1. religion and spirituality
2. christianity

* Part III – Rick
Warren Continued
Introduction
In the first instalment on Rick Warren I concentrated on exposing the New Age influence that
hides under the surface of his globally successful Purpose Driven agenda, for both individuals
and churches. This included looking in some detail at Warren’s Bible of choice, The Message
by Eugene Peterson. This was important to do because when Rick Warren states, “The Bible
says…”, he invariably means The Message, which in reality is no Bible at all.
I also exposed the true identity of the people Rick Warren quotes, cites or praises in his
Purpose Driven books; people whose identities Rick Warren is not forthcoming about, which
is not surprising when their true identities are revealed. These people could under no
circumstances be called “evangelical” Christians, if indeed Christian at all.
In this second instalment on Rick Warren I will address the following points:
1.
2.
3.
4.
The Gospel presented in The Purpose Driven Life.
Rick Warren’s understanding and declaration of who God is.
The outworking of Rick Warren’s doctrine through The Daniel Plan and P.E.A.C.E. Plan.
Rick Warren’s low view of Bible prophecy.
As much as Rick Warren can say, ”Shibboleth”, he certainly is no “evangelical” in his doctrine.
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The Purpose Driven Gospel Message
Warren’s compromise and dilution of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is plain to see in The Purpose
Driven Life, and conveniently enables him to work on interfaith projects. He has stated that
we should not mention sin or repentance when witnessing to unbelievers, as it puts people
off. This version of the Gospel is certainly made easier to sell with Warren’s choice of Bible
The Message, which removes references to fearing God and downplays certain sins. Warren
says we need a new approach to the Gospel for the 21st century and what Warren has to say
about salvation to unbelievers in his book The Purpose Drive Life certainly is a new approach
when compared to what the Word of God says! On pages 58-59 he writes:
First, believe. Believe God loves you and made you for his purposes. Believe you’re
not an accident. Believe you were made to last forever. Believe God has chosen you
to have a relationship with Jesus, who died on the cross for you. Believe that no
matter what you’ve done, God wants to forgive you. Second, receive. Receive Jesus
into your life as Lord and Saviour. Receive his forgiveness for your sins. Receive his
spirit, who will give you the power to fulfil your life purpose. Wherever you are
reading this, I invite you to bow your head and quietly whisper the prayer that will
change your eternity: ‘Jesus I believe in you and I receive you.’ Go ahead. If you
sincerely meant that prayer congratulations! Welcome to the family of God!
Not once does Warren mention repentance; he says God’s forgiveness for our sins can be
received, but how can anyone receive God’s forgiveness without first repenting of their sins?
Matthew 4:17 and Mark 1:15 explains the Gospel message preached by Jesus was to repent
and believe. Acts 26:20 makes clear that Paul also preached repentance:
…that they should repent, turn to God, and do works befitting repentance.
Warren makes no mention of why Jesus had to go to the cross and explains nothing about
the cross that is related to divine justice and divine love. Instead he lamely states that those
who have not received the Gospel are not in line with God’s purposes for them and are “just
existing.” He then quotes John 3:36 from The Message, which reads:
Whoever accepts and trusts the Son gets in on everything, life complete and forever!
This is yet again Eugene Peterson’s own interpretation of what he thinks the Bible should
say in order to appeal to the flesh and the world, which wants “easy-believism”. Furthermore,
Warren cuts the quote in half and leaves out the “negative” remainder of the verse, which
states (in the NKJV):
…and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides
on him.
Whilst Warren does mention receiving Jesus as Lord and Saviour, he mentions nothing of the
cost of making Jesus Lord and Saviour. I would suggest this is made significantly easier by
preaching the Gospel from The Message, which uses the term “Lord” so few times and not
once refers to Jesus as “Lord Jesus”. Jesus certainly never shied away from teaching about
the cost of following Him (Luke 14:26-35). In Matthew 19:21-22 we read of the rich young
ruler who believed in Jesus, but was not willing to pay the price of making Jesus His Lord by
giving away his riches.
Rick Warren’s gospel is one of “easy-believism” and is completely in line with his “seekerfriendly” approach to church, but he needs to carefully and prayerfully consider Galatians 1:
7-9:
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… But there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the Gospel of Christ. But
even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we
have preached to you, let him be accursed.
The cross alone is effectual to salvation and we should not water it down. We should not add
to it, or take away from it. If we do, we run the risk of God’s judgement! In Galatians 5: 7-8,
Paul asks the Galatian church:
… Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion does not come from
Him who calls you.
On the Purpose Driven website’s promotion of the book there is proud reference to secular
organisations that use the Purpose Driven programme, such as the President of the United
States staff, Coca Cola, Wal-Mart, NASCAR, the Oakland Raiders football team, as well as
schools, civic clubs and prisons. Bearing in mind the apparent success of the programme with
secular organisations, let us very briefly consider the stated purpose of the Purpose Driven
programme:
This forty-day journey will show you how to live a purpose drive life – a life guided,
controlled and directed by God’s purpose.
How can the above official stated aim of the programme really have meaning and impact for
secular organisations, unless the Gospel message contained has been diluted to such an
extent that it becomes ineffectual and pointless? One can only surmise that the likes of Coca
Cola etc are merely using the Purpose Driven programme as they would any “self-help” or
“self-improvement” programme.
1 Peter 4:17 asks the question:
…what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?
If the Purpose Driven Life really does contain the full and true Gospel of Jesus Christ, then
the answer to Peter’s question is: those who do not obey the Gospel of God go away “selfimproved” and feeling better about themselves! That simply cannot be right when 1 Peter 2:8
tells us that the Gospel is a stumbling block to those who do not accept and obey it. Bearing
that in mind, can The Purpose Driven Life really claim to contain the full Gospel when
unbelievers can happily use it for their benefit without being offended by the Gospel
message?
Romans 9:33 tells us the Gospel offends! The Greek word for ‘offence’ is ‘skandalon’,
meaning ‘a stumbling block’. The Gospel is a stumbling block because it shatters mere human
ideals and expectations. Who wants to talk about Jesus’ Cross when it spells death to self, to
all human ideals and carnal hopes (including earth-bound strategies such as Warren’s
P.E.A.C.E. Plan)? In these pleasure-mad times the likes of Rick Warren do not want to talk
about a ‘crucified life’; he prefers to talk about a ‘purpose driven life’ and claims his Purpose
Driven books will change your life. The only book that will genuinely and eternally change
your life is the Bible, but on page 295 of The Purpose Driven Life Warren claims:
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The ground we have in common with unbelievers is not the Bible, but our common
needs, hurts, and interests as human beings. You cannot start with a text…
On the contrary, the Bible is precisely where you start. I could not put it better than J. Sidlow
Baxter (1903-1999) taken from his book, Our Bible: The Most Critical Issue:
Christianity is based on a book. It centres in a Person. It expresses itself in a
message. It authenticates itself in an experience.
That basic book is the Bible. That central Person is Jesus.
That expressive message is the Gospel. That authenticating experience is the new
birth.
Think here about that basic book. Christianity stands or falls with the Bible. It is no
use saying, as the liberalists or modernists do, that so long as we have Jesus we do
not need an infallibly inspired Bible.
Nay, all that we know authentically about the Lord Jesus we owe, and shall keep on
owing, to the Bible. To say that so long as we have Jesus we do not need the Bible is
about equal to saying that so long as we have the sunshine we don't need the sun.
I have said it many a time, and am surer of it than ever, that the life and death issue
of Christianity is the inspiration and authority of the Bible.
Who is God according to Rick Warren?
As Rick Warren describes himself as an “evangelical” and is openly accepted as an
“evangelical” by most of the Christian community around the world, surely one would expect
his understanding of the identity of God to be biblically sound as a minimum requirement?
After all, the word “evangelical” has been widely accepted and used to describe those
Christians who believe in the key doctrines of the faith, and the identity of God is the most
fundamental of all the Christian doctrines. With this in mind, it may shock some to discover
that Rick Warren preaches that Christians and Muslims worship the same God; that the God
of the Bible (Yahweh) is also the God of the Qu’ran (Allah). This is something Rick Warren
would deny out of one side of his mouth whilst declaring it out of the other, so let us look at
the facts.
A Common Word Between Us and You
Let us start with the document known as “A Common Word Between Us and You”. On 13th
October 2007, 138 Muslim scholars and clerics sent an open letter “to leaders of Christian
churches everywhere”. It was organised by the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic
Thought in Jordan, which is supported by the Jordanian Royal House and the Royal Academy
of Jordan. The signatories of the letter included top Muslim leaders from around the world
representing every major school of Islamic thought.
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The title of the Muslim letter, “A Common Word Between Us and You”, is taken directly from
a passage in the Qu’ran:
O people of the book! Come to a common word between us and you, that
we worship none but Allah, and that we associate no partners with him,
and that none of us shall take others as lords besides Allah (Q2:64).
The “People of the book” referred to are of course Christians (and Jews), and it is a call for
Muslims and Christians to come to a common understanding that they worship the same God,
Allah. The reference to Allah having no partners is a clear denial of Jesus being part of the
triune Godhead.
The Muslim letter called for love for God (Allah) and love for neighbour as common ground
and understanding among both Christian and Muslim faiths, making a clear appeal to
Christians on the grounds of the greatest commandment given by God:
36
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”37 Jesus replied: “‘Love
the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it:
‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two
commandments” (Matthew 22:36-40).
What would superficially appear to be an offer of common ground in the love of God and
one’s neighbour, is in reality a very carefully worded da’wa, meaning a call to convert or
submit to Islam; it is a missionary pamphlet extolling Islam and denigrating Christianity.
There is no doubt that the Muslim authors assumed that Muslim readers would understand
their veiled intentions, whilst Christian readers not familiar with Muslim traditions would fail to
understand.
Bearing in mind the fact that since its publication, “A Common Word Between Us and You”
has become the world’s leading interfaith dialogue initiative between Christians and Muslims,
one can only conclude that the vast majority of Christian readers did indeed completely miss
the veiled intention of the document. In fact, the document directly led to a written response
being drafted on 18/11/2007 (and published in the New York Times) by scholars at Yale
Divinity School for Faith and Culture titled “Loving God and Neighbour Together: A Christian
Response to A Common Word between Us and You”. This document was originally signed by
over 100 Christian theologians and leaders, but by mid-January 2008 the number of
signatories had risen to over 300. The signatories include the following well-known names:
Leith Anderson (Emergent Leader and President of the National Association of Evangelicals)
Bill Hybels (founder and senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church)
Tony Jones (Emergent leader)
Brian McLaren (Emergent leader, author, speaker and activist)
Robert Schuller (founder of Crystal Cathedral and “self-esteem” preacher)
Rick Warren
Interestingly, Rick Warren’s spiritual mentor, Robert Schuller, promoted CAMP- Christians and
Muslims for Peace years before “Loving God and Neighbour Together”. CAMP was an
organization of both Christians and Muslims finding "Common Ground" by being dedicated to
the promotion of Peace and Justice, as well as reconciliation of the world’s two largest
religions. Pretty identical to “Loving God and Neighbour Together” then!
Sadly, the authors and signatories of the letter “Loving God and Neighbour Together” should
have taken serious note of what Jesus warned in Matthew 10:16:
Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as
serpents and harmless as doves.
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“Loving God and Neighbour Together” is deeply and disturbingly flawed and no discerning
“evangelical” Christian should have gone anywhere near it; not least “America’s pastor” Rick
Warren! The problem is that the document contains statements that allude to the false and
blasphemous belief that Muslims and Christians worship the same God, that they “share the
same divine origin”. The document states:
It is hoped that this document will provide a common constitution for the many
worthy organisations and individuals who are carrying out interfaith dialogue all over
the world. Often these groups are unaware of each other, and duplicate each other’s
efforts. Not only can A Common Word Between Us give them a starting point for
cooperation and worldwide co-ordination, but it does so on the most solid theological
ground possible: the teachings of the Qu’ran and the Prophet, and the
commandments described by Jesus Christ in the Bible. Thus despite their differences,
Islam and Christianity not only share the same Divine Origin and the same
Abrahamic heritage, but the same two greatest commandments (emphasis
added).
Islam and Christianity share the same divine origin? Show me where it says that in Scripture!
The summary of “A Common Word Between Us and You” reads as follows:
The basis for this peace and understanding already exists. It is part of the very
foundational principles of both faiths: love of the One God (emphasis added).
The Christian response, “Loving God and Neighbour Together”, (signed by Rick Warren)
specifically refers to God as the “All-Merciful One”, which is a title given to Allah in the Qu’ran
no less than 57 times, but not found once in the Bible. In fact, the Christian response asks
the “All-Merciful One” for forgiveness:
Before we ‘shake your hand’ in responding to your letter, we ask forgiveness of
the All-Merciful One and of the Muslim community around the world (emphasis
added).
Let us not forget that the signatories of the “Loving God and Neighbour Together” document
are meant to be Christians, yet they ask the “All-Merciful One” for forgiveness and claim
Christianity and Islam “share the same divine origin”. This is utter blasphemy. In Islam,
honour and power are of central importance, and the asking for forgiveness from “the AllMerciful One” by so many Christian leaders plays right into that.
So what were the signatories asking for forgiveness for? They were assuming responsibility
for both the Crusades (which were Roman Catholic anyway!) and for the modern-day war on
Islamic terrorism; they were doing this in the name of all Christians! All that this misplaced
and misguided humility succeeded in doing was to reinforce the Muslim attitude that all nonMuslims are one big group; one umma, meaning that unbelievers are all one nation. In
Islamic thought the individual is recognised only by his connection to the community he
belongs to and has no value of himself as a free individual before God. This “communal” view
of human society still underpins Muslim responses to non-Muslims.
The Muslim scholars stated in “A Common Word”:
When freedom to worship God according to one’s conscience is curtailed, God is
dishonoured, the neighbour oppressed, and neither God nor neighbour is loved.
The eagerness to ask for forgiveness within “Loving God and Neighbour Together” was so
overwhelming that the authors completely ignored the opportunity to demand that Muslims
practice what they preach.
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For example, Britain has over 1700 mosques and approximately 3 million Muslims. In
contrast, Saudi Arabia does not permit even one church for almost a million Christians living
in that country.
But the main point of “A Common Word” was the assertion by the Muslim authors that
Muslims and Christians have the common ground of worshipping the same God. We should
therefore look more closely at this supposed common ground between the two faiths.
Worshipping the same God?
By signing the “Loving God and Neighbour Together” document, people like Rick Warren are
agreeing very much with the Muslim claim that they and Christians worship the same God;
this is after all the claimed “common ground” between the two faiths.
The Qu’ran claims that Muslims and Christians worship the same God (Q.29:46), but the Bible
most certainly does not, and both cannot be right. In these dangerous times of increasing
inter-faith and ecumenical agendas, it is vital that Christians know and understand that
Christians and Muslims do not worship the same God, and Rick Warren (and the other
signatories of “Loving God and Neighbour Together”) does very real harm in this area.
Whilst the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 6:4), Jesus (Mark 12:29) and the Qu’ran (Q.112:1)
agree that there is only one God, it is clear by comparing what the Qu’ran and the Bible
declares about God that the God of the Qu’ran and the God of the Bible are not one and the
same; Christianity and Islam do not “share the same divine origin” or the “love of the one
God”. But as so many eminent scholars and church leaders clearly beg to differ, it is worth
spending a little time understanding how Islam and Christianity cannot possibly be worshiping
the same God. If the God of Islam and the God of Christianity is one and the same, then he is
at best double-minded, or at worst schizophrenic. Either way, he would be a God that I would
want absolutely nothing to do with; he would be a God that no “evangelical” Christian should
want anything to do with.
Knowable or unknowable?
First of all, Allah is described in the Qu’ran as being “unknowable”, whereas the Bible declares
God (Yahweh) to be “knowable”. Jeremiah encourages us to know God:
But let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that
I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.
For in these I delight,” says the LORD (Jeremiah 9:24).
I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own
(John 10:14).
For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know
whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have
committed to Him until that Day (2 Timothy 1:12).
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born
of God and knows God (1 John 4:7).
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Is the same God knowable to Christians, but unknowable to Muslims, or are the Bible and
the Qu’ran describing different Gods?
God is Love
Secondly, none of Allah’s 90 names or attributes involves love. In Islam the focus is on
submission, so whilst love is mentioned in the Qu’ran, it is never more than a minor theme
connected with submission. On rare occasions when love is mentioned in the Qu’ran it is
usually in the sense of love between persons and love of material things. Love in the Qu’ran
mainly means “liking” or “preference”. The Qu’ran never states that God is love. A few
verses speak of Allah’s love towards specific categories of humans (i.e. good Muslims), but
this love derives from his will, rather than his nature, and is expressed towards good Muslims
as reward rather than in relationship. In contrast, the Bible clearly teaches that not only does
God love His creation, but God is love:
He who does not love does not know God, for God is love (1 John 4:8).
And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he
who abides in love abides in God, and God in him (1 John 4:16).
If the God of Islam and the God of Christianity are one and the same, he must have changed
his mind about being love. But the God of the Bible declares that He never changes:
For I am the LORD, I do not change (Malachi 3:6).
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8).
This is not deep theological exegesis, so Christian “scholars” and leaders should know the
difference between what the Bible declares about God and what the Qu’ran declares about
Allah; Psalm 136 alone declares that God’s love is eternal no less than 26 times! The
signatories of “Loving God and Neighbour Together” should know that the Qu’ran and the
Bible describe two different deities, and therefore Christianity and Islam do not “share the
same divine origin” or the “love of the One God.”
God the Father – Part of the Triune Godhead
But there is more. We have the issue of Allah never being described as “Father” in the
Qu’ran, whereas the Bible teaches from beginning to end that God the Father is part of the
triune Godhead. This leads on to the whole Muslim false teaching of the Trinity found in the
Qu’ran, which teaches that the Trinity is God, Mary and Jesus (Q.5:73,116). In the Qu’ran the
“Holy Spirit” refers to the angel Gabriel (Q.16:102). There is now even a “Muslim friendly”
Bible which changes the Trinity to make it less offensive to Muslims! An Arabic translation of
Matthew 28:19 changes the text from:
…baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
To:
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…cleanse them with water in the name of Allah, His Messiah, and His Holy
Spirit.
Whilst the Qu’ran is confused about who the Trinity is, the Bible is very clear that there is
only one God, and this God exists as one essence in three Persons:
God the Father
God the Son (Jesus Christ)
God the Holy Spirit
More than 60 Bible passages mention the three Persons of the Godhead.
God the Son - Jesus
More crucially, the Qu’ran alters the identity of Jesus, who is regarded as “nothing but a
prophet” (Q.5:75), and not the Son of God (Q.9:30), for Allah does not have a son (Q.4:171).
In stark contrast:
And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I
am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17).
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever
believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).
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If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the
witness of God which He has testified of His Son. 10 He who believes in the Son of
God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar,
because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son. 11 And this
is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12 He
who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have
life. 13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God,
that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in
the name of the Son of God (1 John 5:9-13).
Furthermore, the Bible categorically declares Jesus to be much more than a prophet. It
declares Jesus to be both God and man (John1:1, 14; Colossians 2:9; 1 Timothy 3:16).
Romans 9:5 declares Jesus to be “the eternally blessed God”, and Scripture is full of
declarations that there is no salvation apart from Jesus and His work on the cross:
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father
except through Me” (John 14:6).
Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given
among men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12).
He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is
condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten
Son of God (John 3:18).
He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him (John 3:36).
For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of
sins (Matthew 26:28).
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For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who
are being saved it is the power of God (1 Corinthians 1:18).
Jesus claimed to be God!
In John 10:30, Jesus said:
I and My Father are one.
What did He mean by that? We need only look at the Jews reaction to this statement by
Jesus to know He was claiming to be God. They tried to stone Him for this very claim. “…you,
a mere man, make yourself God” (John 10:33). The Jews clearly understood what Jesus was
claiming – deity. And notice that Jesus does not deny His claim to be God. When Jesus
declared, “I and the Father are one”, He was saying that He and the Father are of one nature
and essence. John 8:58 is another example. Jesus declared:
Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM
The response of the Jews who heard this statement from Jesus was fury and to take up
stones to kill Him for blasphemy, as the Mosaic Law commanded them to do, because “I AM”
is the name God gave Himself when addressing Moses in Exodus 3:14:
And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the
children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’
The Jews who heard Jesus declare He is “I AM” knew exactly what He was claiming!
Bearing in mind Jesus said He is God, not just a prophet as Muslims claim, Muslims revering
Him as just a prophet is totally illogical, because if Jesus is not God, He either knew what He
was claiming was false, which would make Him a liar, or He did not know what He was
claiming was false, which would make Him a lunatic. How could someone who claimed to be
God, but was not, be a prophet as Islam claims? That is illogical.
Jesus manifests the same traits as His Father, confirming that He is one and the same:
In Genesis 1:1; Psalm 102:25 and Isaiah 44:24, we are told that Creation is the work of God’s
hands. We are told the same about Jesus – all things are created in and through Him (John
1:3; Colossians 1:16 and Hebrews 1:2, 10).
Isaiah 44:6 describes God as “The first and the last”. In Revelation 1:17; 22:13 we read that
Jesus is “The first and the last”.
Deuteronomy 10:17 and Psalm 136:3 declare God to be “Lord of Lords.” Jesus is given the
same title in 1 Timothy 6:15 and Revelation 17:14; 19:16.
God is described as unchanging and eternal in Psalm 90:2; 102:26, 27; Malachi 3:6. Jesus is
also described as unchanging and eternal in John 8:58; Colossians 1:17; Hebrews 1:11, 12;
13:8.
God is the judge of all people - Genesis 18:25; Psalm 94:2; 96:13; 98:9. Jesus is also
described as being the judge of all people – John 5:22; Acts 17:31; 2 Corinthians 5:10; 2
Timothy 4:1.
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The Bible declares that no other God can save – Isaiah 43:11; 45:21, 22; Hosea 13:4. Jesus
is the Saviour of the world and there is no salvation apart from Him – John 4:42; Acts 4:12;
Titus 2:13; 1 John 4:14.
The Bible declares that God redeems from their sins a people for His own possession –
Exodus 19:5; Psalm 130:7, 8; Ezekiel 37:23. Titus 2:14 tells us that Jesus also redeems from
their sins a people for His own possession.
The Bible declares that God answers the prayers of those who call on Him – Psalm 86:5-8;
Isaiah 55:6, 7; Jeremiah 33:3; Joel 2:32). Jesus hears and answers the prayers of those who
call on Him – John 14:14; Romans 10:12, 13; 1 Corinthians 1:2; 2 Corinthians 12:8, 9.
The Bible declares that only God has divine glory – Isaiah 42:8; 48:11. John 17:5 tells us
Jesus has divine glory.
The Bible declares God is worshipped by angels – Psalm 97:7. Hebrews 1:6 tells us that Jesus
is worshipped by angels.
Jesus also accepted worship as God from His disciples. Thomas cried out to Jesus, “My Lord
and my God!” (John 20:28). Paul calls Jesus “great God and Saviour” (Titus 2:13) and points
out that prior to His incarnation Jesus existed in the “form of God” (Philippians 2:5-8). God
the Father says regarding Jesus: “Your throne, O God, will last forever and ever” (Hebrews
1:8). John states that “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word [Jesus] was God” (John 1:1).
In stark contrast, the Qu’ran denies the death of Christ, claiming that He was not crucified,
but taken alive to heaven (Q.4:157). Paul warned the Corinthians that if Christ is not risen
then our faith is futile as we are still in our sins (1 Corinthians 15:17).
Acceptance of Islam means denying the God of the Bible and the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. According to Islam, anyone who believes that Jesus is the Son of God - who became
man for us and died on the cross for the sins of the world – is committing the unpardonable
sin of shirk; the sin that Allah will never forgive.
According to 1 John 2:22, Islam is a lie and an antichrist religion:
Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies
the Father and the Son
What “common word” should Christians have with what Scripture calls a lie and antichrist
religion? It does not take a Bible scholar to know the answer to that question. A so-called
“evangelical” Christian leader like Rick Warren should know for sure.
Mixed Messages
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If the God of Islam is the same as the God of Christianity, then he really needs make his
mind up and stop sending confusing and mixed messages to the world. Paul declares in 1
Corinthians 14:33 that the God of the Bible is not the author of confusion, but of peace.
The Bible declares Yahweh to be the “God of Israel” over 200 times, and Israel is described
as the “apple of His eye” (Deuteronomy 32:9-10; Zechariah 2:8). Jews are God’s “chosen
people”. Just a few examples are Exodus 6:7; Leviticus 20:26; 1 Chronicles 16:13 and Psalm
105:6. Yet the Qu’ran calls the Jews apes and pigs (Q.5:60), and The Hadith (the sayings of
Muhammad allegedly received from Allah) declares that the Judgment Day will not come until
the rocks and trees cry out to Muslims to kill the Jews that are hiding behind them.
The Bible describes Christians as God’s dearly loved children. Just a few examples are
Romans 8:16, 21; Galatians 3:26 and Ephesians 1:5; 5:51. Allah’s attitude towards Christians
is the polar opposite. Allah tells Muslims, “Take not the Jews and Christians for friends…slay
the idolaters (infidels) wherever ye find them… (Q.5:51; 9:5).
Is God schizophrenic, or is the Qu’ran describing a different God to the Bible?
Again, it does not take a Bible scholar to answer that question; just a bit of honesty and
integrity.
The name of Allah
Let us now deal with the name “Allah” itself. There are those who maintain that “Allah” is
remarkably similar to the Hebrew title “Eloah”, which is the singular form of “Elohim”,
meaning “Mighty, One, Strength”. In Hebrew the word “Elohim” is used to refer not only to
the Creator, but also rulers, messengers and persons (e.g. Psalm 82). In Hebrew religious
usage neither “Eloah” nor “Elohim” denotes a name, but simply a title. In the same way, it
has been said that “Allah” is merely the Arabic word for “the god”, so rather than being the
name of God, it denotes a title similar to the way English speaking countries use the term
“God” as a title, the French use “Dieu” and the Spanish use “Dios”. This is not so. Allah is not
a generic Arabic word for God, so it is important to understand its origins and how this differs
from the God of the Bible.
Allah is in fact a contraction (or shortening) of al-llah, the name of the pagan moon god of
the Quraish, the powerful merchant tribe that Muhammad belonged to. The tribe had
worshiped al-llah with animal and human sacrifices for centuries before Islam was invented
by Muhammad in the 7th Century AD. Ibn Ishaq, Muhammad’s earliest biographer, tells how
Muhammad’s grandfather was about to sacrifice one of his sons, Abdullah (who as an adult
would become Muhammad’s father) to al-llah when a sorceress convinced him to sacrifice a
camel instead. The name of Muhammad’s father, Abdullah, is a contraction of Abd ul Allah,
which means “servant of Allah”, thus providing ample proof in itself that Allah was a pagan
idol worshiped long before Muhammad was born.
Al-llah was the chief god among the 360 or so idols worshiped in the pagan temple, the
Ka’aba in Mecca, until Muhammad rejected the polytheism (the worship of multiple gods or
deities) of his ancestors and took the name of his own tribe’s deity, the moon god al-llah, as
the one true God of his new religion Islam.
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Al-llah’s symbol was the crescent moon, which Muhammad kept as the symbol of his new
religion, and is still seen today on mosques, minarets, shrines and flags, such as the Turkish
flag below.
The crescent symbol of the pagan moon god is referred to in the Old Testament in Judges
8:21, 26 and Isaiah 3:18, proving that the God of Israel is separate and distinct from the
pagan moon god now referred to as Allah, and was around centuries before Muhammad
started Islam in 610AD.
When Muhammad conquered Mecca he destroyed all the idols in the Ka’aba, leaving only his
ancestral tribal deity al-llah as the remaining one true god of his new religion Islam.
However, Muhammad kept many of the pagan rituals connected with the Ka’aba as a way of
encouraging worshipers of the other idols to convert to worshiping his god al-llah.
Now that we have established the origin of Allah and his name, let us compare that to the
God of the Bible who also has a specific name. God’s name is YHWH. This is known as the
tetragrammaton (taken from the Greek meaning “four letters”). Since Hebrew is not usually
written with vowels included it is impossible to know for sure how YHWH should be correctly
pronounced, but (rightly or wrongly) it has been generally accepted as being pronounced
YAHWEH. This is because the first vowels from Adonai (meaning “Lord”) and Elohim found
their way into the consonants YHWH, thus forming YaHWeH. In reality, any number of vowel
combinations is possible. Jehovah Witnesses wrongly claim that Jehovah is God’s real name,
but this is actually a much later Latin variant. JHVH is a Latinisation of YHWH (Hebrew does
not even have a “J” sound), which was then mixed with the vowels from Eloah to form
JeHoVaH.
At the burning bush on Mount Horeb, God explained to Moses the meaning of His name:
I AM THAT I AM (Genesis 3:14-15).
YHWH means not just one who is, but the self-existent One who is in and of Himself.
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When “LORD” is rendered in the Bible (in capitals) it relates to where God’s name YHWH is
found in the original language. For example:
I am the LORD, that is My name; and My glory I will not give to another, nor My
praise to carved images (Isaiah 42:8).
One of my personal favourite examples is in Jonah 1:9-10 where the sailors on the ship asked
Jonah to tell them about him. He replied:
“I am a Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the
dry land.” 10 Then the men were exceedingly afraid…
Jonah told them he was a Hebrew and that he worshipped the LORD – YHWH. Jonah used
God’s name (not title) and from that the sailors knew exactly who, not what, Jonah
worshipped, and were afraid.
In the same way, when “GOD” is rendered in the Bible (in capitals) it refers to God’s name
YHWH being found in the original language. It is helpful to understand how many Bibles use
different English terms to differentiate between God’s name (Yahweh) and different titles
attributed to Him. For example:
God
Elohim
Lord
Adonai
Lord GOD
Adonai Yahweh
LORD of Hosts
Yahweh Sabaoth
God Almighty
El Shaddai
Bearing all this in mind, how on earth could an “evangelical” Christian put their signature on a
letter that calls Yahweh the “All-Merciful One” and asks the “All-Merciful One” for his
forgiveness? They are praying to a demon!
What “common word” can a Christian and Muslim have? Pauls gives the answer:
Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has
righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with
darkness? 15 And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with
an unbeliever? 16 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are
the temple of the living God (2 Corinthians 6:14-16).
It is worthy of note that the syncretising of Islam and Christianity is a major theme within the
Roman Catholic Church and the Emergent Church Movement. For example, Vatican Council
II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents, Volume 1 declares that Allah is the “Creator…
the one, merciful God, mankind’s judge”. Not only is this blasphemous statement declaring
that Allah is the God of the Bible, but also uses the familiar Qu’ranic language (that I referred
to earlier) of the “merciful one” to describe the God of the Bible.
In his book Finding Our Way Again, Emergent Church leader Brian MacLaren writes:
And during his lifetime, Abraham – like Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad – had an
encounter with God.
Brian MacLaren has celebrated Ramadan, which is the Muslim festival in celebration of
Muhammad being given the Qu’ran!
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Emergent teacher Tony Campolo wrote in his 2004 book titled, Speaking My Mind:
…a theology of mysticism provides some hope for common ground between
Christianity and Islam… Could they [Muslims] have encountered the same God we do
in our Christian mysticism? (pages 149-150).
In an interview with Tony Campolo on 22/3/2005, Shane Claiborne said:
You also note in your book the encounter of Francis of Assisi and the Muslim Sultan
during the thirteenth century… when they came together across major religious
divides and had a mystical unity… Maybe we will even find a mystical union of the
Spirit as Francis did.
Not only is Islam and Christianity being linked by Emergent Church leaders, but the bridge
being used to link the two faiths is mysticism, which has never formed part of biblical
Christianity, but has formed part of Roman Catholicism! This is an issue I addressed in part I.
So, Rick Warren’s attempt at syncretising Christianity with Islam is shared with those in the
Emergent Church Movement and the Roman Catholic Church. But Warren’s attempt to do so
does not stop at just putting his signature and endorsement to the words written by other
misguided Christians. Let us consider Warren’s own words within his prayer at the
inauguration of President Obama on 20th January 2009.
Presidential Inauguration Prayer
Firstly, with hundreds of millions of people watching on television around the world, Warren
opened his prayer with these carefully chosen words:
The Scripture tells us, ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God. The Lord is One.’ And you
are the compassionate and merciful one.
This was a very clever, very subtle and very deliberate pluralistic appeal to all the
“Abrahamic” religions of the world (Christianity, Judaism and Islam). How? The first part of
Warren’s prayer, “Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God. The Lord is One” is quoted directly from
Deuteronomy 6:5; the most notable prayer in Judaism known as the Shema. It was repeated
by Jesus when asked which was the greatest commandment of all. He responded:
The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is
one’ (Mark 12:29).
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(Notice in the above passage that LORD refers to the name YHWH).
All fine so far, but in the second part of his prayer Warren described God very specifically as
“the compassionate and merciful one”. Is this relevant? Is not YHWH compassionate and
merciful? Of course He is! Just a few examples are:
The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy
(Psalm 103:8).
The LORD is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy
(Psalm 145:8).
The problem is that his specific choice of words “the compassionate and merciful one” is
found nowhere in Scripture, yet is found in the Qu’ran; it is not found in the Qu’ran just a
few times. It is found in every one of the 114 Surahs (except Surah 9). Between the title of
the Surah and the opening verse is inserted the words “In the name of Allah, the most
compassionate, the most merciful one.”
Warren is guilty of deliberately adding and taking away from Scripture by cutting and pasting
the Holy Word of God with the unholy Qu’ran. This is no small matter, for it is something
that God specifically forbids:
You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may
keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you
(Deuteronomy 4:2).
…and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall
take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things
which are written in this book (Revelation 22:19).
But worse still was to come when Warren closed his prayer with the following words:
In the name of the one who changed my life, Yeshua, Isa, Jesus [Spanish
pronunciation], Jesus, who taught us to pray.
Most of the hundreds of millions who watched this live on TV around the world will have
naively assumed that Warren was merely addressing Jesus in the Hebrew (Yeshua), the
Arabic (Isa) the Spanish and English. This is not so. As we have already established, the
Jesus of the Qu’ran called Isa is not the same Jesus (Yeshua) of the Bible. Isa is the name
specifically given to the false Islamic Jesus only found in the pages of the Qu’ran. But the
implication of what Warren prayed was that he believes the Jesus of the Qu’ran and the
Jesus of the Bible are one and the same, and therefore the Jesus of the Qu’ran can still save.
Remember what he said at the Aspen Ideas Festival, The Aspen Institute on 6/7/2005.
During an interview with David Gergen he said:
I happen to know people who are followers of Christ in other religions.
To the Muslims listening to Warren’s prayer, their understanding of who Warren was
speaking of will have been determined by what Muslims have read about Isa in the Qu’ran,
which states that Jesus (Isa) is merely one of the many prophets of Allah (Q.4:171; 574) and
not the divine Son of God as declared by the Holy Bible. The Isa of the Qu’ran did not die on
the cross for the sins of the world. Many Islamic traditions say that either Judas Iscariot was
substituted on the cross in Jesus’ place, or that God miraculously delivered Jesus from the
hands of the Jews and Romans before His crucifixion. The Qu’ran says:
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They (the Jews) said (in boast), ‘We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the
messenger of Allah’ – But they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it
was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of
doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a
surety they killed him not – Nay, Allah raised him up to himself (Q.4:157158).
In response to that evil and blasphemous claim I simply repeat the words of Paul:
And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!
(1 Corinthians 15:17).
John 20:19-28 completely destroys the Muslim lie that Jesus was not crucified and
resurrected. Jesus showed His disciples His real and physical wounds in His hands and side to
prove He had indeed been crucified and resurrected. Upon seeing Jesus’ wounds for himself,
Thomas declared, “My Lord and my God!”
So Warren publicly declared in front of hundreds of millions of people around the world that
Yahweh and Allah are one and the same, and that the Isa of Islam is the same Jesus found in
the Bible. Shame on him. No true “evangelical” Christian would proclaim such a blasphemy,
and no “evangelical” should tolerate Warren doing so.
Islamic Society of North America Conference
Warren gave an address at the 46th Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) Conference in
Washington D.C. on 4th July 2009. This is an organisation that the American Justice
Department accused of funding terrorism. At the conference Warren spoke of the need for
Christians and Muslims to work together to restore civility to civilisation. He spoke of
promoting peace, freedom and protecting freedom (things that Islam knows nothing about),
reasoning that these things can never be achieved by governments. He listed four major
problems (conflict, corruption, poverty and disease) that could be resolved if Christians and
Muslims cooperate together through various joint projects. He implied that the fate of the
world depends on peace between Muslims and Christians, whereas God says the fate of the
world depends on His sovereignty:
21
Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the
beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? 22 It is He
who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who
stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.
23
He brings the princes to nothing; He makes the judges of the earth useless.
24
Scarcely shall they be planted, scarcely shall they be sown, scarcely shall their
stock take root in the earth, when He will also blow on them, and they will wither,
and the whirlwind will take them away like stubble (Isaiah 40:21-24).
Warren told the attendees of the conference:
I will tell you that I am not interested in interfaith dialogue. I am interested in
interfaith projects. There is a big difference.
Warren stated that he was “committed to the common good” and encouraged Muslims and
Christians to work together for the greater good without compromising each group’s
convictions. However, the very act of such interfaith projects is a serious compromise of the
Christian faith. Christians are to boldly and without compromise proclaim the Gospel of Jesus
Christ to Muslims, that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in Jesus’ name
in accordance with Luke 24:47:
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…and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all
nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
The only basis for unity or cooperation that a Muslim and Christian can have is if the Muslim
accepts the Jesus of the Bible as their LORD and Saviour. Anything less is a dangerous
compromise; something Rick Warren is very guilty of.
For the sake of fairness and balance I should point out I am aware that Rick Warren
categorically rejects the accusation that he promotes Chrislam (the syncretising of Christianity
and Islam). He has declared that he believes salvation can be attained through Jesus Christ
alone in accordance with John 14:6 and has rightly pointed out that, unlike churches that do
openly support Chrislam, his church has not replaced any crosses with crescent moons, nor
have they replaced any Bible with copies of the Qu’ran. However, my issue and concern is
this: those who do openly promote and practice Chrislam would not call themselves
“evangelical” Christians, whereas Rick Warren does.
Signing the “Loving God and Neighbour Together” document, declaring Allah and Yahweh to
be one and the same, asking forgiveness from the “All-Merciful One” and cutting and pasting
Scripture together with the Qu’ran in his inauguration prayer, are all dangerous compromises
that concede ground to an antichrist religion and spawns confusion with those Christians who
look to Warren as one who says, “Shibboleth” (“evangelical”). What is the potential logical
conclusion of conceding this dangerous ground? The very thing Warren pointed out: replacing
crosses with crescent moons and replacing Bibles with copies of the Qu’ran. Only time will tell
if this is the logical conclusion of Warren’s disgraceful compromise.
The Daniel Plan
According to Rick Warren, The Daniel Plan is a 52-week health and fitness programme, which
is part of Saddleback’s “Decade of Destiny”, a ten year plan to help individuals succeed and
be who God designed them to be in every aspect of life. It is a healthcare plan designed by
Warren for the Christian church, so has therefore been given a veneer of Christian spirituality
and perceived biblical basis by calling it The Daniel Plan, referring of course to the Daniel of
the Bible. I will come back to this point later. Warren has described The Daniel Plan as “God’s
prescription for your health.” God’s prescription? That is quite a claim. But is it true just
because he says so?
Now I want to make very clear at this stage that I am all for Christians (and non-Christians
for that matter) being as fit and healthy as possible, and I believe God instructs us to look
after our physical wellbeing as best we can, because our physical body is the temple of the
Holy Spirit and not our own:
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Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you,
whom you have from God, and you are not your own? (1 Corinthians 6:19).
However, because our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and not our own, how we take
care of our physical wellbeing is very important; we must ensure that we present our bodies
a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, as Paul instructs:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service
(Romans 12:1).
Verse two of Romans 12 then continues:
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your
mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
This is the root of my serious concern over The Daniel Plan: is it a programme based on
solid biblical foundations that will help Christians understand what the acceptable and perfect
will of God is, or is it merely helping Christians to conform to this world? To answer that
question I want to examine who Warren has recruited to run The Daniel Plan with him, and
what practices these people endorse.
Surely if The Daniel Plan is (as Warren claims) “God’s prescription for your health” he has
wisely and carefully chosen Christian medical practitioners to guide Christians in a biblical
regime of wellbeing? Let us briefly look at the three men Rick Warren has specifically turned
to.
Dr Daniel Amen
Dr Daniel Amen is a child and adult psychiatrist and Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry
and Human Behaviour at the University of California at Irvine School of Medicine. He is also a
brain imaging specialist.
He endorses meditation as a primary tool for having a healthy brain, and specifically
recommends a meditation technique called Kriya Kirtan, which is part of Kundalini yoga
tradition. Dr Amen is also a practitioner of Tantric (tantric sex), which is the use of
Hinduistic-type mysticism during sexual intercourse, which is meant to attain a higher state of
pleasure and divine consciousness. In reality, this simply invites demons into the marital bed.
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Dr Amen is founder of the famous Amen Clinic, which claims to diagnose brain disorders
including ADHD in children, and prescribes non-medical treatments, including hypnosis,
meditation and relaxation.
Dr Amen’s books are not surprisingly very popular throughout the New Age and metaphysical
community.
Dr Mark Hyman
Dr Mark Hyman is editor-in-chief of Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, which is
regarded as the most prestigious journal for alternative medicines and therapies.
Whilst I understand that Dr Hyman does not recommend meditation, he certainly does
recommend and practise yoga, which of course involves meditation. He has participated in a
programme called Yoga, Body and Spirit at Shambhala Mountain Center, a Buddhist retreat in
Colorado, USA.
Dr Mehmet Oz
Dr Mehmet Oz is Oprah Winfrey’s “favourite doctor”, which should immediately set alarm
bells ringing. He is a Muslim who has been influenced by both the mysticism of Sufi Islam and
the ideas of cultist mystic Emanuel Swedenborg – I made reference to Emanuel Swedenborg
in my first instalment of Shibboleth – Swedenborg was a medium who channelled spirits and
is regarded as not only being the founding father of modern spiritualism, but is a hero to the
New Age Movement and liberal Christianity (and when I say “liberal” I actually mean
unbiblical). The teachings of Swedenborg can be found everywhere in New Age doctrine.
Dr Oz believes hypnosis can and should be used to address emotional and addictive
behaviours. He also practices transcendental meditation, of which he is a national
spokesperson.
Dr Oz’s wife is a Reiki Master, a deeply occult practice of Eastern healing.
Rick Warren has enrolled a Jew, a Muslim and a (supposed) Christian, all of whom practise
the occult. None of these three men could say “Shibboleth” if their life depended on it!
So why is a professing “evangelical” Christian enrolling such men to run his health and wellbeing programme for Christians? A programme Warren describes as “God’s prescription for
your health”! Would God really address His people’s health needs via New Age occult
practitioners like Daniel Amen, Mark Hyman or Mehmet Oz, who practise transcendental
meditation, yoga, tantric sex, hypnosis and are influenced by Islam and Emanuel
Swedenborg?
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The answer does not require much in-depth searching; the answer is obvious:
14
Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has
righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with
darkness? 15 And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with
an unbeliever? 16 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are
the temple of the living God (2 Corinthians 6:14-16).
Daniel Amen, Mark Hyman and Mehmet Oz are unregenerate and ungodly men, with very
ungodly practices, and we are instructed not to walk in the counsel of the ungodly and avoid
their wicked practices:
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly (Psalm 1:1).
When you come into the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not
learn to follow the abominations of those nations (Deuteronomy 18:9).
Their beliefs and practices will not bear good fruit for anyone who participates in them:
Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit
(Matthew 7:17).
Sadly, Warren’s attitude towards embracing occult New Age Eastern activities is
commonplace within the Emergent Church Movement, and is typified by the following quote
made by Mark Oestreicher, President of Youth Specialties, on his website whyismarko.com on
25/10/2005 in response to receiving criticism for Youth Specialties promoting activities such
as yoga, labyrinths and contemplative prayer at their national youth and pastor conferences.
Although perhaps unsurprising, it is nevertheless interesting to note that Warren uses Youth
Specialties leaders to train his church’s youth under his Purpose Driven Youth programme. On
Eastern religion and Christianity Oestreicher wrote:
Christianity IS an eastern religion. It has all its roots in the East! It’s a bit baffling to
me that people lose sight of this, and insist on creating a false separation between
eastern religions and (apparently) western Christianity.
Rob Bell of course shares this view. In a 2004 Christianity Today article titled “Emergent
Mystique”. Bell said:
We’re rediscovering Christianity as an Eastern religion.
On yoga Oestreicher wrote:
Yoga is really just about stretching and slowing down. Sure, yoga, I suppose, could
focus on Hindi [Hindu] or Buddhist gods or something – but it can also focus on
Christ. We received a couple stomping-mad complaints about the yoga at the
National Pastors Convention, saying ‘putting your body in those positions invites Hindi
[Hindu] gods to enter your body.’ I’m sorry – this just sounds like heresy to me. If we
don’t believe Hindi [Hindu] gods actually exist, then why are we concerned about
them entering our bodies?
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These statements are sheer lunacy and incredibly dangerous coming from a man responsible
for a “Christian” youth organisation. First of all, whilst Christianity is Middle-Eastern in origin
geographically because of its roots being in Judaism, the Old Testament is full of God’s
instruction to His chosen people to remain separate from the surrounding pagan occult
practices, and of how God judged His people when they were seduced by the surrounding
pagan rituals and activities!
Oestreicher’s comment regarding not believing that Hindu gods exist, so why bother being
worried about them entering our bodies, exposes his dangerous lack of discernment and
knowledge of the Bible. In 1 Corinthians 10:20 Paul did not say that the gods of other false
religions did not exist. He said they were all demons. That being the case, we should most
certainly be concerned about them entering our bodies!
Meditation
All the activities endorsed by Hyman, Amen and Oz (and Rick Warren) have their origins in
occult Eastern philosophies and religions that profess a “way” to godhood that the Bible
denies. For example, when these men speak of meditation, it must not be confused with
what the Bible says about meditation. The Eastern definition of meditation requires the
participant to intentionally remove themselves from their conscious minds. This shutting
down and emptying of the mind is a total abdication of our God-given responsibility that
Jesus Himself declared is the first and great commandment: to love Him with all our heart,
soul and mind (Deuteronomy 6:5-6; Matthew 22:37). Therefore, the kind of meditation
taught in yoga and other Eastern practices violates one of God’s most basic commandments.
We are never told to empty our minds, but rather to meditate on Gods Word (Psalm
119:148), law (Joshua 1:8; Psalm 1:2), mighty deeds (Psalm 77:12), work (Psalm 77:12),
wonderful works (Psalm 11927) precepts (Psalm 119:15 and 119:78), glorious splendour
(Psalm 145:5) and statutes (Psalm 119:23 and 119:48).
Our minds are not to be shaped by the world’s way of thinking (Romans 12:2), and Eastern
practices are ways devised by sinful men under the power and influence of demonic spirits.
Set your minds on things above, not on things on the earth (Colossians 3:2).
Yoga
I appreciate that there may be those reading this who share Warren’s view that activities like
yoga can be removed from their occult origins and used as either just a means of physical
exercise, or even to worship the God of the Bible. This is a massive blind-spot within
“evangelical” Christianity and is as naïve as it is dangerous; they might as well be calling on
the name of Jesus whilst performing a witchcraft ritual! The origin of yoga is deeply occult
and is much more than a means of physical improvement that can be practised by separating
it from its spiritual roots. Yoga is an ancient practice originating in India used for spiritual
growth and enlightenment. The goal of yoga is not to know God, but to be God. This is the
lie the serpent tempted Eve with in the Garden of Eden!
Yoga means “to yoke” or “union” and refers to the traditional physical and mental disciplines
associated with Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. For example, in Hinduism, the goal and
purpose of the physical aspect of yoga is to achieve a spiritual end called Moksha (or the Void
in Buddhism). This refers to the release from the suffering of being subjected to the on-going
cycle of death and reincarnation. Moksha is achieved by realising “oneness” (“union”) with
the supreme Brahman, the Hindu concept of “God”, directly through the physical
participation in yoga; the physical positions of yoga are positions of prayer to demon gods
specifically intended for the practitioner “to yoke” with Brahman.
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The Hindu concept of “God” is hardly compatible with that of the Bible. The Hindu concept of
“God” is one of an eternal, infinite, divine source of impersonal energy. The Hindu (New
Age) God is both transcendent and immanent – above and below.
Worshipping the One True God
Does it really matter how we worship God, as long as we worship the one true God? The
millions of Christians who engage in New Age Eastern practices such as yoga in the belief
they are honouring the God of the Bible would clearly answer “No” to that question. But what
does God say about that?
Consider first Cain and Abel. Both offered worship sacrifices to the one true God, but only
Abel’s offering was acceptable to God. Cain decided how he wanted to offer his worship to
God, and that was clearly not his choice to make.
Consider also Genesis 32 where we are told that whilst Moses was up the mountain receiving
instruction from God, the Israelites got impatient and built a gold calf to worship. They
worshiped the image as YAHWEH, but this was not how God had instructed them to worship
Him; they were worshiping the right God, but in the wrong way.
Then consider Leviticus 10:1-3 where Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, made a fire offering to
God, but not in the way prescribed by God; they were worshipping the one true God, but in a
way unacceptable to God. Verse 1 describes their offering as “profane fire” and God judged
Nadab and Abihu most severely for it.
Then there is Jeroboam and what he did when Israel split after the reign of King Solomon,
with the ten Northern tribes following Jeroboam and the two Southern tribes (Judah and
Benjamin) following King Solomon’s son, Rehoboam. 1 Kings 12:28 tells us how Jeroboam
built two gold calves to be worshiped (thus repeating the sin of the Israelites in Genesis 32)
in order to prevent his subjects from travelling South to worship at the temple in Jerusalem
(under the rule of Rehoboam). He also made shrines on the high places and made priests
from every class of people, instead of from just the Levi tribe as God had instructed. All this
was done in the name of worshiping YAHWEH, the one true God of Israel, and in their hearts
and minds the ten tribes were worshiping the God of Israel, but that was not how the God
of Israel had commanded them to worship Him. As a result of Jeroboam’s actions he has the
unenviable title of being known as the king who sinned and made Israel to sin (1 Kings
14:16).
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Claiming to offer prayers and worship to the one true God by using Eastern practices such as
yoga, prayer labyrinths and contemplative prayer is offering “profane fire” to God; a most
serious thing to do. We do not get to decide how we offer to God our prayers and
worship; God decides that. God is righteous and holy and unchanging. Jesus Himself
shows us in Matthew 6:9-13 how to pray to God the Father. Verse 1 starts with:
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be
done…
God’s name is hallowed (holy) and we are to submit to His will in all things; especially how
we pray to Him and worship Him. Who we worship is important, but God makes clear that
how we worship Him is just as important. John 4:24 tells us that we must worship God and
spirit and truth. In spirit: the right God. In truth: the right way.
The Emperors New Clothes
In addition to the occult Eastern practices endorsed and participated in by these three men,
Dr Daniel Amen also brings to the table his expertise in psychiatry; the “Emperors new
clothes” of modern medicine which uses humanistic stereotypical classifications that are
nothing more than labels hung on symptoms that do nothing to deal with the root of most
mental illness and therefore cannot provide a cure. The principles of psychiatry are
diametrically at odds with the biblical description of body, soul and spirit and how these
elements relate and work together; it rejects the concepts of sin and guilt and regards them
merely as relics from a superstitious medieval Christianity. The foundation of psychiatry is a
man-made anti-Christian agenda. You need look no further for proof than the famous
Rorschach Ink-blot test where the patient has to “see” shapes that are then interpreted to
reveal his or her “real (inner) self”.
In interpreting the results it is claimed that religious contents are virtually never present in
the record of “normal” patients. Their occurrence is associated with profound concern with
good or evil; concern which, almost always, is interpreted as a screen for and displacement of
guilt induced by sexual preoccupation. These kinds of responses are regarded as common
among schizophrenics, particularly patients with delusions which concern religion.
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How many Christians who have undergone the Ink-blot test will have realised what the
interpretation of the examiner would have been if they said they saw any shape with religious
content?
What’s in a name?
Returning to the naming of Warren’s health plan The Daniel Plan is staggeringly ironic and
shows on Warren’s part either an appalling ignorance of Scripture, or a dishonest marketing
ploy; I firmly believe it is the latter. It is deliberately named so in an attempt to connect it
with the Daniel of the Bible and by doing so, give it biblical legitimacy (where in reality there
is none). The naming of The Daniel Plan is a specific and deliberate reference to how in
Daniel 1 we read that Daniel (and his friends) set themselves a dietary regime that had a
significantly positive effect on their wellbeing. The irony is that Daniel and his friends took on
the special dietary regime not because they were in need of getting into physical shape, but
in order to specifically avoid entering into pagan practices, such as eating food from the
king’s table that had been dedicated to demons. Rick Warren is doing exactly the opposite by
encouraging Christians through The Daniel Plan to enter into pagan practices!
Warren claims The Daniel Plan is “glorifying God in the way we eat, move and think”. That
was certainly true of the Daniel of the Bible, but is it really true of The Daniel Plan?
The P.E.A.C.E. Plan
Warren announced his P.E.A.C.E Plan in 2003 to tens of thousands of people at the Anaheim
Stadium, California by playing with his band the Jimmy Hendrix track “Purple Haze”, which is
a song about his use of LSD. Timothy Leary would have been proud! Warren then declared
the following:
I stand before you confidently right now and say to you that God is going to use you
to change the world. …I’m looking at a stadium full of people who are telling God
they will do whatever it takes to establish God’s Kingdom “on earth as it is in
heaven.” What will happen if the followers of Jesus say to Him, “We are yours?”
What kind of spiritual awakening will occur?
What does Warren mean by “Whatever it takes”? I think we know that it means working with
anyone of any faith. More on that later.
For various reasons, Christians have through the years tinkered with the gospel of Jesus
Christ; no major alterations, just a few “improvements”, a little shift in emphasis here and
there to better suit the culture of the day. As well-meaning as these little shifts in emphasis
may be, they have always led (and always will lead) to a diluting and compromise of the
original message of Jesus Christ.
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The most common manifestation of this is what is called the social gospel, which tries to fix
the ills of the world without fixing the hearts of the people inhabiting the world; it becomes a
gospel without Jesus Christ. This is the faulty foundation for Rick Warren’s global P.E.A.C.E.
Plan.
Nothing new under the sun
As much as Rick Warren would like everyone to think that his P.E.A.C.E. Plan is a new and
original God given vision, it is in fact nothing more than a repackaged social gospel, and the
social gospel is certainly nothing new and was not invented by Rick Warren. It actually had
its beginnings in the late 1800’s, when it was developed as a way of addressing the various
conditions of society that caused suffering among the population. The belief was (as it
remains with its supporters today) that Christianity will attract followers when it demonstrates
its love for mankind and that can be best demonstrated not by preaching Christ crucified in
(accordance with 1 Corinthians 15), but by helping to alleviate the physical suffering of
humanity caused by poverty, disease, oppressive work conditions, society’s injustices, civil
rights abuses etc. Those that fostered this movement believed that providing relief from
these “social problems” would improve the moral nature of those so deprived. In reality
however, all the good works in the world will not change the human heart condition. Only the
Gospel of Jesus Christ will do that.
Another motivation for the introduction of the social gospel was the eschatological beliefs of
those involved, i.e. their view of End-Times teaching. Nearly all those involved were (and are
today) either amillennialists or (more predominantly) post-millennialists. Amillennialists do not
believe that Revelation 20 should be interpreted literally and as such do not believe in a literal
1000 year rule of Christ on Earth. In spite of 1000 years being specifically referred to no less
than six times within the space of the first seven verses of Revelation 20, amillennialists
believe that we are already living in a figurative 1000 year time period (i.e. just a long but
undetermined length of time) in which Christ is ruling from heaven. Therefore, according to
the amillennial view, Satan is already bound, and Christians are God’s appointed workers to
bring about a kingdom on earth worthy of Christ. Calvin was an amillennialist (as was his
mentor Augustine, who is the author of the doctrine) and it was Calvin’s amillennialist
theology that drove and motivated all that he did in Geneva (i.e. bring heaven to earth); with
catastrophic results.
Post-millennialists on the other hand believe that we are currently living in the “millennial
kingdom” (which is not necessarily a literal 1000 years) and Christ will return after (post) the
“millennial kingdom”. Running up to Christ’s return this world will become better and better
through the increasing influence of Christians on Earth, eventually leading to the world being
“Christianised”. At that point, Christ will be invited back to Earth to reign. Post-millennialists
therefore believe that their engagement in politics, good works and humanitarian causes
(such as the P.E.A.C.E. Plan) are all part of God’s plan to restore Earth to its Eden-like state
and enable Jesus to return.
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The post-millennial view is nothing less than the false doctrine of “Dominianism”, also called
“kingdom now” theology, which is where Rick Warren certainly sits theologically within this.
Rick Warren believes his P.E.A.C.E. Plan is part of God’s global plan to bring heaven to Earth
through the work of His people, and will contribute to God’s people setting up His Kingdom
for Him. The church is the kingdom-now!
People like Warren believe they are exercising their “God-given authority” to rule the Earth,
which is based on a faulty interpretation of Genesis where Adam and Eve failed to “take
dominion” over the world and handed it to Satan. Therefore, Christians have the God-given
authority for “restoration” of this divine authority to “take dominion” back from Satan. Warren
typifies this attitude by his earth-bound agendas of human effort, and instructing his
followers to regard End-Times teaching as a “diversion”. More on that later. The Bible is clear
that the Kingdom of God is something believers inherit, not build or take for themselves!
There is no doubt that certain aspects of the social gospel have over the years produced
some achievements that have contributed to the physical welfare of society in general, and I
firmly believe that Christians should do whatever they can to alleviate the genuine physical
ills of their fellow human beings. However, the question is: what message is being carried
with the acts of charity and good-will; what is being done for people’s spiritual needs? Jesus’
Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20 was to:
Make disciples
Teach sound doctrine
Spread the Good News (Gospel)
John Wesley (1703-1791) implemented these biblical principles. He understood that to
change society we must change the people in it, but we cannot change them; only God can
do that through second birth. Society is changed one person at a time through having a
saving faith in Jesus Christ. Social reforms such as the abolition of slavery, child labour, the
establishment of schools for the working classes and prison reform, all came about later as a
result of Wesley’s revivals, where Christ crucified was preached. Perfect examples of this are
William Wilberforce (1759-1833) and Lord Shaftesbury (1801-1885). Wilberforce’s political
views were completely driven by his Christian faith. He wrote a book titled Practical View of
the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians (1797), which became a best-seller.
Lord Shaftesbury is famous for (amongst other things) education reform, but this does not
tell the whole story. Lord Shaftesbury did not just long to see education provided for the
poor, he longed to see Christian education provided for the poor. He wanted every child to
be able to read so they could read the Bible for themselves and come to a personal saving
faith in Jesus Christ. Lord Shaftesbury’s various social reforms and acts of charity were all
underpinned by his yearning for people to hear the Gospel message of Jesus Christ.
Wilberforce and Shaftesbury’s social activism was the result of their recognition that the
Gospel of salvation needed to be preached.
If the acts of charity and goodwill do not contain the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they have no
right to be called Christian. Social gospels such as Warren’s P.E.A.C.E. Plan are not the
Gospel Jesus preached, or instructed his disciples to preach. The social gospel has become
the primary gospel of liberal theologians who are happy to dilute or even remove the need
for dealing with people’s spiritual problems (i.e. the repentance and forgiveness of their sins).
As historian George Marsden comments on the origins of the social gospel:
While not necessarily denying the value of the traditional approach of starting with
evangelism, social gospel spokesmen subordinated such themes, often suggesting
that stress on evangelism had made American evangelicalism too other-worldly…and
individualistic… Such themes fit well with the emerging liberal theology of the day.
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The emerging theology of the day that Marsden refers to was an increasing acceptance of
Darwinian theory, higher critical attacks on the Bible and Freudian redefining of human
nature. Is that any different to today? In light of these growing challenges to the Bible and
conservative “evangelical” thought, liberal theologians decided that Christianity needed to
change to survive. Aspects of Christianity that were seen to be apparently putting the
“modern” man off Christianity were rejected. This included the doctrine of the incarnation,
the atonement, creationism and the inspiration and authority of Scripture. Only those aspects
readily acceptable to “modern” man were to be kept. What Marsden is describing is the
beginnings of the “seeker friendly” approach to the Gospel espoused so enthusiastically by
people like Rick Warren today.
Western societies had little problem accepting such a social agenda, and as time went on the
church accommodated such thinking. Whilst not all churches accepted this new liberal social
gospel, by the turn of the 20th Century virtually all denominations, schools, seminaries and
Christian agencies had been infiltrated by this liberal rewriting of the true Gospel; by 1920
they had almost all capitulated to it and the test of orthodoxy had shifted from what one
believed to how one lived. Of this new liberal social gospel Marsden commented:
The key test of Christianity was life, not doctrine.
And that is where their problems originate from, because their view of doctrine was much
lower than God’s view of doctrine. This is just the same today for Rick Warren.
Social Gospel goes global
Through slick marketing the P.E.A.C.E. Plan has taken the social gospel to new heights, and
at the same time has given many people the impression that Rick Warren is the originator
and inventor of it. As I have already demonstrated, he is not. Not only is Rick Warren not the
inventor of the social gospel (or the false doctrine behind it), I have strong reason to believe
that his own version of it, the P.E.A.C.E. Plan, is in fact directly inspired by a disturbingly
similar PEACE Plan created by New Age leader Neale Donald Walsch. More on this later, but
let us first of all look at Warren’s P.E.A.C.E. Plan.
Warren identified the “giants” of humanity’s ills as being spiritual emptiness, self-centred
leadership, poverty, disease and illiteracy. And here was me thinking that all those things
were merely symptoms of humanity’s one great ill, sin.
When originally launched, Warren explained his P.E.A.C.E. Plan to be as follows:
Planting churches
Equipping leaders
Assisting the poor
Caring for the sick
Educating the next generation
So why do I suggest that Rick Warren’s P.E.A.C.E. Plan is inspired by New Age leader Neale
Donald Walsch? Because of the remarkable similarities between the two, and the fact that
good old Robert Schuller provides the connection between Warren and Walsch.
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Neale Donald Walsch is a major proponent of the New Age Movement, but prior to that was a
radio talk-show host, public relations professional and, by his own admission, a long-time
seeker of the metaphysical. In his book, Conversations with God: an uncommon dialogue, he
describes how he sat down one night and wrote an “angry letter” to God. To his surprise, he
got a response via an inner voice he identified as being God within him. That evening, and
during future “conversations” with God, Walsch transcribed all of the answers he received
from the inner voice to the many questions he had. These “conversations” were published in
1995 as Conversations with God: book 1, and became the first in a series of best-selling
Conversations with God books. The way in which these books were dictated to Walsch by
“God” is no different to how A Course in Miracles was dictated to Helen Schucman:
demonically.
In light of the similarities between Walsch’s and Warren’s P.E.A.C.E. Plans, it is more than
interesting to compare what Warren writes in The Purpose Driven Life with something written
by Walsch in Conversations with God: book 2. On the dedication page of his 2002 book, The
Purpose Driven Life, Warren writes:
Before you were born, God planned this moment in your life. It is no accident that
you are holding this book.
On page one of Walsch’s 1997 book, Conversations with God: book 2, Walsch writes:
This book has arrived in your life at the right and perfect time… Everything happens
in perfect order, and the arrival of this book in your life is no exception.
Is this remarkable similarity between the introduction of both books merely coincidence, or
evidence that Warren has been influenced by Walsch? As I outlined in part I, it would
certainly not be the first time that Warren has paraphrased New Age teachers in The Purpose
Driven Life. As I mentioned earlier, Robert Schuller provides a tangible connection between
the two men; I gave ample evidence in part I of how Rick Warren has been influenced by
Robert Schuller. Neale Donald Walsch has also been influenced by Schuller, and (unlike the
less honest Warren) is happy to publicly acknowledge Schuller’s influence. For example, in
Walsch’s 2002 book, The New Revelations: A Conversation with God, he praises Schuller’s
book, Self-Esteem: The New Reformation, and favourably quotes Schuller’s call for a new
“theology of self-esteem” and the need for a “new reformation” within the Church. Walsch
also calls for a (New Age) new reformation.
Walsch’s book, The New Revelations: A Conversation with God, was published in 2002,
before Warren launched his P.E.A.C.E. Plan. In his book Walsch outlined his own five point
New Age “PEACE Plan” that would help bring the world’s religions and belief systems closer
together through pluralist values. This was a “PEACE Plan” directly given to Walsch by his
demon spirit contact claiming to be “God”. The five points of the plan were as follows:
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Permit ourselves to acknowledge that some of our old beliefs about God and about life are no
longer working.
Explore the possibility that there is something we do not understand about God and about
life, the understanding of which could change everything.
Announce that we are willing for new understandings of God and life to now be brought
forth, understandings that could produce a new way of life on this planet.
Courageously examine these new understandings and if they align with our personal inner
truth and knowing, to enlarge our belief system to include them.
Express our lives as a demonstration of our highest beliefs, rather than as a denial of them.
The use of the same acronym is not the only similarity between Warren and Walsch’s PEACE
Plans. Both contain five steps that the authors claim will change the world and change
history. Both plans are claimed to be inspired directly by God, and that God is in the process
of bringing peace to the world. I do not believe either Warren or Walsch is right in making
these claims, but the similarities between their claims are disturbing when you consider the
New Age influence contained within Warren’s Purpose Driven Life that I documented in part
I.
Peter Drucker and the three-legged stool
When explaining his own P.E.A.C.E. Plan Warren used the analogy of the three-legged stool
to illustrate the best way to tackle the ills of the world. Even this is not an original concept
thought up by Warren, but is something he “borrowed” from one of his mentors, Peter
Drucker (19/11/1909-11/11/2005), a very successful entrepreneur and marketing guru, who
was a major proponent of New Age mysticism. That New Age influence again on Warren…
Drucker was not a Bible-believing Christian, nor was he influenced by Bible-believing
Christians. He was heavily influenced by people such as Austrian-born Jewish philosopher and
mystic Martin Buber (8/2/1878-13/6/1965).
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Buber was far from what could be described as an “evangelical” Christian by any stretch of
the imagination. For example, on page five of his book, The Way of Man, he wrote:
…a divine spark lives in every thing and being, but each spark is enclosed by an
isolating shell.
It does not take an expert to recognise the New Age influence in that philosophy. For
example, the very influential New Age organisation Share International Foundation says the
following on its website:
Man and woman, in turn, are ‘Sparks of God’, spiritual beings expressing themselves
through physical bodies. Each one of us is essentially divine, but compared to the
saints and sages of all religions, most individuals recognise and demonstrate this
divinity only to a limited degree.
Buber was heavily influenced by Gnosticism and the New Age. He held to a classic New Age
view that God is all and in all, and Drucker promoted that very same view in his own 1959
book titled, Landmarks of Tomorrow. For example, on page 264-265, referring directly to a
1923 book written by Buber titled I and Thou, Drucker wrote:
It needs the deep experience that the Thou and the I are one, which all higher
religions share.
Drucker looked towards creating a one-world government and used the analogy of a three
legged stool to describe how that one-world government would succeed. He said it would
require religion, business and government all working together. Sound familiar? Warren
introduced his P.E.A.C.E. Plan as the third leg of a three-legged stool.
In exactly the same way as Peter Drucker before him, Warren described two of the legs as
being government and business, which have thus far been ineffective and, just like a twolegged stool, cannot stand. According to Warren, the third and vital third leg of the stool is
the church. So the basis of his P.E.A.C.E. Plan is “borrowed” from a New Age proponent with
plans of creating a New Age one-world government. Shame on Warren.
If at first you don’t succeed…
In the 1980’s Peter Drucker attempted to enlist leaders of mega churches in America into his
own New Age plan for uniting religion, government and business. He initially targeted the
Calvary Chapel Movement because at the time it had over 50 mega churches in America.
Fortunately they displayed enough wisdom and discernment at the time to refuse his
advances, but since then Drucker’s philosophies have significantly influenced the Seeker
Friendly Movement, Emergent Church Movement and Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Church
Movement.
In the introduction to his book, Landmarks of Tomorrow, Drucker wrote:
At some unmarked point during the last twenty years we imperceptibly moved out of
the Modern Age and into a new, as yet nameless era. Our view of the world has
changed… There is a new spiritual center to human existence.
At the Pew Forum’s Faith Angle Conference in May 2005 Warren said of Drucker:
He’s my mentor. I’ve spent 20 years under his tutelage learning about leadership
from him…
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Why would a self-proclaimed “evangelical” Christian like Rick Warren regard a New Age
deceiver like Peter Drucker as his mentor? Drucker’s fingerprints are all over everything
Warren has done from his Purpose Driven agenda to his P.E.A.C.E. Plan; just as much in fact
as Robert Schuller’s. Christians everywhere need to wake up to whom and what is influencing
Rick Warren.
Pluralism
But Warren went further in order to include not just Christians in his global P.E.A.C.E. Plan,
but also “people of faith”, which made it even more similar to Neale Donald Walsch’s pluralist
PEACE Plan. At the 2008 World Economic Forum he declared:
The future of the world is not secularism, but religious pluralism.
An “evangelical” Christian leader speaking of pluralism in this way beggars belief. How could
Warren do this? This is totally in line with the message being preached by the New Age
Movement and Emergent Church. For example, in his book, The Emerging Church (for which
Warren wrote a gushing endorsement), Dan Kimball wrote:
In a post-Christian world, pluralism is the norm. Buddhism, Wicca [otherwise known
as witchcraft], Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, or an eclectic blend – it’s all part of the
soil (page 60).
New Age writer and friend to Rick Warren, Leonard Sweet, also wrote about this kind of
pluralism in his book, Quantum Spirituality:
It will take a decolonized theology for Christians to appreciate the genuineness of
others’ faiths, and to see and celebrate what is good, beautiful, and true in their
beliefs without any illusions that down deep we all are believers in the same thing
(pages 130-131)
One can be a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ without denying the flickers of the
sacred in followers of Yahweh, or Kali, or Krishna (page130).
Warren co-produced with Sweet an audio series titled, The Tides of Change – Riding the Next
Wave in Ministry, in which they talk of a “new spirituality”; a very New Age term. Warren has
also endorsed other work by Leonard Sweet, such as writing a glowing forward for Sweet’s
book, Soul Tsunami.
Further Compromise
To accommodate Warren’s compromise towards pluralism and working with “people of faith”
(i.e. people of other faiths) Warren revised the “P” in his P.E.A.C.E. Plan from “Planting
churches” to “Promoting reconciliation” and the “E” from “Equipping (church) leaders” to
“Equipping ethical leaders”. As with so much of Rick Warren’s theology and practice, he has
compromised his faith in order to befriend the world in the name of pluralism.
This is perfectly illustrated by the following quote he made in summarising his P.E.A.C.E. Plan
during an interview with Michael Cromartie:
When Jesus sent disciples … into a village he said, “Find the man of peace.” And he
said, “When you find the man of peace you start working with that person, and if
they respond to you, you work with them. If they don’t, you dust the dust off your
shoes; you go to the next village.” Who’s the man of peace in any village – or it
might be a woman of peace – who has the most respect?... They don’t have to be
Christian.
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In fact, they could be Muslim, but they’re open and they’re influential, and you work
with them to attack the five giants [to which Warren added global warming].
His description of what Jesus told His disciples is deliberately misleading and confusing. By
using the example of what Jesus said to the disciples Warren is drawing a deliberate
comparison between what the disciples did and what he does as part of finding “the man of
peace” he can work with. The disciples specifically spread the Gospel through “the man of
peace”. Therefore, Warren’s use of this comparison makes it sound like that is exactly what
Warren is doing; like he is tackling the world’s physical problems with the world’s “spiritual
problem” being front and centre of his agenda. He is not. Let us briefly look at the examples
in Scripture that Warren alluded to when he says that if someone won’t work with you, you
dust off your shoes and move on:
And whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that
house or city, shake off the dust from your feet (Matthew 10:14).
And whoever will not receive you nor hear you, when you depart from there, shake
off the dust under your feet as a testimony against them. Assuredly, I say to you, it
will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that
city! (Mark 6:11).
And whoever will not receive you, when you go out of that city, shake off the very
dust from your feet as a testimony against them (Luke 9:5).
In each of the passages of Scripture where Jesus speaks of finding the person of peace, that
person is the one who accepts the Gospel. That is the criteria for whether or not you work
with them. Mark 6:12 and Matthew 9:6 confirm this:
So they went out and preached that people should repent (Mark 6:12).
So they departed and went through the towns, preaching the gospel and healing
everywhere (Matthew 9:6).
The idea that Christians can further the Gospel by working with unbelievers is completely
unscriptural, and is why ventures like Warren’s P.E.A.C.E. Plan become nothing more than a
works based social gospel, which is no Gospel at all.
Preaching “another gospel”
In reality, God’s Word gives no commission to the church to fix the worlds problems and
those, like Rick Warren, who attempt to do so are starting out under a false premise. The
problems of this world are symptoms of the cause, and the cause is sin, and the church is
never commissioned to rectify injustices by dealing with the symptoms of sin.
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The church is called to radically uproot sin itself through the Gospel of Jesus Christ; whilst
Christians are to be loving and generous to all people, they are never told to directly remedy
the consequences of sin through social or environmental action; they are however a
legitimate outworking of the true Gospel of Jesus Christ being preached through the lives of
those who believe. The Bible clearly teaches that God is focused on reforming souls, not
societies, because God knows that a changed heart will result in changed behaviour.
Social gospels such as Rick Warren’s P.E.A.C.E. Plan not only promote “another gospel”
where people of other faiths are not called to repentance, it helps prepare a kingdom
contrary to the teaching of Scripture:
For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Saviour, the
Lord Jesus Christ (Philippians 3:20).
Consistent with amillennial/post-millennial doctrine, the efforts of the social gospel are earthbound in their attempt to “Christianise” the world and restore it in preparation for Christ’s
return. Did Jesus ever say that His church would “Christianise” the world and bring peace to it
before His return? Absolutely not. Jesus in fact warned:
When the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth? (Luke 18:8).
In total contradiction to the post-millennial (“Dominionist”) view, Jesus did not instruct His
followers to prepare a place for Him; He said He was going to prepare a place for us:
“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My
Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to
prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come
again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And
where I go you know, and the way you know.” (John 14:1-4).
14
Nowhere in Scripture are Christians instructed to build or prepare an Earthly Kingdom of God
for Christ’s return. Christ will not be returning to a kingdom prepared for Him, but will bring
His Kingdom with Him when He returns. He does not need our help in establishing His
kingdom and I believe this point is perfectly made by first referring to Genesis when human
history began, and then to when human history will come to an end; the Bible tells us much
about the End-Times, which is ignored by much of the church today.
The Beginning
Genesis tells us that God created man on the last day of His Creation week (day six) after He
had created everything else in preparation for man. At the beginning of history God prepared
a place for man and then put him in it; God did not require the assistance of man to do it! So
too in preparation for the end of history God is preparing a place for man (whether that be
heaven or hell) ready for God to put man in, and He does not require the assistance of man
to do it!
The end
Chapter 2 of the book of Daniel tells us how Daniel interpreted King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream
of the statue, which was a prophetic representation of the global kingdoms that were to
come throughout history and ending with the final kingdom before Christ’s return.
In Nebuchadnezzar’s dream that God gave Daniel the interpretation for, we have a Godgiven road-map of the future for humanity, leading right up to His return.
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Therefore, if the Christian “Dominionist” view is correct in that Christians will make the world
a better place in preparation for inviting Jesus to return, then surely this future “Christian”
kingdom would have been shown to Daniel.
The Interpretation
Daniel’s God-given interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream depicted Babylon as the great
head of gold, Medo-Persia as the chest and arms of silver, Greece as the thighs of bronze and
Rome as the legs of iron; legs because the Roman Empire split in two between East and West
(with the Eastern Roman Empire outlasting the Western Roman Empire by almost a thousand
years). Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream has thus far been fulfilled
throughout history with staggering accuracy.
The final kingdom that Daniel saw was represented by the ten toes of the statue. These were
made of a mixture of iron and clay, giving clear indication that the final empire in human
history will be an extension of the Great Roman Empire, but mixed with something else
represented by clay. As iron and clay does not mix (or adhere) together the final kingdom in
human history will be partly strong and partly weak, thus compromising its integrity and
strength.
All this was confirmed to Daniel in a vision God gave to him directly, which is recorded in
Daniel 7. Daniel’s vision began with the sea, which according to Isaiah 17:12-13; Matthew
13:47-51, Revelation 13:1 and 17:1, 15, represents the Gentile world. Four beasts arose from
the sea. Verse four described the first beast, which was lion-like and represented the
Babylonian Empire. The lion is majestic and more powerful than all other creatures.
The second beast Daniel saw arising from the sea was bear-like and represented the MedoPersian Empire. The bear Daniel saw was lop-sided being raised up on one side, which
represented the fact that whilst the Medes and the Persians were joined together in power,
the Persians were by far the dominant power of the two.
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The bear had three ribs in its mouth, having devoured the flesh. This represented the three
kingdoms the Medo-Persian Empire conquered in the process of attaining their empire: Lydia,
Babylon and Egypt. The bear is less majestic than the lion; it is slower and more weighty,
representing the fact that the Medo-Persian Empire conquered by sheer size and force of
numbers.
The third beast revealed to Daniel was leopard-like, representing the Greek Empire. The
leopard is less majestic than the lion and less impressive than the bear, but is far more swift.
This represented the speed with which Alexander the Great conquered the Medo-Persian
Empire and extended the Greek Empire. The four wings on the leopard-like creature
represented how, after Alexander’s death, the empire was split between his four generals:
Ptolemy, Seleucus, Cassander and Lysimachus.
The final beast, representing the final empire in human history, is described in Daniel 7:7-8.
Unlike the other beasts, the fourth beast is not described in terms of an animal. It is
described as being “dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong” and “had huge iron teeth.” It is
far more ferocious than the previous three beasts and breaks into pieces all that preceded it.
The fourth beast in Daniel’s vision had ten horns, but an eleventh horn arises (“a little one”),
which uproots three of the ten other horns. In this horn, “were eyes like the eyes of a man,
and a mouth speaking pompous words.” These ten horns in Daniel’s vision parallels the ten
toes of iron and clay in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, and therefore provide more information to
help us understand how the final empire in human history will work. The ten horns represent
ten regions of government (or “kingdoms” as confirmed by Revelation 17:12) that the world
will be divided into under a future one-world government, with the “little horn” arising and
initially taking over three of these regions (or “kingdoms”). Once the three horns have been
overcome, the remaining seven horns will capitulate to the “little Horn’s” power, thus making
the “little horn” ruler of the world and ruler of the last empire in history.
Scripture is clear that the “little horn” is the Antichrist and his empire will be defeated by the
return of Jesus Christ as conquering King. So where is the Christian “Dominionist” kingdom
that ushers in the return of Christ? Did Daniel predict the previous kingdoms absolutely right
with breath-taking accuracy, only to completely miss the mark in his interpretation of the final
kingdom? I do not think so.
Daniel 2:44 tells us that God’s kingdom will be established and will destroy all the previous
kingdoms, so if anyone thinks that the kingdom made of iron and clay is the Christian
“Dominionist” kingdom, they need to explain why God has said he will destroy it along with
the other kingdoms.
There are those who believe the “stone cut out of the mountain without hands” referred to in
Daniel 2:45 is the Christian “Dominionist” kingdom. This is a very dangerous and flawed
theology, because the “stone cut out of the mountain without hands” is a clear reference to
Jesus Christ. Surely the best clue that it is not the man-made “Dominionist” kingdom is the
very fact that the stone is “cut out of the mountain without hands” (emphasis added).
Proponents of this view are therefore putting the church in place of Jesus Christ!
Contrary to the post-millennial “Dominionist” view of Christianity where, through their earthbound efforts and programmes, the world will get better and better in preparation for His
return, Jesus said that we would in fact always have the poor (Matthew 26:11), and He
warned that as His return grows closer the world will get worse and worse, with events like
wars, earthquakes, pestilences and famines (Matthew 24:7). Furthermore, Jesus warned that,
“Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12).
Speaking of the last days, Jesus said that, “Unless those days were shortened, no flesh would
be saved” (Matthew 24:22). How does all this fit in with the “Dominionist” post-millennial
view held by people like Rick Warren? It does not!
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Rick Warren’s “Dominionist” view in fact has far more in common with the kind of New Age
one-world government promoted by his mentor Peter Drucker, and one that the Bible tells us
will be ruled by the Antichrist. For example, Share International Foundation describes on their
website how their New Age Maitreya (Buddhist for Messiah) will:
Create a brilliant new civilisation that will guarantee a peaceful and prosperous future
for humanity… Inspiring humanity to see itself as one interdependent family, he will
help us understand that the world’s food, raw materials, energy and technological
resources belong to everyone and must be shared equitably. These resources, he
says, are given by divine right for the sustenance of all humanity – not for the use
and misuse by a relative few. As we begin to accept the principle of sharing and call
on governments to implement this principle, each country will make an inventory of
its assets and needs. These statistics will provide a United Nations agency set up for
this purpose with the information required for a rational redistribution of the world’s
resources…The plans for such a redistribution program – drawn up by economists,
financiers and industrialists of great achievement – are already in existence, awaiting
only our demand for their implementation...Another top priority will be saving,
protecting, and healing the environment.
Share International Foundation, headed up by their spokesman Benjamin Creme, is no small,
obscure or “fringe” organisation. It is accredited as being an official Non-Government
Organisation (NGO) by the United Nations no less and states on its website:
…in association with the Department of Public Information at the United Nations.
It publishes a monthly magazine called Share International which is read in more than 70
countries around the world, the first two pages of which always contains a synopsis of the
emergence of the New Age Messiah (Maitreya) and then on page three a brief message that
is claimed to have been trance-channelled through Benjamin Creme from his ascended
Master. Who does Benjamin Creme claim has had the greatest influence on his life and
theology? Helena Blavatsky and Alice Bailey, of course.
Share International boasts a long list of international diplomats, religious leaders and political
figures that have had articles published in the magazine. This includes the following people:
Former UN Secretary General (sixth) Boutros Boutros-Ghali
Former UN Secretary General (seventh) Kofi Annan
Former President of Ireland Mary Robinson
Former Director General of the World Health Organisation and former Prime Minister of
Norway Gro Harlem Brundtland
The Dalai Lama
Prince Charles
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It is instructive that Prince Charles has contributed articles to Share International because,
unlike his mother Queen Elizabeth who was crowned “Defender of the Faith”, Prince Charles
has publicly declared his intention of being crowned “Defender of Faiths” when he succeeds
his mother to the throne. Prince Charles’ personal New Age beliefs sit very comfortably with
those promoted by Share International. Supporters of Rick Warren take note: this is the
logical conclusion of pluralism.
People like Rick Warren have what is called an over-realised eschatology. Rather than just
spuriously use the name of Daniel to try to give his unholy health plan some biblical validity,
Rick Warren should have taken the time to carefully study what Daniel teaches us about the
End-Times. But then Rick Warren does regard End-Times teaching as a “diversion.”
Rather than the world being “Christianised” prior to Christ’s return, we are told very clearly in
2 Thessalonians 2:3 that the last days will be characterised by apostasy (a falling away from
the Christian faith); that a man will appear speaking great things and will come with a peace
plan of his own – the “little horn” no less. It is clear that in the last days there will be an allinclusive world religion, but this pluralist religion will not be of God, but of Satan and his
Antichrist. This is what Share International says about their New Age Messiah:
He has been expected for generations by all the major religions under different
names – as the Christ by Christians, Krishna by Hindus, the Imam Mahdi by Muslims,
the Messiah by the Jews, Maitreya Buddha by Buddhists. His coming fulfils each of
their prophecies…
Am I saying that Maitreya is the Antichrist? No I am not. But I am saying he is a type of
antichrist who, for those willing to see, gives us an insight into how the Antichrist may
succeed in creating a one-world government and pluralist one-world religion. The question is:
just what are Rick Warren’s programmes and doctrines setting Christians up for?
Save the Planet!
Social gospels like the P.E.A.C.E. Plan more and more also include the cause of
environmentalism. For example, in 2006 Rick Warren was one of 86 prominent “evangelical”
leaders (including Emergent Church leader Leith Anderson, who also signed the “Loving God
and Neighbour Together” document) to back a major political initiative called The Evangelical
Climate Initiative. The intention of this initiative is to fight against the so-called problem of
global warming and other earth-care issues which many left-leaning “evangelicals” claim
humans are to blame for. The initiative calls for federal legislation to reduce carbon dioxide
emissions, costing billions of dollars, but claimed to be necessary to save the planet from
destruction. The initiative is financially supported by the Hewlett Foundation and the
Rockefeller Foundation. These two organisations are dedicated to globalism, socialism and
Marxist aims. They are pro-abortion, and for the cutting of the world’s population. Yet despite
all this, “evangelical” leaders such as Rick Warren are happy to jump into bed with them in
the name of saving the world.
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But then Warren is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), which is financed by
a number of tax-exempt foundations and is dedicated to forming a one-world government
(the “ten horns” mentioned in Daniel 7). In an interview with Joseph Farrar of World Net
Daily, Warren stated:
…as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and Oxford Analytica, I might
know as much about the Middle East as you.
Oxford Analytica is yet another organisation committed to creating a one-world government.
Let us be clear, the climate is not out of control! The climate has never been out of control.
God has always been in control of the climate He created for humanity. The Bible tells us:
God
God
God
God
God
controls the skies and the rain (Psalm 77:16-19).
controls the wind (Mark 4:35-41; Jeremiah 51:16).
upholds and sustains the universe (Hebrews 1:3).
has power over the clouds (Job 37:11-12, 16).
has power over all nature (Job 26).
Psalm 24:1 declares:
The earth is the LORD’s, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein.
Colossians 1:16-17 is absolutely emphatic in describing God’s power and authority over His
creation:
16
For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible
and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things
were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all
things consist.
Contrary to the message being preached by governments, the media and most of the Church
that the climate is changing and humanity is to blame, God in fact tells us:
While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer,
and day and night shall not cease (Genesis 8:22).
In spite of clear biblical teaching on the Earth, many Christians have been convinced that the
environmental cause of saving the planet is part of the Christian faith, and as a result are
accepting left-leaning and spiritually corrupt political agendas. But why wouldn’t they if their
choice of Bible is The Message, which preaches a New Age environmentalism that is not in
the original text, but is of course promoted by the New Age Movement and one that will be
fulfilled by their Messiah. A key aspect to Maitreya’s social gospel will be to heal the world.
For example, speaking of their New Age messiah, Share International says:
…another top priority will be saving, protecting, and healing the environment.
What a huge message this has become within “evangelical” Christianity. For example, in his
book, Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith, Emergent leader Rob Bell makes
statements that would more at home coming from the mouth of Benjamin Creme, rather than
a supposed “evangelical” leader:
Salvation is the entire universe being brought back into harmony with its maker… But
we can join a movement that is as wide and as big as the universe itself. Rocks and
trees and birds and swamps and ecosystems… God’s desire is to restore all of it…
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The goal isn’t escaping this world but making this world the kind of place God can
come to. And God is remaking us into the kind of people who can do this kind of
work.
Eugene Peterson of course works his “magic” over Scripture in order promote a “green”
agenda that is not in the Bible. For example, in addition to Peterson bizarrely adding the
word “green” to Romans 15:13 in order to make it sound like a justification for the green
agenda, he also translates 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 in a way that promotes environmentalism:
Unjust people who don’t care about God will not be joining in his kingdom. Those
who use and abuse each other, use and abuse sex, use and abuse the earth and
everything in it don’t qualify as citizens in God’s kingdom.
Now compare that to what it says in the King James Bible:
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not
deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor
abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor
revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
Not only does Peterson’s rendition of 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 delete words that identify specific
sins (done several times in The Message), he adds a sentence about abusing the earth and
everything in it; a politically correct reference to environmentalism.
The earth is primarily polluted because of one thing: man’s sin. Only one thing will cure it:
the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul speaks of this in Romans 8:21-22. Jesus is coming
back to restore the world and rule physically from Jerusalem. But that does not fit in with
Rick Warren’s earth-bound agendas, as we will see later with how he treats Bible prophecy.
Purpose Driven by a “Cause”
So much of Christianity today is filled with following “causes” that have nothing to do with the
cause that Jesus gave us to fulfil in Matthew 28; in spite of these “causes” being presented as
“Christian” they are in reality nothing more than godless forms of socialism that Christians
have been duped into believing by leaders who have their own agendas of building their
kingdom on Earth.
In 1942, C. S. Lewis wrote a book titled The Screwtape Letters. The story takes the form of a
series of letters from senior devil Screwtape to his nephew and junior devil, Wormwood.
Screwtape writes letters of instruction to his nephew regarding the human that Wormwood
has been entrusted with tempting and corrupting (referred to only as “the patient”). C. S.
Lewis makes an interesting observation about the effect of “causes” on pages 34-35. He
instructs Wormwood:
Then quietly and gradually nurse him onto the stage at which the religion becomes
merely part of the “cause”… Provided the meetings, pamphlets, policies,
movements, causes, and crusades, matter more to him than prayers and sacraments
and charity, he is ours – and the more “religious” (on those terms) the more securely
ours (emphasis added).
In light of so many Christian “causes” being set on bringing Heaven to Earth, and establishing
some kind of Christian utopia on Earth, rather than being focused on the actual instructions
given to us by Jesus, it is interesting that Screwtape then goes on to explain to Wormwood
the importance of making sure that his “patient” keeps his eyes fixed on the Earth rather
than on Heaven. On page 156 Screwtape writes:
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So inveterate is their appetite for Heaven that our best method, at this stage, of
attaching them to Earth is to make them believe that Earth can be turned into
Heaven at some future date by politics, or eugenics, or science, or psychology, or
what not. Real worldliness is a work of time – assisted, of course, by pride
(emphasis added).
In writing these fictional conversations between a senior devil and his less experienced
nephew, C. S. Lewis shows remarkable insight into the devilish power behind giving
Christians a “cause” and making that “cause” earthbound in its focus. I have lost count of the
number of times I have heard Christians claim that we can be “too heavenly minded to be of
any earthly good” as though it is a biblical gem of wisdom taken straight from the book of
Proverbs! The reality is that this view is not biblical and in fact the exact opposite is true: we
cannot be any earthly good unless we are heavenly minded:
If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ
is, sitting at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on
the earth (Colossians 3:1-2).
I highlighted the word eugenics in the above quote from The Screwtape Letters, because
this is very, very interesting. Eugenics is the study of methods of improving the quality of the
human race by selective breeding and population control.
I mentioned earlier that the Hewlett Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation (financial
supporters of The Evangelical Climate Initiative) were supporters of reducing the population
of the world in order to save the world. This is eugenics! This is what Hitler tried
implementing by systematically exterminating all those deemed undesirable for his New
World Order, and this is a philosophy rife within the New Age Movement. A number of
examples are as follows:
Reinvent yourself of the 21st Century or die. Some would rather die than change.
(Leonard Sweet, Soul Tsunami, pages 17, 75)
People will either change or die.
(Barbara Marx Hubbard, Manual for the Co-creators of the Quantum Leap, 1985,
page 55-57)
All who choose not to change will die off…
(Barbara Marx Hubbard, Happy Birthday Planet Earth, 1986, page 17)
When a thing grows weak and out of date, it is obviously soon going to disappear.
That’s also true for churches. If a church cannot change, it will eventually die.
(Rick Warren, Stifled By Structure, Baptist Press, 22/9/2003)
Consider yourselves warned – change or die….
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Playing “Fast and Loose” with Scripture
I have already mentioned earlier how Warren is guilty of doing a “cut and paste” job on the
Holy Bible with the unholy Qu’ran as part of his inauguration prayer. Warren also does this
with verses from different books of the Holy Bible in order to make it say what he wants;
particularly to fit his “Dominionist” view of the End-Times. This is a terribly serious thing to do
and certainly something no “evangelical” Christian should ever be guilty of. And this is
certainly no mistake on Warren’s part, because he earned a Master of Divinity from
Southwestern Theological Seminary and a Doctorate of Ministry from Fuller Theological
Seminary; the man knows his Bible, and knows how to make it say what he wants it to say.
Unfortunately, his followers tend to know their Bible far less thoroughly, therefore completely
miss his deliberate “cut and paste” of Scripture.
Warren’s low view of Bible prophecy is well illustrated by what he writes in The Purpose
Driven Life:
When the disciples wanted to talk about prophecy, Jesus quickly switched the
conversation to evangelism. He wanted them to concentrate on their mission in the
world. He said in essence, ‘The details of my return are none of your business.’ What
is your business is the mission I’ve given you. Focus on that! (page 285)
In the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24, in response to the disciples questioning Jesus about
the signs of His coming again, He most certainly did not “quickly switch the conversation”.
Jesus in fact gave His disciples (and us!) critical prophetic details and crucial warnings
covering more than 40 verses. He began by telling them, “Take heed that no man deceive
you”, which is exactly what Rick Warren is trying to do, but gets himself off the hook by
using The Message’s mistranslation of that verse which says:
Watch out for doomsday deceivers.
That is not what Jesus said! That mistranslation gets even the Antichrist off the hook,
because Scripture tells us that he will come as a man of peace!
Jesus instructed His disciples (and us) to prayerfully and carefully watch for the signs of His
Second Coming:
Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.
(Matthew 24:42)
In contrast to the words of Jesus (and Paul), Rick Warren openly instructs his followers to
treat End-Times prophecy as a “diversion” - Of course it is when you are busy building God’s
kingdom on Earth for Him! Warren provides biblical justification for telling his followers to
ignore End-Times teaching by erasing Acts 1:6 and replacing it with Matthew 24:3; he cuts
and pastes Scripture!
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In Acts 1:6 Jesus’ disciples ask Jesus about when He will restore Israel (bearing in mind that
Israel was at the time ruled and occupied by the Roman Empire):
Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at
this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
In Matthew 24:3 Jesus’ disciples ask Jesus when He will return:
Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying,
“Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of
the end of the age?”
The result of Warren cutting and pasting Acts 1:6 with Matthew 24:3 is that instead of Jesus
answering the question regarding the restoration of Israel that his disciples actually asked
about in Acts 1 - telling them that the timing of this is not their concern but evangelism is Warren moves the verse to a completely different book of the Bible to answer a completely
different question about the return of Christ! Therefore, when Jesus’ disciples ask Jesus in
Matthew 24:3 about the signs of His return, Warren has Jesus giving an answer to the
question of when He will restore Israel, which makes it look like Jesus says it is basically none
of the disciples concern when He returns.
And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father
has put in His own authority” (Acts 1:8).
Whilst Warren may regard prophecy as a “diversion”, the question is: how does God view
prophecy? With 28.5% of the Old Testament being prophecy and 21.5% of the New
Testament being prophecy, I think it is fair to say that God regards prophecy as an important
part of His revelation to the world; so much so that Revelation 19:10 declares:
For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
Speaking of the prophecies about the End-Times given to him directly by Jesus, John
declared that there is a blessing for those who read and hear the words of prophecy:
Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep
those things which are written in it; for the time is near (Revelation 1:2).
Paul declared that a crown of righteousness awaited those who looked for Christ’s appearing:
Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the
righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who
have loved His appearing (2 Timothy 4:8).
Rick Warren exposes his “Dominionist” and “Kingdom Now” underbelly by clearly having a
lower view of End-Times prophecy than God. He is a dangerous false teacher, leading his
flock astray. Warren makes Scripture say not what God says, but what Warren wants it to
say. How could this be done by a man who can say “Shibboleth”? This is nothing less than
diabolical.
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Dangerous Consequences
When Rick Warren encourages his followers to regard End-Times prophecy as a “diversion”
he jettisons the defence that God has given His children against being deceived by false
messiahs. If the prophecies in Matthew 24 and Revelation (and Daniel and Zechariah) are
regarded as allegorical, or having already been fulfilled, what is left to compare false
messiahs against? For example, Benjamin Creme of Share International Foundation says his
New Age messiah (Maitreya):
…will create a brilliant new civilisation that will guarantee a peaceful and prosperous
future for humanity, [and he will] inspire humanity to see itself as one family, and
create a civilization based on sharing, economic and social justice, and global
cooperation.
…has not come to judge, but to inspire us to make the inner and outer changes
necessary for our own survival and further evolutionary growth.
…will save, protect and heal the environment.
The New Age Maitreya’s agenda very disturbingly fits in perfectly with Warren’s “Dominionist”
agenda, but is not the Messiah prophesied in Matthew 24 and Revelation, who is coming to
judge the world, nor will He save, protect and heal the environment, but is coming to create
a new heaven and a new Earth. But how would you know the difference if you follow Rick
Warren’s teaching?
Creme says his Maitreya has already come, but not literally:
…on a cloud at the end of the world, nor does he have holes in his hands and feet.
This statement by Creme is in direct and deliberate defiance to what the Bible specifically
says about Jesus Christ’s return:
Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the
earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven
with power and great glory (Matthew 24:30).
Behold, He is coming, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And
all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen (Revelation 1:7;
see also Zechariah 12:10).
By Creme’s own admission his Maitreya has not been pierced for our transgressions, but how
would you know to look out for this distinction between the real coming Jesus and a false
messiah if you have been told to regard End-Times teaching as a “diversion”?
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Creme claims his Maitreya:
…has been expected for generations by the major religions under different names –
as the Christ by Christians, Krishna by the Hindus, the Imam Mahdi by the Muslims,
the Messiah by the Jews, the Maitreya Buddha by the Buddhists.
How very pluralistic the New Age Maitreya is! The Bible however is not pluralistic, but as
we have seen, Warren most certainly is. Remember what he said at the Aspen Ideas Festival,
The Aspen Institute on 6/7/2005. During an interview with David Gergen Warren said:
I happen to know people who are followers of Christ in other religions.
Just which Christ is Warren referring to? We have already established that Warren wrongly
claims the Jesus of Islam is the same Jesus of the Bible. But Warren’s pluralism is not
restricted to just Islam. For example, when USA Today (21/7/2003) asked him why Mormon
and Jewish leaders are involved in his pastoral training programmes, he reportedly replied:
I’m not going to get into a debate over the non-essentials. I won’t try to change
other denominations. Why be divisive?
Since when was Mormonism (and Rabbinical Judaism) just another denomination of
Christianity? Mormons may speak of Jesus just as Muslims do, but Mormons are also
preaching “another Jesus”. the Mormon Jesus pre-existed in heaven before He became a
man, died on the cross, rose from the dead and ascended in to heaven. That all sounds
pretty much like the Jesus of the Bible so far. However, Mormons believe that all human
beings pre-existed in heaven before becoming human.
Mormons believe that Jesus is a created being, not the Creator, that he is the firstborn of
God’s offspring (which includes all angels, demons and humans) and the first of many to
become God. Jesus is regarded as the literal son of God the Father through a literal
physical union between God the Father and Mary. As such, Jesus is in fact not worshipped
or prayed to by Mormons as one would pray to their Heavenly Father. The Mormon Jesus is
the spirit half-brother of Satan. Is Mormonism just another denomination of Christianity?
But Warren’s message of pluralism not only identifies false messiahs as being the Jesus of the
Bible, it even goes as far as to avoid mentioning Jesus altogether when he feels the occasion
requires. For example, in a June 2006 article in JewishJournal.com, editor-in-chief, Rob
Eshman reported on a speech that Warren gave for Synagogue 3000, after Rabbi Ron
Wolfson became involved in the Purpose Driven pastoral training seminars. He wrote:
Warren managed to speak for the entire evening without once mentioning “Jesus” –
a testament to his savvy message-tailoring.
End-Times prophecy is not to be regarded as a “diversion”. Christians need to take End-Times
prophecy seriously and take it literally in order to obey the instruction that Jesus gave His
disciples in answer to them questioning Him about His coming:
3
Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us,
when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the
age?” 4 And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives
you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive
many…” (Matthew 24:3-5).
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Conclusion
Rick Warren (and his ministry) is deeply compromised. His books and teachings are filled with
dishonest uses of Scripture and the influence of New Age doctrine, which leads him to
endorse and promote pagan New Age practices as “Christian”. America’s Pastor is without
doubt a great friend to the world. But James 4:4 warns us:
Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is
enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself
an enemy of God
Warren has a low view of Christian doctrine. On page 34 of The Purpose Driven Life he says:
God won’t ask about your religious background or doctrinal view. The only thing that
will matter is, did you accept what Jesus did for you and did you learn to love and
trust him?
This sounds all warm and fuzzy and even correct until it is put under the microscope of what
God actually says about such matters in Scripture. When we speak of doctrine, what do we
mean? We mean knowledge; knowledge of what God has revealed to us in His Word
concerning Himself and His plans for humanity.
The Bible speaks a lot about knowledge and how having knowledge can save, and how
having a lack of knowledge can leave people open to destruction. For example:
22
“How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? For scorners delight in their
scorning, and fools hate knowledge. 23 Turn at my rebuke; surely I will pour out my
spirit on you; I will make my words known to you (Proverbs 1:22-23).
…through knowledge the righteous will be delivered (Proverbs 11:9).
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6).
Everyone is dull-hearted, without knowledge (Jeremiah 10:14).
Therefore my people have gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge
(Isaiah 5:13).
The New Testament also places an importance on knowledge:
And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and
all discernment (Philippians 1:9).
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2
Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our
Lord, 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and
godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by
which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through
these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that
is in the world through lust. 5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to
your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control
perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to
brotherly kindness love. 8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be
neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ
(2 Peter 1:2-8).
Paul even makes a point about people who have a zeal for God, but one not based on
knowledge:
For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to
knowledge (Romans 10:2).
Warren says:
The only thing that will matter is, did you accept what Jesus did for you.
But knowing what to “accept” regarding “what Jesus did” is clearly a matter of
understanding sound biblical doctrine. Jesus said:
And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free (John 8:32).
How are you supposed to know what the truth is? By reading His Word and following His
doctrine. Furthermore, Jesus said:
If you love Me, keep My commandments (John 14:15).
If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed (John 8:31).
This is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the
commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it
(2 John 1:6).
It is clear from Jesus’ declarations that it is those who keep His commandments that He
regards as His disciples. How does one know what Jesus’ commandments are? By knowing
biblical doctrine!
Teaching doctrine the biblical way
Right doctrine is the first and most important purpose/activity of the church. Ephesians 4:14
tells us:
That we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every
wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful
plotting…
Doctrine comes first. The Bible puts doctrine (truth) before righteousness (Ephesians 6:14).
Why? Because if you do not know what is true, you cannot know what real righteousness is;
you will have a false idea of righteousness. Truth comes first.
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“But love is the most important thing!” I hear many Christians cry! Love is certainly not only
important, but vital for the health of the church, and the spiritual health of individual
believers, but right doctrine is the basis for that love. If you do not know right doctrine and
discernment, you cannot know true love. Philippians 1:9 confirms this when it says:
And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all
discernment…
Apply the apostles teaching to our lives, then we will have true love; the love of Jesus Christ.
The importance of Biblical doctrine is highlighted by the fact that there are three kinds of
doctrine/teaching that a Biblical church should expound:
1. KERYGMA – Evangelism – preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the manner of the early
church. The first sermon preached was Peter’s Kerygma on the day of Pentecost.
2. HOMILIA - Where we get the word ‘homily’ from. This type of teaching is exhortation. It
is not looking to expound doctrine in depth. It takes a couple of principles of doctrine, or a
story or passage, or a narrative, and uses it to encourage the church. The key to correct
homilia is that it can be tested with Scripture and proven to be in accordance with Scripture.
3. DIDASKIN - Teaching of the apostles, which they got directly from Jesus Christ; the
expounding of doctrine. This is what is referred to in Acts 2:42.
All three kinds of doctrine/teaching should be found in a true Bible believing church. Right
doctrine, and a correct balance between the three kinds of doctrine is the key to everything
else that goes on in a church. If a church concentrates too much on one type of doctrine
there is imbalance. For example, concentrating on Kerygma, but not enough on Didaskin
would mean the church missing the second part of the great commission of making disciples
of people (Matthew 28:19). Providing discipleship through Didaskin after giving someone the
Gospel is vital. Discipleship through Didaskin ensures that the church does not remain as
infants in their faith. The same could be said for churches which focus too much on preaching
homilies and not enough on the apostle’s doctrine (Didaskin). A disciple of Christ will not be
able to fulfil 1 Peter 3:15 without all three kinds of essential Christian doctrine – Kerygma,
Homilia and Didaskin.
Rick Warren has a significantly lower view of the importance of doctrine than God does, and
this should be a serious concern to any and every “evangelical” Christian. Having a low view
of biblical doctrine is the very thing that Paul told Timothy would lead to an apostate church –
the unwillingness to “endure sound doctrine” (2 Timothy 4:3). Even when Warren does
encourage his followers to read the Bible it is mainly from perversions of real Scripture like
Eugene Peterson’s The Message.
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There are “evangelicals” (including me) who believe Rick Warren is guilty of promoting
Chrislam. Their concern is not without good reason: his choice of words regarding who God is
in his prayer at the inauguration of President Obama, the signing of the Yale Centre for Faith
and Culture “Loving God and Neighbour Together” document, his decision to use a Muslim
doctor in relation to his Daniel Plan, plus his address at the Islamic Society of North America
Conference. Rick Warren’s public denial of promoting Chrislam rings rather hollow when all
the evidence is weighed. At best he is speaking out of both sides of his mouth and sending
mixed messages to the “evangelical” Christians who follow him. He is certainly not behaving
as an “evangelical” Christian should.
A call for discernment
It is imperative that Christians start to exercise more discernment about the teaching and
teachers they follow. Many Christians seem to think that a teacher like Rick Warren is
acceptable because he is able to say “Shibboleth” and speak some truth, which indeed he
does. But I am reminded of what Charles H. Spurgeon once said:
Discernment is not simply a matter of telling the difference between what
is right and wrong; rather it is the difference between right and almost
right.
Indeed it is true that error can very often be as subtle as truth out of balance. Rick Warren’s
teaching is a case of “the good, the bad and the ugly” – it is a dangerous mixture of right,
almost right and very wrong, and he is a master at mixing it together so it does take a
degree of biblical knowledge and discernment in order not to fall pray of its deception. Jesus
warned, “Take heed that no one deceives you” (Matthew 24:4). Yet I see little evidence of
many “evangelical” Christians taking notice of Christ’s warning.
Many “evangelical” Christians are happy to accept a mixture, in spite of the Bible telling us
from Genesis to Revelation that God hates the mixture. Galatians 5:9 tells us “a little leaven
leavens the whole lump”. Rick Warren is guilty of trying to take the “evangelical” church
captive through a toxic mixture of “evangelical” doctrine, New Age philosophy and simple
empty deception; the kind that Paul warned about:
Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the
tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to
Christ (Colossians 2:8).
A common theme
False teachers may at times not be immediately easy to spot; those who can say “Shibboleth”
can in particular be better disguised. However, false teachers tend to show their true identity
when tested against two key points:
1. Their understanding of the true identity of God.
2. Their attitude towards doctrine and the authority and importance of Scripture.
Declaring an unbiblical understanding of the identity of God and undermining the authority
and importance of Scripture are common themes with false teachers who at least outwardly
can appear to say “Shibboleth”. As such, the false teachers I have dealt with in recent articles
expose their true identities as “ravenous wolves” by failing the above mentioned “litmus test”.
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Rick Warren fails the first test by claiming Christians and Muslims worship the same God, and
that the Jesus of the Qu’ran is the Jesus of the Bible. He fails the second test by undermining
the importance of doctrine, calling prophecy a “diversion” and doing a “cut and paste” job on
Scripture to make it fit in with what he wants it to say. Rick Warren has an unbiblical
understanding of the identity of Jesus and undermines the importance of Scripture.
Bill Johnson fails the first test by preaching the heretical view that Christ gave up His divinity
whilst on Earth, and therefore had to be born again instead of resurrected. He fails the
second test by having such a low view of God’s Word that he refuses to test his supernatural
experiences against it. Bill Johnson has an unbiblical understanding of the identity of Jesus
and undermines the importance of Scripture.
Rob Bell fails the first test by having such a low view of Christ that he claims it would not
affect his faith if Jesus turned out to be just the “son of Larry” (i.e. just an ordinary man)
rather than the Son of God. He fails the second test by claiming, “This is part of the problem
with continually insisting that one of the absolutes of the Christian faith must be a belief that
‘Scripture alone’ is our guide. It sounds nice, but it is not true.” Rob Bell has an unbiblical
understanding of the identity of Jesus and undermines the importance of Scripture.
Ezekiel, Peter and James all tell us that teachers of Scripture will be judged more harshly
than others. People like Rick Warren, Bill Johnson and Rob Bell are placing themselves under
more harsh judgment for leading their sheep astray through false teaching.
How do the teachers you follow fair when put against the above “litmus test”?
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It is the responsibility of Christian teachers to teach their flock truth through all three kinds of
doctrine found in Scripture – kerygma, homilia and didaskin. Paul referred to this in Acts
20:27 as “the whole counsel of God.” however, the flock also has a responsibility to not
tolerate false teaching, no matter how much it may tickle their ears. Jesus never tolerated the
false teaching of the Pharisees and teachers of the Law in the Gospels, and Paul never
tolerated false teaching in the early Christian churches. Even more sobering is Jesus’ rebuke
to the church at Thyatira in Revelation 2 for tolerating false teaching.
JAMIE SMITH
JUNE 2013
Colossians 1:28
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