A "Fortune-Cookie" Bible

Dr. Horton has used the example of many Evangelical pastors using the Bible as a "Fortune Cookie" to make the Bible say whatever they want. This usually evidences itself in taking passages out of context because otherwise the passages doesn't fit the intended message. As I have mentioned before (granted it has been awhile) that I receive "Today's Word with Joel & Victoria" from Joel Osteen Ministries every day in my e-mail. I almost assume that it isn't Mr. Osteen who writes these "devotionals" every day, but his name is attached to them and they definitely represent his style of Biblical exegesis. This method of exegesis is called the "search" method, and here is how it works:

Figure out the theme or point of your message

Find one or two keywords that exemplify that message

Open up BibleGateway.com Keyword Search and choose "multiple versions" from which to search

Scan over the versified results, choose verse that fits your theme or point the best.

Copy and paste verse (or portion of the verse when necessary to really make it fit) at the beginning of your text.

I know it sounds crazy, but that seems to be the exegetical method for not only Mr. Osteen, but a number of preachers today. Even Rick Warren seemed to do this in The Purpose Driven Life with his plethera of Bible translations and verses picked out of context to fit with what the body of his text said. (On a side note one thing that drove me nuts about that book was that the Biblical quote was given in the text, but the Scripture reference itself was in the endnote - not proper SBL style! It is almost like they were hoping it would be too much work for us to follow-up on the reference and see that it was improperly used.) I don't want to get too technical, but here is the beginning of proper Biblical exegesis:

Read the entire book you are preaching or teaching from to get an idea of the entire flow

Deliniate your pericope (passage) to find one complete unit of text.

Translate from the original languages

Look at the contexts (immediate, book, corpus, canon) of the pericope

I can stop there because there is no evidence that any of these are done by Mr. Osteen, not only in his devotionals but his sermons as well. It is when the final step of contexts is skipped that things become crystal clear their method of interpreting the Bible is extremely flawed.

It has taken me a long time to get to this point, but I needed to lay the groundwork for the e-mail that I got from Joel & Victoria this morning (Thursday, January 24, 2008). All the author of the devotional (assuming it wasn't Joel) needed to do was to read TWO VERSES beyond the passage he gave to realize the passage chosen was totally inappropriate and contrary to the whole message given. Here is the exact Scripture reference:

"Then Nathan said to David, Do all that is in your heart, for God is with you." (I Chronicles 17:2).

Then follows "Today's Word from Joel and Victoria":

What is in your heart today? What are the dreams and desires deep on the inside of you? Maybe you want to start a business, or ministry, or go back to school. Whatever is in your heart, ask the Lord to confirm it to you. God leads us by desires, but we have to first submit our desires to Him. Sometimes we have to allow Him to change our desires, but know that He is always out for your good. It says in the book of Psalms that God gives us the desires of our heart. That means He places desires within us then brings them to pass so that we can live a fulfilled life here on earth. I believe David did this very thing. He was known as a man after God’s own heart. He submitted His heart to the Lord, and then Nathan came along and said, "Yes. Do what is in your heart. God is with you." Whatever is in your heart today, submit it to the Lord. Trust that He is out for your good and working behind the scenes on your behalf. As you put your faith and trust in Him, He will guide you in the life of victory He has in store for you!

If you are not familiar with the passage of I Chronicles 17, here are the first four verses:

1 Now when David lived in his house, David said to Nathan the prophet, "Behold, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of the covenant of the LORD is under a tent." 2 And Nathan said to David, "Do all that is in your heart, for God is with you." 3 But that same night the word of the LORD came to Nathan, 4 "Go and tell my servant David, 'Thus says the LORD: It is not you who will build me a house to dwell in.' (1 Chronicles 17:1-4 ESV).

So David wanted to build a house for the Lord, and he mentioned it to Nathan. Nathan said (as Mr. Osteen pointed out) go ahead and do it. However, Nathan was wrong!! Even though he was a prophet of the Lord, he merely assumed that this would please the Lord. God came to Nathan that night and told him that the desires of David's heart WERE NOT God's desires and that in this matter God WAS NOT with David as Mr. Osteen requires to make his message sound biblical. Later in 1 Chronicles chapter 17, Nathan tells David all the words of the Lord (v 15) which leads to a beautiful prayer of David recognizing that God is going to build a house for David not David building a house for the Lord (vv 16-27). Mr. Osteen does ask that we "ask the Lord to confirm it [our desire] to you." What he fails to talk about is that David's desire was not granted by the Lord in a very direct and explicit manner. Did the Lord put that desire into David's heart (as is implied by Mr. Osteen)? The text tells us that the Lord did not!

I don't have the time to completely rework this whole theology, but it needed to be pointed out how improperly the Scripture is used in American Evangelicalism. It is scary to think that thousands of people got this same e-mail and completely trusted Mr. Osteen's use of Scripture and didn't go back at make sure it was correct (cf. Acts 17:11). Finally, a popular method for quoting Scripture especially by Mr. Osteen is to say "The Bible says..." without any reference at all to where that passage could be found. Quite often it cannot be found because the quotation is not actually taken from the Bible, but an interpretation of what Mr. Osteen wants some passage to say. In this devotional at least the book is given (Psalms) and I think he is referring to Psalm 20:4 or 21:2 or 37:4. Again I don't have the time to go into those passages. Dr. Horton has a tough time finding a Scripture passage when he reviewed Osteen's latest book just to show how shrewd these guys can be to make their message "biblical."

I have ranted and raved enough about this, and it probably won't be the last because I continue to get these e-mails and listen to TV preachers. They are bound to screw something up so obviously that it astounds me and I feel the desire to share it with any that care to listen.