Day Twenty-One - Protecting Your Church
With this Day 21 Mr. Warren brings to a close his discussion of what he considers to be the second purpose of human life - to be a member of a church. In the prior six Days Mr. Warren made it very clear that he considers the church as more important than the family or the individual. Since “membership” in a church nowadays technically consists of becoming a member of a state-created corporation, Mr. Warren does not venture into the realm of discussing the relative status of church and state. Bypassing such discussion altogether, he nevertheless insists that church “membership” is of paramount importance. For him, the church - as opposed to the family - is the “place to belong.” The family at the dawn of the 21st Century is in a state of deep crisis. Individuals increasingly fail to realize within their families a “place to belong.” Rather than to sound the alarm and work to repair the family, Mr. Warren puts his effort into directing people away from their families and into the church instead. He even has put great effort into transforming the term family so that people will come to think of the church as the “family of God.”
The focus of the current chapter is on preserving the “unity” of the church. Mr. Warren acknowledges that this is a difficult undertaking. He told us on page 118, in the opening day of his discussion of the church, that the church is “…a much stronger union, a more permanent bond, than blood relationships.” But that was when it was his concern to argue for the priority of the church over the family. Now that it is his concern to argue for the “unity” of the church, he paints a much different picture. He acknowledges now, on page 162, that “People become disillusioned with the church for many understandable reasons. The list could be quite long: conflict, hurt, hypocrisy, neglect, pettiness, legalism, and other sins.” In what follows, Mr. Warren elaborates what he terms “practical advice” of the Bible in preserving the “unity” of the church amid these acknowledged problems. The first thing to note here is that he launches forth into a discussion of preserving “unity” without bothering to expound upon the nature of “unity”. He tells us that unity “…is the essence, the core, of how God intends for us to experience life together in his church.” (p. 160) But he is rather nebulous in describing this “essence.” He says, “As believers we share one Lord, one body, one purpose, one Father, one Spirit, one hope, one faith, one baptism, and one love.” (p. 161) He affixes a footnote citing a number of Scripture texts to document his list. But none of this is incorporated into his text and all of this is glossed over as his discussion rather quickly turns to, “But for unity’s sake we must never let differences divide us.” (p. 161)
What makes a church really a church? Of what does the unity of the church consist? Mr. Warren exhibits not the slightest curiosity concerning such questions and is no help at all in exploring them. The first of what he calls the Bible’s “advice” is to, “Focus on what we have in common, not our differences.” (p. 161) In this statement Mr. Warren seems completely oblivious of the factors that allow him to speak of “we” and “our.” What makes the church distinct from the mass of the human population generally? If any localized group of people begin to meet together at regular intervals, is this automatically a “church”? If not, why not? If not, then what is needed above and beyond the bare fact of congregation in order for there to be a “church”? Again, in his initial discussion on page 118 Mr. Warren expresses a view of these things. He says, “Every human being was created by God, but not everyone is a child of God …When we place our faith in Christ, God becomes our Father, we become his children, other believers become our brothers and sisters, and the church becomes our spiritual family.” The theological problems inherent in such an analysis already were discussed in our commentary on Day 15. For our purposes here it is interesting to note that Mr. Warren appears to acknowledge that there is a sharp distinction between the church and the world generally. A group of people constitutes a “church” in that they are fellow “believers.” But again, is it the mere fact that something is believed that makes one a “believer”? Here is where Mr. Warren’s analysis fizzles. He feels that it is important for us to follow the Bible’s “advice,” however, he never has explained why the Bible has any more authority than thoughts that “all by themselves” arise in the human mind.
In reality the Bible is the eternal Word of God, our Creator, Judge, and Redeemer. As His creatures, we are obligated to devote ourselves entirely to the content of this Word. Those who confess the truth of this Word as the Word of their Creator, Judge, and Redeemer are “believers” in that they believe the particular content of this teaching. Those who deny the Bible are “unbelievers.” Everyone - even the atheist - believes something. Everyone - even the most thorough secularist - harbors some kind of faith. Everyone is a “believer” from some perspective or other. The Christian employs the terms believer and unbeliever from the particular perspective of Christian doctrine. It is the assembly of those who profess belief in the sense of Christian doctrine that constitutes a church. The “unity” of the church consists in the communion of individuals as they share a particular content of belief. Paul was very specific about the nature of unity, as we see clearly in Ephesians 4:4-6, one of the texts to which Mr. Warren alluded, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.” One Lord, one faith, one baptism. We are united by the God who calls us. We are united by our common faith - our confession of who God is as the invisible, eternal, infinite Creator of all reality - our confession of who Man is as the creature made in the image of God and fallen into sin - our confession of God’s determination to judge sin and His determination to judge the sins of His people in the death of Christ, His only begotten Son, who was buried and rose again on the third day and ascended to the right hand of the Father in heaven - our confession of the Spirit, who was sent to dwell within us to comfort us, to empower us, to help us to pray, and to bring to our remembrance all that Christ taught. We are united by our common practice of baptism and the Lord’s supper.
These are the things that establish our identity as a people. These are the things that mark us out as “we” verses the mass of humanity generally. Christian doctrine constitutes a difference between the church and the world. For the sake of Christian unity we must let such differences divide us from the world. Mr. Warren evidently would acknowledge this much. However, it seems that he fails to acknowledge that occasionally, for the sake of truly Christian unity, it is necessary for differences to divide those who nominally are within the “church.” God’s truth is determined by God. We know this truth because we have His Word to us. Those who confess this truth are “believers” and those who deny this truth are “unbelievers,” and this is the case whether or not a particular individual nominally is part of a “church” or claims to be a Christian. Mr. Warren seems to espouse the view that once a “church” is identified, its “unity” is inviolate and must never be disturbed by any conflict or controversy. If his view had been the prevailing view throughout church history, there never would have been a Reformation of the church in the 16th Century. Mr. Warren wishes to grasp Christian Orthodoxy sufficiently to distinguish “church” from “world,” but his grasp is not sufficient to distinguish within “church” those who are faithful from those who are apostate. There are particular things that establish us as “us,” and when we no longer share those things in common, we no longer are “us” in a truly Christian sense. We have as much duty to separate from apostate “Christians” who may inhabit the “church” as we have to separate from the world.
Mr. Warren cites a number of verses from Romans chapter 14 in order to make his case that biblical “advice” is never to criticize anyone in the church. He omits consideration of quite a number of other texts, and so his presentation cannot be comprehensive or systematic. In his epistles to the Corinthians Paul’s concern was a little different than in his epistle to the Romans. In the Corinthians Paul dealt with very serious cases of sin in the church and he severely rebuked them for their failure to criticize. In I Corinthians 5:3 Paul states clearly that he has “judged” the one fallen into sin. The Greek term is krino, derived from krisis, from which we get our English term criticize. It is the same word that is used in Romans 14:3, 4, 10, and 13. Paul went on in this chapter to admonish them, “I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he should be an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler - not even to eat with such a one.” (v. 11) He wonders at their failure to criticize, “Do you not judge those who are within the church?” (v. 12) Urging them to be faithful in this responsibility, he elaborates, “Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, matters of this life?” (6:3) Elsewhere he invites the wise to judge what he is saying (10:15), and to judge for themselves concerning head-coverings (11:13). Also, Paul exhorted the Thessalonians, “Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep aloof from every brother who leads an unruly life and not according to the tradition which you received from us…And if anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of that man and do not associate with him, so that he may be put to shame. And yet do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.” (II Thes. 3:6, 14-15) Even as Paul closes his epistle to the Romans he is concerned to leave them with a similar warning, “Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them.” (Rom. 16:17)
The texts from Romans chapter 14 that Mr. Warren relies upon clearly involve the treatment of those who are weak in their faith regarding convictions of diet or observances of days, as the first verse of the chapter plainly indicates, “Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions.” There is a big difference between one whose weakness will not allow him to eat meat or drink wine and one who spreads a teaching that everyone must hold to the diet he prescribes. In Romans chapter 14 Paul urges that we must not upset the faith of a weaker brother by ridicule of his weakness, and in chapter 16 he urges that we must not allow those with a contrary teaching to make a dissension or hindrance. It takes discernment or judgment (krino, krisis) to know when it is appropriate to forbear with grace and when it is a shirking of responsibility to forbear. At times it is our grave spiritual duty to judge and to ostracize. Our failure to do so causes as much real damage to the true Christian unity of the church as does unwarranted criticism. Categorically dismissing all criticism as wrong is a huge failure to discern the systematic teaching of the Bible.
There appears to be an instinct within Mr. Warren that his first blush on the matter of criticism cannot stand on its own. On page 164 he states most forcefully, “It’s the Devil’s job to blame, complain, and criticize members of God’s family. Anytime we do the same, we’re being duped into doing Satan’s work for him.” This is a very serious charge he brings against those who criticize. Such an outlook makes it very easy for Mr. Warren to deal with criticisms such as this present commentary. As he would construct reality, all criticism is of the Devil. However, on the facing page he already has moved on to another discussion that takes him into much different waters. On page 165 he takes up the matter of “conflict resolution.” He sets out the procedure given in Matthew 18:15-17 for dealing with conflict, and summarizes, “What should you do if the person is still stuck in stubbornness? Jesus says to take it to the church. If the person still refuses to listen after that, you should treat that person like an unbeliever.” The reader has not even turned a page yet after reading Mr. Warren declare that criticism is inherently satanic, but encounters on the facing page Mr. Warren now declaring that if someone will not listen to your criticism, you should treat them like an unbeliever!
There is no wisdom in telling us that we must never criticize and then in the next breath telling us the manner in which we are to pursue criticism. This teaching is gravely lacking in systematic completeness. At its root there is a nebulous idea of “unity” sorely lacking content rather than the solid rock of biblical doctrine. The Bible is brought in after the fact in order to provide some legitimacy to the fuzzy ideals, but in that case it can provide only “advice.” Sound Christian wisdom for the unity of the church will begin with the truth of God’s word concerning the identity of the church and the nature of unity in the communion of truth, and will exercise discernment in the comprehensive and systematic teaching of Scripture concerning forbearance and judgment.
The focus of the current chapter is on preserving the “unity” of the church. Mr. Warren acknowledges that this is a difficult undertaking. He told us on page 118, in the opening day of his discussion of the church, that the church is “…a much stronger union, a more permanent bond, than blood relationships.” But that was when it was his concern to argue for the priority of the church over the family. Now that it is his concern to argue for the “unity” of the church, he paints a much different picture. He acknowledges now, on page 162, that “People become disillusioned with the church for many understandable reasons. The list could be quite long: conflict, hurt, hypocrisy, neglect, pettiness, legalism, and other sins.” In what follows, Mr. Warren elaborates what he terms “practical advice” of the Bible in preserving the “unity” of the church amid these acknowledged problems. The first thing to note here is that he launches forth into a discussion of preserving “unity” without bothering to expound upon the nature of “unity”. He tells us that unity “…is the essence, the core, of how God intends for us to experience life together in his church.” (p. 160) But he is rather nebulous in describing this “essence.” He says, “As believers we share one Lord, one body, one purpose, one Father, one Spirit, one hope, one faith, one baptism, and one love.” (p. 161) He affixes a footnote citing a number of Scripture texts to document his list. But none of this is incorporated into his text and all of this is glossed over as his discussion rather quickly turns to, “But for unity’s sake we must never let differences divide us.” (p. 161)
What makes a church really a church? Of what does the unity of the church consist? Mr. Warren exhibits not the slightest curiosity concerning such questions and is no help at all in exploring them. The first of what he calls the Bible’s “advice” is to, “Focus on what we have in common, not our differences.” (p. 161) In this statement Mr. Warren seems completely oblivious of the factors that allow him to speak of “we” and “our.” What makes the church distinct from the mass of the human population generally? If any localized group of people begin to meet together at regular intervals, is this automatically a “church”? If not, why not? If not, then what is needed above and beyond the bare fact of congregation in order for there to be a “church”? Again, in his initial discussion on page 118 Mr. Warren expresses a view of these things. He says, “Every human being was created by God, but not everyone is a child of God …When we place our faith in Christ, God becomes our Father, we become his children, other believers become our brothers and sisters, and the church becomes our spiritual family.” The theological problems inherent in such an analysis already were discussed in our commentary on Day 15. For our purposes here it is interesting to note that Mr. Warren appears to acknowledge that there is a sharp distinction between the church and the world generally. A group of people constitutes a “church” in that they are fellow “believers.” But again, is it the mere fact that something is believed that makes one a “believer”? Here is where Mr. Warren’s analysis fizzles. He feels that it is important for us to follow the Bible’s “advice,” however, he never has explained why the Bible has any more authority than thoughts that “all by themselves” arise in the human mind.
In reality the Bible is the eternal Word of God, our Creator, Judge, and Redeemer. As His creatures, we are obligated to devote ourselves entirely to the content of this Word. Those who confess the truth of this Word as the Word of their Creator, Judge, and Redeemer are “believers” in that they believe the particular content of this teaching. Those who deny the Bible are “unbelievers.” Everyone - even the atheist - believes something. Everyone - even the most thorough secularist - harbors some kind of faith. Everyone is a “believer” from some perspective or other. The Christian employs the terms believer and unbeliever from the particular perspective of Christian doctrine. It is the assembly of those who profess belief in the sense of Christian doctrine that constitutes a church. The “unity” of the church consists in the communion of individuals as they share a particular content of belief. Paul was very specific about the nature of unity, as we see clearly in Ephesians 4:4-6, one of the texts to which Mr. Warren alluded, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.” One Lord, one faith, one baptism. We are united by the God who calls us. We are united by our common faith - our confession of who God is as the invisible, eternal, infinite Creator of all reality - our confession of who Man is as the creature made in the image of God and fallen into sin - our confession of God’s determination to judge sin and His determination to judge the sins of His people in the death of Christ, His only begotten Son, who was buried and rose again on the third day and ascended to the right hand of the Father in heaven - our confession of the Spirit, who was sent to dwell within us to comfort us, to empower us, to help us to pray, and to bring to our remembrance all that Christ taught. We are united by our common practice of baptism and the Lord’s supper.
These are the things that establish our identity as a people. These are the things that mark us out as “we” verses the mass of humanity generally. Christian doctrine constitutes a difference between the church and the world. For the sake of Christian unity we must let such differences divide us from the world. Mr. Warren evidently would acknowledge this much. However, it seems that he fails to acknowledge that occasionally, for the sake of truly Christian unity, it is necessary for differences to divide those who nominally are within the “church.” God’s truth is determined by God. We know this truth because we have His Word to us. Those who confess this truth are “believers” and those who deny this truth are “unbelievers,” and this is the case whether or not a particular individual nominally is part of a “church” or claims to be a Christian. Mr. Warren seems to espouse the view that once a “church” is identified, its “unity” is inviolate and must never be disturbed by any conflict or controversy. If his view had been the prevailing view throughout church history, there never would have been a Reformation of the church in the 16th Century. Mr. Warren wishes to grasp Christian Orthodoxy sufficiently to distinguish “church” from “world,” but his grasp is not sufficient to distinguish within “church” those who are faithful from those who are apostate. There are particular things that establish us as “us,” and when we no longer share those things in common, we no longer are “us” in a truly Christian sense. We have as much duty to separate from apostate “Christians” who may inhabit the “church” as we have to separate from the world.
Mr. Warren cites a number of verses from Romans chapter 14 in order to make his case that biblical “advice” is never to criticize anyone in the church. He omits consideration of quite a number of other texts, and so his presentation cannot be comprehensive or systematic. In his epistles to the Corinthians Paul’s concern was a little different than in his epistle to the Romans. In the Corinthians Paul dealt with very serious cases of sin in the church and he severely rebuked them for their failure to criticize. In I Corinthians 5:3 Paul states clearly that he has “judged” the one fallen into sin. The Greek term is krino, derived from krisis, from which we get our English term criticize. It is the same word that is used in Romans 14:3, 4, 10, and 13. Paul went on in this chapter to admonish them, “I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he should be an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler - not even to eat with such a one.” (v. 11) He wonders at their failure to criticize, “Do you not judge those who are within the church?” (v. 12) Urging them to be faithful in this responsibility, he elaborates, “Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, matters of this life?” (6:3) Elsewhere he invites the wise to judge what he is saying (10:15), and to judge for themselves concerning head-coverings (11:13). Also, Paul exhorted the Thessalonians, “Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep aloof from every brother who leads an unruly life and not according to the tradition which you received from us…And if anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of that man and do not associate with him, so that he may be put to shame. And yet do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.” (II Thes. 3:6, 14-15) Even as Paul closes his epistle to the Romans he is concerned to leave them with a similar warning, “Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them.” (Rom. 16:17)
The texts from Romans chapter 14 that Mr. Warren relies upon clearly involve the treatment of those who are weak in their faith regarding convictions of diet or observances of days, as the first verse of the chapter plainly indicates, “Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions.” There is a big difference between one whose weakness will not allow him to eat meat or drink wine and one who spreads a teaching that everyone must hold to the diet he prescribes. In Romans chapter 14 Paul urges that we must not upset the faith of a weaker brother by ridicule of his weakness, and in chapter 16 he urges that we must not allow those with a contrary teaching to make a dissension or hindrance. It takes discernment or judgment (krino, krisis) to know when it is appropriate to forbear with grace and when it is a shirking of responsibility to forbear. At times it is our grave spiritual duty to judge and to ostracize. Our failure to do so causes as much real damage to the true Christian unity of the church as does unwarranted criticism. Categorically dismissing all criticism as wrong is a huge failure to discern the systematic teaching of the Bible.
There appears to be an instinct within Mr. Warren that his first blush on the matter of criticism cannot stand on its own. On page 164 he states most forcefully, “It’s the Devil’s job to blame, complain, and criticize members of God’s family. Anytime we do the same, we’re being duped into doing Satan’s work for him.” This is a very serious charge he brings against those who criticize. Such an outlook makes it very easy for Mr. Warren to deal with criticisms such as this present commentary. As he would construct reality, all criticism is of the Devil. However, on the facing page he already has moved on to another discussion that takes him into much different waters. On page 165 he takes up the matter of “conflict resolution.” He sets out the procedure given in Matthew 18:15-17 for dealing with conflict, and summarizes, “What should you do if the person is still stuck in stubbornness? Jesus says to take it to the church. If the person still refuses to listen after that, you should treat that person like an unbeliever.” The reader has not even turned a page yet after reading Mr. Warren declare that criticism is inherently satanic, but encounters on the facing page Mr. Warren now declaring that if someone will not listen to your criticism, you should treat them like an unbeliever!
There is no wisdom in telling us that we must never criticize and then in the next breath telling us the manner in which we are to pursue criticism. This teaching is gravely lacking in systematic completeness. At its root there is a nebulous idea of “unity” sorely lacking content rather than the solid rock of biblical doctrine. The Bible is brought in after the fact in order to provide some legitimacy to the fuzzy ideals, but in that case it can provide only “advice.” Sound Christian wisdom for the unity of the church will begin with the truth of God’s word concerning the identity of the church and the nature of unity in the communion of truth, and will exercise discernment in the comprehensive and systematic teaching of Scripture concerning forbearance and judgment.
posted by S. C. Mooney at 3:13 PM
5 Comments:
Keep writing --- You have readers!
Rick Warren’s gospel is good news for his seeker friendly Harry and Mary looking for and getting feel good positive ego enhancing experiences at market-driven assemblies, and bad news for the children of God who got kicked out of their churches and ridiculed as leaders from hell.
The Holy Scripture’s Gospel of God’s grace is bad news, folly, and an offence for the unregenerate Harry and Mary, and good news for the children of God who were convicted of their sins by the Holy Spirit, repented, and believing with all their hearts turned to Jesus Christ as their crucified, buried, and risen Lord and Savior.
Rick Warren’s church unity means for the believers to conform to his man made church growth program, leave voluntarily, be kicked out, or die.
God’s church unity and growth can only be attained on His own terms as He wills it for men to be obedient to His Word.
Amazing how words can be minced and twisted for the sake of self-glorification. I believe that the book "The Purpose Driven Life" and its content/message was Spirit-led/given/directed for the author to share---its good news! How people can and misconstrue what's being said or shared is incredible! This is the more reason why we should all be sensitive to the Holy Spirit...Be careful in what we say and also in what and how we hear. Protecting your church is an awesome responsibility by every professed believer and must be regarded as such. Unity is what the devil has been after since the beginning of time. He caused division between Adam and Eve and the rest is history...Where there is strife, there's every evil work.
Hi BROG. You say that I have "twisted" and "misconstrued" Mr. Warren's words. Yet you provide no examples of how I have done this. Please do. Also, you claim that I am motivated by "self-glorification." I wonder how you know this? Let's dialog about these things. Please start by providing one example of how I have "twisted" Mr. Warren's words. We can go from there.
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