Here at Apprising Ministries I’ve been keeping you updated on the events surrounding Warrengate after Dr. John Piper made the unfortunate mistake of asking Rick Warren to be a keynote speaker for the Desiring God Conference 2010. There are a number of concerns and reasons as to why this is wrong; as a former Roman Catholic, one of the issues which holds my attentiom is Warren’s sinful ecumenicism.

Regardless of what we may think of some of his views, before a worldwide audience on the The John Ankerberg Show concerning the Evangelicals And Catholics Together (ECT) document, the late D. James Kennedy had the intestinal fortitude to put into its proper perspective what’s at stake with evangelicals embracing apostate Roman Catholicism as a valid expression of the Christian faith.

Kennedy was absolutely correct when he told us:

The Council Of Trent [was a full] 18 years…spent examining the doctrines of the Protestant Reformation…[and] this has never been altered or denied by the [Roman] Catholic Church – “if anyone says that the faith which justifies is nothing else but trust in the divine mercy–which pardons sins because of Christ or that it is trust alone by which we are justified” – which is what every Evangelical Christian would say… “Let him be anathema.” Which means let him be accursed. Every Evangelical Christian in the world stands under the official–[and] never changed curse of the Roman [Catholic] Church. (Online source).

On that same program discussing ECT, that also involved both J.I. Packer and Chuck Colson, John MacArthur was dead on target when he said:

When you talk about a work-righteousness system, of any kind, it is so far from saving that it is rubbish, it’s garbage. That’s why Paul said, “All my life” he said, “I tried to achieve this stuff, and I had all this stuff in my gain column,” remember that in Philippians 3? “And then I saw Christ, and a righteousness which came not by the law, but a righteousness was given to me by faith—the righteousness of God and immediately all what was gained was “skubalon.”

What you have got is a whole system built on “skubalon” and you can’t throw your arms around that system. You can’t embrace it, and simply say, “Well, they talk about Jesus, and they talk about God, and they talk about faith, and they talk about grace, and we have got to embrace them. And if we don’t embrace them then we are violating the unity of the Body, and we are being ungracious to other disciples.” That is a frightening misrepresentation of the distinctiveness of “Justification by faith, and faith alone.”

[Roman Catholicism] is a false religion, it is another religion. When you throw your arms around that you literally have to undo any doctrinal distinction. In fact, ECT doesn’t just do that implicitly, they do that explicitly. In the document, in effect, they say, “we have to accept all baptized Roman Catholics as brothers and sisters in Christ. In an article that followed that up in Christianity Today, J. I. Packer said, “We should acknowledge as brothers and sisters in Christ, anyone who lives to the highest ideals of their communion.” My response to that is the opposite. I maybe could fellowship with a bad Roman Catholic, that is, one who has rejected the system, but was still in the church and came to know Christ. But one who holds the highest ideals of Roman Catholicism—on what grounds do I have spiritual unity? (Online source)

To which R.C. Sproul would then add:

The Roman Catholic Church condemns “sola fide! (L.)” Now if, please understand this, if “sola fide (L.)” is the gospel, then the Roman Catholic Church has condemned the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, nobody who went to the Council of Trent, as a delegate, went there with the intention of condemning the gospel. The theologians of Rome really believed that they were defending the gospel and that the Protestants had in fact committed apostasy. And I admire the Church, the Roman communion of the 16th century for at least understanding what apparently people don’t understand today, and that is what is at stake here. That they understood that somebody is under the anathema of God!

And we can be as nice, and as pleasant, and as gentle, and as loving, and as charitable, and tolerant as we can possibly be, but it’s not going to change that folks. Somebody is preaching a different gospel! And when Rome condemned the Protestant declaration of “Justification by faith alone” I believe, Rome, when placing the anathema on “sola fide (L.),” placed the anathema of God upon themselves. I agree with his [John MacArthur] assessment, that the institution [Roman Catholic Church] is apostate! (Online source)

Yet despite the incontrovertible fact of Roman Catholic Church condemning the actual Gospel of Jesus Christ, and in contradistinction to the Protestant Reformers, Rick Warren is still on record telling us: “I see absolutely zero reason in separating my fellowship from anybody”. [1] And, from what you’ll see below from Warren, this clearly includes the Church of Rome which fellow Desiring God 2010 keynote speaker R.C. Sproul rightly noted above “is under the anathema of God.” 

Still Rick Warren announces defiantly: 

“Now I don’t agree with everything in everybody’s denomination, including my own. I don’t agree with everything that Catholics do or Pentecostals do, but what binds us together is so much stronger than what divides us,” he said. “I really do feel that these people are brothers and sisters in God’s family. I am looking to build bridges with the Orthodox Church, looking to build bridges with the Catholic Church,….” (Online source, emphasis mine)

“The Church, in all its expressions—Catholic, Evangelical, Pentecostal, Protestant and many others—has 2.3 billion followers.” (Online source, emphasis mine)

It’s important to understand here that this isn’t about Dr. John Piper, no one is saying he’s anything other than a dear brother in Christ who’s made a mistake; no, it’s about Rick Warren feeling he’s bigger than the entire Protestant Reformation. But Martin Luther warned long ago of milquetoast men like Warren:

The negotiation about doctrinal agreement displeases me altogether, for this is utterly impossible unless the pope has his papacy abolished. Therefore avoid and flee those who seek the middle of the road. Think of me after I am dead and such middle-of-the-road men arise, for nothing good will come of it. There can be no compromise. (What Luther Says, II: 1019)

The bottom line: Rick Warren is in sin to be in Christian fellowship with the Roman Catholic Church who condemned the Gospel.

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Endnotes:  

1. http://www.baptiststandard.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3871&Itemid=133, accessed 4/5/10.

See also:

THE INADEQUATE GOSPEL OF RICK WARREN

REFUTING RICK WARREN

DR. MICHAEL HORTON ON THE CHAMELEON-LIKE RICK WARREN

SBC PROTESTANT PASTOR RICK WARREN DOUBLE-MINDED ON THE REFORMATION AND ROMAN CATHOLICISM

SOUTHERN BAPTIST PASTOR RICK WARREN AND SADDLEBACK CHURCH OPENLY RECOMMEND CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY/MYSTICISM

SADDLEBACK CHURCH PASTORS USING ROB BELL TEACHINGS

DR. ROD ROSENBLADT CALLS RICK WARREN’S MAN-CENTERED THEOLOGY “ROMAN CATHOLIC”