The gospel of Rick Warren calls for a coalition of faith?
The gospel according to Rick Warren is to establish a coalition of faith with unbelievers. That is what I read according to what he said to the Muslims. Actually the gospel coming from Rick Warren does not even exist, at least for the people who really need to hear the gospel.
Read what Jan Markell thinks about the latest from Rick Warren and his Islamic Society of North America appearance. I am to the point where I do not not think the guy has anything to offer the Church or anyone else. I simply do not know why Christians call him their pastor, buy his sermons or read his incredible line of baloney. Rick Warren is a creation of the media because he rubs elbows with billionaires and CFR people. It is perhaps time that serious Christians take Rick Warren out of their vocabulary. It seems to me and Jan that Rick Warren is only going to lead people into the harlot one world religion described in Revelation.
An Open Letter to Pastor Rick Warren
Rick Warren told his Islamic audience, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA,) that he envisions “a coalition of faith.” Whether Pastor Warren knows this or not, this is just another term for the coming one-world religion outlined in Revelation 13. It is further outlined in Revelation 17.
Date posted: Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 5:59 pm | Under category: Nonsense, aberrant/heretical teaching, discernment
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The main question you ask is why Rick is speaking at the ISNA conference? While I do not wish to offer an apologia for ISNA, I would refer you to multiple articles that describe the organization’s goals in reaching out to other faiths, including Judaism, and denouncing terrorism (Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the leader of the largest branch of American Judaism, addressed the convention two years ago; also see the AP story on July 1 by Zoll, and stories in the Christian Post, Church Solutions and even the Washington Times in the past week).
What I would like to clarify is Rick’s message and motive. You claim that Rick probably doesn’t have an agenda, but I would like to assert that it is his lifelong agenda that led him to accept the invitation to speak at ISNA. You may have noticed that outside of Saddleback Church, and Rick’s 30 year Purpose Driven Ministry to pastors, he does very little speaking to Christian groups of believers. Instead, he invests his time speaking to groups of unbelievers that most pastors never get the opportunity to share with. He carefully considers the opportunities that God has given him to address these audiences. These are folks that Jesus died for, but would never enter a church to hear the Good News. Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Luke 5:31 (NIV) Rick believes strongly that if you want to actively demonstrate the love of Christ to others as He commands us to, then you have to reach out to a variety of audiences. No one is ever convinced of God’s love by labeling, condemnation, or anger. Rick strongly believes that if we want to behave in a Christ-like example, we must not waste any time judging others (Jesus didn’t), but instead, do everything we can to build relationships of love and respect and trust with others.
In our secular culture, there are about a dozen different groups of influencers that we at Saddleback seek to serve and reach out to including those in academics, business, military, sports, health care, media, prisoners, entertainment, other faiths, and government. If we are to fulfill Jesus’ Great Commission in the world, we must build bridges to all of these, and more. Just know the goal of every speaking engagement Rick accepts is always the same: The global glory of God. We seek to build bridges of love – from our hearts to hearts of even those we may disagree with – so that Jesus can walk across!
The theme of the session at which Rick will speak is “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness,” a theme most appropriate for a message on perhaps our country’s most sacred day, Independence Day. Rick will bring a message appropriate to the values of the meaning of this day on what America and all Americans, not just Muslims or Christians, need to maintain our independence. Freedom and independence were at the core of our country’s founders and those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice to protect this country across its history. As a pastor, Rick intimately understands these values, particularly the value of religious freedom, and will fiercely advocate for them unashamedly in front of any audience. But religious freedom means the right to practice the religion of one’s choice regardless of whether or not others agree with a particular religion’s tenets, and the freedom to associate for the common good of all Americans and for those less fortunate than us around the world. That is a value that is not only part of our heritage as Americans, but also a commandment of Jesus Christ.
I appreciate the opportunity to clarify Rick’s appearance before ISNA and would refer you to a recent issue of Rick’s “News and Views” in which he thoroughly discusses why he speaks to a variety of audiences.
http://www.saddlebackfamily.com/blogs/newsandviews/index.html
Totally agree. RW is nothing but a false teacher. He tells people what their itching ears want to hear. He sounds “christian” when he is talking to other “christians” and then he sounds another way when he is talking to the world. He sounds ashamed of the Gospel, the true Way of Jesus. He does not want to talk about Hell or the fact that many people will go there. Rick Warren showed his true colors when he backpedaled about gay marriage in front of Larry King. Its putrid, luke warm stuff. He is what the Bible calls a false teacher who has an appearance of righteousness but denies the truth. I pray for him that he would wake up and see the real Way the Truth and the Life.
Well if you warn Christians about people like warren they will accuse u of being judgmental. Rick Warren has said some stuff that was Biblically correct and many Christians just believe that he is Biblically sound. I will also say even Todd Bentley gave the gospel message before. Christians think that Satan and his teachers will just preach plain lies but that is not the case. I believe Satan and his teachers will use truth to hide their lies.
Thanks for Saddlebacks position RQ, but I would expect nothing less from people who follow and idolize Rick Warren.
The main question was not why Rick Warren was speaking at the ISNA conference or why Warren is appearing on many platforms with unbelievers. The real question is why in Rick Warren’s many appearances before unbelievers he has never presented the Gospel of Jesus Christ. N E V E R. You people at Saddleback seemed to have forgot the great commission and replaced it with a Warren social gospel of works.
If you want to be Christ’s examples you will copy those who founded the Church. They died to give a message to the world. They did not die to improve peoples life in the flesh. Warren has his priorities all mixed up. He says he wants to reach the world for Christ through doing works but then with his works he never gives them the only words that can help bring them to everlasting life.
You speak of the global glory of God as if God is working His glory through other religions. He is not. There is only one way to salvation and that is through Jesus Christ. If you do not understand that I would have to question your own salvation. How can Jesus walk across a bridge built on humanism and religious pluralism? It seems to me that the only bridge Rick Warren is building is toward a universal harlot religion.
Frankly, saying that Warren is doing this for Independence day and because America allows freedom of religion is an insult to my intelligence. Warren does not take the opportunities he has been given wherever and whenever he appears on any platform with unbelievers and this has been going on for decades. I guarantee you he will one day answer for his wasted opportunities and building on the house of God with his worldly stubble.
What good is to speak to unbelievers if you are never going to give them the only way to salvation? Can greater cooperation with demonic religions bring agreement with unbelievers or save the unbelievers if no gospel of Jesus Christ is ever given? Warren’s agenda seems to be about making a better world here and now and that might have some merit if he was using these good works to get the Christian message of salvation out, but that is not the case. What good is spending all your effort trying to make people a worldly success when God already said this world is condemn and heading for destruction? The people in it are totally lost in sin unless they come to Jesus for salvation but who cares at Saddleback?
The only hope for this fallen world is life through Jesus Christ and that was the message of the founders of the Church and is our great commission but it is not the message of Rick Warren and his disciples?
Rick Warren could use a few lessons from Michael Nazir-Ali, if you ask me. This man is one big insult to true Christianity and to the persecuted saints around the world. He can claim he believes in Christ as the Way to salvation as much as he likes but despite the numerous opportunities he has had to preach this fundamental truth, he continuously refuses to. To me he has proven to be nothing short of one of the many antichrists in this world today, a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Half truths are very effective lies. That’s why the world buys into “Christian” heresies and pagan religions rather than all-out Satanism.
Rick Warren is a charlatan and member of the Council on Foreign Relations. The man is more worried about rubbing elbows with the jet-set and making money than he is about spreading the Gospel. The Gospel of Christ is offensive to most people. He obviously cannot be bothered with all of that, sadly.
RQ,
I wonder, after Rick Warren’s Saddleback’s propaganda and damage control team responds to Blogs like mine, does anyone on the Saddleback team ever find the time to do follow-up responses?
Jesus wants us (as His children and ambassadors) to express His Good News in a culturally relevant way; He wants this because He wants everyone to understand what He is willing to do for them, because He doesn’t want anyone to miss-out on reconciliation with Himself.
This reconciliation can only come on God’s terms: God gave us Himself (in the form of Jesus), to take the punishment we deserved (to satisfy justice), so that we could live enjoying God and serving Him forever (demonstrating to us, love and mercy). We accept that He is God and can do this. We accept the gift of this pardon. We submit ourselves to Him. The “work of God” is to simply “believe in Jesus,” meaning that we trust our lives to Him and what He did, instead of ourselves. As we do this we will supernaturally start to obey Christ and begin to take-on His character as our own; we do this with the help and motivation of God’s own Spirit that He places within us the moment we surrender to Him. THIS is the Gospel, the “Good News.” THIS Is what Mr. Warren should be sharing with people, and there are countless ways to express these truths, punctuated by the way we live our lives as His adopted children.
From what I am seeing of Rick Warren, he is promoting the world’s agenda with a veneer of “cultural Christianity.” Such “Christians” want no more of Jesus than the average unbeliever; they want the credibility that the name “Jesus” lends to their works, but they want nothing of our God Incarnate.
While I cannot judge Mr. Warren’s heart, it would not surprise me to learn that he will have led one of the “churches” during the Tribulation, having fully and openly joined the One World Religion. I hope I’m wrong.
I don’t think anyone is judging his heart here. But any so-called Christian being a member of the CFR is highly suspect. They are “The” behind the scenes group that is pushing “interdependency” and “mutual indispensibility”. Which of course are code phrases that mean the weaking of America so that it can be folded into a global governance scheme. I know I would personally like to have a one-on-one conversation with Warren to actually ask him what his beliefs are. I suspect he is a “Christ follower”. I hope I am wrong.
Everyone, I want to add to my remark above about Mr. Warren:
God knows his heart just as He knows everyone’s. Mr. Warren could be a true Christian (and I hope He is), but the things He is teaching to others really makes me wonder; he is speaking and acting as one who does not truly know Jesus as Savior and Lord.
So, I apologize if it seemed that I was condemning Mr. Warren.
Abba, my Love, please work in Rick Warren’s heart. We want him and his family to *know* You personally, not just know about You! We want Him to be promoting You and Your true Gospel, not some “religion” of man. *Man cannot save;* Only Jesus can save. Father, if he really is not saved, please help him to surrender to You; please do not let him die in his sins! If he truly is Yours, then by Your Spirit, please convict him, correct him! He could be using the talent and resources at his disposal to help bring many to Yourself, but right now he is spreading the world’s message and that will only end in disaster. Please have compassion on him, his family and upon those who are influenced by those teachings of his that are ungodly. Please glorify Yourself in us!
Hi Don…..I have been reading your newsletter……very interesting…..and some of it may be true….TOO MUCH DOOMSDAY for me….I AM GETTING TO FEEL DEPRESSED JUST READING IT…..you make it sound like you are the only saved christian in america..I understand the last days phrophesies….do you ever have a victorious message?? By the way rick warren is leading people to jesus….and that my friend jesus, saaid is the best measure to judge weather or not is a REAL CHRISTIAN….HE SAID IF YOU BARE FRUIT IN YOUR LIFE YOU ARE GOOD………..I dont think bashing our bro rick on your website is good fruit or even a good witness to the unsaved….sorry for these bad words….a concerned bro, jorge
I don’t have a newsletter Jorge so I really do not know what you are reading.
There is no doomsday for Christians. If you think there is perhaps you have a salvation problem. If you cannot see that the world is heading for destruction you have a discernment problem. Maybe you really love the world and that is why you get depressed when someone tells you that the nations are soon going to be judged and that this world system is soon going to end and be replaced by the reign of Jesus.
I do not understand where you get the idea that I think that I am the only Christian in America? My claim is that most Christians in America are not Christians and that can be proven by what they say about Jesus and the Gospel of salvation in national polls. If one does not know the basics of the Christian faith like how one is saved or why Jesus lived a sinless life and died for our sins and rose again, how can they even claim to be a Christian? They say they are Christians but when one questions them about Jesus it is clear that their Jesus is just a fantasy of their own mind.
I never said that Rick Warren’s church does not have programs that lead people to Jesus or that Rick Warren is not a Christian. What I said here and elsewhere about what Rick Warren is doing speaks for itself and I am not the only one saying it. Yet, in all the national appearances of Rick Warren on the media, show me even one where he personally leads anyone to Christ or even tried?
Jesus never said what you claim. You must be reading some strange postmodern paraphrase version of the Bible or you are just repeating what you think you heard incorrectly. There are none that are good in this world and only works led by the Holy Spirit builds on the house of God and counts for one’s rewards.
I don’t bash Rick Warren. I compare what he teaches to the world to what the Bible actually says. It is called using Christian discernment by comparing what teachers teach to the word of God. This is something Christians were directed to do so that the wolves in sheep’s clothing would not lead the flock astray like so many are doing today.
What would you have me say about Rick Warren that would be a good witness to the unsaved? Should I tell them that his message of interfaith cooperation with pagans is the way to bring them to the knowledge of the Savior?
From what you wrote here you are a prime example of the problem with those who think they can correct someone else without doing a lick of investigation or study for themselves. You claim to understand last day prophecies but I surmise that you really do not understand Bible eschatology or you would not have said the things you just said. You apparently want victorious messages that are really feel good philosophies of men taught by people like Rick Warren. All this is because you really do not study the word to show yourself approved and you probably think the gospel is “can’t we all get along”.
Jesus Christ is Lord. With that stated most of what I will write will come into His will. Yet I am Human, errant, yet forgiven. I am certain of that becasue of the Grace of God…the Grace being my acceptance of He whom resides within my Heart as He chose me. Powerful stuff, eh?
I read what you wrote and I am certain that while organizations may not be totally True, they do lead those toward Whom which is. My job, as a Christian, is to lead others to Christ. That is my primary, and, only job. So, in regards to the “feel good” gospels, if they lead souls toward Christ are they not performing a valuable service?
I use a lot of prayer and I know that the Holy Spirit will convict those and thus create the miraculous change in those whom Christ has chosen. I have not ever saved anyone. I cannot. I am not God. Be thankful for the instruments in the World that will lead to to Christ as, while they may not be perfect, they do as they have been meant to do.
Peace be with you and I know that you’ll experience a total joy in Christ. There is no peace without Him, none whatsoever.
God can reach people through a ass if He wants. However, the Church was directed to preach the gospel of Christ to the world not a feel good gospel. How many are being misled by the feel good gospel that never saved anyone? I am sure Satan is performing a valuable service in God’s plan or he would not be in the universe but that does not mean that we should follow his evil ways.