Image via Jacob Abshire

Something intresting to think about. What happened on the day after the Resurrection?

It's now been 24 hours since Jesus came back to life. If you're keeping track, Jesus only made five appearances his first day back:

• To Mary Magdalene (given a message to the disciples)
• To the other women who come to the tomb (intending to complete the burial preparation of His body)
• To two disciples on the Road to Emmaus
• To Simon Peter (nowhere recorded, but alluded to in Luke 24:33 and 1 Corinthians 1:5)
• To the astonished disciples [Thomas is absent]

If you're John, and you saw Jesus die before your eyes, you wake up this morning with a renewed hope. Everything is different now. Everything that Jesus said, even though there may have been doubts before, is absolutely true now, and he's living and walking around proves it.

The Son of God defeated even death yesterday. And for that, there's hope for all of us.

I sat in astonishment, with my mouth hanging open. I had just played the above 2-minute excerpt from a podcast I listen to from above (take a listen if you haven't), and then asked the question, "Is there an absolute truth?"

To which I got mostly questioned looks, but a few fairly confident "nos." 

"Really?" I said, in disbelief. "That's what you all really believe?"

I asked questions about a true right and true wrong. Why does the world's postmodern mindset say that "Everyone's religion is ok - and we're all ok," but yet something like stealing and lying is wrong? If we apply the same logic to religion, would that not infer that there is a true right and wrong religion? 

And if everyone's different religion is right, then why even believe in religions? What's the point?

Maybe I'm crazy. Maybe I'm not. But it seems to me that the general mindset of everyone in the world is that "You're ok, I'm ok, we're all ok and we're all going to heaven." 

That's just not the truth. 

I even had a very smart and intelligent 16 year old argue with me that it's not wrong from someone to believe in Buddhism, because that's what they grew up believing.

The single truth about all this is that our teens don't know what the absolute truth is. They know the difference in right and wrong, but the truth? They're foggy on that. And that astounds me. It was a great class that we had this week and I think a lot of the teens learned a lot, but we need to be preaching and teaching the one absolute truth: That Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God and that he died for our sins. All other religions, all other ways that promise eternal life in heaven or some form of it are wrong. 

That will get you into hot water in the world if you say that. You'll be branded as an intolerant bigot. But it still does not answer the question:

If everyone is right, then who is wrong? 

This, from Matt Walsh:

Our nation wants a shallow Gospel that doesn’t challenge us to make sacrifices and be righteous, and Joel Osteen has come to give us exactly that.

He distorts Scripture and offers up a hollow, empty message, but he is adored because he does it with a smile, he doesn’t offend, and he gives off the general vibe of a man who probably chuckles at Family Circus cartoons. In other words, he is exactly what our society believes a Christian should be: nice, non-threatening, non-Biblical, and superficial.

So I'm sure we have beat this dead horse enough, but every story I read about this, including both excellent articles by Matt Walsh and Albert Mohler, it just makes me more confused and angry. 

Confused that thousands in Joel Osteen's "church" could be duped to follow his message, and angered that thousands if not millions more Americans and those around the world buy into his doctrine. 

I'm not angry at Joel Osteen, nor his wife who made the ridiculous comments in their service a week or two ago. I'm angry at the millions who have bought into this shallow and shameful doctrine that does not include, in any form or fashion, Jesus Christ. 

I, like so many of you, have seen Osteen on television while flipping through the TV on Sunday morning. He has great little stories mixed with a message that God wants us to be happy. Unfortunately, it's a message completely devoid of Jesus Christ. 

Why? Because Jesus suffered. Because Jesus was persecuted. Because Jesus said hard things. 

You can't take Christ out of Christianity, or the Bible for that matter. It defeats the whole purpose. It's like taking penalties out of football completely - eventually people would come up with their own versions of football and we would have lots of different versions floating around...

Wait. That's precisely what the Osteen "church" is doing. They're taking Christ out of the Biblical equation and making worship all about ourselves. 

The entire Bible is about God's one and only Son. The entire purpose of the Gospel is to tell the story of Jesus and how He lived His live and died to save us from our sins. 

But Osteen won't tell you that. He won't talk about sin, obedience, or consequences. He won't because it's designed that way. They've come up with their own version of the Bible, and it's all about peace, harmony, and prosperity. It may have glimpses of truth, but it's mostly false doctrine. 

The base of the problem is that people see what they want to see. And when they don't see what they want they turn to something else - even if it isn't correct. We want to be reassured. We want to have hope. But we don't want to have to deal with difficulty. 

Joel Osteen needs to get rid of his writing team and open his Bible. And so do you and I. We need to open the Word every day to see what it says to us. If we learn from the source, then we don't have to worry about what anyone else says.