Joel Osteen: God likes you, accepts you, and he approves of you

Jer 23:16  Thus says the LORD of hosts: "Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD. 17  They say continually to those who despise the word of the LORD, 'It shall be well with you'; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, 'No disaster shall come upon you.'" 

Jer 8:11  They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, 'Peace, peace,' when there is no peace. 

"HuffPo Live host Josh Zepps quoted from Osteen’s new book: “It doesn’t matter who likes you or who doesn’t like you, all that matters is God likes you. He accepts you, he approves of you.”"

~WND

God likes you? He accepts you? He approves of you? 

Really.

Scripture is clear on how God views the man outside of Christ and it's not pretty:

John 3:36  Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

Jud 1:14  It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, "Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, 15  to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him." 16  These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.

Psa 7:11  God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day. 

  

Psa 5:5  The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; You hate all evildoers. 6  You destroy those who speak lies; the LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. 

"Hates":  Hebrew: sane: A primitive root; to hate (personally): - enemy, foe, (be) hate (-ful, -r), odious, X utterly.

Rom 9:13  Just as it is written, "JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED." 14  What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! 

Jer 14:10  Thus says the LORD concerning this people: "They have loved to wander thus; they have not restrained their feet; therefore the LORD does not accept them; now he will remember their iniquity and punish their sins." 11  The LORD said to me: "Do not pray for the welfare of this people. 12 Though they fast, I will not hear their cry, and though they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence." 

Even with the widows and orphans, God does not approve or like the wicked ones:

Isa 9:17  Therefore the Lord does not take pleasure in their young men, Nor does He have pity on their orphans or their widows; For every one of them is godless and an evildoer, And every mouth is speaking foolishness. In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away  and His hand is still stretched out. 

And among professing Christians:

In Acts 5 God strikes Ananias and his wife Sapphira dead at church because they lied not just to man but to God about the selling price of their plot of land.

Matt 18 teaches about church discipline, stating that if a person refuses to repent of their sins, they are to be excommunicated from the church and treated as an  unbeliever.

1Co 5:1  It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father's wife. 2  And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you. ...5  you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. 

Mat 7:21  "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22  On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' 23  And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.' 

How about in Revelation? Does God approve of everyone there?

Rev 19:11  Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. 14  And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. 15  From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. 16  On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. 

God only approves of, savingly loves, and is at peace with  the one who is saved by faith in the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ:

Rom 5:1  Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2  Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Luk 2:13  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14  "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased!" 

Osteen shushes the wicked in one fell sweep by telling them there is no war between them and God. There is no hostility, hatred, or rebellion that needs to be either punished in a biblically just way that either requires eternal punishment or reconcilation through the blood of Christ. Reconciliation necessitates two warring parties, a hostility between the two. This is hardly "approval".

Isa 48:22  "There is no peace," says the LORD, "for the wicked."

Psa 11:5  The LORD tests the righteous, but His soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence. 6  Let Him rain coals on the wicked; fire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup. 7  For the LORD is righteous; he loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold his face. 

Frankly, Osteen sounds a whole lot like Reformergent Tim Keller.

To tell the Christ-rejecter that God loves him is to cauterize his conscience as well as to afford him a sense of security in his sins. The fact is, the love of God is a truth for the saints only, and to present it to the enemies of God is to take the children's bread and to cast it to the dogs. 

~ A.W. Pink

But there's more....

WND's report continues:

Zepps followed up by asking if that [God's liking and approval] included homosexuals.

“Absolutely,” Osteen insisted, “I believe that God has breathed his life into every single person. We’re all on a journey. Nobody’s perfect.”

“But I believe every person is made in the image of God, and you have accept them as they are, on their journey. I’m not here to be preaching hate, pushing people down. I’m not here telling people what they’re doing wrong.”

“I believe the scripture says that being gay is a sin...But my faith is based on what I believe the scripture says, and that’s the way I read the scripture.

End quote.

This wolf is brazen enough to clearly state he's not going to tell people they are wrong. Notice his stand is based on what he believe the Scriptures says, the way he reads it, not the objective, knowable truth of what the Bible actually says. This thinking, is the same as the Gospel Coalition's , Tim Keller's and other leaders in that group. His view of not telling homosexuals that they are in  sin is also just like Keller's.

But saith Scripture?

2Ti 3:16  All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17  that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. 

2Ti 4:1  I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2  preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3  For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4  and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 

God doesn't approve of homosexuals. Period. Or liars. Or the sexually immoral. Of sinners. Scripture makes that clear.  And I guess I have to repeat this truth yet again.

1Co 6:9  Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals,10  nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.

God opposes and condemns homosexuality in every age: in the patriarchs (Genesis 19:1-28); in the Law of Moses (Leviticus 18:22; 20:13); in the Prophets (Ezekiel 16:46-50); inthe New Testament (Romans 1:18-27; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10; Jude 7-8)

Being created in the image of God does not necessitate Him liking and approving us. The Flood is proof of that. In fact, because Man is made in the image of God, Man is responsible for his sin before that holy God. "Nobody's perfect and we're all on a journey" is hardly an answer to or justification of such a deviant sin like homosexuality. Being perfect is never the issue because since Adam, we are all born sinners. "Nobody's perfect" is a conversation stopper by those who don't want to be held accountable for their sin before God. 

Osteen seems to be leaning toward Universalism. He claims God likes (that is just such an immature way to even think about God's relationship with man, and frankly quite irreverent and trivial) and approves of  and accepts everyone and that we're all on a journey...what journey? To where, exactly? Is he saying that all people will end up in the place at the end of their lives? That God dismisses various sins and trespasses? That He winks at sin? That sin is really no big deal to God? 

I think the Flood again answers that, as does the return of Jesus Christ when He comes to slay His enemies on Earth.

The Beginning and the End. Genesis and Revelation.

Joh 3:36  Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

God is holy, holy, holy and no man can stand before Him in his sin.