Dr Paul Allen

Larry King Live title card (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) BIBLE COLLEGE TRAINING Here are some excerpts from MacArthur’s counterpart to Osteen’s Larry King Live interview: KING: John MacArthur , what happens when you die? MACARTHUR: Well, when you die, you go to one of two places. According to Scripture . You go out of the presence of God forever, or you go into the presence of God forever. KING: Depending? MACARTHUR: Depending upon your personal relationship with Jesus Christ , which is, according to the Bible , the only way to enter heaven. KING: So therefore a Jew or a Muslim or a Buddhist will not go to heaven? MACARTHUR: Christian theology and the Scripture says that only through faith in Jesus Christ. KING: And you — when we say what happened, what happens? Do you go somewhere as a body? MACARTHUR: No, your body stays. We go to the funeral. We see the body. It goes into the grave. It decays. Your spirit immediately goes either in the presence of God or out, waiting the fina

Larry King Live title card  Any pastor who regularly addresses even a handful of souls from God ’s word knows the burden of wanting to be faithful to communicating accurately what God has said to his people. Every preacher feels the weight of Paul’s injunction, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Tim 2:15). This is why Hope College Australia offers a 2-year Diploma then a 1 -year Advanced Diploma in Ministry.  The more training preachers get the better. Now, I agree that formal theological training at Bible College level is not a biblical prerequisite for being a preacher of God’s word. The Apostle Peter , for instance, had no Diploma or MDiv degree hanging on his office wall. But I’m sure we all agree that his 24/7 intensive, three year internship with Jesus was, um …adequate preparation. But if an excellent theological education is available to you, there is wisdom in being

Your Best Life Now by Joel Osteen Joel Osteen was born on March 5, 1963, the son of John and Dolores (known as “Dodie”) Osteen. John founded Lakewood Church in Houston Texas on May 10, 1959, and pastored the church until his death in 1999. While he began his career in ministry as a Baptist, he later experienced something he believed was the baptism of the Holy Spirit and founded Lakewood as a haven for charismatic Baptists. By the 1980s John and Dodie had become well-known among their fellow charismatics. The church had over 5,000 in attendance and their services were broadcast across the world. From a young age Joel was involved in this work, laboring behind the scenes in support of the family ministry. When John Osteen died suddenly of a heart attack on January 23, 1999, Joel, who had preached his first sermon the week before, succeeded him as pastor with his wife, Victoria, serving as co-pastor. Very quickly, the church exploded in growth and Joel’s broadcasts become more

Cover via Amazon Osteenification and What it Portends By Hank Hanegraaff Virtually every morning I try to catch up on news and sports while running on my treadmill. Often the running (mostly walking) is accompanied by the vigorous exercise of my remote. Recently, I flipped into an interview involving Singaporean mega-pastor Joseph Prince . The more I tuned in, the faster my heart rate. Disregard for the meaning and context of Scripture was simply breathtaking. It all led up to taking a shower and beginning work on a book now titled The Osteenification of American Christianity . Why Osteenification? Because Joel Osteen is the prime provocateur of a seductive brand of American Christianity that reduces God to a means to our ends. A message that beckons multitudes to the table of the Master, not for the love of the Master but for what is on the table. He is the de facto high priest of a new brand of Christianity perfectly suited for a feel-good generation. And while a host of preten

Joel Osteen (Photo credit: cliff1066™ ) ”I am aware of the theological differences that exist between our tribe and Pastor Joel. I also know my Reformed brothers like to treat Pastor Joel like a piñata, but there are worse things than being happy and encouraging at a time when the most common prescription medications are antidepressants. A few guys in our tribe could learn to talk about something other than painful, arduous suffering once and a while—if nothing else than for the sake of variety. Our identity is not in our joy, and our identity is not in our suffering. Our identity is in Christ , whether we have joy or are suffering.” Related articles Pastor Mark Driscoll Might Give You an iPad if You Praise His Book on Amazon (slog.thestranger.com) Pastors? - SoS Saturdays (ptl2010.com) Who Do You Think You Are? (challies.com) Should We Suffer When Doing Good? (raymcdonald.wordpress.com) A perspective on being a pastor's wife! (virtuouswomen.net) 5 Surprising

One of these is unlike the others: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, niceness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. According to Paul’s letter to the church at Galatia , all but one of these is what he refers to as the fruit of the Spirit , which is to say, visible evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of a Christian. If you are a Christian, your life will necessarily be marked by this kind of character. But which one is foreign to the list?  Niceness . Humans seem to be naturally drawn to niceness. Niceness is comfortable. To be nice is to be pleasant in manner, to be agreeable, to adhere to social conventions. We like to be around people who are nice at least in large part because we are comforted by their pleasant words or deeds and by their adherence to whatever social custom dictates. It is an attractive quality, but it can also be a deceptive one. It is, after all, an external trait, and one that has no necessary correlation with what is g