Africa – Purpose Driven Continent in 2015?
Rick Warren is inviting you to “take the whole Gospel to the whole world in a whole new way.” See the official invitation to the All Africa Conference below. Warren’s message is certainly reaching the whole world in a whole new way, but it is by no means the whole Gospel or even half the Gospel.
In an article entitled Rick Warren in Rwanda Announces Plans to Host All 54 African Nations at Purpose Driven Church Congress, The Christian Post reports: “Pastor Rick Warren announces plans for the All Africa Purpose Driven Church Congress to be held Aug. 6-10, 2015.” The report continues, “The conference will be the first of five annual continent-wide conferences to take place by 2020, with the second planned to be held in Latin America in 2016, organizers said.”
This conference will be held in Rwanda, the first “Purpose Driven nation.” Warren explained how the idea for The PEACE Plan was birthed in 2003 but it became a reality as Rwanda became the first Purpose Driven nation. Warren said,
Most nations are validated by their strength in exports; Rwanda can become famous for exporting leadership … Rwanda should be the leadership and innovation capital of the continent of Africa. That is why I am calling leaders from across the continent to come to Rwanda next year to learn. The strength of Rwanda is not in the ground; it’s in the people.
Warren is pointing to Rwanda as the model for the entire continent of Africa. In other words, the country which became the first Purpose Driven Nation is now Warren’s model for the Purpose Driven Continent of Africa.
Through The PEACE Plan in Rwanda, Saddleback Church has worked together with the public, private and faith sectors of the nation – what it calls the three-legged stool of churches, government and businesses – to help lower the poverty rate, empty orphanages, provide healthcare, train pastors and provide education.
Unlike Saddleback Church, the Church described in the Bible never yoked itself with government and business in order to change the globe through humanitarian efforts. The Kingdom of Christ and His Church is not an earthly political kingdom of this world. It is separate from the world and the affairs of the state.
Contrary to the Purpose Driven pragmatism and PEACE Plan of Rick Warren, Jesus witnessed personally and individually. To Nicodemus, He said, “You must be born again” (John 3:7). An entire people group or society being Christianized cannot be equated with individuals, one by one, being born again. The Bible says, “If anyone loves God, this one is known by Him.” (1 Corinthians 8:3), not any church or community or country. The Bible says, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17), not any nation or country. And Jesus was standing outside of a church when He said, “if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20). We will appear before the Judgment seat of Christ as individuals, not as nations or societies. TIME magazine reported on May 27, 2008:Over the last four years, Warren has “beta-tested” his plan by sending almost 8,000 members of his own 22,000-member Saddleback Church congregation, and an undetermined number from 12 other congregations, to work in 68 nations. The flagship project has been in Rwanda, whose President, Paul Kagame, has declared his intention to make his country the world’s first “Purpose-Driven Nation.” (Online Source)
The idea of a Purpose-Driven nation or Purpose-Driven continent or Purpose Driven society is no different than Emperor Constantine’s intention with the Roman Empire. In the early fourth century AD, Constantine adopted the Christian faith for the entire Roman Empire. Christianizing a nation and entire society proved to be a fatal mistake. After Constantine’s declaration, Christianity was mixed with the empire’s existing secular beliefs and holidays causing confusion which remains today.
The plans for Purpose Driven continents have long been Warren’s goal through the PEACE Plan. As Rick Warren launched the Purpose Driven Living in Uganda Campaign, the following press release also spoke of the Purpose Driven country and the Purpose Driven Continent:
Pastor Rick has partnered with President Kagame and others to make Rwanda a Purpose Driven country – I ask, why not Uganda as well?” Archbishop Orombi challenged an unprecedented gathering of 450 national leaders at a banquet gathered to hear Dr. Warren speak. “Uganda should be a Purpose Driven nation as well. But it takes people of purpose to build purpose driven churches, purpose driven communities, and a purpose driven country. Someday, we will have a purpose driven continent!” (Online Source)
While Warren’s plan’s for changing and reaching the world are very noble, it is dreadful to think that the watered-down easy believeism version of the Gospel is not only being spread all over the world, but now going to be proclaimed to unreached people groups of the world.
With worldly nations like Rwanda and Uganda (and perhaps entire continents) becoming Purpose Driven through the PEACE Plan, it is important to note the words of the Apostle John: “They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” (1 John 4:5,6). James 4:4 declares, “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” Yet Warren’s PEACE Plan and new society envisioned by his mentor Drucker is increasingly embraced by politicians, celebrities, and world leaders.
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