A recent blog by Rev. Ken Silva on Rick Warren and John Piper

[CalvinandHodges]

Hi:

The dangers of calling these men "Conservative" or "Reformed" is that they do not teach the Reformed faith:

JOHN PIPER, RICK WARREN & FOSTER-WILLIARDISM : Apprising Ministries

Blessings,

Rob

 

[nwink]

I guess I was a little confused by the blog author's approach in making his argument. Just because a church has a book in the library doesn't mean the pastor endorses it in its entirety. I am on the library committee at my church, and I can attest to the fact that I sometimes find (and remove) some strange books in there. Additionally, the blog author cites as proof that some small group was hosting a study on a Willard book...but this doesn't necessarily mean that the pastor endorses the book.

 

[Reformation Monk]

In my opinion; excellent, excellent article.

In my own experience; I became Reformed while a member of a mainstream PCUSA Church and then sought out a Reformed Church. Unfortunately; after some convincing and debate with my wife, we "settled" on a PCA church near where we live. I wanted to go to a Very Reformed PCA Church a little further away, but it just didn't have the amenities that the Church that we settled on had. But this soon turned out to be not such a good decision because there really wasn't any Reformed thought and or preaching going on there.

During our time there, I accepted a job at a Southern Baptist Christian Bookstore. While I was there, I was obviously exposed to a lot of Liberal publications. This on top of being in a Luke Warm Church started to "soften" me up some.

I soon became very good friends with a co-worker at the Christian Bookstore who was very Charismatic/mystic. He strongly urged me to read Richard Foster, Rick Warren and an ex-Catholic Mystic author who's name escapes me now. This lead me to read Willard and I started to read Thomas Merton as well and "The Imitation of Christ."

By this time, my wife and I decided to move back to the Liberal PCUSA Church and I finally fell away from the Reformed Faith. But I wasn't happy at the PCUSA Church at all, so I started to explore the Catholic/High Anglican/Lutheran Faiths.

Or in other words, slipping more and more into Spiritual Mysticism. I won't go into all the details, but at the end of it all, I was a Catholic Catechumen in a strict "Traditionalist" Parish, I was doing my Rosary everyday, I was going to mass almost daily and I was observing Eucharistic Adoration once a week.

The Point here is this is the logical conclusion or the end of the road to Christian Mysticism/Pietism.

But through it all, I still held on to Christ and the Reformed tenants didn't totally disappear, even when I became very Marian and considered her the Mediator of all Graces.

During all of this, there was a little voice telling me that something wasn't right and about that time, I decided to commit myself to an earnest revisit of Romans. I went through it several times and I realized that the Catholic commentators were absolutely wrong. They interpret Paul's meaning of "works" to be based on the Levitical Law not on the Mosaic Law, but Paul plainly uses examples of the Mosaic Law, it's almost funny how obvious the Catholic Church is distorting the plain truth of Scripture.

So that got me back on the true Gospel. We are saved by faith apart from any works. One of the amazing realities that I experienced in the Catholic Community was their total inability to clearly define how one is saved. They just can't do it. They could before the Second Vatican Counsel, but now they just don't know what to believe. Their conclusion is that good people go to heaven. So the Buddhist monk in his mountain temple has just as much chance at salvation as does the Roman Catholic Carthusian Monk.

Why is this?

Because they're working out their own salvation... i.e., they're relying on their own righteousness and or goodness and or personal works.

That's what mysticism is all about and what Paul so clearly abolishes in his epistle to the Romans.

The draw for many in our Modernist Church Culture, is that they lack "true spirituality." So the bait is the "spiritual disciplines." The root of it though is still self merit. "If I do these things, God will love me more." The result is mysticism/pietism.

Anyway.... from someone who's been down this road, I just thought I would share and I would strongly recommend everyone to read this Blog Post.

 

[Paul Trask]

Dietrich Bonneoffer was not liberal he was evangelical converted in Harlem at Abyssian Baptist Black Church in New York City.

 

[Weston Stoler]

Rick Warren is not Reformed. However Piper is, of course I am sure this is a thread that has already been made several times here

 

[Reformation Monk]

Dietrich Bonneoffer was not liberal he was evangelical converted in Harlem at Abyssian Baptist Black Church in New York City.

Yeah, I have to say that I didn't agree with that comment myself.

I also don't agree that he was killed solely on his being apart of the assassination attempt on Hitler. This is an oversimplification in my opinion.

But at the end of the day, Bonhoeffer was Lutheran and therefore you can see that coming out through his writing. Although, I would personally recommend to anyone to read "The Cost of Discipleship."

 

[J. Dean]

Piper is reminding me of Phillip Doddrige; he himself is not a heretic or a liberal, but he fraternizes with theologically questionable individuals in a way that gives a bad impression.

 

[Weston Stoler]

Piper is reminding me of Phillip Doddrige; he himself is not a heretic or a liberal, but he fraternizes with theologically questionable individuals in a way that gives a bad impression.

Their is something I could greatly agree with

 

[torstar]

Rick Warren is not Reformed. However Piper is, of course I am sure this is a thread that has already been made several times here

Maybe he is Reformed Baptist; he's not a member of the NAPARC crowd.