THE BATHHOUSE RUN

 There is a video out and about. It’s called, “40 Days of Purpose” and contains an invitation to the viewer.

At the conclusion of the teaching video for "40 Days of Purpose," viewers hear the pastor say:

• “Do you have a relationship with Jesus Christ? If you aren’t sure of this, I’d like the privilege of leading you in a prayer to settle the issue. Let’s bow our heads. I’m going to pray a prayer and you can follow it silently in your mind:

• ‘Dear God, I want to know Your purpose for my life. I don’t want to waste the rest of my life on the wrong things. Today I want to take the first step in preparing for eternity by getting to know You. Jesus Christ, I don’t understand it all, but as much as I know how, I want to open my life to You. I ask you to come into my life and make yourself real to me. Use this series to help me know what You made me for. Thank you. Amen.’

• “If you just prayed that prayer for the very first time, I congratulate you. You’ve just become a part of the family of God.” 

SAY WHAT?

Let’s think through this invitation. The way to start is by asking yourself, "In all of the gospel of John, a book written to propel the reader to faith in Christ, do we find anything even remotely close to this invitation?" In the book of Acts, a book containing some the evangelistic invitations of Peter and Paul, do we find this invitation?

The answer is, no, we don’t. Ninety-nine times, the gospel of John conditions salvation on faith alone in Christ alone, not on knowing God's purpose for one's life, not on trying to avoid basing the rest of one's life on wrong things, not by taking a first step to prepare for eternity, not on opening one's life to God, and not by asking Christ to make Himself real.

Let’s advance in our thinking by going to I Corinthians 15: “Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received . . .that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried [the proof that He died], and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures . . .”

Comparing the content of the invitation on the video with I Corinthians 15, what do we see and what do we not see?

First of all, no scriptural invitation makes reference to knowing God’s purpose for our lives. No invitation in the Bible refers to opening one’s life to Jesus Christ, nor does any text in the Bible ask Christ “to make Himself real.”  In addition, asking that God use "this video series in my life to help me know what you made me for" does not constitute the gospel.

What is it that we don’t hear in the video? We don’t hear about Christ’s death for our sins; we don’t hear anything about His resurrection; we don’t hear anything about His deity; we don’t hear anything about trusting Him alone,  four sine qua nons of the gospel. 

The pastor failed to mention the essential content of the gospel. Then there’s the essential of an individual’s personal trust in Christ alone which goes unmentioned. 

Therefore, we would conclude that the gospel presented in the video has never saved anyone and that by praying that prayer, the pray-er not become a part of the family of God. The emphasis in the video is on the viewer—his purpose and his discovery of that purpose. Christ is mentioned once, whereas “I,” “my life,” "my purpose,"and “me” dominate. The gospel is Christ-centered, finely focused on who He is and what He has done.

 A QUESTION

The author of the invitation is Rick Warren who holds many degrees from various institutions: a Bachelor of Arts degree from California Baptist University; a Master of Divinity from Southwestern Theological Seminary; a Doctor of Ministry degree from Fuller Theological Seminary. Yet, with all that education and all the work he put into getting those degrees, he makes up a gospel completely devoid of I Corinthians 15, the chapter in which Paul states the gospel. How does that happen? How can a person so trained at three different Christian institutions miss, mishandle, and make up his own gospel?

ANOTHER QUESTION

There's another question that begs to be asked: How do the 20,000 people who weekly attend his church keep from getting up and walking out, or at least questioning the presentation on the video?

We have an example of just such a thing--there's a story from church history about the Apostle John recorded in the 2nd century book Against Heresies by Irenaeus. Irenaeus had been a disciple of  Polycarp, who had been a disciple of John. It’s from this direct line to John that Irenaeus got the following information.

At the end of the 1st century, there was a heretic named Cerinthus. Among other things, he denied the Virgin Birth, denied that Jesus was the Christ His whole life, and taught that Christians were required to follow the Mosaic Law.

One day, John went inside a public bathhouse, but quickly spotted Cerinthus inside. John immediately ran out of the building, shouting to those with him, “Let us fly, lest even the bath-house fall down, because Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is within!”

How do the viewers of the video keep themselves from saying, "This video is like the story of The Emperor's New Clothes; it's naked. We need to discuss this matter now."

How do pastors around the world, after hearing that invitation on the video, not shut it down and present I Cor. 15 to the group? Why are not people able to do this?

A REASON

One reason seems to be that the vast majority have either never had or they've lost the ability to search the Scriptures to see if the video presentation is square with I Cor. 15. (That's easy; that's all they have to do.) Let's call their attitude what it is: indifference to heresy. They have become like Pilate, living with an I-don't-care-attitude." They would not have joined John when he fled the bathhouse.