Hey Gang,I remember that my OLD Friends fell off when I got saved....1 Peter 4:4 Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you: AND 1 John 3:14 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. But being friendly and being PALS seem vastly different.
Guess you got me there.
This is the first time I have gotten into a thread about him alone, especially one with a title that is a blatant lie.
This is the first time I have dealt with Rick Warren in relation to sin, that is for sure.
The bottom line still stands.
I listened to the first sermon about him Easter morning, and the title of your thread is totally false.
I have plenty in common with Rick Warren since he believes the Bible.
Since you seem to have a hobby pointing out differences, just what is it that you believe?
So your defintion of world only means sinful men?
World always means world, but world doesn't mean sinners, but the entire sinful system in the world..
The Bible says nothing about the legal definition of the marriage. Come to think of it, the Bible is pretty much silent on most legal issues in regards to what should or should not be legislated.
As for Warren, anyone who claims that Rick Warren doesn't preach about sin is an idiot.
Rick Warren preaches frequently and deeply about sin, and does so without reservation.
Thoe rock throwers remind me of the pharisees of Jesus' day, who, upon seeing Jesus eat and drink with sinners, called him a glutton and drunkard.
Yeah...he did a great job of that at the Muslim convention, didn't he?
Rick Warren used to do a better job than he's doing now. Unfortunatley it seems that he's all about "everyone working together" to combat world hunger and such. That's great and all, but he's compromising the faith to get there.
To compare Rick Warren to Jesus is a bit of a stretch, don't you think? Do you really think that Jesus, like Rick Warren, sat with the sinners and didn't bother to tell them the Gospel message?
Jesus response to the pharisees was, "I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."
Obviously Jesus was telling the sinners how to repent and come to a saving faith in Him. Warren goes to the Muslim convention and talks about working together and doesn't once present the Gospel. Big difference.
I wasn't compasing Warren to Jesus.
I was comparing common criticisms of Warren to the pharisees who accused Jesus of drunkenness and gluttony.
In the accounts of scripture where Jesus did so, he shared the Gospel when asked.
He didn't simply come into a dinner party, sit down, and start spouting the gospel.
One thing to note on Jesus and dining with sinners.
We need to remember the cultural significance of the day.
The religious elite did not consider harlots, tax collectors, and the like to be equal to them.
The act of dining with someone in Jesus day ws the cultural equivalent of calling them your equal.
So, by dining with them, Jesus was calling the sinners his equal.
That's the important significant, and that's exactly what Warren is doing.
Warren is out for himself. He wants to make a name for himself so he tries to please everyone even if it means compromising the bible to do it. Luke 6:26, "Woe to you when all men think well of you for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets."
Mk. 1017-21, "As He was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to Him and knelt before Him, and asked Him, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"
And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.
"You know the commandments, `Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.' " And he said to Him, "Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up."
Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, "One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me."
You couldn't be further from the truth. Jesus says in Mk. 10:6, "But at the beginning of creation, God made them male and female . For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh."
Jesus makes it clear that:
1) A wife is female and a husband is male
2) That God created marriage to be between a male and female who are bound to each other as long as the other one lives.
Earthly marriage is a copy of our union and relationship with God. That's why believers are called the "bride of Christ". That's why God called it adultery when Israel turned away from God to worship foreign "gods." God also calls Judah and Israel two sisters so He makes it clear that a bride is a woman.
You're referring to the scriptural definition of marriage, which is a covenant, not the legal definition of marriage which is nothing more than a legal contract. Two separate things. Scripture tends to be rather silent on most legal issues in regards to what should or should not be legislated. It is abundant, however, on what is morally right and wrong.
There's a fair amount of subjectivity there. That could be said of any pastor or preacher that is nationally renowned, and often is.
In regards to this specific topic, which claims that Warran has an agenda that doesn't include preaching on sin, it's a bit simplistic.
Warren has plenty of sermons that preach on sin in abundance, so it can't be said he doesn't preach on sin.
Further, preaching the whole gospel requires preaching on sin, forgiveness, charity, faithfulness, righteousness, humility, worthiness, love, hope, and the list goes on.
You can point to just about any notable preacher and say that so-and-so doesn't preach on fill-in-the-blank, and the statement will technically true.
I once had a person on this very board tell me I wasn't preaching the Gospel if I wasn't street-preaching and door-knocking.
What that person failed to comprehend was that we're all called to share the gospel according to our specific gifts and calling.
Just because isn't sharing the gospel the way someone else is, that doesn't mean he isn't sharing the gospel.
It would be preferable if you used communication skills involving respectful discussion, rather than infantile invectives.