Satan's Game: Response to Rick Warren on Roman Catholicism

Yesterday, Matt Slick of CARM recently played a video by Rick Warren, pointing out the dangers of Warren himself.

Rick Warren is the author of the book known as the Purpose Driven Life.

As most know and are aware, he sadly embraces a social Gospel and even ecumenism with Muslims and Catholics

The video itself has Warren expressing his views on the Catholics and the comments made by him seriously show he doesn't understand the full implications of accepting Roman Catholics as our brothers.

I shall go through these points and hopefully demonstrate that Warren is speaking folly and that all his followers who read this article may wake up and realise they are being lead down the wrong path.

Let's begin

"We have far more in common than what divides us. When you talk about Pentacostals, Charismatics, Evangelicals, Fundementalist, Catholics, Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians and on and on and on and on, Well they will all say we believe in the Trinity, We believe in the Bible, We believe in the resurrection, We believe Salvation is through Jesus Christ, these are the big issues"

Yes, those are big issues, But Warren doesn't realize that Catholics themselves, hold to many abominable traditions which no Christian should accept.

I have pointed out and exhorted Anglicans themselves in my articles should not accept ecumenism as a plausible option:
http://answering-judaism.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/comments-on-recent-ecumenism-between.html
http://answering-judaism.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/addendum-to-comments-on-anglicans-and.html

You cannot just say the things above are the only things required, It's not just what an individual denies that we need to be careful of, It's what they accept as well.

For example outside Catholicism, Do I accept Sid Roth, Jonathon Bernis and Michael L. Brown as brothers because they accept all the issues above? No, I reject them as brothers because they accept Benny Hinn as a brother and to the best of my knowledge, don't confront him on his heresies and ALL three have had a television appearance with him one way or the other.

The same can be said of liberals like Rob Bell and also the apostate Kansas City Prophets. Should THEY be accepted because of the things above? No, Again, it's because of the practices and heresies they endorse that cut them off from Christ and hence that is why I reject such individuals.

Yes all the issues Warren's lists are important, but other issues are not to be disregarded, especially if they are ones of salvation.

"Sometimes Protestants think that Catholics worship Mary like she is another God. But that's not exactly Catholic doctrine. There's understanding and people say  What are the saints all about, Why are you praying to the saints?. And When you understand what they mean by why what they're saying, there's a whole lot more commonality. Now there's still real differences, no doubt about that but the most important thing is if you love Jesus, we're on the same team."

This is nothing more than simplistic platitude. It matters not if a person claims to love Jesus, it's whether or not you hold to the same Jesus. Someone can claim they love Jesus and that Jesus is their Lord, but if their doctrine, which encompasses both life and belief, is contrary to the teachings of Jesus, they are not of his flock, despite any common ground that may exist.

Although the Roman Catholics do not worship Mary, the fact that they seek her intercession, pray to her and ask her to give their request to Jesus, coupled with the fact that they bow down to graven images in a religious context, they are idolaters by definition.

See my papers on Mary:
http://answering-judaism.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/mary-greatest-woman-who-ever-lived.html
http://answering-judaism.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/catholic-dogmas-three-things-worthy-of.html

See Keith Thompson's video "Catholics Should not "Hail Mary"..." here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJOPdU01cxo

Also, See my article response to Walid Shoebat on icons: http://answering-judaism.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/why-having-icons-to-worship-is.html

"The unity that I think we would see realistically is not a structural unity but a unity of mission and so when it comes to the family, we are co-workers in the field on this for the protection of what we call the sanctity of life, the sanctity of sex and the sanctity of marriage. So there's a great commonality and there's no on division on those three."

So? The Mormons themselves preach holiness, yet they teach polytheistic paganism and the absurd blasphemy that men can become gods.

James White points out that Mormonism doesn't even come close to Biblical Christianity and certainly is NOT biblical. See the following:
Is Mormonism Christian? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijUc7NI2O28
Understanding Mormonism (Dr. James White) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzXazxES4mk

This again, ties into the point that we cannot overlook doctrine that is a stench and abomination to Jesus. Jesus CONDEMNED man made doctrine and it would be a great disservice to Jesus if we did overlook false doctrine.

This attiude from Warren is the same attitude I have seen Michael L. Brown and others like him display with respect to Benny Hinn and some of the Kansas City Prophets.

"Many times people have been beaten down for taking for taking a biblical stance and they start to feel Well, maybe I am out here all by myself.... No you're not. The church is growing in Latin America, The church is growing in Asia, The church is growing in Africa. It's not growing in North America or Europe, but it is growing everywhere else so we kinda have this feeling that maybe we are not as influential but we're far more influential than people realize"

The reason we are not influential in North America and Europe as we should is because for a time, the church in those continents (Not all members), but most of the church has been preaching a defective Gospel and is becoming more like the world, rather than being salt and light to the nations.

A false Gospel is the easiest way to derail an entire nation or even a continent. As Jesus said "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.".

If the church doesn't repent and turn to God, they cannot be an effective witness to the world and thus will drag MORE to hell than before. It's a case of not going through the door ourselves and barring the door to others at the same time.

I am quite happy to deal with immorality and idolatry with biblical Christians but getting into bed with heretics in ecumenism is NOT an option for the believer.

I bare no hatred to Warren as a person, but he is a false teacher who does need to repent and quite frankly, I'd rather work with Jesus ALONE, than with a heretic.

To those who give credence to Rick Warren and follow his ministry, or any ministry similar to his, I exhort you to abandon his false gospel and turn to Jesus Christ ALONE.

As my conclusion, I give you the words of Paul in his epistle to the Galatians
"6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! 9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!"

Answering Judaism.