Can Rick Warren Save the World?<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Jan Markell
http://www.olivetreeviews.org
 
 
This is not a commentary on Rick Warren the pastor/author or on his Purpose Driven Life book.  It is a commentary on what Fox News has been blaring for a week: "Can Rick Warren Save the World?"  While Fox doesn't get it that man cannot do this, I am wondering why <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Warren would even allow such a production title to be approved.  Surely Warren knows only the Lord Jesus Christ can save humanity.
 
But the effort shows how skitterish the world is--including the hate-Christian media--and the longing for just one man to make all wrong right!  The world sees Warren and his P.E.A.C.E. plan perhaps saving the planet apart from God though that is not Warren's motive.  The world sees him starting to battle AIDS and poverty and it gives the world a greater hunger for one man doing great things.
 
This focuses again on man and projected hopes for accomplishments rather than on man's depravity which the world and media want to ignore.  They do not want to focus on a need of a Savior.  They are heartened when a new social program comes along that just might work.  And it's coming from an icon--Rick Warren--who I believe truly does want to rid the world of a lot of evil but is missing some key ingredients in his plan.
 
Warren hopes the church will do the work that the U.N. and other agencies have failed at.  He's right.  They have failed miserably due to corruption and wickedness.  But this is how the Bible says it will play out.  Evil will wax worse and worse.  The church (Dominion/Kingdom Now Theology) will not change what is written.  Only Jesus will do what man, the church, and the U.N. cannot do.
 
Jesus foretold that the end would bring poverty, disease, war, strife, turmoil.  He does not say other agencies will fix it.  Only He will.  Read the book of Revelation (if you take it literally and not allegorically).  It doesn't paint a rosy picture.
 
The world will never be corrected by the church and the church's effort at good works.  The world hates godly leaders and will turn on Warren as well.  They will accept evil known as the Antichrist and his "restoration" and "peace plan."  With open arms!
 
The church is not the answer--Jesus Christ is.  Good works will not save souls--the gospel will.
 
I fear the week-long blitz by Fox asking if Rick Warren can save the world will give false hope to people who really need to know who is the only One who can and will save it.  It is much easier to put faith and hope in a human icon, likely well-meaning, than in ethereal biblical passages.  Many denominations say we are in the Millennium now (Amillennialism) and this sounds like a key part of the human effort to "save the world" as they teach. They further teach that the world must be made perfect before Christ can even return.
 
Can Rick Warren save the world?  I fear this gets eyes, if not biblically and eschatologically grounded, focused on thinking that a man-man, church-made effort just might be the answer.  It is not.  Jesus glorious return is.
 
NOTE: Many of you viewed my moving memorial and tribute to 9/11 to the point where our bandwidth and server were affected.  We removed the ten minute presentation for a day and were blitzed with frustrated or angry e-mails.  It is up again at this link: http://www.olivetreeviews.org/topics/terrorism_us.shtml  I encourage you as we near the 5th anniversary to view the presentation and never forget.  And while you do, thank God that He is our Homeland Security Director.
 
(For more information about Olive Tree Ministries, Jan's free e-alerts or print newsletter, "Understanding the Times," visit her Web site, http://www.olivetreeviews.org.)