Joel Osteen may soon become the face of Christendom, and lots of Christians are worried about this. I am on the anti-Joel bandwagon, but I did read something today that helps cool my jets and not be too worried about him. It's not that he's not all that bad, because he is all that bad and worse. It's just that God is sovereign and Joel doesn't have the power to derail the church. This is from R. C. Sproul Jr.
Today on the Today show I caught a minute or two of an interview with Joel Osteen, pastor of Somesuch Cost? What Cost? Mega-Happy-Center in Houston. His “church” is said to be bigger than those “churches” shepherded by Apollyion and Beelzebub, or rather Rick Warren and Bill Hybels. As such we can expect to see him figure prominently in the Reformed Wrestling Smack Down, vying for the coveted crown of “Most likely to destroy the church.” Joel, whether he is a hapless geek who made it big by being nice, or a diabolical manipulator, doesn’t actually preach anything. Well, he does say that if we think happy thoughts Tinkerbell will survive. And so my camp begins wringing its hands. It seems, as luck would have it, that we have a confluence of popular heretic with big ole honking full sanctuary with media coverage. We’re doomed. These are the same folks who keep the volume turned down every time John MacArthur appears on Larry King, lest they miss the trumpet call.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m still Reformed. It’s a good thing to denounce error, to warn the flock. Joel is one bad guy, and the people that listen to him are badly duped. But please, can’t we be Reformed enough to know that this confluence didn’t happen by luck? Can’t we believe enough in the sovereignty of God to stop seeing face time on TV as the measure of how we are doing? The Kingdom of God has survived Billy Sunday, Billy Graham, Billy Carter, Billy Hybels and Billy Clinton. It has survived Promise Keepers, WWJD, Jabez’ prayer and every other Big Idea to come down the pike. It will do more than survive this latest drivel. May we learn to roundly denounce error, and may we learn to do it without spilling our wine all over the carpet.
Update 1-5-05 Well, I see the time has come to shut down comments on this one as I'm getting a bunch of folks hijacking the comments section to attack R. C. Sproul Jr.. I'm not defending or criticizing him, but this is a post about Joel Osteen and if we can't keep the comments on topic there's no need to have them. I went ahead and deleted the last two comments as they were reiterations of the one from the guy who signed on as R. C. Jr. Jr. Jr.
Billy Graham? I knew R.C. Jr. was a nut, but I didn't know he was so far off as to be on the "Billy Graham is a tool of the devil" bandwagon. I appreciate his encouragement that the Lord is in control, but the whole backdrop to his encouragement is really scary.
Posted by: Jeremy Pierce | March 02, 2005 at 03:21 PM
Jeremy - that's true - sometimes you just have to take RCJr. with a grain of salt.
I think what he's taking a swipe at revivalism by mentioning Billy Sunday and Billy Graham in that list and I do think there are some problems in revivalism that are worth debating. I wouldn't have put Billy Graham and Billy Carter and Billy Clinton in the same list, but he's going for rhetorical effect.
I would love to see a discussion of Billy Graham's effectiveness though, if we could do it without sounding like we are bashing his character. I think Billy's greatest gift to the church has been his integrity, longevity and passion for evangelism in an era of televangelist scandals and the like. He is one prominent Christian in the media we can point to as a man of integrity. But, by his own admission the vast, and I mean overwhelming, majority of those who walk the aisles at his crusades never make it into church or go on with the Lord, at least not that can be documented.
Posted by: David Wayne | March 02, 2005 at 03:37 PM
What's wrong with Joel and where's the Lost coverage gone?
Posted by: Matt T. | March 03, 2005 at 12:46 PM
Hi,
Is RC Sproul Jr for real? Ive seen many links to his name. Is he the son of RC Sproul? Looks obvious but I got confused when i cited the above quote you have on what RC Sproul Jr said on Today Show.
My friend told me this:
"sorry just couldn't avoid in the R.C.Sproul Jr. thing.
Wherever you got that comment, they've got you fooled. There is no R.C.Sproul Jr. There is R.C.Sproul, but will never sound the way he did in the article you quoted. I know the "reformed" thing he is talking off too well, and though the writter uses R.C.Sproul's words of "confluence"(as in how it is used in his book, "all things for good"), yet he doesn't use it anywhere the original writters usage. It is like looking at counterfeit money."
PLEASE GIVE SOME MORE LIGHT ON THIS.
Posted by: jerry | March 20, 2005 at 11:56 PM
Jerry - R. C. Sproul Jr. is for real - he is R. C. Sproul's son. R. C. Sr. runs Ligonier out of Orlando and R. C. Jr. runs the Highlands Study Center out of Virgina or Tennessee - http://www.gospelcom.net/hsc/
If you take a look at their respective pictures you can see they aren't the same person.
Posted by: David Wayne | March 21, 2005 at 10:06 AM
Jerry wrote: "There is no R.C.Sproul Jr. There is R.C.Sproul, but will never sound the way he did in the article you quoted."
Yes and no. There is no RC Sproul Jr. except in the mind of Robert Craig Sproul. His father's name is Robert Charles Sproul.
R.C. Sproul of Ligonier Ministries does not call himself R.C. Sproul, Sr., yet for some odd reason his son has dubbed himself "R.C. Sproul, Jr."
Jeremy Pierce wrote, "I appreciate his encouragement that the Lord is in control, but the whole backdrop to his encouragement is really scary."
R.C. Sproul "Jr." is indeed "scary." Check out http://www.cumberlandbooks.com/austins.html and the comments at http://degenhart.us/blog/?p=42
Posted by: R.C. Sproul, Jr. Jr. Jr. | December 20, 2005 at 09:19 PM