Joel Osteen
"KING: Hay muchos libros sobre auto-ayuda.
OSTEEN: Si. No sé. Creo que viniendo desde el campo Cristiano, y creo que el hecho de que, no sé, es un libro de motivación e inspiración. Y a mí me parece que hay tanto que nos está llevando hacia abajo en nuestra sociedad hoy día. Hay tantas cosas negativas. La mayoría de mi libro es sobre cómo puedes vivir una buena vida hoy, a pesar de todo eso. Así que creo que eso tuvo mucho que ver.
KING: Pero no tiene muchas citas Bíblicas hasta el final del libro, ¿verdad?
OSTEEN: No tiene muchas. Mi mensaje, quería alcanzar las masas. ...
[...]
KING: ¿Qué tal si eres Judío o Musulmán, y no aceptas a Cristo para nada?
OSTEEN: Tú sabes, yo soy muy cuidadoso con decir quién va y quién no va para el cielo. Yo no sé ...
KING: ¿Si tú crees que tienes que creer en Cristo? ¿Ellos están equivocados, o no?
OSTEEN: Bueno, yo no sé si yo crea que ellos están mal..... Yo duré bastante tiempo en la India con mi padre. No conozco todo sobre su religión. Pero sé que ellos aman a Dios. Y no sé. He visto su sinceridad. Así que no sé. Yo sé que para mí, y lo que la Biblia enseña, yo quiero tener una relación con Jesús.
[...]
KING: ¿Qué tal los asuntos sobre los que la iglesia tiene sentimientos? ¿El aborto? ¿Los matrimonios de personas del mismo sexo?
OSTEEN: Sí. ¿Sabes qué, Larry? Yo no voy ahí. Sólo …
KING: Pero tienes pensamientos.
OSTEEN: Tengo pensamientos.... Creo que hay...una mejor forma de vivir tu vida. Pero no voy a condenar a esas personas. Les digo todo el tiempo que nuestra iglesia está abierta para todos.
KING: ¿No les llamas pecadores?
OSTEEN: No lo hago.
KING: ¿Es esa una palabra que no utilizas?
OSTEEN: No la utilizo... Así que yo no ando el camino de la condenación.
[...]
PERSONA EN EL TELEFONO: Hola, Larry. Eres el mejor, y gracias Joe—Joel—por tus mensajes positivos y tu libro. Aunque me pregunto, ¿por qué evadiste la pregunta anterior sobre cómo vamos al cielo? La Biblia claramente nos dice que Jesús es el camino, la verdad y la vida, y que la única vía al Padre es por El. Ese no es un mensaje de condenación, sino de verdad.
OSTEEN: Sí, yo estaría de acuerdo con ella. Yo creo eso…
KING: ¿Así que un Judío no va al cielo?
OSTEEN: Esto es lo mío, Larry, es que yo no puedo juzgar el corazón de alguien. ¿Tú entiendes? Sólo Dios puede mirar el corazón de alguien así que—yo no sé. ...
KING: Pero tú crees en tu vía.
OSTEEN: Yo creo en mi vía. Creo en mi vía con todo mi corazón.
KING: Pero para alguien quien no lo comparte, está mal, ¿o no?
OSTEEN: Bueno sí. Bueno, yo no sé si lo vería de esa forma. Yo presentaría mi vía, pero sólo voy a dejar que Dios sea el juez de eso. Yo no sé. Yo no sé.
KING: ¿Qué tal los ateos?
OSTEEN: Sabes qué, yo voy a dejar que alguien—yo voy a dejar que Dios sea el juez de quién va al cielo y al infierno. Yo sólo—de nuevo, yo presento la verdad, y lo digo cada semana. Tú sabes, yo creo que es una relación con Jesús. ¿Pero sabes qué? Yo no voy a andar diciéndole a todos los demás si ellos no quieren creer que esa va a ser su decisión. Dios tiene que mirar tu propio corazón. Dios tiene que mirar tu corazón, y sólo Dios conoce eso."
(Joel Osteen, en Larry King Show, 20 de Junio de 2005)
"Many of you today know this, you believe it down here in your heart. But the reason that your not experiencing as much as you should is because your not declaring it. You've got to give life to your faith by speaking it out. Your words have creative power. When you go around saying, 'I have favor, people want to be good to me and supernatural doors are opening.' When you make those declarations of faith, you are charging the atmosphere. And your own words can help to bring it to pass. That is why we should get into the habit of every day consistantly speaking God's favor over our lives."
(Joel Osteen, "Experiencing More Of God's Favor," Tape # 212, Daystar, July 10, 2004)
"I believe one of the main ways that we grow in favor is by declaring. It's not enough to just read it. It's not enough to just believe it. You've got to speak it out. Your words have creative power. One of the primary ways we release our faith is through our words. There is a divine connection between you declaring God's favor and seeing God's favor manifested in your life. And some of you are doing your best to please the Lord. You are living a holy consecrated life, but you're not really experiencing God's supernatural favor. And it's simply because you're not declaring it. You've got to give life to your faith by speaking it out."
(Joel Osteen, Audio Clip, Hank Hanegraaff, Bible Answer-Man Broadcast, April 26, 2004)
"The Bible indicates that for three days, Jesus went into the very depths of hell. Right into the enemy's own territory. And He did battle with Satan face to face. Can you imagine what a show down that was? It was good vs. evil. Right vs. wrong. Holiness vs. filth. Here are the two most powerful forces in the universe have come together to do battle for the first time in history. But thank God. The Bible says, "Satan was no match for our Champion". This was no contest. (Congregation applauds)
Jesus crushed Satan's head with His foot. He bruised his head. And He once and for all, forever defeated and dethroned and demoralized our enemy. One translation says, "He paralyzed him and rendered him powerless". But thank God. He didn't even stop there. He went over and ripped the keys of death and hell out of Satan's hands. And He grabbed Satan by the nap of his neck and He began to slowly drag him down through the corridors of Hell. All beat up and bruised because He wanted to make sure that every single demon saw very clearly that Jesus was indeed the undisputed Champion of all time! Amen?"
(Joel Osteen, Sermon, CS-002 - April 23, 2000, Sermon Is Posted At His Website, May 2004)
"Joel that sounds like wishful thinking. No, that's using your words to create what you need."
(Joel Osteen, "Speaking Faith Filled Words," Tape # 223. Daystar Television, May 2, 2004)
"You can cancel out God's plan by speaking negative words. God works by laws."
(Joel Osteen, "Speaking Faith Filled Words," Tape # 223. Daystar Television, May 2, 2004)
"Why did God take away the voice of Zacharias (Luke 1:11-20)? Because God knew his [Zacharias] negative words would cancel out His [God] plan."
(Joel Osteen, "Speaking Faith Filled Words," Tape # 223. Daystar Television, May 2, 2004)
"You can cancel out God's best plan by speaking negative words."
(Joel Osteen, "Speaking Faith Filled Words," Tape # 223. Daystar Television, May 2, 2004)
"Your words will give life to what you are saying."
(Joel Osteen, "Speaking Faith Filled Words," Tape # 223. Daystar Television, May 2, 2004)
"You can change your world by simply changing your words."
(Joel Osteen, "Speaking Faith Filled Words," Tape # 223. Daystar Television, May 2, 2004)
"You can use your words to bless your life or curse your life."
(Joel Osteen, "Speaking Faith Filled Words," Tape # 223. Daystar Television, May 2, 2004)
"Start calling in victory. Start calling in divine health. Start calling in abundance. You can prophesize your future."
(Joel Osteen, "Speaking Faith Filled Words," Tape # 223. Daystar Television, May 2, 2004)
"With our words we can predict our future. We can prophesize our future."
(Joel Osteen, "Speaking Faith Filled Words," Tape # 223. Daystar Television, May 2, 2004)
"You may have sickness in your body, you need to call in health. You may be in debt, you need to boldly say that you are the head and not the tail."
(Joel Osteen, "Speaking Faith Filled Words," Tape # 223. Daystar Television, May 2, 2004)
"You need to declare good things over your life."
(Joel Osteen, "Speaking Faith Filled Words," Tape # 223. Daystar Television, May 2, 2004)
"If you wanna know where you'll be five years from now listen to what you are saying."
(Joel Osteen, "Speaking Faith Filled Words," Tape # 223. Daystar Television, May 2, 2004)
"Our words will become a self fulfilling prophecy."
(Joel Osteen, "Speaking Faith Filled Words," Tape # 223. Daystar Television, May 2, 2004)
"She broke that addiction by the power of her words. She prophecised her future. You can do the same."
(Joel Osteen, "Speaking Faith Filled Words," Tape # 223. Daystar Television, May 2, 2004)
"Your circumstances will line up with your words."
(Joel Osteen, "Speaking Faith Filled Words," Tape # 223. Daystar Television, May 2, 2004)
"Words are like seeds, they have creative power."
(Joel Osteen, "Speaking Faith Filled Words," Tape # 223. Daystar Television, May 2, 2004)
"You speak words of faith you will reap good things."
(Joel Osteen, "Speaking Faith Filled Words," Tape # 223. Daystar Television, May 2, 2004)
"The more you talk about it the more you call it in."
(Joel Osteen, "Speaking Faith Filled Words," Tape # 223. Daystar Television, May 2, 2004)
"Don't go around speaking negative and defeated words. Go around speaking words of faith and victory. Start declaring God's favor over your circumstances!"
(Joel Osteen, "Speaking Favor Over Your Life," Tape 213, BET July 4, 2004)
"If you are going to live a life of victory, you must speak positive words of faith and declare what God says about your situation...What you say in the midst of your difficulties will have a direct impact on the outcome...Declare His truth over your situation until the facts line up with His Word!"
(Joel Osteen, "Speak What You Seek," Day 4, 30 Thoughts for Victorious Living)
"And sometimes in the faith movement or in the Full Gospel movement, we hit a sticking point. We get God’s promises in our heart. We pray God’s word. We believe God’s word and then we sit back and we cross our arms and fold our legs."
(Joel Osteen, Sermon, "Do all you can to make your dreams come true," May 2, 1999)
Note: Alot of people claim that Joel Osteen is not a Word Faith teacher. Right here he admits to being such.
"Fear is a force just like faith is a force. If you give into fear and start to dwell on that junk and start to act on it, that fear can actually bring things to pass just like faith can bring things to pass. Job said, 'the thing I greatly feared came upon me.' Fear is a force just like faith is a force. If you give into fear and start to dwell on that junk and start to act on it, that fear can actually bring things to pass just like faith can bring things to pass. Job said, 'the thing I greatly feared came upon me.'"
(Joel Osteen, Sermon, VL-007, April 30, 2000, Sermon Is Posted At His Website, May 2004)
"And if he is wrong lets leave it up to God. God didn't put us here to straighten eveybody up...If I go around criticizing him, I have a judgmental holier than thou attitude. All that is going to do is poison my own life and cause me problems. I know a couple ministries they spend all their time judging, criticizing, and pointing out faults of other ministries. They think their high calling in life is to be the doctrine police. And so they point out what all the ministries are doing wrong. One guy is on the radio, he talks about everybody, he talks about us sometimes. They're too this, they're too that...All he would have to do is take time to know our heart and he would never be critical again. But thats the mistake we make so often, we judge the surface. We don't get to know people and we make these premature, erroneous judgements. And even if someone is doing wrong, even if they are making mistakes, I'm convinced if we would take the time to look deeper and understand what they have been through and understand why they are the way they are we would not be so hard and critical. It would change our whole opinion of them."
(Joel Osteen, "Don't Have A Judgmental Attitude," Tape #229. Daystar June 27, 2004)
Note: If Joel truly believed this he would not be criticizing this man on the radio. Joel is pointing out this man's "faults," the exact thing that he is preaching against. If he truly believed that we should not judge he would not be judging this man and his ministry.
Pastor Osteen should of all people encourage christians to, 'test all things' (1 Thessalonians 5:21). The Bereans in Acts 17 were counted more noble for checking out what Apostle Paul taught with scripture. Paul warned the elders for three years with tears about the wolves that would arise from among us. Where are your tears? Is Joel Osteen warning the sheep to stay away from these wolves that are in fact here? We are commanded to test everything that a pastor says with scripture, for him to discourage that is the opposite of what the Bible teaches (Acts 17:11, 2 John 9-11, 1 Thessalonians 5:21, 1 John 4:1, Revelation 2:1-3, Jude 3, Titus 1:9, Romans 16:17-19, 2 Timothy 4:2, Acts 20:28-31, 2 Corinthians 11:2-4, 11-13, Titus 2:1,15, 2 Timothy 3:16-17, Matthew 7:15, Acts 13:6-11).
"And the third thing, because of all of what Jesus accomplished in the Resurrection; you and I have power and authority over the devil and demon forces. I can imagine when Jesus bowed His head and died on that cross, that Satan and all those demons they gathered in Hell for a great victory celebration. I can imagine it looked something like the victory party in the locker room after the Super Bowl. You can see them giving high five's and jumping around. Shouting with great excitement, We did it! We did it! I told you we could defeat Him! Now we're in control. Now we can do whatever we want. And can't you hear Satan laugh sarcastically and say to his demons, Aren't you glad you followed me now? Aren't you glad you revolted out of the heavens? I told you it'd be worth it.
But in the midst of that celebration, one of the demons notices a man coming from a long distance. They can't quite figure out who it is. So they begin to curiously look and try to figure out who it is because this person isn't celebrating like the rest of them. He's marching toward them with boldness and with a determination that they've never seen before. One of those demons finally recognizes who it is. And he screams in terror, Oh no, it's our worst nightmare. He's back. Here comes the Son of God. (Congregation rejoices)
Can't you see Jesus looking right into Satan's eyes and saying, "Satan, I hate to spoil your victory party, but I think you're celebrating a little bit too soon"? You may have knocked me down, but you sure didn't knock me out. And it's not over until I say it's over. Satan says, Listen, Jesus, you're on my turf now. You don't have a chance down here. You're surrounded by my demons. We're going to tear you apart. And Jesus just smiles and says, "Go ahead, Satan, make my day!" (Congregation applauds) Jesus says, "Look, Satan, I'm down here to take care of business. I'm ready to do battle. I don't want to be here any longer than I have to be because it stinks down here."
The Bible indicates that for three days, Jesus went into the very depths of hell. Right into the enemy's own territory. And He did battle with Satan face to face. Can you imagine what a show down that was? It was good vs. evil. Right vs. wrong. Holiness vs. filth. Here are the two most powerful forces in the universe have come together to do battle for the first time in history. But thank God. The Bible says, "Satan was no match for our Champion". This was no contest. (Congregation applauds)
Jesus crushed Satan's head with His foot. He bruised his head. And He once and for all, forever defeated and dethroned and demoralized our enemy. One translation says, "He paralyzed him and rendered him powerless". But thank God. He didn't even stop there. He went over and ripped the keys of death and hell out of Satan's hands. And He grabbed Satan by the nap of his neck and He began to slowly drag him down through the corridors of Hell. All beat up and bruised because He wanted to make sure that every single demon saw very clearly that Jesus was indeed the undisputed Champion of all time! Amen?"
(Joel Osteen, Sermon, CS-002 - April 23, 2000, Sermon Is Posted At His Website, May 2004)
