Mon, Jan 26, 2009 at 11:23 AM
Dear
Friends,
We realize that this e-mail is coming soon after our
previous one, God
Requires Love, Not Tolerance. We also confess that we enjoy
sleep as you do! But, when the Spirit of our Lord keeps us up praying
through the night and prompts us to rise long before dawn to write,
we do it! So, here is another Prophetic
Insight for you to
prayerfully consider.
For several years now we've been
contacted by various people who've been deeply concerned about Rick
Warren's books, The
Purpose-Driven Church and
The Purpose-Driven Life.
Because of recent communications prompted by President Obama's
request for Rick Warren to do the Inauguration invocation, we felt
our Lord wanted us to warn ALL of you. Rick Warren founded Saddleback
Church in Southern California and for many years has been leading the
way in today's Church
Growth Movement.
To better understand the connection between President Obama
and Rick Warren, we first need to review some American history. Prior
to the Great Depression of the 1930s there had been other economic
depressions in this nation. With each of these financial calamities
the President would call for a period of fasting and repentance until
God delivered them from the condition that had been brought on by
their sins. These disasters followed a pattern similar to that found
in the Book of Judges: widespread toleration for sin, God's judgment
that brought about repentance, and His subsequent merciful
deliverance.
With the Great Depression of the 1930s, however,
this pattern was broken by then-President Franklin Roosevelt.
Refusing to yield to the humility of heart that had impelled his
presidential forefathers, Roosevelt replaced the God of the Bible
with the 'god'
of government.
Because the government can print as much money as it wants —
even without the means to back it up — Roosevelt instituted
far-reaching social programs that borrowed money from the future. The
plan seemed
well and good. People could get out
of their current crisis by placing the financial burden on their
children and their children's children. Decades of borrowing from
future generations became an entrenched policy, so much so that
current generations have come to expect the entitlements of their
greed-based, self-serving prosperity.
Commonly accepted
practices that ignore or defy God's Word cannot prosper. Such is the
case of robbing the yet-unborn to satiate their parents:
"Children should not have
to save up for their parents, but parents for their children"
(2 Corinthians 12:14). The ways of
the world are utter foolishness to our holy God, who grieves the
murdered 50 million aborted children who could have helped pay this
debt. We previously wrote that when Roosevelt instituted the Social
Security program, there were 17
workers to provide the funding for
each retiree. Now there are only 2.5.
Nobody is going to pay this debt back, NOBODY.
For the sake of
greed we've doomed our children to economic chaos. Most Americans
today share a common desire that aptly depicts the self-centered
focus of this culture: a fervent desire that the total collapse of
this nation and its economy won't happen in their lifetime! Yet how
despicable in God's sight is this narrow-minded perspective!
It
is evident that President Obama is a purpose-driven
man. Americans expect this trait if he is to lead them out of the
current crisis. While being purpose-driven
may be admirable, that
characteristic falls into deception when it gives way to the pathway
of Rick Warren (and many others in the Church Growth Movement).
What do these two men have in
common? Both set aside the holy commands of God's Word to advance
their own agenda.
This
President has imitated the man-powered approach of FDR and set aside
the humility of repentance that presidents of previous generations
called for. Rather than calling for national repentance, President
Obama is going to rely on the
'god' of government
to solve the current crisis. As
driven as he is to get this nation out of its economic mess, no man's
purpose can stand against God's as He challenges the idols of
government,
greed
and
religion.
Religion:
Purpose-Driven Man's Testimony
To His Own Success
The real key to the success of
Rick Warren and the Church Growth Movement of which he is a key
leader is to persuade people to set aside Biblical absolutes and
agreeably tolerate everyone and everything. That means
never confronting people
with the depravity of their sin and
their absolute need for Jesus as their Savior and the Lord of their
lives. Meeting earthly felt needs and providing emotional
satisfaction underlies the success of Saddleback Church and those
modeled after it.
The Purpose-Driven Church
and The
Purpose-Driven Life distort
God's Word by removing any emphasis on the reality of sin and man's
carnal nature, making "Christianity" palatable. God's
love is never balanced with His
holiness. His
command for righteousness is overridden by a call to accept sin and
welcome all as accepted, even those who have no concept of repentance
or guilt or righteousness. That
way, "customers" — unbelievers and seekers —
are attracted into pews, never confronted by their sin and never made
to feel that repentance is needed to come into God's holy
Presence.
We encourage you to go to
<http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/2003/1-purpose.htm>
and find a thorough exposé of Warren's goals and
methodologies. Why are we recommending this? Warren's rules for
church growth instruct us to "never criticize what God is
blessing." That sounds right — as far as it goes. But the
God Who is holy, righteous and just is deceptively cloaked by a
representation of a deity who accepts everyone just as they are,
without confession of their own depravity and without turning from
that darkness into the light of His Lordship. Warren teaches that
God Himself is so tolerant that He blesses everything and everyone.
Much of Warren's goals and methods are derived from Peter Drucker and
Robert Schuller. Both deny God as
He is represented in the Scriptures, choosing instead to promote
"people-friendly" policies and programs that define as
acceptable even that which nullifies God's Word.
Peter Drucker
is the legendary management guru behind many of today's corporate
success styles, and in recent decades, has deeply influenced those
who ascribe to the Church Growth Movement. What is attractive about
Drucker's methodology is that it offers statistical proof of
"success" — you can count nickels and noses as a sign
of your accomplishment. Also, Drucker emphasizes the
need for compromise
and tolerance in
order to produce a sense of community. Clergy from many nations have
implemented Drucker's marketing approach to "doing church",
finding that a promise of salvation without identifying with the
self-denying cross of Christ produces far greater favor and
acceptance.
The other person who has strongly impacted
Warren's ministry is Robert Schuller of Crystal Cathedral fame.
Warren incorporated Schuller's "people-pleasing" methods to
produce the phenomenal growth at Saddleback. Both Warren and Schuller
distort Scripture by quoting only passages or even partial verses
that emphasize only the "loving side" of God. By
eliminating emphasis on the holiness and righteous justice of God,
they effectively remove any holy fear of Him and His chastisement and
judgment when man continues to violate His standards.
This
combined influence of Drucker and Schuller on Warren focuses on the
"customer's perspective" in order to achieve success. This
means you do whatever it takes so that people feel
satisfied — the
same approach that Corporate America relies on to entice people to
come and
buy. As evidenced by their
expansive congregations, Schuller and Warren realized that when this
process is applied, they're successful
— that is, if success is
measured by vast numbers of satisfied "customers".
Through
surveys, congregational leaders can easily discover the "felt
needs" of the unbelievers in their local community. Armed with
this information, they can then develop services that attract
"customers." Yet grievously, those who are lured in and
deceived through this methodology are not exposed to the unchanging
standard and requirements of God's Word. Rather, they're inoculated
against the authentic Gospel by the passages they find palatable
instead of
being taught the rest that's not so
pleasing to their flesh!
In Lifebyte 61, Does
Your Marriage Reflect Your Covenant With Our Father? (Lesson 1),
we asked you to discuss your own view of the Bible and its veracity
and absolute authority in the life of a Jesus follower. If you've
prayerfully done this, then you've discovered God's perspective:
The entire
Bible is His
inerrant and authoritative Word to guide you into a life that pleases
Him. He has given His
beloved children His Spirit to empower them to live in trusting
obedience to His Word out
of love for Him. Anyone who chooses to truly follow Jesus can
never alter God's holy Word. Those who disguise His Word to make it
more palatable to the sin nature open themselves to Satan's
deception, as those of the Church Growth Movement have done.
Deceiving themselves as well as others, they have blurred the line
between what God
calls right and wrong.
Our
Lord Jesus confronted the religious leaders of His day for doing this
very thing to the Word of God:
“Are you not therefore
mistaken, because you do not know the Scriptures nor the power of
God?" (Mark
12:24). They did not understand the power of God to change the hearts
of people, so they altered His Word to suit their own purposes. This
is what is behind the Church Growth Movement today...
To
undergird their devious methodology, leaders of the Church Growth
Movement needed an erroneous translation of the Bible that supported
their own deception. Eugene Peterson met their needs when he wrote
The Message.
His translation of the Newer Testament in particular is blasphemous
in its alteration of the truth! Yet, this version is frequently cited
as a proof text by Rick Warren and many other Church Growth
clergy.
Through the paraphrased conversational style of
The Message
which glosses over the truth, Warren
avoids the convicting Scriptures that would offend his "customers."
Like Peterson, he goes through great pain to de-emphasize Biblical
absolutes, readily watering down the holy commands of a righteous
God. Why? Because the absolutes of holiness and righteousness in the
lives of those who would truly follow Jesus only hinder Warren's goal
of community at all
cost — the
same goal and methodology that are behind the entire Church Growth
Movement.
We are living in the times Paul was warning about,
times in which people refuse to hear the truth. Rather, they want a
"gospel" in which their worldly desires can be appeased
even as they're deceived into believing they're acceptable to God:
"For
there will be a time when they will
not bear with sound teaching,
but
according to their
own lusts they
will heap up for
themselves
teachers
who tickle their ears;
on one hand they will
turn their ears away from the
truth,
and on
the other hand they will be
turned aside to myths"
(2
Timothy 4:3,4, literal translation).
In
light of Paul's admonition, look at an example of Peterson's
"people-friendly" translation of Matthew 18:15-17:
"If
a fellow believer hurts you, go and tell him—work it out
between the two of you. If he listens, you've made a friend. If he
won't listen, take one or two others along so that the presence of
witnesses will keep things honest, and try again. If he still won't
listen, tell the church. If he won't listen to the church, you'll
have to start over from scratch, confront him with the need for
repentance, and offer again God's forgiving love.
Examine
this passage in your own translation. You confront a follower of
Jesus over his
sin, not because your feelings are hurt! This isn't a personality
issue, it's a matter of him recognizing his sin and repenting. That's
the loving command of Christ — to restore the fellowship of the
one who has sinned with both Himself and with those in His family.
It's because of our Lord's
holiness that He
commands us to remove
the unrepentant from your midst.
Our
Lord clearly understood the need for communal
righteousness, which is lost to the purpose-driven clergy of
today. An accurate translation of the above passage commands the
faith community to remove the unrepentant person in order to maintain
communal righteousness. They were not against
the unrepentant person, rather they
were for
the righteousness that resulted in
their prayers being answered and our Father receiving testimonies of
praise to His faithfulness. The one who continues in disobedience yet
stays within the congregation could tempt others to stray, and would
allow his unrighteousness to defile communal worship.
From our
Lord's perspective, upholding
His holiness is
far more crucial than a man-propelled desire to be "people-friendly."
Lord Jesus rebuked the religious leaders of His day because their
hearts were far
from Him, having substituted manmade teachings for the
unchanging commands of God
(Mark 7:6-8). Other examples of
Peterson's gross distortion of God's holy Word in The
Message can be
found at this website:
<http://www.crossroad.to/Bible_studies/Message.html>.
The
Hebraic Restoration is Obedience-Driven,
not Purpose-Driven/Outcome-Based
We've
shared often that if we're to align our motives
with those of the early, faithful
followers of Jesus, we must be
obedience-based,
not outcome-based.
This means that you must seek the will of God as to what HE wants you
to do — the factor that Lord Jesus says identifies us as His
brother, sister, and mother (Mark 3:35). You can't just envision some
outcome you think is good and then ask Him to bless it. It's our
Lord's will, His
outcome that He's
calling you to pursue. Being obedience-based means you daily seek the
rhema of
God for His specific will for you, then follow through in the power
of His Spirit (Deuteronomy 8:3; Luke 4:4). Being obedience-based
leads you to embrace the "altar experiences" our Lord uses
so that you can continue to rid yourself of the motivations of your
sin nature and take on the character of Jesus. As you hunger to
become more like your King and Lord, you find that you're
increasingly more willing to lovingly obey His every command.
In
contrast, a self-focused, purpose-driven motivation has taken over
much of western Christendom. Because of its popularity and great
acceptance, many religious leaders, worship leaders, and Christian
publishers and music producers have become outcome-based and
purpose-driven using Warren's standards. By
embracing and promoting a self-created outcome, they can freely adopt
the ways of the world to accomplish their goal.
They become peddlers
of the things of God, using
marketing
as the means to carry out the will
of God. But, anytime a worldly method or goal is adapted to gain a
preconceived outcome, the unalterable holiness of the Word of God is
forfeited. Paul recognized the widespread evil practice of
"Christian" marketers and contrasted their insincerity with
the holy motivation of serving God's purpose:
"For we are not, as so
many, peddling the Word of God; but as of sincerity, but as from God,
we speak in the sight of God in Christ"
(2 Corinthians 2:17). An
obedience-based follower of Jesus comes from
God to share what
God has given Him.
In
the preceding verses Paul affirmed the importance of being
obedience-based
— of fully representing Jesus
as He is presented in the Bible. No matter what the cost, we are to
live as the representation of the Biblical Christ and His Word.
Neither can be altered for marketability to those who are bent on
hell:
"For
we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being
saved
and among those who are perishing.
To the one we are the
aroma of death leading to death,
and to the other the aroma of
life leading to life..."
(2
Corinthians 2:15,16a).
To
Be Obedience-based You Must Stay
Repentance-Driven
Many of
you out of Spirit-impelled obedience to your beloved Lord have had to
flee Church Growth Movement congregations. You've been branded by
them as "intolerant", "troublemaker", "unloving."
We want to encourage you. Press on into pursuing a life that's
pleasing to our Lord Jesus, and know that you're in good company!
Deceived mega-congregations try to get you to discard the unalterable
foundations of God's Word so that you'll find unity in joining a
worldwide marketing movement. But this flesh-appeasing deceit is a
dangerous snare that opposes Biblical faith. Rather, we urge you to
continue to uphold personal and communal righteousness with those who
are abiding in love and repentance in His Spirit, even if that's
currently just a few in your relational arena. We'll be writing more
about this soon...
As we noted in our last e-mail, those who
are walking in this deception don't need to be forcefully combated.
They need the prayers of righteous
people whom our Father will answer,
since He is powerful enough to change the heart of anyone! And, while
you're praying, would you please lift up the two of us before His
Throne? Even as our Lord has called us to expose these demonic
forces, we're facing tremendous opposition, both physically and on
our equipment. Please, pray for us...
Mike
& Sue
P.S. Have you ever thought about this? What
if God could find 10
righteous people in
each city in this nation. He was willing to stop His destruction of
Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18) if 10 could be found, and their
societies were certainly no worse than ours. Do you think there are
10 righteous people in each city in the US? Would you be one of those
whose prayers and obedient, loving trust would stir Him to
relent?
Restoration
Ministries International
Restoring
the Hebraic Foundations of the Earliest Church
Preparing
the Family of Jesus to be Light in Darkness
205
North Murray Blvd #25
Colorado
Springs, CO 80916
(719)
573-4911
Web:
Restorationministries.org
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