Three Reasons Why Rick Warren is Not a Heretic
A number of years ago, I wrote a blog post called Three Reasons Why Rick Warren is Not a Heretic. It was written as satire, although not everyone got it. As recent as today I have been accused of attacking Rick Warren when in fact the opposite was my intention. That blog post continues to be the most popular post on this blog.Since not everyone appreciates satire, I thought I would write a more straight forward post. While I will again use three points, they will not necessarily be the same as the previous post.
Accusation 1: Rick Warren Teaches That Christians and Muslims Believe in the Same God
You will find many blog posts arguing that Warren promotes Chrislam, especially in teaching that Christians and Muslims believe in the same God. First, even if Warren made that claim about God/Allah, that would not make Warren a heretic. People are welcome to disagree with that position but having the wrong opinion on this issue does not put one outside of orthodoxy. Making a theological mistake is not necessarily the same as heresy.
Secondly, it simply is not true. Instead of relying on what some bloggers, who likely didn’t like Warren before, thought he said, go to what Warren says. In this post you can find out what Warren thinks about God and Allah.
Accusation 2: Rick Warren Teaches a Social Gospel
There are some evangelicals that are uncomfortable with Warren’s emphasis on caring for the poor, hungry and sick. Much of his money goes to the HIV crisis in Africa. To some, this care for the needy raises red flags.
Why would Christians be concerned about this? In the twentieth century, there was a split in the North American church. Liberals moved toward a social gospel of caring for the needy while the conservatives moved to an emphasis on evangelism. Each side viewed the other’s activity with suspicion. If an evangelical church cared too much for the poor, it must be evidence of a slide toward liberalism.
Here is the problem, for most of the Church’s history, and more importantly in the Bible, there was no division within the Gospel of spiritual and physical care. I once commented on Facebook about what the Old Testament says about care for the poor and one person told me that since that was in the Old Testament, we don’t need to do that anymore. His response still makes me angry.
Is there any evidence in New Testament Christianity for the need to care for the poor? It is everywhere! Jesus, Paul and other writers are in agreement that care for the poor should be central to the Christian life. Read the parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25 and tell me that caring for the poor is evidence of heresy.
Accusation 3: Rick Warren Teaches a Do-It-Yourself Gospel
Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life was a huge bestseller. It had a great impact on many people’s life, but not everyone is a fan. To some, Warren’s book is a self-improvement book that teaches humanistic doctrines rather than the life transforming power of God.
Was Warren attempting to deny the power of God by giving people advice on how to improve their life as a Christian and a human being?
Yes Paul teaches that the Holy Spirit changes us. But Paul does not stay there. He also gives advice on how Christians are to live. Paul never suggests that Christians should just lay back and let the Holy Spirit do the work.
If you feel as if Purpose Driven Life is heresy, I suggest you read James’ epistle. James puts no emphasis on what the Holy Spirit does. James (half-brother of Jesus), puts forth a plan for how Christians are to live their life. It is very practical, requires the work of the Christian and James expects people will be obedient. Was James a heretic?
What is a Heretic?
I am not arguing that everyone should like Rick Warren or agree with everything he does. But I am saying that we should be careful in throwing around the heretic label. None of the things that people are saying about Rick Warren fall into the category of heresy.
Here are some things that would cause someone to be a heretic:
- Denial of God’s existence (some pastors do this).
- Denial of the Trinity.
- Denial of the incarnation of Jesus.
- Denial of the atonement on the cross.
- Denial of the resurrection of Jesus.
Do you believe that Rick Warren is a heretic? Please send me evidence that he has erred in any of these areas. Until then, disagree with him in a more respectful and accurate manner.
Loved your satire you wrote a while ago. It was very amusing, entertaining, and refreshing for exposing the intellectual dishonesty of people who make baseless jabs at Rick Warren. It’s one of the reasons I started following you. Keep it coming 🙂
Thanks! Much appreciated.
Thanks for this. I was Rick’s pastor during his seminary days and have followed his ministry with more than a little interest and have found him to be on target theologically from my perspective and extremely creative in methodology.
Sometimes tradition and methods can be mistaken to be as sacred and infallible as the scriptures themselves which would border on heresy in my judgment. Rick has challenged both in many ways. More power to him.
Nice to hear from you. I get frustrated with how easily the heresy label gets thrown around. I suspect some people are jealous for the way the Lord is using Rick.
But he DOES state that God and Allah are the same, and he says that the Bible and the Quran are a “Common word”, that they teach the same thing. And he equates Jesus of the Bible with Isa of the Quran. So because of this, he has another god, and another Jesus. The Quran, which he acknowledges as truth, teaches that Jesus was not the Son of God, and that He didn’t die on the cross (and subsequently, that He didn’t rise from the dead either). So by doing this, he denies the Trinity, the incarnation of God in Jesus, the atonement of the cross, and the resurrection of Jesus. Therefore, he meets the criteria you have set forth as qualifying someone as a heretic.
Can you share the link to where he actually says all these things?
i hear crickets chirping lol
If you know any Arabic at all, it’s obvious that Allah is God – the word is a contraction of Al Ilah, which means The God.
Now, Allah of the Qur’an is no Illah at all, for there is one God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Qur’an denies that its God is the Eternal Father of the Eternal Son. But, Allah is not God is a contradiction in terms. At least, if you tried saying it with all the words in Arabic – or in English – it would be. The God is not God. Allah lakun Ilah. Huh?