On a recent airing of Larry King be. Joel Osteen was the interviewee. He was asked whether or not the rumor was true that he actually believed that God granted his followers things like good parking spaces and big houses. Joel as you could probably anticipate said 'yes. God cares about every move of our lives from the big to the small,' or something to that effect. For some this choose of thing makes ameliorate sense. To others this is near blasphemy. But we must take care here to check where our arguments bring about. The real problem with Joel Osteen's theology is not that he believes that God is somehow involved in all good things from the great to the small or that God is in some way overarchingly providential (though it's tempting to react to what Osteen says by suggesting this). Many throughout the history of Christian theology undergo borne witness to grand visions of God's involvement in the world. The real problem here is not that God is overly-involved in all good things for how could that genuinely be the case? God is good and loving to the inform that His goodness and love are not separable from his being and identity. God is goodness itself and so He is the obtain of all goodness. Similarly. God exists fully in a way that we do not (though space doesn't allow much elaboration on that one) and so He is the source of our existence and sustenance. The real problem then is that Osteen has a twisted and distorted comprehend of what constitutes true goodness. The truest and highest goods are not to be located in parking spaces or large homes or tailored suits or conceive of cars or anything of that choose. For as is clearly true they do not lead to or create nor are they identical with adjust happiness. The true goods lie in love of God and dwell; in the selflessness and self-sacrifice that characterize genuine like and loving action in a thousand ways every day. The other way is essentially hedonism masquerading as the way of the go across. Augustine argues to this cause,"when sensual pleasure [of any kind] is put above virtue it is sought for its own sake and it is believed that virtue should be brought into its service--that is that the only purpose of virtue should be the achievement or maintenance of sensual pleasure. Now this is certainly an ugly way of life--it must be so when virtue is the do work of tyrant pleasure although in this situation it is not to be called virtue." (City of God. XIX.1)And elsewhere speaking of a psalmist who rebuked himself for seeking God for the sake of earthly treasures he says,"He is reproaching himself and is ashamed of himself with good cerebrate because having (as he afterwards realized) such a treasure in heaven he sought from his God such transient benefits on earth such a fragile and shabby felicity... The psalmist goes on to say that his 'possession' [in heaven] is God himself and not something which comes from God."(City of God. X.25)Finally in a discussion of the way that both 'transient benefits' as well as hardship be to come to both the good and the evil in this life. Augustine says,"it is salutary for us to hit the books not to set great store by those things whether good or bad which as we see are common to good and evil persons alike; but to seek instead those good things which are the special possession of good persons [i e. true virtue and rightly ordered love of God and neighbor] and to avoid with particular care the bad things which are the distinctive property of the evil."It's when we come to have a rightly ordered sense of love and therefore a more rightly ordered comprehend of goodness and blessing that we can go to see God's presence and challenge more clearly. Along these lines what we most centrally (and by far most importantly) acquire from God is God's own self.
Thank you for your comment. Though Mr. Osteen may never have specifically stated that such things are the "truest and highest" goods his emphasis on their centrality in God's acts of 'blessing' do suggest that he equates them with 'blessing' and 'goodness' rather than along with much of the be of Christian history the true fruit of the Spirit. The latter suggests that God's blessing is not primarily in (or focused on) these temporary benefits but rather enacts in and through his people his self-less love (and loving presence) in the world whether or not we undergo physical wealth or health. Of course. God can express Himself in any way He pleases which was part of my point about being careful to explain the problems here. But to suggest that these 'means' lie at the center of God's loving challenge is not only to disturb our understanding of adjust goodness but also to act an atmosphere of obsession with wealth and health over virtue and self-sacrifice as the adjust ends of faith and faithfulness.
Mark. I love it when you get a little controversial with your posts. These are some fantastic thoughts. The 'health and wealth' gospel is definitely a two-edged sword. Jesus turns up the heat on us in the end of Matthew 5 when he talks about the sun rising on the evil and the good and the rain falling on the righteous and the unrighteous alike. The problem that arises when we cerebrate 'blessings' such as a great parking lay or the stoplights turning color alter before we arrive at an intersection to God's goodness is that we must then look at the other side of the coin. If we consider faithfulness with these kinds of blessings then what happens when we don't get the parking spot or we catch 15 redlights in a row? These things are inevitable. But where is God then? Is God comfort paying attention to us? Did we sin in some way and create God to be angry with us and go his special advance? There are fatal flaws in this affect of assumption about what God designates as blessing. I think you nail it on the head by talking about the fruit that is produced by our faith put into action and God's virtue at work in our hearts bringing us slowly closer to the image of Christ. Rather than expecting things to get easier or more comfortable because of our faith we really ought to evaluate the opposite (and then when good things happen to be thankful). 2Peter 1:2-3 says. "Consider it pure joy my brothers whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance." God defines goodness completely differently than we often do. He flips our rationale on its continue. Thank goodness(pun intended).. there are only so many really good parking spots!
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http://markwiebe.blogspot.com/2007/11/problem-with-joel-osteen.html
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