From the blog for Rick Warren’s Ministry Podcast comes the post “List of the Books we Mentioned Last Week”:

Last week’s podcast was about the importance of reading in the life of a pastor, if you haven’t listened to it yet I would encourage you to click and listen to it. We had a great discussion and several books were mentioned. The list below was typed up by the Saddleback Staff and we wanted to make it available to you for your reference. (Online source).

Before we hear from any sniveling Saddleback spin doctors that these books were only discussed and not necessarily recommended I note that each book is linked directly to Amazon to make for easy purchase. One of the books on this list is Letters to a Young Catholic: Art of Mentoring (LYC) by George Weigel. Although it should be obvious this is a pro-Roman Catholic book, for those who may not know Weigel is listed on its back cover as “a Roman Catholic theologian” and “a consultant on Vatican Affairs for NBC News.”

George Weigel has actually authored many books on apostate Roman Catholicism including The Courage to Be Catholic: Crisis, Reform and the Future of the Church, The Truth of Catholicism: Inside the Essential Teachings and Controversies of the Church Today and God’s Choice: Pope Benedict XVI and the Future of the Catholic Church. Publisher’s Weekly says of his LYC:

Writing in a conversational, epistolary form aimed at young Catholics, Weigel offers a book that simultaneously is, and is not, your grandmother’s catechism: he affirms the core doctrines of the Church, but he does so in a way that is refreshingly contemporary and—because of his emphasis on Church sites around the world—catholic as well as Catholic. (Online source)

Rather curious that Rick Warren, arguably the most visible minister in the SBC (Slowly Becoming Catholic), which itself is the largest allegedly “Protestant” denomination in the country, would be encouraging his supposedly “Protestant” brother pastors to be reading about mentoring from an apostate. Of course this all fits right in with the Purpose Driven Pope and his ecumenical new reformation of “deeds not creeds” as well as his open embrace of the apostate Church of Rome as a Christian denomination. After all, Rick Warren is bigger than the Body of Christ and can simply reverse the real Reformation and all the little goats just follow right along behind him.

And the other book which caught my eye was Introduction to the Devout Life by Doctor of the Church “Saint” Francis De Sales. This ought to give you an indication here we are dealing with another apostate Roman Catholic, who incidentally was also known as “Francis De Sales, Gentle Christ of Geneva; the Gentleman Saint” (Online source). We are further aware that De Sales in fact denied the Gospel of Jesus Christ that man is saved through God’s grace alone; by faith alone, in Christ alone because his “simple, clear explanations of Catholic doctrine, and his gentle way with everyone, brought many back to the Roman Church” (ibid).

The New Advent Roman Catholic encyclopedia informs us De Sales had “a terrible and prolonged temptation to despair,” which he was struggling with and was “caused by the discussions of the theologians of the day on the question of predestination.” However the Virgin Mary came to his rescue and De Sales:

was suddenly freed as he knelt before a miraculous image of Our Lady at St. Etienne-des-Grès, he made a vow of chastity and consecrated himself to the Blessed Virgin Mary. In 1588 he studied law at Padua, where the Jesuit Father Possevin was his spiritual director. He received his diploma of doctorate from the famous Pancirola in 1592… Claude de Granier, Bishop of Geneva, obtained for Francis, on his own initiative, the position of Provost of the Chapter of Geneva, a post in the patronage of the pope. It was the highest office in the diocese, M. de Boisy yielded and Francis received Holy Orders (1593).

From the time of the Reformation the seat of the Bishopric of Geneva had been fixed at Annecy. There with apostolic zeal, the new provost devoted himself to preaching, hearing confessions, and the other work of his ministry. In the following year (1594) he volunteered to evangelize Le Chablais, where the Genevans had imposed the Reformed Faith,… Risking his life, he journeyed through the entire district, preaching constantly; by dint of zeal, learning, kindness and holiness he at last obtained a hearing… He confuted the preachers sent by Geneva to oppose him; he converted the syndic and several prominent Calvinists (Online source)

And so we see this is the kind of “Christian” that Rick Warren and Saddleback Church feel can teach “Protestant” pastors about living “the devout life.” An apostate who rejected God’s Gospel and converted professing Christians to the Roman Catholic Church, which Dr. John MacArthur correctly calls “a front for the Kingdom of Satan.” Then take a look for yourself at the blatant blasphemy and egregious idolatry to which the “devout” De Sales bowed his knee to kiss:

See also:

DR. WALTER MARTIN SPEAKS ON THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH