Can 20,000 Churches Be Wrong?

Tom: Thanks Gary. You’re listening to Search the Scriptures Daily, a program in which we encourage everyone who desires to know God’s truth, to look to God’s Word for all that is essential for salvation and living one’s life in a way that is pleasing to Him.

If you’re joining us for the first time, or you missed last week’s program, in this segment we’re reviewing what may be the most read book by Christians, other than the Bible itself. And of course, I’m referring to Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life. Upwards of 15 million have been sold and the book has been the text for Forty Days of Purpose, which 20,000 churches have participated in around the country and also abroad. Now, Dave, that’s a lot of influence and therefore, it would seem, calls for honest scrutiny to discern just how true it is to God’s Word, wouldn’t you say?

Dave: Well, we have to check everything out from the Word of God. We don’t check our auto mechanic or our medical doctor out from the Word of God, but this is about life’s purpose; about knowing God, supposedly. And that’s what the Bible deals with. This is the Bible’s sole province. And, anything that we will know that is for eternity that is true, it will come from the Bible.

Tom: Mm-hmm.

Dave:  Now, the problem is, as we mentioned, I guess, briefly last week…this isn’t about heaven and hell. It’s not about eternity. I mean, I don’t recall, maybe he does mention that, give you that impression. For example, where are we?  What page are we on? Page 18? Can I look there for a minute?

Tom:  Yeah, start with 18.

Dave: Yeah. He says, “You were made for God, not vice versa. Life is about letting God use you for His purposes, not your using Him for your own purposes. Well, that sounds good.

But, he’s only talking about life on this earth. Then he quotes The Message, “The Bible says obsession with self in these matters is a dead end. Attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life.”

Well, again, this about, you know, being successful, free and spacious and wonderful. You have a great life on this earth.

Tom: The temporal, it’s a temporal orientation.

Dave: Right. But, Romans:8:6For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
See All... actually says, “For to be carnally minded is death. To be spiritually minded is life and peace.” Now life—He’s talking about eternal life, the Bible is. Death, that’s eternal death, separation from God. But, you don’t get that idea at all in this book. There’s no warning about hell.

Tom: Right.

Dave: Very little of the hope for heaven, for eternity. But it’s success motivation for this brief life.

Tom: Dave, right there, you know, we’re on page 19 now, well 18-19. But, he began this chapter, this is chapter one, you know, he starts out, “It’s not about you.” So, for people who are concerned about psychology, and the world, and its concern about self, that sort of disarms them.

But then we go to one of the first verses actually that he quotes. He says…this is Rick Warren…he says, “The Bible says,” so he’s pointing you to the Bible.

Dave: Right.

Tom: Okay? And, he quotes this verse: “Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way; my way to finding yourself, your true self.” Now, Dave, that’s supposed to be Matthew:16:25For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
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Dave: Tom, it is as far from Matthew:16:25For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
See All... as you can get. “He who would save his life shall lose it; he who would lose his life for my sake shall keep it.” And, Jesus is talking about eternal life. He’s not talking about a successful life in this world, much less finding your true self. I mean, this is a contradiction. On the one hand, he says, “You really need to deny yourself.” On the other hand, he says, “Well in denying yourself, you’ll find your true self.” But, that’s not what Jesus is talking about, and that’s not what the Bible is about.

Tom: And, Dave, as we mentioned last week, and I think it bears repeating, because we’re going to be covering a lot of the verses that Rick quotes here. And when he quotes…most of the verses through out this book are paraphrases.

Dave: Right.

Tom: They’re by individuals, whether it be Eugene Peterson, or Kenneth Taylor, or others. So, it’s not what the Bible says, it’s what Eugene Peterson says….

Dave: The Bible says.

Tom: The Bible says.  

Dave: Right.

Tom: Or Kenneth Taylor. So, over and over Rick says, “the Bible says.” But he’s not quoting the Bible. He’s quoting these individuals.

Dave: Tom, that is really troubling, because, you know, I’ve had some correspondence with Rick Warren. I think he’s a good man and he loves the Lord. Undoubtedly, he’s trying to do what’s right. He’s trying to help people. But, on the other hand, it’s a bit disturbing that he doesn’t recognize that The Message, and those verses that he’s quoting from The Message are not what the Bible says. They have corrupted the Bible. They’ve perverted it. They’ve even changed the meaning completely to the opposite in many cases. Now, here’s a man who’s leading millions of people…what? Several hundred thousand pastors, is it?

Tom: Right. 320,000 pastors, church leaders….

Dave: …have taken their training from him, and he claims to be founding what he’s teaching on the Bible! And, yet, he goes to perversions of the Bible. Does he not recognize this? You would have to ask yourself the question: Why do you have to go to something that twists and misrepresents and perverts the Bible in order to support what you’re saying?

Tom: Now, Dave, you said last week—and we’re not trying to nit-pick, just go through and find every little jot or tittle that’s out of alignment—there’s a whole thrust of things here. And one of the things, as I just mentioned, is you’re disarmed by something that Rick says, but then he contradicts throughout the rest of the book.

For example, on page 20, he says, “To discover your purpose in life you must turn to God’s Word.” Well, we want people to turn to God’s Word, but, as you said, you won’t find God’s Word, or you will find a corrupted version of God’s Word throughout this book.

And he goes on, “Not the world’s wisdom….” Not the world’s wisdom? Most of what seeker-friendly way of doing church, marketing church—Dave, this doesn’t come from the Word of God, as you know. This is the world’s wisdom.

So, continuing, on he said, “You must build your life on eternal truth.” Amen to that. “Not pop psychology…” Amen to that. “…success motivation or inspirational stories.” Amen to that.

However, as you go through the book you find pop psychology, you find success motivation, and you find inspirational stories.

He says later in the book that…“Your own personal testimony, the experiences you’ve had, these are more powerful that a sermon.”

Dave, there’s contradictions here. Continually.

Dave: Well, for example, here he has at the end of Day One: “Point to Ponder: It’s not about me.” Well, in a sense, it really is. “Come unto me.” I mean, the Bible is about you. It’s your salvation. “All you who are weary and heavy laden, come to me for rest.” Christ came into this world to save sinners, to seek and to save the lost. That’s about me. The ninety and nine sheep that were still in the fold…Christ goes after the lost. Okay? And then he says….

Tom: But it’s not about me finding my true self.

Dave: No, that’s right. “A verse to remember: Everything got started in Him, and finds it’s purpose in Him.” That’s a big difference from saying something got started in Him and that He is the Creator. He created the universe out of nothing; that we owe our existence to Him. It’s a perversion, again, from The Message.  So, he goes on and he says, “Question to Consider: In spite of all the advertising around me, how can I remind myself that life is really about living for God, not myself?”

Now, life—what does he mean by life, again, Tom? I don’t want to hammer away on this, but a person reading—like the young woman sitting next to me, you know, on the plane, or the man standing in the aisle holding The Purpose Driven Life. They’re not Christians. They consider this to be a great motivational book—a success manual—and this is what Warren is leading them to believe.

Tom: Although he denied it.

Dave: He denies it, but yet, he doesn’t deny it in clear enough terms. It’s all about fulfillment of your purpose in this world. The Bible doesn’t talk about that. I mean, you’ve got the whole book, 40 days, very little that the Bible has to say about that. It talks about knowing God, and talks about sinners being reconciled to God. It talks about repentance from sin; forgiveness of sins. It talks about the penalty that Christ paid and the love we ought to have for Him because of this. “We love Him because He first loved us.” But it’s all….

Tom: Or the woman, Dave, loved Jesus because she was forgiven much. You don’t find that in here.

Dave: It’s about Adam and Eve who sinned, who rebelled, and the horror of what happened thereafter. But, you don’t get that. You get a humanistic, as we said, idea. Now here you are, here we are, well you were made for a purpose. God is smiling upon you, and He wants to give you a good life, but that’s not what the message of the Scripture is.

Tom:  Dave, Chapter 2, begins: “You are—(the title) You Are Not an Accident.” I have great trouble with this entire chapter. I don’t—you know it’s a form of divine determinism, okay? Just to give you one quote: “God knew that those two individuals possessed exactly (he’s talking about a person’s parents), God knew that those two individuals possessed exactly the right genetic make up to create the custom ‘you’ he had in mind. They had the DNA God wanted to make you.”

Dave: Tom, it’s not true. That would be true of Adam and Eve. God created Adam and Eve. But He didn’t make me. He didn’t create me. There have been many genetic defects on the way down caused by sin. I am not even close to what Adam looked like. Just my bald head, for one thing! But this is a fatalistic chapter. Whatever you are, I mean, tell this to a person whose parents were on thalidomide, and he doesn’t have arms, or he doesn’t have feet, or whatever. And this is exactly what God wanted you to be. That is NOT the truth. That simply isn’t. We are sinners. We come along in a pool of sin. I mean. if you were a diabetic, that is not the way God made Adam and Eve, and that is not what he intended for Adam and Eve.

Now let’s just look at a verse. Here is the Bible, he says, “The Bible says, You saw me before I was born and scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe. Every day was recorded in your book!”

Well, where is my choice? God already—this is, pardon me–like Calvinism, although in many ways he denies Calvinism. But, this is saying God caused everything, all the rape, the murder…every day of my life. I was careless driving down the road, and I had a wreck, and I killed somebody. Well, that’s just the way God scheduled it and the way He planned it.

No, that is not true! But he’s somehow trying to build up a person’s sense that they are worth something and that God is smiling on them in approval. And that if you just find out the purpose that He had for you, then you will succeed in this life. You will be happy and so forth. But it’s a false foundation.

Tom: Dave, he says, “Every plant and every animal was planned by God and every person was designed with a purpose in mind.”

Dave: I don’t think that we have been designed. Adam and Eve were designed, but there is so much that has gone wrong in the human race since then. God wants to rescue us from the horror of sin, from our own selfish ways. He hasn’t planned every day of our lives. He wants us to turn to Him. Because every day of my life…I mean, what has gone wrong so many times in my life, and the life of every person? Here’s a man who ends up in prison. Did God plan that? If everything is what God wanted it to be? It’s not true!

Now, let’s just look at another one he quotes. Romans:12:3For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
See All..., “The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us.” That’s a paraphrase again.

Well, the verse actually says, “We are not to think of ourselves more highly that we ought to think. That we’re to think soberly.” Now, it’s not about understanding myself, you know, and getting to know my true self. But, it’s to be delivered from pride.

Now, he is right, we want to trust God. We want to let Him have his way in our lives. He gives us a poem on page 25, by Russell Kelfer:

“You are who you are for a reason,” it starts out and it goes on to say,

“You’re just what he wanted to make.”

Tom: Well, Dave, I have to back you up a little bit. He says prior to that:

“You’re a precious and perfect unique design,

Called God’s special woman or man.”

Now, this is the humanistic…this is the self orientation that Rick said, no, it’s not about me, but then he keeps giving us all these self-interest, these self-elevating concepts.

Dave: Now, the Bible says, the verse that he quotes, but he doesn’t quote it right and again, it’s from a paraphrase.

Tom:  From The Message.

Dave: It says exactly the opposite! It says we’re not to think of ourselves more highly that we ought to think. That’s Romans:12:3For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
See All.... But, here, he’s trying to get us to think highly of ourselves.

“You’re a precious and perfect unique design,

Called God’s special woman or man.”

Now, how much higher could you think of yourself? You couldn’t have a better, a greater, more inflated opinion of yourself. Hey, in spite of all my failures, in spite of the sin, I’m just what God wanted me to be!  Tom! It isn’t right! It starts a person out with a false impression and we had a—I’m doing the Q and As for December right now, and we had a question, and the person says, “Well, I understand that Rick Warren, you know, what he teaches is just kind of warmed over Schullerisms.”

Well, not exactly. He is a graduate of Schuller’s Institute for a Successful Church.

Tom: Schuller was his mentor for many, many years.

Dave: Yes, and there’s no question that he followed Schuller’s techniques and methods, but part of what Schuller does is, he doesn’t want to offend anyone. He waters it down. Now, I’m not suggesting that Rick Warren partakes of Schuller’s heresies, because Schuller is anti-Christian. You know, he denies the gospel, calls Muslims Christians, says we don’t want to change the faith of anyone, anyone’s religion. They’re all okay. The worse thing you can do is to tell a person they’re a sinner.

Now, Rick Warren doesn’t come right out and say that, but this book is avoiding saying that man is a sinner. He’s beating around the bush. He’s trying to get us to feel good about ourselves, which is what Schuller wants to do; build up your self-esteem.

And, he has a lot of cute little phrases, like Schuller, which purport to be based on the Bible, but in fact, are contrary to the Bible. It’s something to mourn about, Tom. I mean, we’re not enjoying this. But, we’re trying to warn people out there that you can be led astray. It’s very appealing. But, if it isn’t biblical, then it’s poison to the soul and to the spirit.

Tom: Mmhmm. Dave, one last thing on this chapter…the end of Chapter 2. He says, “I know that God uniquely created me. What areas of my personality, background, and physical appearance am I struggling to accept?”

This is not only looking within, looking to self, looking to the temporal side, the physical side and so on, and somehow trying to redeem it for people. Get them to be comfortable with it. But it’s contrary, again, to the heart, the thrust, of God’s Word.

Dave: Self-acceptance. I can understand background, physical appearance. Well, this is not exactly what God wanted me to be, but this is what I am. So, okay. There’s nothing you can do about that. But, he says what areas of my personality am I struggling to accept? Does that mean that my personality…I’m stuck with it? That I can’t change? I can’t be a new creature in Christ Jesus? The life of Christ cannot manifest itself through me? That if I tend to be just proud and bullheaded, dogmatic, and unconcerned about other people, well that’s my personality, so, I guess I have to accept that? That’s not true, once again.

Tom: Now, Dave, throughout the book you do find scriptures and statements that point toward the gospel and so on. For example, on page 34 he says, “God won’t ask you about your religious background or doctrinal views. The only thing that will matter is, did you accept what Jesus did for you and did you learn to love and trust him? Jesus said, ‘I am the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”  

Now, you’d say well look, see? He’s pointing something out…he’s making a distinction here for the…you know, unbelievers as opposed to believers, and so on. But, again, the concern here is how does he follow that up? Much of the book is contrary to that.

You know, with my Roman Catholic background, you know Rick has said it doesn’t make any difference who comes to his seminars.

Dave: Right.

Tom: This is for church growth. And we know that many Catholic Churches are using, not many, but some, are using this as a growth development program.

Dave: He will accept anyone. Jews, Mormons, it doesn’t matter.

Tom, let me get—

Tom: So, then my point is that makes this verse just irrelevant, doesn’t it?

Dave: Well—

Tom: Unless you’re, you’re teaching about Jesus, kind of schmooze over any real differences…any differences that have to do with salvation.

Dave: Tom, let me just point out a couple of other things. I mean on page 32, (this is actually on page 31-32), I must confess as I read this book it kind of drove me mad. (Chuckling) Maybe people thought I was mad already, crazy, but anyway….

Tom: Well it does disturb the heart, there’s no doubt about that.

Dave: It really is disturbing. Let me just quote here. He says, well I don’t know, I have to look it up, whether that’s The Message or what. “A pretentious showy life is an empty life; a plain and simple life is a full life.”

Again, we’re talking just about life on this earth. He goes on and he comments, “It also leads to peace of mind.” And now he quotes, “You, Lord, give perfect peace to those who keep their purpose firm and put their trust in you.”

Well, that’s not what it says. The Bible says, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee.” Now, that’s not keeping a purpose firm. Now, Daniel had a purpose firm, and he purposed in his heart not to be defiled with the king’s meat. But, that is not what this verse says. But, he has to fit it all in with this idea of purpose. A purpose driven life…now, you understand your purpose…you keep that purpose firm…you’re going to be okay. But, that is not what it says.

And, once again, he goes on the very next page, this is The Message again, “You can be busy without a purpose, but what’s the point?” And then he quotes The Message. Paul said, (no, Paul didn’t say this) “Let’s keep focused on that goal, those of us who want everything God has for us.”

On the contrary, Paul is referring to the “high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” We are called to His eternal glory. He’s talking about eternity! He’s talking about heaven, not finding some purpose that God had for my life here on this earth that any humanistic, even ungodly, person could aspire to because it will make me happy and successful. Warren applies it to this life. What God will give us here and now. Paul is talking about the goal, “The high calling of God in Christ Jesus who has called us to his eternal glory,” and you don’t get that idea out of this book whatsoever.

Tom: Dave, on Rick Warren’s website he talks about those who think the book is absolutely thrilling…Coca-Cola….

Dave: Various corporations.

Tom: Various corporations. What does that have to do with them?

Dave: It doesn’t have anything to do with anyone who has not received Christ as his Savior.

Tom: Mmhmm. Next week, we’re going to get into sin and the gospel as presented in The Purpose Driven Life.

Dave: Tom, I really feel bad about these programs. I don’t want to seem to be criticizing a man who loves the Lord and who wants to do what’s right. But, on the other hand, Tom, we can’t avoid it. I mean, this is so popular and it is so deceptive, really. And, it is really leading people into false impressions, especially non-Christians, as well as Christians.