The Things to Come

A lot of folks today seem vexed by the idea that people just can’t seem to agree on anything.
“Why can’t we all just get along?” is the rallying cry of the liberal side of life that believes that in order to co-exist in this life we have to homogenize, neutralize, and super-size our toleration of every possible theory, algorithm and ideology. Whether it’s politics, religion, healthcare, or child-rearing, increasingly, differing points of view on almost any subject, with a side order of political correctness thrown in, can generate passionate, even violent responses from both the left and right sides of the socio/political aisle.

But, in spite of all our vast differences, believe it or not, I am going to say something now that no living being will be able to argue with. Really. Alright, it’s pretty basic and not too profound, but it is no less true. Here it is: every living being, whether plant, animal, or homo sapien, has to eat in order to maintain life. Yep, that’s it. I know, you are overwhelmed with revelatory insight right about now. But just think at how basic I had to get to find something EVERY living thing can agree on! That should give you an idea of the complexity of our world at this point in time. A world where any opinion or spin, no matter how wacky or wicked, can have a written or oral audience 24/7, whether on the airwaves or internet. Wacky AND wicked, it is.

So, let’s keep it basic. We all agree that every living being is designed – oops, we now disagree already perhaps – so let’s say that each living thing eats according to it’s physiology and each living thing needs certain nutrients. People eat people food, horses eat what they require, and plants take nutrients from the earth. Because we need to eat so frequently, we spend a lot of time acquiring, preparing, and digesting our nutrients. If we eat more than we require, we also have to spend any remaining time trying to work off the evidence that we can’t seem to stop taking in food. Now, in a simpler time, people lived on farms and raised their own protein and carbs, taking in and then burning off what they just ate, for survival’s sake. In fact, our great-greats probably spent most of their waking hours pondering their next meal and doing what it took to get it. How primitive and unproductive, you might be thinking.

But life moves forward: suppose humans reach a point in their ‘evolution’ on earth where they still need to eat, but can no longer be hunter/gatherers due to social change. Over time, with the industrializing of all aspects of life, let’s say we got ourselves a bona-fide, city-fied, electri-fied, consumer-driven world in which our every waking moment is governed by governors, industry and self-proclaimed experts on life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear? Survival mode is hard-wired into us.

Fear not, the only thing that might change, really, is how to acquire nutrients – from whom, and from where. The small country farm could give way to the ‘mega-farm’, which in turn could become enslaved to multi-national corporations to process and distribute mass quantities of well-preserved foods to a bona-fide, citi-fied, electri-fied world that cannot feed itself. That might work, but doesn’t it sound a bit – unnatural? What is natural anyway? Behold the humble cow, one of man’s two best friends in the world. Cows are designed (there’s that word again) to eat grass, not grains and assorted protein by-products; they should live 15 years (not 5), give beef and butter and real milk, and – I suspect – should not be injected with a vast array of chemicals designed to destroy both the animal and the human who benefits from it’s many talents. Crops should be grown with sun and rain and dirt as they are designed to, as opposed to season-extending and life-shortening chemicals; and people should be students on the types and quantities of nutrients needed, and the consequences of living outside those paramenters so they can make informed decisions in spite of a radically changing world. But the world system, being what it is (fallen) and owned by who it is (Satan) has persuaded us to tamper with the natural order of life to serve egos and unbridled greed. Processing, poisonous additives, unholy profits and a veneer of ‘prosperity’ have tempted the now global ‘food industry’ to make the natural, God-given and enjoyable pleasure of eating an often dangerous mine-field of scientific experimentation. So here is a snapshot of the world as it has embraced progress: malnourished, sedentary, overweight, diabetic and stressed. Artery-clogged and stroke-ready, depressed, violent, self-absorbed, uninsured and insomniac. But there are always pharmaceuticals to ease our pain and side effects are rare, so see your doctor if you experience any of the above. But all is well, global citizen, as there is enough processed food on the shelves in the Great American Supermarket to feed us all. We have tamed the hunger beast, for there is nothing we cannot do, we lack for nothing, and are lord of all we survey. Huzzah!
And – we did agree on something.

I know enough about the world’s system to know that everything about it is corrupt, it’s fading away, and I shall not put any hope whatsoever in it’s false premises and promises. I know enough that if I weren’t a believer, I would be frustrated beyond words at how things are run in this life and how little justice is served. I think it’s very possible that I would be the poster child for clinical depression if I didn’t have the solid foundation of Jesus to build upon each day. So, by God’s grace and to keep my sanity, as I still have to eat/drink/breathe in this world, I still spend a goodly amount of time acquiring and preparing family nourishment but I also add to that the pursuit of truth with any time I have left.

But how about another human need? It’s no less basic and foundational, yet I will bet dollars to donuts I won’t get unanimous agreement on this one. Here’s the premise: humans are more than the sum of what we eat and drink and wear; we are spiritual beings that because of creation know full well there is a God behind everything we see (Romans 1); we are sinners in need of a Saviour (Romans 3:23), and God has provided for us all that is needed for life and godliness (2Peter 1:3 ) Some will agree with this, but I would have lost some by now I’m sure. But if you have already been reconciled to Christ through His atoning work on the cross – through genuine repentance and faith in that work – you are a new creature in Christ, old things having passed away. And like any new life, your first requirement is to – eat. Can we all agree on that premise as believers? I hope so, or the rest of this article will not be a consensus.

Because of His Word, the owner’s manual for humans, we can know everything there is to know on this side of eternity concerning what God requires of us. We know His Word is foundational to life, because the Scriptures tell us that ‘in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God’ (John 1:1); that ‘heaven and earth may pass away, but My words will never pass away’ (Matt 24:35; 1Pet 1:23); and that He ‘exalts His Word above His Name’ (Psalm 138:2). Whether you are a seeker looking for the answers to life’s dilemmas, or a new believer looking for a bottle of ‘milk’ whereby to grow, or a seasoned saint who has learned how to dig deep for a hearty meal, the Bible is indispensable and foundational to anyone who thinks they have it all figured out. It corrects, rebukes, reproves, and yet comforts in the darkest hour. It’s milk, meat, vitamins, side dishes and dessert all in one. It’s pure, and cuts through the lies of this world, and nourishes us to the very marrow of our bones. “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” (Deut. 8:3) What in particular is it about that last verse do today’s Christians not understand? Plenty, from what I can see of today’s version of Christianity.

We have been generously supplied with a food source that comes from God Himself – true, trustworthy, pure, unadulterated, life-giving. No additives, the only preservative effect is that for those who live by it, it preserves the soul for eternity. It is free, it prevents (spiritual) death, it is readily available. It can be stored up in the innermost being for times of famine and scarcity, and
is a source of fuel – for extra energy when times are hard…and light for when it’s dark! And no one has ever had to ‘shed the excess’. In fact, I have yet to hear of a case of someone who has gorged themselves on the Scriptures to excess and whose spiritual health is compromised. More good news!

Now, let’s suppose that once upon a time (not too terribly long ago) Christians were able to feed and be fed within their community of believers, their ‘circle of influence’. A time when each local church, as governed by God and as the Holy Spirit gave direction, used its gifts and callings in a way that was simple and unadulterated. This is no fairy tale! Kind of like when people lived in small communities, rural or urban, and knew where the food was coming from and built a solid life around that. People did their usual living and dying, marrying and burying, of course, but the local congregation acquired, prepared, and digested the Word for themselves, they ate regularly, and God gave the increase. They took it in, and ‘worked it off’ by being ready in season and out and living it out. Result: a healthy local body. So simple!

But this model of Christianity may be on it’s last legs, in the same way that we no longer grow our own protein and carbs on planet earth. Let me explain.

There are those movers and shakers in the church today that might say, “how primitive and unproductive is the old fabled way, when what we COULD be doing is repackaging our food for more people. Isn’t it time to let someone else prepare, slice and dice, pre-digest our food for us, so we might actually change the world with mass-produced yet feel-good fillers that might be palatable for any spiritual persuasion? If all the food looks and smells and tastes the same, we could industrialize and popularize and homogenize our product so that we can all feel like we have eaten the same spiritual food each day.” And the more watered-down it is, the more we can feed. Christianity Lite! One-third less conviction, less filling, tastes great going down.

But is processed spiritual food of any value to the church? And who are the processors and where is the ingredient list so I can see what’s inside? Well, the processors are the publishing industry who take the latest fads and fancies of the church and re-package it for undiscerning Christian consumption. This includes former Christian publishers who have sold out to the huge secular book companies like Zondervan (owned by Rupert Murdoch and FOX),Thomas Nelson (owned by InterMedia Publishers, a private investing group), and Multnomah (owned by Random House). The mega-church is not unlike the corporate farm; the book publishers are not unlike the multi-national corporations who market their agenda/product. Ever since The Prayer of Jabez, and right up through the Purpose-Driven Life, and on into the latest Emerging Church tome, the Christian best-seller, with it’s formulas for success and re-inventions of the gospel is nothing more than man’s attempt to build bigger and better barns, by the arm of the flesh, and create a customer base for whatever it is they’re selling. Do I enjoy these comparisons? No, not one bit. Neither do I like it that there are churches that are abdicating the ‘small family farm’ approach to ministry, where leaders are letting a best-seller teach their people with a program that by default creates a back-door denomination and clones parts of the body that were meant to be distinctly unique. Richard Bennett has written the following about this trend that has taken over many churches:

Displacement of Pastors and the Consequences
“The ‘40 Days of Purpose’ campaign of purpose and community is distinct from other movements we have seen in recent times. Rick Warren asks pastors to devote their church and their people to an intensive forty days of reprogramming their understanding of God, Christ, and how one becomes a Christian. He promises at the end of forty days that the church will be transformed. Through his book and the agenda laid out, he teaches for forty days on nearly every aspect of the Christian life. This type of interference in the running of a church opens the way for an insidious take-over of that church. In Scripture the function of pastors is to teach and to be watchmen and guardians of the flocks the Lord has given to them. “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers.” To hand over their position before the Lord to another who will for seven weeks teach his own doctrinal messages based on a multitude of flawed paraphrases of Scripture is utterly unbiblical. The church is the pastors’ and elders’ charge. It is not theirs to bring in debased ideas that infiltrate every important area of the church life. In Warren’s book and movement, God’s absolute sovereignty is flatly denied as men are counseled to determine their own destinies.” The Purpose-Driven Life: Demeaning the Very Nature of God by Richard Bennett

I could not agree more with this brother. When we follow the latest spiritual fad, we are told that there are no side-effects and that there is no need to read the label, and those who do are ‘heresy-hunters’ and intolerant and narrow-minded. What did I say earlier in this article about our physical food choices? ‘People should be students on the types and quantities of nutrients needed, and the consequences of living outside those paramenters so they can make informed decisions in spite of a radically changing world.” As much as this applies to our physical bodies, how much more does it apply to ‘reading the label’ in what we take in spiritually? Would you – do you – allow the kinds of toxins into your physical bodies as are floating around the church today? Things such as emergent mysticism, purpose-driven relativity, and seeker sensitive powdered milk? When you call your family to the table each day, do you disregard warnings of food-bourne toxins and safe food-handling practices? Do you leave perfectly good food purchased with hard-earned money out on the counter to rot and bring illness to those you love? Or do you carefully acquire, prepare and offer up the best possible meals to bring growth and soundness to the bodies of those you love? With our natural bodies, we care for them and keep them safe, if we are wise, so that we can live a productive life – even all the while knowing we will die someday! No one likes to be sick, and yet the body of Christ seems to care not one bit if it allows spiritual poison to enter it’s bloodstream. Yet few blink when their churches turn to programs that serve up a plate full of adulterated fluff that never satisfies, cause spiritual malnourishment, and make the sheep sedentary, lazy, self-absorbed, and bring the cancer of apostasy into a formerly healthy ‘body’.

What can be done? Are we just too far gone to reverse this trend? I have great respect for the godly Pastors who labor among us; but I have no respect for those who take His Word so lightly that they give place to pre–owned teachings and neglect to be led by the Holy Spirit in their calling. God’s people will continue to get ripped off if they refuse to be discerning about what they are being fed. Even when we are sheltered in our mother’s womb, there is a cord that nourishes and fosters life when we cannot feed ourselves. All I can do in my own small way is to plead with today’s shepherds to nourish and shelter the sheep, and to cut that un-biblical cord with any ministry that embraces today’s smorgasbord of emergent-ecumenical-purpose-driven-seeker-sensitive junk food, and get back to communicating a faithful rendering of God’s holy Word – for the health of those for whom Christ has died.

Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers;
and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. 2Timothy 4:2-5

There is a Bruce Cockburn lyric that says, “I’m going to the northland; where the weather keeps you real”. And I for one, know this rings true for a couple of reasons. Northlanders, especially this winter, have been regularly reminded just how much the weather is beyond our control and bigger than we are. It controls our lives, our moods and our social calendar, not to mention church life for several months each year. Those who are accustomed to waking up to weather that may vary some but rarely bosses them around on any given day have little to compare to frequent crippling snow storms and sub-tolerable temps as they maneuver around their days somewhat effortlessly. Not that our ‘fine weather’ friends don’t have problems or find things to complain about. But in comparison to the perils of bad roads, frostbite, and comfort-food induced lethargy, we figure they have life pretty easy. But up here hey, we know experientially that some things, no matter how hard we try to control them, are utterly uncontrollable and that’s the truth. In America, where the Goldilocks approach to living – avoiding anything too hot, too cold, too difficult or too old – keeps so many so shallow, I find Bruce’s sentiment highly insightful.

What else keeps us real? The Word of God. Winter reminds me that there are absolutes, that I am a sinner in need of a Saviour, that Jesus paid the price once and for all; that He is the only way to eternal life regardless of anyone’s opinion to the contrary, and that His Word is the final Word on all things pertaining to life and godliness. No matter how hard we might try to have an endless summer in life, we will suffer winters of difficulty, misery, pain and loss. No matter how hard we might try to re-think Jesus and re-make Him in our own image, He remains changeless. No matter how people may let us down or try to ruin our good name, there is no shadow of turning with Him and we can count on Him. 2Timothy 2:13 says, “If we believe not, yet He abideth faithful: He cannot deny Himself.”

We are in a winter of sorts in another way – a season of difficulty before He returns. Many who are watching and waiting with their whole hearts feel it and see it daily. This old earth is fading away, and we await that incredible moment when our groaning and travailing gives way to the dawn of a new day forever with Him. Such a glorious truth gives hope, peace in suffering, and faith in God’s promises, and ‘keeps us real’. But there are those who prefer to scoff and delay His coming, in favor of making some sort of season of utopia here on earth, where worldly temporal ills somehow disappear magically and some sort of ‘golden church age’ lets the sunshine in for everyone, while denying that spiritual and/or physical death lie in wait for all flesh. Instead of looking at this life from a realistic perspective, they promote a re-thought, false gospel that bears no resemblance to the genuine article.

Northlanders know that we cannot simply ‘rethink’ Winter and it magically becomes Spring. Winter is real, it’s hard, and it tries our patience. Likewise, life is real, it’s hard, and it tries our patience. And the Gospel is no less unmoveable, real, and unchanging, and re-thinking or re-imagining it is just as ridiculous and dangerous as re-thinking any immutable truth in this life. We who live somewhere around the 44th parallel know this ‘for real’. And all Christians need to understand that we cannot re-think the Gospel and turn it into some sort of liberal, cross-less feel good road trip and still stay on the narrow road of faith and sacrifice. It’s either one or the other.

Let God be true and every man a liar. Come Lord Jesus.

Exclusive: Hal Lindsey compares cloning, other science to ‘hybrids’ from Genesis 6
Posted: February 15, 2008
4:39 pm Eastern

Anybody want to buy a dog?

“It could be the best thing ever invented, but it’s still an invention.”

I wish I knew the name of the source for this quote, because I can’t get it out of my head this week. I was watching a recent PBS program about the Mormon Church, and found it to be pretty fascinating from a secular/sociological standpoint. I am endlessly curious about the things that humans attach themselves to and the circles they associate themselves with as they form life-defining patterns of thought and reason. At one point in the program, they interviewed a gentleman who had left the Mormon church because he perceived it was just another religious system devised by man. And whether his discernment came from an actual encounter with the true gospel, or just his own reasoning, I was impressed by the above quote and thought it timely in light of the proliferation of spiritual ‘inventions’ that are constantly swaying and re-defining not only the spiritual paths of the masses, but also of the Church itself. And while I expect there to be spiritual snake oil sold to the unregenerate, the Church has no business being either swayed, swindled, defrauded, nobbled, conned, snowed, buffaloed, OR redefined.

Ecclesiastes 1:10 says, “Is there anything of which one can say, ‘look this is something new’? It was here already long ago, it was here before our time.” The world of course puts endless emphasis on ‘new and improved’, undiscovered methods, and cures and approaches to life and love that are ‘guaranteed’ to improve the quality of life. Millions are spent on TV ads simply to make us discontent and believe we are lacking something important, and that’s why things aren’t working the way they should. Of course, this is folly and contradicts the Scriptures that teach us that ‘godliness with contentment is great gain’ (1Tim 6:6). So the reverse must also be true – that un-godliness with dis-contentment is great loss! And think of all the loves and fortunes lost over time in chasing the perfect-ultimate-you-name-it answer to everything. Solomon says there is nothing new under the sun. What can be said and observed about life and human nature is already known and has been exploited for gain and wept over in loss over and over and over. A full life is made up of few gains, and mostly losses. And what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and yet loses his soul?

But what about the methods and vehicles for wickedness? Surely there must be something new in that realm. The last 100 years has seen more inventions, and more spent marketing those inventions, than in all previous epochs combined. The global system of good/evil and what is of value vs. what is worthless is mystifying to say the least. I bought a house once for $35,000. I sold it for $55,000 after it had gotten 12 years older and the floors slanted even more. The longer it stands the more it’s worth, and over time that home that was built for about $5000 max will be bought and sold for tens of thousands of dollars. On a smaller scale, say I bought a Beatles album in 1964 for $5, and 40 years later it was sold for $50, scratches and all. Now, you might say someone got ripped off. But not according to the world’s system. We glory and gloat in our worldly investments and in getting something for nothing in this life, and rarely is thought given to eternal investments that are kept for us in reserve, where moth and rust do not corrupt, yet are of great value. Our worldly inventions and investments are supposed to make life easier on a temporal level, but we are all still aging and dying at predictable rates; and some of the inventions themselves are actually killing us! How many people have died over time in car wrecks and plane crashes?

Now in this age, we have also entered into the realm of spiritual ‘inventions’, increasingly so in the last 100 years or so. And they too could be killing us. Is there anything new under the sun? I believe Solomon’s statement is true. I believe sin is sin and there are no new ways to sin against God and man. But methods of enticing and tempting a generation to love the world and the things in it do change from era to era – if only for the sake of Satan’s goal of dragging the entire human race down to the pit with him. And he is working overtime to do just that, and in ways you may not realize. So if it’s new to our generation, it’s a new way to cause trouble only because it’s new to some people. Am I making sense? (Solomon, we can chat on the semantics of this at a later date if you want. Or by then it won’t matter.) Here is my case.

The buzz word for today is – ‘buzz-words’! Everyone who writes a book or wants to get attention for their methodologies knows and utilizes this trick to the maximum. You might think this belongs to the realm of soap salesmen and telemarketers, but this is not the case. We got a mailing at the church this week about a new book called “Pivotal Prayer: Connecting With God in Times of Great Need” What it boils down to is a method for maximizing your prayers in time of crisis, encouraging people to pray when things are bad with the promise of potentially redirecting the entire course of their life. Does that really need a book? But there are no atheists in foxholes, and it’s unfortunate that for many, the ONLY time they pray is when things are hard. A contrite and repentant prayer for salvation, or the prayer of a righteous man can avail much at any time and requires us to pray in faith beyond our circumstances. Prayer is not a program! It’s not a formula! It’s part of a personal relationship with the living God who loves and cares for us as a Father. Yet, here is another mile-wide-and-inch-deep book appealing to the lowest spiritual denominator, and with the obvious goal of capitalizing on that word, ‘pivotal’, as if it were a magic bullet. Sure to become the next movement, I wager.

Church-growth conferences are another example of this type of emotional manipulation. They don’t have ‘Conferences’, they have Leadership ‘Summits’. Mere ‘conferences’ aren’t good enough for today’s ‘X-Treme Christianity’, we must have a ‘summit’ to express our nearness to God and the cosmic importance of the relevant revelations we plan to dispense to the lucky attendees who are paying what amounts to a new car payment to either attend or watch via satellite. The Emergent Church has more buzzwords than the average seeker could learn or understand in a lifetime, bringing a form of high-minded gnosticism to a lucky few who get it, and pushing the notion that the spirit-filled life is mystical and hard to attain – and special are you if you do ‘get it’.

When I received Christ decades ago, Christian books were mostly either devotionals, commentaries, or apologetics to help see through spiritual deception; the Bible was the #1 source for ‘hath God said” and all other books were down the line in priority, if one had time for them after studying the Word. And no one had to be too concerned about what was on the shelf at the Christian bookstore back then. But in only 20 years or so, we see the publishing industry being the mouthpiece for ‘hath God said”, and as people now demote God’s Word beneath best-sellers, the industry is promoting deception, instead of uncovering it. Doesn’t anyone else see this downward spiral into apostasy? Christians today do not see this change in the wind, it’s all about the moment and what they think they need because they are convinced they lack; so apparently they would rather mindlessly follow Christian personalities who are living off of royalties, adulation, and positions of power that should be foreign to the servant of God whose guide and motivation in life should be an old rugged cross of splinters and sacrifice. Where are the godly leaders who labor for a lifetime, often unnoticed and unsung by anyone but Jesus, holding hands at deathbeds and lingering long into every weekend to bring people God’s Word? Where are those willing to stand up for truth regardless of the abuse they suffer? They still exist; I know that firsthand. But they are becoming fewer and fewer, to the great peril of the church.

There is no end of Christian authors but more and more I see this post-modern mess we are in producing mostly self-proclaimed trend-setters who put their own interests first. Give me an hour a week in the presence of a true Spirit-led teacher of the Word and by God’s grace I will be a changed person. Give me a best-seller of fluff and platitudes and programs and I am poorer in spirit for the experience, not to mention, I won’t remember a word they said from page to page. The church should be shamed at what it considers to be of value today: It could be the best thing ever invented, but it’s still an invention. Thank you whoever you are who said that.

I admit that I never saw this emergent/church growth/New Age stuff coming on the horizon, and now that it’s here I sometimes mutter aloud to myself that if Solomon could have seen what we see, he might have thought differently about ‘change’ under the sun. But methods come and go, people are more and more gullible and short-sighted, and the enemy of our souls is working overtime to steal, kill, and destroy. Dismayed? Not really. Discouraged? Sometimes. But watching for His return: ALWAYS. It must be soon! Watch therefore!

Mary Danielsen

BY JACOB PRASCH www.moriel.org

Moriel Ministries & Jacob Prasch take extreme exception to the long statement highly critical of Chuck Smith, various Calvary Chapels, Roger Oakland and Dave Hunt by Richard Abanes of Saddleback Church in reaction to their expressed position regarding The Purpose Driven Agenda of Rick Warren. Mr. Abanes wrote as an apologist for Rick Warren and the Saddleback Purpose Driven ethos.
The response by Mr. Abanes was an exercise in circumlocution failing centrally and candidly to address the various concerns voiced to the unbiblical nature of The Purpose Driven Agenda. These are well documented in a series of well-researched and strongly lucid books and presentations by Warren Smith, Ray Yungen, Roger Oakland, Bob DeWaay, James Sundquist and others.
The caveats raised by Chuck Smith and various Calvary Chapel ministers, by Roger Oakland & Understand The Times, and by Dave Hunt & The Berean Call, are scripturally based objections to a compromise of biblical doctrine, biblical standards, and the nature of the biblical Gospel itself.
The Purpose Driven agenda combines the programmatic approach of marketing guru of the late Peter Drucker (a non believer) with a plethora of consumer psychology, New Age, and an ecumenical & interfaith pattern of compromise on essentials of the Christian faith – even advising rabbis who reject their true Messiah how to grow bigger synagogues without the gospel of Yeshua (Jesus). Mr. Abanes’ attempted defense of Purpose Driven involvement with Yoga as mere “stretching exercises” are directly balked at by Christian evangelists saved out of Hinduism such as Tom Chacko, and reflects the incipient New Age infiltration of the church in addition to the more general influences of New Age figures such as Ken Blanchard.
From Mr. Warren’s applause of a pro partial birth abortion presidential candidate as “the epitome of compassionate liberalism” to his false gospel that confuses justification with sanctification – warning us not to tell the unsaved to repent but just to accept Jesus in direct contradiction to The New Testament, the reasons for opposition to Mr. Warren’s new brand of paradigm shifted Christianity are very well in order.
Rick Warren & The Emergent Church
Of more concern however still is the Rick Warren & Purpose Driven partnership with Emergent Church leaders such as Brian McLaren who believes the use of imagination is the hermeneutical key to parable interpretation; this is pure gnosticism. Mr. Warren has closely co-operated with McLaren at least since the National Pastors Conference in San Diego in 2004. Mr. Warren co-authored the forward to Dan Kimbell’s book on The Emergent Church with Brian McLaren.
McLaren’s rejection of propositional truth as the basis of Christian faith stands in direct rejection of the Pauline doctrine that propositional belief in the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus is the crux of Christianity; McLaren’s position relegates him to the status of heretic. McLaren’s further call for a moratorium on debate of the morality of homosexuality and lesbianism in the church renders him a purveyor of unadulterated moral and doctrinal apostasy.
The Emergent church is an exercise in mysticism that redefines Christianity as a postmodern faith. With its contemplative exercises, icons, and pseudo-spiritual sensuality, it does not re-contextualize the gospel to evangelize a postmodern worldview but is rather an exercise in revived Patristic and medieval mysticism that redefines Christianity as a spiritually abject postmodern religion, and PURPOSE DRIVEN is merely the door into this demonically orchestrated delusion. McLaren’s ‘Generous Orthodoxy’ is but blatant heterodoxy.
Rick Warren’s joint activity with McLaren, such as joint authorship of a major book promulgating ‘Emergence’, can in no sense be dismissed as mere affiliation. McLaren and Warren are fellow architects of a new kind of church whose blue print is not biblical and whose ecclesiology is neither biblically apostolic or in accordance with the teachings of Christ concerning the nature of the church and its mission. Such scriptural principles are at best subordinated to the ideas of men (many of them non-believers); at worst, biblical principles are not uncommonly negated or else ignored. This is the essence of so called “Emergence”.
As a non-cessationist who takes a conservative biblically grounded understanding and praxis of charismatic gifts, I have in times past been appalled at the Word of God being relegated to a back burner in the face of an avalanche of emotionally charged experiential theology disguised as ‘new spirituality’. At times, this has amounted to virtual demonic deception as in the spiritual counterfeits in Toronto and Pensacola that failed to deliver the promised revivals. I likewise witnessed the lunacy of The Kansas City false prophets and their failed prophetic predictions before one of their leaders was discovered in serious immorality while another was admitted to be a homosexual and an alcoholic – after the bible was relegated.
I also watched as the positive thinking psychology of Norman Vincent Peale was repackaged for Evangelicals by Robert Schuller in further relegation of The Word of God. I then observed yet another level of the relegation of scripture when individuals such as C. Peter Wagner and Bill Hybels effectively nullified major areas of the eternal truths of scripture, replacing divine and apostolic concepts of church growth contained in scripture with a usurping system of programmatic strategies of purely human design.
I then looked in almost disbelief as men like Chuck Colson and J.I. Packer endorsed Peter Kreeft’s book ‘Ecumenical Jihad’, among other things, demanding ecumenical unity with Islam to morally redeem society, once again at the expense of the teaching of God’s Word.
Purpose Driven is but the natural next stage in this progression, following the same identical pattern of a relegation of the contextually exegeted Word of God to an inferior level of authority in favor of the devices and doctrines of mere men. As an evangelist to The Jews, it is my conviction that as The New Testament teaches in Matthew 15, this was condemned by Christ and did not work for Israel, and it is still condemned by Christ and likewise cannot work for the Church. Purpose Driven will not bring revival anymore than Toronto, Pensacola, or any the other doctrinally flawed attempts.
While Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven agenda is again simply the next stage in this downward progression, it is not the final stage. It is rather setting the stage for the next stage – The Emergent Church.
More serious than his working associations with Mr. McLaren however have been Mr. Warren’s working associations with Leonard Sweet and the recorded ‘Davos’ address by Mr. Warren placing him firmly at the forefront of an across the board departure from many of the most fundamental tenets of biblical Christianity.
The published Sweet position is that the biblical & propositional (doctrinally and historically factual) and the relational (personal relationship to Christ) components of Christian faith are mutually exclusive. Plainly, the scriptural position conversely is that the two are not only mutually dependent and complimentary, but hypo-statically united in that “Jesus is ‘The Truth’ incarnate”, yet simultaneously and co-equally as The Logos, “Jesus is ‘The Word’ incarnate”. Warren has been tied to Sweet and his aberrational views since 1995. Mr. Warren’s Davos address moreover is both irrefutable and incontrovertible in its clear and unambiguous contra-biblical content and thrust standing in basic contrast to scriptural dogma.
Books or “The Book”?
It is hardly the first time
Long before Rick Warren’s “Purpose Driven Life” and “Purpose Driven Church”, I also have seen other books amplified in emphasis above scripture including “The Prayer of Jabez”, and “God Chasers”. The latter went so far as to teach scripture is where God once was, but the epistles are dusty old letters to ancient churches. Neither became the panacea for woes their aspirants hoped. I also watched as Promise Keepers promoted “The Masculine Journey” as its guidebook by Robert Hicks. It taught that “Jesus was tempted have sex with other men” and that our young children losing their virginity outside of holy wedlock and coming home drunk or stoned should be seen as “a right of passage with the next generation being congratulated for being human”, which the author tried to deny was placing a benediction on sin. Needless to say, that Promise Keepers after similarly relegating God’s Word to a companion digest for “The Masculine Journey”, also similarly failed to stem the tide of spiritual and moral decline as it professed it could.
The Purpose Driven books of Rick Warren fit into the same groove and merely constitute the next phase of the same kind of books. Warren’s books are simply the next in line only engulfing even more Christians and churches then predecessors trends in Christian book sales that were its harbingers. As with the others, much of the postulating in the book is incompatible with that of scripture thus functionally eclipsing the Bible and often rendering it to a position of supplemental reading.
There is one partial difference with the books of Rick Warren however. In the previous trends, deduction took precedent over induction and the routine was to manipulate scripture passages out of ‘context’, in isolation from ‘co-texts’ in order to form a ‘pretext’. This facilitated a devious means to substitute exegesis (taking out of bible texts what is in there) with eisegesis (reading into it something not there). With the assistance of Eugene Peterson and a cultic hermeneutic of his own invention using the translocation of bible verses, Rick Warren outperforms the previous generation of false teachers who prepared the way for him, as he himself now prepares the way for Emergence.
As his premise is demonstrably void of biblical substance, it is obvious why Rick Warren resorts to ‘The Message’, a deranged paraphrase of Holy Writ bearing little translational fidelity to the original Greek & Hebrew texts. Not only does the authentic Word of God very often not support Mr. Warren’s presuppositions, but on the contrary, scripture quite frequently mitigates directly against key elements of Mr. Warren’s Purpose Driven / Market Driven mind set.
Jesus moreover, in The Olivet Discourse, issued an unmistakable warning of specific prophetic events Christians were to anticipate and recognize as indications of His return. Those failing to heed His instructions, Jesus warned, would be unprepared for this ‘parousia’ or the apocalyptic events that will usher it in. The final book in the canon of scripture is devoted exclusively to this theme, as are major sections of both Testaments. Yet, Rick Warren openly teaches the church in no uncertain terms, is to ignore the clear teachings of Jesus in this regard and avoid End Time prophecy as a “diversion”. This is delusional and is proposed by Mr. Warren by a literal trans-location of bible verses from Matthew 24 into the text of Acts 1 to make the text state the exact diametric opposite of what Jesus actually taught. He actually removes a verse from one book and interposes into another to take the place of a verse he deletes. It is actually a computer age “cut & paste” style of biblical interpretation, except that he is not the original author.
Jesus provided a detailed litany of End Time events to watch for. Either we believe and abide by the plain instruction of Jesus, or we believe and abide by the directly contrary teaching of Rick Warren. We cannot believe and adhere to both. Only one teaching can be true; the other must be false. Either Jesus teaches error or Warren does.
Prophecy or politics
Underlying the disparity between Chuck Smith, Roger Oakland, and Dave Hunt -and Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven crowd is series a fundamental dichotomies between the doctrine and authority of scripture and the philosophies and popularity of men.
No place is this perhaps more evident than in the sphere of biblical prophecy. In Calvary Chapels, the prophetic significance of contemporary world events from the moral deterioration of society, to deception in the church, to trends towards a one world currency, to the constellation of forces aligned in The Middle East with the same countries important in the ancient world of the bible now at the center of world events again, all represent a scenario pointing to the return of Jesus. This stance has always been a cornerstone of the ministries of Chuck Smith, Dave Hunt, and Roger Oakland. But, it is at inevitable odds with the ‘keep away from End Time prophecy’ urging of Rick Warren to his followers.
More to the point, biblical evangelism requiring a faith and repentance is the divine ‘PEACE PLAN’ of scripture preached by Calvary Chapel (Isaiah 52 & Ephesians 6). Again, in Rick Warren’s model, the need for repentance is downplayed with a message of ‘Just Get Jesus Into Your Life”, while biblically, without repentance, Jesus is not coming into someone’s life.
In Rick Warren’s ‘PEACE’ plan of ‘Planting Churches, Equipping leaders, Assisting the poor, Caring for the sick, and Education – there is no biblical definition of evangelism. Rick Warren’s is largely a social-political gospel. Biblically, social benevolence aimed at helping the poor and sick (and I write this as director of a ministry operating orphanages for AIDS babies in Africa) is both derivative from and subsequent to the salvation message predicated on faith and repentance; No Christ – No Peace. Indeed, in the estimation of some, biblical prophecy specifically warns against the advent of something along the lines of Rick Warren’s Peace plan (1 Thessalonians 5:3).

This is to say nothing of Mr. Warren’s shameful antics in Syria singing the praises of a terrorist regime responsible for the death of tens of thousands of its own citizens, that is additionally party to the slaughter and displacement of countless Lebanese Christians and massive rocket and missal attacks on Israeli civilians in partnership with radically Islamic Iran in 2006, only a few weeks prior to Rick Warren’s visit. Warren’s blasting of those who decried his actions as being “more interested in politics than the gospel” are doubly hypocritical, as he himself certainly conducted no evangelistic campaign in Syria, but pursued a kind of political agenda of his own. A biblical expositor, biblical pastor, or biblical evangelist Rick Warren most certainly is not. A consummate theocrat and theocratic politician however – Rick Warren most certainly is. Nevertheless, this seems to be all that he truly appears to be; just another motivational speaker masquerading as a bible preacher.
A Sincere Offer To Open And Fair Debate & A Sincere Endorsement Of The Unjustly Accosted
My own willingness to debate Rick Warren publicly in an open properly formatted and filmed webcast debate stands. While I place no judgment on their motives, theologically I can only regard him and his accomplices to be, wittingly or unwittingly, agents of a deception concocted in Gehenna and perpetrated against God’s people.
I thank God for the pastoral integrity exhibited by Pastor Chuck Smith and other Calvary Chapel pastors in protecting the flock of Christ, as I also thank The Lord for the efforts of Dave Hunt, Roger Oakland and others to rightly warn the church.
The polemic of Mr. Abanes reads like a flawed tome evading and avoiding the cardinal issues highlighted above.
We stand with Chuck Smith, Dave Hunt, and Roger Oakland solidly. My challenge to publicly debate Rick
Warren and /or Brian McLaren also stands.
JJ Prasch
Moriel Ministries