Rick Warren: Ladies Home Journal: Love Yourself!
In Rick Warren's article of the March 2005 Ladies home Journal I have never seen such anti-Christian and unbiblical advice coming from a pastor--let alone a "pastor" to pastors which Rick Warren is.
Here is a sampling of this very unbiblical and harmful advice that is given to unbelievers:
"Learn To Love Yourself! Self-esteem still wobbly after all these years? These five simple truths will show you that you don't need to be perfect to be priceless....Accept yourself...God accepts us unconditionally (Remember he's talking to unbelievers)...Love yourself...Be true to yourself...Forgive yourself. God doesn't expect perfection, but he does insist on honesty...Believe in yourself...You can believe what others say about you, or you can believe in yourself as does God, who says you are truly acceptable, lovable, valuable and capable," Ladies Home Journal March 2005, page 36.
There really needs to be no comment on this harmful advice coming from a man that so many thousands of pastors adore and follow uncritically. The last thing an unbeliever needs to be told is that "God accepts us unconditionally." God does not accept unbelievers unconditionally--God accepts them when they come to Him through Jesus (John 14:6; 1 Timothy 2:5; Acts 4:12).
The name of Jesus was not even mentioned in this article--neither was sin or the dire state of unbelievers that remain separated from God because of their sins.
Rick Warren's advice sure sounds a lot like Robert Schuller's teaching on self-love and self-esteem. What does God's Word have to say about the love of self: "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves..." 2 Timothy 3:1-2.
A Baptist pastor has this to say about Rick Warren's article on "Self Love" in the Ladies Home Journal:
"Warren's message denies the New Testament Gospel and replaces it with a message that is all about you. His message promotes self love instead of the love of God. This is a man-centered, false gospel that promotes pride and exalts self while at the same time ignoring or diminishing who God is and what He has done. It is irresponsible for a pastor to dilute and distort the Gospel so that the unsaved will become even more confused and lost."
Dr. J. Vernon McGee well describes this type teaching by Rick Warren and Robert Schuller:
"Now I am convinced in my own mind that any ministry today that attempts to teach the glory of man--which does not present the total depravity of the human family and does not reveal that man is totally corrupt and is a ruined creature, any teaching that does not deal with this great truth--will not lift mankind, nor will it offer a remedy," Thru The Bible Commentary: Volume 4, page 640.
Rick Warren's teachings compared to the Bible
Rick Warren teaches: "Learn To Love Yourself!"
The Bible teaches: "He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal," John 12:25.
Rick Warren teaches: "Be true to yourself"
The Bible teaches: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" Jeremiah 17:9.
Rick Warren teaches: "God accepts us unconditionally"
The Bible teaches: "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him," John 3:36.
Rick Warren teaches: "Self-esteem still wobbly after all these years?"
The Bible teaches: "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not....Wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Romans 7:18, 24.
Rick Warren teaches: "God doesn't expect perfection, but he does insist on honesty."
The Bible teaches: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect," Matthew 5:48.
Rick Warren teaches: "Believe in yourself"
The Bible teaches: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life," John 3:16.
Rick Warren teaches: "You can believe what others say about you, or you can believe in yourself as does God."
The Bible teaches: "Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man," John 2:23-25.
Compare The Command Of Jesus To The Self Love Man Centered Preaching Of Rick Warren
"And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things," Luke 24:47-48.
