The Purpose Driven Life
by Rick WarrenAnalysis by Lorraine Day, M.D.
Rick Warren is an Evangelical pastor of the Saddleback Church in Lake Forest (Orange County), California, who began a home church about 20 years ago and, with essentially secular marketing techniques, grew the church to a membership of approximately 10,000 members.
He has written a book entitled, “The Purpose Driven Life” that has become the No. 1 Best Seller on the New York Times book list, selling more than 6 million copies. It is impossible, of course, for ANY book to reach that amount of readership without huge publicity by the commercial press. Why would the commercial press, owned virtually totally by Jewish Zionists, a group viciously antagonistic to Christ and Christianity, support and promote a book that tells how to dramatically increase the membership of Christian churches?
What could their agenda be?
A discerning reader will be able to perceive the goals of the book, which are: 1) to make sure EVERY Christian is a member of an organized church, 2) to mark Christians who are NOT members of an organized church as being “under God’s curse”, 3) to promote massive volunteerism (everyone must “work” for the church in some ministry), and 4) to use the terms “God” and “the church” synonymously and interchangeably. In other words, God and “the church” are presumed to be one and the same. It is assumed by the author that when a directive comes from the “church” leaders, the church member must assume that directive is from God - that that directive is “God’s precise will” for one’s life.
In the book, the “church” actually becomes the voice of God and presumes to have the authority of God. This is not stated directly, but it becomes very obvious when one reads the book carefully and with discernment.
In the first six chapters, God is identified as our Creator and the One with whom we should have a relationship. However, by Chapter Seven the shift from relying on God - - to relying on “man” - - begins.
In Chapter Eight, God begins to be “humanized. On page 64 it says that “God grieves, gets jealous and angry”, etc. Yes, the Bible says that, but it also says that God’s ways are HIGHER than our ways. God tells us He is NOT like us!
On the same page, we are told by the author that we “need to expand our understanding of ‘worship.’ “ He goes on to say that, “healing, miracles, and ecstatic experiences are all included in worship.”
According to the author, “Worship has nothing to do with the style or volume or speed of a song. God loves ALL kinds of music because He invented it all— fast and slow, loud and soft, old and new. You probably don’t like it all, but God does! If it is offered to God in spirit and truth, it is an act of worship.” This is propaganda at its best. This book is meant to be a “change agent” to bring worldly music into the church, to compromise and downgrade the holiness of worship that God requires.
The author adds on page 66, “There is no such thing as ‘Christian’ music; there are only Christian lyrics. It is the words that make a song sacred, not the tune. There are no spiritual tunes.” How very WRONG the author is! The Rock music beat was developed by the Tavistock Institute in London specifically to destroy the morality of the young and to get them into sex and drugs. Putting “Jesus” words to that music does NOT make it “Christian,” it makes it an abomination!
By Chapter Nine (page 72) the author implies that among the commands God has given us that we must obey is the command to attend church. More propaganda! Nowhere in the Bible does God demand that we attend a government-sanctioned, human-run corporation where people mouth words about Jesus, but their hearts are far from Him.
A plan to develop weak Christians begins on page 75 with the following statement:
“Every act of enjoyment becomes an act of worship when you thank God for it.” There are many things people may “enjoy” that would NOT be considered an act of worship!
But God says, “Take up your Cross daily, and follow Me.”
On page 89, “breath prayers” are suggested as a way to “Pray without ceasing” as the Bible instructs. “Breath prayers” are described in the following way: “You choose a brief sentence or a simple phrase that can be repeated to Jesus in one breath.” Then the reader is told to repeat that short phrase over many times.
This is nothing more than a “mantra” – self hypnosis - vain repetitions that the Bible prohibits!
Chapter Thirteen encourages the reader to engage in “emotions” during the worship service and that ANY way that a person desires to worship God is acceptable. Remember that Old Israel had temple prostitutes!
By Chapter Fifteen we are told that “the church becomes our spiritual family” and that the “church family” is “even more important than your physical family.”
By Chapter Seventeen entitled “A Place to Belong”, the message of the book is clear, and that is that you cannot really be considered a Christian unless you are a church member. Here are some following quotations
“The church is God’s agenda for the world.”
“The (organized) church is indestructible and will exist for eternity. It will outlive this universe, and so will your role in it. The person who says, ‘I don’t need the church,’ is either arrogant or ignorant.”
“Except for a few important instances referring to all believers throughout history, almost every time the word church is used in the Bible it refers to a local, visible congregation. (WRONG!) The New Testament assumes membership in a local congregation. (WRONG!) The only Christians not members of a local fellowship were those under church discipline who had been removed from the fellowship because of gross public sin.” (WRONG!)
“Many believe one can be a ‘good Christian’ without joining (or even attending) a local church, but God would strongly disagree.” WRONG!!!
“A church family identifies you as a genuine believer.” WRONG! (How about Elijah, John, the Baptist and many others in the Bible who had NO “church family”?)
“Only in regular contact with ordinary, imperfect believers can we learn real fellowship and experience the New Testament truth of being connected and dependent on each other.” WRONG!! We should be dependent on the Lord, NOT “each other.”
“We need more than the Bible in order to grow: we need other believers.” (What arrogance! Jesus is “the Word!” That’s ALL we need.)
“God has assigned us as individuals the responsibility of keeping each other on track.” (No, God keeps us on track. He tells us repeatedly NOT to depend on man!)
“A related benefit of a local church is that it also provides the spiritual protection of godly leaders.” (We have God as our Leader! Why accept a human being as a “leader”? That’s a very poor substitute.)
“We are accountable to spiritual leaders.” (WRONG! We are accountable to God!)
ALL of these arrogant statements are designed to get EVERYONE into a church where they are then under the control of a pastor, rather than having a direct relationship with God and letting God lead them!
Chapter Eighteen begins the talk of forming “cells” or small groups, in a church. These “cells” are modeled after communist cells where people in them are submitted to peer pressure by the group to change their views on whatever doesn’t agree with the group!
By Chapter Twenty-One, the message is that “It is YOUR job to protect the unity of your church!” No mention is ever made of the dangers of compromising our Biblical doctrines. We are told to “Focus on what we have in common, not our differences.” This is clearly Ecumenism! The author also states that “God gives leaders the responsibility and the authority to maintain the unity of the church!” (WRONG!) That authority lies ONLY with God.
We are told, “You will give an account to God of how well you followed your leaders.” The clear message here is that the reader is NOT to think or study for himself, but instead to follow ONLY what the leaders tell him to do - or to think!
Chapter Twenty-Nine tells you that you must have a “ministry” and do service. The author tells us, “the LAST thing many believers need today is to go to another Bible study. What they need are serving experiences in which they can exercise their spiritual muscles.” (WRONG!) Few Christians study the Bible in a meaningful way. God wants us to have a close relationship with HIM. That is FAR more important than “serving” experiences!
The Heretical Conclusions of Rick Warren’s book, both overt and hidden:
1) The “church” takes the place of God. “God” is given lip service, but the corporate church, run by “man” has insinuated itself into the place of God. The “church” is God’s voice on earth - apparently just like the Pope!
2) All types of music, no matter how wild or degrading, are acceptable if they have Christian lyrics.
3) God commands that we must be in an organized church.
4) Mantras and “vain repetitions” are encouraged.
5) God wants you to be emotional in church.
6) The “church” family is more important than your own family.
7) If you are NOT in a church, you are under the curse of God!
8) We cannot mature as a Christian unless we are a member of an organized church.
9) We must protect the unity of the church, apparently even to the point of giving up one’s doctrinal beliefs.
10) Following the church leaders is demanded, even to the exclusion of thinking for oneself.
Yet the word “church” NEVER appears in the Bible. The Greek word mistranslated “church” is ecclesia and it means the “Called Ones”, those God, Himself, has called. This word does NOT in any way denote an organization.
When Jesus was on earth He NEVER set up an Organized Church even though His disciples were constantly urging Him to do so. (They all wanted to be the favored ones in His organization.)
The people Jesus rebuked the most were the leaders of the Organized Church, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Jesus called them vipers, serpents, hypocrites, sons of their father, the devil, a Synagogue of Satan!
Who crucified Jesus? The leaders of the Organized Church of the day!
They had fallen so far from a relationship with God and their hearts were so corrupt that they didn’t even recognize Him when He came to earth in the form of a man.
There are Two Beasts in Revelation 13, the Monster beast that represents world-wide Jewish Zionism, and the Lamb-like beast that represents world-wide apostate Christianity. Apostate Christianity will be controlled from behind the scenes by Jewish Zionism and it will be the job of Apostate Christianity (the Organized Church) to do the dirty work for the Jewish Zionists by persecuting and killing the true followers of Christ - the TRUE Christians! (See Revelation 13)
© Lorraine Day, M.D. 2006. All Rights Reserved.
This document cannot be reproduced in any form
except for downloading for personal use.
Return to The Organized Church