Purpose-Driven Journal: 05/20/07

Sunday

Now Complete !

Below the reader will find my critical review of Rick Warren’s The Purpose-Driven Life, which now is complete through all forty chapters. I would like to thank the small set of readers who have maintained their interest in this project through the several years it took to complete. Their encouragement has been very edifying. I will continue to monitor the comments posted here, and will (Lord willing) respond in civil discourse to any who may wish to pursue discussion.

My name is S. C. Mooney. I am just an ordinary guy from Harrison County, Ohio. I am doing this because 1) an adult study group was formed in my church to read through this book, 2) my daughter’s young adult Sunday School class is working through this book, 3) my 13-year-old son’s 7th grade Christian School class is studying through this book, 4) internationally known Christian leaders and thinkers (for the time being to remain anonymous) are responding to this book with enthusiasm. I have seen various critiques of this book on the internet, but none that show how the core concepts of this book run directly counter to the essence of Christian truth. This is what I intend to do in the following material. The reader is welcomed and urged to leave comments here following each post. Also, or instead, please contact me at the email address provided. Let us not simply immerse ourselves into this book; let us discuss this book. “The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer.” Proverbs 15:28

As posted on his Web Site, Rick Warren said, “American Christianity is going through a second reformation. The first Reformation clarified what we believe. This reformation is all about how we act and operate in the world. It involves the key components of purpose, decentralization, lay mobilization, use of technology, and continuous learning. Churches that change are thriving and growing more effective. Churches that refuse to change will miss the reformation, and are dying.” The bankruptcy of the “second reformation” consists in that the clarity provided in the “first reformation” is now muddied. What we believe and what we think is cast aside in deference to how we feel. Employing the term “reformation” to describe what is happening in the church today is ludicrous because in reality it is anti-reformational. Mr. Warren’s book is washing across this country like a Tsunami. It is lauded for its effectiveness, and rightly so. Though its greatest effectiveness lay in that which neither Mr. Warren nor his supporters have acknowledged, namely, in the reversal of all that the “first reformation” bequeathed to us and in the corruption of the Church. Though Mr. Warren warns of a dying church, his book contributes materially to her demise. Cornelius Van Til said, “It is not kindness to tell patients that need strong medicine that nothing serious is wrong with them.” (C. Van Til, The Intellectual Challenge of the Gospel [1958, Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian & Reformed, 1980] p.40). What is presented here is strong medicine. It is presented not in meanness, but in kindness toward Mr. Warren and toward thousands and perhaps millions of others who have been caught up in the corruption of truth that is embodied in his book. The need of repentance is never so great as when it is concentrated within the Church. The Church is God’s Church and He will sustain His remnant. May God grant to many the grace to see, to hear, and to repent.

Purpose-Driven Journal

Sunday

Now Complete !

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