Purpose-driven Warren (book review)
Fabrikant
I repeated the title exactly, with the ® sign. If you did not notice
this symbol, ask yourself, what it means and why Warren uses it? It
means that these words were registered by Warren as trade-mark and if
somebody wants to use them, Warren gets paid. So, as far as Warren is
concerned, his purpose driven life has one clear purpose: to make as
much money, as possible as quick, as possible. To achieve this, he has
for sale the following additional items: Purpose-Driven ® Life Album,
Purpose-Driven ® Life Video Curriculum, Purpose-Driven ® Life
Journal, Purpose-Driven ® Life Audio Pages, Purpose-Driven ® Life
eBook, Purpose-Driven ® Life Scripture Keeper Plus, Purpose-Driven ®
Church. Wow!
Throughout the book, Warren repeats to the reader that making too much
money should not be the life purpose. Clearly, he does not apply this
to himself. Whatever he can sell for money, he does. Even the title is
protected: want to use "purpose-driven," pay money to Warren. If he
followed the point he made, he should either distribute his book free
of charge or at least donate all profits to good causes. Did he do
that? He might lie that he did, but I am sure, he did not: the ® mark
says it all.
Let us look deeper at the book contents. We read on page 23: "Because
God made you for a reason, he also decided when you would be born and
how long you would live. He planned the days of your life in advance,
choosing the exact time of your birth and death.... God also planned
where you'd be born for his purpose. Your race and nationality are no
accident. God left no detail to chance. He planned all for his
purpose." Well, if all is defined in advance, what happened with the
so-called free will? If we can change nothing, including the day of our
death, do you really need medication or healthy life-style? God has
decided everything for you. On the other hand, God planned Hitler in
advance, including Holocaust. Wow, this is not what one would expect
from a LOVING GOD, is it? Though Bible never mentions it explicitly, it
was God, who created all the microbes and viruses, and all terrible
illnesses. Could a hateful God do any worse?
Read further on page 23: "God never does anything accidentally, and he
never makes mistakes." Let us see. God created humankind and soon
decided to kill all (Except Noah and his family). One does not kill
what he did, unless he feels he made it badly (oops, mistake). Now, did
he know in advance about it? If yes, he looks stupid, if no, he does
not look that almighty. The new humankind was not much better, than the
previous, so God decided to show them, how much he loved them by
killing his own son. Does this look like a bright idea?
Imagine that your neighbour comes to you to tell you that he decided to
kill his son to prove his love for you.
Would not you immediately call police and some other agencies?
It is not surprising that majority of people of that time did not
appreciate his idea. As a matter of fact, his chosen people (Jews)
after 2000 years still do not appreciate this idea. Many were ready to
die, rather than accept Jesus.
Either the idea was dumb or he chose wrong people (or both), oops,
mistakes. The story of miscommunications does not end there. About 600
years after Christ, Muhammad claimed that God has dictated to him a new
book Koran. No Bible book claims to be dictated by God. Again fiasco:
Jews did not buy the story and neither did Christians. Instead, they
started killing each other in the name of the same God and still do.
Should not God finally realise his oops and introduce some clarity in
the issue? One thing is obvious: some (or all) of these people are
wrong.
According to Warren, there are 5 purposes, for which every human is
made: Planned for God's pleasure, Formed for God's family, Created to
become like Christ, Shaped for serving God, Made for a mission. One
thing we should give to Warren: he knows a lot of verbs (planned,
formed, created, shaped, made). The main claim: God made us for his
pleasure, so that we worship and glorify him. Would you believe that
God is so vain and shallow?
Warren writes on page 186: "The Bible must become authoritative
standard for my life." Warren claims that culture, tradition, even
reason should be disregarded, when they contradict Bible. This is
exactly what Taliban and Al-Qaida said about Koran and Sharia, which
prescribes cutting offhand of those, who steal. Here are some examples
from the Bible. In Numbers 15:32, we read about an Israelite, who was
caught working on Saturday. Jews did not know, what to do with him, so
our loving God told Moses to stone him to death, and he did. Should we
do that, Mr. Warren? Want more examples? Here is from Deuteronomy
22:18: if you have a stubborn and unruly son, bring him to the elders
and they shall stone him to death. Good idea, Mr. Warren? And this is a
pearl (Deuteronomy 25:11): "When two men are fighting and the wife of
one intervenes to save her husband from the blows of his opponent, if
she stretches out her hand and seizes the latter by his private parts,
you shall chop off her hand without pity." Seinfeld could not have
written it better.
It is quite often that Warren writes one thing and several pages later
writes something totally opposite. For example, he writes that we are
all God's children and that God loves all. On page 78, Warren writes:
"God loves you infinitely more than you can imagine." Then on page 196,
he explains that God promises that everything will end for good, but
this promise "is only for God's children. It is not for everyone. All
things work for bad for those living in opposition to God." Wow, God
does not love everybody after all, does he? Should we presume that the
two beheaded soldiers in Iraq lived in opposition to God? This
certainly is not so, if one looks at my relatives. My father was an
atheist; he went through the whole war (WWII) practically without a
scratch; my grandparents on both sides were true believers and all
perished in Holocaust.
As a rule, Warren takes from the Bible examples which suit him,
ignoring those, which do not. On page 194, Warren writes that God could
have "kept the three Hebrew men from being thrown into the blazing
furnace - but didn't. He let those problems happen and every one of
those persons was drawn closer to God as a result." Warren took the
case, where the 3 Hebrew men were indeed thrown into a blazing furnace,
but did not bum there. God kept them unharmed. Take the recent case of
2 American soldiers taken hostage in Iraq, tortured and beheaded. Do
you think, they also got closer to God as a result? Does not it look
like God abandoned them? If not, then try to describe, how abandonment
would look to you.
Sometimes, Warren becomes totally idiotic. He writes on page 197: "The
Bible says Jesus 'learned obedience through suffering' and 'was made
perfect through suffering'." OK, let us start crucifying people to make
them perfect. Good idea, Mr. Warren? Warren writes: "Why would God
exempt us from what he allowed his own Son to experience?" Here is why,
Mr. Warren. God knew that his Son would be resurrected in couple of
days, so it was not really death, now, was it? If God cheated the
public about death, he might have also used some painkillers as well.
In this light, does the sacrifice of the Son look much of a sacrifice?
One of Dostoyevsky protagonists was asked if he could torture a child
to death if this would guarantee happiness for the whole humankind. His
response was yes, but I should be this child. God's sacrifice would
look more impressive, if he sacrificed himself, rather than his son.
We read on page 235: "You are God's handcrafted work of art. ... God
doesn't make junk." Regretfully, Warren does not define the word
"junk," but if you define junk as malfunctioning of any human organ,
God does it in all possible variety. If you define junk as lack of
moral qualities, God does it too in all imaginable ways. (I am pretty
sure, someone will quip here that Fabrikant is the best proof that God
does make junk; don't waste your time.)
Warren writes on page 236: "God gives every believer spiritual gifts."
So, if you are not a believer, you get nothing, but on the other hand,
without any spiritual gifts, how on earth can you become a believer? We
have a vicious circle, which Warren just does not see.
Warren does not hesitate to use fraud, just to get his goal. On page
283, he tells readers that it was their duty to spread Christianity,
and if they do not do it, God will hold them responsible. To prove his
claim, he uses a quote from the Bible, which seems to support what he
is saying. I checked this quote. It happens to be from Ezekiel 3:18.
God appoints Ezekiel a prophet and tells him that if he sees someone
living in sin, his job was to warn this individual to stop, otherwise,
the individual would be killed; If Ezekiel failed to warn the
individual, God would kill the sinner and hold Ezekiel responsible. It
happened over 500 years before Christ, so God certainly did not mean
spreading of Christianity. In addition, it was only applicable to
Ezekiel, not to ordinary men.
In brief, Warren's book can be summarised simply: work in your church
for free (God will pay you later), because Warren wants to save money
and not to pay anyone. If you see someone, who is not Christian, tell
him good news about Jesus in order to save him. In reality, Warren
would like to have more parishioners to get more money. You have to
lead a purpose-driven life and the purpose should be letting Warren to
make as much money as possible. Warren forgot to mention that if you
try to proselytise to a Muslim, this is a crime punishable by death. Be
safe!
Fabrikant
