An Exposé of Rick Warren
READING TIME: 35 MINUTES
The following are the notes to the discussion found at this link (https://www.facebook.com/tammy.cheetham.77/videos/399286680571046/) for anyone who would like to study the subject more in depth.
The purpose of this discussion is to warn about Rick Warren. He has caused an incredible amount of damage with his Purpose Driven Life and Purpose Driven Church books, and his P.E.A.C.E plan. He focuses on the social gospel and is quite ecumenical. He is a dangerous false teacher and should be avoided. Many have heard a lot of this information, but since Rick Warren has such tremendous influence…Sister Tammy, we will go ahead and start with the information you have prepared about his P.E.A.C.E plan, please:
In Rick Warren's plan the word P.E.A.C.E. stands for
P: Planting Churches
E: Equipping Leaders
A: Assisting the Poor
C: Caring for the Sick
E: Educating the Next Generation.
The five 'Giants' he refers to which he plans to obliterate through this endeavour are Spiritual emptiness, Egocentric leadership, Extreme poverty, Pandemic Diseases, and Illiteracy and education.
Rick Warren states, “Even in villages where you cannot find a clinic, a store, a school, or a post office, you can often find a church. The PEACE Plan will address these five "giant" problems by Planting new churches... Equipping leaders... Assisting the poor...Caring for the sick... and Educating the next generation....I now believe that I know why God is blessing this book (Purpose Driven Life) in such an unusual way. It is more than just a message that God wants to get out to everyone. I now also see that God is using this phenomenon to expand the platform for us to mobilize thousands of local churches for global world missions through the PEACE plan.”
From a Christian biblical perspective, global evangelism has always been the mission of the true church. However, this must be qualified. The church is led by elders who then equip the saints. In addition, the biblical references to the poor and sick refer first and foremost to saints of the household of God, and then to our enemies.
The “three-legged stool” concept was introduced by the business management writer Peter Drucker as a means to bring together the different sectors in society. Drucker believed that the only way to persuade the world to accept change was to engage public, private and social sectors, working together to effect change. The three "legs" of the stool are:
A public sector of effective governments
A private sector of effective businesses
A social sector of effective community organizations, including faith-based organizations
Rick Warren was mentored by Peter Drucker for several years and has been promoting the 3-legged stool concept with vigor. Now Warren is using the “three-legged” stool concept in conjunction with his P.E.A.C.E. Plan.
Warren claims that these problems are so large that every attempt by the public and private sector has failed, and that the only organization big enough to take on these problems is the network of Christian churches around the world. – (Source Wikipedia)
Peter Drucker - his interest in megachurches was not from a religious standpoint, but one of social phenomenon!
It is like this I read in an article while studying about this - “If Rick Warren's P.E.A.C.E. Plan came directly from God, then why is Warren obtaining part of it from man, especially unredeemed man? This would be tantamount to Moses going to the Israelites for the rest of the blueprints for the Ark of the Covenant or the Tabernacle, or Solomon getting the blueprints for the Temple from the Philistines, or Ezekiel obtaining the blueprints for the Millennial Temple from the nations surrounding Israel.”
And the same can be said about Warren’s Daniel Plan as we will go on to share about shortly.
In promoting his Plan, Warren is redefining the mission of the church. His idea is that we are to wipe out world problems and make the world a better place to live in before Christ returns. His plan is part of Dominionist Theology which teaches that Christ can't return until the Church takes over the earth. Warren believes this shall be made possible by his billion man army and this reminds us of another two other “army” movements in the name of Jesus, should I say another jesus, which really is no other! - Joel’s Army and the Manifest Sons of God promote the false teaching in which they think the Lord has given them a mandate to take over the earth for Jesus so that He can return.
Though “P” for Church Planting can still be found on Rick Warren's website describing his Global P.E.A.C.E. Plan, he changed the acronym to have “P” stand for “Participation” in his keynote speech at the Religious Newswriters convention on Sept. 29, 2005, where Warren states that he is getting 400,000 churches to participate in his plan.
We know as Believers that the mission of the church as defined in Matthew 28; Luke 24; and Acts 1 is to preach the gospel and call people out of the world’s system, once converted, people are taught to obey everything that Jesus taught.
Christ tells us not to give alms before men to be seen by men, where Warren brags about his almsgiving to the whole world and as we can see he believes part of God’s teaching in his agenda is to do the opposite.
From a worldly perspective, history is filled with peace plans and men of peace...even those claiming the name of Jesus!!!
Rick Warren thinks Muslims, Catholics and any religion can help his peace plan with “spiritual lostness” never mind the fact that they themselves are totally lost spiritually and on their way to hell because they have not the Holy Spirit! Warren’s plan is not new really; it is simply history repeating itself and we can look right back to the beginning where Lucifer fell and all because he wants to be God and rule with destroying men and women along the way because he is full of pride and hates Jesus Christ and is a liar, thief and destroyer.
The World loves this Global P.E.A.C.E. Plan because it prescribes a peaceful kingdom now for the earth rather than “Thy Kingdom Come” (when Christ returns). It doesn’t specifically deal with the sinful heart of man needing redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ. Even if the gospel is mentioned by Rick Warren, we can clearly see that his gospel is one of changing the world, social justice and trying to solve man’s problem of spiritual depravity using man’s way instead of God’s. How can blind men lead the lost? They cannot. Blind leaders of the blind will both fall into the ditch. There is the remedy, repent and believe and be content in this world, looking for that City Whose Builder and Maker is God, A Heavenly Kingdom to come. This world will continue to wax worse, the Tribulation Period has to come and the Antichrist has to be here before the Second Coming, the Rapture is to take place and many are caught up outside of God’s Word because they are listening to men driven by demons instead of men led by the Holy Spirit.
Even if Rick Warren were to succeed in slaying his five giants (which he has guaranteed), his P.E.A.C.E. plan is still inferior to the peace plan the Lord himself will set up. However, it lines up perfectly with Satan's peace plan. The counterfeit peace plan must first come, ushered in by the Antichrist, before the Lord’s global peace will be ushered in by the Lord himself. Christians should not buy into any global peace plan that will precede the Lord's worldwide peace plan.
I just would like to mention about people like John Piper, who is a Calvinist and teachings are not according to the Word of God also endorse people like Warren, stating that this Purpose Driven Agenda is wonderful and cannot see any problem in which people are saying this is not scriptural, this shows us the lack of discernment in many that are professing to be of God, so anyone who maybe seeking teaching from John Piper I would say to avoid. These people believe they are fighting for the truth, but really are against it.
Thank you so much for all that excellent information, sister Tammy.
I will continue with some basic information about Saddleback church now: As a pastor, Rick founded Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., in 1980 with one family. Today, it is an evangelical congregation averaging 22,000 weekly attendees, a 120-acre campus, which has more than 300 community ministries to groups such as prisoners, CEOs, addicts, single parents, and those with HIV/AIDS (https://store.pastors.com/about-us) (Now, we don’t mean to be unkind in any way, but we would encourage people to look to Jesus for healing rather than to join any such groups. These are all based on psychology; people sit around and tell their stories. They rehash every horrible thing that has happened to them. They are not told that sin is the problem and Jesus is the Solution. Celebrate Recovery is one of the programs that has come out of Saddleback and it’s just a Christianized version of AA. These types of programs essentially glorify self; they focus on willpower in many cases; what we can or need to do in, and of, ourselves. But, we don’t need to talk about ourselves more than we already do. Our favorite topic tends to be ourselves so we don’t need to encourage focusing on ourselves). And, concerning Celebrate Recovery I found the following promotion for this program: “See what more than 30,000 churches and 4 million people worldwide have discovered! Celebrate Recovery isn't just a program — it's a pathway toward complete restoration and transformation based on 8 Christ-centered life principles (https://store.pastors.com/celebrate-recovery/getting-started-with-celebrate-recovery/celebrate-recovery-updated-program-curriculum-kit.html?utm_source=Resources&utm_campaign=437f557b21-PCOM+06.05.18&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3a3ff6b713-437f557b21-45839713&mc_cid=437f557b21&mc_eid=501b2fcab9). (So, 30,000 churches have purchased this curriculum and it sells for a little over $100 which means Rick Warren’s ministry has made over $3 million dollars helping people get restored and transformed. And, they supposedly use Christ-centered life principles. Well, here’s a thought. If these are truly Christ-centered life principles we should be able to find them in God’s Word, so let’s use that instead of sending Rick Warren a hundred bucks!)
Continuing with the basic information: “Rick Warren also leads the Purpose Driven Network of churches, a global coalition of congregations in 162 countries. More than 400,000 ministers and priests have been trained worldwide, and almost 157,000 church leaders subscribe to the Ministry ToolBox, his weekly newsletter.” (So, his influence is just astounding. And it just breaks our hearts to think of how many people have heard, and are continuing to hear a false gospel. Think of the numbers of people who could have heard the truth all these years. And, notice it says “ministers and priests have been trained worldwide. So the program has been adopted by Catholic churches as well).
Warren’s book, The Purpose Driven Church, is listed in “100 Christian Books That Changed the 20th Century.” (We want to take a moment here and discuss Rick Warren’s phenomenal business success, and yes, we mean, business success). Rick Warren learned his leadership skills from a man named Peter Drucker as you already mentioned, sister Tammy. According to Wikipedia, Peter Drucker was a management consultant, educator, and author, whose writings contributed to the philosophical and practical foundations of the modern business corporation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Drucker)
We learn the following from an article entitled “Drucker’s Discipleship” by Elliott Nesch dated July 27, 2011: “The Drucker-Warren relationship may surprise many, but it dates back over two decades, to when the young Rick Warren came to Drucker for advice. Under Drucker’s tutelage, Warren’s own success as from a Purpose Driven business entrepreneur to a large Purpose Driven company CEO has been considerable. At a 2005 ‘Pew Forum on Religion’ gathering called, “Myths of the Modern Mega-Church,” Rick Warren stated: “I did a series of lectures for the faculty in the Kennedy School and also in the law school. I spoke to several groups of faculty and several groups of students and I started with this quote from Peter Drucker: “The most significant sociological phenomenon of the first half of the 20th century was the rise of the corporation. The most significant sociological phenomenon of the second half of the 20th century has been the development of the large pastoral church – of the mega-church. It is the only organization that is actually working in our society.” (But, we would say working from a business perspective; not from a salvation perspective, sad to say).
Continuing with Rick Warren’s statement about Peter Drucker: “Now Drucker has said that at least six times. I happen to know because he’s my mentor, as you mentioned, sister Tammy. I’ve spent 20 years under his tutelage learning about leadership from him. Warren also says that his staff at Saddleback reads and discusses Drucker’s writings, using them to manage the church. In Rick Warren’s office is a print signed by Drucker and given to Warren that reads: “What is our business? Who is our customer? What does the customer consider value?” (But, why would anyone equate church members with customers? It certainly reminds us of 2 Pet. 2:3 which says, “And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not”).
Continuing with the basic information: “As a global strategist, Dr. Warren advises leaders in the public, private, and faith sectors on leadership development, poverty, health, education, and faith in culture. He has been invited to speak at the United Nations, the World Economic Forum in Davos, the African Union, the Council on Foreign Relations, Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, TIME’s Global Health Summit, and numerous congresses around the world. TIME magazine named him one of “15 World Leaders Who Mattered Most in 2004” and in 2005 one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World.” Also, in 2005 U.S. News & World Report named him one of “America’s 25 Best Leaders.” (Well, we cannot help but think of Gal. 1:10 which says, “For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ”).
Continuing, “As a theologian, Dr. Warren has lectured at Oxford, Cambridge, the University of Judaism, the Evangelical Theological Society, and numerous seminaries and universities. His six books are known for explaining theology in understandable ways and have been translated into more than 50 languages. Dr. Warren says he teaches theology without using theological terms and telling people it is theology. His book, The Purpose Driven Life, has sold 32 million copies and is the best-selling hardback book in American history, according to Publisher’s Weekly. (So let’s examine this book for a minute. There is so much wrong with it we don’t have time to mention it all, but we’ll try and hit a few of the main problems. In Warren's own words, it is "a guide to a 40-day spiritual journey" (p. 9). Now, if we wanted to take a spiritual journey, the only place we are going to look is the Bible).
From an article entitled “An Analysis of Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Life” we learn that “from the beginning, The Purpose-Driven® Life and the 40 Days of Purpose campaigns have been designed for ecumenical appeal. In promotional material, Warren writes, "We're all on the same team!" He continues: “This campaign is all about the Kingdom of God, fulfilling His agenda in His world. Nothing brings more glory to God than having his churches, small groups, and his people fulfilling His Purposes. Because 40 Days of Purpose is about God's Kingdom, it is much bigger than any individual, church or denomination. We must work together "to serve God's purpose in our generation.”
Another huge problem is that Warren has integrated psychological principles into his understanding of living the Christian life. Here are a few quotes from the book: "Bringing enjoyment to God, living for His pleasure, is the first purpose of your life. When you fully understand this truth, you will never again have a problem with feeling insignificant. It proves your worth" (p. 63).
"Today there are many books and tools that can help you understand your personality so you can determine how to use it for God" (p. 246).
"For God to use your painful experiences, you must be willing to share them ... Paul understood this truth, so he was honest about his bouts with depression. If Paul had kept his experience of doubt and depression a secret, millions of people would never have benefited from it" (pp. 247-248). (Well, we know that psychology’s advance into the church world has caused much harm. Pastors won’t discuss sin because they’re afraid it will harm people’s self-esteem. And, of course, this means that the people won’t return to their church services).
Another huge problem with this book is that Warren frequently quotes men and women of the past and present who cannot be trusted in any spiritual sense by believers today. Consider several individuals to whom Warren refers and quotes in a positive manner in order to support his own principles:
The first one I will mention is Brother Lawrence, a Roman Catholic mystic who wrote “Practicing the Presence of God,” and advocated “breath” prayers. And, apparently Warren still advocates this practice because he wrote a facebook post on June 30, 2016 that says: “The Bible tells us to “pray all the time.” One way to do this is to use “breath prayers” throughout the day, as many Christians have done for centuries. You choose a brief sentence or a simple phrase that can be repeated to Jesus in one breath: “You are with me.” “I receive your grace.” “I’m depending on you.” (https://www.facebook.com/pastorrickwarren/photos/a.414149010902.210939.34845120902/10154163509230903/?type=3) (However, this method of prayer contradicts the New Testament model of prayer given in Matthew 6. And, anyone who knows about the mantra-style praying done in eastern religions would know that “breath” prayers would not please God).
Someone else mentioned in the book is Mother Teresa. She was a Catholic nun who believed that her service to others and sacrificial manner of life procured the favor of God. In her book, “Life in the Spirit: Reflections, Meditations, and Prayers,” Mother Teresa says on pp. 81-82: "We never try to convert those who receive [aid from Missionaries of Charity] to Christianity, but in our work we bear witness to the love of God's presence and if Catholics, Protestants, Buddhists, or agnostics become for this better men -- simply better -- we will be satisfied.”
And, then, we have Madame Guyon who was a 17th century French Catholic mystic. Also, Anais Nin, a 20th century feminist writer of erotic literature. And, then, Henri Nouwen who was cited several times in the book. He was a Roman Catholic priest, ecumenist, educator and psychologist.
Additionally, The Purpose Driven Life uses 15 different Bible translations (one being the totally new age Message Bible). Now why does anyone need to use this many different translations unless they are trying to find certain phrases that will support their own ideas? Also, to this point, very often only half of a scripture is used. Concerning some of the translations he used, Warren had this to say on p. 325 of the book: “Therefore I have deliberately used paraphrases in order to help you see God’s truth in new, fresh ways.” (This sounds like those false teachers who are constantly preaching on some new revelation they say God has given them. We would say beware!)
There are four endorsements on the back cover of this book, but I will take time to read only one. It is by Billy and Franklin Graham and says this: “Make sure you’re not missing the point of your life – read this book! The Purpose Driven Life will guide you to greatness – through living the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.” (So, if I don’t read this book I will miss the point of my life? And, I don’t think that as believers our goal is greatness. Wow...).
Sadly, we can tell from this book that Rick Warren has a low regard for Bible prophecy. The following is a statement from an article at Lighthouse Trails by Roger Oakland: “In the Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren was actually laying ground work for the emerging church’s new reformation, a reformation that rejects thinking about the return of Christ and works more at convincing the multitudes that Christ is already in them as a global christ-consciousness (which is completely new age). Perhaps this helps explain why so many who once were anticipating the return of the Lord have become occupied with worldly ambitions. Acts 1:6-7 says, “Then they gathered around Him and asked Him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.” Concerning these verses, Rick Warren says, “When the disciples wanted to talk about prophecy, Jesus quickly switched the conversation to evangelism. He wanted them to concentrate on their mission in the world. He said in essence, “The details of my return are none of your business. What is your business is the mission I have given you. Focus on that!” (PDL, p. 285) (But, this is just silly. Jesus was telling the disciples they could not know the day or the hour, but nowhere does Jesus ever indicate that “the details are none of our business.” Rather than quickly changing the subject, we have in Matthew 24 and Luke 21 two of the longest passages in Scripture quoting Jesus’ own words, and in these scriptures He details the signs of His coming. In essence, Jesus was saying, because you cannot know the day and hour of my return, you need to study Bible prophecy and take heed of my words about the end times. Years later, the Apostle John was inspired to write an entire book concerning the details of the end times).
Warren spoke at The Pew Forum conference on “religion, politics and public life” at Key West, Florida, in May 2005, which I already mentioned, and had this to say about his 40 Days of Purpose program: “Ten percent of the churches in America have now done 40 Days of Purpose…We will take another 10 to 15 thousand through it this year, and on and on and on. And there’s a little story of how that got started in churches and then it spread to corporations like Coca-Cola and Ford and Wal-Mart, and they started doing 40 Days of Purpose. And then it spread to all the sports teams. I spoke at the NBA All-Stars this year because all of the teams were doing 40 Days of Purpose. LPGA, NASCAR, most of the baseball teams – when the Red Sox were winning the World Series, they were going through 40 Days of Purpose during the Series. So the story of the 40 Days of Purpose is more than the story of the book. And maybe we can get back to why that touched such a nerve around the world, because The Purpose Driven Life is not just the best-selling book in American history; it’s the best-selling book in about a dozen languages. It’s in about 30 languages right now…) (http://www.pewforum.org/2005/05/23/myths-of-the-modern-megachurch/) When I first read about corporations and sports teams using this program I was baffled. But, then I read the following statement by Forbes Magazine publisher, Rich Karlgaard concerning “The Purpose Driven Church”, “This is one of the greatest entrepreneurial books I’ve ever read, and if you merely substitute the word ‘business’ for ‘church’, it’s just a terrific guide that can be taken to a secular and business audience.” (http://www.biblebb.com/files/pdc-critique.htm)
In addition I found an article that said the book is being promoted and studied in some Catholic parishes, especially as a Lenten exercise (https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=7008). (So, with all we have learned about Warren’s Purpose Driven books and 40 Days of Purpose I hope the listeners will see these are not books and programs for true believers).
And, just to note at this same conference Warren described the total gospel as this: “social justice, personal morality and salvation” (http://www.pewforum.org/2005/05/23/myths-of-the-modern-megachurch/). (So, here in a nutshell, we see one of the major problems with this man and his ministry. Social justice, doing good works, doesn’t save us; our personal morality doesn’t save us. How do we know? Because an atheist can do good works and an atheist can have good morals. It is only by having a personal relationship with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that we can be saved. So, we have this man, who has such a huge influence around the world bringing another Jesus and another gospel).
Now, let’s move on to another major problem with Rick Warren and that is his ecumenical outlook. Warren has many associations and friendships with Catholics and he obviously believes Catholicism is just another denomination within Christianity.
For the first example, in April of 2011, Father Jonathan Morris published a book entitled “God Wants You Happy.” Morris is the parish priest for Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church in the Bronx, NY, and regularly appears on Fox and Friends, the morning show on Fox News. The following is Rick Warren’s endorsement on the back cover of the book: “In this wonderful book, my good friend, Father Jonathan Morris, explains exactly how God through the Word of truth, the grace of Jesus Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit, can transform your life in ways that no self-help book can do. Read this book and begin the journey of transformation” (https://www.amazon.com/God-Wants-You-Happy-Self-Help/dp/0061913561#_). (So, we have Rick Warren calling a Catholic priest a good friend and we will see a similar example later on. However, true believers should follow the admonition found in 2 Cor. 6:17: "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you").
Next, I want to mention a couple of tweets he sent out before Frances was chosen by the cardinals of the Catholic church to be the current pope. On March 12, 2013 he tweeted: “Join me in fasting and prayer for the 115 cardinals seeking God’s will in a new leader.” Then, on March 13, once he had been chosen, Warren tweeted this message: “Welcome Pope Francis, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, # Habemus Papam. You have our prayers.” (Both of these are extremely odd tweets for a supposed evangelical pastor to send out).
The next thing I would like to discuss is Warren’s endorsement of a book called “Catholics Come Home: God’s Extraordinary Plan for Your Life.” The book was published in the spring of 2013 and was written by Tom Peterson, founder and president of Catholics Come Home, a nonprofit multimedia organization dedicated to promoting Catholic evangelization. The book offers inspiration for believers from all walks of life, whether lapsed or practicing, to deepen their faith and draw them closer to Jesus and His Church, according to a review of the book (https://www.amazon.com/Catholics-Come-Home-Gods-Extraordinary/dp/0385347170). The movement itself officially kicked off in 2011 with a 3.5 million prime-time television campaign aimed at drawing more people to the church of Rome. The marketing reach of these ads in the first three weeks was 250 million television viewers in over 10,000 U.S. cities throughout the United States. And, here is what Warren had this to say concerning the project: “The mission of Tom Peterson and Catholics Come Home to bring souls home to Jesus and the church is critically important during this challenging time in our history. I fully support this new evangelization project” (https://fortheloveofhistruth.com/2013/06/18/does-rick-warren-want-you-to-come-home-to-the-catholic-church/). (Again, we see that Rick Warren makes no distinction between Catholics and Christians).
Now, we want to mention parts of a video of an interview from April 10, 2014, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVCY8pW-ACs) with Rick Warren that was conducted by Raymond Arroyo who is the host of a program called “The World Over” which runs weekly on the Eternal Word Television Network. For anyone who is unfamiliar with this channel, it is a global, Catholic Television, Catholic Radio, and Catholic News Network that provides Catholic programming and news coverage from around the world.
The first part we would like to focus on from this interview is Warren’s use of the phrase (3:10 in) “as our new pope” in reference to Pope Frances. This created quite a stir and many people mentioned it on social media. We have previously mentioned in our discussions that the Catholic church has been making a push since Vatican II in 1962 towards bringing the “separated brethren” back home. (But, what we have here with Rick Warren is one example of a “evangelical Christian”, whose church is part of the Southern Baptist Convention, making quite an ecumenical statement. Soon after that statement Warren describes a newspaper article that had the headline, “If you love Pope Francis, you’ll love Jesus.” And, Warren laughs about this, either not caring or not thinking that this is quite disrespectful to Jesus to say the least).
And, going back to the video we see in another segment (13:35) that Warren mentions things that Catholics and Christians agree on such beliefs as the Trinity, Jesus’ resurrection, His death on the cross, hell and heaven. (But, apparently he has no problem with the sacraments, the Bible not being the sole authority as I will discuss more later, purgatory, the mass, and so forth. You know, when they added purgatory and mass, for example, they created “another Jesus” as referred to in 2 Cor. 11:4; one whose death on the cross was not sufficient to pay for our sins. And, Warren says they agree on the Trinity, but when Catholics instruct people to pray to Mary they are indicating a belief in her possessing at least a certain degree of omniscience, otherwise how would she be able to hear the prayers of 1.2 billion people? And, omniscience is a quality of deity alone). Interestingly enough the Catholic site called “The Divine Mercy” states the first prayer directly addressed to the Blessed Virgin Mary, of which we have record, was written in the early 3rd century. https://www.thedivinemercy.org/library/article.php?NID=2859 (Sadly, that shows people have been practicing this form of idolatry for many centuries).
In another segment (19:39) that is quite concerning we learn the Vatican had sent a delegation to Saddleback and Warren was just thrilled about this. (So, we have definitely seen that basically one of the most influential evangelical leaders of our day thinks Catholicism is just another denomination within Christianity).
And, in the last part we want to mention from the video (25:08) we learn he’s an avid fan of EWTN. He and his wife watch the “Chaplet of Divine Mercy” which as far as I understand is nuns repeating prayers over and over. Additionally, Rick Warren has pictures of Mother Teresa and would like to have one of Pope John Paul in his office.
And, then, in Sept. of 2015 Warren announced he would be speaking in Philadelphia later that month at the World Meeting of Families event to commence Pope Francis’ highly anticipated visit to the United States. Warren announced his plans to attend the event during the Sunday morning worship service at Saddleback. “Next month, Pope Francis is coming to America for a world gathering on families,” he told the congregation. ”I’m not a Catholic, and we have many differences with Catholics. But they love the Lord and we have much in common with that – we believe in the Bible, and the Trinity, and in Jesus and the resurrection.” “There are probably going to be a million people in Philadelphia at this final event with Pope Francis, and he’s asked me to be the final speaker,” the Purpose Driven Life author continued amid cheering and applause (http://www.gospelherald.com/articles/57540/20150901/pope-francis-visit-2015-schedule-and-dates-pontiff-invites-rick-warren-to-speak-at-philadelphia-conference-on-family.htm). (Well, sorry, Mr. Warren, but your reasoning is faulty. Let’s just examine his statement about us all believing in the Bible. Anyone who has studied Catholicism’s beliefs about the Bible knows they don’t believe in the Bible alone as the final authority, but they rather place equal importance on traditions). The following statements are from an article at the Catholic culture website: “To begin with, at every Mass, Catholics hear the living, authoritative, and complete word of God proclaimed by Christ's body, the Church. With access to the inseparable triad of Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the Church's magisterium, the faithful Catholic stands firmly on the full gospel — all that Christ wanted us to believe and do (https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=7008). And, just to explain, the Catholic Church’s magisterium is their authority or office to establish teachings. That authority is vested uniquely in the Pope and the bishops, under the premise that they are in communion with the correct and true teachings of the faith which is shown in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (https://www.google.com/search?q=Church%27s+magisterium&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-1-ab)
And, then, on Sept. 14, 2017, an article was published entitled, “In Orange County, bishop and pastor model Catholic/Evangelical ties.” Here are some statements from it: “Ties between Evangelicals and Catholics in America come in all shapes and sizes, with one of the most striking flowering in Orange County, California, and a friendship and partnership between Bishop Kevin Vann and famed Evangelical pastor Rick Warren.
Warren: Since I moved to Orange County in 1980, I’ve known each of the previous Bishops of Orange, but Bishop Kevin and I became dear friends very quickly.
Vann: In the months and years that followed, I discovered the blessing of sharing the concerns of ministry with Rick, talking about our homilies and what we were both studying, and praying together. Also, Rick’s staff at Saddleback and our staff at the Diocese began to get to know each other through various meetings, sharing not only our common love for the Lord, but also our love for the Church, fellowship, and praying together.
Warren: That’s right. First, we committed to pray for each other, then we began to pray with each other. Prayer builds bridges from heart to heart (https://cruxnow.com/interviews/2017/09/14/orange-county-bishop-pastor-model-catholicevangelical-ties/). (Well, as I said earlier about Warren’s friendship with Catholic priest Jonathan Morris, the Bible tells us to remain separate. With these examples of Warren’s ecumenical ties with Catholics, along with his global work through his P.E.A.C.E plan, we can just imagine that millions of people have been influenced to believe that we are all one body when nothing could be further from the truth).
Now, I would like to give some examples of Warren’s interfaith activities:
This information is from an article at the Christian Post dated November 23, 2007 entitled “Christian Leaders Invite Muslims to Love God, Neighbors Together.” In October (of 2007), 138 Muslim clerics, scholars and intellectuals from all the major sects signed a letter calling for peace between Muslims and Christians. The letter entitled, "A Common Word Between Us and You," urged followers of the two faiths to find "common ground" and not simply just for "polite ecumenical dialogue" between certain religious leaders.
Christian leaders across denominational lines responded to the unprecedented open letter with one of those leaders being Rick Warren (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10210101992681054&set=p.10210101992681054&type=3&theater). The Christian signatories said they "share the sentiments" of the Muslim leaders who pointed out that Muslims and Christians make up over half of the world's population and therefore true peace cannot occur as long as conflict persists between the two religious communities.
"Peaceful relations between Muslims and Christians stand as one of the central challenges of this century, and perhaps of the whole present epoch," wrote the Christian leaders. "If we can achieve religious peace between these two religious communities, peace in the world will clearly be easier to attain." (https://www.christianpost.com/news/christian-leaders-invite-muslims-to-love-god-neighbors-together-30194/) (You know, I just do not understand how any supposed Christian leader can believe there is any common ground between Christianity and idolatry. And, practicing idolatry is exactly what anyone who worships any god besides the One True God of the Bible is doing).
And, then, we have Warren’s prayer at Barack Obama’s first inauguration held on January 20, 2009. In his prayer Warren referenced Deut. 6:4 from the NASB, "Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God. The Lord is One." The very next thing he said was, “And you are the compassionate and merciful one.” I googled this phrase in scripture. I found that Ps. 145:8 in the NET Bible translation says, “The LORD is merciful and compassionate.” Now that is close, but it’s not exact. However, in the Koran the exact phrase, “The compassionate and merciful one” is used. In fact, of the 114 chapters in the Koran, 113 of them begin by describing Allah as “The compassionate and merciful one.”
Then, towards the end of the prayer, Warren says this: “I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life, Yeshua, Isa, Jesus [Spanish pronunciation], Jesus, who taught us to pray.” “Isa” is used in the Koran in reference to an alleged Palestinian prophet who is not the Son of God and did not die on the cross for the sins of the world. According to millions of Muslims, he will return to renounce Christianity, destroy all crosses, support the mass murder of Jews and forcibly convert the world to Islam (https://www.goodfight.org/articles/commentaries-teachings/rick-warren-ecumenical-idolatry/). (So, Warren is supposedly praying in the name of Jesus, but also says Isa as if this is another name for Jesus. However, Muslims do not believe God has a son as noted in several of their suras. For example, Sura 4:171 in the Koran says, “Believe in Allah and say not ‘Trinity.’ Cease! It is better for you! Allah is only One God. Far is it removed from his transcendent majesty that he should have a son.” Warren is truly praying to a god of his own imagination here and this should have discredited him completely).
Additionally, in July of 2009, while speaking to a crowd of nearly 8,000 Muslims at the Islamic Society of North America’s annual convention in Washington D.C., Warren called on Muslims and Christians to form an interfaith coalition to combat prejudice and stereotypes. Armed with four ideas for action, Warren called on the two groups to work together to create respect, restore civility to civilization, promote peace and tackle major world problems. “I am not interested in interfaith dialogue, I am interested in interfaith projects,” Warren said. “Talk is very cheap.” (https://www.ocregister.com/2009/07/04/rick-warren-calls-on-muslims-and-christians-to-work-together/) (We’ve talked about this before in other discussions, concerning joining up with members of religions on social issues. The problem with a believer working with members of other religions on such issues is that as they work together they begin to become more accepting of the other people and eventually think, “Oh, these are nice people. Surely God won’t send them to hell. ”)
And, moving along, on Nov. 17-19 of 2014, Warren attended a conference at the Vatican entitled “The Complementarity of Man and Woman: An International Colloquium.” He was among 30 global religious leaders examining the changing roles of marriage and family in the world. He spoke on the “Biblical Meaning of Marriage” which might sound good to some people except that he made the following odd statement. He said, “It’s great to be with leaders from different streams of Christianity from all over the world. Although we have some differences, we all love Jesus Christ and we all want marriages and families to be healthy and strong.” (His statement about all loving Jesus Christ doesn’t make any sense because 14 different religions were represented and all of those don’t even acknowledge Jesus Christ except as a prophet or teacher. And, then, there are not different streams of Christianity. Eph. 4:4-6 says, “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all”). One article said that the focus of the conference was on the meaning of marriage around the globe, and God’s plan, as understood by religions around the globe (https://www.ocregister.com/2014/11/18/pastor-rick-warren-speaks-at-vatican-conference-on-family-marriage/) (Well, religions around the globe do not all believe in and serve the One, True God, and as believers we should not have any interest in learning about other religious traditions concerning marriage).
Sister Tammy, would you like to close out the discussion by sharing the information you have concerning Rick Warren’s Daniel Plan?
I want to discuss Rick Warren’s Daniel Plan for a few moments. This article is from Lighthouse Trails and was written by Warren B. Smith. He was in new age for many years and has written several books trying to warn Christians about these beliefs. The article has this to say: “Who would have believed it? Occult/New Age doctors being invited into the church to teach Christians how to be healthy? On January 15, 2011 a fifty-two week health and wellness program—the Daniel Plan—was initiated at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church. More than six thousand people attended the well promoted and carefully staged event. Warren took the opportunity to announce that his own personal goal was to lose 90 pounds in 2011. The Daniel Plan website states that “the Daniel Plan envisions starting a movement so the result is better physical and spiritual health for current and future generations.” It describes how Rick Warren “recruited three best-selling authors” to create and oversee the Daniel Plan Curriculum—Dr. Mehmet Oz, Dr. Daniel Amen, and Dr. Mark Hyman.
Although these three physicians are all involved with New Age teachings, they describe themselves respectively as a Muslim, a Christian, and a Jew. And even though the website made sure to state that “These Doctors are helping us as friends, but are in no way advising our church on spiritual matters,” a true Christian pastor would not be promoting these men because all three physicians are alternative medicine/holistic health practitioners who teach the indivisibility of “mind, body, spirit” in achieving optimum well-being. In other words, their New Age spiritual beliefs are necessarily embedded in their medical practice, their best-selling books, and their public appearances.
Dr. Mehmet Oz is the cardiovascular surgeon who was featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show for five years before gaining his own popular daytime TV show. He also has a daily talk show on Oprah & Friends satellite radio and writes columns for several magazines including Oprah’s O Magazine. Operating out of Columbia University’s Presbyterian Hospital, Dr. Oz is like a modern-day shaman as he mixes traditional medicine with a wide variety of occult/New Age practices. Dr. Oz’s New Age affinity for psychics, spirit guides, past lives, and contacting the dead was showcased on his March 15, 2011 program—jus
just two months after the launch of the Daniel Plan—titled, “Psychic Mediums: Are they the New Therapists?” The promo on his website read: “Can talking to lost loved ones heal your grief? Hear why psychic John Edward believes you can talk to the dead.” On a January 6, 2010 Dr. Oz show, Dr. Oz revealed what he believed to be “the most important alternative medicine treatment” for his viewers in that coming year. His #1 “Oz’s Order” was to “Try Reiki”—an occult bodywork practice that incorporates the channeled guidance of spirit guides. Dr. Oz was reported in one press release as stating: “Reiki is one of my favorites, we’ve been using it for years in the Oz family, and we swear by it.” On a video on Dr. Oz’s website, New Age leader Deepak Chopra teaches viewers how to meditate. Dr. Oz is a personal practitioner of Transcendental Meditation. He has also practiced Yoga for over twenty years.
Dr. Daniel Amen is a child and adolescent psychiatrist, best-selling author, and medical director of the Amen Clinics for Behavioral Medicine. In his book Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, he encourages readers to “Learn and use self-hypnosis and meditation on a daily basis.” In Change Your Brain, Change Your Body, Amen, a self-professed Christian, specifically recommends a Hindu Kundalini form of meditation called Kirtan Kriya. He instructs his readers to chant “sa ta na ma” repeatedly while simultaneously doing repetitive finger movements.
Dr. Mark Hyman is the chairman of the Institute of Functional Medicine and author of the best-selling book The UltraMind Solution. With its front cover endorsement by Dr. Oz, The UltraMind Solution offers practical medical advice while at the same time recommending a number of New Age resources to his readers. For example, he recommends the website of New Age author and guided imagery proponent Belleruth Naparstek. Her books and materials are designed to help people meditate, become more psychic, and connect with spirit guides. Like Dr. Oz and Dr. Amen, Dr. Hyman recommends meditation and yoga to his readers. https://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=11628 (How can people think this is something God initiated because it is not. We can quite clearly conclude this is of the evil one and it is to be avoided. So, I would just like to leave it there, sister Connie, if that’s all right with you?)
READING TIME: 35 MINUTES
The following are the notes to the discussion found at this link (https://www.facebook.com/tammy.cheetham.77/videos/399286680571046/) for anyone who would like to study the subject more in depth.
The purpose of this discussion is to warn about Rick Warren. He has caused an incredible amount of damage with his Purpose Driven Life and Purpose Driven Church books, and his P.E.A.C.E plan. He focuses on the social gospel and is quite ecumenical. He is a dangerous false teacher and should be avoided. Many have heard a lot of this information, but since Rick Warren has such tremendous influence…Sister Tammy, we will go ahead and start with the information you have prepared about his P.E.A.C.E plan, please:
In Rick Warren's plan the word P.E.A.C.E. stands for
P: Planting Churches
E: Equipping Leaders
A: Assisting the Poor
C: Caring for the Sick
E: Educating the Next Generation.
The five 'Giants' he refers to which he plans to obliterate through this endeavour are Spiritual emptiness, Egocentric leadership, Extreme poverty, Pandemic Diseases, and Illiteracy and education.
Rick Warren states, “Even in villages where you cannot find a clinic, a store, a school, or a post office, you can often find a church. The PEACE Plan will address these five "giant" problems by Planting new churches... Equipping leaders... Assisting the poor...Caring for the sick... and Educating the next generation....I now believe that I know why God is blessing this book (Purpose Driven Life) in such an unusual way. It is more than just a message that God wants to get out to everyone. I now also see that God is using this phenomenon to expand the platform for us to mobilize thousands of local churches for global world missions through the PEACE plan.”
From a Christian biblical perspective, global evangelism has always been the mission of the true church. However, this must be qualified. The church is led by elders who then equip the saints. In addition, the biblical references to the poor and sick refer first and foremost to saints of the household of God, and then to our enemies.
The “three-legged stool” concept was introduced by the business management writer Peter Drucker as a means to bring together the different sectors in society. Drucker believed that the only way to persuade the world to accept change was to engage public, private and social sectors, working together to effect change. The three "legs" of the stool are:
A public sector of effective governments
A private sector of effective businesses
A social sector of effective community organizations, including faith-based organizations
Rick Warren was mentored by Peter Drucker for several years and has been promoting the 3-legged stool concept with vigor. Now Warren is using the “three-legged” stool concept in conjunction with his P.E.A.C.E. Plan.
Warren claims that these problems are so large that every attempt by the public and private sector has failed, and that the only organization big enough to take on these problems is the network of Christian churches around the world. – (Source Wikipedia)
Peter Drucker - his interest in megachurches was not from a religious standpoint, but one of social phenomenon!
It is like this I read in an article while studying about this - “If Rick Warren's P.E.A.C.E. Plan came directly from God, then why is Warren obtaining part of it from man, especially unredeemed man? This would be tantamount to Moses going to the Israelites for the rest of the blueprints for the Ark of the Covenant or the Tabernacle, or Solomon getting the blueprints for the Temple from the Philistines, or Ezekiel obtaining the blueprints for the Millennial Temple from the nations surrounding Israel.”
And the same can be said about Warren’s Daniel Plan as we will go on to share about shortly.
In promoting his Plan, Warren is redefining the mission of the church. His idea is that we are to wipe out world problems and make the world a better place to live in before Christ returns. His plan is part of Dominionist Theology which teaches that Christ can't return until the Church takes over the earth. Warren believes this shall be made possible by his billion man army and this reminds us of another two other “army” movements in the name of Jesus, should I say another jesus, which really is no other! - Joel’s Army and the Manifest Sons of God promote the false teaching in which they think the Lord has given them a mandate to take over the earth for Jesus so that He can return.
Though “P” for Church Planting can still be found on Rick Warren's website describing his Global P.E.A.C.E. Plan, he changed the acronym to have “P” stand for “Participation” in his keynote speech at the Religious Newswriters convention on Sept. 29, 2005, where Warren states that he is getting 400,000 churches to participate in his plan.
We know as Believers that the mission of the church as defined in Matthew 28; Luke 24; and Acts 1 is to preach the gospel and call people out of the world’s system, once converted, people are taught to obey everything that Jesus taught.
Christ tells us not to give alms before men to be seen by men, where Warren brags about his almsgiving to the whole world and as we can see he believes part of God’s teaching in his agenda is to do the opposite.
From a worldly perspective, history is filled with peace plans and men of peace...even those claiming the name of Jesus!!!
Rick Warren thinks Muslims, Catholics and any religion can help his peace plan with “spiritual lostness” never mind the fact that they themselves are totally lost spiritually and on their way to hell because they have not the Holy Spirit! Warren’s plan is not new really; it is simply history repeating itself and we can look right back to the beginning where Lucifer fell and all because he wants to be God and rule with destroying men and women along the way because he is full of pride and hates Jesus Christ and is a liar, thief and destroyer.
The World loves this Global P.E.A.C.E. Plan because it prescribes a peaceful kingdom now for the earth rather than “Thy Kingdom Come” (when Christ returns). It doesn’t specifically deal with the sinful heart of man needing redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ. Even if the gospel is mentioned by Rick Warren, we can clearly see that his gospel is one of changing the world, social justice and trying to solve man’s problem of spiritual depravity using man’s way instead of God’s. How can blind men lead the lost? They cannot. Blind leaders of the blind will both fall into the ditch. There is the remedy, repent and believe and be content in this world, looking for that City Whose Builder and Maker is God, A Heavenly Kingdom to come. This world will continue to wax worse, the Tribulation Period has to come and the Antichrist has to be here before the Second Coming, the Rapture is to take place and many are caught up outside of God’s Word because they are listening to men driven by demons instead of men led by the Holy Spirit.
Even if Rick Warren were to succeed in slaying his five giants (which he has guaranteed), his P.E.A.C.E. plan is still inferior to the peace plan the Lord himself will set up. However, it lines up perfectly with Satan's peace plan. The counterfeit peace plan must first come, ushered in by the Antichrist, before the Lord’s global peace will be ushered in by the Lord himself. Christians should not buy into any global peace plan that will precede the Lord's worldwide peace plan.
I just would like to mention about people like John Piper, who is a Calvinist and teachings are not according to the Word of God also endorse people like Warren, stating that this Purpose Driven Agenda is wonderful and cannot see any problem in which people are saying this is not scriptural, this shows us the lack of discernment in many that are professing to be of God, so anyone who maybe seeking teaching from John Piper I would say to avoid. These people believe they are fighting for the truth, but really are against it.
Thank you so much for all that excellent information, sister Tammy.
I will continue with some basic information about Saddleback church now: As a pastor, Rick founded Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., in 1980 with one family. Today, it is an evangelical congregation averaging 22,000 weekly attendees, a 120-acre campus, which has more than 300 community ministries to groups such as prisoners, CEOs, addicts, single parents, and those with HIV/AIDS (https://store.pastors.com/about-us) (Now, we don’t mean to be unkind in any way, but we would encourage people to look to Jesus for healing rather than to join any such groups. These are all based on psychology; people sit around and tell their stories. They rehash every horrible thing that has happened to them. They are not told that sin is the problem and Jesus is the Solution. Celebrate Recovery is one of the programs that has come out of Saddleback and it’s just a Christianized version of AA. These types of programs essentially glorify self; they focus on willpower in many cases; what we can or need to do in, and of, ourselves. But, we don’t need to talk about ourselves more than we already do. Our favorite topic tends to be ourselves so we don’t need to encourage focusing on ourselves). And, concerning Celebrate Recovery I found the following promotion for this program: “See what more than 30,000 churches and 4 million people worldwide have discovered! Celebrate Recovery isn't just a program — it's a pathway toward complete restoration and transformation based on 8 Christ-centered life principles (https://store.pastors.com/celebrate-recovery/getting-started-with-celebrate-recovery/celebrate-recovery-updated-program-curriculum-kit.html?utm_source=Resources&utm_campaign=437f557b21-PCOM+06.05.18&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3a3ff6b713-437f557b21-45839713&mc_cid=437f557b21&mc_eid=501b2fcab9). (So, 30,000 churches have purchased this curriculum and it sells for a little over $100 which means Rick Warren’s ministry has made over $3 million dollars helping people get restored and transformed. And, they supposedly use Christ-centered life principles. Well, here’s a thought. If these are truly Christ-centered life principles we should be able to find them in God’s Word, so let’s use that instead of sending Rick Warren a hundred bucks!)
Continuing with the basic information: “Rick Warren also leads the Purpose Driven Network of churches, a global coalition of congregations in 162 countries. More than 400,000 ministers and priests have been trained worldwide, and almost 157,000 church leaders subscribe to the Ministry ToolBox, his weekly newsletter.” (So, his influence is just astounding. And it just breaks our hearts to think of how many people have heard, and are continuing to hear a false gospel. Think of the numbers of people who could have heard the truth all these years. And, notice it says “ministers and priests have been trained worldwide. So the program has been adopted by Catholic churches as well).
Warren’s book, The Purpose Driven Church, is listed in “100 Christian Books That Changed the 20th Century.” (We want to take a moment here and discuss Rick Warren’s phenomenal business success, and yes, we mean, business success). Rick Warren learned his leadership skills from a man named Peter Drucker as you already mentioned, sister Tammy. According to Wikipedia, Peter Drucker was a management consultant, educator, and author, whose writings contributed to the philosophical and practical foundations of the modern business corporation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Drucker)
We learn the following from an article entitled “Drucker’s Discipleship” by Elliott Nesch dated July 27, 2011: “The Drucker-Warren relationship may surprise many, but it dates back over two decades, to when the young Rick Warren came to Drucker for advice. Under Drucker’s tutelage, Warren’s own success as from a Purpose Driven business entrepreneur to a large Purpose Driven company CEO has been considerable. At a 2005 ‘Pew Forum on Religion’ gathering called, “Myths of the Modern Mega-Church,” Rick Warren stated: “I did a series of lectures for the faculty in the Kennedy School and also in the law school. I spoke to several groups of faculty and several groups of students and I started with this quote from Peter Drucker: “The most significant sociological phenomenon of the first half of the 20th century was the rise of the corporation. The most significant sociological phenomenon of the second half of the 20th century has been the development of the large pastoral church – of the mega-church. It is the only organization that is actually working in our society.” (But, we would say working from a business perspective; not from a salvation perspective, sad to say).
Continuing with Rick Warren’s statement about Peter Drucker: “Now Drucker has said that at least six times. I happen to know because he’s my mentor, as you mentioned, sister Tammy. I’ve spent 20 years under his tutelage learning about leadership from him. Warren also says that his staff at Saddleback reads and discusses Drucker’s writings, using them to manage the church. In Rick Warren’s office is a print signed by Drucker and given to Warren that reads: “What is our business? Who is our customer? What does the customer consider value?” (But, why would anyone equate church members with customers? It certainly reminds us of 2 Pet. 2:3 which says, “And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not”).
Continuing with the basic information: “As a global strategist, Dr. Warren advises leaders in the public, private, and faith sectors on leadership development, poverty, health, education, and faith in culture. He has been invited to speak at the United Nations, the World Economic Forum in Davos, the African Union, the Council on Foreign Relations, Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, TIME’s Global Health Summit, and numerous congresses around the world. TIME magazine named him one of “15 World Leaders Who Mattered Most in 2004” and in 2005 one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World.” Also, in 2005 U.S. News & World Report named him one of “America’s 25 Best Leaders.” (Well, we cannot help but think of Gal. 1:10 which says, “For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ”).
Continuing, “As a theologian, Dr. Warren has lectured at Oxford, Cambridge, the University of Judaism, the Evangelical Theological Society, and numerous seminaries and universities. His six books are known for explaining theology in understandable ways and have been translated into more than 50 languages. Dr. Warren says he teaches theology without using theological terms and telling people it is theology. His book, The Purpose Driven Life, has sold 32 million copies and is the best-selling hardback book in American history, according to Publisher’s Weekly. (So let’s examine this book for a minute. There is so much wrong with it we don’t have time to mention it all, but we’ll try and hit a few of the main problems. In Warren's own words, it is "a guide to a 40-day spiritual journey" (p. 9). Now, if we wanted to take a spiritual journey, the only place we are going to look is the Bible).
From an article entitled “An Analysis of Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Life” we learn that “from the beginning, The Purpose-Driven® Life and the 40 Days of Purpose campaigns have been designed for ecumenical appeal. In promotional material, Warren writes, "We're all on the same team!" He continues: “This campaign is all about the Kingdom of God, fulfilling His agenda in His world. Nothing brings more glory to God than having his churches, small groups, and his people fulfilling His Purposes. Because 40 Days of Purpose is about God's Kingdom, it is much bigger than any individual, church or denomination. We must work together "to serve God's purpose in our generation.”
Another huge problem is that Warren has integrated psychological principles into his understanding of living the Christian life. Here are a few quotes from the book: "Bringing enjoyment to God, living for His pleasure, is the first purpose of your life. When you fully understand this truth, you will never again have a problem with feeling insignificant. It proves your worth" (p. 63).
"Today there are many books and tools that can help you understand your personality so you can determine how to use it for God" (p. 246).
"For God to use your painful experiences, you must be willing to share them ... Paul understood this truth, so he was honest about his bouts with depression. If Paul had kept his experience of doubt and depression a secret, millions of people would never have benefited from it" (pp. 247-248). (Well, we know that psychology’s advance into the church world has caused much harm. Pastors won’t discuss sin because they’re afraid it will harm people’s self-esteem. And, of course, this means that the people won’t return to their church services).
Another huge problem with this book is that Warren frequently quotes men and women of the past and present who cannot be trusted in any spiritual sense by believers today. Consider several individuals to whom Warren refers and quotes in a positive manner in order to support his own principles:
The first one I will mention is Brother Lawrence, a Roman Catholic mystic who wrote “Practicing the Presence of God,” and advocated “breath” prayers. And, apparently Warren still advocates this practice because he wrote a facebook post on June 30, 2016 that says: “The Bible tells us to “pray all the time.” One way to do this is to use “breath prayers” throughout the day, as many Christians have done for centuries. You choose a brief sentence or a simple phrase that can be repeated to Jesus in one breath: “You are with me.” “I receive your grace.” “I’m depending on you.” (https://www.facebook.com/pastorrickwarren/photos/a.414149010902.210939.34845120902/10154163509230903/?type=3) (However, this method of prayer contradicts the New Testament model of prayer given in Matthew 6. And, anyone who knows about the mantra-style praying done in eastern religions would know that “breath” prayers would not please God).
Someone else mentioned in the book is Mother Teresa. She was a Catholic nun who believed that her service to others and sacrificial manner of life procured the favor of God. In her book, “Life in the Spirit: Reflections, Meditations, and Prayers,” Mother Teresa says on pp. 81-82: "We never try to convert those who receive [aid from Missionaries of Charity] to Christianity, but in our work we bear witness to the love of God's presence and if Catholics, Protestants, Buddhists, or agnostics become for this better men -- simply better -- we will be satisfied.”
And, then, we have Madame Guyon who was a 17th century French Catholic mystic. Also, Anais Nin, a 20th century feminist writer of erotic literature. And, then, Henri Nouwen who was cited several times in the book. He was a Roman Catholic priest, ecumenist, educator and psychologist.
Additionally, The Purpose Driven Life uses 15 different Bible translations (one being the totally new age Message Bible). Now why does anyone need to use this many different translations unless they are trying to find certain phrases that will support their own ideas? Also, to this point, very often only half of a scripture is used. Concerning some of the translations he used, Warren had this to say on p. 325 of the book: “Therefore I have deliberately used paraphrases in order to help you see God’s truth in new, fresh ways.” (This sounds like those false teachers who are constantly preaching on some new revelation they say God has given them. We would say beware!)
There are four endorsements on the back cover of this book, but I will take time to read only one. It is by Billy and Franklin Graham and says this: “Make sure you’re not missing the point of your life – read this book! The Purpose Driven Life will guide you to greatness – through living the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.” (So, if I don’t read this book I will miss the point of my life? And, I don’t think that as believers our goal is greatness. Wow...).
Sadly, we can tell from this book that Rick Warren has a low regard for Bible prophecy. The following is a statement from an article at Lighthouse Trails by Roger Oakland: “In the Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren was actually laying ground work for the emerging church’s new reformation, a reformation that rejects thinking about the return of Christ and works more at convincing the multitudes that Christ is already in them as a global christ-consciousness (which is completely new age). Perhaps this helps explain why so many who once were anticipating the return of the Lord have become occupied with worldly ambitions. Acts 1:6-7 says, “Then they gathered around Him and asked Him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.” Concerning these verses, Rick Warren says, “When the disciples wanted to talk about prophecy, Jesus quickly switched the conversation to evangelism. He wanted them to concentrate on their mission in the world. He said in essence, “The details of my return are none of your business. What is your business is the mission I have given you. Focus on that!” (PDL, p. 285) (But, this is just silly. Jesus was telling the disciples they could not know the day or the hour, but nowhere does Jesus ever indicate that “the details are none of our business.” Rather than quickly changing the subject, we have in Matthew 24 and Luke 21 two of the longest passages in Scripture quoting Jesus’ own words, and in these scriptures He details the signs of His coming. In essence, Jesus was saying, because you cannot know the day and hour of my return, you need to study Bible prophecy and take heed of my words about the end times. Years later, the Apostle John was inspired to write an entire book concerning the details of the end times).
Warren spoke at The Pew Forum conference on “religion, politics and public life” at Key West, Florida, in May 2005, which I already mentioned, and had this to say about his 40 Days of Purpose program: “Ten percent of the churches in America have now done 40 Days of Purpose…We will take another 10 to 15 thousand through it this year, and on and on and on. And there’s a little story of how that got started in churches and then it spread to corporations like Coca-Cola and Ford and Wal-Mart, and they started doing 40 Days of Purpose. And then it spread to all the sports teams. I spoke at the NBA All-Stars this year because all of the teams were doing 40 Days of Purpose. LPGA, NASCAR, most of the baseball teams – when the Red Sox were winning the World Series, they were going through 40 Days of Purpose during the Series. So the story of the 40 Days of Purpose is more than the story of the book. And maybe we can get back to why that touched such a nerve around the world, because The Purpose Driven Life is not just the best-selling book in American history; it’s the best-selling book in about a dozen languages. It’s in about 30 languages right now…) (http://www.pewforum.org/2005/05/23/myths-of-the-modern-megachurch/) When I first read about corporations and sports teams using this program I was baffled. But, then I read the following statement by Forbes Magazine publisher, Rich Karlgaard concerning “The Purpose Driven Church”, “This is one of the greatest entrepreneurial books I’ve ever read, and if you merely substitute the word ‘business’ for ‘church’, it’s just a terrific guide that can be taken to a secular and business audience.” (http://www.biblebb.com/files/pdc-critique.htm)
In addition I found an article that said the book is being promoted and studied in some Catholic parishes, especially as a Lenten exercise (https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=7008). (So, with all we have learned about Warren’s Purpose Driven books and 40 Days of Purpose I hope the listeners will see these are not books and programs for true believers).
And, just to note at this same conference Warren described the total gospel as this: “social justice, personal morality and salvation” (http://www.pewforum.org/2005/05/23/myths-of-the-modern-megachurch/). (So, here in a nutshell, we see one of the major problems with this man and his ministry. Social justice, doing good works, doesn’t save us; our personal morality doesn’t save us. How do we know? Because an atheist can do good works and an atheist can have good morals. It is only by having a personal relationship with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that we can be saved. So, we have this man, who has such a huge influence around the world bringing another Jesus and another gospel).
Now, let’s move on to another major problem with Rick Warren and that is his ecumenical outlook. Warren has many associations and friendships with Catholics and he obviously believes Catholicism is just another denomination within Christianity.
For the first example, in April of 2011, Father Jonathan Morris published a book entitled “God Wants You Happy.” Morris is the parish priest for Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church in the Bronx, NY, and regularly appears on Fox and Friends, the morning show on Fox News. The following is Rick Warren’s endorsement on the back cover of the book: “In this wonderful book, my good friend, Father Jonathan Morris, explains exactly how God through the Word of truth, the grace of Jesus Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit, can transform your life in ways that no self-help book can do. Read this book and begin the journey of transformation” (https://www.amazon.com/God-Wants-You-Happy-Self-Help/dp/0061913561#_). (So, we have Rick Warren calling a Catholic priest a good friend and we will see a similar example later on. However, true believers should follow the admonition found in 2 Cor. 6:17: "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you").
Next, I want to mention a couple of tweets he sent out before Frances was chosen by the cardinals of the Catholic church to be the current pope. On March 12, 2013 he tweeted: “Join me in fasting and prayer for the 115 cardinals seeking God’s will in a new leader.” Then, on March 13, once he had been chosen, Warren tweeted this message: “Welcome Pope Francis, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, # Habemus Papam. You have our prayers.” (Both of these are extremely odd tweets for a supposed evangelical pastor to send out).
The next thing I would like to discuss is Warren’s endorsement of a book called “Catholics Come Home: God’s Extraordinary Plan for Your Life.” The book was published in the spring of 2013 and was written by Tom Peterson, founder and president of Catholics Come Home, a nonprofit multimedia organization dedicated to promoting Catholic evangelization. The book offers inspiration for believers from all walks of life, whether lapsed or practicing, to deepen their faith and draw them closer to Jesus and His Church, according to a review of the book (https://www.amazon.com/Catholics-Come-Home-Gods-Extraordinary/dp/0385347170). The movement itself officially kicked off in 2011 with a 3.5 million prime-time television campaign aimed at drawing more people to the church of Rome. The marketing reach of these ads in the first three weeks was 250 million television viewers in over 10,000 U.S. cities throughout the United States. And, here is what Warren had this to say concerning the project: “The mission of Tom Peterson and Catholics Come Home to bring souls home to Jesus and the church is critically important during this challenging time in our history. I fully support this new evangelization project” (https://fortheloveofhistruth.com/2013/06/18/does-rick-warren-want-you-to-come-home-to-the-catholic-church/). (Again, we see that Rick Warren makes no distinction between Catholics and Christians).
Now, we want to mention parts of a video of an interview from April 10, 2014, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVCY8pW-ACs) with Rick Warren that was conducted by Raymond Arroyo who is the host of a program called “The World Over” which runs weekly on the Eternal Word Television Network. For anyone who is unfamiliar with this channel, it is a global, Catholic Television, Catholic Radio, and Catholic News Network that provides Catholic programming and news coverage from around the world.
The first part we would like to focus on from this interview is Warren’s use of the phrase (3:10 in) “as our new pope” in reference to Pope Frances. This created quite a stir and many people mentioned it on social media. We have previously mentioned in our discussions that the Catholic church has been making a push since Vatican II in 1962 towards bringing the “separated brethren” back home. (But, what we have here with Rick Warren is one example of a “evangelical Christian”, whose church is part of the Southern Baptist Convention, making quite an ecumenical statement. Soon after that statement Warren describes a newspaper article that had the headline, “If you love Pope Francis, you’ll love Jesus.” And, Warren laughs about this, either not caring or not thinking that this is quite disrespectful to Jesus to say the least).
And, going back to the video we see in another segment (13:35) that Warren mentions things that Catholics and Christians agree on such beliefs as the Trinity, Jesus’ resurrection, His death on the cross, hell and heaven. (But, apparently he has no problem with the sacraments, the Bible not being the sole authority as I will discuss more later, purgatory, the mass, and so forth. You know, when they added purgatory and mass, for example, they created “another Jesus” as referred to in 2 Cor. 11:4; one whose death on the cross was not sufficient to pay for our sins. And, Warren says they agree on the Trinity, but when Catholics instruct people to pray to Mary they are indicating a belief in her possessing at least a certain degree of omniscience, otherwise how would she be able to hear the prayers of 1.2 billion people? And, omniscience is a quality of deity alone). Interestingly enough the Catholic site called “The Divine Mercy” states the first prayer directly addressed to the Blessed Virgin Mary, of which we have record, was written in the early 3rd century. https://www.thedivinemercy.org/library/article.php?NID=2859 (Sadly, that shows people have been practicing this form of idolatry for many centuries).
In another segment (19:39) that is quite concerning we learn the Vatican had sent a delegation to Saddleback and Warren was just thrilled about this. (So, we have definitely seen that basically one of the most influential evangelical leaders of our day thinks Catholicism is just another denomination within Christianity).
And, in the last part we want to mention from the video (25:08) we learn he’s an avid fan of EWTN. He and his wife watch the “Chaplet of Divine Mercy” which as far as I understand is nuns repeating prayers over and over. Additionally, Rick Warren has pictures of Mother Teresa and would like to have one of Pope John Paul in his office.
And, then, in Sept. of 2015 Warren announced he would be speaking in Philadelphia later that month at the World Meeting of Families event to commence Pope Francis’ highly anticipated visit to the United States. Warren announced his plans to attend the event during the Sunday morning worship service at Saddleback. “Next month, Pope Francis is coming to America for a world gathering on families,” he told the congregation. ”I’m not a Catholic, and we have many differences with Catholics. But they love the Lord and we have much in common with that – we believe in the Bible, and the Trinity, and in Jesus and the resurrection.” “There are probably going to be a million people in Philadelphia at this final event with Pope Francis, and he’s asked me to be the final speaker,” the Purpose Driven Life author continued amid cheering and applause (http://www.gospelherald.com/articles/57540/20150901/pope-francis-visit-2015-schedule-and-dates-pontiff-invites-rick-warren-to-speak-at-philadelphia-conference-on-family.htm). (Well, sorry, Mr. Warren, but your reasoning is faulty. Let’s just examine his statement about us all believing in the Bible. Anyone who has studied Catholicism’s beliefs about the Bible knows they don’t believe in the Bible alone as the final authority, but they rather place equal importance on traditions). The following statements are from an article at the Catholic culture website: “To begin with, at every Mass, Catholics hear the living, authoritative, and complete word of God proclaimed by Christ's body, the Church. With access to the inseparable triad of Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the Church's magisterium, the faithful Catholic stands firmly on the full gospel — all that Christ wanted us to believe and do (https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=7008). And, just to explain, the Catholic Church’s magisterium is their authority or office to establish teachings. That authority is vested uniquely in the Pope and the bishops, under the premise that they are in communion with the correct and true teachings of the faith which is shown in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (https://www.google.com/search?q=Church%27s+magisterium&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-1-ab)
And, then, on Sept. 14, 2017, an article was published entitled, “In Orange County, bishop and pastor model Catholic/Evangelical ties.” Here are some statements from it: “Ties between Evangelicals and Catholics in America come in all shapes and sizes, with one of the most striking flowering in Orange County, California, and a friendship and partnership between Bishop Kevin Vann and famed Evangelical pastor Rick Warren.
Warren: Since I moved to Orange County in 1980, I’ve known each of the previous Bishops of Orange, but Bishop Kevin and I became dear friends very quickly.
Vann: In the months and years that followed, I discovered the blessing of sharing the concerns of ministry with Rick, talking about our homilies and what we were both studying, and praying together. Also, Rick’s staff at Saddleback and our staff at the Diocese began to get to know each other through various meetings, sharing not only our common love for the Lord, but also our love for the Church, fellowship, and praying together.
Warren: That’s right. First, we committed to pray for each other, then we began to pray with each other. Prayer builds bridges from heart to heart (https://cruxnow.com/interviews/2017/09/14/orange-county-bishop-pastor-model-catholicevangelical-ties/). (Well, as I said earlier about Warren’s friendship with Catholic priest Jonathan Morris, the Bible tells us to remain separate. With these examples of Warren’s ecumenical ties with Catholics, along with his global work through his P.E.A.C.E plan, we can just imagine that millions of people have been influenced to believe that we are all one body when nothing could be further from the truth).
Now, I would like to give some examples of Warren’s interfaith activities:
This information is from an article at the Christian Post dated November 23, 2007 entitled “Christian Leaders Invite Muslims to Love God, Neighbors Together.” In October (of 2007), 138 Muslim clerics, scholars and intellectuals from all the major sects signed a letter calling for peace between Muslims and Christians. The letter entitled, "A Common Word Between Us and You," urged followers of the two faiths to find "common ground" and not simply just for "polite ecumenical dialogue" between certain religious leaders.
Christian leaders across denominational lines responded to the unprecedented open letter with one of those leaders being Rick Warren (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10210101992681054&set=p.10210101992681054&type=3&theater). The Christian signatories said they "share the sentiments" of the Muslim leaders who pointed out that Muslims and Christians make up over half of the world's population and therefore true peace cannot occur as long as conflict persists between the two religious communities.
"Peaceful relations between Muslims and Christians stand as one of the central challenges of this century, and perhaps of the whole present epoch," wrote the Christian leaders. "If we can achieve religious peace between these two religious communities, peace in the world will clearly be easier to attain." (https://www.christianpost.com/news/christian-leaders-invite-muslims-to-love-god-neighbors-together-30194/) (You know, I just do not understand how any supposed Christian leader can believe there is any common ground between Christianity and idolatry. And, practicing idolatry is exactly what anyone who worships any god besides the One True God of the Bible is doing).
And, then, we have Warren’s prayer at Barack Obama’s first inauguration held on January 20, 2009. In his prayer Warren referenced Deut. 6:4 from the NASB, "Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God. The Lord is One." The very next thing he said was, “And you are the compassionate and merciful one.” I googled this phrase in scripture. I found that Ps. 145:8 in the NET Bible translation says, “The LORD is merciful and compassionate.” Now that is close, but it’s not exact. However, in the Koran the exact phrase, “The compassionate and merciful one” is used. In fact, of the 114 chapters in the Koran, 113 of them begin by describing Allah as “The compassionate and merciful one.”
Then, towards the end of the prayer, Warren says this: “I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life, Yeshua, Isa, Jesus [Spanish pronunciation], Jesus, who taught us to pray.” “Isa” is used in the Koran in reference to an alleged Palestinian prophet who is not the Son of God and did not die on the cross for the sins of the world. According to millions of Muslims, he will return to renounce Christianity, destroy all crosses, support the mass murder of Jews and forcibly convert the world to Islam (https://www.goodfight.org/articles/commentaries-teachings/rick-warren-ecumenical-idolatry/). (So, Warren is supposedly praying in the name of Jesus, but also says Isa as if this is another name for Jesus. However, Muslims do not believe God has a son as noted in several of their suras. For example, Sura 4:171 in the Koran says, “Believe in Allah and say not ‘Trinity.’ Cease! It is better for you! Allah is only One God. Far is it removed from his transcendent majesty that he should have a son.” Warren is truly praying to a god of his own imagination here and this should have discredited him completely).
Additionally, in July of 2009, while speaking to a crowd of nearly 8,000 Muslims at the Islamic Society of North America’s annual convention in Washington D.C., Warren called on Muslims and Christians to form an interfaith coalition to combat prejudice and stereotypes. Armed with four ideas for action, Warren called on the two groups to work together to create respect, restore civility to civilization, promote peace and tackle major world problems. “I am not interested in interfaith dialogue, I am interested in interfaith projects,” Warren said. “Talk is very cheap.” (https://www.ocregister.com/2009/07/04/rick-warren-calls-on-muslims-and-christians-to-work-together/) (We’ve talked about this before in other discussions, concerning joining up with members of religions on social issues. The problem with a believer working with members of other religions on such issues is that as they work together they begin to become more accepting of the other people and eventually think, “Oh, these are nice people. Surely God won’t send them to hell. ”)
And, moving along, on Nov. 17-19 of 2014, Warren attended a conference at the Vatican entitled “The Complementarity of Man and Woman: An International Colloquium.” He was among 30 global religious leaders examining the changing roles of marriage and family in the world. He spoke on the “Biblical Meaning of Marriage” which might sound good to some people except that he made the following odd statement. He said, “It’s great to be with leaders from different streams of Christianity from all over the world. Although we have some differences, we all love Jesus Christ and we all want marriages and families to be healthy and strong.” (His statement about all loving Jesus Christ doesn’t make any sense because 14 different religions were represented and all of those don’t even acknowledge Jesus Christ except as a prophet or teacher. And, then, there are not different streams of Christianity. Eph. 4:4-6 says, “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all”). One article said that the focus of the conference was on the meaning of marriage around the globe, and God’s plan, as understood by religions around the globe (https://www.ocregister.com/2014/11/18/pastor-rick-warren-speaks-at-vatican-conference-on-family-marriage/) (Well, religions around the globe do not all believe in and serve the One, True God, and as believers we should not have any interest in learning about other religious traditions concerning marriage).
Sister Tammy, would you like to close out the discussion by sharing the information you have concerning Rick Warren’s Daniel Plan?
I want to discuss Rick Warren’s Daniel Plan for a few moments. This article is from Lighthouse Trails and was written by Warren B. Smith. He was in new age for many years and has written several books trying to warn Christians about these beliefs. The article has this to say: “Who would have believed it? Occult/New Age doctors being invited into the church to teach Christians how to be healthy? On January 15, 2011 a fifty-two week health and wellness program—the Daniel Plan—was initiated at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church. More than six thousand people attended the well promoted and carefully staged event. Warren took the opportunity to announce that his own personal goal was to lose 90 pounds in 2011. The Daniel Plan website states that “the Daniel Plan envisions starting a movement so the result is better physical and spiritual health for current and future generations.” It describes how Rick Warren “recruited three best-selling authors” to create and oversee the Daniel Plan Curriculum—Dr. Mehmet Oz, Dr. Daniel Amen, and Dr. Mark Hyman.
Although these three physicians are all involved with New Age teachings, they describe themselves respectively as a Muslim, a Christian, and a Jew. And even though the website made sure to state that “These Doctors are helping us as friends, but are in no way advising our church on spiritual matters,” a true Christian pastor would not be promoting these men because all three physicians are alternative medicine/holistic health practitioners who teach the indivisibility of “mind, body, spirit” in achieving optimum well-being. In other words, their New Age spiritual beliefs are necessarily embedded in their medical practice, their best-selling books, and their public appearances.
Dr. Mehmet Oz is the cardiovascular surgeon who was featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show for five years before gaining his own popular daytime TV show. He also has a daily talk show on Oprah & Friends satellite radio and writes columns for several magazines including Oprah’s O Magazine. Operating out of Columbia University’s Presbyterian Hospital, Dr. Oz is like a modern-day shaman as he mixes traditional medicine with a wide variety of occult/New Age practices. Dr. Oz’s New Age affinity for psychics, spirit guides, past lives, and contacting the dead was showcased on his March 15, 2011 program—jus
just two months after the launch of the Daniel Plan—titled, “Psychic Mediums: Are they the New Therapists?” The promo on his website read: “Can talking to lost loved ones heal your grief? Hear why psychic John Edward believes you can talk to the dead.” On a January 6, 2010 Dr. Oz show, Dr. Oz revealed what he believed to be “the most important alternative medicine treatment” for his viewers in that coming year. His #1 “Oz’s Order” was to “Try Reiki”—an occult bodywork practice that incorporates the channeled guidance of spirit guides. Dr. Oz was reported in one press release as stating: “Reiki is one of my favorites, we’ve been using it for years in the Oz family, and we swear by it.” On a video on Dr. Oz’s website, New Age leader Deepak Chopra teaches viewers how to meditate. Dr. Oz is a personal practitioner of Transcendental Meditation. He has also practiced Yoga for over twenty years.
Dr. Daniel Amen is a child and adolescent psychiatrist, best-selling author, and medical director of the Amen Clinics for Behavioral Medicine. In his book Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, he encourages readers to “Learn and use self-hypnosis and meditation on a daily basis.” In Change Your Brain, Change Your Body, Amen, a self-professed Christian, specifically recommends a Hindu Kundalini form of meditation called Kirtan Kriya. He instructs his readers to chant “sa ta na ma” repeatedly while simultaneously doing repetitive finger movements.
Dr. Mark Hyman is the chairman of the Institute of Functional Medicine and author of the best-selling book The UltraMind Solution. With its front cover endorsement by Dr. Oz, The UltraMind Solution offers practical medical advice while at the same time recommending a number of New Age resources to his readers. For example, he recommends the website of New Age author and guided imagery proponent Belleruth Naparstek. Her books and materials are designed to help people meditate, become more psychic, and connect with spirit guides. Like Dr. Oz and Dr. Amen, Dr. Hyman recommends meditation and yoga to his readers. https://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=11628 (How can people think this is something God initiated because it is not. We can quite clearly conclude this is of the evil one and it is to be avoided. So, I would just like to leave it there, sister Connie, if that’s all right with you?)