On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. And he said to it, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." And his disciples heard it. - Mark 11: 12-14 (ESV)
This is known as the cursing of the fig tree and many may pass it by as interesting but uninformative until you recognize what Jesus is trying to teach us here. The key to the lesson of this story is "in leaf." This indicates that the fig tree had advanced to the point that leaves were present. The fruit of the fig tree is supposed to grow before the leaves. Thus when Jesus saw the leaves He assumed there would be fruit. Finding none, He cursed the tree. Today there are many Christians "in leaf." They have the appearance of being right and being saved but when you peel the leaves back, there is no fruit. Salvation is not based upon our feelings of our sincerity, when we said a nine word prayer that never even addressed our state as sinners before a holy God. We can dress ourselves up all we like. We can play the part and sound the part. Wear our Sunday best and shout out hallelujah at all the right times. All that does is produce leaves that indicate there should be fruit. Without that fruit however, we are just as deceptive as that fig tree Jesus came upon on His way to Jerusalem that day. The worst thing however, is we are only deceiving ourselves. Next up we come to Joel Osteen:
Lord Jesus, I repent of my sins, come into my heart. I make you my lord and savior. Friends if you prayed that simple prayer we believe you got born again.
If you watch any Joel Osteen telecast, this is how he now ends every message. The good in this sentence is the word "repent." Many altar calls skip this, which is the entire point of going up for an altar call. "I make you my Lord and Savior" is pretty good too. The "come into my heart" line is unbiblical but forgivable. So what is the larger problem? Besides the simplistic quick-fix nature of this "prayer" the problem exists in the larger context of how and what Joel Osteen preaches. I have watched entire sermons where he never even mentions the name of Jesus and then he is going to ask people to invite Him into their hearts? How exactly does that work? You never hear him preach about sin, which is always re-branded as "mistakes" or the need to repent. Osteen is on record as saying he often will not even bring a Scripture into the message until the end and doesn't need to apologize for that. The problem? Joel Osteen does not contain the words of eternal life - only Jesus does:
After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, "Do you want to go away as well?" Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, - John 6: 66-68 (ESV)
It is the Gospel that has the power of God unto the salvation of men, not Joel Osteen or any other pastorpreneur. You may ask if this is really that serious and the answer is a definitive yes. Read the key verses for today taken from the farewell to the Ephesian elders by the Apostle Paul. He declares that their blood is not on his hands because he did not hesitate to proclaim the whole counsel of God to them. What does this teach us? First of all that their blood is at stake! Secondly, the listeners we have as preachers need to hear the whole counsel of God - not just the warm and seeker friendly parts. It does no good to spend a half hour telling people that God wants them blessed and rich or how to forge more meaningful relationships and then look in the camera and offer them salvation. Lastly from Osteen we see the same arrogance as with Warren to declare that merely saying the prayer results in being born again. This brings us to Joseph Prince:
Lord Jesus, thank You for loving me and dying for me on the cross. Your precious blood washes me clean of every sin. You are my Lord and my Savior, now and forever. I believe that You rose from the dead and that You are alive today. Because of Your finished work, I am now a beloved child of God and heaven is my home. Thank You for giving me eternal life, and filling my heart with Your peace and joy. Amen.
Now, let me first say that there as far more meat on this bone than the two predecessors. Christ loves us and died on the cross for us. His blood washes us clean. We do need Him to be our Lord and Savior. We need to believe He rose from the dead and is alive today. We are saved through His finished work. What is missing though? Our part! There is no mention of our need to repent! What good does it do to mention that His blood washes us clean of every sin and never mention that we need to turn from those sins? What it actually does is present a false impression that salvation is accomplished through a series of correct declarative statements followed up by no change whatsoever on our part! Following this model, we still end up as a fig tree with leaves and no fruit. This representation of the sinner's prayer is a microcosm of all that is wrong with Prince theology. So much of it sounds right but the leaven running thought it will send you right to hell.
