Last week, I received a personal email from the director of a Christian organization who invited me to check out a blog article he had written and a YouTube video interview he had given.
His issue?
He claimed that Rick Warren was “THE poster child global predatory pastor” and “THE MOST DANGEROUS PASTOR IN THE WORLD.”
So I read his article and listened to his entire video, jotting thoughts down along the way.
What did I learn?
That Rick Warren might be a 33rd Degree Mason and a member of the Illuminati … that he teaches “the tyranny of tithing” … that he doesn’t preach “Christ crucified” … and that because he prayed at President Obama’s inauguration, Warren is somehow linked to the elimination of the black race.
I kid you not.
And this “director” doesn’t have one good thing to say about Rick Warren … not one.
Let me try and answer each of these charges and then share why I think they’re being made.
First, is Rick Warren really a Mason?
When I was in seminary, my church history professor – Dr. Christian – made a statement I’ve never forgotten: “You can be a Christian and be a Mason, but you can’t be a good Christian and a good Mason.”
Why not?
Because both the church and the lodge demand total commitment – and because they believe mutually exclusive things.
In the interest of full disclosure, my son works at (not for) Saddleback Church. He’s had his picture taken with Pastor Rick … twice.
And my son says that Pastor Rick is rarely at church because he’s always traveling to some other part of the country or world.
How in the world would Pastor Rick have the time and energy to be both a Mason and a Christian pastor?
After muttering the claim on the video, the discernment ministry expert admitted that he didn’t have the documentation to prove that Warren really was a Mason.
But if you want to be taken seriously, why even mutter the claim if you can’t prove it?
Second, does Rick Warren teach tithing?
Yes. And so do thousands and thousands of other pastors. They honestly believe that the tithe in the Old Testament is assumed in the New Testament and point to Jesus’ words in Matthew 23:23 as proof.
But by what stretch of the imagination is keeping an Old Testament command tyranny? Isn’t keeping God’s law supposed to be liberating? Didn’t Jesus come not to abolish the Law but to fulfill it?
I taught tithing, and I’ve practiced it for decades in my own life. What’s wrong with that?
Why single Warren out for teaching tithing when so many others have done so? It’s okay to disagree, but to call it tyranny?
Good grief.
Third, does Warren preach “Christ crucified?”
The charge against Warren is that he has garbled the gospel message by not consistently preaching that Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead … and that he doesn’t tell people to repent of their sins.
This reminds me of a woman who once heard me preach on two consecutive Sundays. She wrote a note on her response card claiming that she wasn’t coming back to the church because I didn’t preach on John 3:16.
The following Sunday, that woman wasn’t present, but I did preach on John 3:16 … for the first time in years … but for some reason, I didn’t receive her note until the following day.
How ironic.
Can we put this “there’s only one way to preach the gospel” controversy to bed forever?
In Acts 16, Paul and Silas are arrested and imprisoned in Philippi. About midnight, a violent earthquake occurs, and the jailer – assuming his prisoners had escaped – attempts to kill himself. Paul stops him, and the jailer asks Paul, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
Paul replies in verse 31, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved – you and your household.” (If his household believes, they will be saved as well.) The next verse tells us, “Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house,” probably expanding upon their “believe” statement.
But do you know how many times I’ve heard preachers and evangelists tell people, “All you have to do to be saved is to believe in the Lord Jesus as Paul states in verse 31?”
Paul doesn’t mention Christ crucified … or the resurrection … or heaven or hell … or repentance … or judgment … or God’s law.
Guess what? Resurrection and repentance aren’t found in John 3:16, either … and Jesus said the thief on the cross was saved by simply saying, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
If using specific “code words” was vital to preaching the gospel, then Dr. Luke should have made sure that he used the right words every time he mentioned the gospel message in Acts … but he doesn’t.
He uses a variety of expressions to keep his book interesting … and many preachers do the same thing … including Rick Warren.
Finally, did Rick Warren sin by praying at Barack Obama’s inauguration?
Here’s how the argument is made on the videotape:
Warren blessed Obama at the inauguration … and Obama promotes Planned Parenthood … and their founder advocated the elimination of the black race … so, by implication, Rick Warren supports the elimination of the black race.
This is the kind of linkage that I grew up with as a fundamentalist:
If you’re in high school … and you go to a dance … you’ll get turned on … have sex after the dance … and get someone pregnant … SO DON’T GO TO THE DANCE.
How about this one instead?
If you listen to Christian kooks … and read their books … you’ll start sounding like a babbling idiot … pull away from your church … and sit in a corner sucking your thumb … SO DON’T LISTEN TO CHRSTIAN KOOKS.
But if you know anything about reasoning, you know there are huge jumps in logic between each step and that one step doesn’t logically follow the next.
Why are there so many Warren bashers out there today?
I have never met Rick Warren. I’ve read his books … and I follow him on Twitter … but I don’t know the man at all.
But I like him.
Last weekend, I watched him preach (using the Saddleback Roku app) on transforming your mind. The message was great.
It was biblical … interesting … relevant … practical … passionate … challenging … and convicting.
Do you know how hard it is to preach like that?
Rick Warren is an evangelist at heart, not a seminary professor. Like Paul, he seeks “to become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22).
He’s not like John the Baptist: living in isolation … leading an ultra-disciplined life … condemning sins sternly … and having a small group of followers.
He’s much more like Jesus: socializing with all kinds of people … enjoying life to the full … condemning the religious more than the irreligious … and gaining a large following.
And like many Christian leaders, if he’s asked to do something … and he thinks he’ll have a chance to represent Christ … he’ll say “yes” as often as possible … preaching the word “in season and out of season.”
Why does Rick Warren attract so much harsh criticism?
Because God has wildly blessed his ministry over the past 34 years … and God hasn’t blessed most other ministries in the same way.
And this makes “Christian discernment experts” and many pastors wildly jealous.
Paul wrote in Philippians 1:18 that even if certain people preach Christ “out of envy and rivalry” or “in love” … “The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.”
Is Rick Warren perfect?
No.
Has he made mistakes?
He’s the first one to admit that he has … and he’s disappointed me a few times … but so have most Christian leaders at one time or another.
But has God used him mightily?
Yes … and God only uses imperfect people.
In listening to all the Warren-bashing, I’ve never heard anyone say, “Let’s pray for Pastor Rick.”
So let’s pray for Pastor Rick … that God gives him many more years of service … and let’s pray for the Christian discernment experts … that they’ll focus on somebody really dangerous.
Any suggestions?
You can’t please all of the people all of the time, but you can bash most of the people most of the time.
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When I listened to the videotape of this supposed “expert,” he was boring, inarticulate, and basically uninteresting. He called Warren lots of names but had little evidence to back up his claims. I only wrote about this because the “expert” sent me a personal email linking me to some of his products. It bothers me that some Christians are earning money going after good people and not the real heretics.
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There can never be anything wrong with “straight-teaching” or “correct handling” of the “good message”, but at some point the hyper-vigilance of hyper-orthodoxy undermines that message and becomes a message of its own. We are warned in scripture about other “good” messages.
We Protestants take pride in the fact that we have broken away from an organization that no longer represented the original good message. But have we really broken away? We still cling to the edicts of the Church Councils of that organization that taught us the value of the shibboleth of orthodoxy.
I have noticed that a part (sometimes a big part) of being a believer is constantly being on one’s guard against false teaching. A person visiting a new church will be watched for any tell-tale signs of having received a “message” from an officially unrecognized authority, and the visitor is also watchful for any nuances of heresy in any potential future congregation before they commit to it.
The hyper-vigilance of hyper-orthodoxy is one of the things I’m watchful for.
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Les, thanks for your thoughts. I like that word “shibboleth.” Isn’t that from Joshua? Gotta say the code words the right way. We do need to be vigilant against false teaching – I’m not crazy about the health and wealth people – but we need to watch the spirit in which we criticize each other. There’s a gleefulness displayed in some of the ad hominem attacks against Warren that is truly alarming … like people are rooting for him to fail. I want every pastor and every teacher who loves Jesus to succeed. I want to see every Christian and every church grow. What’s wrong with that? But sometimes I feel like I’m in the minority.
Jim
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Good stuff. I do not understand why these “watchdog” organizations attack him so much. Okay, I guess I do know why (since I am the author of Pastor Abusers!) Kent P.S. I am teaching “The Purpose Driven Life” each week at a local prison and he does talk about repentance in it.
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I saw a “video” yesterday by John MacArthur (it’s his voice without his face) bashing The Purpose Driven Life. He criticizes Warren for leaving out repentance and judgment and many other “code words” in TPDL. But Warren is reaching many unbelievers while MacArthur just turns them off. The first message I ever heard Bill Hybels give was on substitutionary atonement. But it’s a big Bible … does Warren have to give the gospel in the “correct” language every single time?
By the way, the discernment “expert” was boring and inarticulate … but he claims special knowledge about Rick Warren that even Warren doesn’t know!
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Didn’t Rick Warren donate 90% of the proceeds from his book The Purpose Driven Life? Pretty awesome! On the flip side, I once heard Frederick K. C. Price brag to his congregation that he always flies first class and enjoys wearing his designer suits…hmmm…and by the way, Warren proclaimed the name of Jesus during the Obama inauguration on international television.
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Yes, Rick Warren “reverse tithes,” giving 90% of his income to the Lord and living on the other 10%. If he was a jerk, I could understand a little of the animosity directed his way, but he’s a genuinely nice guy. It’s perfectly legitimate for a pastor or Christian leader to point out areas of disagreement that they have with Warren, but the vitriol … and the ad hominem attacks … and the glee with which some Christians rip on him … makes we weep. Warren loves people … especially secular people … just like Jesus did. But his critics claim that he’s compromising by associating with them. Several months ago, Cat Stevens showed up at Warren’s house … they had met at some conference several years before … and Warren published a photo of the two of them. Warren is my age, and we both loved his music for a few years … but his critics said he was compromising with a Muslim. Jesus loves Muslims too, and wants them all to be saved, does He not? Whether that happens or not, does Jesus want His people to be mean to them? I don’t get it. Build bridges where you can.
Thanks for commenting, Ce Ce.
Jim
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Hit the nail on the head. Thank you for this post! Jealousy. I just stared listening to this inspired man and He guided me to God. Thats when all the bashing came into my view. I kept seeking reasons for it and found none. I was more disapointed in ministries like Jack Van Impe for joining the hate and I learned no one is perfect, just inspired, and used mightily.
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Thanks so much for reading my article and writing me. Having been a pastor for 36 years, I can tell you that there is a lot of jealousy among Christian leaders when God blesses one person’s ministry and doesn’t seem to be blessing theirs. But I have also learned that when God does bless someone’s ministry, they often pay a price in their family or personal life … a price that keeps them humble and dependent upon the Lord. Pastor Rick lost his son to suicide a few years ago, and I can’t even imagine the pain that he’s gone through … especially with all the people who piled on and ridiculed him at the time. Months after his son’s death, he said that he cries every day. When Paul went to the third heaven in 2 Corinthians 12, that experience was followed by a “thorn in the flesh” … some physical malady that kept him dependent upon the Lord. Pastor Rick needs our prayers, not our persecution.
Jim
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