crowd was peppered with lesbians, homosexuals and other such people dealing with major sin. But Osteen, as the most famous pastor in America, didn’t feel the need to address sin. On Larry King Live, he responded to a question about Jesus and people being sent to Hell by saying that he doesn’t judge people. Only God knows people’s hearts, so it’s not his place to say whether or not Jesus is the only way, or who God will send to Hell.
When he shared his testimony to the awe struck crowd, there was no mention of sin, or repentance. It was all about how he got to where he was today. The closest he got to confronting sin was his statement on God being bigger then our mistakes.

After about an hour of his mushy motivational speech, we had enough and we went out. We got to witness to a guard at the door about how Osteen shies away from confronting sin and speaking about anything more than how God wants to bless you, and how you just need to think good thoughts and God will make that true for you.
Unfortunately, so many people follow after him. Getting a watered down message of what cannot even be called the Gospel of Jesus. The evil thing is, what he’s saying isn’t all that bad, but he’s leaving out the important stuff. The core of Jesus’ message. Yes, God loves us. But he wants us to stop sinning and live for Him. And this is where Osteen fails.

Response to Islam: Was Jesus Crucified?

Islam teaches that Jesus was a prophet from God, and the Messiah, but that He was not the Son of God, or a diety of any kind. Muslims also deny that Jesus was crucified and died for sinners, to set them free. The dialgue begins by the Muslim quoting a verse from the Qur’an:

“And their (Jews) boasting: ‘We killed Messiah Jesus, son of Mary, the Apostle of Allah,’ but they (Jews) killed him not, nor crucified him.” Surah 4:157

“…that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 1:9

“Do you  still believe that he died on the cross?” The Muslim asks the Christian. “Yes, Christians believe he died and was then ressurected.”

People saw him dying on the cross, his disciples saw him and then when they went to the tomb and found it empty they were astonished! Then they ate and drank with him and were with him for 40 days before he ascended into heaven. In the dialogue, the Muslim asked the Christian if he gave more heresay to Jesus’ words, or the apostles. The Christian answered, “Jesus”, but failed to understand that the Bible is the inspired Word of God and that all of the Bible is a reliable source. The muslim goes on to quote Matthew 27:46 and Luke 22:43. In the latter verse, Jesus is praying to the Father as His disciples wait and He prayes in verse 42 saying, “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” and then in verse 43 it continues “And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.” The muslim tells the Christian that an angel of the Lord was sent to comfort and reassure Jesus that God was going to answer his prayers. However, he  is reading into the verse. It never says anything about God answering His prayer. He simply sends an angel to strengthen Him. God the Father had a plan to fulfill, and Jesus, though his flesh cried out against it, knew it had to happen that way. Jesus said “….not my will father, but Thine be done.” The Father willed for Him to die on the cross, because it was His will to create a way for man to be saved. Jesus had to suffer a punishment (the punishment of death) that we owed, so that through Him we could be saved.

Several verses are brought up against sacrifice (Matthew 9:13, Matthew 12:7 Hosea 6:6…) to attempt to prove that God was opposed to sacrifice, and therefore would spare Jesus from that kind of death. However in Revalations 13:8 it refers to the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, showing us that God had a plan of salvation for mankind since the world began. That Jesus’ blood was shed for us since the foundation. “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.” This was the first blood sacrifice as a covering for sin, a picture of what Jesus Christ, the lamb of God, would do when he died and was raised from the dead to take away our sins. Acts 2:23 states “… Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain … .”

The Christian brings up, in Luke where Jesus says that he would suffer and rise from the dead the third day (Luke 24:46). The muslim starts to grasp at other verses and twist them to fit His beliefs. He quotes Paul in 1 Corinthians as saying “…I die daily,” to show the Christian that the word dead, or die cannot be taken literally, and that it simply means to suffer. The muslim also brings up that the soldiers did not break Jesus’ legs. This was a fulfillment of a prophesy that His bones would not be broken, just like that Lamb that is sacrificed during the passover. “Can we rely on these soldiers for pronouncing him dead?” Why not? He says Jesus himself said he did not die. Matthew 12:40 tells us of Jesus speaking to the Pharisees saying “For as Jonah was three days in the belly of the whale, so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” The Muslim says that since Jonah was alive in the whale, Jesus was alive in the grave. Jesus never said that. He was comparing the three days and three nights in the earth, with Jonah’s time in the whale. It was a story the Jews were familiar with and He was using it as a comparison.

In the dialogue the Muslim quotes verses speaking of the ressurection of the Christians at the end. Not the ressurection of Jesus. Jesus’ ressurection from the dead was a special thing. So the verses quoted don’t even apply. The muslim also uses verses he doesn’t agree with to make his points. “And when they had spoken he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said onto them “Have ye here any meat?” The muslim uses this verse to prove that he was not ressurected because he wanted to eat, and ressurected bodies don’t eat. However in the same verse, he shows them the holes in his hands and feet from being crucified.

The Muslim tells the Christian that Paul was considered the be a babbler by the Jews, because he preached that Jesus was God and the Jews only believe in one God.
(John 1:1)  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The Word, is Jesus. He was considered to be God.

The Muslim picks and chooses verses he likes, and just twists them to fit his beliefs. The Bible makes it very clear that Jesus was crucified and died for our sins, that it was God’s plan from the beginning, and anyone can twist and stretch to make it fit right for them, but you can’t change God’s plan, and you can’t change the truth.

Response paper to ‘The Basis of Morality’ by Tim Madigan, Philosophy Now

In his article, the Basis of Morality Tim Madigan bring up three main points which I will respond to in this paper. He begins his article by arguing that the existance of a god is something that’s taught to us from the time we’re little. Thus many times, people don’t doubt the existance of a god and use the arguments they grew up learning. He says that if people began searching for answers themselves, they’d find some serious flaws in the arguments they’ve heard all their lives, to justify what they believe in.

How Do We Know the Law Giver Exists?
Tim Madigan says that none of the arguments that people use are valid or persuasive in proving the existance of some sort of a higher power. We are not able to pull God out of the heavens, as most skeptics would like, however there are ways to prove God’s existance to anybody willing to hear. His existence is manifested in the world around us. To begin with the presupposition that God does not exist is major intellectual dishonesty. He jumps straight to the fact that if God cannot be proven, then He must not exist. He then goes on to quote Charles Darwin as saying that most of the existance for God is proven from a deep inward feeling and conviction.
Part of God’s existance is proven through personal experience and feelings, however, he can be shown in many other ways. If you study the Bible honestly, you will see that it is a book that can be trusted to be the word of God. Historically it has been shown to be correct. “Finally,” he says “even if one could prove God exists, this alone would not be sufficient to justify the claims that his rules should be obeyed.” This brings us to his second point.

If God Does Exist, How Do We Know That He is Good?
The God of the Bible in known as being a loving God but also as a hateful, destructive, God. “Why did God allow Satan to torture and destroy all that Job, a faithful servant of God, have?” Tim asks in his Philosophy Now article. There are places in the Bible where God could seem like a hearltess God. However, he had purposes to fulfill and the civilizations he destroyed were people who had rejected him and hated his laws. God, being the creator of mankind, also has the ability to destroy. He doesn’t owe us anything. Assuming the God of the Bible exists, all throughout the Bible he has an overwhelming love for mankind and a desire to see them saved from destruction, sending his only son to pay the penalty that we deserved: death. God is not merely a being who tortures mankind for pleasure, nor does he destroy them for no apparent reason. Each and every time he has a valid purpose for his actions.
Nahum 1:7 “The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knows those who trust in Him.”
Psalms 145:8-9 “The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, Slow to anger and great in mercy. The Lord is good to all, And His tender mercies are over all His works.”
Tim Madigan quotes A.C. Ewing as saying “Without a prior conception of God as good or his commands as right, God would have no more claim on our obedience then Hitler or Stalin except that he would have more power then they did to make things uncomfortable for those who disobey Him.” The fact is, He is God. He created us, He holds our lives in His hand. He created us for a purpose (to glorify Him and live for Him) and if we disobey and rebel against Him, He says he will punish us for that. The evil in this world is not an excuse to deny the existance of God. Could God be good without an evil to compare it to? Would he then be truely good? God does not cause the pain and suffering, He simply allows it to take place.

Must We Follow These Divine Rules Out Of Compunction?
If God is who he claims to be all throughout the Bible and if He is good as His Word claims He is, then there is valid reason to believe that we will and should be punished for our sins, and that this is a just punishment. If we are all a random product of Evolution, how can Tim Madigan claim that our morality is somehow natural? We are all naturally sinful. Leave a child to himself and he will want to steal, and lie and cheat. The child won’t naturally do good. He uses an example from De Waal’s book Good Natured, to show how we could’ve evolved with a natural morality. He talks about how apes will take care of members of their group that are disabled, and how if such a closely related species is like this naturally, then why can’t we be? Man fell, animals didn’t. The Bible never talks about animals being fallen creatures like man was after Adam sinned. Animals never needed a savior to die for them. Man is on a different level. The Bible says in Genesis 1:27 “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”
God gave man an ultimatum. Either you obey Him and live for Him and go to heaven when you die, or you reject Him, sin against Him and when you die you go to Hell. God hates sin, and therefore when someone sins against Him He punishes them for that. God’s laws are good, so why shouldn’t we obey them?

“That’s right, well my God is bigger than your stupid theory.” -Jason Storms