Friday, December 19, 2008

You can't please all people, all the time. Nor should we try...

Today, a lot of people are writing, blogging, whatever about Obama's choice of Rick Warren to do the opening prayer at the inauguration next month. I honestly don't have a lot to say about that at this time as to be honest, I've never really paid attention to who did the opening OR closing prayer. The inauguration is not a Church service to uplift our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. My understanding is that the guy closing the event IS a supporter of the GLBT's attempt to redefine the age old term of marriage. So there you have it, you got two preachers, one is taking a biblical stand, the other apparently does not. Obama chooses both to be careful and respectful to both sides, and still gets attacked verbally. Obama "claims" to be a Christian, so he must believe the Bible, right? Hard to say, but it doesn't appear that he does and that's the Christian's foundation for truth in this world. An apple tree produces apples, an orange tree produces oranges, a banana tree.....well, you get the picture. A Christian acts like a Christian based upon teaching from God's Word, the Bible.

I don't mean to be cynical here, but I'm not a big Rick Warren supporter either. He says a lot of good stuff, but it's built on a shaky foundation. Any minister worth his salt builds his foundation upon the gospel of Jesus Christ, and though I do not doubt his faith or his intentions, I find that what I've read of his deviates from solid doctrine on many points. And while I don't mean to turn this into a review of the "Purpose Drive Life" (which sold 25 million!) it notes saying that in this best seller, Rick does not at any time provide a clear explanation of the gospel message. On page 58 he says, “Real life begins by committing yourself completely to Jesus Christ” but never comes closer than that. He never writes about such crucial doctrines as man’s sinfulness and need for a Savior or the work of Jesus. He never mentions the importance Christ’s life, the cross or the empty tomb. Yet on page 58 we find him leading the prayer of “Jesus, I believe in you and I receive you” and then saying “Welcome to the family of God!” How can a person become a Christian without any understanding of his own sinfulness or of Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf? This is dangerous, and while Rick does say and promote a lot of good stuff and good works that we might do well to obtain, it unfortunately is built upon that very weak message.

Al Mohler did an excellent article on this today, and I thought I would post it here. http://www.albertmohler.com/blog_read.php?id=3023
He talks about the high cost of being cool in the world's eyes, and what that can cost a Christian, if they choose to go that route. There's really more that could be said on this issue, but enough has been written, and anything on here wouldn't add much value. I just simply don't see this as an issue to lose sleep or get in a tizzy about, but others apparently disagree.

1 comment:

Behki said...

Oh Obama. he's quite the politician. never taking a firm stance on anything. The middle road will only get you so far.