The Gospel According to Oprah

I'd like to begin this post by saying matter of factly: I like Oprah Winfrey ... as a person. I think she's funny, interesting, engaging, compassionate, giving, and pretty darn humble for someone with so much power and recognition. And even though she's so celebrated, you just know that she's not the type of person who thinks she's too good for you. I love that about her, and I'm sure that quality has endeared her to her audience for twenty five years.

Allow me to also say, that this blog post is not going to be an Oprah bashing session. Instead, my aim is to help us understand how crafty and subtle Satan can be in deceiving both the world and the church. This is a clarion call to heed the deception of the enemy. It's not an opportunity to take pot shots at the world.

Due to our lack of discernment and due to our apathy and lackadaisical attitude towards this issue, we have fallen prey to the tactics of our adversary. Many people just chuckle when they hear guys like me talk about Oprah. They think, "Come on. Why are we railing against Oprah? She's just a talk show host. Why don't we focus on the Pharisees and legalists within the church!" Well, you're about to be blown out of the water if that's how you think because the events of the past three days (on Oprah's final three farewell shows) have revealed some pretty disturbing facts about how we as a nation, and even as the church, have grown to view her. And it reveals how subtly and slowly Satan gets us to put our hope in false saviors.

Take a look at some of the things stated about Oprah over the course of the last three days on her final farewell episodes:

1. "We're all here to love you" - Tom Hanks

2. "When my infant died, you and the show were my anchor" - Random Mother

3. "You saved me and set me free" - Random Mother

4. "Oprah's show means the world to me" - Madonna

5. "You always had the power" - Tom Cruise (said sincerely)

6. "The Oprah show put the bright light in my eyes for the first time" - Leelee from China

7. "We are here to learn from you" - One of the celebrities on the final farewell

8. "We have learned what we are and who we are because of you" - Another celebrity

9. "Your persuasion can build a nation" - Beyonce

10. "The Oprah Winfrey Show gives life" - Another celebrity

11. "You bless the children" - Another celebrity

12. "We should always remember to give thanks to you" - Another celebrity

13. "We thank you and adore you and love you" - Another celebrity

14. "Because of you, your viewers have risen up to change the world" - Another celebrity

15. "You have enlightened us, empowered us, and taught us how to be. You don't have children of your own, but you have mothered millions" - Jada Pinket Smith

16. "She's pure love" - sung by Jamie Fox

17. "You've given me the truth" - Maria Shriver

Her final episode on Wednesday was pretty astounding as well. She essentially preached the whole time. She basically summed up, from the past twenty five years, the most important concepts she had grown to believe to be truth - and she then imparted those truths to her audience. It was the gospel according to Oprah Winfrey. It reminded me of a church service, really. It almost reminded me of the last supper. She told people to do for others what her show had done for them. She claimed that God had been speaking to her throughout her life, and especially during the period of her show. She said that she had been called to do this show by God. She essentially gave them a sort of "prayer line" directly to her, that is, her new email address: Oprah@Oprah.com. She promised to read and answer as many of them as possible. She said that "little by little we released people from their shame". And she said that people's greatest problem is their feelings of unworthiness, and that people "block their own blessings because we don't think we're worthy enough." And then, at the end of the show, I almost expected her to be taken up in a cloud of glory. She walked down the isle, turned around, said goodbye to the audience, walked back through the studio, said goodbye to her crew, and vanished into her office. It was a scene of biblical proportion.

Now, someone might say, "But did you know that she gave all the glory to God at the end of her show?" Yes. But so did the Pharisee in Luke 18. It's praise full of pretense. You receive glory, you work hard for the glory, you get the glory, and then to to make sure you don't look like you're stealing it from God, you footnote a brief word of praise to God at the very tail end of your "show". It's the same thing the Pharisees did, it's the same thing athletes do, and it's the same thing we often do as well. We work hard for the glory, you do everything you do to receive that glory, you get that glory, and then we act as if we're giving glory to God, when, in fact, we are still trying to get glory for ourselves.

And besides, when we say, "She gave glory to God", we have to ask, "What 'god' is she referring to?" Well, in her own words, as stated at the final show, all beliefs worship the same God. So, her concept of God is quite nebulous.

Someone will say, "She actually gave credit to Jesus for the success of her show". But, again, her Jesus is not the Jesus of the Bible. Her Jesus is a Jesus that she has fashioned from the idol factory of her own mind. In 2008, she said that Jesus didn't come to die on a cross. Rather, "It really was about him coming to show us how to do it, how to be, to show us the Christ-consciousness that he had and that that consciousness abides with all of us." In other words, Jesus didn't come to be a substitutionary sacrifice for our sins, he only came to be an example to us. This is classic liberal thinking concerning Jesus - Jesus didn't come to do it for us, he came to show us how to do it.

As Christians, we must compassionately realize that those who speak falsely about God and Christ are "deceiving and being deceived" (2 Timothy 3:13). Even though all sinners are guilty and responsible for their actions, there is a sense in which "they know not what they do". The same is true of Oprah. My hope is that we as believers will be more discerning when it comes to these things; that we will love and pray for people in her position; and that we will remember that "we do not wrestle with flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:12).