News Snippets From All Beats

Out of respect for John Piper’s years of Christian service, some are asking that Piper’s video he made explaining his reasons for inviting heretic Rick Warren to speak at his Desiring God conference be viewed and then privately responded to only to Piper.  That might be the proper course of action if this was the first monumental lapse in discernment to be made by Piper.  This is not, however, a singular incident, but the continuation of a trend.

Piper has previously invited another heretic to address his audience; albeit posthumously, and by means of epigraph.  In his 2002 book Brothers, We Are Not Professionals: A Pleas to Pastors for Radical Ministry, Piper introduces one of his chapters using words of G.K. Chesterton.  In 1908, Chesterton proved happy to call God a liar by discrediting the Genesis account of creation because it didn’t line up with the favored world view of Darwinian evolution.  That was no one-time lapse either; Piper made further endorsements of Chesterton by citations in books he published in 2003, 2004, and 2005.

Piper’s readers continue to not only meditate on Piper’s work, but also his endorsements of Chesterton as well; fawning over the heretic’s words.  The harm that would be caused by Warren speaking at Piper’s invitation is incalculable. As for Piper’s video explanation for endorsing Warren, his reasoning was puerile, and his on-camera demeanor seemed so befuddled that a plea of non compos mentis could be entered on his behalf.   John Piper needs to retract his invitation to Warren, publicly repent for the damage he has done to the simple in the faith, and retire while he has the mental faculty to do so by his own free will.

The Church does not need any more supposedly strong men for the Lord publicly degenerating into senility whereby they give the heathen opportunity to blaspheme God, and the simple in the faith cause to stumble.  Piper made this a public discourse, he has had ample time to be reached and corrected by those near him with discernment, and he has yet to repent.  This is now the appropriate way to respond; publicly.  John Piper: you had your apostasy, now eat it so it will go away.

CS: Controlling Scripture for this article available here.

Rick Warren continues to amaze and dazzle the unregenerate by preaching business strategies for corporate growth and profit while completely ignoring the gospel.  He appears before Jews and Muslims instructing them how to grow and enhance their numbers without offering the message of salvation.

Particularly odious is his exhortation that Christians join hands with Muslims in community service projects and put their differences behind them for this greater good.  As this article “Rick Warren: A Voiced for the Regenerate Church or the Degenerate Church?” by Moriel Ministries shows, it is not difficult to see the true spirit behind Rick Warren.

Rick Warren apologized for supporting California’s Proposition 8 and announced his new position is to take no position on the subject of homosexuality.  Appearing on Larry King Live, Warren explained that he had written a message in support of the traditional marriage definition, but that afterwards he wrote apologies to all his homosexual friends.  His back peddling is still in high gear.

When asked by King if he would not comment on or criticize the Iowa court decision permitting homosexual marriage , Warren answered: “Yes. I’m — I’m totally oblivious to — to what — that’s not even my agenda.”¹ To make it on to Warren’s agenda you have to commit genocide, or be on the festivities list of celebrating his church’s upcoming thirtieth anniversary.

What prompted Warren’s turnaround was the response his members had to his comments in support of the biblical definition of marriage. “And then all of a sudden out of it,” complained Warren, “they made me, you know, something that I really wasn’t.”²  That’s right, they mistakenly made Warren out to be a Christian pastor.  Hopefully, the day will soon come when no one will ever make that mistake again.

Notes:

^{1 - 2.} Rick Warren, interview by Larry King, Larry King Live, Transcripts, CNN.com, April 6, 2009.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0904/06/lkl.01.html

Purpose Driven - “I’m writing to share my profound and abject revulsion at your agreement to offer the invocation at the inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama as president Jan. 20.”   So begins the open letter to Rick Warren from Joseph Farah at WorldNetDaily. Farah goes on to cite Obama’s support of every type of abortion, including killing live births, as reason for a Christian pastor to decline to give an invocation of God’s blessing on him.   Pray for Obama the leader, that God would open his eyes and change his heart, yes.  Ask God to bless the man, and his mission, as he is–unrepentant and unchanged–no.  But perhaps that is a condition that the two men share.  Farah implores Warren as a “borther in the Lord” to reconsider, but maybe this is wishful presumption.  Of late, there seems to be little evidence on either side to the Prime Meridian that Warren is born again.

In an example of the power of the dialectical conversion process on even its facilitators, leadership at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church actually thought they could compromise Ingrid Schlueter, talk show host for VCY American Radio Network. Schlueter is a contender for the faith whose shows and website expose the compromise and apostasy in this Laodicean church age.

Using tactic number three in dealing with resisters, ¹ Erik Rees of Saddleback Church, on Rick Warren’s behalf, attempted to befriend and involve Schlueter in Saddleback’s upcoming global leadership conference.² The problem with those leaders slated to speak, as Shlueter has pointed out repeatedly on her radio show and in her website, is that they are almost as harmful to the Church as apostate Rick Warren himself.

Rees offered Schlueter an all-expenses paid trip to California so that she could be absorbed into 2,000 duped fans of Warren’s cancerous growth on Christianity. As an added bonus, Schlueter would even be included in a small group discussion with the wizard himself. All she had to do to receive this special treatment was abide by one condition: remain silent until the end to give the brainwashing and manipulation a chance to take affect.

For an inspiring example of a godly woman standing for Christ and against the kingdoms of this world, readers must read Schlueter’s answer to Rick Warren’s invitation themselves at her website, www.sliceoflaodicea.com.

Mrs. Schlueter will be taking this weekend off from her website to enjoy Mother’s Day. Happy Mother’s Day to all you women of God who stand firm in the faith and contend for it wherever God has placed you; you are such a blessing to us all.

Notes:

^1. Berit Kjos, “Spirit-Led or Purpose-Driven?: Dealing with Resisters” (Part 4), Kjos Ministries, November 2003.

http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/04/4-purpose-resisters.htm

^2. Ingrid Schlueter, “An Invitation and A Response,” SliceofLaodicea.com, May 9, 2008.

http://www.sliceoflaodicea.com/?p=741

Continuing his attack on Baptists who place correct doctrine over unity, SBC President Frank Page insinuated that their defining characteristic is only anger. After speaking to a congregation in Rincon Georgia, Page told reporters: “Baptists are too often known for what we’re against than for what we’re for. I like to say that I’m a conservative, but not angry at anybody.” Indeed, Page is being perceived by some as being for just about anything that will reverse the denomination’s declining numbers. “He’s had the attitude,” said the pastor of the Georgia congregation, “of being a uniter in our convention.”

But emphasizing everything and anything that SBC members can agree on, to the exclusion of standing against those things contrary to the Bible, is a policy that will result in adopting the sacred communion of the secular humanists. Known as finding common ground, this is a process of continually refining diverse groups of by manipulating individuals to shed beliefs based on exclusionary claims, such as those found in the Bible, and taking a step, and then another step forward together; with the key element being together, and the forward determined by the leader’s ever changing vision. The result is unity, growth, and control.

Christians, whether Baptists or not, should not be ashamed of what they stand against because it clearly defines what they stand for. Perhaps it is the response of the angry conservatives Page continually attacks that explains the declining membership of SBC. Maybe they have gotten angry, and sinned not; neither have they let the sun go down on their wrath: at the end of the day, they are leaving.

This, however, may be exactly what Page wants. Taking a page out of the playbook of fellow SBC member Rick Warren, Page may be intentionally encouraging those not onboard with the new vision of unity to leave. This would enable non-believing communitarians to feel more comfortable in an all inclusive environment, and so the SBC numbers will grow.

(read about it in The Christian Post)

Presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama believes that there is a new “awakening taking place in America” which does not emphasize salvation of the soul, but satiation of the flesh. He praised social service campaigns of Rick Warren, T.D. Jakes, and Catholic Charities for uniting to fight hunger and comfort the diseased, but did not include preaching the Gospel as a mission for this new world religion. Instead, Obama spoke of a new divine commission, or “simple truth,” bringing different religions together, and which he expressed in the simple phrase “we are all connected.”

It is a new starting point for church membership determined solely by being alive on planet earth. The new religious tenants would be those dictated by a union of church and state governments conscripting members into social services and environmental programs. There are also new religious liberties to be enjoyed in this new brotherhood of man, and they include, well, just about everything; and for which sins the state will give absolution in the form of abortion on demand, and medication for AIDS

There is no room for dissenters in the new religious landscape. Obama included the Southern Baptists with the Willow Creek, National Association of Evangelicals, and emergent church models already co-opted. Everyone else better join up soon: being accepted as “good stewards of God’s creations” leaves no room for “hate,” or disapproval of sin, in the heart of these new believers, and consequently no room Bible-believers anywhere else.

Obama is a well oiled, smooth politician who chooses his words carefully for their imagery power, and heavy connotative value. He is continuing to attack Bible-believing Christians who oppose him by characterizing them as terrorist hijackers, and divisive hate-mongers. Accurate reporting must lay bare these well-crafted implications and expose them for the explicit assertions and schemes that they are. Like all demagogues, Obama claims knowledge that “God is speaking,” but these overtures to unite the world in a secular state religion make it clear that the god who has Obama’s ear is the Anti-god making way for his son, the Antichrist.

David Dansker

Read about it in The Christian Post