Michael Horton On 60 Minutes
Sunday, October 14th, 2007Just in case some of you may have not heard, The White Horse Inn’s Michael Horton will be one of the people interviewed in an interesting expose on 60 minutes tonight (Sunday, October 14th, 2007) involving the ministry of televangelist Joel Osteen. Though he will only have small portions of his interview featured throughout the piece, we highly recommend you stop by and take a look.
In the middle of the watered-down Christianity too many people are exposed to in our culture, Dr. Horton always offers a unique, extremely valuable and I think necessary point of view as an alternative for folks who many not realize that they’re not even hearing the Gospel.
Here’s hoping that Dr. Horton has more appearances like this in the future where he might be able to get more air time to get his desperately needed message out to the masses. It would be one more step towards another reformation, helping people—agnostics, non-Christians and evangelical Christians alike—hear the good news in the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus.
**UPDATE**
You can now view the Joel Osteen piece in its entirety on the 60 minutes website. Dr. Horton appears at 7:33 into the piece. Even though his part is a small one in the whole thing, I think it’s extremely valuable. Dr. Horton’s term “fortune cookie” is a great description of the kind of message that Joel is pushing and trying to back with scripture. Of course, I challenge you to find where Joel actually quotes any scripture to back his message.
By Ted R
October 17th, 2007 at 5:44 am
The interviewer did an excellent job. His pointed questions got to the important issues quickly. I thought it was especially revealing when Joel broke down. It seems to me his breakdown was a result of the increasing criticism of his ministry by many in the Church at large and the dilemma he faces with the many people he is supposedly helping. He seems to be at a loss as to whether he needs to change his message to be more in line with what the scriptures teach and what the gospel is. His message of” glory now” has made him a wealthy man. He is in a “Catch 22″ situation and I doubt if he will be willing to pay the price of changing his message to the true gospel. It is too costly a change.
Michael Horton wrote an excellent case study on the message of Joel Osteen which is on the White Horse Inn web site.
You need to get Michael on the Bill Maher show next. Maher calls himself a rationalist and is very critical of all religious points of view. He often goes on rants on his show about the irrationality of all religions. It is my contention that he has never heard a good apologetic of the faith from a reformational perspective. However, I think Maher is right on in his criticism of the majority of evangelicalism today- he is especially critical of those evangelicals heavily involved in right wing politics.
October 17th, 2007 at 7:43 am
Truly, what we are seeing right now is a dearth of solid young apologists who can properly defend the faith.
There are many new names appearing on the scene of late, particularly regarding atheism. These people are bringing new energy to old arguments, but we don’t have any significant quantity of new sharp apologists of our own who can properly defeat the old arguments in full view of the coming generations. This is tragic and something that needs to be remedied.
I pray some things come about in the next couple decades that make it possible to have some incredible minds producing great works in the field of Christian apologetics and help to ignite a new reformation in our lifetimes.
October 17th, 2007 at 9:58 am
Right on Ted- I hear you and that’s why I think you guys are doing such a critical work. It is not easy to think through these arguments that these new atheists are agressively throwing at public in the public square. It takes a lot of courage to engage these people head on and I fear a lot of persecution will come the Church’s way when the gospel engages the culture properly. Apostle Paul’s where are you? You not only have to be smart but not afraid of the backlash that will come.
October 18th, 2007 at 7:29 pm
Ted,
I’ve never listened to the White Horse Inn, though I’ve heard your dad on Issues Etc. So, does your Dad and yourself come from the Lutheran side of the reformation and Michael come from the Calvin side? just curious….
-Tim
October 19th, 2007 at 5:29 am
Tim,
You should definitely check out the White Horse Inn if you’ve never heard it. It’s simply a brilliant conversation between the different camps of the reformation. Dr. Horton and Kim Riddlebarger are reformed (Calvinist), Ken Jones is reformed Baptist, and my dad is Lutheran (LCMS).
It’s something that’s been going on for years and I’ve been blessed to have been around these men while they’ve been doing their great work. And I always loved how much fun they made it.
Stop by and take a listen. And come back and let me know what you think!
October 19th, 2007 at 6:29 pm
Wow, Lutherans, Calvinists, AND Reformed Baptists…sounds great. I’ll definitely have to check it out.
Are you familiar at all with James White from Alpha and Omega ministries? He falls into the Reformed Baptist camp. He’s an incredible debater…incredible.