PLEASE, PLEASE READ! Will the Real Rick Warren...Please Stand Up! CONCLUSION

PLEASE, PLEASE READ! Will the Real Rick Warren...Please Stand Up! CONCLUSION
Brad Reiches
May 24 2007 11:39PM

This GTWired! series is a response to the scriptural admonishon to examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good...examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so...Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God..." (1 Thessalonians 5:21; Acts 17:11; 1 John 4:1). 

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Friday, May 25, 2007
GodThoughtsWired!

"Will the Real Rick Warren...Please Stand Up!"

CONCLUSION

"Unity comes from purpose, not from anything else..."

-Rick Warren

This quotation represents the hallmark of Warren's ministry.  While many debate whether or not he said this or that.  Or, whether or not he really meant what he said.  Or, he didn't say what he really meant.  Or, what he said wasn't really what he meant.  One thing is undeniable, today's Rick Warren is wholeheartedly, and absolutely committed to the unity that comes from mutually agreed upon purposes.

THIS IS NOT THE KIND OF UNITY THAT THE BIBLE TEACHES.

Let it be known that millions upon millions are going to hell because of their mutually agreed upon unity of purpose to deny Jesus Christ.  The unity that Jesus prayed for in John 17 was clearly and undeniably rooted in truth.  The "unity" that Warren and many others are preaching and pursuing is a unity which requires the compromise of the truth.

"Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth?

I tell you, no, but rather division; for from now on five members

in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three.

They will be divided, father against son and son against father,

mother against daughter and daughter against mother..."

Luke 12:51-53

And, no, this is not out of context.

ANYONE SEEKING EXTERNAL PEACE ON THE EARTH AHEAD OF ETERNAL SALVATION IS DOING PRECISELY THE OPPOSITE OF JESUS CHRIST (see John 6:27-29). 

Jesus said, Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword" (Matthew 10:34).*  What is the "sword" that Jesus brings?  It is the "sword of the Spirit" (see Ephesians 6:10-18).  What is the "sword of the Spirit?"  It is the Bible, the word of God.  What is the Bible?  The Bible is the truth.  And what does truth do?  It divides.  It brings division between truth and error, right and wrong, righteousness and lawlessness, light and darkness.

"A chorus of ecumenical voices keep harping the unity tune.

What they are saying is, 'Christians of all doctrinal shades

and beliefs must come together in one visible, organization,

regardless...Unite, unite!

Such teaching is false, reckless and dangerous.  Truth alone

must determine our alignments.  Truth comes before unity.

Unity without truth is hazardous.  Our Lord's prayer in John 17

must be read in its full context.  Look at verse 17:  'Sanctify

them in the truth; Thy word is truth.'  Only those sanctified

through the Word can be one in Christ.  To teach otherwise

is to betray the gospel."

-Charles Spurgeon, The Essence of Separation

The sacrifice of truth upon the alter of unity is one of the great tactics of the "angel of light" in this twenty-first century.

*For further study on this topic click on, Truth, Unity & Compromise

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