The Christian News Network reported that well known preacher Joel Osteen attended Mass at the Vatican prior to meeting with the Roman Catholic Pope Francis. Here is the article in it’s entirety:
ROME – Megachurch speaker and author Joel Osteen was among a group of political and religious leaders who met with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Thursday.
According to reports, Osteen was part of a delegation organized by the International Foundation in an effort to encourage interfaith relations and ecumenicism. Utah Senator Mike Lee (R), a Mormon, Gayle Beebe, the president of the interdenominational Westmont College in California, and Pastor Tim Timmons, founder of South Coast Community Church also in California, were among those who who greeted the pope, along with Osteen.
“I just felt very honored and very humbled,” Osteen told local television station Click 2 Houston. “It was amazing. And even to go back into that part of the Vatican—there’s so much history there, the place that they took us through. You feel that deep respect and reverence for God.”
The Lakewood leader also met with other Vatican staff during his visit, including Cardinal Pietro Paroli, Secretary of State for the Vatican, and had dinner with an unspecified staff member.
Osteen attended mass in St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday prior to the meeting in the midst of a crowd of 100,000 people. . . .
Osteen told reporters that he believed the pope’s message and focus is one of unity. “Afterward, [the pope] spent an hour and a half going through the crowd with the Popemobile, greeting people,” he recalled to the Houston Chronicle. “It was very heartwarming to see him caring for people.”“I love the fact that’s he’s made the Church more inclusive,” he said. “Not trying to make it smaller, but to try to make it larger—to take everybody in. So, that just resonates with me.”
But others have expressed sadness about Osteen’s recent meeting at the Vatican, stating that ecumenicism is far from biblical.
“Joel Osteen has joined the rank of all other popular ministries in bowing his knee to the anti-Christ system, and those that blindly follow his leadership will be the first ones in line with their hand out to be marked by the beast,” Pastor Mark Herridge Sr. of Pentecostal Lighthouse Church in Livingston, Texas toldChristian News Network.
“Any Protestant ministry that links up with the pope and Catholicism is betraying the sacrifice of millions of faithful Christians that have died at the hands of this brutal, dictatorial and oppressive religion that has never represented the Church of the Living God as outlined in New Testament teaching,” he said.
Amy Spreeman of Stand Up for the Truth said that it is important that Christians take note of these developments.
“You might be saying to your evangelical self, ‘Who cares what Joel Osteen does, or what the pope does, or what a Mormon senator does? These things surely don’t apply to my faith, do they?’” she wrote. “[P]erhaps it’s time to stop focusing on those audacious dreams and life tips and start paying attention to your Bible and to those pesky news headlines that threaten to wake us from our slumber. ”
[Joel Osteen Meets with Pope Francis at Vatican: ‘He’s Made the Church More Inclusive’ by Heather Clark, Christian News Network]
Many people have written about Joel Osteen in the past concerning his compromising teachings. Pastor Osteen did an interview with Larry King back in 2005. Here is what Joel Osteen said to Larry King on a couple of different subjects:
On Being A Believer, and What To Preach
KING: Is — have you always believed?
OSTEEN: I have always believed. I grew up, you know, my parents were a good Christian people. They showed us love in the home. My parents were the same in the pulpit as they were at home. I think that’s where a lot of preachers’ kids get off base sometimes. Because they don’t see the same things at both places. But I’ve always believed. I saw it through my parents. And I just grew up believing.
KING: But you’re not fire and brimstone, right? You’re not pound the decks and hell and damnation?
OSTEEN: No. That’s not me. It’s never been me. I’ve always been an encourager at heart. And when I took over from my father he came from the Southern Baptist background and back 40, 50 years ago there was a lot more of that. But, you know, I just — I don’t believe in that. I don’t believe — maybe it was for a time. But I don’t have it in my heart to condemn people. I’m there to encourage them. I see myself more as a coach, as a motivator to help them experience the life God has for us.
KING: But don’t you think if people don’t believe as you believe, they’re somehow condemned?
OSTEEN: You know, I think that happens in our society. But I try not to do that. I tell people all the time, preached a couple Sundays about it. I’m for everybody. You may not agree with me, but to me it’s not my job to try to straighten everybody out. The Gospel called the good news. My message is a message of hope, that’s God’s for you. You can live a good life no matter what’s happened to you. And so I don’t know. I know there is condemnation but I don’t feel that’s my place.[CNN Larry King Interview With Joel Osteen Aired June 20, 2005]
If it is NOT the preachers place to tell people that they are already condemned without Jesus Christ, then whose job is it? Jesus Christ told his listeners that they were condemned without him, and anyone who names the name of Jesus Christ has the responsibility to warn their “loved ones” and others that they are lost and condemned without Jesus Christ. Here is the scriptural evidence for that:
He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (John 3:18)
The Jewish apostle John preached along the same lines, as any faithful follower of Jesus Christ should and he wrote this:
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. (John 3:36)
John loved the people enough to tell them that the wrath of God was upon them IF they have NEVER believed in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. To hold back those vital truths from the people is NOT love at all. Many people have no idea that they are abiding under the wrath of God, and they are sitting in churches by the millions. Jesus Christ saw the importance of warning people about their lost condition, that he preached along those same lines after he was killed on the cross, and rose again from the dead.
And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. (Mark 16:15-16)
Who was more loving and merciful then Jesus Christ, the creator of all things? Did Jesus hold back the vital warnings from the people when he preached. Did Jesus say that he just likes to encourage people? No, a million times no, and he told his followers to Go ye into all the world and preach those things.
On What Happens To The Unbelievers
KING: What if you’re Jewish or Muslim, you don’t accept Christ at all?
OSTEEN: You know, I’m very careful about saying who would and wouldn’t go to heaven. I don’t know …
KING: If you believe you have to believe in Christ? They’re wrong, aren’t they?
OSTEEN: Well, I don’t know if I believe they’re wrong. I believe here’s what the Bible teaches and from the Christian faith this is what I believe. But I just think that only God with judge a person’s heart. I spent a lot of time in India with my father. I don’t know all about their religion. But I know they love God. And I don’t know. I’ve seen their sincerity. So I don’t know. I know for me, and what the Bible teaches, I want to have a relationship with Jesus.[CNN Larry King Interview With Joel Osteen Aired June 20, 2005]
Once again we have an answer from Joel Osteen that is not clear at all. The Muslims do not even believe that God has a Son, so we know that they are not right with God without Jesus Christ. The Muslims would be condemned according to the scriptures. The Hindu people have a million or more “gods” so they obviously do not believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to Heaven. They too would be condemned according to the scriptures. Jesus Christ made it clear that a person must believe in him in order to enter Heaven:
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6)
The Jewish apostle Peter told his own Jewish people first of all that they crucified Jesus Christ, and then he told them that Jesus Christ was the ONLY way of salvation. Peter did not tell his fellow Jews that he just wanted to encourage them. No, Peter LOVED them enough to tell them that they were lost and hell-bound without a true faith in Jesus Christ. The true Christian is supposed to preach the true Gospel without holding back the vital truths which often OFFEND them. A sugar-coated, feel-good gospel is not going to save anybody.
Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:10-12)
Joel Osteen is just one of many today who have entered into the very heart of apostasy, and he is one of millions who have bent their knee to the Romish Pope who claims to be the Vicar of Christ on earth. There are probably thousands of “churches” and “ministries” which could be called POPISH MINISTRIES because they have already turned aside, and bent their knee toward the Roman Catholic church and the Pope who leads them. The great falling away is certainly happening before our very eyes, but there are very few Christians that are shouting out the warning to those who are being DECEIVED.
