One thing is clear from Joel Osteen's [full] interview: He revealed more about what he doesn't know than about what he claims to know, seemingly, side stepping biblical truth. As such, Joel Osteen joins a growing company of celebrity evangelicals who have appeared on Larry King Live and have failed to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you . . . (1 Peter 3:15). As evidenced by the full interview and available transcript, Osteen seems a great deal less certain about the Gospel than the following New Testament saints:
Paul declared, I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded . . . (2 Timothy 1:12); he prayed, that ye may know what is the hope of [Christs] calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints (Ephesians 1:18); and wrote, Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God (Romans 3:19); That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings . . . (Philippians 3:10); Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man (Colossians 4:6); John declared, These things have I written unto you . . . that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life (1 John 5:13,19,20).
And of course, the Old Testament also repeatedly states, that ye may know. . . . God certainly has conveyed the impression that He wants us to be certain!
Yet, for Joel Osteen, over and over again, it's uncertainty ... "I don't know."
Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)
