a book review by Scott Hill
Form Better Habits
Today is the day. Become a Better You is now on bookstore shelves and websites across the world. I am sure most of our Fide-O readers are extremely excited to rush out and purchase their copies. The publishers expects as much considering the 13 million dollar advance paid to Mr. Osteen for the print version of his sermons. I am sure Become a Better You will sell millions of copies. Proving two things in my opinion. The poor state of American Christianity and the poor state of the public school system. I have never claimed to be of above average intelligence, but I find my 2 year old daughters puzzle books more stimulating than the newest wisdom from Mr. Osteen.
Step 4, Form Better Habits, begins with one of many strange little anecdotes that consist throughout the pages of this book. In Chapter 16 “Feed Your Good Habits” Joel relays an “old Cherokee tale” of a grandfather shares the concept of two wolves inside every person. On wolf is evil, angry, jealous, unforgiving, proud and lazy. The other wolf is good, filled with love, kindness, humility, and self- control. These two wolfs are constantly fighting, and the one who wins is the one you feed.
This is told with the intent of explaining how we feed our bad habits of impatience, low self esteem etc. The problem of a old Cherokee thinking a wolf had any nature other than a desire to kill and eat aside, this little story is very telling of Mr. Osteen’s theology. I said in my first post that I was assuming the audience to be believers. I know longer hold to that positions. The more I read the more I discern that Mr. Osteen would place the Gospel secondary or worse to the concepts in this book. To even use such an illustration points to the heart of beliefs on depravity, the role of the Holy Spirit in salvation and sanctification, and the nature of justification.
In Develop a Habit of Happiness he really reveals just how ingrained he is with this idea of positivity. I will let one paragraph from page 215 explain what I mean.
The bible says, “Rejoice in the Lord always.” One translations simply says, “Be happy all the time.” That means no matter what comes our way, we can have smiles on our faces. We should get up each morning excited about the day. Even if we are facing difficult or negative circumstances, we need to learn to keep a positive outlook. Many people are waiting for their circumstances to be worked our before they decide to be happy. “Joel, as soon as I get a better job; as soon as my child straightens up; as soon as my health improves. ” No, the bottom line is if you’re going to be happy, you need a decision to be happy right now.
Maybe I missed it, but up to this point in the book I haven’t even read a passing reference to the source of true happiness being found in Jesus Christ. In fact there is a half hearted attempt at a gospel presentation in the back of the book. It’s 1/2 of a page. I believe this book proves Joel Osteen only gives general lip service to the Gospel. I am not exaggerating the fact that the Gospel is nowhere in this book. What kind of “evangelical pastor” writes a book about becoming a better you and doesn’t focus on the Gospel. The kind who believes we are all born basically good, and we learn to develop habits that makes us even better people. I think Pelagius and Joel Osteen have a lot in common.
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36 year old husband, father, pastor, singer, musician, reader, eater, rider, watcher,
Is Osteen the new Finney?
Is he like Finney preaching a false gospel packaged as a personal revival? Finney denied substitutionary atonement, right? And the deity of Christ, right? Joel denies knowing anything about any of it. Which is better? Which is worse? Does it matter?
Is his theology of “good wolf” and “bad wolf” all that different from what many preach and teach concerning the “old sin nature” and the “new nature?” They are always battling and the one you “feed” is the one that will “win.” It is up to you.
Unfortunately many evangelicals and fundamentalists would agree with what he was teaching. They would just use a different illustration and have you turn to Romans 7.
Become a Better You
A Review by Richard Young
Has Anyone Read This Book?
Reading Joel Osteen’s new book, Become A Better You, one major question comes to mind, and it has nothing to do with Joel Osteen, have any of the critics actually read this book? I found the book to be of the best motivational Christian books I have ever read. To some this would be damning with faint praise, but what do preachers do every weekend but try to motivate people to do what they should do? When some “religious people” get on their “high horse” they want to claim special spiritual abilities in leading people to a closer walk with the Lord. Again the question begs to be asked, what is leading but motivating people to do what you want them to do? Joel Osteen’s latest book released today is an excellent example of a pastor motivating people to do whatever necessary to change their lives. The steps to the journey he describes is to follow the example established by Jesus Christ as well as many Godly people as described in the Scriptures.
One of the things mentioned by interviewers in the last day or so is the lack of Christian references in his writings. This is what begs the question, have they read the book? I found nearly a hundred and thirty scriptural references in the book. Joel himself only list sixty-six scriptural references in the book. But in reading the book he did not include many references to passages found all over the Bible. He uses the Scriptures like pastors have for centuries, as examples of a path to Godly living followed by people through all of time. Joel is encouraging people to follow seven steps that will help them live better lives through faith in God and following Biblical principles. These principles are not enunciated in the same way people have pronounced them in the past, but they are principles much like the ones used for two thousand years.
The rub between Joel Osteen and evangelicals is elaborated in the pages of the book. But Joel understands human attitudes in the twenty-first century. In times passed people were told they should draw closer to God because to fail to do so would bring them eternal damnation. This argument, however accurate, does not hold water in today’s American culture. Telling people they are going to hell will create a response of, “I’m already there, I don’t believe in Hell or Hell is whatever we make it to be.” So Joel creates a different motivation to draw closer to God. If we draw closer to God, our lives will be better in every way. He uses the seven steps of the book to elaborate on how God wants to help us have an abundant life on earth.
Joel’s new book demonstrates his maturing as a Christian leader and writer. This book is much deeper than his first one, taking the reader much deeper than previous writings. His first book seemed to be sermons with a little editing and elaboration. He could have taken any series of sermons and turned them into a book and the result would have sold hundreds of thousands of books. But he has held himself to a high standard than that. This book seems to be a writing project from the beginning. I don’t doubt there will be a series of sermons which are used to supplement and add to the book. But this time the sermons will enhance the book rather than the other way around. I look forward to future efforts by him in the future.
Richard Young
Author – The Rise of Lakewood Church and Joel Osteen
Yes Richard, I have read the book. I am assuming you must have missed the other posts I wrote. I could see how that could happen easily considering the nature of blogs, and how you must have found this one post.
This book review has been broken into several sections by the seven steps that are taught in Become A Better You, so you are actually in the middle of the review. If you look at the categories in the sidebar and go to “books” you should find the rest of the reviews. I am not finished yet, but should be by the end of the week. Then you can read my final post which will be an overall critique of this book. If you still want to discuss it after that I would find that very fortunate.
Mr. Young has posted (pasted?) the same comment on Tim Challies’s blog. From what I recall, it’s word for word. And I don’t remember that he stuck around to discuss the matter.