Before every story-time sermon Joel Osteen continues the tradition begun by John Osteen, his late father and fellow Word Faith prosperity gospel preacher. Based upon their belief in the erroneous “positive confession” teaching Osteen has his followers confess concerning the Bible.
Their mistaken idea is when people confess positive things they are speaking “faith-filled words” that, like God’s Own Words, quite literally have creative power. Of course this is stupid, but it is what they believe. Now Steven Furtick, one of the allegedly infallible Purpose Driven/Seeker Driven Popes Of The Carolinas, appears to have been gleaning knowledge from Joel Osteen.
Now, that Carolina Pope Steven Furtick would begin to sound more like Joel Osteen really shouldn’t surprise us though. You may recall I showed you in Steven Furtick Calls Joel Osteen Great Man Of God that not long ago Furtick was literally gushing when he tweeted to the world:
@stevenfurtick Great night w a great man of God. Thx Pastor Joel 4 your humility & msg of hope. Love & honor! http://yfrog.com/0rto4j (Online source)As I pointed out previously, if you click the link and you’ll be taken to a picture of a smiling Furtick, who is the next generation of PDL-type preaching, with his arm draped around Joel Osteen, who is one of the next generation—and most popular—preachers of Word Faith heresy ala Kenneth Copeland; you know, of “the Born-Again Jesus.” And Joel Osteen Blesses The Mormon Church as Christian.
Yet church planting Pope Furtick calls this heretic “a great man of God.” But as I also said before, a message of “hope,” “love & honor” does not ”a great man of God” make; because great men of God don’t de-emphasize the Cross and tell you lies in the Lord’s Name. However, Furtick’s past couple of tweets chirp loudly of Osteen-sims:
@stevenfurtick Send a message to your flesh today: you will not condemn or control me…the power of Jesus is alive & active in me! (Online source)The above link takes us to How to Trust God in the Good Times by Furtick at his blog. It’s been my contention for years now that there is a growing Ecumenical Church Of Deceit (ECoD), which is comprised of three main pillars in the pragmatic Purpose Driven/Seeker Driven community, so-called seeker-seeking Emerging/ent/ence Christianity, and the centered-on-the-self Word Faith movement.
Stop squandering your season of blessing by living in a state of suspicion. http://bit.ly/7IW7ro (Online source)
From where I stand there are so many in the apostatizing evangelical community who are busy burying their heads within the spiritual sand of whatever offshoot of the ECoD—poisoned by the semi-pelagian Church Growth Movement—it is that highjacked their particular brand of Christian sandbox. So they remain content to think everything is wonderfully progressing along toward some utopian unity.
As they each follow their own personal Pied Pipers, whether it be PDL Pope Rick Warren or Rob Bell, the Elvis of Emergence Christianity, or Joel Osteen for his brand of Word Faith-lite, the sad fact is that mainstream evangelicalism in America today is nauseatingly lukewarm; and far too many evangelical leaders have been unwilling to take serious theological stands that would require real faith.
Now I don’t agree with everything A.W. Tozer taught, however, he did put his finger right on the problem a few decades ago when he wrote:
That so-called Bible religion in our times is suffering rapid decline is so evident as to need no proof. I have observed one significant lack among evangelical Christians. The great deficiency to which I refer is the lack of spiritual discernment, especially among the leaders.
How can there be so much Bible knowledge and so little insight? Surely one of the greatest needs is the appearance of Christian leaders with prophetic insight. Unless they come soon, it will be too late for this generation.
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8 comments:
Pretty scary stuff.
But your comment regarding Jeske...I don't think you're going to find him preaching a prosperity gospel much less theology of glory in lieu of theology of the cross. If you're going to make this kind of inference, put your money where your mouth is and show a video clip instead of a flippant remark.
Granted, you have it in for Jeske (and WELS) and he does push the outside of the envelope, but you have published nothing here that is incriminating of Jeske.
Demeanor and looks mean everything to superficial people.
I remember in the 1970's I went to an LCMS church to hear a woman who had gotten swept up in the cult of the Moonies. She talked of how people got hooked into it - the seminars and constant blathering on and the lack of food and nutrition that helped the mind be unable to withstand the on-slaught. She talked of how people need to be deprogrammed.
I have seen at least 10 friends and relatives who formerly spoke against CGM, but now openly embrace it and participate in it or at best remain silent or are agnostic about it. They have lost their fight. The continual brain-washing that seems to be occuring in WELS and LCMS is very difficult to withstand even for the heartiest of souls.
I have seen more and more churches move to very sentimental sounding pop - "praise music" which to my hearing is nothing other than a way of softening ones resolve thru emotionally laiden music and weak theology. It neutralizes one's resolve by the syrupy flavor and surface level emotion and makes them feel as though, "whatever, I just need to get along and be open to the love of God and the freedom we have in Jesus to worship however he wants me to" type thinking.
We complain that our pastors have gone to seminars to learn from the feet of mockers (judged by their teachings). Now they hold their own conferences as if it has come from deep Lutheran theology.
I grow weary from this very prevelant stuff within our churches. Our people, pastors and leaders need to undergo deprogramming. And that can only happed by studying the confessions that have battled the same ground before.
I need a quarter of dank and a 40 of EO800... is that God?
I need a grant and an Awesome Lay evangelism leader...is that God?
I need $10k because I was a fool and nickled and dimed myself into debt with my 9 credit cards...is that God too?
How pathetic. That prosperity gospel really makes me ill.
The JKs and the Jeskes, etc. put on a mock-aghast mask when they see someone so blatantly Enthusiastic. They prefer enthusiasm that is harder to nail down and subtler. Kinda like 'understated elegance' but with false teaching.
Jeske (and friends) doesn't use prosperity gospel to convince people. It's trickier.
The St. Marcus/TOG thing (available in many WELS churches) doesn't try to get you to sob and cry and 'testah fah' in front of church like the Baptists.
They don't try to get you to lose emotional control and start blathering like the Pentacostals.
They don't insist that you save the world like the Jesuits.
They don't totally modernize church and throw out the old (bad) and replace it with new(relevant)
The St Marcus/TOG/Jeske/Ski ect. thing doesn't totally ape any of these churches. They snatch bits and pieces from each and mix it with with features Lutheranism. This is why it's difficult to pin down. Several of the honest St. Marcus folks live in Brewers Hill and Harambee neighborhoods. These people have been led to wrong theology by their big hearts. The remaining 95% of St Marcus folk live in Brookfield or Tosa and go to church in the inner city and send their kids to school there. Their white-guilt thus assuaged, they can go to social events knowing that they will be respected by their peers for being "multi-cultural" and "willing to get gritty so that my kids can grown up with diversity". These people are the sort that talk bad about the suburbs and how shallow they are, even though they ARE the suburbs. Attracting these people is most of the reason that Jeske got laser eye surgery, bought a red Mustang and wears makeup.(And doesn't live anywhere near "the hood" that he talks so much about...) This mix of people generally believes themselves enlightened and authentic. St Marcus is no exception. They get the champagne belly butterflies simply because they drove by a hooker in front of a closed payday loan store with graffiti on the window. "It's all so IS... Now I'm a REAL boy!" They smugly believe that their faith is more authentic too because they have to worry about getting robbed in the church parking lot. These people all want a war story to tell but without the inconvienance of actually doing anything. The St. Marcus/Jeske crowd most certainly know better than the rest of us. They're really living and keeping their eyes open. They definately have their wits about them. Their ecclesiastical street cred. is unmistakeable. They're reachin people. If you aren't authentic, if you haven't been there and seen it, if you won't get your hands dirty, if you have risked your comfortability, then WHY ARE YOU STILL TALKING, Jackson?... The means of Grace... What's that again?"
"Authenticity" is the "faith qualifier" of the Ski Jeske C&Cers Kelm etc. They fight directly against Forms and traditions--because unless you discovered it yourself it's not real. They cannot wait to tell you how dead your faith is, if they see you reading the Book of Concord.
definitely think this dude has smoked some sausage in his day.
He got the swinger look about him...
"The great deficiency to which I refer is the lack of spiritual discernment, especially among the leaders."
How about called workers & leaders who turn their wives into baby mills in the name of God?
Oh oh...three sure fire ways to end up in eternal damnation; Laser eye surgery, red mustangs and make up. You forgot one. Safaris.
HEY LUTHER ROCKS your brain doesn't.
When a Pastor (or anyone)undergoes surgery, buys an expensive car and wears makeup (as a man?) for the sole purpose of making himself acceptable to wealthy white-guilt Brookfieldites, it's clear that he's got a spiritual problem.
LutherRocks, you represent the dirty, nasty and sacrilegious side of our culture. You attempt to recreate God in your own imagine by "rockin" out on Sundays to latest hip music. You probably found spiritual meaning in "American Pie" by don mclean
If you ever actually read Luther you wouldn't understand him. Luther didn't write yesterday so how can he be relevant to someone like you?
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