Tall trees catch a lot of wind, the Dutch say. This is sure the case with Rick Warren. He has been used by God to write a book and a church curriculum to help people discover God's purpose for their lives. He claims that Christians should: worship God, evangelize, fellowship, minister, and become more like Christ. Now, that seems about as biblical and as obviously true as it can get! But still there are people who are calling him a false teacher, that he is preparing the church for the anti-christ, etc.! What is going on here? What drives people to this?
Someone sent me some sites with criticism of Warren. As I looked at them it became very clear that, though the charges are extremely severe, the arguments to support those charges are weak, take statements out of context, and are driven by thinking that says: Warren is wrong/bad and if he says anything that sounds half-fishy, I'm going to attack! Here's an example:
http://www.bereanbeacon.org/articles/rick_warren_purpose_driven.htm. And here are two more: "Warren teaches that God "created the church to meet your five deepest needs" just as the Roman Catholic Church says, "The Church is the mother of all believers." Warren, like Rome, has switched from obedience to the Word and Person of the Living God to submission to a church to achieve one's needs. It is the oldest and cleverest temptation known to man."—Richard Bennett,
The Adulation of Man in the Purpose-Driven Life There's no way you can reach this conclusion--unless you started off by believing it in the first place.
Read the book! You will see that Warren does indeed teach obedience and submission to God and His Word!
Another example: "[Rick] Warren has turned the Gospel of Jesus Christ into a method."—Pastor Bob Dewaay
Twin City Fellowship, MN Dewaay says (
http://www.twincityfellowship.com/cic/articles/issue80.htm) "Rick Warren’s gospel is never clearly described. Here is one of his statements about it: “God won’t ask about your religious background or doctrinal views. The only thing that will matter is, did you accept what Jesus did for you and did you learn to love and trust him?” (Warren: 34). But, doctrine does matter because our doctrine of Christ determines whether we believe in the Christ of the Bible or the Christ of Mormonism or some other religion." Again, we're
way out of context here. Warren is
not arguing that Mormons or people of other religions will be saved based on their own beliefs. This is
twisting his words! And, he
does state the gospel (simply) in this very passage: "accept what Jesus did for you". Warren's gospel is about Jesus, not about man's effort, it's about what Jesus did (dying for our sins and rising from the dead), and it's about accepting (believing) that. See John 1.12; 1 Co. 15.1-8.
Warren is a prolific writer, and what he has written must be seen in context. If you take the time to read all he has to say, instead of twisting certain passages out of context, you will discover that he is sound in doctrine, faithful to the Scripture, and preaching a biblical gospel.
EXTRA: Here's a transcript of Warren's interview with Larry King on CNN:
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0411/22/lkl.01.html
