No doubt, you have seen the book “The Purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren sitting on the shelf at your Christian bookstore. If you go to church, you may have heard of, or even have participated in a “Purpose Driven” bible study. This book has raised quite a stir. Is it a good thing? If you have not yet read this book, let me encourage you to NOT read it, for reasons I will explain. But, if you have already read it, may I encourage you to read the rest of this...

Yea, I saw the book on the shelf, and yes, the title beckoned me. I did not actually read the book first - I listened to it. I got the audio CD version (8 discs in all) and listened to a chapter each day over a 40 day period, just as the book recommends. Afterwards, I thought, “Hmm, there is some good stuff in this book...but something just doesn’t seem right”. The first time I listened to this, I should have taken the time to look up all of the various quotes from scripture Warren sites in the book. I didn’t, because I was listening, not reading.

This book just drips of Christian marketing. It claims to be, “A ground breaking manifesto on the meaning of life”, and is endorsed by Billy Graham, Bruce Wilkinson, Lee Strobel and Max Lucado. On the inside cover, it says this book is a “blueprint for Christian living in the 21st Century”. Be careful anytime you hear of something “new” in the church. A careful examination of this book reveals that this “blueprint” and what the Bible actually says are two different things. Here is why.

1.) Is this supposed to be about YOUR purpose? Or is it supposed to be about God's purpose for mankind? It’s hard to tell. The Bible says that God’s purpose is what matters. God is the one Who sets the standard - not man. However, this book seems to lean towards man finding his own purpose - not man surrendering to God’s.

2.) This book includes several pretenses which are suspect, and certainly are not Biblical. Warren cites the 40 day plan of this book is in line with God using 40 day periods to prepare people for His purposes. Here are a few examples he sites. Warren claims that...

“Noah was transformed by 40 days of rain” - The Bible actually says it was the Earth that was transformed by global flooding during 40 days of rain...not Noah.

“Moses was transformed by 40 days on Mount Sinai” - Huh?

“Jesus was transformed by 40 days in the desert” - Sorry Rick, the Bible actually says that Jesus was tempted by the devil during His 40 days of fasting in the desert.

These are just 3 of 8 examples. The other 5 are just as bad as these.

3.) Rick Warren’s use of scripture is dangerously amateurish. Be honest - if you read this book, did you bother to look up and investigate any of the numerous scripture quotations Warren sites? Or, did you just trust he knew what he was doing with scripture. Hey...you heard that he’s a successful pastor, so your critical judgment was already suspended...right? The book claims to have over 1000 quotes from the Bible. Warren quotes from 15 different English translations...most of them are paraphrased versions...not literal translations! Paraphrased translations are alright for devotional reading but not for proof-texting or study. Hmm. Warren seems to have a certain fondness for Eugene Peterson’s “The Message” Bible, which itself is a very loose paraphrase of a paraphrase...and is suspect of occultism(!). On page 325, Warren even admits that he doesn’t always quote full verses...because the individual indexing of chapters and numbering of verses in the Bible were not a part of the original writings (they were added later to make finding passages easy to find). What he actually does, is quote only the verses, or the parts of verses that actually agree with what he is trying to say in his book, and omits whatever doesn’t fit, often disregarding the original context! Warren has a bad habit of expressing his theology, and then finding proof-texts to back up what he is saying. He should be shaping his theology from the scriptures - NOT shaping the scriptures to make them fit his theology. This is terrible hermeneutics, and is reason enough for you to NOT read this book.

4.) The gospel message in this book is incomplete. The “Purpose Driven Life” says nothing of God’s wrath against sin. On page 58 of Chapter 7, Warren says, “Real life begins by committing yourself completely to Jesus Christ. If you are not sure you have done this, then all you need to do is receive and believe”. On the contrary, the scriptures emphatically stress that in order for anyone to be saved, they must first REPENT of their sins and put their complete trust in Jesus Christ, and surrender to Him! The Purpose Driven life mentions nothing of repentance. It begs the question. What are believers going to do when they receive an easy gospel...and come under the inevitable persecution Jesus promised all believers? They will fall away from the faith and despise Christ, that’s what. What are “new believers” going to do when they “receive” grace so easily...and then go to their final Judgment, only to learn that they should have repented first? They will realize they have been lied to, that’s what. The bottom line is, unless the sinner appreciates the need to repent, he will never truly understand, nor appreciate the cost of Calvary. This book falls far short of the gospel.

5.) Warren mixes Christianity with New Age practices. Yes, really. On page 89, Warren says the Bible tells us to “pray all the time” (1Thessalonians 5:17). Then he suggests a way to do this, through something called a “breath prayer”. Those familiar with Yoga and New Age meditation practices will recognize this as a “Christanized” form of transcendental meditation! Is this something Christians should be playing with?

These are just a handful of the things that are wrong with this book. There are others, but I won’t take the time to list them. Some of the things in this book are in fact Biblically sound. The problem is, the good stuff is mixed right in with the bad. The good theology is often contradicted by bad theology. You have to be soundly grounded in good Biblical teaching in order to be able to distinguish between what is good and what is bad. How much damage is this book going to do to the church? Probably no more than the damage that is being done by the teachings of Joel Osteen, Robert Schuler, Deepak Chopra or Oprah Winfrey. By the way, for those of you who didn’t know, Rick Warren studied at the Crystal Cathedral under Robert Schuler(!), who today is a BIG advocate of the New Age Movement. Shuler’s teachings are heavy on “self esteem”, and “dreaming a new dream”. Osteen says, “Discover the champion in you”. Warren says, “Discover your purpose”. OK, whatever. In defense of Rick Warren, I don’t think he is intentionally trying to deceive anyone. He is merely teaching what he has been taught by Robert Shuler. Warren probably doesn’t think what he is teaching is wrong.

The next time I read another book which quotes anything from the Bible, I will take the time to actually open the Bible up and check to see if the author is actually quoting the scriptures in correct context. I recommend you do the same.

Recommended: No