LTRP #5: "The article did not mention things like Rick Warren's goal to bring about a new reformation that includes all religions, his continued promotion and embracing of contemplative spirituality and the emerging church, his dominionist views as well as his disregard for biblical prophecy, the cruel treatment by Purpose Driven pastors towards those who do not go along with the program, and his connections to and influence by New Age sympathizers like Ken Blanchard and Robert Schuller" (Warren on ABC Nightline—ABC Misses the Mark: Rick Warren and Purpose-Driven Strife).
RESPONSE: Is remains utterly amazing to me that LTRP would keep repeating ad infinitum these same disproved lies. It is tragic. I will deal with the red highlighted points one by one.

Warren's so-called "New Reformation" has nothing to do with incorporating "all religions" into Christianity (which is the implication being made by LTRP). It is a Second Reformation that is meant to bring life to the social-related commands of of scripture found in James 1:27 ("Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world") and James 2:14-17 ("What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead").

It is to be a reformation of deeds, rather than creeds. Why? Because the First Reformation was about creeds/doctrine. It is Warren's hope to now match up the right beliefs of Christianity in the heart with the right actions of Christianity in the world. He is NOT saying that we need to get rid of the creeds and replace them with deeds.  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). Anyone should be able to discern this (especially if they are a discernment ministry as LTRP claims to be). Warren's intentions are most simply put in an basic Q&A format:


Warren is not saying we should replace or abandon the First Reformation. He is merely stating the obvious: we have been woefully negligent, in his opinion, when it comes to alleviating human suffering on a large scale. So, he feels we need a Second Reformation of deeds. That is what the P.E.A.C.E. Plan is about, and that is why he is calling it a Second Reformation. Other religions come into play only insofar as they are willing to assist and join with Christians in helping alleviate the suffering of the masses. His explanation of this issue was laid out very clearly during my interview with him, which appeared in my book Rick Warren and the Purpose that Dives Him:


Regarding contemplative spirituality, see my lengthy section on "Contemplative Prayer" in the article Lighthouse Trails: Walking In Darkness.

Concerning the emerging church, see my lengthy section titled "The Purpose Driven Life and Rick Warren" (under LTRP #1 response) in the article Lighthouse Trails: Walking In Darkness.

As for Warren's so-called dominionist views, this charge is nothing short of absurd. The dominionist view (a.k.a. Dominion Theology) asserts that the earth should be ruled as a theocracy prior to Christ's second coming. Christians who hold to this view fall into two camps: Christian Reconstructionists and Kingdom Now Theology proponents (see these off-site articles for more information, #1, #2, #3). Warren falls in neither camp. He teaches the exact same eschatology (or doctrine of future things) that would be taught in many evangelical churches: i.e., the pre-millennial, pre-tribulational rapture view of the end-times (standard for a Southern Baptist church). In fact, the pre-millennial, pre-tribulational rapture view of the end-times is not just casually accepted throughout the church, but it is taught in the FOUNDATIONS maturity course of doctrinal teachings for members of Saddleback.

With regard to Warren's so-called disregard for biblical prophecy, this too, is false. Warren has never disregarded biblical prophecy. He has only issued warnings to people about becoming overly preoccupied with biblical prophecy, as follows:

Today there's a growing interest in the second coming of Christ and the end of the world. When will it happen? Just before Jesus ascended to heaven the disciples asked him the same question, and his response was quite revealing. He said, "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." When the disciples wanted to talk about prophecy, Jesus quickly switched the conversation to evangelism. He wanted them to concentrate on their mission to the world. He said in essence, "The details of my return are none of your business. What is your business is the mission I have given you. Focus on that!" Speculating on the exact timing of Christ's return is futile, because Jesus said, "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." Since Jesus said he didn't know the day or hour, why should you try to figure it out" What we do know for sure is this: Jesus will not return until everyone God wants to hear the Good New has heard it. Jesus said, "The Good News about God's kingdom will be preached in all the world, to every nation. Then the end will come." If you want Jesus to come back sooner, focus on fulfilling your mission, not figuring out prophecy. It is easy to get distracted and sidetracked from your mission because Satan would rather have you do anything besides sharing your faith. He will let you do all kinds of good things as long as you don't take anyone to heaven with you. But the moment you become serious about your mission, expect the Devil to throw all kinds of diversions at you (Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, pp. 285-286).

It is here that we may be seeing the crux of the issue between Warren and many of his critics. Some individuals seem to be taking Warren's remark as a slap at studying biblical prophecy in toto. But what Warren is actually condemning is obsessive end-time speculation, the naming of dates, the constant harping on doomsday/Armageddon being just around the corner, etc., etc., etc. Such a comment, of course, would be highly problematic to many ministries that have built everything on a system on end-time warnings.

Warren is not expressing an overly-critical, unbiblical, or offensive sentiment. But for some individuals his word of caution comes dangerously close to stepping on the main theme of their preaching/teaching style, which rests almost entirely on a "You better get right with God, or you're gonna get Left Behind when the Rapture hits" foundation for presenting the Gospel.(This theory was given a measure of support in the fascinating comments made by Jacob Prasch of Moriel Ministries and Roger Oakland of Understanding the Times, both of whom are anti-Warrenites, see Moriel Ministries: My Way is God's Way and Roger Oakland: Truthteller of Storyteller?).

The truth, however, is that Warren is nowhere stating that prophecy should not be studied, appreciated, or enjoyed. His point is that an unhealthy obsession with prophecy is where Christians must be careful, especially since Christ himself seemed to rebuke his disciples for asking him about certain aspects of the end-times that no one will ever know because it is not our place to know such things. his critics have twisted his words to mean that he is disparaging the study of prophecy itself, which would not be consistent with the teachings of Saddleback. Prophecy is studied in the FOUNDATIONS maturity course of doctrinal teachings for members of Saddleback Church, pastored by Rick Warren.

LTRP also mentions the supposed cruel treatment by Purpose Driven pastors towards those who do not go along with the program, but provides no documentation that would show exactly what they are talking about. If such documentation is provided elsewhere, then a careful examination of that material would have to be made to see exactly what the circumstances were under which the alleged cruelty was inflicted. This would be a huge undertaking since there are always two sides to every story. How can anyone be sure who was at fault, an whatever church is being discussed, with regard to whomever was involved?

For LTRP, however, the answers are simple. Anyone who has made a claim of cruelty against any purpose driven church or pastor is telling the truth. They are the innocent victim of Rick Warren's cold and callous plans to take over the church with his New Age teachings! Such an approach to any church conflict, of course, is asking for trouble. The dynamics, interactions, and events involved with any inter-church conflict are highly complex and cannot be distilled down to a blanket condemnation of Purpose Driven based on various complaints that have been lodged by who-knows-who over who-knows-what.

The Purpose Driven model is used at literally thousands and thousands of churches all over the world. I personally have no doubt that there are problems somewhere. The sheer numbers of people involved would make it impossible for everything to be going perfectly and smoothly with no errors of judgment being made by pastors seeking to implement Warren's Purpose Driven model. But this does not mean the model itself is wrong. It means the individual pastors are wrong. Neither Warren, nor Saddleback, can police every church or every pastor. A sad, but true and understandable, fact.

Finally, when it comes to the supposed New Age sympathizers like Ken Blanchard and Robert Schuller, see Ken Blanchard and Rick Warren: The Truth Behind the Controversy and Warren and Schuller: Debunking An Urban Legend.


LTRP: "I personally believe Warren's effort to debunk the book was an attempt to conceal some of its observations. What George Mair didn't realize was that in his candid account of Warren, and in his efforts to offer this testament of praise, some things were revealed about the pastor that might have gone undetected by the average person. For instance, Mair explains how New Age prophet Norman Vincent Peale was at the foundation of the church-growth movement and furthermore 'many of Peale's uplifting affirmations originated with an 'obscure teacher of occult science' named Florence Scovel Shinn.' Referring to many of the methods that Peale taught and his 'unification of psychology and religion,' Mair says, 'Saddleback distinctly bears the stamp of Reverend Norman Vincent Peale.'"
RESPONSE: This is perhaps one of the most unbelievable statements to appear on any of the LTRP Internet pages. It concerns the resoundingly flawed unauthorized biography of Rick Warren titled A Life With Purpose by celebrity/Hollywood tabloid biographer George Mair. The volume is rife with errors and flawed assumption by Mair who demonstrated with painful clarity that he knows little about Warren, church history, American Christianity, or Saddleback Church. So awful was this book, that Warren actually wrote to LTRP  in hopes of enlightening them to the utter shamefulness of the volume being called a biography of him (see Warren's email to LTRP).

But rather than believing what Warren has had to say about his own life, ministry, beliefs, and history, LTRP has continued to accuse Warren of lying and trying to cover up the truth! LTRP has even posted an entire article ripping apart Warren's email, trying to show where he was seeking to be deliberately deceptive. For my analysis of their outrageous response, see my article Lighthouse Trails: A Futile Attempt At Reconciliation. For more information on George Mair and his wildly inaccurate book on Warren, see my article George Mair: Lessons On How NOT to Write A Biography.


LTRP #6: "Who is Neal Donald Walsch and How Is He Connected with Robert Schuller and Rick Warren?" (see Neale Donald Walsch: Conversations with God).
RESPONSE: The answer to the first question is: Neale Donald Walsch is a New Ager. The answer to the second question is: He's not connected to Rick Warren at all. When I asked Warren about Walsch  in 2005, in fact, he barely knew who he was, having just heard his name mentioned in passing in connection to a book that he and many other authors had been asked to contribute to in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on America

According to LTRP, the mere fact that Warren contributed to this book with many other people (including Walsch) indicates to some degree that he and Walsch are in cahoots to bring about a New Age, one-world, occult-based religion. Making it all the more sinister the folks over at LTRP is the fact that Walsch, like Warren, has his own P.E.A.C.E. Plan. To those who see a conspiracy under every bush or around every rock, this means that Warren and Walsch are working together.

But the fact of the matter is that there have been numerous P.E.A.C.E. Plans invented over the last one hundred years. And there will be more P.E.A.C.E. Plans conceived over the next one hundred years. Let's face it, it's a catchy phrase. LTRP, however, seems to take the view advanced in the book Deceived On Purpose by Warren Smith, another anti-Warrenite.

Smith makes a huge deal out of the fact that Rick Warren has launched his P.E.A.C.E. Plan and that New Ager Neale Donald Walsch also has presented a P.E.A.C.E. Plan (which Walsch hopes will usher in a New Spirituality that breaks down belief barriers/doctrinal differences between religions). Panic! Sound the alarm bells! As Smith says in Deceived On Purpose, Warren has inspired "millions of Christians to get behind his 5-Step P.E.A.C.E. Plan to 'change the world'—a 5-Step P.E.A.C.E. Plan that, on paper, bore an eerie resemblance to the 5-Step PEACE Plan proposed by Neale Donald Walsch and his New Age 'God'" (Smith, p. 142). Here are the plans—

WARREN'S PLAN	WALSCH'S PLAN
P - Plant Churches (now called Promote Reconciliation)	P - Permit ourselves to acknowledge that some of our old beliefs about God and about Life are no longer working.
E - Equip Servant Leaders	E - Explore the possibility that there is something we do not understand about God and about Life, the understanding of which could change everything.
A - Assist the Poor	A - Announce that we are willing for new understandings of God and Life to now be brought forth, understandings that could produce a new way of life on this planet.
C - Care for the Sick	C - Courageously examine these new understandings and if they align with our personal inner truth and knowing, to enlarge our belief system to include them.
E - Educate the Illiterate	E - Express our lives as a demonstration of our highest beliefs, rather than as a denial of them.

On paper we can see that Warren's plan actually doesn't bear any similarity to Walsch's plan—except for the fact that they are each called a "peace plan" and they each have five points (and the word "peace," of course, has five letters). In other words, the term "PEACE PLAN" is a great term to use, and 5-points is a perfect number of acronym points: "P - E - A - C - E" = five. Consider these P.E.A.C.E. Plans (Would Smith say they, too, bear an "eerie resemblance" to Neale Donald Walsch's diabolical plot?):

• 1939—"Pope Pius XII issues his 5-Point Peace Plan" (WWII). 

• 1970—"President Nixon announced a new 5-point peace plan" (Vietnam War).

• 1987—"The Dalai Lama Proposed a Five-Point Peace Plan for Tibet."

• 1989—"Israel's acceptance of Secretary of State Baker's 5-point peace plan" (Middle East).

• 1989—"[New South Wales Premier Bob Carr] advanced a so-called five-point peace plan"
              (labor troubles).

• 1996—"The Richard Kluger 5-Point Peace Plan" (US Govt. vs. Tobacco Industry).

• 1997—"The UN endorsed a 5-point peace plan for Zaire."

• 2004—"Sudan Accepts Blair's Five-Point Peace Plan"

• 2004—"Iraqi deputy PM to visit Tehran Saturday" [After 5-Point Peace Plan Drafted].

Obviously, what we have are merely creative minds thinking up a way to put across to the masses five points of a plan—whatever that plan might be about.


LTRP #7: "Rick Warren, the Benedictine Order and universalism - The Benedictine Order is a Catholic order that includes contemplative prayer/meditation as part of their spirituality, and universalism is woven through their teachings. And yet Rick Warren has no problem using Benedictine monks as examples of how we should live: Rick Warren: p. 88 PDL 'Benedictine monks use the hourly chimes of a clock to remind them to pause and pray 'the hour of prayer.' If you have a watch or cell phone with an alarm, you could do the same'" (More On Rick Warren and Contemplative Spirituality).
RESPONSE: I am severely tempted to just chuckle at this remark, unable to comprehend how anyone could read such a statement and take it seriously. LTRP is actually trying to condemn Rick Warren for telling people to set their clocks to remind them of times to pray -- like Benedictine monks! This does not seem like very much of an endorsement of anything Eastern, or New Age, Roman Catholic, mystical, or necessarily even Benedictine.

The practice of hourly prayer goes back to long before the Benedictine Order was ever founded (a.d. 529) and before Roman Catholicism as we know it today even existed! Hours of prayer—initially placed at 9 a.m., noon, and 3 p.m., then midnight, as well as the beginning of the day and night—are mentioned prior to the fourth century by Tertullian, Cyprian, Justin Martyr, and Clement of Alexandria.

Interestingly, what we also see here is the subtle implication that Rick Warren preaches universalism (i.e., the idea that everyone, or nearly everyone, can/will be ultimately saved regardless of their religion). But that is  a false implication. Warren teaches that salvation comes only through Jesus Christ and basis this teaching (for starters) on Christ's own words in John 14:6: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

Warren has always maintained and taught that there is a heaven and there is a hell—and that the only way to escape a Christless eternity is to accept Jesus as one's personal Lord and Savior. In Saddleback's C.L.A.S.S. 101, Warren unflinchingly states: "[E]very single person in the world needs Jesus Christ. . . . needs to have a relationship with Him. If they don't they will spend eternity in hell" (also see my two articles Saddleback Church: The Cross, Sin, and Hell and "The Doctrinal Essentials of Christianity—and Rick Warren").

As a side note, what is particularly fascinating about this specific accusation by LTRP is that it originally was posted in 2005 to read: "Warren also promotes Universalism through his promotion of The Benedictine Order." But after I publicly brought correction to this blatantly false accusation, LTRP changed it to a statement that implied the same thing, without overtly declaring it. This demonstrates, in my opinion, the level of honesty/integrity we are dealing with when it comes to LTRP, Deborah and Dave Dombrowski, and far too many other so-called "discernment" ministries.

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• INTRO ARTICLE: Lighthouse Trails: Walking In Darkness

• Lighthouse Trails: The Blanchard Bashers
   (a look at the Ken Blanchard controversy)

• Warren & Lighthouse Trails: A Futile Attempt At Reconciliation
   (an analysis of the Lighthouse Trails Dismissal of A Warren Email)

• Lighthouse Trails: Rants and Ramblings 
   (a final look at the so-called "research" of LTRP)