RW–Double Minded on the Reformation and RC!

from apprising ministries

…being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. (James 1:8, NASB)

Is It Any Real Wonder Why People Want To Embrace The Double-Speak Of Postmodernism

From his own mouth you’ll see Purpose Driven Pope Rick Warren speaking as concerning the Protestant Reformation and apostate Roman Catholicism in a way that the Bible refers to as “double-minded.” In Rick Warren Says “Great Spiritual Awakening Coming” here at Apprising Ministries we brought to your attention that not long ago Warren said:

I believe God is preparing the church for another reformation. The first reformation focused on what the church believed; this one will focus on what it does. For too long we’ve separated the Word of God from the work of God. As the church, we’re called to be the body of Christ – the whole body. (Online source)

Warren’s personal position is that he believes the Roman Catholic Church is part of this “whole body”, “The small group structure is the structure of renewal in every facet of Christianity — including Catholicism” (Online source).

A February 5, 2008 article in The Washington Post (WP) describes Rick Warren, one of the most visible Southern Baptists in the world, as:

a megachurch pastor and philanthropist who is courted by political leaders worldwide, says he thinks Christianity needs a “second Reformation” that would steer the church away from divisive politics and be “about deeds, not creeds.”

Speaking today to a group of Washington Post reporters and editors, the evangelical author said he had an “epiphany” in recent years due to his wife’s battle with cancer and the success of his book, “The Purpose Driven Life,” which has sold more than 25 million copies. Humbled and scared, he said he decided to focus on helping the needy and the sick, particularly those with AIDS. (Online source)

Longtime Saddleback member and well-known Christian apologist Richard Abanes fills us in that:

Warren is directly talking about a NEW Reformation that must occur as a follow up to the old reformation, and this new reformation is about deeds, not creeds (established through the First Reformation)… Warren’s intentions might best be put in an basic Q&A format for us to consider:

QUESTION: Why would a Second Reformation be about deeds, but not about creeds?

ANSWER: Because the First Reformation, begun by Martin Luther, was about the creeds (doctrine). Our doctrines were established by the First Reformation. Our deeds must be established by a Second Reformation…

Warren is not saying we should replace or abandon the First Reformation. (Online source)

But Rick Warren’s position on the Roman Catholic Church, which as I mentioned before, was deemed apostate [i.e. no longer Christian] by the Reformers who hammered out those doctrines Warren is supposedly saying we ought not “replace or abandon” with at the risk of their own death is in direct opposition to that of “the First Reformation”:

“Now I don’t agree with everything in everybody’s denomination, including my own. I don’t agree with everything that Catholics do or Pentecostals do, but what binds us together is so much stronger than what divides us,” he said. “I really do feel that these people are brothers and sisters in God’s family. I am looking to build bridges with the Orthodox Church, looking to build bridges with the Catholic Church,….”
(Online source, emphasis mine)

“The Church, in all its expressions—Catholic, Evangelical, Pentecostal, Protestant and many others—has 2.3 billion followers.” (Online source, emphasis mine)

Abanes then tells us out of that other side of his mouth Rick Warren is also saying:

I am calling for a return to nineteenth-century evangelicalism. It’s more muscle and less mouth. It was the evangelicalism of Charles Spurgeon, who started schools and orphanages all around England as well as teaching the Gospel… We figured out the correct beliefs 500 years ago. We got our doctrinal beliefs. Here’s what the Bible says. Sola Scriptura, Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, Soli Deo Gloria. (Online source)

Effete Evangelicals Had Better Be Careful Claiming Real Men Like Spurgeon As Their Own

Really; well below follows Charles Spurgeon and his position of “nineteenth-century evangelicalism” on the Roman Catholic Church:

In these times, when liberality is the only popular virtue, and zeal for truth the cardinal sin, it is worth much to let the public know assuredly that Popery is not the angel of light it professes to be. “Distance lends enchantment to the view;” but, to the rightminded, to see Romanism is to abhor it. It is a system which is as dangerous to human society, as it is hostile to true religion…

The sooner we let certain Archbishops and Cardinals know that we are aware of their designs, and will in nothing co-operate with them, the better for us and our country. Of course, we shall be howled at as bigots, but we can afford to smile at that cry, when it comes from the church which invented the Inquisition. “No peace with Rome” is the motto of reason as well as of religion. (Online source)

Soon after apostolic times there came the old Roman rubbish, which in the end proved a worse hindrance to the gospel than all the errors which had preceded it. This Popish rubbish was found in layers; first one doctrinal error, and then another, and then another, and then another, and then another, until at this time the errors of the Church of Rome are as countless as the stars, as black as midnight, and as foul as hell.

Her abominations reek in the nostrils of allChristian men. Her idolatries are the scorn of reason and the abhorrence of faith. The iniquities of her practice, and the atrociousness of her doctrine, almost surpass belief. As the gospel is the masterpiece of God, “Popery” is the masterpiece of Satan! There can scarcely be imagined anything of devilish craftiness or Satanic wickedness which could be compared with her.

She is the unparalleled queen of iniquity! Behold upon her forehead the name, Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth. The church of Rome and her teachings are a vast mountain of rubbish covering the truth. (sermon on Nehemiah 4:10, “Rubbish” [No. 1156])

So I say again, the question that needs to asked here is: Which Rick Warren are we to believe? The one who says the Church of Rome with their false gospel of grace plus works—which thereby negates grace—is part of the Body of Christ; or should we instead listen to the Rick Warren who tells us, “Our doctrines were established by the First Reformation.” The idea that Roman Catholicism is simply another genuine expression of the faith once for all entrusted to the saints is diametrically opposed to Protestant Reformers like Luther and Calvin who clearly called the Roman Catholic Church apostate (and worse).

…being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. (James 1:8, NASB)

See also:

DR. ROD ROSENBLADT CALLS RICK WARREN’S MAN-CENTERED THEOLOGY “ROMAN CATHOLIC”

REFUTING RICK WARREN

RICK WARREN AND THE PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE DRIVING GOD AWAY