UPDATE: RICK WARREN ASKS US TO FAST AND PRAY FOR GOD TO HELP APOSTATES ELECT THEIR NEW POPE—AND HIS FRIEND JOHN PIPER TWEETS AGREEMENT
By Ken Silva pastor-teacher on Mar 12, 2013 in AM Missives, Current Issues, Features, Rick Warren, Roman Catholicism
If you’re familiar with Apprising Ministries you will know that I’m doing what I can to alert you to a growing syncretism and sinful ecumenicism continuing to spread throughout mainstream evangelicalism.
And, without a doubt, a leader of this compromise in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) would be Rick Warren, pastor of the highly influential Saddleback Church and General of the Seeker Driven Army.
For example, I showed you in Rick Warren And Teachings Of Demons that the pope of Purpose Drivenism tweeted the following bull,1 which appeared in a 2005 report on Warren by Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
“Now I don’t agree with everything in everybody’s denomination, including my own. I don’t agree with everything that [Roman] 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 [Roman] Catholic Church,… (source, emphasis mine)
Let’s avoid wrestling with the serpent here: No one’s arguing that there are not individual Roman Catholics who have been saved; however, they find the Gospel in spite of what the apostate Roman Catholic Church teaches.
We’ve seen the same thing with SBC promoted quasi-pastrix Beth Moore. Hence my earlier piece Leading Southern Baptists Attempting To Reverse The Protestant Reformation, This is a pathetic backdrop within evangelicalism.
However, you need to know this as we come the the tweet below from Rick Warren:
(source)
Seriously? Does Warren really believe that the one true and living God is going to help a church which placed its own anathema upon His Gospel elect “a new leader?” Sadly, John Piper would tweet:
(source)
Yet Dr. R.C. Sproul explains:
the Catholic Church understood [what was at stake] in the 16th century, [when] Trent and Rome placed its unambiguous anathema on the Protestant doctrine of “Justification by faith alone” and [the Church of Rome] has never, in any magisterial sense removed that anathema…
[T]he Roman Catholic Church has condemned the gospel of Jesus Christ… Somebody is preaching a different gospel!… Rome, when placing the anathema on “sola fide (L.),” placed the anathema of God upon themselves.
I agree with his [John MacArthur’s] assessment, that the institution [Roman Catholic Church] is apostate! (source)
The pope usurps the place of the Holy Spirit as the vicar of Christ. Writing concerning the late Pope John Paul II, Mike Gendron of Proclaiming the Gospel explains:
This pope never claimed to be God, but he took pleasure in being addressed with titles reserved for God alone. He usurped the titles “Holy Father” from God the Father, “The Head of the Church” from the Lord Jesus Christ and “The Vicar of Christ” from the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus promised to send in His place.
John Paul often sat in pompous arrogance on his royal throne as his loyal subjects knelt before him. Never did he refuse worship as Peter did when men fell at his feet. Peter, knowing that only God deserved such reverence, immediately ordered: “Stand up; I too am just a man” (Acts 10:26).
Forget Rick Warren’s fantasy; Mike Gendron is also dead-on-target when he puts this into proper perspective:
If ever there was a more important time for faithful servants of our Lord Jesus Christ to take a stand for the truth, it is now. Many evangelicals are praising John Paul II for being a great spiritual leader.
But why are they giving such honor to the former head of an apostate church which keeps over a billion people in spiritual darkness? (source)