I like to watch a little of Joel Olsteen on television on Sunday mornings. His is a prosperity Gospel with a self-fulfillment in-this-life message, based in faith in the Person of Jesus Christ. We could call it the Gospel of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. God will take care of your physical and spiritual needs, He is omnipotent, all-loving and all good. He can and will see you through. Don't give up. Entrust yourself to Him. He never fails. Jesus Christ is He.
That is surely part of the Gospel message, but it neglects the centrality of the Cross and of the need for repentance and conversion, and for hope in life everlasting. In the end we will lose everything in this life, but God will, if we are faithful and live and die in his sanctifying grace, repentant and forgiven of our sins, we will be saved beyond death and given eternal glory with Him and all his angels and saints. But that partial emphasis of the Gospel is not my greatest criticism of Mr. Olsteen, because he seems to believe the entire Gospel message, although he chooses to emphasize the this-life prosperity slant. My real issue with Olsteen is the closing message of every show which is patently false in its direct contradiction to Mr. Olsteen's own principles and the testimony of Sacred Scripture itself, and sounds like anti-Catholic code language.
Joel Olsteen closes every preaching hour with the imperative to all to "Get into a bible based church..." The implication is that there are many churches that are sufficient for salvation, and that it is all the same; that the key to salvation is the bible guiding your church, doesn't matter which church. But the bible says it different. The bible says that the Church is one (Cf. Matthew 16:18) and that it is that one and only Church which is the only legitimate guarantor of the integrity of the faith, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
"The church of the living God [is] the pillar and ground of the truth." 1 Timothy 3:15
Credo in unam, sanctam, catholicam et apostolicam Ecclesiam, sanctorum communionem...
It is true that every man needs to get into the Church, not "a church, but "the Church." So says the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
It is true that every man needs to get into the Church, not "a church, but "the Church." So says the Gospel of Jesus Christ.