"Are you gonna bash Rick Warren? Are you crazy? This is a guy who loves the Lord. You may not agree with everything he does, but man I'm telling you he loves Jesus-everything I can tell, a supernaturally spirit-filled man." - Francis Chan
No Francis, I am not crazy and I will beat back Rick Warren with the shepherd's rod every chance I get because no one has more damage to the cause of the Gospel than Rick Warren. The Purpose Driven Church is followed by nearly all up and coming pastors. Warren is responsible for the mega church movement that has left so many wolves in the pulpits and sheep scattered across the land. I do not even need to get into his obvious ecumenicalism. Today's church is fully compromised because of the teachings of Rick Warren. It has abandoned the true Gospel because of the teachings of Rick Warren. The church caters to goats, starves the sheep and turns shepherds into CEOs and that is all because of Rick Warren. That is not an attack on Rick Warren but an exposition of his false teachings. Notice Chan has no biblical basis for his position and essentially he is saying, believe me because I know him. Well, I do not have to know Rick Warren to be able to evaluate his teachings. We can be sincere and sincerely wrong. This is a guy who loves the Lord? Says who? Mormons will swear they love the Lord and so will Jehovah Witnesses. The people who stand before Christ at the end in Matthew 7 appear to have believed they loved the Lord yet He never knew them. Perhaps Chan has been so busy fawning over other leaders that he had forgotten scripture:
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you--unless you believed in vain. -- 1Corinthians 15: 1-2 (ESV)
Unless you have believed in vain. It is wholly possible to have believed entirely in vain. So please, do not hand me your personal anecdotes when we are discussing doctrine because they are irrelevant. Evaluate the teaching Francis.
"Are you gonna attack Mark Driscoll? Are you gonna attack John Piper? Are you gonna attack Mike Bickle? -- Francis Chan
Mark Driscoll? Seriously? The guy literally stole $200,000 from his tithe monies so he could pay a company to cheat the NY Times Bestseller List. That is your paragon of Christian virtue that no one should challenge? Now, Driscoll will insist that the board approved the expenditure but he hand selected the board. Try standing before Christ and explaining how you really didn't steal it. Driscoll is such an adherent of Warren that he once joked in a sermon regarding the Warren concept of blessed subtraction that there was a "pile of bodies behind the Mars Hill bus and by the time he was done it will be a mountain." These were people that dared to disagree with him. The interesting thing with Driscoll is you do not even need to get into his teachings because his behavior disqualifies him from ministry. Lest we forget, Mark Driscoll is also a fugitive from church discipline as he fled Mars Hill right when they were going to discipline him for his abusive behavior towards people. Very pastoral.
Discussing John Piper is the one that brings me the least joy. Outside of typical Calvinistic errors, Piper has always been a source of solid preaching but signs are he is not finishing strong. It starts with who you support and de facto endorse. Just as Chan is exposing himself here by endorsing some of the most egregious false teachers today, Piper is guilty of the same as he has staunchly defended both Warren and Driscoll. He has started to be featured at Charismaniacal conferences and shared the stage with the likes of Louis Giglio, Christian Caine, Levi Lusko and Beth Moore. We can only hope that at some point Piper will realize the grievous path he is on but until then the Bible says to mark him because he is bringing division into the body of Christ. Mike Bickle has already been discussed but the overarching theme here is that Chan listed no less than three of the most egregious false teachers on the planet today and defended them. He actually calls those who would speak against these wolves "crazy" and accuses them of talking a sledgehammer to the temple of the Lord. What utter nonsense. It is false teaching that divides the body! Chan must have also conveniently forgotten that Titus 1:9 commands us as ministers to rebuke those who are false! Unfortunately, Chan has not hit bottom yet:
Are you gonna attack some of these expressions in the body of Christ that may look a little different? I've met these people and I see their hearts and I hang out with people from these different denominations and I'm like 'they love Jesus,' it looks different to me but I can see the spirit in them, so we better be careful." - Francis Chan
