Rick Warren, Islam, and the Poor

I have a confession to make. I don’t read my Bible as much as I should. What bothers me though, is how some who profess to read it a whole lot more than me seem to miss plain and simple truths the Bible has to offer.

A case in point is the fall of man. In Genesis 3:3, the woman tells the serpent that she and the man may not eat of the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. She also says they may not touch it. A quick look back at Genesis 2:17 provides God’s actual command. According to the quote, God said nothing about touching; only eating.

Now Eve Apologists will say that the woman had extra knowledge not recorded in the text due to her and the man conversing with God directly in the garden. After all, we can not have the woman breaking the ninth commandment.

There are a couple of problems with this idea. First, attempting to make the woman seem to be in compliance with the law seems to be a waste of time. Since the law was not given until generations after the woman’s death, the sin of the ninth commandment did not apply to her. Read Romans 14:15. Additionally, their eyes were not opened when they touched the fruit. Their eyes were opened after they ate it. See Genesis 3:6,7. Finally, God didn’t ask them if they touched the fruit in Genesis 3:11; He asked if they had eaten it.

A more simple explanation is that the woman did what many of us tend to do. When we are confronted with temptation, we feel compelled to overstate the rules in an attempt to fortify our resolve not to yield to the temptation. The Satan then uses our internal fib against us to break down our resistance.

Based on the text and my observations of human nature, I believe God told them not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, period. When the woman added to the command, she moved over to the Satan’s side. The Satan does the same thing. He takes the truth, adds his own twists, and then uses the product to deceive us. In his sales pitch to the woman in Genesis 3:5,6, he encases a truth inside of lies. He tells the woman that she and the man will be “like God.” Many people who read this believe that is the lie. However, if you look on to Genesis 3:22, God says “the man has become like one of Us,….” It was the other information, such as “you shall not surely die” which were the lies. The Satan's lies also ignore the fact that God had the power to negate the man becoming like Him where the man had no such power.

This past weekend, Rick Warren spoke at the annual convention of the Islamic Society of North America. Rick has been both praised and condemned for doing this. My personal feeling is that, while he probably should have accepted the invitation and spoke there, his speech content should have been different.

I believe that Christians should be willing to dialogue with those who are not Christians. We have many great examples of this; Nate Saint and the apostle Paul. Going to pre-Christianity we have the example of Elijah’s meeting with the prophets of Baal. The Christian’s ultimate example, Jesus, talked to both those who did not know him and even those who opposed him.

That being said, Rick Warren did two things which I find troubling.

First, he put forth the notion that the two largest religions on the planet should work together. I think the Bible is clear in that we should treat non-Christians with respect. We should carry on dialogues with them. God is not their enemy and a Christian’s life in God should reflect this. However, it is equally clear in Romans 6:14 that, when it comes to doing God’s work, we should do that work with fellow believers and fellow believers only.

I want to be clear here so that I am not misunderstood. If I am doing a work for God and a Muslim, Jew, Atheist, or whoever joins in, I will gladly work along side that person. However, to establish an organized, joint effort goes directly against Christian teaching. I can not read the passage in Romans and come away with any other command.

Before I move to the second thing I find troubling, I feel that I should warn you that what I am about to say could be construed as harsh and insensitive. You will have to take me at my word that I loathe seeing anyone in poverty. I do what I can to change it. However, I have come to a different understanding of poverty and those who have the misfortune of experiencing it.

In encouraging the aforementioned joint effort, Mr. Warren has set a goal to wipe out, among other things, poverty.

In Matthew 26:11, Jesus says, “For you always have the poor with you; but you do not always have Me.” We tend to concentrate on the last phrase of this verse. Granted, Christians need to prioritize, and our top priority should be Jesus. What we miss in this passage is a different concept. If we actually had the power to eliminate the poor and did so, we would make Jesus a liar.

The idea of us having the power to make Jesus a liar is just as preposterous as our having the ability to eliminate poverty. History bears witness to our inability to wipe out poverty. The early Christians gave all they had to the poor. So much so that the emperor, Julian, in an attempt to crush Christianity, started a state run welfare system. The idea was that the power of Rome would overshadow the Christian effort and make it irrelevant. The Roman Empire is long gone and Christianity remains. In present day America, we have been fighting a war for the last 45 years, spending billions of dollars. At last report, we are still losing the war on poverty.

This doesn’t mean that the Christian should throw in the towel and not help the poor. On the contrary, Christians should do all the more. But to think that we can eliminate poverty borders on blasphemy. We are not powerful enough to overcome the words of our Savior.

I have pondered what God’s purpose in this is. I can’t say that I have the answer, but I would like to put forth an idea for you to consider. Maybe by having us continually give to the poor without ever eliminating poverty, we are supposed to obtain some insight into what God feels as He continually gives us grace to cover our sins. I find this thought humbling and encouraging.

Unfortunately, Rick Warren has a much larger audience. I fear that not only is he being deceived, but he is contributing to the deception of others. It is my hope and prayer that he re-evaluates his position.