Rick Warren – Heretic?
Dr. Michael L. Ford

	For several years I have been receiving material on
Rick Warren and the Saddleback Valley Community Church
that has been critical and disturbing. Much of it has
been aimed at identifying his doctrinal failures and
this has increased with the publication of the book
“The Purpose Driven Life” which has now sold some 22
million copies. I bought the book to see if the
theological shortcomings listed for the book was
present but illness has hindered my purpose. There are
two things that have troubled me all along about the
Warren phenomenon. The first is I am suspicious of
anything receiving great acclaim across wide
denominational lines. The second is when money becomes
great temptation follows.
	I do not have to research his theology in his book
now to see where Rick Warren stands because it has
been exposed when he addressed the Pew Forum on
Religion in May of 2005. There he challenged the very
essence of Christianity. He seems to think the
fundamentals of the faith are “a very legalistic
narrow view of Christianity.”
The Five Fundamentals of Faith are:
1.	The Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2.	The Virgin Birth.
3.	The Blood Atonement.
4.	The Bodily Resurrection.
5.	The inerrancy of the Scripture. 
Rick Warren went so far as to say that there are not
many fundamentalists around anymore. But then we are
living in the Last Days and as the Bible predicts the
time sees a great falling away from the truth. Being
in the majority does not make one right.
	It is not surprising once you know his attitude
toward the fundamentals to learn that he is accepting
of Catholicism as a Christian religion. He sees an
“evolving alliance between evangelical Protestants and
Catholics, particularly in the evangelical wing of
Catholicism.” Nor would you be surprised to find out
that he looks for a global peace plan based on
ecumenism and interspirituality. Mr. Warren fails the
test of true faith once delivered to the saints. He is
an apostate in my book.