Posted: 07/07/06

Rick Warren and Emerging New Evangelical Inclusivism (2)

By Ken Silva

Apprising Ministries

Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. [1]

Purpose Driven Zeal But Not According To Knowledge

If you have read Part One then you would already know that apparently Rick Warren does not share the above burden and desire that God the Holy Spirit expressed through His inspired Apostle Paul for His beloved Israel. Recently Warren spoke at "Sinai Temple's Friday Night Live Shabbat services" and as I write I am using the eyewitness testimony of Rob Eshman, who happens to be Editor-in-Chief for The Jewish Journal. He tells us that Warren, the inventor of the new evangelical Purpose Driven "Christianity," is successful because of "his passion for God and Jesus." But then Eshman reveals Warren's passion for Christ must have waned a bit because he then informs us:

Warren managed to speak for the entire evening without once mentioning Jesus – a testament to his savvy message-tailoring. But make no mistake, the driving purpose of an evangelical church is to evangelize, and it is Warren's devotion to spreading the words of the Christian Bible that drive his ministry.

We have a few problems here, which I will be coming back to. First however, just let me point out that if Warren truly does have "devotion to spreading the words of the Christian Bible," leaving aside that Eshman, who is not a Christian has a misunderstanding here concerning God's Word in Holy Scripture, then he should know that Jesus Himself said: "These are the Scriptures that testify about Me." [2] Yet arguably the most famous Christian pastor in the world is praised here by Eshman in that Warren "managed to speak for the entire evening without once mentioning Jesus," the Name above all names, and the only Name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. [3]

So we should be able to see now that when Eshman, who is Jewish, makes the play on words concerning "the driving purpose" of a man like Rick Warren "is to evangelize," he really doesn't understand that it is literally impossible to evangelize without mentioning Christ Jesus of Nazareth and His vicarious penal substitutionary atonement on the Cross. Let us not go chasing postmodern rabbits down their holes here, no one has a problem with Rick Warren going into Sinai Temple, the problem is what this alleged minister of the Gospel of…well, Jesus Christ did not say. I was telling someone just the other day I would gladly go preach in a Jewish synagogue, the Mormon Tabernacle or even the Vatican itself! Ah, you can be sure I wouldn't be there long before they shut off my microphone and showed me the door, but the truth is that the results of preaching Jesus Christ and Him crucified [4] are solely up to God the Holy Spirit.

Christ Jesus Is Our Only Savior

It seems good in the Lord at this point to go through a few of the things that Rob Eshman brings out in his commentary about Rick Warren's appearance at Sinai Temple. The value here is that with Eshman we are getting the perspective of someone who is not a believer in Christ who tells us how Warren's message came across to him. So rather than this being the opinion of an alleged critic, instead we can see just how this unbeliever perceived the new religion of Purpose Driven new evangelicalism. A quick aside, let us not wrestle with the serpent here about Jewish people believing in Yahweh Elohim. Our opening text in Romans 10, which is actually written by God Himself, clearly tells us what our Lord's view of His precious Israel is – "Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved." Obviously, if they need to be saved then they are not currently saved, which makes Warren's neglecting to mention the only Savior there is to these dear Jewish people all the more egregious.

As Eshman tells us about how "Warren managed to speak for the entire evening without once mentioning Jesus," which in his opinion is "a testament to his savvy message-tailoring" he points out that he feels this is:

Good for him and his flock – and not so bad for us either. His teachings apply to 95 percent of all people, regardless of religious belief. As he put it to a group of rabbis at a conference last year – using a metaphor that might be described as a Paulian slip: "Eat the fish and throw away the bones."

Warren told Wolfson his interest is in helping all houses of worship, not in converting Jews. He said there are more than enough Christian souls to deal with for starters.

We can certainly excuse Eshman for being in the dark as to why alleged "savvy message-tailoring" that leaves out preaching the Cross of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins is absolutely not "good for [Warren] and his flock." But for a Jew (or any unbeliever) like Eshman, not only is this very "bad for" them it is an absolute travesty!

By Ken Silva Click here for bio and archived articles