Day Thirty-Seven - Sharing Your Life Message
In the previous chapter Mr. Warren maintained that the church has a mission to continue the work that Jesus started, to “introduce people to God.” In support of this notion, he cited several texts of Scripture wherein we read of Jesus charging His disciples with being His witnesses to preach the Gospel to all creation. The phrase “introduce people to God” is very vague. Given that Mr. Warren calls upon texts such as “The Great Commission” in support of his view, we charitably might suppose that by “introduce people to God” he means “preach the Gospel to people.” However, since this chapter is titled “Sharing Your Life Message” instead of “Sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” his meaning remains in doubt.
“God wants to speak to the world through you,” he assures us. (p. 289) In truth God already has spoken to the world. In consideration of how He might continue speaking to our contemporary world, it is essential that we should be mindful of His manner of speaking to the world in prior eras. In Hebrews 1:1 we read, “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.” At the outset of Creation, God spoke directly, supernaturally to Adam. In similar fashion He spoke to Abraham and to Moses. Through Moses and the Prophets He spoke to the multitude of His people. II Peter 1:20-21 says, “But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” God supernaturally gave His Word to the Prophet, for him then confidently to declare to his hearers, “Thus saith the Lord…” By inspiration God so moved in the hearts and minds of various men that He caused them - each one in his own personality and style - to write the very Word of God. II Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.”
It is evident that this is not what Mr. Warren had in mind by “God wants to speak to the world through you.” It is, indeed, a relief to know that he really is not suggesting that everyone must become a prophet or a writer of Scripture. However, we then are left with the grave question to determine his intended meaning. It is a dangerous thing to toy with terminology involving the Word of God and the means of His communication - or revelation - to men. With great care we might say that there is a sense in which God speaks to the world through us. The only sense in which this might be true to say is in the sense that we are ministers of His Word. On pages 228-229 Mr. Warren points out that in the New Testament Greek the term for “minister” might as well be translated “servant,” and likewise “ministry” and “service.” This is true. He goes on the strength of this to exhort us that “ministry” is not the monopoly of the “ordained” professional. Again, generally speaking, this is true. Anyone in the church can be a “minister” and have a “ministry.” Thus, to minister the Word of God consists not only of the trained and learned exposition of the Bible brought forth by the “minister” in Sunday service, but consists also of the simple factory worker who admonishes a careless co-worker by reciting to him Colossians 3:23. God speaks through such a one in the sense that he has been faithful to witness to God’s truth by aptly ministering His Word in right circumstances.
Thankfully, Mr. Warren’s idea of “God speaks through you” involves no alarming idea of prophecy or inspiration. However, ruefully, neither does it involve any sound idea of the ministry of God’s Word. He says, “You have a storehouse of experiences that God wants to use to bring others into his family.” (p. 289) Rather than ministering the things of God, it seems to be Mr. Warren’s serious suggestion that God speaking through someone entails a person ministering the things of his own “experiences,” for his emphasis is not “Sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” but “Sharing Your Life Message.” According to the Bible, faith comes by hearing the word of Christ (Rom. 10:17). According to Mr. Warren, faith comes by hearing about someone’s personal “experiences.” But, let us give Mr. Warren a hearing to see how he fleshes out his idea of the “Life Message.” He says the “Life Message” has four parts: Testimony, Lessons, Passions, and Good News.
Your “testimony,” he says, is “the story of how you began a relationship with Jesus.” The “essence of witnessing,” he says, is “simply sharing your personal experiences regarding the Lord.” (p. 290) In a world in which men are the creatures of God, but have come under the wrath of God for their sin - i.e. because of their having broken the Covenant and the Law of God - they might be reconciled to God by the operation of God’s grace in their hearts to apply to them the redemption of Christ having taken their sins upon Himself in His death, burial, and resurrection. In such a world, one might minister this Gospel of grace in just the manner prescribed by Christ (Mat. 28:19) - by disciplining the nations to turn from their sins to the grace that is in Christ, by baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that God commands. However, Mr. Warren would create a different sort of world. He suggests a world in which men somehow become “disconnected” from God, and through “experiences” - or hearing about the “experiences” of others - they might “begin a relationship with Jesus.” In this sort of world it is important for one to share his “experiences,” because “Shared stories build a relational bridge that Jesus can walk across from your heart to theirs.” (p. 290) In the world of God’s Creation, Christ originates from His own sovereign throne and enters the sinful human heart upon the ministry of His own Word. In the world of Mr. Warren’s imagination, Jesus originates in one human heart and is dependent upon this one to build a “relational bridge” so that he can walk across into another heart.
Mr. Warren is especially urgent about the sharing of “experiences,” because “Many people who won’t accept the authority of the Bible will listen to a humble, personal story.” (p. 291) He goes on to suggest that for this very reason Paul on many occasions in the later chapters of Acts “used his testimony to share the gospel instead of quoting Scripture.” (p. 291) First, Paul’s testimony hardly was a “humble, personal story.” It is not the case that he felt his hearers would not accept the authority of Scripture and so told them his story instead. He did not calculate that his story would build a “relational bridge” that Jesus could walk across from his heart to theirs. Quite the contrary: upon hearing his story, “They raised their voices and said, ‘Away with such a fellow from the earth, for he should not be allowed to live, and…they were crying out and throwing off their cloaks and tossing dust into the air…” (Acts 22:22-23) Second, we are not provided the full extent of Paul’s remarks, and therefore cannot know with any certainty that he focused upon a personal story in lieu of Scripture. Indeed, the centerpiece of his story was the revelation of Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus. This was, in fact, the very word of Christ. It was not a “personal experience” that was in some way fundamentally distinct from the authority of Scripture. Also, Paul said of his presentation that he was “…stating nothing but what the Prophets and Moses said was going to take place.” (Acts 26:22) Third, the context of Paul’s remarks was not designed or motivated by any conviction that his hearers lacked knowledge of or respect for God’s Word. He challenged the king, “…I utter words of sober truth. For the king knows about these matters, and I speak to him also with confidence, since I am persuaded that none of these things escape his notice; for this has not been done in a corner. King Agrippa, do you believe the Prophets? I know that you do.” (Acts 26:25-27) It simply is ludicrous to appeal to Paul’s defenses in the latter part of Acts in support of a notion that the “essence of witnessing” consists of “sharing experiences” in lieu of preaching the Word of God.
Mr. Warren says that another component of a “Life Message” is “Life Lessons.” (p. 291) He does not mean lessons learned from study of the Bible, but lessons learned from “experiences.” It is true that one may learn many valuable lessons in the course of his life, and we stand to benefit much from learning these kinds of things from others. Mr. Warren says, “There isn’t enough time to learn everything in life by trial and error. We must learn from the life lessons of one another… Imagine how much needless frustration could be avoided if we learned from each other’s life lessons.” (p. 291-292) As an interesting aside we might note that back on page 194 Mr. Warren told us that, “We learn things about God in suffering that we can’t learn in any other way,” that “Problems force us to look to God and depend on him instead of ourselves,” and that “You’ll never know that God is all you need until God is all you’ve got.” Back then, problems were essential in learning about God and becoming dependent upon Him. Now, they are “needless frustrations.” We could talk about various shades of meaning that might be able to integrate somehow the messages of pages 194 and 292. But this would take us quite far from the ostensible subject of the current chapter. The important questions for the current subject are: What does any of this have to do with the “gospel”? What does it have to do with a “mission” to “unbelievers”? How do “Life Lessons” have anything at all to do with Matthew 28:18-20? Demonstrably, there is no connection. Yet, this is a text cited by Mr. Warren in support of his idea of “Sharing your Life Message.” We may only conclude that Mr. Warren’s idea of “introduce people to God” has as little to do with sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ as “Life Lessons” has to do with Matthew 28:18-20.
Next, Mr. Warren says that our “godly passions” are one aspect of our “Life Message,” because people “desperately need a strong Christian witness.” (p. 293) It is quite true that a strong Christian witness desperately is needed. The true desperateness of this need makes it especially tragic that Mr. Warren considers “sharing your experiences” to be the “essence of witnessing.” Of course, much good is accomplished by those who are driven by a passion for a cause, and with this we have no quarrel. However, Mr. Warren has made “godly passion” to be an essential component of the “Life Message” that he says it is our mission to share in lieu of sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Hence, ultimately it is unfruitful for him to point to a desperate need for a strong Christian witness as a motive for cultivating our passions. He suggests that our passionate activity amounts to speaking for God because, “God gives us different passions so that everything he wants done in the world will get done.” (p. 293) However, everything that God wants to get done in the world falls under the umbrella of “the summing up of all things in Christ.” (Eph. 1:10) All modes and aspects of this summing up involve the truth of God, the Creator; Man the creature, made in His image and fallen into sin; and the redemption of sinners in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. This is the “strong Christian witness” that is so desperately needed. The passions of men do not speak for God and do not accomplish a witness to His truth if they only involve “experiences” and “life lessons.”
Finally, Mr. Warren says that the “Life Message” includes the “Good News.” “What is the Good News?” he immediately asks. (p. 294) In answer to this he cites two texts of Scripture: Romans 1:17 and II Corinthians 5:19. Even in the modern paraphrases cited it is clear that it is God’s initiative and power to reconcile to Himself a people who hopelessly are lost in sin. But then Mr. Warren offers a summary of the “Good News” in his own words: “The Good News is that when we trust God’s grace to save us through what Jesus did, our sins are forgiven, we get a purpose for living, and we are promised a future home in heaven.” (p. 294) Assessment of this summary depends upon a biblical survey of “Good News.” The phrase “Good News” is a translation of the Greek word euaggelion. More often it is translated “gospel.” The term denotively is fairly general. It is not a technical term and thus is not precise in its meaning. Its meaning is built up via usage. In many places it is left a fairly general term, such as in “the gospel of the kingdom.” (e.g. Mat. 4:23) An extensive, detailed study may be undertaken concerning the usage of this term in the New Testament, and thereby an argument may be developed concerning a more refined meaning of the term in context of Christian theology. It is pertinent in this context to provide only a few examples. In Acts 13:16-41 and I Corinthians 15:1-6 we see that a truly Christian idea of gospel entails first, the eternal glory of God, our Creator; second, the corruption of the human nature in sin; and third, God’s redemption of His people in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. Any message not based upon these essential truths is not the Gospel. Though a term with a rather general denotation, it is quite evident that via consistent usage it acquired - even within the New Testament era - a very specific content. Paul had a very definite content in mind when he charged the Galatians: “But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed.” (Gal. 1:8) The Gospel is the message of Creation, Sin, and Redemption, and any message contrary to that is not the Gospel.
What has Mr. Warren brought us as a “gospel”? He suggests not Creation, Sin and Redemption, but, forgiveness, purpose, and heaven. Though citing a text of Scripture that says very clearly that “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself,” Mr. Warren nonetheless makes his idea of good new contingent upon human initiative. He says that “our sins are forgiven…when we trust God’s grace.” (p. 294) This is exactly opposite to biblical truth. Biblically, the sinner is “dead in trespasses and sins” until God “made us alive together with Christ.” (Eph. 2:1-9) Only by the redeeming grace of God are we able to trust Him. “For apart from Me you can do nothing.” (Jn. 15:5) Mr. Warren speaks only nebulously of “what Jesus did.” Well, what exactly did Jesus do? He healed diseases and infirmities, He taught, He fed the hungry, He performed signs and wonders, He debated the Scribes and Pharisees. Also, He died upon a cross and then rose again from the dead. Mr. Warren declares that if we trust in “what Jesus did,” then our sins will be forgiven. But he never has told us what “sin” is, why it is something that requires forgiveness, or how anything that “Jesus did” mitigates sin in any way. He told us, for example, that sin is “failing to give God glory,” and that “Jesus came to earth so we could fully understand God’s glory.” (p. 54-55) He later told us that Jesus’ attitude was, “I’d rather die than live without you.” (p. 79) And then assured us that, “God doesn’t expect you to be perfect” (p. 92), but that, “God wants you to be yourself.” (p. 103) In the world that Mr. Warren offers us, how is “sin” anything that must be “paid for” or “forgiven”? In such a world it becomes a major purpose of one’s life to share his “Life Message,” consisting of his “experiences” and “lessons.” In the world of God’s Creation, we are obliged to speak His Word and thus to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
“God wants to speak to the world through you,” he assures us. (p. 289) In truth God already has spoken to the world. In consideration of how He might continue speaking to our contemporary world, it is essential that we should be mindful of His manner of speaking to the world in prior eras. In Hebrews 1:1 we read, “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.” At the outset of Creation, God spoke directly, supernaturally to Adam. In similar fashion He spoke to Abraham and to Moses. Through Moses and the Prophets He spoke to the multitude of His people. II Peter 1:20-21 says, “But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” God supernaturally gave His Word to the Prophet, for him then confidently to declare to his hearers, “Thus saith the Lord…” By inspiration God so moved in the hearts and minds of various men that He caused them - each one in his own personality and style - to write the very Word of God. II Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.”
It is evident that this is not what Mr. Warren had in mind by “God wants to speak to the world through you.” It is, indeed, a relief to know that he really is not suggesting that everyone must become a prophet or a writer of Scripture. However, we then are left with the grave question to determine his intended meaning. It is a dangerous thing to toy with terminology involving the Word of God and the means of His communication - or revelation - to men. With great care we might say that there is a sense in which God speaks to the world through us. The only sense in which this might be true to say is in the sense that we are ministers of His Word. On pages 228-229 Mr. Warren points out that in the New Testament Greek the term for “minister” might as well be translated “servant,” and likewise “ministry” and “service.” This is true. He goes on the strength of this to exhort us that “ministry” is not the monopoly of the “ordained” professional. Again, generally speaking, this is true. Anyone in the church can be a “minister” and have a “ministry.” Thus, to minister the Word of God consists not only of the trained and learned exposition of the Bible brought forth by the “minister” in Sunday service, but consists also of the simple factory worker who admonishes a careless co-worker by reciting to him Colossians 3:23. God speaks through such a one in the sense that he has been faithful to witness to God’s truth by aptly ministering His Word in right circumstances.
Thankfully, Mr. Warren’s idea of “God speaks through you” involves no alarming idea of prophecy or inspiration. However, ruefully, neither does it involve any sound idea of the ministry of God’s Word. He says, “You have a storehouse of experiences that God wants to use to bring others into his family.” (p. 289) Rather than ministering the things of God, it seems to be Mr. Warren’s serious suggestion that God speaking through someone entails a person ministering the things of his own “experiences,” for his emphasis is not “Sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” but “Sharing Your Life Message.” According to the Bible, faith comes by hearing the word of Christ (Rom. 10:17). According to Mr. Warren, faith comes by hearing about someone’s personal “experiences.” But, let us give Mr. Warren a hearing to see how he fleshes out his idea of the “Life Message.” He says the “Life Message” has four parts: Testimony, Lessons, Passions, and Good News.
Your “testimony,” he says, is “the story of how you began a relationship with Jesus.” The “essence of witnessing,” he says, is “simply sharing your personal experiences regarding the Lord.” (p. 290) In a world in which men are the creatures of God, but have come under the wrath of God for their sin - i.e. because of their having broken the Covenant and the Law of God - they might be reconciled to God by the operation of God’s grace in their hearts to apply to them the redemption of Christ having taken their sins upon Himself in His death, burial, and resurrection. In such a world, one might minister this Gospel of grace in just the manner prescribed by Christ (Mat. 28:19) - by disciplining the nations to turn from their sins to the grace that is in Christ, by baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that God commands. However, Mr. Warren would create a different sort of world. He suggests a world in which men somehow become “disconnected” from God, and through “experiences” - or hearing about the “experiences” of others - they might “begin a relationship with Jesus.” In this sort of world it is important for one to share his “experiences,” because “Shared stories build a relational bridge that Jesus can walk across from your heart to theirs.” (p. 290) In the world of God’s Creation, Christ originates from His own sovereign throne and enters the sinful human heart upon the ministry of His own Word. In the world of Mr. Warren’s imagination, Jesus originates in one human heart and is dependent upon this one to build a “relational bridge” so that he can walk across into another heart.
Mr. Warren is especially urgent about the sharing of “experiences,” because “Many people who won’t accept the authority of the Bible will listen to a humble, personal story.” (p. 291) He goes on to suggest that for this very reason Paul on many occasions in the later chapters of Acts “used his testimony to share the gospel instead of quoting Scripture.” (p. 291) First, Paul’s testimony hardly was a “humble, personal story.” It is not the case that he felt his hearers would not accept the authority of Scripture and so told them his story instead. He did not calculate that his story would build a “relational bridge” that Jesus could walk across from his heart to theirs. Quite the contrary: upon hearing his story, “They raised their voices and said, ‘Away with such a fellow from the earth, for he should not be allowed to live, and…they were crying out and throwing off their cloaks and tossing dust into the air…” (Acts 22:22-23) Second, we are not provided the full extent of Paul’s remarks, and therefore cannot know with any certainty that he focused upon a personal story in lieu of Scripture. Indeed, the centerpiece of his story was the revelation of Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus. This was, in fact, the very word of Christ. It was not a “personal experience” that was in some way fundamentally distinct from the authority of Scripture. Also, Paul said of his presentation that he was “…stating nothing but what the Prophets and Moses said was going to take place.” (Acts 26:22) Third, the context of Paul’s remarks was not designed or motivated by any conviction that his hearers lacked knowledge of or respect for God’s Word. He challenged the king, “…I utter words of sober truth. For the king knows about these matters, and I speak to him also with confidence, since I am persuaded that none of these things escape his notice; for this has not been done in a corner. King Agrippa, do you believe the Prophets? I know that you do.” (Acts 26:25-27) It simply is ludicrous to appeal to Paul’s defenses in the latter part of Acts in support of a notion that the “essence of witnessing” consists of “sharing experiences” in lieu of preaching the Word of God.
Mr. Warren says that another component of a “Life Message” is “Life Lessons.” (p. 291) He does not mean lessons learned from study of the Bible, but lessons learned from “experiences.” It is true that one may learn many valuable lessons in the course of his life, and we stand to benefit much from learning these kinds of things from others. Mr. Warren says, “There isn’t enough time to learn everything in life by trial and error. We must learn from the life lessons of one another… Imagine how much needless frustration could be avoided if we learned from each other’s life lessons.” (p. 291-292) As an interesting aside we might note that back on page 194 Mr. Warren told us that, “We learn things about God in suffering that we can’t learn in any other way,” that “Problems force us to look to God and depend on him instead of ourselves,” and that “You’ll never know that God is all you need until God is all you’ve got.” Back then, problems were essential in learning about God and becoming dependent upon Him. Now, they are “needless frustrations.” We could talk about various shades of meaning that might be able to integrate somehow the messages of pages 194 and 292. But this would take us quite far from the ostensible subject of the current chapter. The important questions for the current subject are: What does any of this have to do with the “gospel”? What does it have to do with a “mission” to “unbelievers”? How do “Life Lessons” have anything at all to do with Matthew 28:18-20? Demonstrably, there is no connection. Yet, this is a text cited by Mr. Warren in support of his idea of “Sharing your Life Message.” We may only conclude that Mr. Warren’s idea of “introduce people to God” has as little to do with sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ as “Life Lessons” has to do with Matthew 28:18-20.
Next, Mr. Warren says that our “godly passions” are one aspect of our “Life Message,” because people “desperately need a strong Christian witness.” (p. 293) It is quite true that a strong Christian witness desperately is needed. The true desperateness of this need makes it especially tragic that Mr. Warren considers “sharing your experiences” to be the “essence of witnessing.” Of course, much good is accomplished by those who are driven by a passion for a cause, and with this we have no quarrel. However, Mr. Warren has made “godly passion” to be an essential component of the “Life Message” that he says it is our mission to share in lieu of sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Hence, ultimately it is unfruitful for him to point to a desperate need for a strong Christian witness as a motive for cultivating our passions. He suggests that our passionate activity amounts to speaking for God because, “God gives us different passions so that everything he wants done in the world will get done.” (p. 293) However, everything that God wants to get done in the world falls under the umbrella of “the summing up of all things in Christ.” (Eph. 1:10) All modes and aspects of this summing up involve the truth of God, the Creator; Man the creature, made in His image and fallen into sin; and the redemption of sinners in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. This is the “strong Christian witness” that is so desperately needed. The passions of men do not speak for God and do not accomplish a witness to His truth if they only involve “experiences” and “life lessons.”
Finally, Mr. Warren says that the “Life Message” includes the “Good News.” “What is the Good News?” he immediately asks. (p. 294) In answer to this he cites two texts of Scripture: Romans 1:17 and II Corinthians 5:19. Even in the modern paraphrases cited it is clear that it is God’s initiative and power to reconcile to Himself a people who hopelessly are lost in sin. But then Mr. Warren offers a summary of the “Good News” in his own words: “The Good News is that when we trust God’s grace to save us through what Jesus did, our sins are forgiven, we get a purpose for living, and we are promised a future home in heaven.” (p. 294) Assessment of this summary depends upon a biblical survey of “Good News.” The phrase “Good News” is a translation of the Greek word euaggelion. More often it is translated “gospel.” The term denotively is fairly general. It is not a technical term and thus is not precise in its meaning. Its meaning is built up via usage. In many places it is left a fairly general term, such as in “the gospel of the kingdom.” (e.g. Mat. 4:23) An extensive, detailed study may be undertaken concerning the usage of this term in the New Testament, and thereby an argument may be developed concerning a more refined meaning of the term in context of Christian theology. It is pertinent in this context to provide only a few examples. In Acts 13:16-41 and I Corinthians 15:1-6 we see that a truly Christian idea of gospel entails first, the eternal glory of God, our Creator; second, the corruption of the human nature in sin; and third, God’s redemption of His people in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. Any message not based upon these essential truths is not the Gospel. Though a term with a rather general denotation, it is quite evident that via consistent usage it acquired - even within the New Testament era - a very specific content. Paul had a very definite content in mind when he charged the Galatians: “But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed.” (Gal. 1:8) The Gospel is the message of Creation, Sin, and Redemption, and any message contrary to that is not the Gospel.
What has Mr. Warren brought us as a “gospel”? He suggests not Creation, Sin and Redemption, but, forgiveness, purpose, and heaven. Though citing a text of Scripture that says very clearly that “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself,” Mr. Warren nonetheless makes his idea of good new contingent upon human initiative. He says that “our sins are forgiven…when we trust God’s grace.” (p. 294) This is exactly opposite to biblical truth. Biblically, the sinner is “dead in trespasses and sins” until God “made us alive together with Christ.” (Eph. 2:1-9) Only by the redeeming grace of God are we able to trust Him. “For apart from Me you can do nothing.” (Jn. 15:5) Mr. Warren speaks only nebulously of “what Jesus did.” Well, what exactly did Jesus do? He healed diseases and infirmities, He taught, He fed the hungry, He performed signs and wonders, He debated the Scribes and Pharisees. Also, He died upon a cross and then rose again from the dead. Mr. Warren declares that if we trust in “what Jesus did,” then our sins will be forgiven. But he never has told us what “sin” is, why it is something that requires forgiveness, or how anything that “Jesus did” mitigates sin in any way. He told us, for example, that sin is “failing to give God glory,” and that “Jesus came to earth so we could fully understand God’s glory.” (p. 54-55) He later told us that Jesus’ attitude was, “I’d rather die than live without you.” (p. 79) And then assured us that, “God doesn’t expect you to be perfect” (p. 92), but that, “God wants you to be yourself.” (p. 103) In the world that Mr. Warren offers us, how is “sin” anything that must be “paid for” or “forgiven”? In such a world it becomes a major purpose of one’s life to share his “Life Message,” consisting of his “experiences” and “lessons.” In the world of God’s Creation, we are obliged to speak His Word and thus to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
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