Rick Warren, humility, flattery and the antichrist

First of all I do want to state that I do not think Rick Warren is the antichrist himself that the Bible speaks of.
I do believe that Rick is both a false prophet and a false teacher though.
Here is what the Bible states about the antichrist.
Danial 8: 23- 25
"And in the latter time of their kingdom, When the transgressors have reached their fullness, A king shall arise, Having fierce features, Who understands sinister schemes.
His power shall be mighty, but not by his own power; He shall destroy fearfully, And shall prosper and thrive; He shall destroy the mighty, and also the holy people. (many good churches have been destroyed in the name of purpose driven).
Through his cunning He shall cause deceit to prosper under his rule; And he shall exalt himself in his heart.(arrogant attitude) He shall destroy many in their prosperity. He shall even rise against the Prince of princes; But he shall be broken without human means.

Here is what the Bible states about flattery-
Romans 16:18
For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple.
Psalm 12:3
"May the LORD cut off all flattering lips, And the tongue that speaks proud things,

Now lets look at 1 John 4:5
They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them.
Matthew Henry's commentary on this-
"The false teachers spake of the world according to its maxims and tastes, so as not to offend carnal men. The world approved them, they made rapid progress, and had many followers such as themselves; the world will love its own, and its own will love it."

Now lets go to some Rick Warren comments from the Pew Forum-
"I am truly honored to be here. I really mean this. When I saw your names and who was going to be on this list, I thought, you know, these are men and women that I read all of the time and I respect, and I want to thank you for the columns and the articles that you write. Just to be sitting up here with David Brooks, I feel like we ought to reverse this, let him talk and let me comment on him because I love reading his stuff. I read all of your stuff all of the time and I just wanted to start off by saying thank you. Thank you for helping me grow, helping me develop. "

"I also wanted to come and challenge you to see your writing as a stewardship of influence. God has put you in this position. As you can imagine, I get a lot of invitations to speak – I get about four or five a day – and so I have been choosing pretty carefully which ones to accept. And I came here because I only speak to influencers, and God has given you a degree of influence. "

"You know, when you write the best-selling book in the world for the last three years, that changes your life and I'm not the same person I was three years ago. And, you know, maybe I can share that. "

"Bono called me the other day and said why don't you come up to the U2 concert at the Staples Center because we're both active in AIDS prevention. My wife and I have given millions to the prevention of AIDS and those afflicted and those orphaned by AIDS."
(my comments-Matt 6:3 "But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing," and this is not a one time deal Rick brags about his good works all the time).
Now back to Rick at the Pew forum-
"Another trend that I see is this 40 days phenomenon – this 40 Days of Purpose, which of course I'm right in the middle of. Ten percent of the churches in America have now done 40 Days of Purpose and that's just now. We will take another 10 to 15 thousand through it this year, and on and on and on. And there's a little story of how that got started in churches and then it spread to corporations like Coca-Cola and Ford and Wal-Mart, and they started doing 40 Days of Purpose. And then it spread to all the sports teams. I spoke at the NBA All-Stars this year because all of the teams were doing 40 Days of Purpose. LPGA, NASCAR, most of the baseball teams – when the Red Sox were winning the World Series, they were going through 40 Days of Purpose during the Series. So the story of the 40 Days of Purpose is more than the story of the book. And maybe we can get back to why that touched such a nerve around the world, because The Purpose Driven Life is not just the best-selling book in American history; it's the best-selling book in about a dozen languages. It's in about 30 languages right now and that's why I was at this meeting last night with the Spanish."
(my comments go back and read 1 John 4:5 again "They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them.")

back to Rick Warren and the Pew forum-
"I spoke at Harvard last month. I did a series of lectures for the faculty in the Kennedy School and also in the law school. I spoke to several groups of faculty and several groups of students and I started with this quote from Peter Drucker: "The most significant sociological phenonmenon of the first half of the 20th century was the rise of the corporation. The most significant sociological phenomenon of the second half of the 20th century has been the development of the large pastoral church – of the mega-church. It is the only organization that is actually working in our society." Now Drucker has said that at least six times. I happen to know because he's my mentor. I've spent 20 years under his tutelage learning about leadership from him, and he's written it in two or three books, and he says he think it's the only thing that really works in society. "

"I said we would never go on TV and we'd never go on the radio because I didn't want to be a celebrity. I think always being in the spotlight blinds you. "
( my comments-maybe Rick should have heeded his own warnings)

"And so, I'm not interested in trying to play policymaker; I'm trying to play pastor, which means asking questions like "How's your life doing?" "

"Well, okay, let me start backwards. On the Great Awakening, I am just seeing signs that people are more open to spirituality and talking about God than they've ever been before. When I went to Harvard a month ago, I honestly expected a pretty hostile audience – I'm an evangelical pastor and I'm going into Harvard. And I went in and I spoke four times and they gave me a standing ovation. "

"You see, here's the problem. My book happened to be published by Zondervan, which is owned by Harper-Collins, which is owned by Newscorp, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch. So when the book hit 15 million, I called up Rupert Murdoch and I said, "What are you going to do to celebrate my book?" And he goes, "Well, what do you want to do?" I go, "I want you to throw a party and I want you to invite all your secular elite friends from Manhattan and let me talk to them." And he goes, "Okay." (Chuckles.) So he sends out a list, he invited 350 people, who's who in Manhattan to the top of the Rainbow Room, and I went up there and you know, I just started talking to them – again, standing ovation."

"MR. WARREN: You know what? I believe I'm going to hell. I believe I'm going to hell if I don't do what God tells me to do. "


I want to end with this one verse that either Rick Warren does not understand or refuses to obey.

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial?[a] Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? --II Corinthians 6:13-14