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Victoria Osteen & the response
Victoria Osteen – the “response” that shows she is a typical false teacher
by Sandy Simpson, 9/8/14
It never ceases to amaze me how people who claim to be “Christian” leaders are apparently NEVER able to admit when they are wrong. Makes you wonder if they are born again because acceptance of the Gospel will cause a person to repent of their sins which then gives them access to the forgiveness of Christ when they sin from that point on (1 John 1:9). But be that as it may, Victoria, the “co-pastor” and wife of Joel Osteen, fires back at the article in the Christian Post entitled: “Victoria Osteen Ripped for Telling Church 'Just Do Good For Your O... by claiming they lied about what she said. She claims in her statement back to them in the article called “Victoria Osteen Chides Critics: I Didn't Mean Parishioners Shouldn... that they claimed that she said a person should not worship God.
"While I admit that I could have been more articulate in my remarks, I stand by my point that when we worship God and are obedient to Him we will be better for it," she told The Blaze in a statement Friday. "I did not mean to imply that we don't worship God; that's ridiculous, and only the critics and cynics are interpreting my remarks that way." (Christian Post, “Victoria Osteen Chides Critics: I Didn't Mean Parishioners Shouldn...)
That is not what they said at all. The title of the article is very specific in their correct analysis of her “ridiculous” statement – that she stated that “worship is not for God, it is for yourself”. So she lied in her response.
But the real problems are that she claims the following in her response:
"I just want to encourage every one of us to realize when we obey God, we're not doing it for God—I mean, that's one way to look at it—we're doing it for ourselves, because God takes pleasure when we're happy," she said in the 36-second clip posted on YouTube, with her husband smiling at her side. "That's the thing that gives Him the greatest joy … So, I want you to know this morning: Just do good for your own self. Do good because God wants you to be happy," she continued. "When you come to church, when you worship Him, you're not doing it for God really. You're doing it for yourself, because that's what makes God happy. Amen?" the clip ended as congregants cheered. (Christian Post, “Victoria Osteen Chides Critics: I Didn't Mean Parishioners Shouldn...)
So she not only did not apologize for her statements and lied about how people quoted her, but she reiterated their same, tired, false Word of Faith teaching again. She states that worshipping God is not for Him but for us. Why? Because when we are happy that makes God happy. Oh really? What about the stories of Job, Stephen, Paul suffering from a “thorn”, and all the other prophets and apostles who died serving God? They were not worshipping God so they could be “happy”, they were worshipping God because of Who He is!
Victoria has also not read the Bible, which you would think would be a requirement for someone to be a head pastor of a church. The Bible is clear that the thing that brings God “joy” is our obedience.
John 14:15 "If you love me, you will obey what I command.
John 14:23 Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
John 14:24 He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
John 15:10 If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love.
1 John 5:3 This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,
Love and worship for God is not predicated on how we feel or the amount of joy we have. It is predicated on obedience to Him BECAUSE HE IS GOD! Victoria also tells her audience that they need to “do good because God wants you to be happy”. We don’t do good so WE can be happy. That may be a consequence of doing good, at times, but the important thing is that, in the most difficult circumstances, we simply obey Him because we know He will be pleased with us on that basis. But our “happiness” is not the end. But it is for the Osteens. Almost every word of every message from them is the New Thought idea that we can create our own little world of happiness by simply thinking and speaking positively. I have written about this idea, which is basically Karma, in an article entitled “Karma (by any other name)”. God wants us to submit our will to His, not willfully try to create our own reality that is often not in line with His purposes.
Finally, the scary part is that the “congregants cheered” after Victoria finishes her diatribe. This reminds me of a warning from the Old Testament against heretics like the Osteens:
Jeremiah 5:31 The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way. But what will you do in the end?
Someday every person who has ever been born on this earth will answer to God for their actions. You can either fool yourself into thinking you are happy because of your positive thoughts and confessions, or you can follow God and obey Him, thus proving your love for Him. Better choose correctly because “what will you do in the end?”
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Amanda on
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Here is another discussion where we were conversing about Joel and the truth: http://www.allaboutgod.net/forum/topics/did-jesus-mean-that-the-tru...
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Permalink Reply by Seek on
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What makes the false so dangerous is that there's always truth in it, too
That is extremely true. There are those that while not preaching prosperity preach tithing and those dead set against tithing. I've come to believe that tithing is no longer a requirement BUT...pastors still need to eat and if they're preaching full time, that's the only way they'll get fed. So who's right or wrong? There are so many issues that divide beliefs and we certainly need to be careful on pointing fingers.
As I had mentioned to you in an email, I know Paul spoke of being wary of false teachers and how Priscilla and Aquila took Apollos aside to explain to him. It seems they rebuked false teachings without rebuking the individual or were to be aware for themselves and not finger point publicly.
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Permalink Reply by Leonard T on
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Apollos was not a false teacher. He was under informed. There is a difference.
There is a difference between debatable matters, interpretation issues and things that fly in the face of clear Scripture.
Lord Bless,
LT
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I know, which is what I meant on they rebuked the false teaching and not him. Because he had it wrong but wasn't being a false teacher. Either he was taught wrong or misunderstood. As some can be today. Which is why we just need to take caution in pointing fingers unless we know for sure that person's heart and motives. Many that preach today preach what they were taught and feel is the right way based on their understanding of scripture and the legalisms they may have been brought up on. It's not that they mean to teach anything falsely. If someone however tries to show them and shows scripture, they can still have a hard time with believing it is different because they've held that belief for so long. But if they commit to pray on it and study it, they'll reach the right conclusion.
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He wasn't wrong. He was well informed on Scripture, but only to a point. He needed more to add to what he already knew. This is different from teaching false doctrine.
There is more to it than heart and motives ... there is Biblical truth and we cannot keep saying that "well some believe this or that." We need to seek out what God teaches and many things are pretty clear, but we tend to muddy the water when we argue over less than essential things.
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But what is less than essential?
You know how much the tithing issue meant to me. It wasn't a little issue where I was concerned and something I really wanted some truth on. To others that may be a non-issue. But a lot of these less than essential issues can trip people up as they're learning.
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Nope, though it can some...for awhile anyhow. It just causes such an unnecessary struggling with trying to find the truth sometimes.
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Let's reverse the question ... what could possibly make tithing an essential issue?
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what could possibly make tithing an essential issue?
The false doctrines. LOL
Seriously. I was told God wouldn't bless me if I didn't tithe, and that if I was going broke it was because I wasn't trusting God and paying tithes. You can imagine what that can do to people until they can understand things better and ferret out such teaching. And frankly, the ones saying this truly believe it! They were raised on this principal and they've seen blessings so they ascribe them to paying tithes I guess.
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So you were either knowingly lied to or unknowingly misled. That does not make it an essential doctrine, but by the missteps of others to influence you into thinking it is. You now know better and this new knowledge reveals that it wasn't really a doctrine or essential, wouldn't you agree?
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What it actually revealed to me is that most converts who struggle do so because there's no real discipleship anymore. They don't know if they're obeying God's Word since people believe wrong doctrines and try to espouse those beliefs as correct to where the new convert thinks they must have it all wrong and even question their salvation. They may learn later as I learned this issue. My concerns however is that if we had true leaders and discipleship, no one would have to struggle with these things.
Christianity is a fight between God's truth and the evil of man and satan. Too many waste way too much precious time fighting to believe they even know what God wants of them to bother fighting what they should be fighting.
I know there's a lot of talk of end times and we need to save as many souls as we can but is telling someone of Christ going to do them any good if we don't stick around to disciple them?
I guess this is where God has just given me such a desire to not see anyone need to struggle with their salvation over certain teachings. It's not a good thing to deal with internally and I hope to one day help people to realize from day one that God will lead them through if they stay in the Word and truly seek Him and not to let anything anyone says cause you to question that. If a message is from God, He'll make sure you get it. If not, He'll make sure the messenger gets it.
Edited to clarify...to me, at that point, it was essential. If you're locked into thinking you're displeasing God it can be very detrimental making it an essential thing to that individual. -
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