Category false teaching

Nov 29 2012

Rick Warren on Homosexuality: “not everything natural is good…”

I do not dislike Rick Warren.  He is a big celebrity, a nice  guy, and almost everyone in this country seems to like him.  But there lies the problem… You cannot be a pastor who proclaims the Gospel, and at the same time make sinners feel good, because the Word of God is a two-edged sword that must convict the sinner and lead him to repentance.

Continuing his wildly successful book tour, Warren again presented false teaching on the issue of homosexuality while being interviewed by left-wing host Piers Morgan.

Morgan: “Do you personally believe that gay people are born gay? Or, do they become gay? Are they made gay?”

Warren:  “You know what — I think the jury’s still out on that. It wouldn’t bother me if there was a ‘gay gene’ found,” 

“Here’s what we know about life: I have all kinds of natural feelings in my life and it doesn’t necessarily mean that I should act on every feeling. Sometimes I get angry and I feel like punching a guy in the nose. It doesn’t mean I act on it. Sometimes I feel attracted to women who are not my wife. I don’t act on it,”

“Just because I have a feeling doesn’t make it right. Not everything natural is good for me.”

Going against biblical truth, Warren strongly implies that homosexuality is natural, which ultimately means it is furnished by the Creator.  This is the agenda that the gay community has been pushing for years in suppressing the truth found in the Word of God, and Rick Warren seems to be fanning their flame.

Let’s get back to the Bible to see what Paul really teaches about the natural vs unnatural aspect of homosexual relations in Romans 1:

24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.

The problem here is that Rick Warren knows this passage in the Bible.  He also knows that if he reads this passage on Piers Morgan’s show, his book will no longer $ell in that audience.

It is so difficult to serve both God and Mammon.

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Nov 27 2012

Rick Warren and His Purpose Driven Gospel

Pastor Rick Warren appearing on CBS show 'This Morning' on Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2012.

Saddleback pastor Rick Warren was on the “CBS This Morning” show to promote the re-release of his extremely successful book “A Purpose Driven Life.”  Apparently 20% of Americans have read his book since it came out in 2002, a record for any devotional or spiritual non-fiction book.

Charlie Rose and Nora O’Donnell, as expected asked the tough questions… but the answers given by the pastor were not anchored in biblical truth.  He gave sound answers on the topic of abortion, but I was deeply disappointed in the way he addressed the issue of homosexuality, gay marriage and most importantly… Jesus!

He was asked why he opposes gay marriage.  He invoked the concept of tolerance and stated about gay marriage that “it is not a big issue to me.”  In the capacity of a pastor whose primary goal is to represent the Bible accurately, he could have very well said that the Bible states that a homosexual relationship is forbidden and that is why he opposes it.  A plethora of biblical text could easily back up such a statement.

However, this was point in the interview where correct biblical doctrine went out the window.  The pastor went ahead to define and discuss tolerance, emphasizing how one can tolerate sin without agreeing with it, and brought Jesus into the discussion stating that “Jesus accepted everybody no matter who they were.”  Leaving this statement out there without following up on Jesus’ firm condemnation of sin is a gross misrepresentation of Jesus’ teaching.  This statement is the basis of a watered-down, cheap gospel of acceptance which has made its way into the Anglican, Episcopalian, Lutheran and some evangelical churches.

In fact, the way Warren worded his answers led the Christian Post to draw the following conclusion in their article about the CBS interview: “The California mega church pastor said that according to the Bible, people need to be tolerant of all views, just like Jesus was – but that does not mean approving of all choices.”  

Despite the not “approving” comment that followed, if after you invoke the Bible and the teaching of Jesus, reporters are left with the idea that Jesus was “tolerant of all views,” you have succeeded in proclaiming a false gospel.  As a pastor, one cannot alter the gospel message based on who is in the audience; it does not matter if the it is the liberal CBS audience or the Sunday morning church membership;  the Gospel must be proclaimed accurately especially when the prompt has to do with human depravity!

The Gospel is the good news that there still is room at the foot of the cross for salvation for all who repent… including Rick Warren.

Nov 24 2012

Eternal Security is not Compatible with a Life of Sin… Even if Once “Saved”

I would like to thank my friend Ruben Birle who drew my attention to the teaching of dr. Charles Stanley on the issue of eternal security.  An internet search reveals that Stanley holds some degree of Arminian views in his soteriology (salvation theology), and was involved with the John 3:16 Conference, which was specifically against Reformation Theology.

In the video below he answers the question: “How can a person be saved, backslide into a life of sin, and still be saved for all eternity?”

My critique follows below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrhFrQJritc

I strongly believe in the eternal security of the saved, specifically the ones who have truly been born-again.  Salvation belongs to our God not to us, and God is the One Who completes His work toward our glorification, a process in which we fully participate.  The issue in this video comes down to whether the ones living in sin are saved or not.

The views expressed in this clip are not biblical because the entire discussion hinges on the term “life of sin.”  The term is present in the question and Stanley references it multiple times in the video.

It starts off with identifying the person who receives the gift of salvation but “lives pretty much like everyone else” (0:38).  He calls this backsliding, but it is much more serious.  These persons are not even saved because they have not experienced the new birth which is evident as that radical change in their life when they exhibit the fruit of the Spirit.  “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17).  So how can an unsaved person have eternal security?

Is it possible for a saved person then to live a “life of sin” since this is what the video is addressing?  This answer is a resounding no!  Therefore that person does not have eternal security.  They are lost until they experience the new birth made possible by the Holy Spirit (John 3).

The Bible is firm about any “saved” person who lives a “life of sin.”  These individuals are not saved.  Dr Stanley says that it is possible to experience salvation AND live a “life of sin” and just lose your reward, but not your salvation.  Wrong!  The biblical evidence against dr Stanley’s false teaching in insurmountable!

1 John 3:6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him… 

1 John 3:9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God

1 John 1:6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.

Ephesians 5:3 But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.

2 John 9 Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God

…and many, many more verses…

Despite what the Bible really teaches, Dr Stanley persists on the idea that one can be “saved,” then live a “life of sin” and still have eternal security, with the stipulation that he will lose his reward. This, my friends is false teaching!  Anyone who continues to live in sin has never been born again!