Osteen Never Surprises

Back when I was a deacon at New Dawn Ministries in Miami, before the pastors drove me out and the church disintegrated in scandal, I had the nerve to criticize Joel Osteen on Facebook. The pastor’s brother-in-law, who was a new Christian, responded very angrily, as he tended to do whenever I had a revelation that conflicted with bad doctrine. Basically, he questioned my right to criticize a TV pastor, as though Osteen somehow outranked other Christians.

Today I learned something every Christian needs to know: Osteen and his wife attended a homosexual pride event in 2019. It was sponsored by Sirius and Pandora, and the featured act was Stephanie Germanotta, AKA Lady Gaga.

I am not a good person, and whenever I’m right, it only proves God got me to listen, but I wonder how different the brother-in-law’s life would have been, had he listened to me a few times instead of assuming a brand-new Christian with a weak prayer life knew better.

Osteen is one of Sirius’ performers. Perhaps he was contractually obligated to be at the event. A real pastor would have breached the contract instead.

Osteen has always come across as a coward and lickspittle to me. He behaves like a dog that shows you its belly whenever you come in the room. He grins and squirms when he talks about tough issues. He weasels and dodges. It’s disgusting. Imagine Billy Graham or Lester Sumrall doing that. Imagine Smith Wigglesworth wriggling in his chair and saying, “Well, Whoopi, I don’t want to OFFEND anyone!” Such things could never happen.

The Revelation says cowards can’t enter the kingdom of heaven, and prophets have generally been rude people. Try and name a prophet who wasn’t rude. Samuel, Nathan, Isaiah, Elijah, Elisha, Jeremiah, Amos, Joel, John the Baptist, Jesus…they were all rude. They spoke the truth even when it offended people, and that is something everyone agrees is rude. Daniel may not have been rude, but he openly disobeyed Darius, knowing the penalty was death.

John called the hypocritical Jews of his time a brood of vipers, and Jesus called them sons of Satan. You can’t get much ruder than that, and these people were much more powerful than Joel Osteen. They imprisoned and murdered people who confronted them. If John spoke the truth to Herod, who had the power to behead him, why should anyone be afraid to criticize Joel Osteen, who crawls on his belly for people like Joy Behar?

Think how much money and approval must mean to Osteen, for him to show up and lick the feet of sexual degenerates and to help pro-perversion activists succeed.

I know exactly what this type of preacher would say: “You can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar. If you’re blunt, people won’t come to church and be saved, so you’re fighting God.” Thing is, Satan, not God, is the lord of flies. The point is to catch sheep, not flies. Jesus said we were the salt of the earth, not the sugar.

Bringing people to church indiscriminately is destructive. The word says few are chosen. You can’t undo the word by filling your church with hypocrites who have no desire to change. They’ll still go to hell, and they’ll ruin the church in the process. I know. I attended a church where an ignorant pastor named Linda Freeman taught yoga on the premises. I went to a church where an ignorant pastor named Tim Gilligan taught about “mindfulness,” which is New Age meditation.

Imagine Jesus saying he didn’t want to say something important because it would offend people! It’s a picture that makes no sense. It’s true, he paid Roman taxes in order to avoid offending and involving himself in a prosecution, but when he spoke, he said whatever God told him to. He did not pull punches.

Persecution is going to ramp up like crazy. It’s already happening. It won’t be a problem for many American Christians, however, because they don’t have the guts to accept it. They’ll snivel and kowtow, and they’ll bow to the persecutors. This is what Osteen is doing.

Fake Christians who abandon God entirely will avoid persecution. People like Osteen, who keep one foot in the church and the other in the bath house, will be persecuted for failing to go all the way. God is a jealous god, and so is Satan. People like Osteen will taste the persecution, but they won’t have much divine protection.

How many homosexuals have decided their problem is really a blessing, thanks to Joel Osteen? How many people who could have been helped are going to die defeated, in ignorance?

This morning while I was praying with “Rebecca,” I started feeling I needed to be more open about my membership in God’s family, not just on the web and with other Christians, but in face-to-face encounters with strangers. Maybe I need a couple of hats and shirts with Christian symbols on them. Maybe a bumper sticker. Just so no one will ever be able to say I let the lost lead me.

The Revelation says the people who will get the most protection will be in the church of Philadelphia. It’s not referring to an ancient church in the city of Philadelphia. It’s about the remnant that will exist when the rapture comes. It’s about Christians who function in God-given love, with zeal and faithfulness. God says they will be spared the hour of temptation that comes on the whole world, and that hour is the tribulation.

You’re not going to get a rapture ticket by enabling sexual rebels who are the church’s biggest enemies.

“Love” doesn’t mean “telling people what they want to hear.” Jesus WAS love, and he was highly critical and never apologized.