discernment – Protestia

Discernment Minister Mike Winger has been embroiled in a bit of controversy over the last few days, scrapping with Bible Thumping Wingnut and Doctrinal Watchdog about several theological points.

What we find distressing, and we take exception with, is that Winger doesn’t seem to have the discernment and theological fortitude to identify an arch-heretic as a false teacher who is definitely not saved. Far from it. Instead, he argues that Osteen “seems to proclaim the true gospel of Christ” and insists that he be shown where Osteen teaches a non-biblical gospel.

Primarily the biggest thing (my critics) say about me that’s true, it’s not a lie, is that I really do think that a lot of Christians are real Christians even though they have major issues in their lives. Whether it’s some doctrinal things that are wrong, or whether it’s even some practical like living their life, and there’s issues.

And maybe I’m less confident that they’re Christian because of the things I see, but I’m not going to call them ‘false brethren’ because of it. I’ve done this with several people who are even prominent teachers like Joel Osteen who I, yeah, I’ve got a reason to wonder whether that guy’s really saved or not, but I lean, and I lean hopefully on the side that, you know, he does seem to proclaim the true gospel of Christ. And if you say he doesn’t, show me specifically where he says “how you get saved is xyz” and it’s not the actual biblical gospel.

Like I haven’t seen that, so I can’t say that. And many are so quick to just call others false brethren, fake Christians, because on a secondary issue they differ than us. This is what I’m in trouble for.”

Discernment 101 is that Website Orthodoxy exists, a term we coined meaning someone who has an orthodox statement of faith on their website, but then ignores it entirely in their body of work, sermons, books or teachings. This describes Osteen perfectly. With Winger’s intellectual and spiritual abrogation made manifest, David explains where he goes wrong:

Here are the facts: Joel Osteen does not talk about the Christian Gospel. Joel does not follow in the footsteps of Paul and shares this message:

Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve… 1 Corinthians 15:1-5

Rather, in the gospel of Joel Osteen, the “good news” that he brings is that “God loves you and wants to save you from life of mediocrity and small dreams. Therefore, if you believe in God and be obedient to him, God will give you a plan for your life that includes big dreams, self esteem, favor, health and wealth, influence, a better job, a positive self image and a fulfilled life free of negativity”.

That’s it. That’s what it’s all about. That is the sum of just about every book, every sermon, every media appearance, and every tweet of Joel Osteen, condensed into a few sentences.

That being said, there is something significant to understand about Joel Osteen: He does talk about God. A lot. You cannot accuse the man of not mentioning him because he’s all over that. Yet it’s never really in a personal sense. Joel talks about God, but it’s always in a vague, amorphous sense. There is undoubtedly nothing distinctly Christian or Biblical about it. There’s nothing doctrinal or theological about the way he talks about God. Instead, He is an ethereal, shapeless, formless, customizable, singular being thing that is out there called God that functions like a cosmic vending machine whose sole purpose is seeming to bless you and make your life better. Even when he mentions God, it’s not ABOUT God, but it’s about what God can do for YOU.

And while he talks about God a lot, he NEVER talks about Jesus. We did a survey of his Tweets one year and out of nearly a thousand tweets, he mentioned ‘God’ over 330 times and ‘Jesus’ just three time. GT notes:

More often than not, Osteen sounds like an inspirational life-coach, instead of a herald of the gospel. He often preaches about how people can improve their lives, be prosperous, and experience happiness. Noticeably absent in Osteen’s optimistic message is any mention of sin or repentance. The atonement of Christ provides us with healing and the abundant life, according to Osteen, but apparently receiving forgiveness from a holy God is not necessary.
In numerous interviews and writings, Osteen has failed to proclaim that Jesus is the only way to heaven. He has repeatedly refused to agree with the teachings of the Bible that certain behaviors are sinful. This is not a new convert being interviewed; it’s the leader of a church of tens of thousands. Osteen can’t bring himself to support fundamental doctrines of the faith he claims to preach. His words communicate relativism and demonstrate a profoundly poor understanding of the Bible.
When you don’t talk about sin—and Osteen purposefully does not—you’re not preaching the whole gospel. When you barely, if ever, call sin what it is, you’re not helping anyone, least of all the sinner who is enslaved to sin (John 8:34; 2 Corinthians 4:3). Joel Osteen’s teaching would lead us to believe that we are being saved from unhappiness and failure in life, not from sin and God’s wrath. Osteen does not teach that we need a divine rescue from judgment, but rather simply a self-improvement plan.

Can you trust a discernment minister who can’t identify a wolf like Osteen, the lowest hanging fruit in Christendom, and call him on it? We certainly don’t think so.

For more information about Osteen, click here.

Long-Time Saddleback Church Apologist is Now Gay Apologist

Those who have been doing discernment long term may remember the battles that raged for years between Richard Abanes and Ken Silva of Apprising Ministries, the man many consider to be the godfather of the online discernment ministry.

By way of brief background, for years Ken Silva operated Apprising.org, a theologically sound discernment website where he discussed problematic Christian leaders and trends. One of Silva’s frequently discussed topics was Rick Warren and “The Purpose Driven Life.” This monstrously impactful book had come out a few years earlier and was shaping all the trends in evangelicalism. Silva would catalog the errors and concerns coming out of Saddleback, providing a repository of resources for those who opposed the teaching, and overall helping to shape online discernment ministries.

Silva would collaborate with Chris Rosebrough, who at the time was relatively new to the online discernment ministry and had a blog called “Extreme Theology” before it morphed into Fighting for the Faith and Pirate Christian Radio.

Silva sadly passed away in September of 2014.

On the other side was Richard Abanes. Abanes was a long-time Saddleback Church member, former Church staffer, and author. Describing himself as a 5-point Calvinist and apologist, he used to work for the Christian Research Institute, which was run by Walter Martin and Hank Hanegraaff. Prolific in writing for papers and magazines about the intersection of Christianity and pop culture, Abanes also wrote books against Mormonism, cults, world religions, Harry Potter, and video games.

He also wasn’t a very good discerner, despite the pedigree. He was content to defend the rapscallions of the emergent church movement, such as Rob Bell, Doug Paggit, Tony Jones, and Brian McLaren, complaining that they weren’t that bad as Silva made them out to be, and that he was being mean overly critical when he took shots at them. But more than that, he would rabidly and vociferously defend his pastor from critiques wherever he found them.

He even went so far as to write a book titled Rick Warren And The Purpose That Drives Him: An Insider Looks At The Phenomenal Bestseller. Tim Challies did an interview with him here back in 2005, where they discussed his passion and propensity to defend the purpose-driven pastor.

Consequently, Abanes would trade blows with Silva over this for years, particularly between 2007 and 2009, when things were about as contentious as they come and the battle raged the hottest. At the time Abanes threatened to sue Silva for slander and libel, all the while complaining that online discernment ministries were made up of malcontents who were acting unchristlike. In fact, he showed open contempt for them. (Some things never change.)

It was during this time when Abanes got wound up about an article Silva famously wrote back in 2005 an article titled “A PASTOR’S ASSESSMENT OF RICHARD ABANES.” Abanes believed it to be slanderous and somehow contacted Silva’s Internet Service Provider and asked them to take the page down. When Silva refused the request of his provider, IPower took down his entire website, forcing him to rebuild under a different ISP.

This was a major deal at the time, and might be likened nowadays to getting an army of people to flag every social post as inappropriate, resulting in their antagonist being kicked off the platform. [Editor’s note: Gee, that’s never happened, has it? Oh, wait a minute…]

In short, it was chaotic and messy and Abanes was about as rabid a foil as they come.

But then Richard Abanes pretty much disappeared.

In late 2009 he stopped getting into skirmishes about Warren and Saddleback. He left comboxes alone. Whereas before he wrote some 20 books in 15 years, he stopped writing and hasn’t published anything since. He went back to playwriting some and acting some, but overall has been a ghost, completely removed from this world entirely, with one of the last posts on his now-defunct blog being about how the tv show “Real Housewives of Orange County was “worldly.”

But now he has reemerged, at least a little. Someone recently found his YouTube Channel, which has only 6 subscribers and under 500 total videos. They are mostly of him performing or featuring the plays he’s written, with two in particular standing out.

One is 2016 Broadways Sings for Pride. The event is designed to celebrate the LGBTQ “community” and raise money to meet their needs. The brief snippet shows his coming out in defense of people living in that lifestyle and approving the message.

The second is a play he wrote, produced and directed called 5 Women, which, according to Abanes, was written to:

Enlighten audiences to the struggles women face every day in our society: mother-daughter relationships, sisterhood, sexual harassment/assault, unrealistic media images of beauty, and eating disorders. Also presented throughout ‘Five Women’ is the timely subject of LGBTQ relationships, which is something that must still be positively covered in the arts to further educate the public and dispel harmful myths/stereotypes about persons in the LGBTQ community.

His Facebook page likewise features support for LGBTQ rights, to the point that he even featured a pride flag on his wedding registry and writes that it would be “great” if the cartoon characters Ernie and Bert were gay.

Still claiming to be a Christian, his rabid praising of the Democrats, rants against Trump and the Republicans, support for Black Lives Matter, and his abandonment of God’s word show that he’s devolved into a progressive, liberal “Christian” who still hates discernment ministries and the truth of the scriptures.

#FarewellRichardAbanes.