The mangler

5/4/2009 D.E. 04 THE MANGLER

NO NEED TO REPENT

Today I had decided to show a few close friends a video exposing the inadequate Gospel that is presented in "pastor" Rick Warrens book, "The purpose driven life." The one and only Gospel presentation in the whole book goes like this;
"First believe, believe God loves you and made you for his purposes. Believe God has chosen you to have a relationship with Jesus, who died on the cross for you. Believe that no matter what you've done, God wants to forgive you. Receive Jesus into your life as your Lord and Savior. Receive his forgiveness for your sins." I hope that most Christians can see the glaring omission that "pastor" Rick Warren must have decided was not important.

REPENTANCE!!! This is the linchpin of salvation. We must understand the fact that every single one of us, without exception, deserves Hell, and that each and every one of our sins were nailed to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And His tomb, thank God, could not contain him because he is spottless. All these things he suffered because sin had come between us and God. So Jesus, being God himself, came down and made the ultimate sacrifice to bring us together again.

Repentance is literally translated 'turning away', meaning, we turn from our sin because we realize what our sins have done,
not only to our relationship with God, but also to God Himself. We also realize how far God is willing to go to restore that
relationship. He suffered death, he went to Hell to preach to the souls in prison I PETER 3: 19, and rose again, conquering the
grave. All to restore unto us, a right relationship with him. Knowing this, our sins become something that is a burden, and not quite so alluring as they used to be.

Almost no one puts away every single sin upon salvation. But with the will to set things right, and the power and
guidance of the Holy Spirit of God, which is a gift that is given upon repentance and acceptance of Christ as Lord and Savior,
we can begin down the, sometimes, long road of sanctification. Without this right understanding of the nature of our sins we
will become what is known as a false convert. This is when we don't feel the need to really change who we are, the act of dying to ourselves and our selfish fleshly desires, so that we may please the one who so longs to have a working relationship with
us. God will not have a relationship with a sinfull human being, which is the beauty of the blood of Jesus, it blots out our sins even though we do not deserve it.

Here are some verses to prove the importance of repentance. Mark 6: 12, Luke 13: 3, Acts 2: 38, 3: 19, 8: 22,
17: 30, 26: 20.
THE "PRAYER"

"Pastor" Rick Warren goes on to say, "So I invite you to bow your head and quietly whisper the prayer that will change your eternity. 'Jesus I believe in you, and receive you.' If you sincerely meant that prayer, CONGRATULATIONS! welcome to the family of God!" …………. Did God give unto this "pastor," the book of life? I'm curious to know how it is that he can assure anyone of their eternal inheritance?

FOURTY DAYS

The premise of the book is that God uses fourty days to transform people for His purposes, therefore the book is
read one chapter a day for fourty days. Mr. Warren gives a few instances of this. Let us take his example of Noah, who was,
according to him, transformed by fourty days of flooding. Well that's not true at all. Noah was chosen for his heart and spirit to survive the 'transformation' of the earth. The good 'Pastor' also says that David was transformed by Goliaths fourty day
challenge. Again this is false. Here we have a boy who was chosen by God because of his heart, he was not transformed by
his experience. Rick gives several of these examples, the most abhorant of these manglings of scripture is the example of
Jesus being "empowered" by fourty days in the wilderness. It shouldn't take long to realize this error. Jesus was empowered
by the Holy Spirit after His baptism Mathew 3: 16. He was TESTED by the fourty days in the wilderness.

BACK TO THE POINT

So I wanted to show this video, which made similar points but in different words, to some friends because one of
these friends was reading this book. They all objected and argued that the book wouldn't lead someone to Hell, and that if it
does lead someone to God it can't be all bad. It could lead someone to Hell if this inadequite Gospel made a false convert of them. God may recognize the desire of someones heart who seeks Him, but the book itself will have no part in bringing anyone to Christ. I couldn't get them to sit still and open their hearts and minds for a six minute video, which made me extremely upset and disapointed. So, I decided to go to my bible. I opened up to the Psalms, which I had begun to read the previous night. Instead of reading immediately, I sat and communed with God. I asked Him for a word or a verse. After this prayer I looked down, my eye was drawn immediately to Job 42: 8. The last page of Job is adjascent to the first page of Psalms.

JOB 42: 8

To summarize the book of Job is fairly simple. God says to Satan, "have you seen my servant Job?" Having great
joy for Jobs nature and character. Satan then challenges God and says that without the hedge that God has built around His
servant, Job could be ravaged, and would then curse God. God accepts the challenge and Satan is given the right to Jobs
wellfare, at which point he destroys all of Jobs riches, and all of Jobs ten children, and finally takes his physical health by
smiting him with sores from the crown of his head to the souls of his feet.

Now three of Job's "friends" come to give him "support." These three begin to blame Job for sinning, even though
he hasn't, and they also mangle the nature of God in their discources. Declaring that God always does this, and God never
does that.

When God finally comes on the scene Himself in chapter 38, He addresses Job first, and then in Job 42: 8, God
addresses Job's three friends directly for their mangled representation of Him. "Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and My servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept: lest I deal with you after your folly, in that you have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job."

THE CONNECTION

So after a discussion about the gravity, or lack thereof, of the act of mangling scripture, I said a small prayer for a verse, the very first verse that my eyes fell upon was a verse where God Himself directly addresses the gravity of mis-
representing Him. This is exactly how God works every time, however He pleases.