Here at Apprising Ministries I began covering Oprah Winfrey’s visit last Sunday to the Lakewood self-help center of Joel Osteen in As She Visits His Church Joel Osteen Celebrates What God Is Doing With Oprah Winfrey.

As murky postmodernism is spreading syncretism within the visible church this kind of thing has now become necessary for at least a couple of reasons.

For example, evangelical darling and Seeker Driven Prophet-Führer Steven Furtick has used his audacious quasi-Word Faith to declare Osteen a “great man of God.” Then there’s the New Spirituality ala Living Spiritual Teacher and New Age Eckhart Tolle espoused by Oprah Winfrey.

You see, this mythology is virtually the same as taught by more and more in the neo-liberal cult operating within the Emerging Church such as Living Spiritual Teacher and EC guru Brian McLaren. The final reason I decided to cover this is because of something I’m noticing at Christian Post.

It seems to me that a while back CP added some writers who appear to serve the purpose of blurring doctrinal lines by the things they cover and they way they write. In fact, in T.D. Jakes And Support For Apprising Ministries I recently had to clear up some misconceptions that were stated in a CP piece.

Therein I told you my Twitter exchange the other day with reputed Word Faith modalist T.D. Jakes was discussed in Bishop T.D. Jakes’ Tweet Reignites Debate About Pastor’s Trinity Theology by Nicola Menzie. In her coverage of this event she came pretty close to sowing outright confusion concerning what Jakes believes.

As I’ve said previously, the evidence of his (at best) acceptance of modalism as a legitimate Christian doctrine is more than clear in my article T.D. Jakes And The Trinity. With this all in mind I now point you to Critics: Winfrey Cheered Like a ‘Goddess’ at Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church by CP contributor Allison Summers.

Summers starts by recapping Joel Osteen’s misguided gushing:

“Awesome to have you!” said Osteen, acknowledging the presence of Winfrey and fellow media mogul Tyler Perry, who accompanied her to the service. “We’re so honored to have you both here, and we just celebrate and pray for you guys with what God is doing in your lives.”
(Online source)

The genuine Christian should know better than to celebrate how Winfrey lures so many away from Christianity through her using Christian terminology repackaged with New Age meanings. Then Summers says:

Many Christians have been criticizing Winfrey’s appearance at the church, not only questioning her religious beliefs, but also expressing disgust at the apparent girth of Winfrey’s celebrity and power.

Some feel the mogul attracts followers that worship her as a god-like figure. (Online source)

With Winfrey the problem credible critics haver is her hijacking of Christian terminology, which deceives the unsuspecting into thinking she’s a Christian herself. Her “celebrity and power” is all part and parcel with our cult of celebrity culture; we see the same sort of thing in evangelicalism, e.g. with the EC’s Rob Bell.

Summers continues:

In addition, Winfrey’s religious and spiritual beliefs are somewhat of a mystery to the public. Although she was raised in a Baptist Church in Mississippi, it is not clear what, if any, traditional Christian beliefs Winfrey subscribes to. (Online source)

As far as what “traditional Christian beliefs” Winfrey may hold, she rejects Christ Jesus as the unique God-Man and God’s only means of salvation, which Summers even notes herself:

Some speculate that she is a follower of new age author Eckhart Tolle, who penned The Power Now and A New Earth, two books Winfrey has endorsed in her book club. Tolle, who claims to teach people how to reach a higher spiritual consciousness through his books and workshops, draws on teachings from many different religions.

During an interview with Tolle on her show in 2008, Winfrey quoted A New Earth, stating, “Man made God in his own image; the eternal, the infinite and unnameable was reduced to a mental idol that you had to believe in and worship as my God or our God.”

“I think that is very eloquently put…that is exactly what I was feeling when I was sitting in church,” she added.

During the show, the media mogul also reportedly said, “There are certainly many more paths to God other than Christianity.” (Online source)

Whether or not Winfrey is specifically a follower of Tolle is beside the point, the fact is, she is in agreement with his mystic mythology. Here’s part of the transcript from Oprah and Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth webcast classes, which Summer is quoting from:

OPRAH WINFREY (HOST): And you know, it’s been a journey to get to the place where I understand, as I said on the pre-show here, that what I believe is that Jesus came to show us Christ consciousness…

I am a Christian who believes that there are certainly many more paths to God other than Christianity. (Online source, emphasis mine)

Those are the words of a an unbeliever; no, Jesus came as the Christ and the way of salvation (cf. John 14:6; Acts 4:10-12). This isn’t open to debate, period. God said it; that settles it, it really doesn’t matter what anyone believes about it at that point. The fact is, the world will always hate this message because it hates Him (John 15:18-19).

Next Summers makes a curious statement at an ostensibly Christian website:

Many Christians believe Winfrey is leading people astray through her promotion of spiritualists such as Tolle. Winfrey, the same year Tolle appeared on her show, launched a 10-week seminar and interactive book club with the author on her website, for which more than 700,000 people reportedly registered. (Online source)

All genuine Christians who know anything about Oprah Winfrey also know that she’s leading people astray. Summers saying many Christians believe this about Winfrey then leaves the impression there are such who don’t believe it. We Christians love Oprah for Christ’s sake and we pray for God to save her soul.

That said, we hate what she’s doing because Jesus does. Finally Summers tells us:

However, some felt the welcoming into Lakewood Church was warranted, as part of being a Christian means welcoming everyone that comes through church doors. (Online source)

Here we have more confusing the issues. The Christian knows any sinner is to be welcomed to attend a local church. However, Osteen was welcomed her celebrity; he’s shown nothing publicly to give indication that he’s concerned for her eternal soul. Remember, as nice as he is, Joel Osteen is quite spiritually obtuse.

Osteen’s told us that he believes practing Mormon Mitt Romney is a Christian because he says “Jesus” is his savior. The problem is, the Mormon Jesus doesn’t exist; nor does the New Age Jesus Oprah and her gurus of the New Spirituality teach in their mythology. In closing this, for now, let me show you New Age Jesus.

The following is from Will The Real Jesus Please Stand Up? In this article I used 24 years of studying non-Christian cults and Comparative Religion to show you the various Jesuses running around the landscape. I used the idea of the old TV show To Tell The Truth and had each introduce himself with you the panel.

In the interest of space this is a general description of the mystic New Age Jesus. Everything I tell you about this Jesus I have personally and carefully investigated; in addition, it can all be documented from sources within the New Spirituality:

I am the Jesus of the Mind Science cults such as Christian Science, The Unity School Of Christianity, A Course In Miracles, and the New Age Movement. I am simply a man—just as human as you are.

And yet; I am God. But not the way you think. I am one of the Ascended Masters and many consider me the man who best demonstrated how to tune in to, and then to use, the Christ-consciousness principle which is actually in all of mankind.

I teach you that God is the force that we’re all a part of. For many of us God is not really a person and as such we are all god; just like drops of water make up the ocean, so are we make up god.

I teach you that through learning to develop this spark of the divine—the Christ already within you—and through reincarnation, you can once again be one as god.

Then you just fade back into the blessed nothingness, which some refer to as Nirvana.

See also:

STEVEN FURTICK, JAMES MACDONALD, AND JOEL OSTEEN

YOU LOVE JESUS; GOOD FOR YOU, BUT WHICH ONE?

NO BOUNDARIES IF YOU LOVE “JESUS”