The Gospel according to Joel Osteen

On May 31, 2005 my uncle, Dr. Alan Branch of MidWestern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote an article titled, "The Gospel according to Joel Osteen." The summary of his argument is found in the following paragraph:

Essentially, Joel Osteen advocates a form of the “prosperity Gospel” in BLN [Your Best Life Now!], a theology he learned from his father. For example, chapter 14 is titled “The Power in Your Words.” In this chapter, Joel Osteen concludes by saying, “Friend, there is a miracle in your mouth” (125), a phrase which mirrors the title of one of John Osteen’s books, “There is a Miracle in Your Mouth.” I want to be clear that Osteen’s version of the prosperity Gospel is not as extreme as Kenneth Hagin or Kenneth Copeland. Much of his book simply encourages people to be “positive.” In this sense, Joel Osteen is a Pentecostal version of Robert Schuller!

You can read the rest of the article HERE.

As Osteen is such an influential public figure (leader of the congregation with the largest average weekly attendance in the U.S. and author of two New York Times bestsellers) I encourage everyone reading this to please read the article linked above and drop a comment concerning your thoughts on what it says. (Please don't leave a comment if you don't bother to read the article.)