Comments on: Outing Joel Osteen http://www.byron-harvey.com/2005/02/outing-joel-osteen/ refusing to drink the kool-aid for anyone Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:59:02 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Byron http://www.byron-harvey.com/2005/02/outing-joel-osteen/comment-page-1/#comment-625 Byron Wed, 02 Feb 2005 15:17:41 +0000 http://www.byron-harvey.com/index.php/archives/2005/02/01/outing-joel-osteen/#comment-625 I refuse to argue with you, Jonathan, but I <strong>have</strong> studied what he has written; no phone call is necessary, for what he has written is plain to read and understand, and I will stand by everything that I have said. As I make plain in each of my posts, I do not judge his <strong>heart</strong>. That is not my place. But I can and must, to be faithful to Jesus, judge his teachings. If reading what the man says, and judging it in light of what Jesus says, amounts to "hatred and falsehoods", then so be it; at the same time, those who read this blog can judge whether my words about Mr. Osteen are more "hateful", or whether your response to my words is. It is never a popular thing to exercise discernment; it will draw condemnation such as yours. I accept that. It is also difficult in light of the fact that all of us, myself first of all, have feet of clay, and none of us are perfect. The alternative, though, is to sit idly by and allow a false teacher to be accepted as one who is "one of us", when his teachings are anything but "the faith once delivered to the saints". If evangelicals in the blogosphere can prevent this happening, then a great service is being done. I refuse to argue with you, Jonathan, but I have studied what he has written; no phone call is necessary, for what he has written is plain to read and understand, and I will stand by everything that I have said. As I make plain in each of my posts, I do not judge his heart. That is not my place. But I can and must, to be faithful to Jesus, judge his teachings. If reading what the man says, and judging it in light of what Jesus says, amounts to “hatred and falsehoods”, then so be it; at the same time, those who read this blog can judge whether my words about Mr. Osteen are more “hateful”, or whether your response to my words is.

It is never a popular thing to exercise discernment; it will draw condemnation such as yours. I accept that. It is also difficult in light of the fact that all of us, myself first of all, have feet of clay, and none of us are perfect. The alternative, though, is to sit idly by and allow a false teacher to be accepted as one who is “one of us”, when his teachings are anything but “the faith once delivered to the saints”. If evangelicals in the blogosphere can prevent this happening, then a great service is being done.

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