For over a year I have heard a great deal about Rick Warrens book, The Purpose Driven Life. I have also seen that with great enthusiasm many church leaders have encouraged their congregations to read it. This book is so popular, that churches across the country are even posting banners asking: "Got Purpose?," and "What on earth am I here for?" The Purpose Driven Life made it to the top of the New York Times Best-Sellers list, selling in advance an amazing 500,000 copies. Currently more than 7 million copies in 12 languages have been purchased. To say that Warren has had an impact on the church in North America alone would be an understatement.
After watching the popularity increase of The Purpose Driven Life, I finally decided to sit down and read through it so I could see what all the commotion is about. Up until a couple weeks ago, I have had no interest in reading it, since I do not agree with Warrens approach to ministry, and because I know that just about anything he says is going to come from that.
First let me say, that if you are a Christian, and you want to be challenged to live a life that is truly dedicated to serving Christ, there are many other titles that are far better than this. John Pipers Dont Waste Your Life is probably the best, most recent.
Much of what Warren says in The Purpose Driven Life I agree with. For instance, I agree with his comments in Chapter 17, that Christians should be committed and involved in a local fellowship. And I agree with his statement that all believers have the responsibility to protect the unity of their church (p. 160). Throughout the book he says other things as well that are good.
However, as I worked my way through the book, a noticeable trend emerged. Warren commits one of the cardinal errors in Bible interpretation: proof-texting. This is when a passage is taken out of context in order to support a teaching that the passage may actually say nothing about. Though the book contains nearly 1,000 references from the Bible, many of those references indicate he has little regard for what the Bible actually says, only what he can make it say to support his teaching. (Part of how he is able to pull this off is by using 15 different Bible versions, many of which are paraphrases, which at times lose the real meaning of the original.) He does this so many times, it is impossible to list them all here. But a few examples should suffice.
On page 30 he quotes Matthew 6:24 (that no one can have two masters), and uses it to warn the reader against living for the approval of others, when the passage has nothing to do with that at all. It is talking about materialism.
On page 79 he only quotes part of Genesis 3:5 (also see p. 172), "You will be as God," to make the point that we need to admit our limitations, when the rest of the verse actually reads: "You will be as God knowing good and evil," a completely different meaning from how Warren presents it. (Partial quotes are throughout the book, leading the reader to believe that Warrens use of them are accurate, when in fact they often are not.)
Likewise, he uses Matthew 18:15-17 to support his remarks about "conflict resolution" (p. 165), when the passage itself is showing how to do church discipline with saints who will not turn from their sin. Many, many more examples abound.
There are even times when Warren offers no Scriptural support at all, as when he makes this rather astounding comment: "Jesus . . . could have chosen more, but he knew that twelve [disciples] is about the maximum size you can have in a small group if everyone is to participate" (p. 139). (He uses this to support his teaching on small groups.) Where does the Bible say such a thing? Neither does he offer any biblical support when he says, "[God] depends more on circumstances to make us like Jesus than he depends on our reading the Bible" (p. 193). That is an unbelievable statement.
Another disturbing assertion appears on page 34: "God wont ask about your . . doctrinal views. The only thing that will matter is, did you accept what Jesus did for you and did you learn to love and trust him?" Warren does not appear to understand that what he says is the only thing God will be concerned about, is itself a doctrinal view! Everything the Bible teaches about Christ is doctrine, but Warren says doctrine doesnt matter. Does he understand what he is saying? And is he saying that only what the Bible teaches about Christ is necessary, and all its other teaching are not? I highly doubt that any of the writers of the New Testament would agree.
When I completed the book, I came away with several questions: If this book is so inaccurate in its representation of Gods Word, how has it become so popular in churches across our country? And how has Warren become one of our most respected leaders? Is anyone paying attention to how hes using the Bible? Its one thing to make a point, its quite another to so clearly misuse the Bible in doing so. Why quote the Bible at all, if it will not be done accurately?
The concern I have here is this: How can anyone have as much influence as Warren does, when he seems to have such little concern for accurately handling the Word of Truth? Well intentions aside, we would do much better to follow those leaders who stay true to Scripture.
