With the inauguration coming, is Rick Warren downplaying his ‘answers’?
-
- December
- 23
Okay, so there’s been all this controversy over Obama’s decision to have Rick Warren—“moderate” evangelical pastor who opposes gay marriage—give the invocation at the inauguration.
Interestingly, the Website of Warren’s Saddleback Church appears to have removed a Q&A from its “What We Believe” page that offered some provocative church positions. Among them:
Because membership in a church is an outgrowth of accepting the Lordship and leadership of Jesus in one’s life, someone unwilling to repent of their homosexual lifestyle would not be accepted at a member at Saddleback Church. That does not mean they cannot attend church – we hope they do! God’s Word has the power to change our lives.In equal desire to follow Jesus, we also would not accept a couple into membership at Saddleback who were not willing to repent of the sexual sin of living together before marriage. That does not mean this couple cannot attend church – we hope they do! God’s Word has the power to change our lives.
But then there was this:
The Bible tells in Genesis 1 that God made the world in seven days, and that he made all of the animals on the fifth day and the sixth day. All of the animals were created at the same time, so they all walked the earth at the same time. I know that the pictures we all grew up with in the movies were that dinosaurs roamed a lifeless, volcanic planet. Remember these are just pictures drawn by someone today! The Bible’s picture is that dinosaurs and man lived together on the earth, an earth that was filled with vegetation and beauty.What happened to the dinosaurs? The scientific record lets us know that they obviously became extinct through some kind of cataclysmic event on the earth. Many scientists theorize that this may have been an asteroid striking the earth, while many Christians wonder if this event could have been the worldwide flood in Noah’s day. No one can know for certain what this event was.
And this:
Those who choose to be with Christ here on this earth will be with him throughout eternity. Those who choose to be apart from Christ on this earth will be apart from him throughout eternity. That is what hell is, a place where we are totally apart from God – his goodness, his grace, his power and his love. The truth is that God doesn’t send anyone to hell. He sent his only son to earth to die for us so that none of us would have to go there. The only way that we can go to hell now is by rejecting God’s saving solution in his son Jesus Christ.
These are not uncommon Christian positions. But it’s odd that Saddleback has removed them from its Website. It still says “Bible Questions & Answers” at the bottom of the page—but the questions and answers are no longer there.
You can see the “cached” version here.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008 at 1:09 pm by Gary Stern.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Print
| 
Email
The world of religion, we don't have to tell you, is vast. The purpose of this blog is for Stern to note, flag and comment on some of the more interesting religious developments on the scene – weighty and quirky, somber and laughable, far away and just down the road. He won't interpret Scripture, take sides in conflicts or judge anyone. But he will take advantage of the journalist's license to observe.
