40 Days of Community = 100% Law, 0% Gospel

Warning: This post is controversial. Please read this site's disclaimer should you be offended by what you read.

Before I get into the critique of the 40 Days of Community, I need to first lay a foundation to build on.

2 Timothy 2:15 admonishes pastors to correctly handle God’s word of truth. This is a fundamental requirement for all Christian ministers. Notice I said ‘requirement’. The Bible is God’s word and His message to world. Pastors and ministers are called to preach THIS message and no other. That means that twisting the message, inventing your own message, or preaching any another other message are grounds for dismissal from the ministry.

Properly understanding the Bible’s message is not that difficult, but it does take some work. Below I’ve listed some simple disciplines or ‘rules of thumb’ that help in correctly interpreting God’s word.

Discipline One: Each passage of scripture is to be understood according to its original context. The reason for this is simple. Ripping verses out of context oftentimes causes scripture to say or support ideas that are misleading or incorrect.

A great illustration of the dangers of taking verses out of context is the story of a young Bible student who was earnestly praying for the Lord to speak to him. He decided that he’d close his eyes and randomly flip through the pages of his Bible and then put his finger down on a verse and thus give God the opportunity to give him a personal message. So he closed his eyes, flipped through his Bible and put his finger down on a verse. It read, “Judas hanged himself”. He closed his eyes again and repeated the process. The next verse his finger fell on read, “Go thou and do likewise.”

Obviously God never intended that the Bible be used to convince someone to kill himself. This interpretation is only possible when you rip verses out off context and put them together. That’s why ministers should be careful when quoting verses. All ministers should take the time to insure that the points he is drawing from a verse are in agreement with the original context.

Discipline Two: Make sure that you are reading a good translation of scripture. The Bible was not written in English. It was written in several languages including Hebrew, Koine Greek and Aramaic. Understanding the ‘original intent’ therefore, is only possible by reading the Bible in either the original languages or by reading a good translation. Currently, there is a whole group of Bibles available on the market that are paraphrases of God’s word. Their goal is to make God’s word easier to read and understand. Unfortunately, these paraphrases cannot be trusted to give us an accurate picture of the ‘original intent’ of God’s word. Sadly this fact hasn’t stopped many Christian ministers from dogmatically teaching a ‘Biblical Principle’ that can only be found in paraphrase.

Discipline Three: The need to properly distinguishing between the message of God’s Law and the message of the Gospel. When it comes to good Christian preaching, this is where the whole game is either won or lost and people’s souls are either comforted or terrorized. How well a pastor does in this discipline will determine whether his sheep learn to trust in Christ for their salvation or to put their trust in their own good works and their ability to keep the law.

Scripture makes it clear that God’s Law cannot save us and that no one will be saved by keeping the law. Rom 3:20, 28, Gal 3:3-5, 10-11 In fact, scripture makes it clear that the purpose of the law is to point out our sin and to point us to Jesus. Rom 3:20, Gal 3:21-25

The Gospel on the other hand, teaches that salvation is a free gift of God’s grace that we receive through faith. Rom 3:21-26, Eph 2:8-10, In fact, scripture teaches that God does both the saving and the sanctifying Heb 12:2, Acts 26:17-18. The way the Protestant Reformers put it, “We are saved by Grace ALONE (sola gratia), through Faith alone (sola fide).”

Therefore, watch out for ministers who unlawfully confuse God’s law with the message of the Gospel. An easy way to spot this is to ask yourself, “What does my pastor or teacher say my problem is? Then ask, “Who does he say is responsible for fixing it?” If your pastor teaches that YOU have to solve your own problems, then chances are you are hearing a sermon or lesson that is misapplying God’s law.

Here’s how Warren violates this discipline in the 40 Days of Community. The question that Warren tries to answer in this series is “What are we here for?” He is talking about the church. So you could rephrase his question, “What is the church here for?” His answer is that, “The church is here to love.” So far so good, but then things take a bad turn. His solution to the problem of a church that isn’t "loving enough" is that each person in that church must learn how to love and choose to love because God commands it in his law.”

Listen Carefully to these sound bites.

Sound Bite 1 - Nothing I Believe Will Matter

Notice how Warren's emphasis on love undermines the Biblical teaching that Faith alone saves.

Sound Bite 2 - It Takes More Than Faith to Please God (Just in case you missed it)

Sound Bite 3 - Only Thing That Matters

Sound Bite 4 - What is Love?

Sound Bite 5 - Love is a Choice

Pay real close attention to Sound Bite 5! In this quote, Warren violates all three disciplines that I listed above. Warren quotes 1 Corinthians 14:1 out of context, using “The Message” paraphrase. "The Message" quotes this verse as saying, “Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it, because it does”. Based on how Warren uses this verse, I'd have to assume that my life and my salvation depend on how well I love.

However, when you read this verse in context using a good translation like the NIV you see that is NOT what the passage actually says. Here is how the NIV translates 1 Cor 14:1 “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy.” The NIV translation makes it clear that this passage is about the 'loving practice of spiritual gifts'. Warren's misapplication of 1 Cor 14:1 demonstrates the fundamental flaw of his theology and the whole '40 Days of Community' program; it puts us back under God’s law and makes my salvation dependent on how well I keep it.

Notice that Warren makes it OUR responsibility to solve this problem, through OUR OWN efforts and OUR keeping of God’s commandments. Paul’s criticism of the Galatian church can rightly be applied to Rick Warren. In Gal 3:3-5 Paul says, “Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? Have you suffered so much for nothing — if it really was for nothing? Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?”

If there is any doubt about how to answer Paul’s last question in verse five, in verses 10 and 11 he says, “All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, “The righteous will live by faith.”

Furthermore, Warren appears to have forgotten what scripture says about the source of Christian love. 1 John 4:19 says, “We love because he first loved us” and Galatians 5:22 teaches that “the fruit of the Spirit is love.”

Rather than putting us back under the law, Warren should have pointed us to Christ.

Rather than try to motivate us by threatening us with God’s law, he should have pointed out the clear passages of scripture that motivate Christians to greater love and service because of God’s great love for us. Rom. 12:1 is a beautiful example of this. It says “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God — this is your spiritual act of worship.: See also Rom 8:1-8, Col 2:20-3:4

The bottom line on the 40 Days of Community regarding the proper distinction of law and gospel is that Warren’s program is 100% Law. Warren’s program is all about motivating you to try harder to keep God’s law through your own efforts. The cross is missing, the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit is missing and Christ is missing. This program could easily be renamed, 40 Days Without Jesus.

Comments

[Mary]

Wow! Strong stuff. Hope the right people are reading this. God bless you Chris. I depend on your keen insight, knowledge of the Bible and discerning of right and wrong. Mary

[George Mimmen]

Just heard you on Issues Etc. Awesome!!!

I agree with you about Warren, but how funny it is that you hardly had to say anything as Warren's absurdity stood out on its own.

I'll be back.

[Brian]

I recently talked to the pastoral staff at my chuech bout PDL principles and teahing and the sad part is that they refuse to believe or even look at the info out here that exposes PDL as out and out heresy. Rick spin doctors cover his tracks well but, the Lord will eventually expose him for what he truly is. Thanks, eph61018

[Carl Walker]

I read this and found it very truthful and practical.
The preacher is supposed to preach the word and let the word do the work.
The word of God will plow open the furrows of the heart (ground) and the seed will fall into the places men (preachers) can't see to bring forth a harvest unto God.
Only the repentant, trusting and believing heart can be transformed from death unto life by the Spirit when God's word is preached.

[Gene]

I recieved this book last year by Rick Warren and immediatley after reading the first few pages the scriptures were badly translated and I found the book confusing and alot of goblie gook. A clear spirit of confusion. Its amazing how so many people can follow after the latest doctrines of demons and not even get wind of whats going on. If your not born again you are always itching for some knew teaching or something to boast in other than Christs finished work at the cross. JUSTIFIED BY GRACE ALONE THROUGH FAITH ALONE IN CHRIST ALONE. We are the workmen ship of Christ who completes his work through us so all in all it is to Christ the glory belongs THE REVELATION OF HIS GRACE BY THE FRUIT OF FAITH APPOINTED TO US.

[Joel Hewitt]

I have been in Three churches thus far that have put their churches through the small group Therapy programs, it is the same process I have been through in our companies DIVERSITY programs, Let me cut to the chase, Warrens Programs and Mainline U.S. business Diversity programs are DESIGNED to MIX/BLEND us, materials that was brought into our church was designed at the North Carolina Research Triangle, a Company called Church Initiative, they have small group therapy programs designed by psychoanalysts.

Warren started his "church" by taking a survey of his community trying to find out what THEY wanted in a church, then he gave them what THEY WANTED, sounds familiar? Maybe not to you younger folks, but look up the recent documentary produced by a fellow named Stanley, it was altered for HBO I think, you can purchase the DVD through them, anyway, it is ( JONESTOWN The Life and Death of Peoples Temple, ) if you take notes on this DVD on HOW Jones did this it will fall directly inline with Warrens stuff.

Warren sells his PROCESS to Pastors across the U.S. on HOW to build a church LIKE HIS, but you see his church was based on the PEOPLES WANTS / DESIRES / NEEDS, the traditional church model WASN'T based on this, thus what you have here is what we call in engineering is REVERSE ENGINEERING.

When Jesus had the multitudes following him when He was feeding and caring for their needs He immediately DISCOURAGED THEM by giving the COMMAND of Discipleship The DENIAL OF SELF, these materials put out and produced by Warren and others are Socialist / Marxists materials that is designed to SHIFT traditional churches FROM GOD CENTERED / WORD CENTERED to HUMAN CENTERED FLESH CENTERED, this is WHY he doesn't use ONE TRANSLATION, because HE wants everyone to think LIKE HIM, that everybody is one big happy family with NO WALLS / NO BOUNDARIES, TOGETHER WE CAN. The Spirit of the Anti Christ is NO WALLS / NO BOUNDARIES, Warrens materials and those like Church Initiative is in EVERY MAJOR Denomination in the U.S., folks Community is just another word for UNITY, not based on the Word of God since it is evident Warren doesn't know WHICH BOOK IS RIGHT!

The REASON for Warrens popularity is he is one of the major "leaders" that is being used to bring about World Wide UNITY among EVERY RELIGION, At Obamas inauguration Warren used the Koran's name for Jesus, and the Koran Jesus is NOT the Jesus of OUR New Testament. Warren is using a different suit for whoever he is entertaining.

[david]

these are the ones that the devil made leaders of and the rest went on their own, they will bring about the falling away, or departing from the truth and faith, jesus said it would happen, time of the itching ears, the real people of the lord will be put out of the church, along with the ones he calls to come out christianity, and not be a partaker of her sins, and curses, almost time of the gentiles coming in being full, we are about the begginning of the fifth seal, shalom