[fortheDeclaration]

The unity issue will be resolved in the end times with the church (all true believers) being removed.

Then a false unity will occur with the growth of a great ecumenical church, headquartered in Rome (Rev.17)

[Quix]

imho:

I don't believe that The Lord is going to wait until that point to squeeze all of our cheeky egos onto the Rapture bus.

He WILL HAVE a Bride without spot or wrinkle or unfitting disunity WELL BEFORE THEN. I just don't know how. I'm not saying it will be a LONG TIME BEFORE then. But I do believe it will be before then.

I suspect it will be some sort of emphasis on the unity in HIS BLOOD and in HIS SPIRIT. And that if that level and focus and priority of unity IN HIM is not submitted to, then folks will be at great risk for being OUTSIDE THE CAMP.

Pettiness will NOT be tolerated in the final analysis. It will NOT be the case of

Yes, Jesus YOU ARE LORD of my life

. . . EXCEPT IN THIS TINY LITTLE AREA OF PETTINESS WHICH REALLY CONSUMES ALL MY EGO, INTENSITIES, COMPULSIONS, EMOTIONS, OUTRAGE, SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS, PAROCHIAL-NESS, ARROGANCE, SELF-ISHNESS AND PRISSYNESS.

The Lord is not about to allow such stuff on the Rapture bus.

[RobRoy]

I was so troubled by this bashing of this book that I emailed my pastor with this thread. Here was his response:

In the 40 years that I have been a Christian I have seen and read
critical reports of every new ministry that has come on the scene.
That includes Billy Graham, Promise Keepers,MOPS, Awana and you name
it.
My response has always been to study the reports and see if there is
any real merit to what they are saying and then decide for myself. If I
believe it is totally heretical I reject it but if not I don't want to
through the baby out with the bath water.
The criticism of Rick Warren has to do largely with his use of modern
paraphrases to support his 5 purposes for God creating you.
I am bothered by his use of modern paraphrases for they take too
much liberty with the text. Rick wants so much for the unchurched to
come to Christ that he wants to be sure that they can understand the
Bible. I appreciate his heart on this and can't really fault him for
it.
The reason that I can't fault him is because the 5 Purposes For Your
Life is easily demonstrated from other Scriptures that are found in
standard translations. I have taught those 5 purposes for years but
have never used a paraphrase to do it with therefore I had no problem
leading our church through them this last year.
Secondly, I believe that he often gives a rather anemic presentation
of the Gospel. Again, I know that he really believes in the Gospel but
has not dealt with some of the issues that I am talking about on
sundays.He is like all preachers (myself included) in that he needs to
keep growing spiritually in all aspects of his faith. I want to give
him the freedom to do just that.
Much of the criticism of him and his ministry is unfair and often
unkind. He is no where close to being a heretic as some have said.
The doctrinal statement of his church is right on and evangelically
solid.
When I first read some of the criticism leveled at him I was
surprised how often the criticizers quoted scripture out of context in
order to rebut something that he said in his book.
Whenever I see that happen that person's credibility dies with me.