About Rick Warren and the Emerging Church

About Rick Warren and the Emerging Chuch


Sandra D About Rick Warren Jan 1, '09 2:21 PM

for everyone



I have been watching and researching Rick Warren's beliefs for over a year now. Many athiest are up in arms because of his pray at the Presidential Inagugration. They needn't be. Rick Warren speaks good words. All that I have heard him speak on tv is right on with the Bible. But underneath the talk, Rick is not a true Christian. Oh, he may have been saved at one time, but when he started his Saddleback Church, he was not getting enough from the faith of the Christian Church. So, we went out to his community to find out what the people wanted in a church. It wasn't enough what God wanted and had already set in the Bible as the Truth and Princlples to follow.



Not only is this a man-made religion, but it has no solid foundation from the Bible. In Matthew 15:8-9, God said, "This people draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their llips; but their heart if far from Me. But in vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men."



When we embrace ideas and philosophies of men rather than the inspired Word of God, it does not take long to be led astray. Following men and their methods can be dangerous if these people are not following Jesus and His Word.



In the Matthew verses, Jesus showed that humans can be misled even in their endeavors to get closer to Him. People can be decieved even though they may believe they are heading down the right road (Matthew 7:21-24).



Emergent leaders say the Christian faith needs to be reinvented or reimagined for the 21st century. They insist that a new faith and a new kind of church must be established in order to reach this generation. If you ask most emergent leaders what their primary goal is, they



would say -- to reach this present postmodern culture with faith much different from what current Christianity offers because the present one is not authenic. They would tell you that today's Christianity is too individuallistic (not communally minded enough), putting too much emphasis on a heavenly, eternal kingdom and not enought on the kingdom of God on earth here and now. They would tell you the emerging church can offer to humanity an authentic, organic, and real faith, since what we now know is outdated, irrelevant, and ineffective.



Now, I think the church today needs to be more about helping people and doing the work of the Kingdom. We are often too isolated in our beautiful buildings, not going out into the area and seeing to the needs of others. But that doesn't mean that the faith of the church today is not the true faith. But works go along with faith. If the emerging church could just accept the true faith of the Bible and add the works, we could have a powerful church.



In the book, Faith Undone, by Roger Oakland, the author challenges the emerging church message, and here is why: True biblical faith never changes. What Jesus and His disciples offered two thousand years ago is still offered to mankind today and has been consistentl offered to every generation in between. Jude verse 3 exhorts us to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints. While emergent leaders reject terms like plan of salvation and asking Jesus to be Lord of your life, God actually has offered man a plan to be saved.



More to come, Sandra