Rick Warren Endorses Pagan Rituals

Did that headline grab your attention? I believe it is 100% accurate. Warren posted a video while at the Davos World Economic Forum on how issues such as poverty, AIDS, corruption, illiteracy, disease, and spiritual emptiness can be solved through business, government and faith sectors working together. In the video linked below, Warren talks about people from all faiths and religions doing good around the world to bring an end to these “global giants”, and he makes the following statement:

“Frankly, I don’t care why you do good as long as you do good.”

He then goes on to talk about how people can have different types of motivations for doing good, and then makes this statement:

“Jesus said, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’, and that’s my motivation…but it doesn’t have to be your motivation.”

I recall listening to the White Horse Inn fellows discussing the issue of good works one time, and they said that any ‘good’ work that is done apart from faith in Christ, any act that the world perceives as good that is done apart from the gospel and that is not motivated by a regenerated heart, is nothing more than pagan ritual.

I also recall Paul saying that those in the flesh cannot please God, and the author of Hebrews stating that, without faith, it is impossible to please Him.

What is the point of doing good apart from the gospel of Jesus Christ? Is there any merit in doing good just for the sake of doing good, as Warren and others advocate? Should Christians join together with people of all manner of religious beliefs, put their faith in Christ in their pocket, and strive to tackle issues like AIDS and poverty apart from any saving message of repentance from sin and faith and trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation? Is not the heart which enters into the doing of ‘good’ with a motivation of something other than gratitude for their having been saved nothing more than pagan ritual?

Here’s the video…

(HT:Christian Research Network)

Is It Sufficient?

From The Case for Traditional Protestantism – Terry L. Johnson…

All that we need in the way of doctrinal, moral, and ecclesiastical training is found in the Scripture. The sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments are sufficient to equip the people of God ‘for every good work’. Not just ’some good works’. Not just ‘most good works’. No, the Bible equips us for every situation. The Bible is complete, unique, sufficient.

The case can be made that every corruption of biblical Christianity begins by compromising the principle of sufficiency. Every deviation from the Christianity established by Christ and the apostles begins by adding to the Bible or by taking away from it. Every deviation is the Bible plus or minus something.

For the Christian Scientists, it is the Bible plus Mary Baker Eddy’s Key. For the Mormons it is the Book of Mormon. For the Jehovah’s Witnesses it is the Watchtower. For the Seventh Day Adventists it is the revelations of Ellen White…Unless a practice comes from Holy Scripture, it has no place in the church. Scripture alone determines our faith and practice. To depart from this position is to be guilty of the…sins of the Pharisees who, ‘neglecting the commandments of God…hold to the traditions of men’ (Mark 7:8). – pp.37-38