The Voice Of One Crying Out In Suburbia

Your best eternity someday

What has happened to the church in America? How did we get here, when we can’t even talk about the cross because we refuse to talk about sin? The White Horse Inn is continuing it's discussion of the state of the church in America "Crossless Christianity 2008", and their show last week focused on the poster boy for the "here and now, health & wealth, psychobabble gospel" peddled in churches today, Joel Osteen. I know I take shots at Osteen on a regular basis, and believe me it is not jealousy because I would not want to be in his shoes explaining his teachings standing before his Lord. I am terrified of answering for my own substantial failings, much less his! The words of James are pretty sobering for any who teach in the church: "Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness." (James 3:1 ESV)

The discussion on the White Horse Inn raises a number of questions. We know that what Osteen teaches is a watered down (at best) message that misses key points of Christian doctrine. What is the focus of the church? Should it be on how to live the Christian life, how to be a better father /mother /husband /wife / neighbor etc.? How to make a generally moral person even more moral? To make the people in the pews feel better about themselves and reach their potential? Perhaps worst of all, to be prosperous and wealthy thanks to a groveling God who is obligated to give you money in this life to earn your worship? As if being saved from hell is an inadequate amount of grace? What is, or what should, be the message received for both Christian and non-Christian alike when in a church? Shouldn't it be that God created man, man fell willingly into a state of sin, that man failed again and again to live up to God's standards by our own efforts so God sent His only begotten Son to live a perfect, sinless life, be unjustly condemned and crucified, only to rise on the third day and in doing so redeeming His elect sheep and that He is coming to gather those who are given to Him by the Father some day? If you aren't hearing that message from the church, where are you going to hear it?

For far too many churches and Christians, all of the attention is on the immediate, not what has God done for me and what will He do in the future. If your focus is on the here and now, your focus is in the wrong place. There is no way that you can read the Bible and get the impression that God promises or even intends to make this earthly existence trouble free. Those days are coming, but not until Christ comes for His people. The life of Christians for 2000 years has been hard, full of persecution and hate, hard times and suffering. Read the letters of Paul, do you think he was living his best life in those days?

One of the best lines was this one: "Osteen’s ministry is so void of doctrine that it is not even worthy of being labeled heresy!" You can't even go line by line and refute what he is teaching because it is so shallow. You are better off interacting with a Veggietales DVD, the doctrine is far deeper!

Another great line summarizes Osteen's ministry, his view of what the Gospel is all about: “Salvation from unhappiness by doing your best” Guess what, your best isn’t good enough! But His is. He didn't die on a cross so you can have a Mercedes, He died as a propitiation for sin for His elect, dying for them while we were still sinners to reconcile us to God and save us from Hell.

If the church is going to recover from the slide into relativism, we need to pray for God to raise up men like Spurgeon, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones and John Piper, men who will stand in the pulpit and unashamedly declare "Thus sayeth the Lord". It is not always popular, it is not going to give people warm fuzzies and it may not get you invited to the most lucrative conferences to speak, but those called to teach in the church are held to a much higher standard and will in the end be called to account for the message they taught. Let's pray for men to be raised up who care more about answering to their Lord instead of answering to their human critics.