A rebuttal of Ch. 5 of Your Best Life Now

Chapter 5: Increasing in Favor

Rebuttal

Chapter five covers, as you might imagine, what we must do to increase God’s favor towards us. Joel begins with an illustration about two parents who wanted to enroll their son in a very exclusive private school. However, his birthday was past the cut-off date, and their child would have to wait another year before he would be able to enroll. The parents would have none of this, so they call the school and talk to registrar. The registrar, predictably, says no. In response, the parents say, “That’s fine, but we would like to speak with your boss.” They get the same answer from the vice principal, who again says no. They go over his head to the principal, who also says no. They go all the way up to the superintendent who, for some mysterious reason, grants them the exception. As Joel is telling the story he says that these parents did all of this without being rude or trying to “manipulate matters”, and that the reason they persisted was that they knew they “had the favor of God”. Going over three administrative officials’ heads is nothing if not trying to manipulate matters. Can’t these parents wait just another year? It’s not as if the school is saying that their child can’t attend there ever, just not this term. Joel attributes the reason that the parents got their wish to the fact that they were “expecting to get a good report, expecting things to turn around.” We’ve been over this before. I can expect all my student loan debt to go away and to be retired at age 30, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.

Joel says that the “favor of God surrounds us like a shield.” While Psalm 5:12 does say something to this extent, Joel fails to see the big picture. According to The New Interpreter’s Bible, “one of the responsibilities of being a king was to provide for and protect his people, and the” author of this psalm asks for help from God towards fulfilling that role. “The psalmist is certain that the future holds security and joy for those whose refuge is in God… this position enables the psalmist, amid present opposition, to live with reverent purpose, unshakable hope, and enduring joy.” This does not mean that God gives us perks and stuff and that nothing can happen to us. Joel tells us that one of the most important aspects to developing a fresh vision for one’s life is “discovering how to experience more of God’s favor.

Joel writes that “the Bible clearly states, ‘God has crowned us with glory and honor.’ As hilarious as it is reading the words “the Bible clearly states” in anything written by Joel Osteen, we must stop laughing and look at the passage. He cites Psalm 8:5, a messianic prophecy also quoted in Hebrews 2:6 that refers to Jesus’s incarnation. Joel has conveniently substituted the “him” in this verse with “us.” The full text of the verse reads as follows: “what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.” Throughout these works I have used detailed word studies to refute Joel’s assertions. Here, Joel presents a not-so-detailed word study of his own. He claims that the Hebrew word used here for honor, hâdar, could also be translated as favor. According to The New Strong’s Complete Dictionary of Bible Words, in no context is hâdar translated as favor. The same source indicates that the definition of hâdar is “to swell up”, literally or figuratively, “by implication to favor or honor, be high or proud… glorious, honor, put forth.” Joel is grasping at straws here. Aside from the fact that the author is in no way writing about how God gives us preferential treatment but rather prophesying about the coming messiah, his formula of hâdar = honor = favor = being treated with special advantages, is a stretch.

Joel defines favor as “to assist, to provide with special advantages and to receive preferential treatment”. Joel claims that God wants to “make your life easier. He wants you to have preferential treatment.” So God wants me, everyone who’s read this book, and everyone else in the world, for that matter, to have an easier life? We’ve used these verses before, and probably will again, but it doesn’t make them any less applicable.

1 Peter 2:19-21 “For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God. But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.”

1 Peter 3:14 “But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened."

1 Peter 3:17 “It is better, if it is God's will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.”

Joel adds a caveat: if we’re going to accept God’s favor, we’re going to have to be “favor-minded.” To achieve this state of mind, one must simply “expect God’s special help… knowing that God wants to assist us.” Answer me this, Joel: How can God give everyone preferential treatment? How can you let the whole stadium into the VIP booth? If everyone lives “favor-minded,” then according to Joel, everyone would get preferential treatment.

Joel says that he’s known God’s favor his whole life. He writes that he learned to expect people to want to help me. His “attitude is: I’m a child of the Most High God. My Father created the whole universe. He has crowned me with favor, therefore, I can expect preferential treatment. I can expect people to go out of their way to help me.” Pretentious much? However, Joel does say that the reason behind this preferential treatment that we’re supposed to receive is not because of “who we are, but because of whose we are.” Because we’re Christians, we get preferential treatment? Like Paul and Peter and John the Baptist did?

1 Peter 4:12-14 12Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. 13But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. 14If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.

Joel goes on to claim that a “correlation exists in the spiritual realm…you will often receive preferential treatment simply because your Father is the King of Kings, and His glory and honor spill over onto you.” Show me a verse, in context, that says that and I’ll show you a verse that justifies the distribution and use of indulgences to absolve sins. I’m not saying that there aren’t or can’t be Christians who do well for themselves and can justifiably use the words opulence or extravagance to describe their lifestyles, but they are not the rule, they are the exception to it. For the second time, Joel uses Romans 8:28. If God doesn’t give you a good parking spot, Joel says, then be thankful that you’re healthy and can walk.

The idea that we can just wish to God to give us a secret advantage is silly. We can’t, as Joel says, wish to God to find a good parking space or a table at a crowded restaurant. This relegates the creator and ruler of the universe to Santa Claus or a genie in a bottle that we pull out when we need something. Ridiculous.

A rebuttal of Ch. 4 of Your Best Life Now

Chapter 4: Breaking the Barriers of the Past

Rebuttal

In the beginning of the chapter, Joel tells the story of how, for a number of years, it was thought impossible for a person to run a mile in less than four minutes. That barrier was broken in 1954 by Roger Bannister. Joel attributes this to the four minute mile barrier being in the athlete’s minds, a kind of pseudo-psychosomatic problem. Let’s take a closer look at this. Joel cites that various “‘experts’ conducted all sorts of profound studies to show it was impossible to beat the four minute mile barrier. And for years, they were right.” He also says that the reason that no one broke it is because they believed said experts.

Here Joel’s argument relies on a premise that says the same thing as the conclusion.

Joel’s argument: experts said no one could run a four minute mile, therefore runners let in turn to negative thinking and none of them could run a four minute mile.

Experts said no one could run a four minute mile: It’s presumably impossible to run a four minute mile.

Therefore:

No one could run a four minute mile because of negative thinking: It’s presumably impossible to run a four minute mile.

Joel is using circular reasoning here, and his argument is clearly flawed.

As for the fact that in the decade after Roger Bannister broke the four minute mile barrier 336 runners followed in his place, health care, life expectancy, and population have all been improving and growing the world over. With those on the rise, quality of life is improving, babies are being born healthier and with a drastically lower mortality rate, and the human race as a whole is better off than it was even a few decades ago. I think we can attribute those 336 runners to the competitive human spirit and to microevolution. Joel is trying to attribute this phenomenon to a kind of pseudo-psychological effect, a sort of psychsomatosis, and it doesn’t make sense.

Joel says that if we think something is impossible, we never will be able to do it. No one is calling this point into contention; if I don’t believe I can jump off a cliff and fly I’m not going to jump off a cliff. Joel uses as scriptural support for this notion a well known verse, 2 Corinthians 10:4 “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of this world. On the contrary, they have the divine power to demolish strongholds.” Joel identifies Paul’s use of the word “stronghold” here as the aforementioned negative thoughts and attitudes that hold us back. While this is very compelling, it fails to take into account several things. The ancient Greek word for stronghold being used here, όχύρωμα, refers to a literal stronghold or fortress, but when used figuratively, refers to intellectual arguments, according to Strong’s Greek and Hebrew Lexicon. Joel is using it to refer to psychological issues that we as people develop during the course of our lives due to various traumatic events, and is mistaken in doing so.

As an example, Joel points out the story of the ancient Israelites. He theorizes that because they were held in slavery for four hundred years, were “mistreated, used, and taken advantage of,” the Israelites, despite God’s plans, “couldn’t conceive it. They couldn’t make room for it in their own thinking. Instead of moving forward with an attitude of faith, expecting good things, they insisted on going around and around with a poor, defeated mentality”. As I remember it, the Israelites got stuck in the desert for four decades because they could visualize what they wanted quite well: “When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, ‘Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.’” That’s the first verse of the 32nd chapter of Exodus. Aaron is quick to oblige them and without any objection. Later, in verse nine, God says to Moses, “I have seen these people and they are a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them.” Sounds kind of harsh, right? Not exactly God poking them and telling them to conceive on the inside. Lucky for them, however, Moses speaks up in the next verse. “But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God. ‘Oh Lord’, he said, “Why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand...Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people.’”

Two things are worthy of note here: first of all, the text says that Moses “sought the favor of the Lord his God. He does this simply by making a request, not by expanding his thinking or conceiving on the inside. Second, this text points out that the Israelites were not exiled because of their bad attitude, like a 40 year time out, but were sentenced to wander around in the desert until an entire generation died off because, just days after being delivered from Egypt where they had spent four hundred years in slavery, they decided that the God who got them out of there wasn’t good enough for them anymore.

In the following few paragraphs, Joel addresses those of us that have been abused, walked out on, or similarly mistreated. He urges us not to “inhibit the great future God has for you by dwelling on the pains of your past”. He says that “if you keep the right attitude, God will pay you back double for your trouble.” Joel claims that God will tally up all the hurt, injustice, and pain people have caused you and “pay you back with twice as much joy, peace, and happiness. That is God’s desire for you.” While it’s true that you’ll never get anywhere in life brooding all the time, Joel takes this beyond veracity. As scriptural support, he uses Isaiah 61:7, in the Osteen Proof Text Version, “a twofold recompense for our former shame.” (A note: the aforementioned version is a facetious invention of my own; proof text is the practice of using decontextualised quotations from a document, and this verse is one where Joel does not cite the version used.) Instead of explaining that this passage is being used out of context, as can be presupposed by now, I’ll just save space and explain how. Isaiah is a book wherein God is communicating to his people in exile that it’s not going to remain like this forever; that there is a light at the end of the Babylonian tunnel. Joel has already taken several passages from Isaiah out of context, see previous works. In the NIV, this verse reads, “Instead of their shame, my people will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace, they will rejoice in their inheritance; and so they will inherit a double portion in their land, and everlasting joy will be theirs.” Joel uses this verse to support the idea that we will retroactively receive compensation equal to double the amount of abuse/neglect/abject suffering we have experienced. Unfortunately, worker’s comp is not part of the Christian’s benefit package. 2 Timothy 3:12 says, “In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” (Emphasis added).

What Joel says in the next paragraph would, omitting the word “God”, might cause a reader to believe that it was about Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny.

He knows when we’re operating with integrity, and yet somebody comes along and cheats us out of what should have been ours. God sees every time you’ve been taken advantage of… every time you turn the other cheek and let an offense go by. He sees every time you forgive, or try to restore a broken relationship, even though it wasn’t your fault. God sees all that; He’s keeping a good record (does he check it twice?). And He’s promised to take all the evil that comes into your life, turn it around, and use it for your good.

What Joel is saying here violates one of the fundamental laws of nature: life’s not fair.

He alludes to Romans 8:28, a fairly well known verse, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Joel uses this, purportedly in his own words, having not cited anything or put anything in quotes, to support the above paragraph in box quotes. A proper analysis of this verse reveals that Paul does not state whether or not said “good” will be material or even occurring in this lifetime.

Joel again uses one of his trademark phrases that should trigger red lights in the head of any person who has even a minimally comprehensive grasp on biblical doctrine: “will you take thelimits off what God can do in your life?” (Emphasis added.) It is downright silly to think that we can limit God simply by what we think he can do or by what we want in life. Joel asserts that that El-Shaddai, one of the many names for God used in the original text, means “God of more than enough”. Based on this, he claims that “God wants you to live an overcoming life of victory. He doesn’t want you to barely get by. He’s not ‘El Cheapo’, the God of Barely enough!” Maybe taking scripture out of context isn’t Joel’s problem; maybe he just can’t tell the difference between Hebrew and Spanglish. Not to belabor the point, but according to The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, the meaning of El-Shaddai in the original text is uncertain. Its various roots suggest that it “means ‘sufficient,’ ‘lord,’ ‘rain-god,’ or ‘mountain-god.’” The Illustrated Dictionary and Concordance of the Bible defines Shaddai as “strength.” Perhaps this is beating a dead horse, but according to the New Bible Dictionary, the Hebrew El is “derived from a root indicating strength or might,” hence Elyon, Elohim, Eloah, all different names with different meanings referring to God. The Spanish El, however, simply means “the”.

A few paragraphs later, Joel explains how we must expand our thinking, and that we must do so in order to experience God’s favor; that God is waiting on us to stretch our faith. Following, Joel graces us with the hidden insight into God’s nature which only he seems to possess: “Notice the words God uses. He says to ‘enlarge, lengthen, stretch out.’” While these words are in the Bible, Joel provides neither text nor reference nor context. It’s really sloppy work for an author, without an exhaustive concordance we’re just taking his word for it, and we have no idea where and how those words are used. There is a second option, though. Joel could be conveying information imparted to him by specific revelation, that is, God speaking directly to him.

Later, Joel asks us “Why not stretch your faith and believe God for more so you can help somebody else in need? God is saying, ‘If you’ll make room for more of my blessings, I won’t disappoint you. Soon you’ll be bursting at the seams.’” Again, Joel gives neither chapter nor verse for this quote. It is absolutely absurd, ridiculous beyond belief, that one could just sit down and write, “I think such-and-such, so I’m going to say that God said something to that effect with absolutely no scriptural support. There is, without exception, no motive to make up things that can be introduced by the words “God said” that does not have a second, self-serving agenda.

This God actually did say:

Acts 9:16

“I will show him how much he [Paul] must suffer for my name.”

Philippians 1:29

For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him.

Joel goes on to describe the concept of how the sins of the father are passed down through generations. He refers to divorce, incarceration, alcoholism, and others. In order to break this chain of defeat, Joel suggests we start “speaking in terms of victory rather than defeat.” He suggests we pray the following prayer:

I don’t care how defeated this family has been in the past. This is a new day. I boldly declare that we are more than conquerors. It doesn’t matter how broke we’ve been. I declare we’re going to lend and not borrow. I don’t care how big our obstacles are. I declare that no weapon formed against us shall prosper. I don’t care how powerful our enemies are. Greater is He who is in us that he who is in the world. We’re not victims anymore. We are the victors. We are blessed and we cannot be cursed.

In the above quote, Joel alludes to Romans 8:37, Deuteronomy 28:12, Isaiah 54:17, 1 John 4:4, and 1 Corinthians 4:12. As again he neither quotes nor cites, he can bend the language of scripture to his will, as well as take a few creative liberties in translation. This is nothing unusual for Joel, quotes or no quotes, it’s just that this time it sounds to the layperson like the above catechism is of Joel’s own making and, when they read the actual verse later, they think, “Oh, I recognize that. It was in that book I read once, and it must mean something completely different than what it was intended to mean to the original audience.” Besides what he is saying in the preceding paragraph is basically cutting and pasting different verses together that have completely different meanings and contexts and inserting miscellaneous sentence fragments in between them to convey a message of warm fuzzy feelings inside. Joel says that we were born to be great, born to win, and “created to be a champion in life.” How can any of us win or be great or be champions if we are all winners or great or champions? By definition, everyone can’t win, and everyone can’t be a champion.

When I started this project I asked myself if Joel was deliberately misinterpreting the text or was just misguided. There is now no doubt in my mind that Joel is distorting the meaning of scripture for his own ends.

A rebuttal of Ch. 3 of Your Best Life Now

Chapter 3: God Has More In Store!

Rebuttal

Chapter 3 is unique in that it is one of the two chapters in which Joel uses no scripture to back up his claim. On the plus side, he doesn’t use any verses out of context or butcher the original meaning of the text.

What he does do is tell the story of Todd. Todd dreams of starting his own business, but his dreams are shelved when he gets married and has a baby, and priorities shift. However, when he is offered an opportunity that is exactly what he dreamed of, he turns it down. His rationale is that it’s too good to be true, that he can’t afford to take the chance.

Joel explains this by saying that “many people miss pivotal opportunities in their lives every day because they’ve grown accustomed to the status quo. They expect nothing better.” He bemoans the fact that “God is opening a new door for them; all they have to do is step through it, yet regrettably they back away from God’s blessings.” The reason for this, Joel writes, is that people don’t make “room in their own thinking for the new things God wants to do in their lives.” In the next paragraph he says that “what you will receive is directly connected to how you believe and what you expect”. He says that God is capable of anything and everything, as long as he is not limited by our thinking. We’ve heard this before, haven’t we? He’s claiming that God is capable only of what we can imagine him capable of. I’ve used the below verse before, and I probably will again, but that’s only because it’s so applicable.

Ephesians 3:20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,

Joel tells us about a woman who wrote to him, telling him about a relative she had never heard of whom had bequeathed in his will a large amount of money to her. Like in the last chapter, we have a problem of post hoc, ergo propter hoc. Just because you read a book and a distant relative dies and leaves you money does not mean that the reason that the relative died and left you money was because you read the book.

Joel uses the example of his dad, who was a cotton farmer who lost everything in the Great Depression. In Joel’s own words, “nobody in our family had amounted to much”. Joel paints the picture of the American dream; a young man pulling himself up by the bootstraps. He explains that God is not “limited by environment, family background, or present circumstances.” So far so good; according to Joel, God is only limited “by our lack of faith.” Now that sounds like something you might hear come out of Benny Hinn’s mouth.

Ecclesiastes 5:19-20 Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work—this is a gift of God. He seldom reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart.

Zechariah 10:1 Ask the LORD for rain in the springtime; it is the LORD who makes the storm clouds. He gives showers of rain to men, and plants of the field to everyone.

Matthew 7:7-11 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

John 14:13-14 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

John 15:7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.

Back on topic, Joel, tells how his dad picked himself up out of poverty by becoming a pastor. Last time I checked, being a pastor wasn’t a lucrative career path. Have you ever heard the term “wealthy pastor” before, or even “decently well off pastor”? Probably not. In fact, the very opposite of what Joel is saying is true.

Acts 9:16 I will show him how much he [Paul] must suffer for my name."

1 Corinthians 4:9-13 For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like men condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to men. We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world.

2 Corinthians 1:7 And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

2 Corinthians 11:23-33 Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?

If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is to be praised forever, knows that I am not lying. In Damascus the governor under King Aretas had the city of the Damascenes guarded in order to arrest me. But I was lowered in a basket from a window in the wall and slipped through his hands.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given to me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest in me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weakness, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Philippians 1:29 For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him,

Joel urges us to break patterns of negative thinking passed down to us from generations past, and not pass them on to our progeny. While any psychologist will tell you this is only healthy, Joel has ulterior motives. If we break lines of negative thinking, this will cease to limit God and make room for all the things he couldn’t do otherwise.

Once again, Joel makes all of the above claims without a single word of scriptural support, and I believe the reason is very simple: there isn’t any. See you next week, and, as always, comments are appreciated.

A rebuttal of Ch. 2 of You Best Life Now

Chapter 2 Rebuttal

All verses quoted in NIV unless indicated otherwise.

This is an analysis of the second chapter of Your Best Life Now, and I’m going to try to do one a week. With 32 chapters this should take me the better part of a year, so I guess I'll have something to keep me busy for a while. I think I’ll post them every Monday, so check your local listings.

In chapter 2, Joel tells us specifically how to raise our level of expectations and think positively. What Joel says in the first few paragraphs of this chapter is true to some extent, that what we expect is what we will get. However, it is untrue that if you "dwell on positive thoughts, your life will move in that direction.” Joel suggests saying each morning as you wake up, “This is going to be a great day. God is guiding and directing my steps. His favor is surrounding me. Goodness and mercy are following me, I’m excited about today!” This is just silly; just because you repeat it to yourself in the mirror each morning doesn’t mean it will work or even that it’s true.

Joel tells us to program our minds for success, and then to “go out expecting good things. Expect circumstances to change in your favor. Expect people to go out of their way to help you. Expect to be at the right place at the right time.” If this makes sense to any of you, please let me know. Joel uses Colossians 3:2 to support his assertion, reading, “Set your mind and keep it set on higher things.” Like all the verses he quotes in the previous chapter, Joel does not give the name of the translation that he uses for this verse. The NIV reads, “Set your mind on things above and not on earthly things”. We can see a more than subtle change in meaning here. According to The Interpreter’s Bible, “[t]he Colossian heretics were seeking salvation by a pseudo spirituality, which in reality did not break their involvement in the material world of material forces, material interests, and material values… Paul lifts their minds from the ‘things that which all perish as they are used’ to rest on Christ.”

Next Joel tells us that God wants us to get our hopes up. He says that we “should get up in the morning confidently expecting the favor of God”, that we should “start expecting doors of opportunity to open”, and to “expect to excel in your career. Expect to rise above life’s challenges.” According to Strong’s Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries, the word for hope being used here is the Greek elpis. This word refers to the confident anticipation of the future. According to Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, elpis means “a favorable and confident expectation”, having to do with the unseen future. While there may appear to be no discrepancy here, the key difference is here: a confident anticipation towards the unseen future vs. a naïve expectation that things will go our way.

Joel uses the converse of this proposition as an example, quoting Matthew 9:29 in the Amplified Translation of the Bible, “According to your faith…be it done to you”. In other words, he says, “have what your faith expects”. This is one of the worst interpretations of any verse I have ever seen. If we look at the entire verse in context, we can see that Jesus is saying something completely different and less nonsensical. Let’s start at Matthew 9, verse 28: “When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him and he asked them, ‘Do you believe that I am able to do this?’ ‘Yes, Lord,’ they replied. Then he touched their eyes and said, ‘According to your faith, it will be done to you’; and their sight was restored.” As you can see, Joel has taken this verse and shown blatant disregard towards its context and what it meant to the original audience. Instead of coming to unavoidable realization that Jesus is speaking to the two blind men that he recently healed and telling them that because they have faith that they are healed, Joel somehow comes to the conclusion that Jesus is telling them to have faith so they can increase their net worth. That strikes me as a bit of a non sequiter, and not what those two men would have on their minds at that particular point in time.

It strikes me now, why didn’t Jesus put into practice what he was teaching? Why didn’t he “conceive it on the inside so he could receive it on the outside?” Why didn’t he “enlarge his vision” so he didn’t end up spending his 33 years on this earth a working class non-citizen who died by one of the most excruciatingly painful execution methods ever devised by the human psyche?

Joel’s message is captured perfectly in the following paragraph, and I quote, “You can break out of that prison! The door is unlocked. All you have to do is start expecting good things in your life and start believing God for a great future. You do have good things coming!” How ridiculous is this? As I have said before and probably will again, just because I stand in front of the mirror and say to myself, “you’re growing more happy and relaxed all the time,” doesn’t mean I will. Joel also says that “God usually meets us at our level of expectancy”. He writes that if we don’t develop a habit of expecting good things to come our way, then we’re not likely to receive anything good. Obviously he hasn’t read Ephesians 3:20- “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.” Just as he did in the first chapter of this book, Joel is restricting God to a being who just hands out stuff, and is now further limiting him by the comparatively infinitesimal capacity of the human brain.

In order to live one’s best life now, one must open his “eyes of faith” and start “seeing yourself as happy healthy, and whole.” Joel suggests, when discouraged, praying the following prayer: “God, I know that you are in control, and even though this looks impossible, I know today could be the day that things turn around.”

I’m sure Paul would agree with that:

Philippians 3:8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ.

Philippians 4:11-13 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.

There’s also the story of Job, who according to Job 1:1 “was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.” In short, he had it made. However, in a few short hours, all ten of his children, all 11,500 of his livestock, and all of his “large number of servants” were gone. In response to this he says, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.” Later, when he is afflicted with sores and sitting in the ashes of his own house, his wife tells him to give up and to “curse God and die”. His response warrants some consideration: “Foolish woman! Should we accept good from the Lord, and not trouble?” A relevant question, I think.

This runs contrary to everything we have read so far in Your Best Life Now. Joel’s premise is that it’s God’s agenda for you to be healthy, have money, and succeed at whatever you do. Christianity is booming in China despite, or maybe because, of heavy resistance and persecution by the government. I can almost guarantee you that Christians in the People’s Republic of China aren’t conceiving and receiving or enlarging their vision, but they are following the teachings of Jesus more accurately than Joel Osteen.

In the next paragraph, Joel asks a perfectly reasonable question, “What if I do all that and it doesn’t work?” Unfortunately, he follows it up with two more rhetorical questions: “What if you do that and it does work? Whom are we kidding here?” Not me, Joel. Not me. Next, he tells the story of Brian. Brian is a once-successful man whose health is deteriorating and in consequence he is a shadow of his former self. Upon the counsel of a friend, Brian writes down ten things each day that he is thankful for, and after a while things turn around. This story stinks of post hoc, ergo propter hoc. Just because B comes after A does not mean A caused B. Also, I can tell you with certainty that you do not need to be in perfect health in order to lead a fulfilling life. For example,

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest in me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weakness, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Joel uses another story, the story of Elijah’s ascent into heaven, 2 Kings 2:9-12. Elisha asks as a parting gift a “double portion” of Elijah’s spirit. Elijah says to his protégé that if he sees him being taken up that it will be so, otherwise not. Joel suggests we infer a deeper meaning from this passage, that Elijah, in setting the conditions for the receipt of a double portion of his spirit, was in addition telling Elisha, “If you can see it, then you can be it. If you can visualize it in your heart and mind, seeing it through the screen of God’s Word with your ‘spiritual eyes’, it can become a reality in your life.” Joel says that God is very interested in what we see through our “spiritual eyes”, basing that claim on the correct assertion that God asks seven times in the Bible, “What do you see?” However, and there is always a however, in all seven of those instances God is speaking with an Old Testament prophet, Isaiah, Amos, or Zechariah. To be technical, the two instances involving Zechariah concern the former and an angel speaking, so Joel’s off by two. The reason he appears to be asking the question is not because he doesn’t know, but because he wants to be told so he can explain it, like what inedible figs or giant flying scrolls symbolize. In all of the instances where God asks, “What do you see”, he is speaking to someone who is having a prophetic vision and is explaining to them what it means. Example:

Jeremiah 1:11-13 The word of the Lord came to me: "What do you see, Jeremiah?" "I see the branch of an almond tree," I replied. The Lord said to me, "You have seen correctly, for I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled." The word of the Lord came to me again: "What do you see?" "I see a boiling pot, tilting away from the north," I answered.

Yep, this has “spiritual eyes” written all over it. God’s just dying to know what Jeremiah is seeing through his spiritual eyes.

Next up, Joel tells us how we have to change our environment if we want to change our thinking. According to him, we must surround ourselves with an atmosphere of success, to find a place where we can dream big. According to Joel, we “have to envision good things happening” to us, or they never will. He finishes the chapter by saying that if we do our part “continually contemplating the goodness of God, living with faith and expectancy, God will take you to places you’ve never even dreamed of, and you’ll live at a level you have never before dared to imagine.” I think 1 Corinthians 4:9-13 makes an effective counterpoint:

For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like men condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to men. 10We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world.

I thank you if you have made it this far, and as usual I appreciate all questions, comments, and criticism.

A rebuttal of Ch.1 of Your Best Life Now

All scripture quoted in NIV unless indicated otherwise.


To preface this composition, let me say that in interpreting scripture the three most important things to keep in mind are context, what the message meant to its original recipients, and the genre of the document. Joel Osteen, author of Your Best Life Now and other books, blatantly disregards all three. Consequentially, I am going to do it for him. Below is a synopsis of the first chapter of Your Best Life Now with my own exegetical findings inserted. It’s a bit wordy, but I would appreciate it greatly if you read as much of it as your attention spans permit as well as any and all feedback. Enjoy.

The fallacy here is that we are being told if we want something to be true, it will, and vice versa. He uses an example of a man who looks at a beautiful house and says to himself, “’I can’t even imagine living in a place like that’.” He then hears another voice in his head assuring him that as long as he could not imagine himself living in such an abode, it would never happen. While the idea that if one thinks something is impossible and doesn't bother to find out otherwise, that something becomes a sort of impossible is true to some extent, Joel takes this psychological condition one step further and states that our mere thoughts and attitudes directly affect reality. What’s really atrocious here is that Joel tells us to believe better of ourselves and to believe “better of God”. This assertion is absurd beyond belief, see Deuteronomy 8:18 “ But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today.”

The second assertion that Joel makes, that we “must conceive it on the inside before we receive it on the outside”, is equally absurd. First off, where else would something be conceived but on the inside? Secondly, Joel is saying that if we think we can have something, it will appear on our doorstep the next morning. According to Joel, “[y]our own wrong thinking can keep you from God’s best.” Let us again turn to scripture for the correct point of view: Ecclesiastes 5:19-20 “ Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work—this is a gift of God. He seldom reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart.” God, being all-powerful, doesn’t need us to think he can provide for us in order for him to provide for us.

Joel goes on to tell the story of a young woman who, after a series of failures, changed her attitude and won the Miss Kansas and Miss America pageants. The book attributes this success to a change in attitude; said young woman continually envisioned herself winning the pageant and made it so. There is nothing false with this line of reasoning per se, as long as it is paired with hard work and practice working towards one’s goal. However, the idea that “if you develop an image of victory, success, health, abundance, joy, peace, and happiness, nothing on earth will be able to hold those things from you”. If it were that easy, do you really think someone would have to write a book about it? Don’t you think people would have mastered it by now, if all it took was thinking about it? According to Joel, “God wants to increase you financially, by giving you promotions, fresh ideas, and creativity”. This is one of the craziest things I have ever heard! Obviously Joel doesn’t care about silly things like using scripture in context or taking into consideration what it meant to its original audience. No, let’s just throw all that out the window and use Scripture to support whatever claims we want to make.

Joel’s school of thought that God wants to “increase you financially” relegates God from creator and master of the universe to a mere Santa Claus figure. What’s more, what do you think is more important in the eyes of an eternal being, the ability to understand the world around us or shiny metal round objects? Let’s find out.

Proverbs 8:10-11 “ Choose my instruction instead of silver, knowledge rather than choice gold, for wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her.”

Proverbs 16:16 “ How much better to get wisdom than gold, to choose understanding rather than silver!”

Proverbs 23:4-5 “ Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint. Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.”

Proverbs 30:8, 9 “ Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the LORD?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.”

Luke 6:23-25 “‘Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets. But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.’”

Luke 18:22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

Revelation 18:16-17 “and cry out: 'Woe! Woe, O great city, dressed in fine linen, purple and scarlet, and glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls! In one hour such great wealth has been brought to ruin!'”

In the interest of brevity, I included less than half of the verses on the subject that I found, but you get the point.

As support for his claim that God wants “this to be the best time in your life”, (why? Why does God want this time, the time that you are reading Joel’s book, to be the best time in all your 87 years, provided you reach the average American life expectancy?) Joel cites Ephesians 2:7, which, in the NIV, reads, “in order that in the coming ages he might show you the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” Joel does not quote the entire verse, only a section of it, which reads “His far and beyond favor”, as in “God wants to share with us ‘his far and beyond favor.’” In the Appendix of Your Best Live Now is an index of the scripture Joel uses in each chapter. Some have a translation listed next to them, and some do not. This one does not. I searched no fewer than twenty different versions of the bible reading that verse and none of them matched Joel’s translation. Furthermore, I have yet to receive a response to a letter I sent asking him which translation he used.

Anyway, Joel continues:

In other words, you must make room for increase in your own thinking, then God will bring those things to pass. Until you learn how to enlarge your vision, seeing the future through your eyes of faith, your own wrong thinking will prevent good things from happening in your life. God will not pour fresh, creative and blessings into old attitudes.

This idea is asinine, that we can control God through our thoughts and feelings. Let us again turn to scripture.

John 14:13-14 “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”

John 15:7 “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.”

Ephesians 3:20 “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,”

1 John 5:14-15 “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.”

As you can see, we don’t need to think happy thoughts, cross our fingers, or use pixie dust; all that we need do is ask. Make sure you’re sitting down for the next one; it’s what we in the business call a big fat lie.

Joel refers to Jesus’s conversation with his apostles about putting new wine into old wineskins in Matthew 9:17, a fairly well-known passage. The historical context, as he points out, is that as you put wine into a wineskin the wine would ferment and expand. New, supple animal skins used for wineskins could tolerate the expansive force of fermentation, but only to a certain extent. Once a skin was stretched to its limit, putting new wine in it, wine that had yet to ferment and expand, would farther stretch and rupture the old wineskin. With this in mind, what Jesus is saying seems elementary. But as usual, Jesus is speaking metaphorically. According to Joel, he’s trying to convey to the disciples that “you cannot have a larger life with restricted attitudes.” In other words, “you need to open your minds, so you can have more stuff”. Not only does Joel not care about the context of the scripture that he uses, but also not about the extrabiblical historical context, what actually happened to those disciples. Each and every disciple died penniless and was tortured to death by the Roman government with the exception of John, who was exiled to Patmos and wrote Revelation there. If you take the passage in its historical and cultural context, you can tell by the surrounding verses that Jesus is answering a question about fasting and, according to IVP NT Commentaries, that “[t]raditional rituals must never become a straitjacket that hinder us from celebrating sinners' embrace of the good news of God's kingdom.” The Concordia Self-Study Commentary points out the fact that “He is not a patch that can be sewn on the old garments of Judaic piety; he is the new wine that will break the old wineskins, the old forms that cannot contain Him”. The fact that Joel would stretch the meaning of this passage to one no one not looking to make a quick buck would ever have imagined it having would be laughable if it were not for the fact that people actually believe it. It is so absolutely absurd and totally contrary to the rest of Jesus’s teachings that no one in their right mind could possibly come to that conclusion with the interest of correctly interpreting scripture at heart. Let’s take a look at what the Bible really says on that matter.

Proverbs 11:28 “Whoever trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf.”

Mark 10:25 “’It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.’"

Conversely, the Bible tells us numerous times we are to suffer on behalf of our beliefs.

Philippians 1:29 “For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him”.

1 Thessalonians 2:2 We had previously suffered and been insulted in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in spite of strong opposition.”

1 Thessalonians 3:4 “In fact, when we were with you, we kept telling you that we would be persecuted. And it turned out that way, as you well know.”

Next, Joel goes on to give personal examples of how he or others thought they could never achieve something, but later “conceived it on the inside” and viola! To support this, Joel cites Isaiah 43:19, “Behold, I am doing a new thing. Do you not perceive it?” Joel takes this to be God “trying to promote us, to increase us, to give us more. Yet it’s interesting God asks the question, ‘do you perceive it?’ In other words, are you making room for it in your own thinking?” If we look at the passage properly, we can see that Isaiah is prophesying to a nation in captivity in Babylon that God had a future in store for them; that they “did not only have a past… it had still a more glorious future. It could expect ‘a new thing’, a miracle so marvelous as to eclipse the things of old (The Concordia Self-Study Commentary). Joel subsequently likens his philosophy to the virgin birth: it’s not something that will come about through the will or power of a human, it will be by the Holy Spirit, a statement which is not untrue. However, every lie is based on a grain of truth. Using the well known verse Mark 9:23 “Everything is possible for him who believes”, Joel asserts that if we believe, if we “get rid of those old wineskins. Get rid of that small minded thinking and think as God thinks (how does he know how God thinks?). Think big. Think increase. Think abundance. Think more than enough.” If we follow the preceding, according to Joel we will get all our heart desires because “everything is possible for him who believes.” I hate to break it to you, Joel, but all-powerful does not mean all-giving. Jesus uses the Greek word dunatos here, which is translated as "possible." In the Greek, dunatos means, according to Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, strong, mighty, able (to do), and in its neuter form it signifies “possible”. Joel is stretching the meaning of the word at best.

In the final paragraphs of the chapter, Joel tells the story of a professional golfer who is invited to play in a tournament by and with the king of Saudi Arabia. As said golfer is leaving for home, he is offered a gift by aforementioned king, whatever he wants. The golfer asks for a golf club and, weeks later, receives a deed to a five hundred acre golf course. The moral of the story is, “[s]ometimes kings think differently than you and I think. And friend, we serve the King of kings. We serve the Most High God, and His dream for your life is so much bigger and better than you can even imagine. It’s time to enlarge your vision!” He was doing fine until about halfway through. While it is true, according to Ephesians 3:20, that God is able to provide us with as much or more than we can ask or imagine, that by no means signifies that what is provided will be of a material nature.

The problem with Joel’s philosophy in this chapter is that he is relegating God’s blessings to strictly material and financial gain, claiming to intimately know the thoughts and mind of God, and using an absolute if/then formula. Joel Osteen would do well to take the following maxim to heart: a text without a context is a pretext for a proof text.

Part two coming soon.