He says he stopped taking a salary from Saddleback six years ago. No scandals have tainted his ministry. He is also one of the savviest leaders among his peers. Warren provides sermons, study materials and guidance to hundreds of thousands of clergy worldwide through pastors.
Now he is trying to revolutionize faith-based humanitarian work through his P. It unites local churches, businesses and governments to fight poverty and disease, promote peace, and combat what he calls spiritual emptiness. It is no surprise that he and Obama have become friendly. Each tries to operate outside a strict liberal-conservative divide, and has risked angering his supporters to do so. People who got kicked out because of the genocide want the government overthrown.
Frankly, a lot of the reporting coming out on Congo isn't true. People who really don't like the Kagame government resent that in six years, the Rwandan poverty rate has dropped from 57 percent to 45 percent—amazing. I won't defend anything that's indefensible. But I haven't seen the facts yet. Things that I've seen are "reports from the UN. I understand why the Rwandans don't trust the UN.
My bottom line? My trust is not in Kagame. He allowed us to do all kinds of stuff that couldn't have been done any other way.
My trust is in the churches of Rwanda, not the president. He's a good man. Has he made mistakes? Of course there are Rwandans aiding the Congo rebels. Who are those Rwandans? They are the genocidaires who escaped into Congo and have lived there since In spite of all the flak and criticism, Rwanda for the past two years has been rated as the safest African country to live in.
Somebody there is obviously doing something good. There's fresh debate among experts over the influence of religion on foreign policy. Some see religion as part of the problem. How do you see it? There's a religious root to every single problem on the planet. Poverty has a religious root. Conflict has a religious root. All of these problems involve behavior, and behavior involves religion. One of the problems we've had in American foreign policy is the unwillingness to actually name the ideology opposing us.
During the cold war, there were clearly two ideologies: communism and capitalism. Today there is a radical wing of Islam that is a clear ideological enemy of America, and nobody wants to say it. So they talk about a "war on terror. We don't have a war on a method. We have a war on an ideology that wants to destroy either Israel or America or Western culture. What these radical Islamists believe is not the same thing as the typical Muslim. Working with moderate Muslims. This is the whole idea of the Peace Plan: Promoting reconciliation [means] to find a man of peace.
I have found men of peace who do not at all hold to what I believe about Scripture and certainly aren't Christians, but we can work together. I still point to Rwanda. I've never found a country where 19 years ago they were hacking each other up and now they're living side by side without barbed wire. They figured out something about how to get people who literally killed each other's families to live next to each other.
The reconciliation model is important. Reconciliation is essential, but what about religious persecution? Saddleback has been criticized by people like Rep. Frank Wolf for being silent about Christians who are suffering. I saw that. It was hilarious. I wrote a note to him: "Frank, what are you talking about? We've done three civil forums on persecution. We're getting ready to do another one. But that is not what salvation is about. Salvation is about transformation here and now of individuals and communities.
Most likely it would tear his church apart. Rob Bell, who is the author of the best seller, Love Wins , that led to his departure from the evangelical community, faced the same dilemma. But Bell refused to stop growing. He refused to be trapped. And it did cost him, though he is doing quite well. When Bell left his exclusive view of salvation he also left his church, a megachurch that, like Warren, he had founded.
What if more of us believed in and trusted in a more loving, gracious, inclusive God? What if more of us focused on this life rather than the afterlife and understood salvation in terms of healing, wholeness, reconciliation and liberation from the life diminishing forces that possess us and oppress us, so that we are free to truly love God and love others? What if more Christians and not just Christians, but religious adherents of other religious traditions the world over — Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, etc.
What a difference it could make toward vastly expanding respect and compassion in the world and advancing the common good. But he remained faithful, even though he was up against what seemed like the entire world. Today he is recognized as the foremost defender of Nicene orthodoxy and the most prolific writer of Trinitarian theology in the fourth century.
This brief sketch shows that a mature definition of heresy draws on the rich biblical, theological, and historical teachings of Christianity. So we must recognize the various places and levels of theological authority. Many evangelical organizations use statements of faith to delineate their theological convictions. Creeds, confessions, and statements of faith can help us understand Scripture, but they should never be placed above Scripture.
That said, the creeds in particular are great summaries of biblical truth and are indispensable for pinpointing heresy. If a believer genuinely accepts the Nicene Creed, they should not be dubbed a heretic. The creeds are bare-bones structures, the outlines of the sketch. Confessions and statements of faith color in the picture. They tie theology to everyday life and highlight denominational distinctives—how one Christian tradition differs from another.
They arise when particular theological issues are debated. For example, many evangelical statements of faith include affirmations of the authority and trustworthiness of Scripture. Today we rarely confront heresy as such, in part because those who adopt a heretical view frequently leave the church when they do so.
But heresy is still alive and well. In a pluralistic world, some sub-Christian or extra-biblical teachings—like the Immaculate Conception, that the only appropriate Bible translation is the King James Version, or that the Jewish laws are mandatory for Christians—find their way into otherwise orthodox churches.
Most would not count as heresy, but that does not mean we can ignore them. That said, we are called to confront with love, just as the early church confronted Apollos, patiently guiding people to a fuller understanding of the faith.
In those cases especially, we should eschew the word heresy. Justin S. He is the author of Know the Heretics Zondervan. Have something to add about this?
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Issue: October , Vol.
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