Group: Paid Forum Members
Active: 10/28/2005
Posts: 56


Well here's another. Speaking of Joel Osteen, here is the link for when he was on Larry King Live. However, this doesn't surprise me about him.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0506/20/lkl.01.html

Allow me to copy and paste the highlights



KING: Because we've had ministers on who said, your record don't count. You either believe in Christ or you don't. If you believe in Christ, you are, you are going to heaven. And if you don't no matter what you've done in your life, you ain't.

OSTEEN: Yeah, I don't know. There's probably a balance between. I believe you have to know Christ. But I think that if you know Christ, if you're a believer in God, you're going to have some good works. I think it's a cop-out to say I'm a Christian but I don't ever do anything ...

KING: What if you're Jewish or Muslim, you don't accept Christ at all?

OSTEEN: You know, I'm very careful about saying who would and wouldn't go to heaven. I don't know ...

KING: If you believe you have to believe in Christ? They're wrong, aren't they?

OSTEEN: Well, I don't know if I believe they're wrong. I believe here's what the Bible teaches and from the Christian faith this is what I believe. But I just think that only God with judge a person's heart. I spent a lot of time in India with my father. I don't know all about their religion. But I know they love God. And I don't know. I've seen their sincerity. So I don't know. I know for me, and what the Bible teaches, I want to have a relationship with Jesus.

BREAK

CALLER: Hello, Larry. You're the best, and thank you, Joe -- Joel -- for your positive messages and your book. I'm wondering, though, why you side-stepped Larry's earlier question about how we get to heaven? The bible clearly tells us that Jesus is the way, the truth and the light and the only way to the father is through him. That's not really a message of condemnation but of truth.

OSTEEN: Yes, I would agree with her. I believe that...

KING: So then a Jew is not going to heaven?

OSTEEN: No. Here's my thing, Larry, is I can't judge somebody's heart. You know? Only god can look at somebody's heart, and so -- I don't know. To me, it's not my business to say, you know, this one is or this one isn't. I just say, here's what the bible teaches and I'm going to put my faith in Christ. And I just I think it's wrong when you go around saying, you're saying you're not going, you're not going, you're not going, because it's not exactly my way. I'm just...

KING: But you believe your way.

OSTEEN: I believe my way. I believe my way with all my heart.

KING: But for someone who doesn't share it is wrong, isn't he?

OSTEEN: Well, yes. Well, I don't know if I look at it like that. I would present my way, but I'm just going to let god be the judge of that. I don't know. I don't know.

KING: So you make no judgment on anyone?

OSTEEN: No. But I...

KING: What about atheists?

OSTEEN: You know what, I'm going to let someone -- I'm going to let god be the judge of who goes to heaven and hell. I just -- again, I present the truth, and I say it every week. You know, I believe it's a relationship with Jesus. But you know what? I'm not going to go around telling everybody else if they don't want to believe that that's going to be their choice. God's got to look at your own heart. God's got to look at your heart, and only god knows that.

KING: You believe there's a place called heaven?

OSTEEN: I believe there is. Yes. You know, you've had a lot of the near-death experiences and things like that. Some of that is very, to me, not that you need that as proof, but it shows you these little kids seeing the angels and things like that.



IP Logged   
if_InitAuthorNameLink('AussieEagle','6'); AussieEagleAussieEagle |
Posted 6/27/2005 8:55 AM

Supreme Being

Group: Paid Forum Members
Active: 10/28/2005
Posts: 56 Woah, here's the link for the Billy Graham interview on Larry King Live last night. I have to admit that Larry King has asked the pressing questions to Osteen and Graham. There was not much middle ground to stand on, hence were left with two positions: the Word of God or liberal Christianity. I'll copy & paste some highlights again. Right off the bat, the first question hits home from the start

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0506/26/lkl.01.html

KING: But -- your Franklin once said, he was very critical of Islam. He called it evil and wicked. How did you react to that?

GRAHAM: Well, he has his views and I have mine. And they are different sometimes. I told him from the very beginning that there would be times when he would have to take his own positions. But he doesn't hold that position now. I think he said it off the cuff somewhere some years ago.

KING: After 9/11?

GRAHAM: I think so.

BREAK

GRAHAM: ... try to forgive. I never hold a grudge. In fact, many people say that I never get angry. I don't think I get angry. But maybe I do sometimes, but I keep it. I don't explode to anybody.

KING: Do you feel the same about other faiths?

GRAHAM: Absolutely.

KING: Do you feel the same about Judaism, Mormonism?

GRAHAM: Absolutely.

KING: Buddhism?

GRAHAM: I love them all, and welcome them all, and love to be with them, and friends with all of them. For example, I just talked to a man in New York City, he was a Mormon.

KING: My father-in-law.

GRAHAM: Your father-in-law. And I've loved the Mormons for years, and yet there is a big divide between the Mormons and some of the other groups. But I have great friends among the Mormons. And the same among the Catholics. Of course, I loved Pope John Paul II and watched the whole process of his suffering, his dying and the tremendous -- my daughter went to represent me ...

KING: I know. You were on with us the night he died.

GRAHAM: That's right. Thank you.

KING: But what about those faiths -- the Mormons and the others that you mentioned -- believe in Christ. They believe they will meet Christ. What about those like the Jews, the Muslims, who don't believe they ...

GRAHAM: That's in God's hands. I can't be the judge.

KING: You don't judge them?

GRAHAM: No.

KING: How do you feel...

(CROSSTALK)

GRAHAM: ... going to hell and all that.

KING: How do you feel when you see a lot of these strong Christian leaders go on television and say, you are condemned, you will live in hell if you do not accept Jesus Christ, and they are forceful and judgmental?

GRAHAM: Well, they have a right to say that, and they are true to a certain extent, but I don't -- that's not my calling. My calling is to preach the love of God and the forgiveness of God and the fact that he does forgive us. That's what the cross is all about, what the resurrection is all about, that's the gospel. And you can get off on all kinds of different side trends, and in my earlier ministry, I did the same, but as I got older, I guess I became more mellow and more forgiving and more loving. And the Jerry Falwells and people like that, I love them, I thank God for their ministry, he has a great university and two or three of my grandchildren have gone there, they have had a tremendous change in their lives for being there, and some of the other people are the same way, but at the other end of the extreme.

Ron (INAUDIBLE) here in New York years ago, preached against me, or spoke against me. I loved him with all my heard. I went to see him, and all these people.

BREAK

KING: Do you believe in gays having a civil union?

GRAHAM: I don't think so. I'm not talking about those things much.

KING: You're not -- you don't think gay people are lesser, though?

GRAHAM: Oh, no. They are created in the image of God, and God loves them. Christ died for them, and he can forgive them of whatever.

But you know, we make so much of homosexuality, but it's just one of many sins. There is pride, lust, greed, all these things from (INAUDIBLE) through history of people that have lived terrible lives, and those are the things that are the symptoms of a deeper problem. Man has a disease that started in the Garden of Eden when man rebelled against God. And that was the beginning of a disease that we all have down to our generation.

KING: But do you think -- you don't think homosexuality -- or do you think it's a choice?

GRAHAM: Well, that's a big debate.

KING: But if it's not a choice, it can't be a sin. Right?

GRAHAM: Well, maybe. God will make that judgment, not me. I'm not deciding who's a sinner and who is not.

KING: How about abortion?

GRAHAM: Same thing.

KING: Against it totally?

GRAHAM: Yes. But I'm not getting involved in it.