OK....first...let me address Joel's unBiblical and narcissistic little "creed" he has the congregation recite before he preaches:
This is my Bible.
[NO...It isn't! It's God's Word contained in a canonical form]
I am what it says I am.
[YEP...a hopelessly depraved and condemned sinner...except for the sake of Christ]
I can do what it says I can do.
[Yep...repent and turn to Christ for the forgiveness of our sins.]
Today, I will be taught the Word of God.
[Ummm....nope! Not from Him!]
I boldly confess
My mind is alert, My heart is receptive.
I will never be the same.
I am about to receive
The incorruptible, indestructible,
Ever-living seed of the Word of God.
[Ummm....nope! Not from Him!]
I will never be the same.
Never, never, never.
I will never be the same.
[We are suppose to confess that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God sent to redeem us from our depravity and restore a righteous relationship with God.]
In Jesus name. Amen.
Now compare that to the true historic Baptismal/Apostles Creed:
I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.
And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary; suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen.
CAN YOU SEE THE DIFFERENCE!?!?
Before another "forked tongued" word even drips from his mouth, he has turned their attention from the Christ and on themselves. In so doing, they have already broken the 1st and 2nd Commandments!
#1 Thou shalt have no other gods.
Joel's Creed immediately proclaims that God's Word is about YOU...not the Triune God and specifically NOT Jesus! He has conned them into declaring that you are a "little deity" in their own right.
#2 Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord, thy God, in vain.
Then he turns them into a blasphemers by invoking Jesus' name at the end of that ridiculousness.
The 10 Commandments are the Two Tables of the Law. The first 3 define our relationship with God...4-10 define our relationships with each other. So, Joel has basically and heretically destroyed the Two Tables in his ministry because he severs their relationship with God and then turns their focus on themselves. Of course, I don't expect Joel Osteen disciples to understand that because he DOESN'T TEACH THE COMMANDMENTS.
His advocates obviously have no clue about the two covenants of the Bible. The Old Testament covenant that was specific to the Hebrews in order to secure the Messianic line of people and to mark them as God's people. Within that covenant were the ordination of duties to each tribe....specifically to the Levites as the order of the Priests. Within that God gave them the ability to prophesy/speak for God. In so doing, they gave specific instructions and delivered specific promises and condemnations to the people. What we have is the written record, a description of that. So, just using a 2 Chronicles 22 example that was provided to me as support for one of Joel's sermons...
And when they began to sing and praise*, the Lord set an ambush against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, so that they were routed.
...we simply back up a few verses and read the context:
O our God, will you not execute judgment on them? For we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” Meanwhile all Judah stood before the Lord, with their little ones, their wives, and their children. And the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, son of Benaiah, son of Jeiel, son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, in the midst of the assembly. And he said, *“Listen, all Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat: Thus says the Lord to you, ‘Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not yours but God’s. Tomorrow go down against them. Behold, they will come up by the ascent of Ziz. You will find them at the end of the valley, east of the wilderness of Jeruel. You will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem.’ Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them, and the Lord will be with you.” Then Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the Lord, worshiping the Lord.
God gave them a specific command and a specific promise for THAT specific situation. That is what theologians call a "descriptive text" it's a historical record of God's work. However, it is not a promise to US that following that same command will illicit a similar result. He NEVER promised that to anyone except THOSE PEOPLE at THAT TIME. We cannot take a descriptive text and us it as a "prescription" for our lives. What IT DOES give us is a glimpse of the work of the pre-incarnate Christ in history and typology. Nowhere does the Bible tell us to apply that Scripture to us. IT'S ABOUT JESUS. What Jesus specifically said was:
John 5:39
You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. I do not receive glory from people.
We are under the New Covenant of Christ. God no longer relates to us the way he did with the OT Hebrews.
Hebrews 1 :1-2
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, *but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son,* whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
The promises of the OT prophets (other than the fulfilled Messianic promises) DO NOT apply to us. So...
...In an Acts text provided to me...
Acts 16:25-26
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened.
...yes God interceded for Paul and Silas...I do not deny that God works miracles for HIS purposes and plan of salvation in gathering His people. What Joel misunderstands (or intentionally omits) about text is that God did not intercede to free Paul and Silas...if we continue to read the text, we find God's purpose for breaking them out:
When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” [note:they stayed in the jail] And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and *he was baptized at once, he and all his family. Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And *he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.
Jesus sent the earthquake as an opportunity to plant His Church in Philippi...that's it. Paul and Silas and the earthquake were the tools he used. Yet, Joel wants to pull that one verse out and use it as a prescription for how God can intercede daily for us to "save our business", "restore our relationships", "fix our finances" or whatever our other immediate "idol" needs to be repaired. That use of the Bible is exactly how the Pharisees, whom Jesus constantly rebuked, used the Scriptures. It's VERY legalistic, narcissistic and arrogant. In fact, if we read:
But when it was day, the magistrates sent the police, saying, “Let those men go.” And the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent to let you go. Therefore come out now and go in peace.” But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men who are Roman citizens, and have thrown us into prison; and do they now throw us out secretly? No! Let them come themselves and take us out.” The police reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens. So they came and apologized to them. And they took them out and asked them to leave the city. So they went out of the prison and visited Lydia. And when they had seen the brothers, they encouraged them and departed.
So, once Paul would have met his accusers in court, they would have been freed anyway. Now, I do not deny that God works in our lives to protect us and sustain us spiritually and physically. This is His promise:
John 3 :16-18
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
Matthew 6 :19-34
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven*, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. *For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also*. “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! “*No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money*.“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, *and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
So, instead of reading Jesus ACTUAL words in the Gospels...Joel will allude to a single or couple of verses out of context (if he mentions a verse at all) and turn it into a false theology. He's not the only false teacher guilty of this, he was just the one of many. American Evangelicalism is replete with false teachers propagating this heresy. It's mostly because these self-proclaimed, "I was called" preachers do not understand Christian doctrine, dogmatics, systematic theology...and in most cases simple contextual reading comprehension.
We don't interpret the Bible by saying "What does it mean to me?" We interpret the Bible by saying "What does the text mean?...and read it without the chapter and verse numbers. The Books of Bible are not divided by chapters and verses...nor is it to be studied that way. The chapter and verse numbers are simply reference points added a few centuries ago to help sort the texts and communicate with each other where we might be reading during study.
As to all of this being MY understanding of the Bible. It isn't...it's the understanding of the Church for 1800 years until the Revivalists Movement in America, sparked mainly by Charles Finney, perverted the way Americans read the Bible. It's fueled by lazy and Biblically ignorant pagan/Christians that believe God exists in feelings, prosperity, rainbows, clouds and sunshine...instead of in His TRUE Word and Sacraments.
However, God did say this would happen before Christ's return...he simply seems to have blessed many of us with a frustrating "front row seat" to the GREAT APOSTASY!
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