Jan Markell, writing for Worldview Weekend has taken on the theology of Rick Warren ... her piece is entitled - According to Rick Warren, Your “Purpose” isn’t Prophecy ... she opens ...
I am deeply concerned and grieved that some of our nation’s most prominent Christian leaders just can’t get it right when it comes to issues of Bible prophecy or Israel. Equally troubling is the fact that eschatology has vanished from our pulpits some 15 – 20 years ago because it is “divisive,” “confusing,” and might drive away today’s “seekers.” I cannot figure out why the message that “the King is coming” doesn’t fit in to today’s “feel good” theology.
I must take issue here; either Markell lives in isolation or she has never interacted with Seventh Day Adventists, most small to medium sized Southern Baptist churches, the Independent Fundamentalist Churches of America, or what is left of the Worldwide Church of God (the new one).
The Bible says in II Thessalonians that there will be a great “falling away” from sound doctrine. Perhaps that explains the surge of the trendy theology called “Preterism” which teaches that all or most of prophecy is history.
Again I take issue ... aberrant theology or fringe theology have been around since the days of Cain, a hiccup in the course of His-story a trend does not make!
The theology came along in the 1600’s but wasn’t made trendy until 20th Century teachers like R.C. Sproul, and “The Bible Answerman” Hank Hanegraaff started heralding it. Hanegraaff clearly never met a Dispensationalist he didn’t address in a demeaning manner.
I've always had doubts about Hank's real motivations but brother Sproul is a horse of another color ... he has done a great deal to aide the contemporary church, errant theology aside. Are we sure he is indeed a preterist?
... Rick Warren, the man trying to give us all “purpose” while at the same time telling his readers to stay away from Bible prophecy. While I know that many have grown from the whole “purpose-driven phenomenon,” I am grieved that this powerful Christian leader says on pages 285-286 of his book, “The Purpose Driven Life,” that Jesus told his disciples, “The details of my return are none of your business.”
Saying "the details of my return are none of (our) business" is quite a bit different from saying "my return is none of your business" which is what Markell implies Warren meant.
Rick, give us chapter and verse for that! We are to focus on our “mission” which isn’t Bible prophecy. We are to preach the gospel to every nation and then the end will come says Rick, but that happens in the Tribulation.
Well, if you are a dispensationalist, you aren't going to be there during the tribulation.
He suggests that prophecy is a “diversion of the devil” and then implies that those who do not focus on the work God has planned for us — from which prophecy diverts us — is not fit for the Kingdom of God.
This criticism sounds very much like recent criticisms of Al Mohler regarding the role of children in marriage ... that is, the suggestion he said it was a sin to not have kids, when what he really said is that couples who intentionally opt out of child bearing for purely selfish reasons are committing a form of sin.
Rick robs of us our “blessed hope” and our “purpose” could in no way have anything to do with sounding an alarm to the lateness of the hour which would fit into Rick’s evangelistic plan.
Let me counter that the only thing that can rob us of our blessed hope is ourselves!
The misunderstanding or abuse of prophecy goes all the way to the top. Many of us campaigned for George W. Bush praying that by his second term he would be reached by men with sound theology to better shape his Middle East goals. But he remains blinded by his Replacement Theology background—that is, the Church is the new Israel so we can pressure Israel to carve up her land until the cows come home and there will be no consequences.
There are some doctrinal positions held by well-meaning believers which vary reasonably from one believer to another, from one group to another, which are patently open to a difference of opinion and interpretation ... this is one of those.
Most of his staff falls into the same camp, but they all put America at risk. If they only had been taught sound eschatology, this might not be the case.
Sister Markell seems to have fallen into the trap of seeing the application of all Scripture through the eyes of Western Civilization. Scripture is not about America's success or failure on the global scene; Scripture is about The Truth, The Life, and The Way.
I conclude that you can have an international platform, sell millions of books, and even rise to high political office with little consequences if you have indifference towards prophecy or skewed eschatological theology, and have Israel not much more relevant than the Canary Islands.
The fact of the matter is that Ersatz Israel is no more important than the Canary Islands as far as God is concerned ... it is the reunited authentic Israel that the Bible points to not the Israel of geo-political or geo-military construction.
How convenient of the enemy to blur the sound theology behind true Dispensationalist teaching and get people wondering if all prophecy is history, the Church is Israel, and we are deluded if we think our “purpose” is to believe sound prophecy teaching when that is but a diversion.
I agree this would be a fine thing for Satan to do, after all deception is his most important tool. But we have never had "sound theology" and as a dispensationalist I can tell you it is not all that sound either. Markell begins her adieu with this ...
I am terribly frustrated with the new mood in the church, but I wonder if God is grieved more than all of us put together.
I agree here as well, only I'm frustrated for different reasons; the frustration we have in the church is not due to the presence of one theology or another but rather from the lack of it. This deficit is the direct result of sin and sin alone ... clean up the doctrine of sin in a third of our Western churches and all we would be able to do is stand slack jawed in awe and wonder why we didn't do it before!
I'm not a fan of Warren's "Purpose Driven" theology, but it's sure hard to argue with success!
Jan Markell is founder/director of Olive Tree Ministries, Inc.
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