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Does Joyce Meyer preach salvation by faith in Jesus alone (ie not works)?

There are contradictory answers but the community hasn't voted to close as either a truth question or primarily-opinion based. I obviously have a stake in this - thinking that Caleb's answer is incorrect, but others obviously disagree - should this question be closed or left open ?

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Obviously the question has some elements of both opinion-based and truth-questions. On the other hand I don't think it carries with it most of the classic baggage of those types of questions. In spite of producing contradictory answers (of which I think the accepted one is wrong), the question has not generated a flood of answers representing assorted opinions not backed up by evidence. Likewise the answers aren't trying to argue the truth of some point of doctrine so much as trying to answer how a particular segment of Christianity views a particular issue: whether Meyer's teaching is consistent with a classical Protestant formulation.

Part of the reason I answered the question was to demonstrate how some questions that sound risky are not actually instances of question types we want to discourage. I think my answer demonstrates how the question can be approached in a way that is on topic and the voting system can do its job to produce content that makes this site useful in a way that other sites are not.

I'm even happy to see a contradictory answer posted, this is a case where a wrong answer is not a case for moderator action, it can and should be left to the community to vote based on the usefulness and accuracy of the answer content.

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    I agree that this is not a truth question. My primary problem with the question is that it engages in the common Protestant assumption that Protestant beliefs are "basic Christian" beliefs. Given that Protestantism is only about 1/3 of Christianity, that is a wrong assumption. I have edited the question to more accurately state that this is the basic Protestant Christian message.
    – Lee Woofenden
    Jun 15, 2018 at 1:14
  • @LeeWoofenden I think your edit was good, but the OP just reverted it.
    – curiousdannii Mod
    Jun 15, 2018 at 7:54
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    The edit was okay (if a touch clumsy) but also not strictly necessary. The question as worded really only made sense in Protestant terms anyway, as reasoned in my answer. There doesn't seem to be any scope confusion to date, nor would I expect any.
    – Caleb
    Jun 15, 2018 at 8:04
  • Yes, it's necessary. Protestantism is not Christianity. It is part of Christianity. And nowhere near the majority of it. It's a false premise to word the question such that Protestant teachings are "the basic Christian message."
    – Lee Woofenden
    Jun 15, 2018 at 16:13
  • And yes, the edit was somewhat clumsy. If I had free rein, I'd have replaced "Christian" with "Protestant." But I knew the OP would not accept that. Since the OP didn't even accept the milder correction, (@curiousdannii) I've added it as a comment. I also downvoted the question because it includes a false premise, even if the main point of the question isn't based on a false premise (such that I still think the question is on-topic and should not be closed).
    – Lee Woofenden
    Jun 15, 2018 at 16:17
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I think you're right that it's a Truth question, but all questions are Truth questions if you believe in the premise.

The premise of the question is that

Does she preach the basic Christian message of salvation by faith in Jesus alone, as described in John 14:6

If you don't believe that (because you're not a Protestant) then you shouldn't presume to answer that question from your POV. A Catholic would never say that John 14:6 suggests the "basic Christian message of salvation by faith in Jesus alone" because Catholics don't believe in sola-fide.

Therefore, this is not a "Truth Question" as define on the site.

Personally, I think all questions are "Truth Questions" (especially Catholic ones) and it's up to the people who want to close questions to be very careful in analyzing or answering the question to see where the question is coming from.

Basically, "sola-fide adherents" is specific enough for me.

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  • Given that about 2/3 of Christians don't believe in "salvation by faith in Jesus alone (ie not works)," such that this is clearly not "the basic Christian message," I have edited the question to read "the basic Protestant Christian message . . . ."
    – Lee Woofenden
    Jun 15, 2018 at 0:51
  • The OP reverted my edit, so I added it as a comment instead.
    – Lee Woofenden
    Jun 15, 2018 at 16:17

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