I ran across this tonight and it's a pretty amazing indictment of Joel Osteen from a very liberal publication called Slate.
As another blogger said in reference to this article, "Since Christian leaders can't seem to speak out against an outright denial of the Gospel, rocks are going to have to speak up."
My favorite paragraph is just below. The whole article is good:
"This is a long, long way down the road from the inscrutable, infant-damning theology of this country's Calvinist forebears - it is, rather, a just-in-time economy's vision of salvation, an eerily collapsible spiritual narcissism that downgrades the divine image into the job description for a lifestyle concierge. Lakewood and Osteen seem to keep God so preoccupied it's a wonder He can ever find the time to stock his fridge or whip out his wallet."
I had to think a minute about the "infant-damning theology of this country's Calvinist forebears..." Then I remembered what is written in Psalm 51:5:
"Behold I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me."
As Charles Spurgeon has stated in his sermon A Defense of Calvinism
"The old truth that Calvin preached, that Augustine preached, that Paul preached, is the truth that I must preach today, or else be false to my conscience and my God. I cannot shape the truth; I know of no such thing as paring off the rough edges of a doctrine. John Knox's gospel is my gospel. That which thundered through Scotland must thunder through England again."
It would be far more profitable if Spurgeon were read aloud on Sundays at Lakewood Church. Now that would honor Christ. And why stop at Lakewood? Take Spurgeon to Saddleback and Willow Creek as well!
Calvinists would hold that all infants, even covenant infants of believing parents, are totally depraved in their nature at birth. We must by faith in Christ's work be justified and then continually sanctified, being molded into the image of Christ until we die or He returns. This is what is so bad about Osteen and his ilk. The Gospel of Jesus Christ means absolutely nothing to people who see themselves as basically good. As Jesus said in Matthew 9:13: "...for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." If I'm a good person with a self-esteem problem, what is Jesus doing on the cross?
And more often than not, God's Spirit works like the refiner's fire does to remove impurities from metal - hardship, suffering and turmoil are quite often the true believer's lot in this world as God's hands work to remove our impurities and to shape us in the image of His Son. Instead of "Our Best Life Now", pilgrim followers of Christ are content to wait for "His Best Life Then". Paul and John have both told us that what God has prepared for His children is more than worth the wait and any suffering we might have in this life - and I believe them.
To people who think that God exists to grant us better parking spots or to upgrade us to first-class seating - well - they have their reward. They needn't seek any in the world to come.
R.J.
P.S. Spurgeon's A Defense of Calvinism is linked above. It's a classic and well worth reading. I don't think I've read any bad Spurgeon yet. Spurgeon died in 1892 but his works are more alive today than 90% of what passes itself off as Christianity in America.