The Purpose Driven Deception

You're probably familiar with this book - either you've read it or you've heard about it:



















This is probably one of the most dangerous books a Christian could read.


Why?


Well for starters, let's have a look at one of the most powerful influences on Rick Warren's beliefs - a man by the name of Robert Schuller. Schuller is a universalist and believes that Jesus is not the only way to heaven. He states that making people aware of their lost and sinful condition is the very worst thing a preacher could do, and believes the new-birth experience in Christians simply means changing a negative self-image to a positive one!!

The fact that Schuller highly endorses Warren's Purpose Driven Life (from here on I'm going to call it PDL) is therefore very worrying. At the start of PDL is an endorsement by Schuller, where he says “I’m praying that every pastor will read this book...Rick Warren is the one all of us should listen to and learn from." Add to that the fact that Warren has shared the stage with Schuller at several of Schuller's conferences, and you'd be right to be concerned about just what Warren believes.


In the sister book to PDL, called Purpose Driven Church,Warren makes the claim (while talking about preaching to the unsaved) that “The most likely place to start is with the person’s felt needs...this was the approach Jesus used...A good salesman knows you always start with the customer’s needs, not the product.” In the chapter before that he says “Whenever Jesus encountered a person he’d begin with their hurts, needs, and interests.”

Firstly, Christians are not business salesmen; secondly, a simple reading of Jesus's encounters with (for example) Nicodemous, Levi, and the woman at the well, will show that Jesus did not always begin with a persons needs.

It gets worse. This is a common idea preached by other business-style-church-growth leaders such as Lee Strobel, Bill Hybels, and Joel Osteen. The idea is that by finding out what a person wants from life, you can promise that to them "in Jesus". Strobel states that if you find a person is suffering from a lack of self esteem, then tell him how your own self esteem has soared since you came to Christ; if a person wants adventure, tell him that there's nothing more exciting than a life in Christ. Basically find out what he wants, then sell it to him in a Christian package.


Lets compare that to the preaching of Paul in the New Testament. Paul says himself that he "kept back nothing" (Acts 20:20) and his preaching involved rebuking, convicting, exhorting, admonishing, reproving, and so on. Read his letters to the churches (in a good Bible version like the NKJV) and note how many times those words come up.


It gets even worse; in pages 58 - 59 of PDL, Warren states “Real life begins by committing yourself completely to Jesus Christ. If you are not sure you have done this, all you need to do is receive and believe...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.” That right there is Warren's idea of salvation. Notice that "real life" is whatever it is that the reader wants that has just been promised to them via Christianity. There is no mention of sin, hell, repentance, death to self, forsaking the old life, counting the cost, obedience; no mention of "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" (Phil. 2:12) or of seeking the face of God!


The gospel isn't about meeting people's felt needs. It is about meeting their one true need - the need for salvation. It is not about making people feel good, it is about making them see that they are lost, sinful, and destined to hell! Lost man can never feel this need because he is spiritually dead! This message can never be marketed like Warren's is being, because it is foolishness to the lost! (1 Cor. 1:18)


This false gospel teaches that Christ died for us because we are valuable to Him. That is not true! There is nothing in us that makes us valuable to God! The Bible often talks compares the worthless with the valuable (where sinners are the worthless and the righteous are the valuable). The only reason Christ died for us is that such an act is a manifestation of His grace, His mercy, His love, and His righteousness; everything He does is done because of who He is, not who we are! Everything God does is to bring glory to Himself! To say that sinners are valuable to God is to bring glory onto sinners!


In conclusion, the idea behind PDL is that the bigger the church, the better. This is why Rick Warren (along with the other pastors mentioned above) is often called by critics a "church-growth" pastor. PDL is a seeker-friendly message aimed at bringing more people to church, using business marketing techniques. Rich Karlgaard, the publisher of Forbes magazine said of PDL: “This is one of the greatest entrepreneurial books I’ve ever read, and if you merely substitute the word ‘business’ for ‘church’, it’s just a terrific guide that can be taken to a secular and business audience.”

These people seek to bring more people into the church, yet back in New Testament times, having unbelievers enter the church appears to have been a rare event! Why? Well one reason given in Acts is that they were too scared - the power of God was there!

As a result, Warren is leading people to a false Christ - one that has been conjured up to make people feel good about themselves [as lost sinners]. PDL is a book written about how to come to and serve this false god.



"And he [Aaron] received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf. Then they said, "This is your God, O Israel...
"So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, "Tomorrow is a feast to Yahweh."" (Exodus 32: 5 - 6a)

"And the LORD said to Moses, "Go, get down! ... Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them."" (Exodus 32: 7a, 10a)