The Doctrinal Essentials of Christianity
(and Rick Warren)

Rick Warren fully embraces all of the essential doctrines of the Christian faith (for an on-depth explanation, historical overview, and expansion of these "essentials," see the excellent article "The Essential Doctrines of the Christian Faith," part 1 and part 2, by the renowned and highly-respected conservative scholar, Dr. Norman Geisler).  The essential doctrines of Christianity date back to the oldest of doctrinal creeds that we possess, particularly The Apostles' Creed. From that historical creed emerge the following beliefs: 

(1) human depravity, 

(2) Christ's virgin birth, 

(3) Christ's sinlessness, 

(4) Christ's deity, 

(5) Christ's humanity, 

(6) God's unity, 

(7) God's triunity, 

(8) the necessity of God's grace,

(9) the necessity of faith, 

(10) Christ's atoning death,

(11) Christ's bodily resurrection, 

(12) Christ's bodily ascension, 

(13) Christ's present High Priestly service, and

(14) Christ's second coming, final judgment, and reign. 

Warren, who is a classic Southern Baptist (see the Baptist Faith & Message declaration by the Southern Baptist Convention), accepts all of these doctrines. As a Southern Baptist, he also embraces a deep commitment to evangelism. Through is many teachings (and also through the spiritual maturity classes taught at Saddleback), it is clear that Warren holds to the historic, orthodox definitions/explanations of the Trinity, the full humanity/deity of Jesus Christ, the miraclulous conception of Christ, the inherited sin nature of humanity, the atonement by Christ for fallen humanity via his shed blood on the cross, salvation by grace alone through faith alone, the bodily resurrection of Christ, the eventual return of Jesus (physically/visibly), and the inerrancy/infallibility of the the Bible. 

That Warren espouses these views is somthing that can easily be documented even by a cursory overview of his sermons and/or a simple reading of Saddleback church's doctrinal statements. There also is the church's Foundations doctrinal course, which covers eleven core doctrines of the Christian faith. This study course, written by Kay Warren (Rick's wife) and Tom Holladay (Rick's brother-in-law) is available from Saddleback Church. It advances the classic Southern Baptist views on the following doctrines: 

THE BIBLE,

GOD

JESUS,

THE HOLY SPIRIT,

CREATION,

SALVATION,

SANCTIFICATION,

GOOD & EVIL,

THE AFTERLIFE,

THE CHURCH,

THE SECOND COMING

Moreover, if anyone is interested in seeing what specific doctrines Warren embraces, they might also want to simply take a look at my apologetics book Defending the Faith (Baker, 1997). Warren endorsed this volume, saying: "Richard has done a brilliant job of describing complex theological truths in an easy-to-understand style. I enthusiastically recommend this book." And in his Ministry ToolBox, issue #107, 6/18/2003, this same book was recommended, as follows: ". . . in this book, Abanes presents the essential doctrines of Christianity and shows how cults and other new religions either deviate from or deny them."

Defending the Faith also was endorsed by respected and conservative scholars J.I. Packer, Ron Rhodes, and Norman Geisler. The book uses none other than the Apostles' Creed to lay out the basic essentials of the faith, including the doctrines surrounding the Bible, the Trinity, Christ's full humanity and deity, heaven and hell, and the Second Coming. The presentation of these doctrines are thoroughly evangelical and it received positive reviews not only from the aforementioned conservative scholars, but also from various biblically sound discernment ministries, including: Personal Freedom Outreach ("a valuable apologetic resource"), Answers in Action ("worth adding to any cult evangelism library"), and CRI (recommended bibliography, resource labeled DC-940). Clearly, if Warren were not a conservative, or if he disagreed with the conservative doctrines of the Christian faith, he would never have endorsed Defending the Faith.

Warren has always maintained without reservation that the gospel message must never change. He stated this as far back 1995 in his book The Purpose Driven Church: "Let me be clear: I'm not talking about churches having different messages. The message of Christ must never change. It is, as Jude says '. . .the truth that God gave once for all to his people to keep without change through the years.' (Jude 4 LB). Every true church will have the same message. But our methods will vary. We must never confuse the methods with the message. The message must never change but the methods must change with each new generation" (p. 61-62).

To date, no one has produced any documentation showing that Rick Warren rejects a single essential doctrine of the Christian faith.