It’s been said the greatest trick the devil ever pulled is convincing the world he doesn’t exist. Satan doesn’t usually show up in a bright red suit and a pitchfork. No, the devil knows we are visually and sensually driven creatures. So Satan is usually glamorous, titillating, and smiling with a bright double-decker of pearly whites. Never forget the most poisonous serpents are often the prettiest.

Let’s begin with a pop quiz. If I told you a well-known public figure did the following:

• Repeatedly denies the main focus of the Gospel.
• Consistently watered down and distorted Biblical teaching.
• Believes the purpose of human life is to glorify yourself and not God.

Which side would you say such a person is on?

• Heaven
• Hell

The “person” in question here is none other than Joel Osteen, otherwise known as “America’s Pastor.”

Pastor of what exactly is open to interpretation, depending on the prevailing winds of pop culture and what helps pad the bank account at the time.

It’s been said the greatest trick the devil ever pulled is convincing the world he doesn’t exist. Satan doesn’t usually show up in a bright red suit and a pitchfork. No, the devil knows we are visually and sensually driven creatures. So Satan is usually glamorous, titillating, and smiling with a bright double-decker of pearly whites. Never forget the most poisonous serpents are often the prettiest.

We fall for it because we judge based on what’s on the outside, and from the outside Joel Osteen has it going on. He lives in a $10 million mansion with his movie-star gorgeous wife. He’s the rare 51-year-old man with six-pack abs. His publicity tours generate so much demand scalpers can ask for up to $850 per ticket. He renovated a NBA team’s old arena for $105 million to house the nation’s largest “church” there. His estimated net worth is at least $40 million.

From the outside, Joel Osteen lives a life the world covets. There’s just one problem with that. I can’t think of a single truly great figure in the 2,000-year history of Christianity who didn’t pay some kind of worldly price for defending the faith—beginning with Christ himself at the Cross. On the other hand, it seems as if the world is paying Osteen quite handsomely for the self-esteem gospel according to Joel.

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