Rick Warren and Barack Obama

He is a change agent for a paradigm shift that has occurred and is occuring throughout the churches in the United States. These churches are taking his philosophies and becoming purpose-driven churches. While he may not preach at all of them, he is having an enormous impact upon them. It is a rare church in my neck of the woods that does not get instruction from Saddleback or Willow Creek.

 

On what basis do you believe this?

 

Warren invited Obama into his pulpit. True

Obama supports killing babies. False

 

It is becoming more and more difficult to identify this as a Baptist discussion forum. I see so-called Baptists excusing, even advocating, the worst that is in us, abortion being the prime example. These are the same Baptists who attend worship services on Sunday morning, sing all the Baptist hymns, attend Sunday School, mid-week prayer services? If there are 25 million Baptists, and only 6 million of them have actually had a born-again experience, then perhaps it is understandable that posters on BaptistBoard.com argue and issue edicts from the flesh. Barak Obama is everything that Linda described. Rick Warren sits in the far left wing of the CBF. I can imagine Rick endorsing Obama, while the rest of us look the other way. Much of what I read in these forums is deplorable -- difficult to understand how those who name the Name above all names should utter such contaminated thoughts. What is the purpose of these boards? Has it been neglected and lost? What are we here for? Is this where two or more gather in His Name? I seriously doubt that He is joyfully in the midst of us. We'd better get back to the basics, folks. This is not a happy place.

raying:

 

The Gospel forgives sin and changes lives. Sounds like you're righteous enough to not need a savior.

 

What evidence do you have to support such a statement? I have heard that he is SBC from his lips.

 

I've not read the Message Bible. However I do know that the author of it taught at one of the most evengelical schools on the continent. So could you point out how it is New Age? Certainly if you know then you can easily show us. The truth is eaily verified by facts and not jargon.

I find a lot of Christinas as misinformed and follow other misinformed folks who follow other misinformed folks without one of them ever giving a thought as scripture suggests--checking to see if those things are so.

 

Then you admit that much of what goes on here is sinful. In fact, then, to continue in it is to practice sin.

This makes my point precisely. It doesn't get much sadder than this.

 

Where are you, Rufus? Being from Texas myself, and serving in several churches down there in the midst of all the hype surrounding PDC and PDL, I have to differ with the statement I bolded above. Maybe in metro areas there are several churches that apply his purposed philosophies, but for every 1 that does there are hundreds or thousands that don't. I have never served in or near a church that studied or used PDC.

 

And just what news source might that be?!

 

I know very little about Rick Warren other than he is new age

Proof of the aphorism that a little knowledge is dangerous.

and a lot of people look up to him because of his best selling book " Purpose Driven Life". So I can't really praise or criticize him , but I noticed that World Net Daily had an article reporting that he invited Barack Obama ( a hard core liberal who supports partial birth abortion) to speak from his pulpit.

Having him speak at a conference on AIDS which the church is hosting (at which he is not the only speaker, nor the only political speaker) is not the same thing as inviting him to "speak from his pulpit." That phrase implies preaching to the congregation on a Sunday, not speaking to conference attendees on a Friday, when the church facility is not being used for divine worship.

The article from WorldNutDaily is a prime example of that service's yellow journalism. Kevin McCullough singles out Barack Obama as the embodiment of evil - probably because McCullough has a particular axe to grind with him - fails to note that the conference is taking place on a weekday, not during Sunday services; and strongly implies that speaking in Saddleback is an implicit endorsement of his supposed 2008 presidential bid. Meanwhile, what he doesn't tell the reader is that Sam Brownback, a socially conservative Republican senator, is also speaking at the same event. That makes the conference bipartisan or nonpartisan. Or is Warren endorsing Brownback's presidential hopes too? In McCullough's world, intellectual dishonesty is apparently preferable to acknowledging evidence that mitigates his conspiracy theory.

 

Reporting agencies not given to exaggeration (the truth tainted with a lie).

 

Saddleback Church is SBC, though Mr. Warren would appear to at times be unsure...

Rick Warren clarifies SBC ties after 'misstatement' in interview

"Pastor Rick Warren told a group of high-profile journalists in May that the 40,000-member church no longer is a member of the Southern Baptist Convention. But he retracted that statement Aug. 20, saying he misspoke."​

"Warren told Associated Baptist Press Aug. 20: "I'm Southern Baptist. Our church is Southern Baptist. And we are a leader in SBC missions support in our state."​

Warren responded: "My father was a Baptist pastor. I grew up in little tiny churches of less than 50 people. I call myself an evangelical. We are - "Haggerty apparently interrupted with another question: "Your church is not a Baptist church?"

Warren responded: "No - it was. In the early years, when we first got started, it was a part of the Southern Baptist Convention. One out of ten churches in America is an SBC church, and the reason the denomination's so big is that every church is totally independent. The denomination has no control over it. So basically we cooperated with them in their missions program, but now we're doing our own missions program."​

 

What exactly is support of abortion, including partial birth abortion, if it is not supporting the killing of babies?

 

I'm in Johnson County. I left a Laodicean Baptist church after becoming born-again. For reasons I won't disclose there was something very wrong with that church. We began church hopping and began to consider that maybe there was something very wrong with many churches. After a year away from churches and studying various issues, I came up with a short list of requirements of a church that my family would fellowship with.

• Christ must be the head of the church and not Caesar, therefore no 501c3
• Hymns, psalms and spiritual songs only
• Modest dress
• AV only
• No freemasons
• And no PDL, PDC

After attending about a dozen churches I decided that was a waste of time and began calling them instead. I called approximately 50 churches (mostly Baptist) and only about 3-4 met the above criteria and they failed on secondary criteria after attending. I don't remember what the % was but many of the churches I called were PDL/PDC. I even went to one where the pastor assured me that it wasn't a big part of their church yet when we went to the Sunday School class they were teaching lessons from Saddleback educational material. The church that is about 200 yards from me is a Willow Creek franchise / satellite church. Perhaps I am more sensitive to the issue, but it seems quite prevalent in my area.

 

Interesting, I didn't know there was a Laodicea, Texas.... Hmmm

I take, it you believe the seven churches are church ages?


Oh, I get it. The church you left had some qualities that the real Laodicean church had....

It must be nice to think you found the perfect church....

Revelation 3:17-18
(17) Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
(18) I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and [that] the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

• Christ must be the head of the church and not Caesar, therefore no 501c3
• Hymns, psalms and spiritual songs only
• Modest dress
• AV only
• No freemasons
• And no PDL, PDC

Blind but think they can see.... have no need...
I am glad you have found that perfect church

NO wonder you can't see the early church was purpose driven....
They purposed themselves to worship, evangelize, fellowship, minster, and disciple....

Oh, the early church didn't have a AV either,
But of course since we don't want to be Laodicean, we won't act like the church in Acts...

 

Since you find that so many of us here are not up to your holy standards, feel free to LEAVE anytime you want! :tongue3:

 

I noticed that no one has bothered to answer this post; I guess Rufus1611 and dispen4ever don't have an answer. This indicates that they don't care about the whole truth, only the parts that suit them.

 

Typical of those in the last days who are convinced of their own ways.

 

I agree. Those who accuse RW of being a wolf in sheep's clothing are the hungry pack of wolves, IMO.