Rick Tryon

Prosperity Gospel, Or Jesus?

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The other day I came across the meme I’m using for this post and it reminded me of a previous series I did on the ‘Prosperity Gospel’ and the ‘Health And Wealth’ theology. So I want to revisit and focus on one of the subjects of that series – Joel Osteen.

Who is Osteen?

Joel Osteen, the senior pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, has an estimated net worth that varies across sources. Some reports suggest his net worth is around $100 million (Celebrity Net Worth), while others estimate it to be approximately $40 million to $60 million (Wikipedia).

Additionally, some sources claim his net worth is as high as $180 million (CA Club India).

Osteen resides in a 17,000-square-foot mansion valued at $10.5 million in the River Oaks neighborhood of Houston. He has stated that he does not receive a salary from Lakewood Church, which has an annual budget of $70 million, relying instead on income from his best-selling books and related products (Wikipedia).

But What did Jesus teach?

Well, it seems pretty clear to me—or to anyone else with a lick of common sense—that when Jesus said in Matthew 6:33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you…” He didn’t have $10 million mansions, private luxury jets, and massive piles of cash in mind.

But what did He have in mind? Read the context:

Matthew 6:25–34 (NKJV)
“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
28 So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin;
29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31 Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

You don’t need an advanced degree in theology or philosophy to understand the plain words spoken by our Lord here. All you need is basic reading comprehension.

What things “shall be added to you”? Mansions? A fleet of luxury fishing boats? A hoard of gold coins? No—the “things” are the necessities of life, like food and clothing.

Does He teach that you can’t or shouldn’t have more than the necessities? No—but our Lord’s message is clear: the desire for God’s righteousness is muddied and distorted when we focus on the riches of this age instead of His kingdom.

It’s impossible to have total reliance on God when one has lots of cash, cars, jets, and Swiss bank accounts to fall back on—right?

Your Life And What Comes After (28): What The Hell

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Have you ever heard anyone say, “If you’re bad, you’re going down there!” as they point to the ground?

The idea that you’ll go “up there” if you’re good and “down there” if you’re bad is not an idea found in the Bible, and is not part of God’s grand plan.

Cartoon devils with pitchforks tossing bad people into flames and movie images of an underground fire pit of hell are pictures and ideas that have been made up by some to scare others for various reasons. Can you think of why some people in the old days, and even now, would do that?

What and Where Is Hell

The Bible does teach that there is some kind of punishment for people, and for evil spiritual forces, who do evil things on purpose and who don’t want or accept God’s love and forgiveness. So, hell is a kind of punishment and judgment for them.

But just like heaven isn’t a location somewhere in the universe but instead the realm where God exists, hell also isn’t a physical location somewhere, but instead a description of God’s judgment on evil.

But punishment and judgment for who, where, and when — and what kind of punishment is it?

Those are questions that people who have studied the Bible, now and in the past, have had very different answers for.

Some believe that everyone who is bad or doesn’t accept God’s forgiveness goes to hell when they die to burn forever, and those who are good and accept God’s forgiveness go to heaven to play harps and sing praises forever. I don’t believe that either of those ideas is what the Bible teaches.

Fear Not

The Bible teaches that God’s plan includes a day and time when God will raise all people from the dead, and then comes the judgment. If we have put our faith in Jesus Christ, then we know that when that day comes, He has taken any punishment or judgment we may deserve on Himself. We are forgiven and cleared for takeoff into eternal life with our Savior and with our Heavenly Father.

Over and over in God’s Word, He encourages His people to “fear not” or “don’t be afraid.” About 140 times, in fact. At least six times in the Bible, it was the first thing angels said when they appeared to people.

When it comes to the topic of hell, we should all focus on the “fear not” message rather than the “be afraid of hell, you sinner” message.

What’s Next?

As I said a little bit ago, God’s plan includes a day and time when God will raise all people from the dead. Next, we’ll be talking about what happens during that day and time, and what it means for you and me.

Your Life And What Comes After (27): Where Is Heaven?

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Adriana pressed her forehead gently against the cool windowpane, watching the trees sway and dance as if whispering secrets to one another. She could see the branches bend, the leaves shimmer, and the grass ripple in soft waves, yet the wind itself remained invisible—always present, always felt, but never seen. As she watched the world move without a visible mover, she wondered how something so real could hide so completely, as if the wind were a shy friend who preferred to speak through the trees rather than show its face.

In the Bible, ‘heaven‘ often simply means the spiritual realm where God lives, not an actual place up in the clouds with angels, pearly gates, and such.

But where is that place where God lives actually located? I like the way N. T. Wright, a Bible teacher, puts it:

‘Heaven’ and ‘earth’, as I have often said, are not, in biblical theology, separated a great gulf, as they are in much popular imagination. ‘Heaven’, God’s sphere of reality, is right here close beside us, intersecting with our ordinary reality. It is not so much like a door opening high up in the sky, far away. It is more like a door opening right in front of us where before we could only this room, this field, this street. Suddenly, there is an opening leading into a different world…

N.T. Wright – Revelation For Everyone

Going to Heaven?

Did you know that the Bible never uses the phrases “go to heaven” or “going to heaven” to describe what happens to people when they die? That’s because heaven isn’t a place where people are going someday; it’s a place where God is right now.

Heaven isn’t a place that we go as a reward for being good, like Disneyland. It’s not a location on a map, like Chicago or New York, that we can find directions to or roads that take us there.

So, where is that place where God lives? Well, it’s all around us. It’s next to us, above us, and below us. God lives in the unseen places that surround and fill everything.

Like the wind all around us that we can’t see, yet moving the things that we can see.

We’ve talked about heaven quite a bit; next, we’ll take a little tour of how we should think about hell. Ooooohhhhhh!

Two Questions About God’s Foreknowledge

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Is biblical prophecy based on God’s meticulous foreknowledge, or on His power and ability to bend the course of history to His will and grand plan?

If God has predestined everything to happen exactly as it has and will happen, even down to the most minute molecular phenomena, then aren’t we essentially living in a kind of simulation, as some theorists have suggested?

Your Life And What Comes After (26): What Is Heaven?

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Where exactly is heaven? Is it up in the clouds? In outer space? On another planet, or in a galaxy far away?

Before we can understand where heaven is, we should first know what heaven is. When heaven is mentioned in the Bible, it can either mean any place above the ground or it can mean the realm in which God lives.

Anywhere Above the Ground

Genesis 1:20
And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

The birds we often see flying above us are in heaven, so to speak.

The stars, clouds, and planets are also above the ground, and there are many verses in the Bible that talk about those things being in the heavens.

Where God Lives

Matthew 6:9
After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

This verse says that our Father, God, is in heaven. Does that mean He’s flying around with the birds that are in heaven? No, of course not.

Here the Bible is talking about a different kind of heaven. This heaven is the realm where God lives—invisible to our eyes, yet very real and near.

Acts 17:27-28
That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

The main idea about heaven that we should understand is that it is not a place up in the clouds where we go someday after we die to get wings and play harps if we’re good in this life.

Heaven is a place we can go to now—and every day—in prayer, to be in the presence of our Father, God.

Are You A ‘Non’?

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Anyone who knows even a little bit about the Bible and the history of Christianity knows that it was the religious leaders of the time, along with their secular allies, that were responsible for the killing of the prophets, the reformers, and even the Son of God himself, Yeshua our Messiah.

The religious leaders. The wolves in sheep’s clothing. The whited sepulchers. The vipers. The religious leaders.

There is no new thing under the sun. Fallen human nature and the rot of man-made religion hasn’t changed since they murdered the prophets, burned the ‘heretics’, and tortured and crucified our Lord.

That is part of the reason why I do not subscribe to a modern denominational creed of set of doctrines. I don’t think that modern day Evangelicals, or Baptists, or Lutherans, or Catholics are going to burn anyone in the town square – it’s just that I don’t trust organized religion.

I’m non-denominational. I’m a ‘Non’. And there are a lot of others just like me, in fact more and more folks are fleeing traditional ‘churchianity’ every day. Why? More on that in future posts.

Here’s my one and only creed, which I’m happy share with my brothers and sisters in The Fellowship of the Nons:

Creed of the Fellowship of the Nons

Our living God is a loving God and the Bible is His revealed word and will.
Our hope and eternal salvation relies entirely on the work of God’s only begotten son, Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life.

A huge part of the purpose and reason for the Bible Rebel blog is stated in our mission:

“To examine and question the assumptions of religious tradition and provide a resource for information and inspiration for people of faith who have become dissatisfied with an increasingly lifeless and empty ‘churchianity’.”

What The Hell: Universal Salvation

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Bosch, Hieronymus; An Angel Leading a Soul into Hell; Wellcome Library; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/an-angel-leading-a-soul-into-hell-125754

Bible Rebel is exploring the three major Christian doctrines concerning the theology of hell. Below are some quotes from three prominent theologians/scholars who hold the universal salvation view.

Links to the other views on Bible Rebel
Annihilationism (often called “conditional immortality”)
Infernalism (eternal conscious torment)

David Bentley Hart (Eastern Orthodox theologian)

“If God is the good creator of all, then in the end all shall return to Him—every last rational soul.” —from That All Shall Be Saved (2019)
Hart argues that God’s goodness, freedom, and victory in Christ logically require the ultimate restoration of all people.

J. A. T. Robinson (Anglican bishop and New Testament scholar)

“The Christian faith is universalist in its logic… God’s purpose is the reconciliation of all, and nothing less.” —from In the End, God… (1950)
Robinson was one of the first major 20th‑century Anglican voices to articulate universal reconciliation as the natural conclusion of the gospel.

Thomas Talbott (Christian philosopher)

“If God truly wills the salvation of all and if nothing can finally defeat His redemptive love, then universal reconciliation follows.” —from The Inescapable Love of God (1999)
Talbott’s work is foundational in modern Christian universalism, arguing from Scripture, logic, and the character of God.

They Said It: Four Quotes On The Books Of Samuel

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Here are four insightful quotes about the Old Testament Books of I and II Samuel.

On the overarching purpose of Samuel
“The First Book of Samuel was written to show who the true Shepherd‑King of Israel must be: the Son of David, a man ‘after the Lord’s own heart’; Second Samuel was written to show that this true King of Israel will finally establish God’s forever kingdom.”
The Gospel Coalition

On what Samuel teaches about God and obedience
“In 1 and 2 Samuel what you really see is how God operates, what He requires of His people, and what He does when His people fail… Hope is never found in a human king; hope is found in the King of kings.”
Paul Tripp

On God’s sovereignty in the narrative
“The books of 1 & 2 Samuel reveal God’s sovereignty in history: God humbles the proud and exalts the humble, and He sovereignly works through the rise and fall of kings to accomplish His purposes.”
Randy McCracken

On the theological significance of Samuel’s leadership and the kingship theme
“Samuel’s story and the monarchy narratives show that God providentially draws His people back into right relationship with Himself by choosing and exalting leaders according to His will, even amid human failure.”
Jonathan Anderson

Your Life And What Comes After (24): See All The People

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What is the Church Age?

Have you ever heard the nursery rhyme that goes like this—‘Here’s the church, here’s the steeple, open the doors and see all the people’?

Is the Church Age about church buildings, or is it about people? In the Bible’s New Testament books after the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the ‘Church’ always refers to the people who believe that Jesus Christ is the Savior and Son of God.

Just as the Old Testament was instruction for the people who lived back in those times on how to walk in God’s purposes, and the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John show us how Jesus lived according to God’s plan, the New Testament books after the Gospels now instruct us today on how to do the same.

Seek God First

Colossians 3:1–2
If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

Spend some time every morning praying and just enjoying the presence of God, speaking to Him and letting Him speak to you.

Add Value to the World Around You

Galatians 6:9-10
And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

Do meaningful work. Gain knowledge and learn valuable skills. Help and serve others around you in real ways that meet real needs.

Do Hard Things Without Fear

2 Timothy 1:7
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

Don’t ever be afraid of hard work or of doing hard things. God loves you and has already given you great strength and courage.

Fight Darkness with Light

Romans 13:12
The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

Stand up, speak up, and show up. Dispel the darkness around you by shining forth God’s love and light.

The You Miracle

Always remember that you are a miracle, and that God’s plan includes you in His family and household. See yourself as God sees you: His beautiful child.

Plug into God’s purposes and plan, and your life will be an exciting adventure as a co-worker with the Creator of the universe!

Next, we’ll start our journey into understanding heaven, hell, and the end of the world.