Hmm...let's take a look at the actual Scripture shall we?
That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring--not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written, "I have made you the father of many nations"--in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. - Romans 4: 16-17 (ESV)
Who has the power to call into existence things that do not exist? God does! Not us. This slipshod handling of the Bible is a hallmark of Osteen theology. He is quoted as saying that he routinely does not introduce Scripture into his "sermons" until the end and he won't apologize for it. Despite the fact that disqualifies him as a preacher of God's Word, it might be best because he consistently shows he does not understand God's Word. I heard him once preach on our need to expand our imaginations and he quoted a verse from the story of the Tower of Babel! As if it was a positive thing that God had to scatter everyone and confound their languages! You see this a lot with seeker friendly, purpose driven churches. They are not in the business of preaching the Gospel. Instead, they want to put together a feel good message and they strip mine the Bible to find a verse that vaguely supports what their pre conceived message is.
Besides word faith, prosperity and Biblical illiteracy; Osteen preaches a false gospel. When interviewed by Oprah, the queen of new age mysticism, Pastor Joel said that the do's and don't of doctrine were not his "gifting." Think about the absurdity of that statement for a moment. Doctrine, which is one of the two things Paul warned Timothy to guard closely as a pastor because the very salvation of his listeners depended upon it, is not the gifting of someone who fancies himself a Christian preacher. That is like a firefighter saying that putting out fires is not really his thing. Joel Osteen's false gospel is devoid of sin and repentance - the very elements needed to be understood for salvation. Here is another Osteen quote:
"Listen; don't dangle people over the fires of hell. Lisa and I always kid about you know we're going to dangle them over the fires of hell. Listen, that doesn't draw people to God. They know what kind of life they live. They know how bad they've lived. What you've got to do is talk about the goodness of God. Listen, it's the goodness of God that brings people to repentance. It's the goodness of God. One thing I always appreciated about my dad is that he instilled into us a good vision of who God was. We learned about a good God." [Sermon: What the Resurrection Means to Us As Believers]
Dangle people? Osteen never mentions hell. He barely mentions Christ. The foundations for his sermons are always personal anecdotes. I watched a television sermon once where he never mentioned Jesus at all and then at the end had the typical "invitation" to accept the person he never preached about into your heart. It doesn't work like that.
When you combine his poor handling of God's Word with his false gospel devoid of sin and repentance, you just need to mix in the purpose driven church model to reveal the true damage of a Joel Osteen. There are 45,000 people attending his church weekly and hundreds of thousands more that follow him through media. It was just announced that he now has his own radio station on Sirius XM Radio. What do these people hear? They hear a very positive message. A motivational speech. But they do not hear much about Jesus. They do not hear much Scripture, as Osteen proudly admits. Then at the end they hear this arrogant display of ignorance:
"We never want to close our broadcast without giving you an opportunity to make Jesus the Lord of your life. Would you pray with me? Lord Jesus I repent of my sins. Come into my heart. I make you my Lord and Savior. Amen. If you prayed that simple prayer we believe you got born again.
