Redefining the Christian Message
In the only clear reference to trusting in Christ that I came across in this book, Osteen still feels compelled to include us as the object of faith: "When we believe in God's Son, Jesus Christ, and believe in ourselves, that's when our faith comes alive. When we believe we have what it takes, we focus on our possibilities" (emphasis added).
Even when the concepts of sin and redemption are employed, they are redefined. Sin is not a condition of rebellion that we inherit from Adam, but diseases, poverty, and bad attitudes that we inherit from our family line. In the Bible, a "curse" has its proper place in the context of the covenant. For example, in Ancient Near Eastern treaties, which form the pattern of covenantal thinking employed in the Bible, an emperor would bring down his judgment on a rebellious tribe or nation under his rule. This sanction would be called a "curse."
However, in the prosperity gospel, "curse" is more nearly related to the world of magic - the way we usually speak of curses in our culture today. So where the curses that God invokes upon humanity as a result of Adam's sin in the garden are a judicial sentence, Osteen speaks of "generational curses" that have no obvious reference to divine judgment.
You may have inherited your grandmother's genes, which included the curse of diabetes. However, "You need to put your foot down and say, 'Grandmother may have had it [diabetes]. Mother may have had it. But as for me and my house, we're redeemed from diabetes. I'm going to live under the blessing and not the curse."
A doctor named Vanessa refused to accept her joint disease and she was eventually delivered of it, Osteen relates. "This type of blessing is for believers, not doubters." His father had high blood pressure, but kept saying, "Joel, I will never have a stroke." "He was saying that by faith because he struggled with high blood pressure his entire life. He would say, 'I'll never be incapacitated. I'll never come to the place where I cannot preach.'
And true to his faith, my father preached just eleven days before he went to be with the Lord." It would not be surprising, then, if such teaching led a sincere follower to conclude that a failure to be healed or to become financially prosperous was the result of one's own disobedience.
If I am diagnosed with Grandma's diabetes, am I a doubter rather than a believer? "The Bible calls it an iniquity," Osteen writes. It is a curse from generation to generation "until somebody rises up and puts a stop to it. For example, when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, that decision didn't affect them; it affected their children. Do you know who the first murderer was in the Bible?...The iniquity kept getting passed down through generations of Cain's offspring."
Therefore, in the place of the Christian doctrine of original sin (viz., the whole human race being guilty and corrupt in Adam) is the notion of "iniquity" as a genetic trait that someone in one's family tree allowed into the bloodstream. Quite literally, Osteen believes, the curse is in the blood, just as each person has God's DNA. The generational curse is lifted by our obedience, when someone in the family line finally "takes authority" over it.
Absent is any reference to sin as a condition of being opposed to God, guilty before God, and corrupt in heart, mind, soul, and will. The ethical character of sin as both a condition and specific actions of transgressing or failing to conform to God's law is exchanged for a magical conception.
At the same time, our victory over generational curses is entirely manageable. We can overcome the "iniquity" that has been passed down to us: "God has given you free will. You can choose to change...People who have been abused are the most likely to become abusers. Why is that? It is not because they want to. They know how destructive it is. It's because that negative spirit keeps being passed down. Thank God, you and I can do something about it."
Just as sin is redefined as a failure to attain prosperity in all areas of life, redemption is now understood as freedom from pain, illness, poverty, as well as the bad attitudes and negative habits that our parents or grandparents passed on to us.
Think of it like this: Each of us has a spiritual bank account. By the way we live, we are either storing up equity or storing up iniquity. Equity would be anything good: our integrity, our determination, our godliness. That's storing up blessings. On the other hand, iniquity includes our bad habits, addictions, selfishness, lack of discipline.
"Your faithfulness is noticed in heaven. You are storing up equity for both yourself and generations to come." A more thorough-going works-righteousness is difficult to conceive:
Get up every day and give it your best effort. If you will do that, not only will you rise higher and accomplish more, but God has promised that your seed, your family line for up to a thousand generations, is going to have the blessings and the favor of God - all because of the life that you've lived.
So we see once again that Osteen has not abandoned the "legalism" of previous generations. If anything, he intensifies it, but his followers do not recognize the tightening noose or the mounting burden because he makes it sound so easy. It is not easy, however, to be told that one's health, wealth, and happiness - as well as one's victory over sin and death - depend on the extent of our determination and effort.
A weak view of sin fails to bring us to the end of our rope; instead, it encourages us to try just a little bit harder to save ourselves. It's easy. Really. Therefore, Osteen advises, we need to stop listening to accusing voices. Any voice that accuses, convicts, or condemns is the voice of Satan, according to Osteen. He nowhere suggests that this may be the voice of the Holy Spirit, showing us our guilt and helplessness before God's law in order to drive us to Christ.
We are not morally bankrupt before God. Sin is reduced to certain attitudes and actions that we can put a stop to whenever we want. Therefore, we do not need a one-sided rescue operation outside of us. The seed of goodness is still within us, waiting to explode if we will just nurture it.
One wonders what Osteen would do with the following passages: "Our righteousness is like filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6); "There is no one righteous; there is no one who does good, no not even one" (Romans 3:10).
Where Jeremiah says, "The heart is more deceitful than anything else" (Jeremiah 17:9), Osteen says that his confidence before God is in the righteousness of his own heart: "I may not have a perfect performance, but I know my heart is right...Similarly, as long as you're doing your best and desire to do what's right according to God's Word, you can be assured God is pleased with you. Certainly, He wants you to improve, but He knows that we all have weaknesses."
Sin is reduced to "human foibles and imperfections" that "poke through our idealism..." "As long we're doing our best, we don't have to live condemned even when we make mistakes or fail."
Although he does mention God's forgiveness and mercy, this divine grace is not understood as something that comes at the price of Christ's atoning sacrifice. It is not because God has reconciled us to himself through the death of his Son, but because he is an indulgent father who let's bygones be bygones, that we can receive his forgiveness and move on.
Even Paul's experience in Romans 7 is reduced to a "nobody's perfect" kind of speech. "The Apostle Paul once said, 'The things I know I should do, I don't. The things I know I shouldn't do, I end up doing.' Even this great man of God who wrote half the New Testament struggled in this regard. That tells me God does not disqualify me merely because I don't perform perfectly, 100 percent of the time. I wish I did, and I'm constantly striving to do better. I don't do wrong on purpose, but like anyone else, I too have weaknesses."
However, this trivializes Paul's travail in that chapter, where he laments not simply his failure to score a perfect 100, but his failure - even as a believer - to gain victory over his sins. This does not lead him to say, in effect, "Let's brush off and do our best anyway. He does not say, "Nobody's perfect. At least my heart is right," but rather, "Oh, wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" Only this deep anguish over the depravity of his own heart can lead him to look not within but outside of himself: "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Romans 7:24, 25).
There is no clear sense in Osteen's message that God has forgiven and justified us because even though we stand condemned according to the law we are declared holy by Christ's imputed righteousness. Rather, God just ignores our guilt and focuses on the good things he apparently sees in us. "However, God does not focus on what's wrong with you. He focuses on what's right with you. He's not looking at all your faults and weaknesses."
Again, the "good news" according to Osteen is that God does not judge us according to his law (the 100 percent rule), but looks at our heart and sees something decent in all of us. "I am bold enough to believe that I am a friend of Almighty God, and that he is smiling down on me right now. I've accepted the fact that I don't perform perfectly all the time, but I know my heart is right. To the best of my ability, I'm doing what pleases Him."
His forgiveness is due not to Christ's having borne our debts, so that there is no more guilt to be judged, but to God's decision to overlook our faults: "He chooses not to remember your mistakes, your sins, your failures." "God approves you unconditionally, just as you are." Again, no mention of Christ. "Frankly, it's not because of what you have or haven't done; God loves you because of who you are and because of who he is. God is love."
We do have to be careful here. Of course, God is love. He is also righteous, holy, and just. God's love and justice are fully realized together - not by overwhelming these other attributes with his love, but by sending his own Son to live a perfect life in our place, suffer judgment in our place, and be raised for our justification. By setting the justice aside, Osteen actually obscures the glory of the cross and greatness of God's grace.
Instead of acknowledging that we are still sinners, though justified and renewed in Christ, we need to confess that we are "no longer poor old sinners, we are sons and daughters of the Most High God." Osteen confuses the bad preaching of the law as scolding with the proper preaching of the law as driving us out of ourselves to Christ.
"Sometimes religion tries to beat people down and make them feel bad about themselves. 'You've done this and you failed here, and you didn't treat this person right, and you didn't raise your kids as well as you should have.'...'Why don't you lighten up and give yourself a break?...If you've made mistakes, just say 'God, I'm sorry; I repent. Help me to do better next time.'"
Instead of pointing us to Christ, where God's record-keeping was justly satisfied and the court transcription was nailed to the cross (Colossians 2:14), Osteen just gets rid of the idea of any negative record. God is certainly recording our good works, but not our sins. If this is the case, however, why do we need Christ at all? We certainly do not need him to live a perfect life in our place, but do we even need him to offer himself to death in our place if the only record-keeping that counts is the good things that we have done? Osteen adds,
He's not keeping a list of your shortcomings. God is not looking at everything you've done wrong over your entire life or your disobedience last week. He's looking at what you're doing right. He's looking at the fact that you have made a conscious decision to be better, to live right, and to trust Him. He is pleased that you are kind and courteous to people.
Far from the struggle of Paul in Romans 7, Osteen makes it sound as if we can manage the sin-problem by our own positive outlook. "If you want to sin, you can sin. I sin all I want to," he says. "The good news is that I don't want to...Stop dwelling on everything that's wrong with you and taking an inventory of what you're not. The Scripture says in Hebrews, 'To look away from everything that distracts.'"
Once again, Osteen misquotes the Bible to make his point. Hebrews 12:1, 2 actually reads, "Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us, and run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that lay before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and sat down at the right hand of God's throne."
In other words, the counsel is to look away from ourselves - both our sins and our good works - and not let anything distract us from Christ. Yet Osteen's entire message represents a distraction from Christ. Who needs Christ if this is the gospel: "You're not perfect, but you are trying to live better, and God looks at your heart. He sees the inside, and he is changing you little by little"?
Once again, Osteen's message - though perhaps a bit more explicitly oriented toward the prosperity gospel than most - is not all that different from the general drift of a lot of popular religion and spirituality that pervades even our own evangelical circles today.
The focus is on us rather than on God, on our happiness apart from God's holiness, on our "ascending higher" by moral effort rather than on our being receivers of God's saving work in Jesus Christ. "I know, too, even when my plans don't work out, even when things don't go my way, because I am honoring God and striving to keep the right attitude, God will make it up to me."
The Good News? God's Keeping Score!
Having exchanged the gospel of Christ's doing, dying, and rising, for a pep talk for our doing, declaring, and rising, Osteen can say, "The world does not need to hear another sermon nearly as much as it needs to see one." Now we are the "good news." And here is the gospel according to Joel Osteen:
God is keeping the records. He sees every act of kindness you show. He sees every time you are good to somebody. He hears every encouraging word you speak. God has seen all the times you went out of your way to help somebody who never said thank you. Your good deeds do not go unnoticed by Almighty God.
But once we are placed back under the law for righteousness, on what basis can Osteen claim that God only counts the good works? Is there a single passage in the Bible that separates God's record-keeping in this way, so that our good works can bring God's favor and blessing but our sins do not count at all? If we are going to inherit God's promises by the "righteousness that is by the law," then Osteen's pleasant outlook hardly seems justified.
Make no mistake about it, behind all the smiles, there is a thorough-going religion of works-righteousness: "God's plan for each of our lives is that we continually rise to new levels. But how high we go in life, and how much of God's favor and blessings we experience, will be directly related to how well we follow His directions."
God "is waiting for your obedience so He can release more of His favor and blessings in your life...My question to you is: How high do you want to rise? Do you want to continue to increase? Do you want to see more of God's blessings and favor? If so, the higher we go, the more disciplined we must be; the quicker we must obey."
"You don't get the grace unless you step out. You have to make the first move. God will see that step of faith and He'll give you supernatural strength to help you overcome any obstacles standing in the way of doing the right thing...Remember: How high you go in life will be directly related to how obedient you are."
And if anyone has any questions about whether this plan is workable, Osteen offers himself as an example:
I know I'm not perfect, but I also know this: My conscience is clear before God. I know that I'm doing my best to please Him. That's why I can sleep well at night. That's why I can lie down in peace. That's why I have a smile on my face. Friend, keep your conscience tender, and you will discover that life keeps getting better and better.
By contrast, Jesus and his apostles taught that the searching judgment of God through his law brings conviction, pricking my conscience that I have fallen short of God's glory. My conscience does not render a positive verdict in God's courtroom. The only reason I can sleep well at night is that even though my heart is still filled with corruption and even though I am not doing my best to please him, I have in heaven at the Father's right hand the beloved Son who has not only done his best for himself, but has fulfilled all righteousness for me in my place.
Just as Joel Osteen has decided for himself the message that he will preach, he has also tailored his own vocation. In interviews, he has said that he is not called to explain the Scriptures or expound doctrine. In this book he adds, "I'm not called to explain every minute facet of Scripture or to expound on deep theological doctrines or disputes that don't touch where real people live. My gifting is to encourage, to challenge, and to inspire." Ambassadors do not get to choose what they say. As ministers of the gospel our "gifting" is to "preach the whole counsel of God" (Acts 20:27).
Have we actually come to a place in Evangelicalism where he will listen to people who clearly tell us that they are not called to explain and expound the Scriptures? A number of responses I have received after being interviewed regarding Osteen's message criticized me for failing to show a united front against the real enemies: the liberals.
However, it is unclear to me how Osteen's message displays any higher regard for the authority and basic teaching of the Scriptures. Once upon a time, conservative Protestants imagined that theological liberalism was the greatest threat to authentic Christianity in our time. With liberalism almost completely irrelevant as an active school movement, Osteen's success confirms my suspicions that evangelicalism itself is becoming a more serious obstacle to evangelical faith and practice today.
