Rick Warren - a Kuyper-Calvinist?

[Semper Fidelis]

BTW, one of the applicants for our pastorate here went to Seminary with Warren. He agreed with his teaching, etc and agreed with him in the main.

The applicant withdrew his application because he had received faulty information that we were not interested in applications that were not Reformed. There are some other details not worth sharing but this applicant even claimed that we were interested only in a Reformed man and not a man who was conservative and used exegetical preaching. In other words, he contrasted the two as being polar opposites.

Suffice to say, I find it odd that a man who has been friends with Warren for a few decades would openly repudiate all things Reformed but embrace Warren's teaching.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

Let's move off the WSC kick. This has nothing to do with the substance of whether or not Warren can be considered a Kuyperian Calvinist.

 

[ColdSilverMoon]

This is a comment from the thread about the SBC membership resolution on the Founder's blog

FROM RICK WARREN


By the way, I am not a hyper-Calvinist. I am a Kuyper-Calvinist! Abraham Kuyper was right about so much. You can see his influence all through Purpose Driven Life. (smile)


God bless!

Rick Warren
Saddleback Church

Having recently read the Purpose Driven Life, I don't see how he can make this claim, whether or not it was actually Warren who wrote this post. It is very clear that he is Arminian throughout the book - it practically leaps off the page. Sure, he mentions here and there that God has a plan for us, that He loved us before the beginning of the universe, etc. All true, but if Warren is truly a Calvinist, his application is completely off target. The thrust of much of the book is that we must choose God, we must make the decision to serve God, we are responsible for our own lives, etc. It is mostly man-centered and only mildly Christ-centered.

I'm not as anti-Warren and anti-Saddleback as many people on PB, and actually think there are some very good points and very valid concepts in the book, but to say Kuyper and Calvinism has a heavy influence on the book is ridiculous...

 

[Poimen]

MODERATOR VOICE ON

Okay guys. Stick to the thread title or stop posting. Or feel free to duke it out somewhere else.

MODERATOR VOICE OFF

 

[jogri17]

Well, I don't see anything that is arminian in the purpose driven life it just is really really man centered. One could in theory be a calvinist and write it but in application just ignore his own theology. But Kuyper was a supralasparian who believed in presumptional regeneration. And Waren being the most gracious would be the lowest calvinst since baxter (who denied sola fide). but until he says he believes the canons of dordt I will be hesitant

 

[danmpem]

If Rick Warren were an astronaut, he'd fly through the Kuyper Belt.

 

[Jared]

I read The Purpose Driven Life five years ago. I have to admit that some of the things that he said in the book were helpful. However, Warren is too liberal politically in my opinion.

I recently read Tim Keller's new book The Reason For God and he uses a quote from Rick Warren where Warren stood up for his belief in hell as an eternal place of conscious punishment for the wicked.

The Purpose Driven Life is basically the only way that I know anything about Rick Warren, other than the fact that he seems to be very ecumenical.

Anyway, those are my thoughts.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

Adam (ChristusRegnat),

I moved your post to the 9th Commandment thread: http://www.puritanboard.com/f54/nin...-heart-gesture-right-word-james-durham-34418/

 

[jogri17]

Jonathan Edwards= America's real Pastor

 

[toddpedlar]

Well, I don't see anything that is arminian in the purpose driven life it just is really really man centered. One could in theory be a calvinist and write it but in application just ignore his own theology. But Kuyper was a supralasparian who believed in presumptional regeneration. And Waren being the most gracious would be the lowest calvinst since baxter (who denied sola fide). but until he says he believes the canons of dordt I will be hesitant

Poor application of theology does not turn Calvinist belief into Arminian practice and promotion of Arminian ideas about God and man. Based on what one sees in PDL, I dont' see any reason to believe anything Warren might say about being a Calvinist.