Joel Osteen's Half-Truth Preaching Made Me Stop Listening to Him

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I can't deny that I used to listen to Joel Osteen when I was newly saved. I thought he was a man of God but just listening to all his "Your Best Life Now" and comparing it to the Scripture made me drop him like a hot potato. I thought he was on the right because he had a huge number of followers but the Bible says:
Matthew 7:13-14 
Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

Just because a pastor has a lot of followers doesn't make him a man of God. Many get deceived and only few ever discern the truth. After watching a few episodes of his program on Trinity Broadcasting Network I knew something was wrong. Not only were priests and nuns of the Roman Catholic system getting more and more welcome (and I had a constant struggle on what I thought about Roman Catholicism after I got saved) into that channel was a red flag. Osteen's preaching was no different with how he just kept preaching worldly prosperity.

Don't get me wrong. I could agree with some things Osteen himself said like one should go for God's perfect timing and that it wouldn't always be easy. I could still agree with these quotes he made from his book "Your Best Life Now":
God knows your value; He sees your potential. You may not understand everything you are going through right now. But hold your head up high, knowing that God is in control and he has a great plan and purpose for your life. Your dreams may not have turned out exactly as you’d hoped, but the bible says that God’s ways are better and higher than our ways, even when everybody else rejects you, remember, God stands before you with His arms open wide. He always accepts you. He always confirms your value. God sees your two good moves! You are His prized possession. No matter what you go through in life, no matter how many disappointments you suffer, your value in God’s eyes always remains the same. You will always be the apple of His eye. He will never give up on you, so don’t give up on yourself.
Keep doing the right. God is building character in you, and you are passing that test. Remember, the greater the struggle, the greater the reward.
When you go through difficult times, make sure you pass the test. Don’t be stubborn and hardheaded. Recognize that God is refining you, knocking off some of your rough edges. Stand strong and fight the good fight of faith. God has called each of us to be champions; you are destined to win. If you will work with God and keep a good attitude, then no matter what comes against you, the bible says that all things – not just the good things in life, but all things – work together for your good.

The deception was very subtle that I didn't immediately drop his teaching. I could agree with the fact that difficult times means God is refining the Christian. I agree with him that you don't always get what you want because God knows better or that greater struggles bring greater reward. It does sound Christian but there's one problem with his theology - it's prosperity oriented rather than God-oriented. What's so subtle or not is that he inserts the dangerous doctrine called the prosperity gospel. In short it can say, "Why wait for Heaven to have your mansion now when you can have it on Earth!" I'd like to ask where in the Scriptures did he even get that very unsound teaching?
2 Timothy 4:3-4 
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

What's more dangerous than blatant lies are half-truths. Successful cults know that in order to succeed you need to confuse people. What better way to confuse people than through half-truths where it's hard to tell lies from truths? That's what Osteen is doing in what he does. He sounds Christian (at first) but he ends up inserting his garbage. The deception was so subtle that I was misled into thinking he was a man of God when he isn't. I couldn't imagine how much garbage I may have eaten thanks to this false preacher. I can't imagine how much garbage did I get thinking about the subtle poisonous promises he makes in his half-truth preaching.

In truth, nobody should even talk about their financial prosperity in preaching the Gospel. Nobody should talk about how getting saved supposedly gave them a new Mercedes Benz or a mansion. Some people get saved and don't live lavish lives. Many who aren't saved don't live lavish lives or may have been disowned by their families when worse comes to worst. The Gospel has never been, "Come and I will fix your finances." Rather, it's all about you're a sinner and you must receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. It's not a promise to fix one's life in the worldly way but to fix one's eternal relationship with God and to fix one's life by giving one a new life different from the old one. 

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