Rick Warren: “Annoyed” with Critics

Warren called for “a new reformation” to
adapt to the 21st-century world.

“The first
Reformation was about belief; this one needs
to be
about behavior.” –Rick Warren,
2005,
“A World of Baptists,”
Associated
Baptist Press

“You know, 500 years ago, the first
Reformation with Luther and then Calvin, was
about beliefs. I think a new reformation is
going to be about behavior. The first
Reformation was about creeds; I think this
one will be about deeds. I think the first
one was about what the church believes; I
think this one will be about what the church
does. The first Reformation actually split
Christianity into dozens and then hundreds
of different segments. I think this one is
actually going to bring them together.”–Rick
Warren,


Pew Forum on Religion

Warren has convinced millions of people that
a new reformation is going to take place via
the Purpose Driven Movement: a reformation
in which good works (deeds) must be
practiced regardless of one’s religious
beliefs or even lack of them. What
beliefs one holds is secondary, according to
Rick Warren. At the
2005 UN Prayer Breakfast, he told an
audience of Christians, Hindus, and Muslims,
“God doesn’t care what religion you are.” He
told acclaimed broadcast journalist and
interviewer Charlie Rose that his
Purpose Driven Peace Plan could include
homosexuals, and he
told the Pew Forum that his reformation
could include Muslims. And when he says that
the first reformation “split Christianity”
and the new one will “bring them
[Catholicism and Protestantism] together, it
broadens his reformation kingdom even more….

…even with all the evidence there is
to show that Rick Warren is walking down a
path that is heading for something far
different than biblical Christianity, the
USA Today article says that “he’s
annoyed that anyone questions his
evangelical credentials.” He has shown this
annoyance many times in many ways. In
a book he has used for training leaders
and pastors, it says that
opposers (to his
program) are like “leaders from hell.” When
George Mair wrote a biography about
Warren that Warren didn’t like (even though
it was a testament of praise), Warren tried
to defame Mair in a most unkind and
un-warranted manner. A number of other
examples could be shown here that proves the USA Today article is accurate when it
says “he’s annoyed” with anyone who
questions his theology.

The USA Today article also shows that
Warren’s view toward what he calls
fundamentalist Christians is just as
derogatory as ever. “‘There are all kinds of
fundamentalists,” he [Warren] says,
listing Christian, Muslim, Jewish, atheist, even
secular forms. “I don’t happen to
agree with any of them.”

Warren’s distaste for
fundamentalist Christianity was revealed in
January 2006, when a Philadelphia reporter,
attending a Saddleback service,
stated: “Warren predicts that
fundamentalism, of all varieties, will be
‘one of the big enemies of the 21st
century.’ … Muslim fundamentalism,
Christian fundamentalism, Jewish fundamentalism, secular
fundamentalism – they’re all motivated by fear. Fear of each
other.'” In 2005, at the Pew Forum of
Religion, Warren told the mostly liberal
audience:

“Today there
really aren’t that many Fundamentalists left; I don’t know if
you know that or not, but they are such
a minority; there aren’t that many
Fundamentalists left in America … Now
the word ‘fundamentalist’ actually
comes from a document in the 1920s called the
Five Fundamentals of the Faith.* And it is a very
legalistic, narrow view of Christianity.“

* The Five Fundamentals of the Faith 1. The Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2. The Virgin Birth. 3. The Blood Atonement. 4. The Bodily Resurrection. 5. The inerrancy of the scriptures.

This brings us to the point we hope to make in
this article. Rick Warren has been trying to
appeal to both the secular world and the
evangelical world–he is attempting to serve
both “God” and man. Shortly after he made the
comments rejecting the five fundamentals of the
faith, he made a statement, this time to a
Christian audience, saying he did not
reject them but rather believed in them.

In his efforts to bring about
an ecumenical, global reformation, Rick Warren has attempted
to appeal to all persuasions. But what he says to one
audience does not work for another, so he must
change what he says, depending on the occasion
and the audience. The reason it does not work,
is because a Christian cannot serve both God and
man. The true Christian cannot work to build a
kingdom of this world while trying to hold onto
God’s kingdom, one that Jesus said is not of
this world.

Rick Warren believes that Christian
fundamentalists will have no part in his new
reformation. He believes they are an enemy to
the world today. He likens them to Islamic
terrorists. But in actuality, a true Christian
“fundamentalist” is one who believes in the
fundamentals of biblical faith. Thus, his
annoyance, anger, and growing frustration should
not be directed at true believers (what he calls
fundamentalists).

Scripture is clear: “No man can serve two
masters: for either he will hate the one, and
love the other; or else he will hold to the one,
and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and
mammon” (Matthew 6:24). In Warren’s effort to
serve the world, he has come to despise the
bride of Christ.

Right now, in the news, Rick Warren is taking
some heat by the secular media and by homosexual
activists for his stand against homosexual
marriage, and Barack Obama is taking heat for
asking Warren to participate at the
inauguration. What is so ironic about this is
that Rick Warren has done more to help Obama win
than perhaps any other person. That may sound
very far fetched to many, but please consider
this: Through various means, Warren has helped
to propel the emerging church, a movement which
ignited possibly millions of young people to
join ranks with leaders like Brian McLaren, Tony
Campolo, and Jim Wallis. McLaren, who
became an advisor to Obama prior to the
election, and was named as one of the 25 most
influential evangelicals by Time
magazine, gave the green thumbs up to his
followers to vote for Obama. It is very likely
that this huge group of young “progressive
evangelicals” (perhaps well over 20 million,
according to some estimates) tipped the balance
toward Obama, giving him the victory.

But that
is not all Warren did: In addition to helping
propel the emerging church, Warren’s badgering
at conservative Christians for focusing too much
on abortion and homosexual marriage eventually
gave way to causing confusion and guilt by many
who were Purpose-Driven congregants. That
number, by the way, is high. With 400,000
churches in his network (worldwide), a
conservative number of US followers could easily
be well over 50 million people (300,000 X 250
congregants). So this is why we say it is ironic
that Warren is in the present trouble with the
homosexuals and the secular media. He helped to
get them the president they wanted.

Regardless of Rick Warren’s reasons for showing
a last-minute public support for California’s
Proposition 8 (banning homosexual marriage), he
is a man who is attempting to serve both “God”
and man. Perhaps after all these years, since
the release of The Purpose Driven Church,
it has finally caught up with him. But where
will he find his home? It will not be with the
liberals and homosexuals unless he changes his
stance on homosexual marriage. And it will not
be with biblical Christians whom he is “annoyed”
with and whom he has come to despise. Will it be
with the broad group of spiritual “seekers” who
are ever looking but never finding truth because
it is never truly presented to them? Some will
see Rick Warren as a Christian martyr for being
ridiculed and harassed by the media and
homosexual activists. But Lighthouse Trails can
only see him as one who has been deceived and
has taken far too many with him into that
deception.

A man of God is not annoyed when he is
questioned and challenged, but rather he seeks
to repent and correct his wayward path. If Rick
Warren became single-minded, serving only God,
he would stand to lose a lot, but it would be
nothing in comparison to what he would gain.
“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall
gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”
(Mark 8:36)