Puff Pieces
Rick Warren has turned into his own apologist in the latest public relations campaign to undo some of the purported damage done by his critics. One can read the first two of a 3-part series at WorldNetDaily here and here. Strangely, he seems to be calling Rev. Robert Schuller’s honesty into question about their previous associations. Schuller had publicly stated on 4/04/04:
And there’s Rick Warren, a pastor who today is phenomenal. He came to our institute time after time. And in “Christianity Today,” his wife was quoted as saying, “When we came to that institute, we were blown away.” How God has blessed him. And today Rick Warren is blessing millions of people.
So far no hard questions have been asked in this series. And one has to wonder why Warren would need be concerned about his public image anyway. What’s next? Stay tuned. . . .
Missing Link
The link to the opening quotation in the previous post, advertising the “Eschatology & The Market Place: Rethinking the Future” conference, is no longer active. This conference was also advertised by Global Harvest Ministries (C. Peter Wagner’s organization) in an e-mail sent out on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 1:34 PM.
The Truth:
The doctrine of justification by faith—a biblical truth, and a blessed relief from sterile legalism and unavailing self-effort—has in our time fallen into evil company and been interpreted by many in such a manner as actually to bar men and women from the knowledge of God.
The whole transaction of religious conversion has been made mechanical and spiritless. Faith may now be exercised without a jar to the moral life and without embarrassment to the Adamic ego. Christ may be “received” without creating any special love for Him in the soul of the receiver. The man is “saved” but he is not hungry or thirsty after God!