What’s wrong with the “prosperity gospel”?

Victoria Osteen said this during a recent Sunday morning service:

“I just want to encourage everyone of us to realize when we obey God, we’re not doing it for God – I mean, that’s one way to look at it – we’re doing it for ourselves, because God takes pleasure when we’re happy. So I want you to know this morning: Just do good for your own self. Do good because God wants you to be happy. When you come to church, when you worship Him, you’re not doing it for God really. You’re doing it for yourself, because that’s what makes God happy. Amen?”

Victoria Osteen ‘Do Good for Your Own Self,’ Not for God [:37]
Osteen and her husband Joel co-pastor the Houston, Texas, mega Lakewood Church.

Steve Camp, pastor of the Cross Church in Palm City, Florida, says her words are essentially blasphemous.

“It’s the age old sin of idolatry – that it’s not about God, it’s about us,” he said. “True worship for the humanist is about how we feel at the end of the day and what gives us meaning, as opposed to what gives God glory.”

“She honestly believes that God exists to make us happy rather than holy,” Camp said. “She honestly believes that worship is about our fulfillment rather than His glory. That’s the bottom issue here.”

“First Corinthians so clearly says that whether we eat or drink, do it all to the glory of God. It’s not just self. Jesus said … in Matthew 16, ‘Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Me.’

“The Osteens have just inverted that. They think it’s not the denial of self, but the exaltation of self,” Camp said. “They’re not trying to pursue a cross; they’re trying to pursue prosperity. And they’re certainly not following the biblical Jesus. They’re following whatever brings happiness and contentment.”

At Amazon, a reviewer of a Joel Osteen book wrote this:

“What is it that draws people to Joel Osteen? Why do people enjoy his teaching so much? After all, tens of thousands of people attend his church each week and hundreds of thousands more watch him on television. He has become one of America’s most popular pastors, even while he teaches things that most pastors would testify are inconsistent with the Bible.

“I think the secret to Osteen’s success is this: he teaches self-help but wraps it in a thin guise of Christian terminology. Thus people believe they are being taught the Bible when the reality is that they are learning mere human wisdom rather than divine wisdom. Osteen cunningly blends the wisdom of this age with language that sounds biblical. He blends the most popular aspects of New Age and self-help teaching with Christianity. And his audience is eagerly drinking this in.”

Source:

Osteen’s wife accused @ http://www.wnd.com/2014/08/joel-osteens-wife-accused-of-blasphemous-remarks/

Amazon review by Tim Challies “Spiritual Junk Food” @ http://smile.amazon.com/Become-Better-You-Improving-Every/product-reviews/0743296923/ref=cm_cr_dp_qt_hist_one?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addOneStar&showViewpoints=0