Cotton Candy Christianity

Joel Osteen’s Gospel of Neutrality and Omission

Maybe you’re a fan of Joel Osteen. You may have read his books and have watched him on TV and are having a tough time accepting this. I strongly encourage you to pray about everything he or anyone teaches. If you sincerely seek God’s truth,He will reveal it to you. Osteen pres­ents a kind of self-help program under the guise of Bible instruction. There’s nothing wrong with optimism,but pastors [and teachers] need to stick with the Word of God.

People who follow Osteen’s happy formula and then fail to get the positive results he promises end up disillusioned and worse,get mad at God and fall away from him. Don’t you think Christians are responsible for telling people what they need to hear instead of what they want to hear? You won’t get that from Mr. Happy. Smooth talk. Positive vibes. Prosperity and abundance. Flattering speech. Deceptive doctrine with a smile…. Cotton Candy Christianity.

http://www.exposeobama.com/2013/09/07/cotton-candy-christianity-joel-osteens-gospel-of-neutrality-and-omission/

Pastor Joel Osteen feels it is not his calling to get deeply into the Bible or to talk about sin. He also prefers not to think too much about other religions, but he believes Mormons are Christians. He focuses on the positive and promotes a word-faith the­ology that the more you do or say something, the more you will get as a result. I know this teaching well because I followed it for several years in my early Christian days. It is both addictive and deceptive. Who doesn’t want to be happy and “up” all the time? Most of us realize that not only is this unbiblical; it is not realistic.


The tragic thing is hoards of people are being influenced by Osteen’s limited theology, and they end up looking at God as some kind of genie. On page 306 of Your Best Life Now, Joel claims, “It’s our faith that activates the power of God.” When the emphasis is on the power of our own words instead of the power of the resurrec­tion, something’s wrong. He goes so far as to say it’s more important to speak to your problem than pray about it (pg. 124).