There are a couple of things that bother me about the “Strategic Implications.” First off; why would the US Army declassify something and knowingly allow it to get into the public archives? If they truly believe that  “PreMillennialism”  is the driving force behind the problems in the world, then why give the PreMillennialist a reason to hunker down and cause more problems? If that is part of some kind of military strategy it certainly goes over my head. The other thing is, why are they just now discovering the “implications”? As the article shows this information has always been available, has it just now become important? Maybe it has. The brainiacs  at the Pentagon may have likewise been “PreMillennialist” with the hope of Jesus’ return and ruling for a thousand years.

There may be more behind this than I know, and if anyone can add information to what is here, please do.

My final thought before you begin to read is this; Christians who have their hope in Christ, and who are securely anchored in their faith need not be alarmed, because these things must come to pass. Whether you are pre-trib or post-trib (post-trib is beginning to look more and more feasible and true) we enter into the Kingdom through much suffering and tribulation; the ultimate test of our faith may be just ahead.

Steve Blackwell

_________________________________________________

US Army View of PreMillennialism Strategic Implications of American Millennialism

Dated: May 22, 2008
By Major Brian L. Stuckert, U.S. Army
School of Advanced Military Studies
United States Army Command and General Staff College
Fort Leavenworth, KS 66027
Name of Responsible Person: Stefan Banach, COL, US Army
Telephone Number: (913) 758-3300
This is the document for your reading: Strategic Implications of American Millennialism

DOWNLOAD NOW >> http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA485511&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf

John McTernan’s Insights

My comments on all the outright lies about millennialism.

We did not start one war to advance our beliefs. We did not start the Civil War or the Spanish-American War. America was dragged into WW l by the Germans. There was NO war cry in America by Bible believers. We did not start WW ll. It was the cowardly Europeans who failed to stand up to Hitler that allowed the war. Japan attacked America to advance its imperialistic goals. We were not threatening Japan.
We had nothing to do with the Cold War as it was Communistic Russia and China that wanted world control. We had nothing to do with Nazism and Communism which resulted in the death of over 100 million people.
Iraq and Iran are the products of Islam. They are the aggressors and not America led by Bible believing Christians. Iran wants to obtain nuclear weapons to destroy Israel and establish an Islamic caliphate from Morocco to India.
Israel is NOT the source of Islamic terrorism. Israel has nothing to do with Islamic Pakistan fighting with India. It has nothing to do with Muslims slaughtering all the people in the Sudan. It has nothing to do with the Muslims killing the Christians in Nigeria and Indonesia. It has nothing to do with all the terror in Somalia. It has nothing to do with the Muslim terrorists in the Philippines. It had nothing to do with Iraq starting the Gulf War.
Islam at its core is a violent religion that is now playing out on the world stage. The Muslim’s fighting with Israel fits a pattern throughout the world.
Right now the world’s big problems are both the Hard Left reprobates who are in charge of all Western nations including the United States and the Muslims who follow Islam. The problem is not Bible believing Christians. We are the solution to this sin cursed world, that will only be cured at the glorious Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

http://johnmcternansinsights.blogspot.com/2009/12/emergency-us-army-view-of.html

If Christianity is to receive a rejuvenation,

-A.W. Tozer

The Call to Be the Body of Christ, Rather Than To “Attend” Something

It has become more and more obvious to God’s Chosen, worldwide, that the typical expression of what is known as “church” has been influenced by the enemy, and through worldly culture. Our understanding and expression of “church,” in generation after generation, around the world has been led down a Machiavellian path of shallowness, pride, greed, lukewarmness, worldliness, and Ishmaelic infrastructure. In the institutions of today, the quality of the sermons and teaching is sometimes good. I hesitate, after visiting many hundreds of “services” of every conceivable denomination and “non-denomination,” to say that “most” teaching in these assemblies is Truth-filled. But, certainly some of it is quite good. Sometimes the “worship time” is “encouraging” or “inspiring.” We need to add, though, that accomplishing this has often required Spiritual prostitution to acquire “talented” musicians to “lead”—in spite of the fact that they may have little or no real relationship with Jesus. Their unregeneracy, or worldly life is often overlooked in order to accomplish our desired end of a wonderful worship experience to attract larger numbers. Frequently the “programs” of modern religious assemblies have targeted “worthy” objectives, such as feeding hungry unbelievers, building homes in Nicaragua, or distributing tracts to passers-by in an urban area. Many groups have a formidable number of creative efforts ongoing, many or most of which may be good things to be involved in. And yet…

And yet the quality of DAILY LIFE of people in these organizations is what it’s all about. THIS is the TRUE measurement of how much of what is going on is really of Jesus. The lack of the daily application of the Word of God, by the Priesthood of Believers with one another, is cataclysmic. In most religious assemblies, only the 5-10% “committed nucleus” (a number offered by many “pastors” as the norm) even TRIES to be involved in each other’s lives on a visible daily basis as Jesus commands, and demonstrated. And this number is still fairly accurate, even with the “cell group” programs that have sprung up everywhere as an acknowledgment of this crisis. Even within these cell groups, the stories of surprise suicides, rampant concealed pornography, love of the world, gossip, unforgiveness, pride, ambition, and general shallowness are legion. Simply changing the size of the group, “assigning” a less experienced leader, and trading the religious facility and seating for a home and a sofa…doesn’t change its DNA.

By the way, running away from “institutional religion” so that “you don’t have to answer to anyone but GOD!” is usually a deception as well. Caution and wisdom, and learning God’s Ways are in order here. You cannot just run out and “start a group” (the way men typically do such things) and expect to find much more than heartache, confusion, division, and a colossal waste of time and emotion. Ask most of those that have tried it! Let’s proceed carefully with such delicate and Holy matters as Jesus’ Church!

Laying down their lives for one another, being involved in the homes and work places, sharing in the children’s lives together, living in vulnerability, “confessing sins one to another,” “bearing one another’s burdens and so fulfilling the Law of Christ,” the mutual Life and dependency and Priesthood of 1 Corinthians 12-13…these are almost unheard of as a description of an entire congregation of Believers. And such a congregation, Biblical and mandatory as it might be to live this way, would be viewed with suspicion and called names. Yet, the rampant lukewarmness and leaven amongst the general population of most congregations is forbidden by God. It is only “preached to”—rather than resolved. The insanity of deception and worldliness amongst the teenagers of these organizations is beyond words. I could refer you to folks from any number of the most highly-respected congregations anywhere that have been totally devastated by what has happened “backstage” at their congregations. All of these tragedies and fatalities, and more, simply say what Jesus said: “You know a tree by its fruit” and “Wisdom is proved Right by her children.”

There is (as hundreds of thousands are now shouting from the mountaintops in every language) something fundamentally wrong with the understanding and expression of “church” as has been so frequently practiced for the last bunch of years!

HOWEVER! This is still worth saying: Though most churches bear precious little resemblance to the Life-filled Church we read of in the Bible (in spite of their good teaching, good worship, and good programs), most who energetically participate in the organizations of today have had only the highest motives all along.

So, why the “wake-up call” now? Why haven’t we seen all of this before? Some in previous generations have, of course. But most of them were martyred, as Jesus predicted. Some were martyred physically, some by slander and libel and politics. Those with something to lose have suppressed God’s prophets in every generation. Why are multitudes in ever-increasing numbers and courage raising their voices as One today? Perhaps, the “Two Witnesses” are ready to stand, and the Bride is sensing that the time of preparation for the Groom is growing short. Perhaps “the Spirit and the Bride,” discerning the Hour to say to Him, “COME!” is drawing near. And still there’s so much lacking in this Preparation!

Too often, we have been hypnotized by the immensity and traditions of the religious world as we’ve known it (“It’s everywhere, and all we’ve ever known!” “Mom and Dad were good folks. They ‘loved the Lord,’ so what’s the problem?”). We’ve been decoyed by men’s religious sentimentalities and emotional devices (“It’s all so nice, so sweet, so moving, so soothing, so fulfilling….”). We’ve allowed ourselves to be threatened and blackmailed into subservience to it. (“You don’t want to oppose GOD, do you? Touch not God’s anointed!”) Sometimes we’ve even been seduced by promises of advancement within it. (“You could be a leader one day! You have a true calling and gift from God! You could have your own ministry one day! Just ‘work from within’ and you can really help us.”) “Pinnacle of the Temple” stuff, for sure.

Yet most of us who have offered our involvement into typical church situations around the world, “staff” or not, have had only the best of interests in serving our resurrected Messiah, Jesus. We have rightfully chosen and attempted to serve Him within a relevant and Biblical expression of His Body, the local visible Church.

The good news: On a level of global magnitude—stuff’s getting better every day. Many everywhere have been awakened by the Holy Spirit to His Call for the Life of Jesus to be lived out DAILY in the local Church, reflecting His Glory and Wisdom and Holiness. Though we get letters literally every day in this season of Awakening, there is undoubtedly far, far more than we could ever be aware of. Even the letters we receive come from a cross section of many countries and languages and cultures, crying out to know about Jesus and the daily Life of His Body in the local Church. I mention this to you for a reason. Many times the letters or telephone calls we receive are moistened with tears. “I’m so happy! I’ve been told my whole life that I’m crazy. I’ve been told that I’m a troublemaker and just looking for perfection that I’ll never find. I should just be content with things as they are, and try to make them better. But I’m not crazy, and God does want to build a VISIBLE Church that lives every day as His Son lived every day!”

He does want a Church that, while not “perfect” of course…still “everyone, from the least to the greatest” loves Him and knows Him and “loves the light!” We mention these other folks out there, because we want you to know that you are not alone, and you are NOT crazy. Or maybe you are crazy like Enoch, like Abraham, like Moses, like Elijah and Jeremiah, like Paul…and like Jesus. So maybe you’re crazy, but you’re not alone.

In Malawi, Africa, a very dear friend and brother (native to Malawi) has likened the Call of the Holy Spirit regarding the functioning of Jesus’ Church to this: “David Livingstone brought to Malawi the Good News of Jesus (in 1859). David Livingstone’s Gift to us is like Life-giving Bread in a basket. And now, the Good News of the KINGDOM, and the LIFE of the Body of Christ as a daily Priesthood is giving us another companion Gift. This Gift has given us the ability to truly take the lid off of the basket, take the Bread out of the basket, eat it and be nourished to the full!” Precious insight.

In spite of what we have all been conditioned to accept as “church” for so many, many years, many people now know that the Bride of Jesus must be “making herself ready.” And this real Church is unrelated to sitting in a pew, on a bench, or folding chair, or even in a home or living room. Involvement in a setting constructed and controlled by mere men is still not what God intends. Even if some “amateur talent ‘specials’” are permitted, or some filtered teaching or utterances are allowed in some controlled settings (so that all the “laymen” feel involved), this is not the Real thing—born of, sustained by, and defined by Relationship with Jesus and His Body. A KINGDOM OF PRIESTS, daily LIFE involvement by 100% of the “members” of Jesus’ Body, with one another, breaking down hell’s gates—this is all that will ever satisfy His Heart and fulfill His Prophetic Teachings. And the Valley of Dry Bones, touched by the Wind of the Spirit that brought Jesus Christ back from the dead, shall arise by His Grace and Mercy! I love it. Stuff’s getting better every day.

Working Out His Dream!!

And so. An inner call of God’s Spirit is precipitating a coming “outside of the camp” to fellowship in His Sufferings and BE His Body—instead of just “studying” about it, or singing about it. DAILY. The Church really becoming the CHURCH! As so many are in a Holy pursuit of His Holy City descending from Above, it is increasingly more important to speak, as Paul did, of “the administration” or the “practical working out” of the “unsearchable riches of Christ” (Eph. 3:8-10). In other words, there are some really practical issues that come up as we move towards being the Church on a daily, interactive, “joined and knit” basis.

They are, of course, mostly irrelevant to those who try to center Christianity around meetings, buildings, hired clergy, and programs. To those religious organizations that have little difficulty or discomfort with known or unknown “leaven in the batch,” there is not much to think about. If someone wishes to move in and “place membership” at such a place, they are always most welcome. At an institutional assembly, the questions are fairly simple. If they’ll “tithe,” have some talents they can offer, and have a commitment to attend regularly, that would nearly universally be sufficient. They would be more than welcome to move and “become a member.” While there are surely many true Christians who are part of these groups, that is not to say that Jesus is happy with those organizations, or that much of anyone will reach their full potential in a place where “a little leaven leavens the WHOLE batch.” Just as Uzzah discovered, when we use the Philistine’s ways to accomplish God’s Purposes, people get hurt and people die. In a Church that is not building God’s Way, even the true Christians will suffer loss. Don’t mistake anything here for saying, “So-and-so can’t be Christians.” We’re not discussing that. This is about how we build. It is shameful that many will never reach their potentials for Jesus because we’ve “tried to grow an orange tree at the North Pole.” It really does matter how we build.

“If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If what he has built is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames” (1 Corinthians 3:12-15).

Now, for those that want to build out of Relationship—rather than org chart hierarchy, programs, forms, traditions, and calendar-ized times, places, and events…there is much to talk about.

How many times have we put our trust in individuals who, if they knew we were Christians, would gladly feed us to the lions. Many today are proud of their anti-Christian associations and even promote their anger and hatred over the internet and with placards, and billboards, and bumper stickers, even in Indiana. Some day that hatred will reach a fever pitch, and Jews and Christians will become like varmints, to be destroyed. It may be hard to believe, but it is true, and it may be sooner than we think; are you ready!

Steve Blackwell

If you have wondered if Emerging was liberal, the answer is now very plain. Emergent is old school liberalism; the same old actor with a different costume. It is no surprise to many, who practice discernment, but for many more this may come as a complete surprise; they think that Emergent is just some new fashionable approach to God. Evangelicalism of old put liberal Christianity in check, but they never lopped off the head of that viper, and today old school liberalism has become the new Evangelicals. Liberalism has been resurrected under the banner of New Evangelicalism, The Younger Evangelicals, and Emergent.

With this bold pronouncement of Mike L, Liberalism is no longer flying under the radar, they are in the open. The question is, Why the boldness? Francis Schaeffer described in his book, How Should We Then Live, how modern culture has been effected by the flow of thought through history. It goes something like this: philosophy, art, music, general culture (novels, poetry, drama, films), theology, man on the street. As the major philosophical thrust of liberalism began to be more and more the message projected by the arts in music and television it becomes obvious that the ideas of the philosophers have become the ideas of the man on the street, even though the man on the street was unable to express those idea in an intelligent way, they had become a part of him.

“On the Christian base it is possible to know why music speaks. Man is not the product of chance. Man is made in the image of God, and on this basis, it is understandable why music is music to man. On the basis of revelation–the Bible and the revelation of God in Christ–there is not ultimate silence in the universe, and there are certainties of human values and moral values and categories to distinguish between illusion and fantasy. And there is a reason why man is man. But not for these modern” (or Postmodern) “with a humanist position.” the music and ideas of this Postmodern age speak clearly of where these people have come from, and they are in deep trouble. “People function on the basis of their world view.” Francis Schaeffer

As Solomon has said, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”

Read the following to determine your world view, and if you are emerging.

Is Jesus Dead?

Mike L

This is the real question we must wrestle with on the Saturday before Easter Sunday. Most of my faith journey felt like one long confusing Saturday. Brian McLaren wrote a song called “I Am an Atheist”. This song makes the provocative statement “I can’t believe what they believe in you [but] I believe.” I can identify with that song. As an adult, I could no longer believe the things I was taught about Jesus as a child, but I still believed. I kept hoping for Easter to make sense. Most of the stories in the bible were easy to see as symbolic language. Easter was a bit more difficult to reconcile. It remains a stumbling block for many, but we can’t stay on Saturday. We have to find our way to Easter Sunday.

The first time I saw this book by Bishop John Shelby Spong, “Resurrection: Myth or Reality?”, I was so shocked by it that I put the book down after reading the first few pages. Now, I would say this book has been more helpful than any other book on the subject. It is so much more than a philosophical discussion about the reality of resurrection or a dry academic search for the historical Jesus. If you think you know Bishop Spong or could guess his answer to this question, then you might be wrong and you may want to pick up this book and take this journey.

To dismiss these familiar biblical details as legendary does not end our search for the truth of what happened, it only drives us to another level where we ask a different question. What happened that gave birth to the legendary details that gathered around the moment of Easter? Why did they gather? Hundreds of millions of people have lived and died on this earth – some of them famous, powerful people – and no similar legends gathered around them. Why this one man, at this time, in this place?
[…]
Our great failing was that we did not know anything about midrash, so we literalized narratives that were not intended to be literalized. The Jerusalem Easter legends are not to be dismissed as untrue. They are meant to be probed for clues, as I trust I have done adequately. Behind the legends that grew up around this moment, there is a reality I can never deny. Jesus lives. I have seen the Lord. By that faith and with that conviction I live my life and proclaim my gospel.

For Bishop Spong, the key to understanding the gospels and the early Christian development of faith is grounded in the tradition of Jewish literature called Midrash. I’ve been blogging about that for the last couple of weeks. Understanding the New Testament as Midrash may save Christianity in the 21st century from dying the slow death of ridicule and irrelevance.

My own wilderness moment, my Saturday, my period of mourning the death of Jesus, ended at some point in my journey. I found Easter Sunday when I found a Jesus I could believe in. The Gospels poetically describe resurrection as symbol for the moment when the mourning ended and the meaning of Jesus’ life sunk in. It was an enlightenment experience. At some point, possibly first in the mind of Simon Peter, the light bulb came on. The reason for Jesus’ life and death finally made sense. His followers couldn’t remain silent. All they needed to do was envision it through the lens of their religious ancestors and begin telling this powerful life-changing story. That was the moment of Easter and it became the defining moment in history. It happened the moment that these early Christians knew Jesus’ life could not be silenced by his death. Each community immortalized Jesus with their own specific narrative about his life, baptized it in the allegory of Jewish antiquity, encapsulated the whole story into Jesus’ defining ritual of bread and wine, and then placed their own understanding and words deeply into the dialogue and action.

Is Resurrection a myth or a reality? I believe something real happened in the lives of these real people that lead to these important stories. I also recognize that the Resurrection is a myth about a transcendent reality that could not be described through any other means.

Warren’s quote:

“My ministry mentors were my own father, a Baptist pastor for 50 years, Pastor Harry D. Williams, Dr. W.A. Criswell, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas for decades, and the books of Rev. Charles Spurgeon, C.S. Lewis, Francis Schaeffer, and William Wilberforce.”

W. A. CRISWELL 1909-2002

“If [we] are true to that expression of faith (the infallibility of Scripture) we shall live. If we repudiate it, we shall die. God will remove our lampstand….There is no exception in this judgment….”

Does Rick claim Criswell as mentor because of his theological stance in favor of the inerrancy of the Bible? In W. A. Criswell’s own words concerning “Why I Preach That the Bible Is Literally True,” he says:

“The invitation to write this book “form the top of my head and from the bottom of my heart” was accepted with the earnest and prayerful hope that it might encourage other ministers to preach the Bible as the literal, inspired, God-breathed truth of heaven….”

“I have written. . . a testimony from my heart, how I feel about God’s word….”
“This volume is my testimony.”

Where, may I ask do we see anything like these words from Rick Warren. We could aptly say that The Purpose Driven Life is the volume of Rick’s testimony, but nowhere does he reflect the zeal for the literalness of God’s word, as does Criswell. I think when Rick Warren claims Criswell as his mentor his testimony runs more along the lines of the size of his congregation, and not faithfulness to the inspired word of God. In 1969 when Criswell’s book was published he was “The pastor of the largest congregation in the SBC.” “Under his ministry, this congregation has grown to more than 13,000 members with a budget of $1,800,000.00….” “With a Sunday school enrollment in excess of 6,000, a Training Union with 50 departments, and a full-time staff of more than 50, and First Baptist Church enlist 1,000 of its members as lay workers in it various organizations.” Rick was definitely impressed in respect to large numbers, there’s no argument there.

C. H. SPURGEON 1834 – 1892
“If a man begins to walk with a stick merely for a whim, he will soon come to require a stick; if you indulge your eyes with spectacles, they will speedily demand them as a permanent appendage; and if you were to walk with crutches for a month, at the end of the time they would be almost necessary to your movements, although naturally your limbs might be a sound and healthy as any man’s.”

When we think of someone being mentored by a renowned personality we tend to assume that the greatest characteristic of the individual doing the mentoring would show up in the one being mentored. All of the characteristics of Charles Spurgeon are virtually unknown beside his one characteristic of love for preaching, he was known as the “Prince of Preachers.” Rick Warren claims that the books of Charles Spurgeon mentored him. Well, I’m curious now. Charles Spurgeon was not a good preacher, he was a great preacher, “many times it has been said that this was the greatest preacher this side of the Apostle Paul.” What is it that we should look for as proof and evidence of this great man’s influence. We see no evidence of great preaching in RW, but we do see something else, numbers! Rick’s preaching is bland, lifeless, and simplistic, so we needn’t look there. But, Spurgeon could do other things, like generate large crowds. Crowds, this is what inspires greatness in Rick, it’s the numbers.

“At 25 he (Spurgeon) built London’s famous Metropolitan Tabernacle, seating around 5,000. It was never large enough. Even when traveling he preached to 10,000 eager listeners a week. Crowds thronged to hear him as they came to hear John the Baptist by the River Jordan. The fire of God was on him as on the Prophet Elijah facing assembled Israel at Mount Carmel.”

“Royalty sat in his Tabernacle.”
“HOW GREAT WAS HIS HEART: for preachers, so the Pastors’ College was founded; for orphans, so the orphans’ houses came to be; for people around the world, so his literature poured forth in an almost immeasurable volume. He was a national voice; so every national issue affecting morals, religion or the poor had his interpretation, his counsel.”

How Rick Warren built his ministry by New Yorker, taken off Warren’s website Pastors.com

“On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Saddleback Church, Rick Warren hired the Anaheim Angels’ baseball stadium. He wanted to address his entire congregation at once, and there was no way to fit everyone in at Saddleback, where the crowds are spread across services held over the course of an entire weekend. So Warren booked the stadium and printed large, silver-black-and-white tickets, and, on a sunny Sunday morning last April, the tens of thousands of congregants of one of America’s largest churches began to file into the stands. They were wearing shorts and T-shirts and buying Cokes and hamburgers from the concession stands, if they had not already tailgated in the parking lot. On the field, a rock band played loudly and enthusiastically. Just after one o’clock, a voice came over the public-address system -”RIIIICK WARRRREN” – and Warren bounded onto the stage, wearing black slacks, a red linen guayabera shirt, and wraparound NASCAR sunglasses. The congregants leaped to their feet. “You know,” Warren said, grabbing the microphone, “there are two things I’ve always wanted to do in a stadium.” He turned his body sideways, playing an imaginary guitar, and belted out the first few lines of Jimi Hendrix’s Purple Haze. His image was up on the Jumbotrons in right and left fields, just below the Verizon and Pepsi and Budweiser logos. He stopped and grinned. “The other thing is, I want to do a wave!” He pointed to the bleachers, and then to the right-field seats, and around and around the stadium the congregation rose and fell, in four full circuits. “You are the most amazing church in America!” Warren shouted out, when they had finally finished. “AND I LOVE YOU!”

“His sermons are conversational, delivered in a folksy, raspy voice. He talks about how he loves Krispy Kreme doughnuts, drives a four-year-old Ford, and favors loud Hawaiian shirts, even at the pulpit, because, he says, “they do not itch.”

“And when he held his first public service, three months later, he stood up in front of 205 people he barely knew in a high-school gymnasium–this shiny-faced preacher fresh out of seminary – and told them that one day soon their new church would number 20,000 and occupy a campus of 50 acres. Today, Saddleback Church has 20,000 members and occupies a campus of 120 acres. Once, Warren wanted to increase the number of small groups at Saddleback–the groups of six or seven that meet for prayer and fellowship during the week – by 300. He went home and prayed and, as he tells it, God said to him that what he really needed to do was increase the number of small groups by 3,000, which is just what he did. Then, a few years ago, he wrote a book called The Purpose Driven Life, a genre of book that is known in the religious-publishing business as “Christian Living,” and that typically sells 30,000 to 40,000 copies a year. Warren’s publishers came to see him at Saddleback, and sat on the long leather couch in his office, and talked about their ideas for the book. “You guys don’t understand,” Warren told them. “This is a 100 million copy book.” Warren remembers stunned silence: “Their jaws dropped.” But now, nearly three years after its publication, The Purpose Driven Life has sold 23 million copies. It is among the best-selling nonfiction hardcover books in American history. Neither the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, nor the Washington Post has reviewed it. Warren’s own publisher didn’t see it coming. Only Warren had faith. “The best of the evangelical tradition is that you don’t plan your way forward – you prophesy your way forward,” the theologian Leonard Sweet says. “Rick’s prophesying his way forward.”

“Churches, like any large voluntary organization, have at their core a contradiction. In order to attract newcomers, they must have low barriers to entry. They must be unintimidating, friendly, and compatible with the culture they are a part of. In order to retain their membership, however, they need to have an identity distinct from that culture. They need to give their followers a sense of community – and community, exclusivity, a distinct identity are all, inevitably, casualties of growth. As an economist would say, the bigger an organization becomes, the greater a free-rider problem it has. If I go to a church with 500 members, in a magnificent cathedral, with spectacular services and music, why should I volunteer or donate any substantial share of my money? What kind of peer pressure is there in a congregation that large? If the barriers to entry become too low–and the ties among members become increasingly tenuous–then a church as it grows bigger becomes weaker.”

Well, enough of this, I think I may get sick if I go any further. I looked in vain to find any inkling or trace of Spurgeon’s preaching, and found none, but what I did find was Spurgeon’s large numbers. Numbers were a byproduct for Spurgeon, but for Warren it is all about numbers and the message is secondary, or just a tool to get the large numbers. If Rick Warren were building any other kind of business I may have some admiration for his success, but to make merchandise of men’s souls is despicable, inexcusable, and deserves the rebuke of the entire Christian community, for what he has done, is doing, and teaching others to do.

William WilberforceNext we want to look at William Wilberforce, and “he was no ordinary pragmatist or political utilitarian,” and in these two words we will likely find what Rick Warren found most attractive about the man. Rick is a man who has taken the two and formed them into a virtual slogan of “whatever works must be from God,” and in that justifies the use of even the profane and worldly, regardless that the Bible prohibits yoking oneself to the world.

Peculiar Doctrines, Public Morals, and the Political Welfare
“Knowing Wilberforce was a politician all his adult life, never losing an election from the time he was 21 years old, we might be tempted to think that his motives were purely pragmatic – as if he should say, “if Christianity works to produce the political welfare, then use it.” But that is not the spirit of his mind or his life. In fact, he believed that such pragmatism would ruin the very thing it sought, the reformation of culture.”

In the wisdom of Rick Warren we have finally come to our senses and it is about “what works,” now we know that what Jesus said is not to be taken literally: James 4:4-5 “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” 1 John 2:15-17 “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life — is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.” John 15:18-19 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own.” Matt 10:22 “All men will hate you because of me.” Luke 6:26 “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.” Thank you Mr. Warren, now I know, because of you that these and many other Scripture verses are now null and void.

It is becoming apparent now that Rick has had the best of teachers, and he being mentored at their feet has unraveled the riddle of the ages, that it isn’t about holiness, and righteousness, and repentance, it’s about NUMBERS, and what ever works to get those NUMBERS! I’m being silly now, we can be sure that Rick has more depth than this. Let’s look at how he has been effected by another of his mentors, Francis Schaeffer.

Does the Church Have a Future? Lighthouse Trails Research

Francis Schaeffer,

“Does the church have a future in our generation? … I believe the church is in real danger. It is in for a rough day. We are facing present pressures and a present and future manipulation which will be so overwhelming in the days to come that they will make the battles of the last forty years look like child’s play.” Francis Schaeffer, The Church at the End of the 20th Century– 1970

“The liberal theologians in their stress on community speak and act as though we become Christians when we enter the horizontal relationship of community. But this is totally the wrong starting-point. If this were so, Christianity would have no more final value than the humanistic community.” Schaeffer

“Whenever men say they are looking for greater reality, we must show them at once the reality of true Christianity. This is real because it is concerned with the God who is there and who has spoken to us about Himself, not just the use of the symbol ‘god’ or ‘christ’ which sounds spiritual but is not. The men who merely use the symbol ought to be pessimists, for the mere word god or the idea god is not a sufficient base for the optimism they display…. “This is the kind of ‘believism’ which is demanded by this theology…. It is no more than a jump into an undefinable, irrational, semantic mysticism.” Lighthouse Trails Research Schaeffer, from The God Who is There.

What is it really that Rick sees in Schaeffer that has formed anything in him. Schaeffer was a modern day prophet who had the ability to see into the future, and visualized a time when men would get caught up in the shallowness of what the Church has become. But, there was one thing that Schaeffer understood, that was probably of more value to Rick than prophecy and that is his knowledge of culture. He could read culture like it was the morning paper. He knew the flow of culture because he understood history and the Bible. I’m quite sure Rick has a deep appreciation for culture, and has learned much about culture from reading Schaeffer, and how to manipulate culture to build his dynasty, and preserve the world for P.E.A.C.E. Schaeffer was right, there is a flow to culture, and if he could use that flow to foresee our present condition, why couldn’t a marketing genius (not Rick, Peter Drucker) likewise project a marketing scheme, and tap a niche market of collapsing traditional Churches, and build a kingdom for God on earth, by co-operation with existing political and religious structures, of which Rick Warren would be the beneficiary and become rich in the process.
My response to Rick Warren

“You mentioned, “My ministry mentors were my own father, a Baptist pastor for 50 years, Pastor Harry D. Williams, Dr. W.A. Criswell, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas for decades, and the books of Rev. Charles Spurgeon, C.S. Lewis, Francis Schaeffer, and William Wilberforce.” I find this to be very telling. I too have an affinity for, and agree with much of what the men you mention have written, especially Spurgeon, Lewis, and Schaeffer, but your writings do not appear to have profited from their acquaintance. The really telling part comes from the mentors, (used here in the sense of advisers, counselors, confidants, etc.) you did not mention: Peter Drucker, C. Peter Wagner, Rupert Murdoch, and others of which their influence is more apparent, and to this list could be added Robert Schuller. This little bit of “name dropping” is more consistent with good marketing, branding, public persona, identity, and building value, than it is with preaching the Good News, and I find it unusual that a man so totally absorbed in the Kingdom of God does not even allude to Jesus or the Bible in the above list.”
Christian author Warren Smith, in his book Reinventing Jesus Christ writes:

“There is much about The Purpose-Driven Life that lies beneath the surface of the actual words. Although Rick Warren carefully avoided citing his former teacher, I discovered that Robert Schuller’s thoughts and ideas could be found throughout The Purpose-Driven Life. The fact that Rick Warren had not provided any footnotes acknowledging his Schuller-based material was troubling. I didn’t even know there was a connection between Rick Warren and Robert Schuller until I read The Purpose-Driven Life. As I started checking out certain names and phrases and references I found myself having to read more and more books by Robert Schuller. In Deceived on Purpose I wrote:”

“The more I read Robert Schuller, the more I was shocked at how so many of Rick Warren’s thoughts, ideas, references, words, terms, phrases, and quotes in The Purpose-Driven Life seemed to be directly inspired by Schuller’s writings and teachings.”

“I am quite sure that further study would reveal there is much more additional Schuller material contained in the pages of The Purpose-Driven Life. I certainly had not gone out looking for all this. I just kept discovering these things as I read along and followed up on what I was reading. I had no idea going into my reading of The Purpose-Driven Life how thoroughly the presence of Robert Schuller inhabits its pages. Because Robert Schuller’s name is never even mentioned in The Purpose-Driven Life, most readers would never know how much of Rick Warren’s material is actually drawn from the writings and teachings of Robert Schuller. They would never know how inextricably intertwined the two men’s teachings seem to be.” “Later I would learn that Rick Warren’s wife, and even Robert Schuller himself, confirmed the Schuller influence I had discovered in The Purpose-Driven Life. In an interview in the Nov. 18, 2002 issue of Christianity Today, Kay Warren revealed that she and her husband attended Robert Schuller’s Institute for Successful Church Leadership just prior to starting Saddleback Church. She stated that Robert Schuller “had a profound influence on Rick.” A year-and-a-half later, in an April 4, 2004 Hour of Power sermon, Schuller described how Rick Warren had come to his Robert H. Schuller Institute for Successful Church Leadership “time after time.” Schuller’s Hour of Power website also described Rick Warren as one of the “famous graduates” who had been “mentored” at the Schuller Institute. Schuller’s influence over Rick Warren was so “profound” and far-reaching that in 1995, fifteen years after he started Saddleback Church, Rick Warren was still describing Robert Schuller as having one of the “many strong, Bible-believing churches” in Southern California.”

“In an early Saddleback response to my book Deceived on Purpose, even the Saddleback representative acknowledged Schuller’s influence on Rick Warren “through the years”:

“There is no question that Robert Schuller has been an influence on Rick through the years. As Mr. Smith points out, certain words, phrases and other teaching tools continue to show up, even to this day, in Rick’s writings and teaching that he learned from the books of Robert Schuller.”

“In regards to Rick Warren being a graduate of the Robert H. Schuller Institute for Successful Church Growth, the same Saddleback representative wrote:”

“This is true and yes it did lead Rick into reading Robert Schuller’s books.”

Chapter 10 Update to Reinventing Jesus Christ , The Silent Church.

Additionally Warren Smith shows Schuller’s New Age influence on Rick Warren in regards to its concept of “Immanence.”

“Biblical Christianity does not teach this pantheistic/New Age concept of immanence. The Bible teaches that while God is omnipresent and omniscient he does not naturally indwell his creation. Omnipresence does not mean that God is in everything. God was not in the golden calf. God is not in the Devil. God is not in His creation. God is not in everything. This is what the New Age/New Gospel/New Spirituality wants everyone to believe. Although the word immanence has another meaning, sometimes used in the church, the more popular meaning of the word is definitely pantheistic. A quick look at several online encyclopedias confirms the popular definition of immanence:”

“Immanence is the religious and philosophical concept of existing and acting within the physical world. It is derived from the Latin words, in and manere, the original meaning being “to exist or remain within.”…

“The term “immanence” is usually understood to mean that the divine force, or the divine being, pervades through all things that exist, and is able to influence them. Such a meaning is common in pantheism & panentheism, and it implies that divinity is inseparably present in all things. In this meaning immanence is distinct from transcendence, the latter being understood as the divinity being set apart from or transcending the World.”

“IMMANENCE [immanence] [Lat.,=dwelling in], in metaphysics, the presence within the natural world of a spiritual or cosmic principle, especially of the Deity. It is contrasted with transcendence. The immanence of God in the world is the basic feature of pantheism.”

“Rick Warren’s apologist, Richard Abanes, argues:”

“Warren’s use of Ephesians 4:6 in The Purpose-Driven Life is an attempt to teach God’s immanence.”

“While Abanes takes critics to task for being concerned about the concept of immanence he, of all people, should surely understand the overlapping New Age implications of the word immanence. In his book Harry Potter and the Bible he used the following quotes to respectively describe witchcraft and paganism:”

“Most view divinity as immanent in nature, seeing all life as sacred, thus denying any sacred/secular distinction.”

“Pagans are usually polytheistic (believing in more than one god) and they usually believe in immanence, or the concept of divinity residing in all things.”

“The following statement from Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church Foundations Guide illustrates how their use of the word immanent–”within and throughout creation”–can be given confused pantheistic/New Age meaning by Rick Warren’s additional teaching that God is in everything.”

“The fact that God stands above and beyond his creation does not mean he stands outside his creation. He is both transcendent (above and beyond his creation) and immanent (within and throughout his creation).”

“This is the kind of overlapping language that is paving the way for the New Age/New Spirituality. Notice how Robert Schuller’s use of the word immanence is totally consistent with the New Age/New Spirituality teaching that God is in everyone and everything. In a November 9, 2003 Hour of Power sermon, he stated:”

“You know in theology–pardon me for using a couple of big words–but in theology the God that we believe in, this God of Abraham, is a transcendent God. But He is also an immanent God. Transcendent means up there, out there, above us all. But God is also an immanent God–immanence of God and the transcendence of God–then you have a balanced perspective of God. The immanence of God means here, in me, around me, in society, in the world, this God here, in the humanities, in the science, in the arts, sociology, in politics–the immanence of God…. Yes, God is alive and He is in every single human being.”

Chapter 10 Update to Reinventing Jesus Christ , The Silent Church.

What I have tried to show is the manipulative way Rick Warren uses name dropping, and claiming mentoring by certain individuals to arbitrarily attach characteristics of those individuals to himself. This is not how a Christian should conduct himself, but we may expect it of a marketer or salesman. Likewise, we can see how he avoids being associated with those of whom he is characteristic. Why would a man of God do this? What is it he is trying to hide? It isn’t always what is said that is important, but what is left unsaid that is most critical, and that is the essence of the new gospel that is being perpetrated on the world today. The Bible warns us that these wolves would appear as sheep, and delivering angels.

I have said it before, Rick Warren may be the most dangerous man in the world. Don’t be deceived.

Steve Blackwell

All the work of the religious right has not accomplished a single thing to improve this world, and evil is winning out after all. Who would have thought that James Dobson would not have influenced enough people to change the world for good by his Focus On The Family? And now he wonders if there will be another generation of the religious right. Who would have imagined twenty years ago that the Moral Majority would become the moral minority? Who would have guessed that D. James Kennedy with his gainsaying for the recovery of righteous America would not have turned the tables on the Devil? None of this has been realized and Satan remains the undisputed Prince of this world. Is it possible that our focus should have been elsewhere, like holiness, and righteousness, and not leading marches on Washington? Is it possible that the great American debacle is the consequences of immoral Christian men preaching a personal peace and prosperity, under the banner of a “better America” instead of preaching the cross and self crucifixion. We have gotten what we deserve and I was part of the problem.

Our enemies do not fear us anymore, why? Because our walls are all crumbled, and our doors burnt; the enemy slips in without resistance, and we “are made a prey.”  What’s to fear from a sleeping drunk? And, if he wakes, he’s not a threat. Our enemies don’t fears us, and our religion is a smoldering heap that stinks.  While modernity fights post modernity they both fall in the ditch. The sixties were a shot fired over our heads, they were a warning of things to come. You had to admire the young people of the sixties, they stood up against the establishment who could give no answers to why things were the way they were. They rejected the advice of there parents who could not answer the question, “why?” and were told that, “if it is good enough for me then it’s good enough for you.” Their offer of personal peace and prosperity, and the American dream, ended in anxious riots and unanswered prayers, and no one told them, why? So, they manufactured their own answers, their own way, but they were wrong, all wrong. Now, my generation is that drunk man, always high on one form of drug or another, and the pendulum has came back again, and still there is no answer. The sixties were riding high on a “consensus” of assumptions, and today there are no assumptions at all left; this generation assumes no truth, no proposition, or absolutes, and really no hope, but what he can achieve or do for himself. The sad thing is that the answer has been there all along and we have missed it, and are missing it still.

Proverbs 16:7 “When a man’s ways please the Lord, He maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.”

Below is a sermon by Joseph Augustus Seiss, a Lutheran Preacher of days gone by, with a vision for us today. I found his words in an archive on the internet. They are words that ring with force, and echo into the emptiness of our Postmodern world. The pendulum will not always swing, it is predicted. Some chosen generation will see it all stop, and have to deal with the consequences of all that went before them, unless they can see, that the answer is so close.

“Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked—I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see . . . .” (Revelation 3:17-18).
Steve Blackwell

The Apocalypse, An Exposition of the Book of Revelation
“Not yet has the sovereignty of this world become the Lord’s (Ref.   Revelation 11:15:  ‘The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!’).  All earthly governments, principalities, and powers, from the beginning until now, are uniformly represented in the Scriptures as wild beasts, having no lawful owner, and full of destructive savageness and offensive uncleanness.  A lion with eagle’s wings, a bear crunching bones and flesh, a four-winged and four-headed leopard, a nondescript with many horns, dreadful and terrible and strong exceedingly, having great iron teeth to devour and break in pieces; these are the prophetic symbols of the greatest and most lauded of them. (Cf.    Rev. 13:1-2; Daniel 7:2, 7; Rev. 12:3, 9; Dan. 7:8; 11:36; Rev. 17:3; 13:4, 12)

“Even the premiership of Daniel himself in one of them does not alter its general character.  It is but folly and fanaticism for men to talk of Christian states and governments in this world.  Christian and good men may be concerned in their administration, and Christian ideas may sometimes temper their enactments, but earthly states and governments themselves are not Christian, and in the nature of things cannot be.  They are all the products of devastated nature’s wilds, and full of savage nature’s passions and ungodliness.  Fix it as we may, such is the result.  The best-planned institutions and the wisest laws are ever disappointing their framers.  The very law which God Himself promulged from Sinai’s thunder-shaken heights was ‘weak through the flesh,’ and did not serve to keep the Jewish commonwealth from like apostasy to that of other nationalities.  To this hour there is nothing so great a desideratum among men as good and just government, nor another department in which the native evilness and God-antagonizing passions of men are so potent and defiant.

“True, the kingdom is by right the Lord’s.  All authority and power originates with Him and belongs to Him.  Government is His own ordinance.  But since the apostasy of the race to Satan’s standard, usurpation, falsehood, and other powers than the rightful sovereign of men and nations, have held and directed the sway in this world.  Many revolutions have been wrought, and men have labored, and sacrificed, and bled, and died to achieve them, believing that now they would secure the precious boon for which the race has signed and cried for ages; but it was only the turning of the sick man on his bed, who keeps his pain however he may change his place.

“In our day especially people are looking and laboring for a grand jubilee of nations, shaped to popular rule, and compacted by common laws, interests, and creed, in which enlightened ideas shall be the king, and all the world be one (Editor’s Note:  Seiss published his commentary in 1869-1881 in three volumes, but several American libraries give the year of publication as 1865 – all the more astounding since it is penned at the close of the American Civil War); but the result will be only a more horrible beast than any that preceded it, a leopard with bear’s feet and a lion’s mouth, full of heads and horns and names of blasphemy; the very embodiment of hell, whose infamies so outrage High Heaven as to bring the great day of God Almighty upon the world.  No, no; your revolutions, and reforms, and progress of liberal ideas, and overturning of old creeds, and grand conventionalities in revision of the Decalogue, and internationalities for the redemption of the world without Christ, and glorious philosophies ruling out a personal God and exalting self and passion in His place, and all your glittering ideals to which to reconstruct society and relocate the highest interests of man, much as they may promise, and successfully as they may draw the heart and energy of the world after them, are but the nurslings of Satan’s bosom in which this world lies, and the inspirations of his foul breath.

“Dream, and prate, and preach, and glory as men may, the devil is de facto the god and king of this world.  His mantle may be often changed, and every day may exhibit a new garb, but the presiding genius within is still and always the devil, with all his pride, and malice, and spoliating falsities.  And so it will go on, ‘wicked men and seducers waxing worse and worse,’ till the last trumpet sounds.

“But then shall come another order; not developed from below, but enforced with sudden and resistless power from above.  How, we will see when we come to consider the details of ensuing chapters.  Meanwhile, however, the fact itself is sure to the exultant voices in heaven.  God is king, and the sovereignty hath He given to His Son, Jesus Christ.  And having given the world six thousand years in which to choose and settle upon its proper allegiance, and finding after all only an intenser and more malignant apostasy, He causes the final trump to sound, breaks in with His Almightiness, and enforces His rightful dominion.  A kingdom comes which breaks in pieces, and consumes all other kingdoms, and stands forever.  Laws are given to be changed no more.  And the true Anointed reigns on earth in an empire of sinless, deathless life and peace, to the ages of the ages.  The government is changed.” (Joseph Augustus Seiss, 1823-1904, The Apocalypse, An Exposition of the Book of Revelation, Kregel, Inc., Grand Rapids, MI, p. 274.)