Rick Warren calls dissenting Christians fake

Help grow my megachurch or leave!

By Donald Hank

I was recently surprised to read that Rick Warren is calling other Christians fake and calling for phony Christians to leave his church. He is targeting in particular those who fail to help his multimillion dollar Saddleback megachurch grow. Is the narrow way passé for the finger-pointing pastor?

A country preacher at a church I once attended used to say "when you point the finger of blame you have three fingers pointing right back at you."

How about a pastor helping a Marxist get elected?

How about a pastor being unequally yoked with non-believers who deny Christ? Wouldn't that be fake Christianity? Rick has been yoked with the Left and Islam for some time now despite Paul's explicit command:

"Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness?" (2 Cor. 6:14).

Rick seems to have his own personal definition of "Christianity" and it doesn't look quite the same as the Apostle Paul's.

So who's a fake?

Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. (Matt. 7:5).

The "Christian" Left, hordes of sheep-like socialist heretics led by charismatic fanatics, almost completely took over Europe at various times in the 13th and 14th centuries. Even after they were largely subdued, they clung to their utopian fantasies and the last one of their line, Wilhelm Weitling, met and influenced Karl Marx. Charismatic leaders like Dolcino in Italy and Thomas Müntzer in Germany, condemned other Christians as fakes, preaching that all property must be held in common and strictly forbidding all private ownership of anything. They plundered, killed, maimed, destroyed and looted churches and waged war against all who stood in their way, conquering vast territories and forcing concessions from powerful princes and popes before finally being overthrown. They were convinced that they were right, based on a cursory knowledge of certain verses of the Bible, and that they were Christ's avengers, based on nocturnal dreams.

Yet nowhere do we read that Jesus or the early Christians had urged Christ's followers to force others to live by their rules.

Jesus flatly rejected the socialists of his day, in so many words telling them to get lost when they dunned Him to initiate a free lunch program.

The socialist heretics had their way in Europe sporadically for about 2 centuries, and then faded away. Their modern day counterparts will do likewise.

But not before causing untold hardship and leading hordes of foolish, gullible souls to perdition.

Further reading:

http://www.zimbio.com/Rick+Warren+and+Seeker+Sensitive/articles/72/James+Sundquist+statement+Rick+Warrens+invitation

http://www.amazon.com/Whos-Driving-Purpose-Driven-Church/dp/0974476455

© Donald Hank