Here it is in a nutshell: Because my best life will never be now!
Ultimately, it's Osteen's eschatology (or, more precisely, his lack of one) that disturbs me so much. The Christian's "hope" is in perfect relationship with the Triune God for all eternity once Christ returns to earth for His Bride. That "hope" is imaged today not in 2-story homes or job promotions, but in the selfless love that I have for others in the Christian community and the love that my God-family has for me.
It's no wonder that Osteen's pseudo-eschatology naturally leads to pseudo-ecclesiology. If the role of the faith community is merely in encouraging me to "live up" to my potential, I should just join the Kiwanis Club. They don't demand nearly as much.
I became attuned to this last Saturday night (don't worry, I'm not an Adventist or a Jew) when Randy preached about taking hard stances with the people we love, even to the point of taking steps of discipline. We cannot be laizze-faire with sin. Osteen's message and his pseudo-ecclesiology just maintains the Evangelical tendency for us to merely be "nice" to us other, when love demands much more.
Jeff Walling, in his NACC sermon, says that being people of grace means that we have to stop just being nice to each other, we have to act like family, and that's messy. Osteen's message is a message of nice, desiring nothing more than to rid all the messiness out of life.
Well, Joel, the mess will remain until God deals with it. Until then, we have to deal with it (and not cover it up with 401K's or SUV's). And the only way to do that is through the love of God and the family He's adopted me into.
But, on the other hand, he does have great hair. So he has that going for him, which is nice.
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2 comments:
I think Joel Osteen is right...God does want our best life now. But our best life is not money and stuff - rather, it is living in the community of God, looking forward to the re-exertion of the Kingdom on this broken earth. By Joel Osteen's standard, Paul had a horrible life (1 Cor. 4); by God's, it was great (2 Cor. 11; 2 Tim. 4). Oh yeah, and I would guess the same would go for Jesus...he was just a poor carpenter from a dinky town who died poor and hated.
Great point, Doug. I have to conclude that if Joel Osteen has a NT, he doesn't ever read it. At least, not with an agenda. I think you should send this post to him so he can read it...
I agree. See him on lArry King Live http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfwYU2pmWYQ
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