Thursday, January 24, 2008

The Theology of Joel Osteen

Michael Horton writes two very insiteful articles on Joel Osteen's theology here (http://www.whitehorseinn.org/osteenart01.htm) and here (http://www.whitehorseinn.org/osteenreview.htm).

2 comments:

toothdoc said...

Todd,
Although I miss the depth of your personal posts, I found this posting to be very convicting and instructive. As a Christian businessman, husband and father I tend to stuggle more with "worm theology" than "gab-it & grab-it theology". However, the key to both is that we lose sight of our true relationship with the Almighty. In the blog he says: "...Osteen's message is also a good example of the inability of Boomers to mourn in the face of God's judgment or dance under the liberating news of God's saving mercy. In other words, all gravity is lost-both the gravity of our problem and of God's amazing grace."
The idea of gravity his home. Without gravity we drift away. When I minimize the gravity of God's grace the "gravity" of my sins and ongoing moral struggles pull me away. Just as small celestial bodies exert small gravitational influence on those objects around them, large celestial objects exert a large influence. God, Yaweh, is the "largest" object of all - His gravity should have the most influence on me, the smallest of His beloved creation. He wants to draw me close - yet permits me to remain afar. Why can I not quit fighting the gravity of this good and awesome God?

By the way, hi grandmother.

ps Rush in concert summer 2008!

Todd Pruitt said...

Ric,

Good to hear from you as always. That same statement moved me as well. We exult too little in the goodness of the gospel because we have failed to understand the gravity of our sin and our hopelessness apart from radical grace.

I have not been writing many "original" posts lately because of so much busy-ness in other areas lately.

I got your message the other day. I may just have to take a road trip to K.C. and take in a concert with you.

tp