Posted on 11/21/2006 5:49:44 AM PST by TommyDale
Millions and millions of people have purchased his books.
His California church attracts thousands every Sunday.
He seems to be the go-to guy whenever the establishment, ultra-secular press wants to quote an evangelical leader they like.
I'm talking about Rick Warren, author of "The Purpose Driven Life" and the pastor of the Saddleback Church.
Ever since I first pointed out the way he betrayed the persecuted church and our Jewish brothers and sisters living in captivity in the totalitarian police state of Syria, I have been expecting to get blasted.
Millions and millions of people have purchased his books.
His California church attracts thousands every Sunday.
He seems to be the go-to guy whenever the establishment, ultra-secular press wants to quote an evangelical leader they like.
I'm talking about Rick Warren, author of "The Purpose Driven Life" and the pastor of the Saddleback Church.
Ever since I first pointed out the way he betrayed the persecuted church and our Jewish brothers and sisters living in captivity in the totalitarian police state of Syria, I have been expecting to get blasted.
I thought for sure I would hear from these millions of well-educated, well-informed, biblically astute purpose-driven disciples.
It has been six days. God created the whole universe in that amount of time. And, so far, I haven't heard one cogent argument, apologia or rationalization for Warren's actions by any of his flock.
I'm told he's got one of the best PR machines money can buy. He sure is not getting his money's worth.
On the other hand, I can tell you hundreds of thousands of people are reading my critiques of his misadventures in misguided foreign policy. We can actually count those readers on WND. And they are being spread far and wide in a viral way by e-mailers and bloggers.
Is the strategy now to ignore Farah?
Is the strategy to pretend WND doesn't exist?
Is the strategy to ignore the hard facts presented here about what Rick Warren said and did in Syria and hope the controversy blows over?
I've got news for you. It's not going to blow over. I won't let it.
I demand an apology from Rick Warren – not to me, for heaven's sake, but to Christians in Syria who choose to worship outside the state-approved churches he toured. I demand an apology to the Jews who suffer the humiliating life of dhimmitude in Syria today while Rick Warren tells the world they don't exist.
This is a world I know something about.
It was just about a year ago that my Jerusalem bureau chief, Aaron Klein, was prevented from entering Syria for one reason – he's Jewish!
Funny, I don't remember Rick Warren protesting that action – minor, really, compared to the indignities Jews in Syria live with daily, but well-publicized nonetheless.
Perhaps Rick Warren hasn't seen the Syrian TV show – a big hit in Damascus – that renews the blood libel direct from "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," entertaining millions with a graphic story of a rabbi who slits the throat of a young Christian boy so he can use it to prepare the Passover motzah.
Perhaps Rick Warren hasn't noticed that the Syrian government has published an updated version of the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion," an anti-Semitic story that claims Jews run the world by proxy.
Perhaps Rick Warren is not aware of hundreds of years of genocidal pogroms that have taken place in Syria at the expense of the Jews.
But of course he must know about all these things, because he says he's an avid reader of my column and an expert on the Middle East because of his membership in the Council on Foreign Relations.
Rick Warren thinks it is commendable that Syria has opened its arms to Christians fleeing Iraq. What he doesn't know or doesn't say is that many of those Christians fleeing Iraq are fleeing bullets and bombs and terrorists that have entered Iraq through Syria. He also doesn't explain President Bashar Assad's penchant for keeping his friends close and his enemies closer.
I'm not going to let this matter slide. Not me. Not this Syrian-Lebanese-American Christian journalist. If Rick Warren thinks dialogue with everyone is so great – let the dialogue begin right here. The persecuted church in Syria can't speak for itself. But I will stand with them in answering Rick Warren's lies about their tormentors.
It is not THAT he wears this shirt, it is WHY he wears it.
OK, why does he wear it? (Is this a joke like why the chicken crosses the road? smile)
Well, Dan, do your best to listen sometime. He's got a good message in spite of his 'eye'batting thing. Mxxx
I'm inclined to agree with you jan. We do have to be careful these last days to be careful to whom we listen. He has done much good, I'm sure, but I, for one, need to be careful not to be deceived. It's easy enough to get deceived these days.
That's okay, CM. I have a good friend who only read the Bible as well. Mxxx
We did it too. The celebration was the best part (smile). I enjoyed the book and the sermons, etc. and could see nothing wrong with them. But I'm not always as astute about such things. I just don't see much growth or fruit from those sessions.
2 Timothy 4:3
"For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear."
I have a tendency to be dazzled by some of these folks and need to prayerfully consider all of this. Some of the things said here are disturbing to say the least. I don't want to judge him either because I don't know his heart, but even if he started off doing God's will, we have to make sure he continues to do it and not get off on a tangent. That happens to SO many good Christians.
They tried to peddle that as a defense of some of Bill Clinton's actions, too. When Rick Warren set foot in the political arena, his actions there became subject to a different standard than his actions within the church.
I don't have any problem with RW being accountable to The Body . . . especially those around him.
I notice in the NT, however, that Christ never submitted Himself to the opinions of the religious rulers of his dusty pathed days.
I believe every Christian needs to be accountable to people in their BOC, especially the leadership. What I'm saying is that I need to be sure that leaders do not deceive us. It's easy enough to do these days.
I am very familiar with that scripture and I do my best to avoid people that give me a 'check' in my spirit. I don't feel that with Osteen. He's always blessed my heart with his sermons, especially those on family. He was the reason my son and his wife came back to church and I will always be grateful for that.
The problem is that you are operating based on 'feelings' (i.e., a check in your spirit) rather than a knowledge of what the Word of God says and how that compares to what Osteen says.
"He's always blessed my heart with his sermons, especially those on family."
Nice touchy feely warm and fuzzy.
I'd say you fall squarely into the 2 Tim 4:3 bucket.
http://www.av1611.org/osteen.html
http://www.apprising.org/archives/2005/10/joel_osteen_smi.html
True.
AMEN! AMEN!
Hogwash.
Evidently I know MarySecretary better.
Actually, the point was whether you know Jesus Christ and the Word of God well enough to know an 'itching ears' preacher when you hear one.
Had nothing to do with knowing Marysecretary, but I understand how you might have become confused.
Actually, the point was whether you know Jesus Christ and the Word of God well enough to know an 'itching ears' preacher when you hear one.
Had nothing to do with knowing Marysecretary, but I understand how you might have become confused.
= = =
I'm skeptical that the right person has been labeled confused.
My point was that I'm CERTAIN MarySecretary KNOWS Scripture well more than well enough to know an "itchy ears" preacher when she hears one.
And, her humility is a 2-3 standard deviations higher than the average on such threads.
I provided links to analyses of Osteen's 'itching ears' gospel that refute him using Scripture. I notice you have no answers for those criticisms.
If you are CERTAIN that Marysecretary KNOWS Scripture 'more than well enough' to know an 'itching ears' preacher when she hears one, then there must be some other problem.
That Osteen is an 'itching ears' preacher is well-documented.
I wholesale disagree.
And, I don't think that's God's perspective; nor even a Biblical perspective, either.
Sigen
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