In the previous post, it was pointed out that Rick Warren recently spoke on the “Biblical Meaning of Marriage” at a Vatican conference. He was among 30 global religious leaders (including Muslim, Jewish and Latter-day Saints representatives) examining the changing roles of marriage and family in the world. Warren is a champion of ecumenism. He exhorted these inter-religious leaders to be “Purpose Driven,” thus demonstrating that the PD program is ecumenical. This post will further document Warren’s ecumenism.
On 11/26/14 the Catholic News Service released an interview entitled Rick Warren on Catholicism. The description says, “The Rev. Rick Warren outlines an ecumenical vision for Catholics and Protestants to work together to defend the sanctity of life, sex and marriage.”
Warren says that Pentecostals, Charismatics, Evangelicals, Fundamentalists, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, etc. “have far more in common than what divides us.” Warren says that when we really understand what Catholics mean by worshiping Mary and praying to saints that there’s a whole lot more commonality. Warren adds, “The most important thing is that if you love Jesus, we’re on the same team.” Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments . . . He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who lovesMe will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him” (John 14:15,21).
Warren called for his ecumenical goal of a “unity of mission” and teamwork. Warren is incorrect in his statement in the interview about there being no division among the groups he mentioned when it comes to the sanctity of marriage. There can be no unity in “loving Jesus” when we’re talking about another Jesus. These denominations have no unity on divorce and remarriage or even homosexual marriage. For example, see “Presbyterians Vote to Allow Same-Sex Marriage.”
In another World Over interview from earlier this year, Warren sounds very Catholic himself when he spoke to Roman Catholic host Raymond Arroyo. When writing the The Purpose Driven Life, Warren said he would rise up a 5 AM, fast until noon and light candles (everything a Catholic wants to hear). Raymond Arroyo smiles big when Warren mentioned asking himself, “How do you write a book that lasts 500 years?” and goes on to name books in comparison to Purpose Driven Life such as Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis, Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence, the Desert Fathers, St. John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila. All the books Warren mentioned as inspiration for Purpose Driven were Roman Catholic devotional books! I can’t help but think of Paul’s words:
For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10).
When Arroyo asked Warren what his secret to his “gift of communication,” Warren responded, “authenticity . . . humility. . . Pope Francis is the perfect example of this. He is doing everything right.” Really? See The First Emergent Pope and Pope Francis Will Not Judge Homosexuals. Warren also makes sure to call Francis, “our new Pople” instead of the new Pope, thereby including himself within the Roman Catholic community. Warren echoes with approval a news headline which said, “If you love Pope Francis, then you will love Jesus.” This flattery of the Pope is sickening. This culminates with Warren blasphemously calling the Pope the “Holy Father,” at 26:07 of his recent Vatican Colloquium speech on marriage. Again, Jesus expressly forbids this Roman Catholic title when he spoke in the context of exalting religious teachers and “fathers.”
The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do. For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi.’ But you, do not be called ‘Rabbi’; for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren. Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. And do not be called teachers; for One is your Teacher, the Christ. But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. (Matthew 23:2-12)
The only enemy to Warren’s ecumenical agenda are fundamentalists. In fact, both Warren and the Pope make stunningly similar statements about fundamentalists. In an interview with La Vanguardia, Pope Francis said, “A fundamentalist group, although it may not kill anyone, although it may not strike anyone, is violent. The mental structure of fundamentalists is violence in the name of God.” In a 2006 article from the Philadelphia Inquirer: “Warren predicts that fundamentalism, of all varieties, will be ‘one of the big enemies of the 21st century.’ ‘Muslim fundamentalism, Christian fundamentalism, Jewish fundamentalism, secular fundamentalism – they’re all motivated by fear. Fear of each other.‘”
Though I do not agree with Dr. Walter Martin on all things, he has an informative audio teaching on The Claims of the Roman Catholic Church which is helpful with this subject. The overarching unity in Warren’s Purpose Driven ecumenical agenda is not Christ, but apostasy.
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