Book chapter update (2006)
Reinventing Jesus Christ: The New Gospel
The Final Word
Chapter 11 Update
Warren B. Smith
Prepare For the Worst
Reinventing Jesus Christ was written in the shadow of the tragic events of September 11th in 2001. It was clear that America was unprepared for those events and we suffered great loss as a result. With Hurricane Katrina it was again demonstrated how even a predicted disaster can still catch so many people by surprise. For example, the New Orleans citizenry and the governments at all levels knew that a Category 5 hurricane was coming. There was time to evacuate. There was time to do what needed to be done. But one of the worst case scenario disasters happened anyway. Many people ignored, minimized or just plain disbelieved the warnings. They didn’t leave. The levee that was supposed to protect them didn’t. Many of the leaders that were supposed to protect them didn’t. Denying or minimizing the reality of the predicted disaster didn’t make the disaster go away. Disaster still struck.
Americans in particular are famous for being in denial. Rick Warren, Robert Schuller and Norman Vincent Peale are good examples of popular pastors who know how to tell people what they want to hear. They gain the attention of the church by cloaking their New Age sympathies beneath a veneer of what looks to be an “upbeat” brand of “Positive” Christianity—just “Dream Big,” “Think Big,” and “Pray Big.” Norman Vincent Peale taught everyone to “think positive” and to “keep on the sunny side” while he endorsed occult/New Age teachers like Florence Scovel Shinn, Earnest Holmes and Bernie Siegel. Robert Schuller tells everyone to “dream the impossible dream”—“God’s Dream”—while he endorses New Age leaders like Gerald Jampolsky, and, yes, Bernie Siegel. Rick Warren tells everyone in Schulleresque language that his “P.E.A.C.E. Plan” is “God’s Dream” for the world. Meanwhile he teaches that “God is in everything” and illustrates God’s “purpose” by nonchalantly referring to Bernie Siegel.
Following in Norman Vincent Peale’s New Age footsteps, Robert Schuller, Rick Warren, and Brian McLaren are all saying exactly what Alice Bailey’s spirit guide told her New Age readers over fifty years ago. Focus on your mission. The details of Christ’s return are none of your concern. In other words, dream your dreams but don’t focus on the very real prophetic warnings God has provided in the Holy Bible. Don’t focus or be concerned about a deceptive false Christ who is in the process of counterfeiting the true Christ. Don’t focus or be concerned that this false Christ is in the process of counterfeiting the true Christ’s return. Don’t focus or be concerned that this false Christ and his deceptive New Age/New Spirituality is coming right at the world and right at the church. Don’t focus or be concerned that New Age leaders are declaring that “the era of the Single Savior is over” and that the church must “change or die.” Just “be still” and “enter the silence.” Let “God” tell you about his “dream” and how his emerging New Spirituality/New Age Christianity/New World Religion will “change the world.” Don’t be concerned about putting on the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-13). Don’t stop to “test the spirits” (1 John 4:1). Just “Dream Big,” “Think Big,” “Pray Big.”
The world is being told by Rick Warren and other evangelical leaders that God has a wonderful P.E.A.C.E. Plan that is “God’s Dream For You And The World.” Make “God’s Dream” your purpose.” Make “God’s Dream” your dream. Believe in that dream. Live that dream. Meditate on that dream. Envision that dream. Pray that dream. But the term “God’s Dream” is a phrase devised by men. The phrase “God’s Dream” is not found in the Bible. When Daniel saw the end days in a vision he did not see world peace. He saw a world dictator. He saw a false peace that actually looked wonderful but was, in reality, a spiritual trap. In Daniel 8:24-25, in describing Antichrist, he wrote that this deceptive world leader “shall destroy wonderfully” and “by peace shall destroy many.” Jude warned the church how certain “ungodly men” can creep in unawares (Jude 4). He warned that these men do not represent the Lord but rather their own deluded dreams. He described them as “filthy dreamers” whose dreams originate in their own hearts and not in the will of God. These deluded dreamers will tell the church and the world what it wants to hear not what it needs to hear.
Sadly, the Bible records that many in the church will fall away (2 Thessalonians 2:3). They will follow the “broad” way of the world rather than the “narrow way” of Jesus Christ (Matthew 7:13-14). Jesus warned that deception would be a sign of the end (Matthew 24:3-5). But few will believe that most of the world could be so deceived about the “positive” alternative future they think they are creating with their spiritually compromised dreams, prayers, visualizations, contemplations and meditations. The Bible records, that when it comes to the end times, most of the world and much of what calls itself the church will be unprepared for what unfolds.
The Bible warns that the equivalent of an ultimate Category 5 spiritual disaster is on the horizon. A New World Religion with Antichrist at its head will seek to displace God and eliminate His followers. Yet today’s church is in almost complete denial about this impending disaster. Rick Warren declares that “it helps to know that Satan is entirely predictable.”1 He dismisses the New Age as “the most illogical, irrational thing,”2 “pure junk,”3 and a “bunch of baloney,”4 but Rick Warren and his worldwide band of “Lead Like Jesus” servant-leaders are apparently grossly underestimating the wiles of the Adversary. They are disregarding and denying the Bible’s prophetic detail concerning what lies ahead. One is reminded of the Titanic and its ill-fated captain as Rick Warren and his seemingly unsinkable purpose-driven ship plow full speed ahead into certain disaster. In Deceived on Purpose I wrote:
Sadly, if Rick Warren and other Christian leaders fall for New Age schemes and devices rather than exposing them, they will take countless numbers of sincere people down with them. It will be the blind leading the blind, as they fall further and further into the deceptive ditch of the New Age and its New Spirituality. Undiscerning Christians, who think they are on “the narrow way” preparing the way for Jesus Christ, may discover too late that they had actually been on “the broad way” preparing the way for Antichrist. It is not too late to warn everyone, but it must be done soon before the deception advances any further. As we have already seen, there is “another Jesus,” “another Christ,” “another spirit” and “another gospel” at work in the world. The Church must not continue to fall prey to the deception. And the Church must not give in to the teachings of a “New Spirituality” that promises world peace but may ultimately cost you your soul (Mark 8:36).5
Endnotes
1. Rick Warren, The Purpose-Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For, p. 203.
2. Richard Abanes, Rick Warren and the Purpose that Drives Him: An Insider Looks at the Phenomenal Bestseller, p. 87.
3. Ibid., p. 28.
4. Ibid., p. 96.
5. Warren Smith, Deceived on Purpose, p. 179-180.
Reinventing Jesus Christ was written in the shadow of the tragic events of September 11th in 2001. It was clear that America was unprepared for those events and we suffered great loss as a result. With Hurricane Katrina it was again demonstrated how even a predicted disaster can still catch so many people by surprise. For example, the New Orleans citizenry and the governments at all levels knew that a Category 5 hurricane was coming. There was time to evacuate. There was time to do what needed to be done. But one of the worst case scenario disasters happened anyway. Many people ignored, minimized or just plain disbelieved the warnings. They didn’t leave. The levee that was supposed to protect them didn’t. Many of the leaders that were supposed to protect them didn’t. Denying or minimizing the reality of the predicted disaster didn’t make the disaster go away. Disaster still struck.
Americans in particular are famous for being in denial. Rick Warren, Robert Schuller and Norman Vincent Peale are good examples of popular pastors who know how to tell people what they want to hear. They gain the attention of the church by cloaking their New Age sympathies beneath a veneer of what looks to be an “upbeat” brand of “Positive” Christianity—just “Dream Big,” “Think Big,” and “Pray Big.” Norman Vincent Peale taught everyone to “think positive” and to “keep on the sunny side” while he endorsed occult/New Age teachers like Florence Scovel Shinn, Earnest Holmes and Bernie Siegel. Robert Schuller tells everyone to “dream the impossible dream”—“God’s Dream”—while he endorses New Age leaders like Gerald Jampolsky, and, yes, Bernie Siegel. Rick Warren tells everyone in Schulleresque language that his “P.E.A.C.E. Plan” is “God’s Dream” for the world. Meanwhile he teaches that “God is in everything” and illustrates God’s “purpose” by nonchalantly referring to Bernie Siegel.
Following in Norman Vincent Peale’s New Age footsteps, Robert Schuller, Rick Warren, and Brian McLaren are all saying exactly what Alice Bailey’s spirit guide told her New Age readers over fifty years ago. Focus on your mission. The details of Christ’s return are none of your concern. In other words, dream your dreams but don’t focus on the very real prophetic warnings God has provided in the Holy Bible. Don’t focus or be concerned about a deceptive false Christ who is in the process of counterfeiting the true Christ. Don’t focus or be concerned that this false Christ is in the process of counterfeiting the true Christ’s return. Don’t focus or be concerned that this false Christ and his deceptive New Age/New Spirituality is coming right at the world and right at the church. Don’t focus or be concerned that New Age leaders are declaring that “the era of the Single Savior is over” and that the church must “change or die.” Just “be still” and “enter the silence.” Let “God” tell you about his “dream” and how his emerging New Spirituality/New Age Christianity/New World Religion will “change the world.” Don’t be concerned about putting on the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-13). Don’t stop to “test the spirits” (1 John 4:1). Just “Dream Big,” “Think Big,” “Pray Big.”
The world is being told by Rick Warren and other evangelical leaders that God has a wonderful P.E.A.C.E. Plan that is “God’s Dream For You And The World.” Make “God’s Dream” your purpose.” Make “God’s Dream” your dream. Believe in that dream. Live that dream. Meditate on that dream. Envision that dream. Pray that dream. But the term “God’s Dream” is a phrase devised by men. The phrase “God’s Dream” is not found in the Bible. When Daniel saw the end days in a vision he did not see world peace. He saw a world dictator. He saw a false peace that actually looked wonderful but was, in reality, a spiritual trap. In Daniel 8:24-25, in describing Antichrist, he wrote that this deceptive world leader “shall destroy wonderfully” and “by peace shall destroy many.” Jude warned the church how certain “ungodly men” can creep in unawares (Jude 4). He warned that these men do not represent the Lord but rather their own deluded dreams. He described them as “filthy dreamers” whose dreams originate in their own hearts and not in the will of God. These deluded dreamers will tell the church and the world what it wants to hear not what it needs to hear.
Sadly, the Bible records that many in the church will fall away (2 Thessalonians 2:3). They will follow the “broad” way of the world rather than the “narrow way” of Jesus Christ (Matthew 7:13-14). Jesus warned that deception would be a sign of the end (Matthew 24:3-5). But few will believe that most of the world could be so deceived about the “positive” alternative future they think they are creating with their spiritually compromised dreams, prayers, visualizations, contemplations and meditations. The Bible records, that when it comes to the end times, most of the world and much of what calls itself the church will be unprepared for what unfolds.
The Bible warns that the equivalent of an ultimate Category 5 spiritual disaster is on the horizon. A New World Religion with Antichrist at its head will seek to displace God and eliminate His followers. Yet today’s church is in almost complete denial about this impending disaster. Rick Warren declares that “it helps to know that Satan is entirely predictable.”1 He dismisses the New Age as “the most illogical, irrational thing,”2 “pure junk,”3 and a “bunch of baloney,”4 but Rick Warren and his worldwide band of “Lead Like Jesus” servant-leaders are apparently grossly underestimating the wiles of the Adversary. They are disregarding and denying the Bible’s prophetic detail concerning what lies ahead. One is reminded of the Titanic and its ill-fated captain as Rick Warren and his seemingly unsinkable purpose-driven ship plow full speed ahead into certain disaster. In Deceived on Purpose I wrote:
Sadly, if Rick Warren and other Christian leaders fall for New Age schemes and devices rather than exposing them, they will take countless numbers of sincere people down with them. It will be the blind leading the blind, as they fall further and further into the deceptive ditch of the New Age and its New Spirituality. Undiscerning Christians, who think they are on “the narrow way” preparing the way for Jesus Christ, may discover too late that they had actually been on “the broad way” preparing the way for Antichrist. It is not too late to warn everyone, but it must be done soon before the deception advances any further. As we have already seen, there is “another Jesus,” “another Christ,” “another spirit” and “another gospel” at work in the world. The Church must not continue to fall prey to the deception. And the Church must not give in to the teachings of a “New Spirituality” that promises world peace but may ultimately cost you your soul (Mark 8:36).5
Endnotes
1. Rick Warren, The Purpose-Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For, p. 203.
2. Richard Abanes, Rick Warren and the Purpose that Drives Him: An Insider Looks at the Phenomenal Bestseller, p. 87.
3. Ibid., p. 28.
4. Ibid., p. 96.
5. Warren Smith, Deceived on Purpose, p. 179-180.