By Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter Monday, September 15, 2025

Country music singer John Rich has claimed that Pastor Joel Osteen won't preach about the End Times from Matthew 24 like the late evangelist Billy Graham because he doesn’t want to make his congregation uncomfortable.

Rich, who shared his criticism in a recent interview on the “Shawn Ryan Show” podcast, accused Houston and other high-profile pastors of sacrificing the Gospel so they can sell more books and collect more offerings.

“The reason they stopped preaching that is because it's very uncomfortable for Christians to have to think about that,” Rich, who is a practicing Christian and the son of a Baptist minister, said.

While The Christian Post reached out for comment from a representative of Pastor Osteen, they declined to comment. However, this article will be updated if a future comment is received. 

In Rich's interview, he discussed the Antichrist, the mark of the beast and the persecution of Christians highlighted in Matthew 24 that will lead up to the Second Coming of Christ.

“I've heard some Christians say, and even some preachers that have attacked me online have said, ‘God wouldn't make us go through something like that. God wouldn't do that to us.’ And to them, I say, really? Why don't you go tell that to the underground Christians in Communist China right now who are being killed by the thousands? Why don't you go tell that to the Christians in Syria right now who are being chopped up into pieces in the streets?” he argued.

“Do you think fat, lazy, American Christians are better than them? No. They are superior to us. They are willing to worship God and be a Christian when it means they could die for doing it. And we don't have that problem in the United States."

Click here to read CP's interview with John Rich about his song, 'Revelation'

Rich also called Christians who believe God would never allow them to suffer persecution “spiritually ignorant,” and blamed the ignorance on “modern churches” and pastors like Osteen.

“Modern churches, even today, they still don't want [to preach the End Times message]. There's a few, but not many. They don't want to preach that. Joel Osteen is never going to preach that. Joel Osteen is never going to say anything that's going to make anybody uncomfortable ever. On any level ever,” Rich claimed.

“He's never going to say anything that would prick the heart or conscience of his congregation and then offer an altar call like Billy Graham did when he speaks the truth about what Jesus said and what happens if you decide to go the other way and lays out what Hell is and lays out what Heaven is and lays out what this is and then offers an altar call.”

Osteen's Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, does offer an altar call at every service, though that part of the service and the extended sermon are not shown in the televised broadcasts. 

In 2018, Osteen suggested that he is a natural people pleaser, but has come to accept that even though he "wants people to like me," not everyone will.

"My personality type is that I want people to like me. This is my nature. I got into the public eye, and I realized that some people won't like you because they don't like what I stand for,” Osteen said at Lifepoint Church in Virginia at the time.