A Nickle’s Worth of Opinion on the Piper/Warren Kerfuffle – Part Three

If you haven’t read it yet, you’ll want to read Part One and Part Two of this article, and watch the 4-1/2 minute YouTube video of John Piper explaining why he invited Purpose-Driven® pastor, Rick Warren to the 2010 Desiring God National Conference. 

The final reason I would not invite Dr. Warren to speak in my pulpit may seem like a reiteration of the first reason, that his theology is fundamentally and foundationally different from mine; and to an extent it is a reiteration, however, it is more than that. Our theologies are so diverse that I would call the Purpose-Driven® gospel gospel-less, or more accurately and Biblically, “another gospel” (Galatians 1:6-8). 

“Hey, wait just an Alabama cotton pickin’ minute, Brother Jon! Isn’t that kind of harsh and judgmental?” 

Please, don’t throw bricks at your computer screen just yet. We’re not talking about a difference of interpretation or perspective as it relates to the sovereignty of God in election verses the free-will of man to choose. I greatly admire men of the “free-willer” persuasion, such as the late A.W. Tozer and the late Leonard Ravenhill, who preached Christ crucified and could speak more of the glories of God just clearing their throats than a room full of “Calvinists” with a multitude of words at their command and the ability to speak them at their disposal. 

For the first seven chapters of A Purpose Driven Life, Dr. Warren presents the gospel call as essentially whispering, “Jesus, I believe you and receive you.”[i] His presentation of sin is something akin to having bumped into God accidentally and begging His pardon, so to speak. There is no presentation of the reality of the wrath of God abiding upon the unbelief and rebellion of every sinner since and including Adam; that every man, woman, and child since Adam has sinned grievously and heinously against the purity and holiness of God.  There is no mention of the reality of the “wrath of God [that] is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18). What in the world are men saved from in this “gospel”? And offering Jesus as a fix or fulfillment of whatever is missing in your life is diametrically opposed to the Christ of the gospel, who is very God, and by virtue of His Person as a holy and just God, is worthy of worship by every creature in the universe, regardless of their station or situation.  This “gospel” of Purpose goes beyond the difference between synergism (man’s participation in salvation) and monergism (salvation by God’s grace alone). This “gospel” exalts the efforts of man based upon the results these efforts achieve; and because of those results, unity and fellowship is determined upon the results that the means (Purpose-Driven® methodology, i.e., “felt needs”) produce. Therefore, Purpose-Driven® theology is compatible with the Roman Catholic Church, Judaism, Islam &etc. 

Let’s keep in mind what we learned from the first article: although Dr. Warren correctly says that “It’s not about you,” behind his words are what everything is all about— church growth. He read the Bible with “church growth eyes,” rather than what Scripture is all about, the Person of Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, as Jesus Himself testified: “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me” (John 5:39). So what is the gospel of Jesus Christ? 

First, through God’s holy Word, the Person of Christ is revealed; that He is the eternal God (John 1:1); and that the eternal God became a Man, born of a virgin (John 1:14; Matthew 1:23). Being born of a virgin, Christ was sinless and lived a perfectly righteous life. He was the only righteous Man who ever lived sinlessly, the only Jew who ever kept the Law of Moses perfectly, the only Prophet who ever uttered the truth of God in purity, and the only Son who ever obeyed His heavenly Father lovingly, submissively, and immediately with humility. Against the backdrop of that righteousness and holiness of the beloved Son of God, who was eternally pleasing to the heavenly Father, the best of our righteousness is as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6); since and including Adam, every man, woman and child has sinned against a holy God and fallen short of His glory (Romans 3:23). That’s why God set aside His celestial robes, so to speak, and was clothed in humanity for a time, because no mere man could redeem mankind of his falleness and depravity. It required nothing less than an infinitely pure, holy, righteous and eternal sacrifice to be the Lamb of God (John 1:29; 2 Corinthians 5:21). By virtue of the sin in us, we cannot even approach the holiness of God apart from His grace and mercy (Romans 3:20; 1 Corinthians 1:29; Galatians 2:16). But God, by His free grace, has justified sinful men through a propitiation (Romans 3:24), in and through and by the sufficient atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Through His precious shed blood the sinner who believes by faith and repents from his sin is cleansed (Hebrews 9:22). Through Christ’s death the sinner who repents and believes is reconciled to God, when previously that sinner was God’s enemy. By the wrath of God poured out upon Christ, the sinner that repents and believes is condemned no more (Romans 8:1-4) and has become a new creature in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17; Ezekiel 36:26-27). 

And this belief is not merely an ascent to certain facts and Scriptural truths, though it does include a knowledge of these truths; “the devils also believe, and tremble” (James 2:19). Why do they tremble? They have seen the almighty God before they fell. They know who Jesus Christ is. This saving faith is a gift of God (Ephesians 2:8), a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22), and the work of God (John 6:29). This saving faith not only illuminates the truth (Acts 26:18), but also convinces the soul of its sin and misery (Acts 2:37), and enables and persuades such a soul to embrace Jesus Christ freely offered in the gospel (John 6:44-45); therefore, that need of a sure and sufficient Savior is revealed supernaturally by the Holy Spirit so that the soul may cry out to receive the grace of repentance (Acts 2:37; 11:18; Joel 2:37). This saving faith is not a stagnant faith, or a one-time-only experience, but grows by God’s grace in hope and trust in Christ (Hebrews 4:15; 11:1). 

I beg your forgiveness and thank you for indulging me, as any time I’m allowed to present the gospel of Jesus Christ, however, weak my unclean lips or clumsy fingers make my proclamation to be, I’m so blessed to do so. Yet, I also believe, that to the sinner saved by God’s grace, every presentation of the gospel of Christ is a symphony to their ears and a delight to their soul. It humbles us to the dust, yet exhilarates us to the very heavenly throne of God, praising His glorious grace, and exalting the name of Jesus Christ, for great things He hath done! 

I’ll need to shut this part of the article down, and we haven’t even made it to those practical issues to which this situation relates. Therefore, we will close the whole of this article out in Part Four.

[i] Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI; 2002, p.58