THE THE

PURPOSEPURPOSE

DRIVEN DRIVEN

CHURCH?CHURCH?

A Documentary on the

Teachings of Rick Warren

by James Sundquist

©2004 ROCK SALT PUBLISHING

PART I

Take a show of hands:

•For how many of you are your churches presently in Purpose Driven Campaign?

•How many have family members in Purpose Driven Life?

The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren has become a

Number 1 best-seller in both Christian as well as secular

book stores

Has been distributed to over 180,000 pastors worldwide

30,000 churches around the world have already conducted

the campaign

10,000 hosting it this Fall

Rick Warren and Jerry Falwell (who affiliates both with the

Southern Baptist Convention and the Bible Baptist Fellowship)

partnered for a Purpose-Driven

“SuperConference” in both 2003 and 2004

btw, for $99/person

Also promoted and/or endorsed byJames Dobson,

Focus on the Family

Hank Hanegraaff,Christian Research Institute ~ Home of the Bible

Answer Man

Billy Graham and Franklin Graham

Bruce Wilkinson (Prayer of Jabez)

Charles Colson

Sold 20 million copies as of 2004

See Rick Warren’s own website:

www.purposedriven.com

Chapter 1False Premise of 40 Days of Purpose �Comparing Warren’s 40-Day Examples to Scripture*

Chapter 2Comparing Rick Warren’s Covenant to Scripture*�

Chapter 3Inaccurate vs. Accurate Translations�

Chapter 4False Teachings�

Chapter 5Does Doctrine Really Matter?*�

Chapter 6Promoting False Teachers�

Chapter 7How to Worship�

Chapter 8Celebrate Recovery Program�

Chapter 9Regarding Prophecy*�

* Indicates topics in book addressed in slide show

Chapter 10The SHAPE Program�

Chapter 11Personality Profiling*�

Chapter 12Judgment and Separation�

Chapter 13Frequently Asked Questions by Pastors and Churches �Using Rick Warren’s Purpose Drive Life and SHAPE

Appendix APsychology vs. The Bible Chart�

Appendix BThe Church Growth Movement and Purpose Driven �

Church vs. The Bible

Appendix CCarl Jung, Neo-Gnosticism, and the �

Myers-Briggs Temperament Indicator (MBTI)

Appendix DRick Warren/Carl Jung Personality Theory Chart*�

Appendix EOther Excellent Resources, Reviews, and Exposés �

40 Days in Mythology

40 DAYS IN BUDDHISM: He left home to follow the traditional Indian path of the wandering holy man, a seeker after Truth. He practiced meditation under various teachers and then took to asceticism. Eventually he practiced austerities so severe that he was on the point of death - but true understanding seemed as far away as ever. He decided to abandon this path and to look into his own heart and mind......

He sat down beneath the pipal tree and vowed

that 'flesh may wither, blood may dry up, but

I shall not rise from this spot

until Enlightenment has been won.'

After forty days, the Buddha finally attained Enlightenment.

 

40 DAYS IN EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY :

The forty days of the death and absence of Osiris

is a period of fasting.

40 DAYS IN GREEK MYTHOLOGY:

• The god bade them expiate the death of Icarus with many victims, and asked from Jove that when Canicula rises he should send wind for forty days to temper thee heat of Canicula. This command Arsitaeus carried out, and obtained from Jove [Zeus] the favour that the Etesian winds should blow.”

• –Hyginus Astronomica 2.4

40 DAYS OF MYTHOLOGY IN ISLAM:

Islam even has a account about 40 Days of Purpose for Adam…Muhammad said:

 “Allah caused Adam's clay to ferment. He left it lying around for forty nights... Iblis [Satan] used to come to it and kick it with his foot, whereupon it made sounds. Then he said...'You are not something for making sounds. What then were you created for? If I am given authority over you, I shall ruin you.'” Tabari 1:261

Quoted from Greg Winn's Prophet of Doom, Cricketsong Books, 2004. Page 17

40 DAYS IN PAGANISM:

TThe 40 Days of Weeping for Tammuz

Baal, Tammuz, Ashtoreth, Astarte and Ishtar are all connected with pagan sun worship.

Note that Lent is a moveable observance, connected to and preceding the festival of Easter.

Easter is celebrated on a day proclaimed and initiated by the Roman Catholic Church, and not the Bible, and is fixed based on the sun and the Spring or Vernal equinox.

Source: http://www.hope-of-israel.org/lent.htm

So, though 40 days is found many times in the Bible, never once is it mentioned as a time period to be observed by Jews or Christians for fasting and abstinence, let alone to determine God's purpose for our life.

40 Days of Mythology in

Purpose Driven Life

WHY YOU SHOULD REJECT RICK WARREN'S PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE

AND CAMPAIGN BEFORE YOU EVEN GET TO DAY ONE

OF HIS “40 DAYS OF PURPOSE” 

Take a show of hands:

How many of you found God’s purpose for your life in 40 days?

Rick Warren states:

“Whenever God wanted to prepare someone for his purposes, he took forty days.”

Rick Warren, Purpose Driven Life, Page 9

“Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do.” —Romans 12:2 NLT

Rick Warren, Purpose Driven Life (Zondervan Publishing, 2003), pp. 9–10

Now let’s see what that verse really says:

“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” — Romans 12:2 (KJV)

BORN BORNAGAIN(New Creation)

GLORIFIED

Transformed—continuous processor40 days?Conformed to this world

ETERNITY (Sanctification)

 

Rick Warren's meaning of the term “WHENEVER” could be the most glaring error in his entire book. 

It collapses on two fronts.  Biblically it is false, because Warren's statement: "whenever God prepared someone for his purposes, he took 40 days" would have to apply to Adam. 

So did "whenever" apply to David? to Isaiah (or any prophet)?

To John the Baptist? to James? To the thief on the Cross? to Paul?  

How about the thousands of new Christians in the Book of Acts? 

Talk about going beyond what is written and even getting it wrong with all of the examples Warren does cite re 40 days.  Since all Christians are subject to the same doctrine, then, 40 days also would have to apply to you, to me, to every Christian, to Luther, to Zwingi, Jan Hus, Richard Wurmbrandt, Walter Martin, and the host of martyred and persecuted Christians in the Sudan today. 

And where is the documentation in his book for the 40 days of preparation for all of the theologians Warren cites in his book that God took to determine their purposes?

And where is the documentation of the 40 days in allegedly took Rick Warren for God to determine his purpose?

When I was visiting my mother recently, I asked her “mom, did God take 40 days to determine your purpose, and if so, when were the 40 days?"  Her answer: there were no 40 days.  "Well, how about dad?" "When were his 40 days?"  Answer: "NEVER!"  And the answer is "NEVER" for most of the saints in the Bible and rarely since the Bible. 

Warren's principle of 40 Days to determine your purpose is based on mythology NOT Scripture!

So Warren has already borne false witness against my Christian parents and most of Christendom throughout the ages.....and we are only at page 9 in his book.

Contemporary Example:

If you said to your wife "whenever I go to the store, I always bring home milk."  Now wouldn't a reasonable person conclude that you always bring home milk when you go to the store? 

Wouldn't a reasonable person conclude that there was NEVER a time that you did not bring home milk when you went to the store? 

Now suppose out of thousands of times you went to the store and brought home milk every time, but just once, you came home without milk. .....

Would it not be a big surprise then, if your wife asked you "where's the milk, honey?" 

So, now let's apply Warren's axiom: 

There can never be a person (Christian) when God did not take 40 days to determine his purpose!  RIGHT?  Because remember, you or I might forget, but God would NEVER forget. 

So with the Lord, "whenever" must mean "always"...just as it meant when the Lord said he would be with us always...even unto the ends of the earth. 

So it has to mean there is never an exemption or a day the Lord takes off from this promise. .....

So, just like the Lord always must be with us, then, according to Warren, he must always take 40 days to determine our purpose...there can be no exemptions or exceptions. 

But is this true? 

Of course it is not true! 

So Warren's premise disintegrates and is simply false and fraudulent and the Lord considers bearing false witness against a brother an abomination and one of the things He hates the most....that is unless it is Rick Warren doing it!

Rick Warren then compounds his error with another axiom of supposed absolute truth when

he says:

“The next forty days will transform your life” on the very next page (page 10 of his book).

Let’s Now look at Rick Warren’s claims ofBiblical proofs of 40 Days:

“Noah’s Life was transformed by 40 days of rain” (p. 10)

Is this true?

No!Noah was not transformed..he had already been transformed and had been preaching for 120 years…the 40 days marked judgment for all of the people on the earth OUTSIDE

of the Ark…who drowned!

See Genesis 6-9

“Moses was transformed by 40 Days on Mount Sinai”

(p. 10) Is this true?

NO!Moses was given his purpose at the burning bush BEFORE these

40 Days on Mt. Sinai

See Exodus Chapters 3, 21-25

“The spies were transformed by 40 Days in the Promised Land”

(p. 10) Is this true?

No!10 Spies were not changed

2 were already faithful but NONE were transformed

See Numbers 13:30-33

“David was transformed by Goliath’s 40 Day challenge”

(p. 10) Is this true?

NO!David was already a man after God’s own heart…and didn’t

even show up to until the END of Goliath's 40 day challenge

See I Samuel Chapter 17

“Elijah was transformed when God gave him 40 days of

strength from a single meal” (p. 10)

Is this true?

NO!It was 2 meals to simply

strengthen him…and Elijah had already been given his

purpose….no transformation here!

See I Kings Chapter 19

“The entire city of Nineveh was transformed when God gave the people forty days to change.”

(p. 10) Is this true?

Only partly true.The 40 days were given as a

deadline to judgment…but they repented long before then..no

process of transformation here!

See Book of Jonah

“Jesus was empowered by 40 days in the wilderness.”

(p. 10) Is this true?

NO! This is completely wrong!

Jesus was tempted during the 40 days not empowered…

furthermore He was already all powerful and his purpose was

already known by Himself before the foundation of the world

SEE Matthew Chapter 4Mark Chapter 1Luke Chapter 4

“The disciples were transformed by 40 days with Jesus after his

resurrection.” (Rick Warren, PDL, p. 10)

IS THIS RIGHT?

NO!The Disciples were already not

conformed to this world and already had their purpose…if

anything they were transformed at Pentecost…that’s 50 days, not

40 days!

See Acts 1:3

Comparing Rick Warren’s Covenant

to

Scripture

…. Rick Warren states:

“With God’s help, I commit the next 40 days of my life to discovering God’s purpose

for my life.”

Purpose Driven Life., p. 13.

Is this obedience to Scripture?

NO! I appeal to you to consider Jesus

Christ’s own words:

“Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto

the Lord thine oaths: But I say unto you, Swear not at all;

neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne: Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool:

neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear

by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your

communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these

cometh of evil.” —Matthew 5:33–37

And let us see if the Apostle James confirms this very warning:

“But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by

heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your

nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.”— James 5:12

THE ENDOF

PART I