Joel Osteen

I'm sure just about everyone has heard of Joel Osteen; however, do people really know what he believes or preaches? In an interview with 60 minutes, it begin with the host talking about Mr. Osteen's beliefs, he said, 'He believes God is loving, forgiving and rewards believers with health, wealth and happiness.'

What!? Yes God is loving and forgiving, but everyone tends to leave out that he is also sovereign, righteous and just; that would mean God punishes the wicked and detests things.
If you believe God is so loving, most people will ask, 'How can a loving God send people to Hell?'

There are a few things wrong with this statement. God does not send people to Hell, they send them selfs. Think of it, would God be loving if he forced people to be where he is?

You can't sit there and say, God will reward believers with health, wealth and happiness.

What of the Christians who have chronicle illness' that have a relationship with Christ? Just because they don't have health, does that mean they are any less deserving?
Or what of the Christians that live in other country's who have nothing more that half a house, little clothes and maybe if they're lucky an animal and love the Lord. Do they not deserve an reward just as much as others that are not struggling in financial issues.
What of the Christians that go through persecution, do you think they are filled with worldly happiness?
The Lord never promised rewards on earth, rather, he spoke of rewards in heaven.

A quote from Joel Osteen:
“I want to help you learn to forgive today, I want to help you have the right thoughts today.”

No man can help us forgive; it's by Christ we learn to forgive. How can any man help us with out our thoughts if he doesn't know our thought life?
It is a problem when some high-up preachers think they have the answers to all the problems or that they have some new way of preaching the gospel. It is preachers like Joel Osteen that lead people astray, giving them false hope, half the message, distorting the Word of God. He's trying to make it a new improved way of living. He never prepares you for the persecution that comes, wave after wave, getting stronger to the point all you have to lean on is God.
Unless you face persecution and begin to resent God, hating Christians feeling like they meant to humiliate you. When in truth, it was really that half message you received that didn't prepare you for the persecution as God promised.

On an interview with Larry King, Joel Osteen is asked about republican Mitt Romney's Mormonism, if he will go to heaven. Mr. Osteen states, he hasn't studied the bible enough to know little facts as that, but he believes in his heart that because Romney says he believes in Jesus Christ he will go to heaven. If Osteen took time to study his bible and not try to make up story's on how 'to be a better you' he would see that Mormon will not enter the Kingdom of God, for they have not repented of their sins and put their trust in Jesus Christ.

1 John 4:1 reads, “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”