Thursday, August 05, 2010

Ummm Joel? What about the New Testament?

So you might have seen this video spreading around the web like wild-fire. In this video Mr. Joel Osteen tells his congregation to go back to the Old Covenant dietary requirements.

(H.T.: Heidelblog)


Now, if Joel would have taken out the 10% of his "speech" where he referenced the Bible and if he didn't do it behind a pulpit this could actually be beneficial on a purely natural basis. Joel clearly shows that he is not capable of "rightly handling the word of truth" (2 Tim 2:15) by not allowing “Scripture to interpret Scripture,” or pointing out how the drama of redemption will work out the fulfillment of OT types and shadows. Unfortunately there is another instance of Joel doing this very thing in a more unbelievable manner which I commented on here.

Here are just some of the New Testament Scripture passages that come to mind which contradict the very theological argument that Mr. Osteen is making:

Acts 10:9-16
The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. 10 And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance 11 and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. 12 In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. 13 And there came a voice to him: "Rise, Peter; kill and eat." 14 But Peter said, "By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean." 15 And the voice came to him again a second time, "What God has made clean, do not call common." 16 This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven.

Mark 7:19
...since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?" (Thus he [Jesus] declared all foods clean.)

1 Tim 4:1-5
Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, 2 through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, 3 who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. 4 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5 for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.
That last passage from 1 Tim 4 is almost scary how applicable it is to this very situation.

God's Word isn't hard to understand, but it does take work to read the whole thing and allow the grand drama of redemption to show how the types and shadows of the Old Testament are fulfilled in the light of Christ.

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2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I don't think the point is that it's a sin to eat pork... but that it's just not that healthy. Something that dietitians and doctors would agree with. Maybe I am missing your point.

J

7:34 AM  
Blogger Mark Vander Pol said...

J -

The way that Osteen phrased his discussion was that because God forbid these things in the OT we should do the same for partly theological reasons. If it wasn't for this last part I would agree with him about why we might not want to eat pork (however, I would still eat it though!).

What offends me the most about this is that he is saying this from a pulpit and is using God's Word improperly by not highlighting the fact that the dietary laws of the nation of Israel were made obsolete with the coming of Christ.

Mark

7:46 AM  

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