7 Marks Of A Right Heart Before God

(thank you to Renee Heaton, for pointing out this J.C. Ryle sermon)

1) A right heart is a NEW heart (Ezek. 36:26). It is not the heart with which a person is born—but another heart put in them by the Holy Spirit. It is a heart which has new tastes, new joys, new sorrows, new desires, new hopes, new fears, new likes, new dislikes. It has new views about the soul, sin, God, Christ, salvation, the Bible, prayer, heaven, hell, the world, and holiness. It is like a farm with a new and good tenant. “Old things are passed away. Behold all things are become new” (2 Cor. 5:17).

2) A right heart is a BROKEN and CONTRITE heart (Psalm 51:17). It is broken off from pride, self-conceit, and self-righteousness. Its former high thoughts of self are cracked, shattered, and shivered to atoms. It thinks itself guilty, unworthy, and corrupt. Its former stubbornness, heaviness, and insensibility have thawed, disappeared, and passed away. It no longer thinks lightly of offending God. It is tender, sensitive, and jealously fearful of running into sin (2 Kings 22:19). It is humble, lowly, and self-abased, and sees in itself no good thing.

3) A right heart is a heart which BELIEVES on Christ alone for salvation, and in which Christ dwells by faith (Rom. 10:10; Eph. 3:17). It rests all its hopes of pardon and eternal life on Christ’s atonement, Christ’s mediation, and Christ’s intercession. It is sprinkled in Christ’s blood from an evil conscience (Heb. 10:22). It turns to Christ as the compass-needle turns to the north. It looks to Christ for daily peace, mercy, and grace—as the sun-flower looks to the sun. It feeds on Christ for its daily sustenance, as Israel fed on the manna in the wilderness. It sees in Christ a special fitness to supply all its needs and requirements. It leans on Him, hangs on Him, builds on Him, cleaves to Him, as its physician, guardian, husband, and friend.

4) A right heart is a PURIFIED heart (Acts 15:9; Matt. 5:8). It loves holiness, and hates sin. It strives daily to cleanse itself from all filthiness of flesh and spirit (2 Cor. 7:1). It abhors that which is evil, and cleaves to that which is good. It delights in the law of God, and has that law engraved on it, that it may not forget it (Psalm 119:11). It longs to keep the law more perfectly, and takes pleasure in those who love the law. It loves God and people. Its affections are set on things above. It never feels so light and happy as when it is most holy; and it looks forward to heaven with joy, as the place where perfect holiness will at length be attained.

5) A right heart is a PRAYING heart. It has within it “the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba Father” (Rom. 8:15). Its daily feeling is, “Your face, Lord, will I seek” (Psalm 27:8). It is drawn by an habitual inclination to speak to God about spiritual things—weakly, feebly, and imperfectly perhaps—but speak it must. It finds it necessary to pour out itself before God, as before a friend, and to spread before Him all its needs and desires. It tells Him all its secrets. It keeps back nothing from Him. You might as well try to persuade a person to live without breathing, as to persuade the possessor of a right heart to live without praying.

6) A right heart is a heart that feels CONFLICT within it (Gal. 5:17). It finds within itself two opposing principles contending for the mastery—the flesh lusting against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. It knows by experience what Paul means when he says, “I see a law in my members warring against the law of my mind” (Rom. 7:23). The wrong heart knows nothing of this strife. The strong man armed keeps the wrong heart as their palace, and their goods are at peace (Luke 11:21). But when the rightful King takes possession of the heart, a struggle begins which never ends until death. The right heart may be known by its warfare, quite as much as by its peace.

7) A right heart is HONEST, UNDIVIDED, and TRUE (Luke 8:15;1 Chron. 12:33; Heb. 10:22). There is nothing about it of falsehood, hypocrisy, or image-acting. It is not double or divided. It really is what it professes to be, feels what it professes to feel, and believes what it professes to believe. Its faith may be feeble. Its obedience may be very imperfect. But one thing will always distinguish the right heart. Its religion will be real, genuine, thorough, and sincere.

► Summary:

A heart such as that which I have now described, has always been the possession of all true Christians of every name, nation, people and tongue. They have differed from one another on many subjects—but they have all been of a right heart. Some of them have fallen, for a season, like David and Peter—but their hearts have never entirely departed from the Lord. They have often proved themselves to be men and women laden with infirmities—but their hearts have been right in the sight of God. They have understood one another on earth. They have found that their experience was everywhere one and the same. They will understand each other even better in the world to come. All that have had right hearts upon earth, will find that they have one heart when they enter heaven.

~ J.C. Ryle
Old Paths, “The Heart”, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1999], 348-351.

Regarding Rick Warren: "Should we believe what a man says, or what he continues to do?"

Posted by Christine Pack

Jihad Turk (L) of the Islamic Center of Southern California (ICSC) and
Abraham Meulenberg (R) Saddleback Church pastor in charge of interfaith outreach

Mike LeMay, host of the Stand Up For The Truth radio show on Q 90 FM in Title Town, WI, recently aired a program with co-host Amy Spreeman about something known as the King's Way, which is a document co-produced between Rick Warren's church (Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, CA) and the Islamic Center of Southern California (ICSC), with the stated aim of helping to build bridges between Christians and Muslims. At the outset of this program, and after documenting a contradictory pattern between what pastor Warren has said and what he has done, LeMay asked this very provocative question about Rick Warren: "Should we believe what a man says, or what he continues to do?"

This was an outstanding show which can be listened to in its entirety here.


 Additional Resources 

Why is a Saddleback pastor teaching on the Kingdom Circles?

King's Way, Rick Warren Controversy Continues

Are We Witnessing a "King's Way" Cover-up?

Rick Warren Says No King's Way Document and No Saddleback "Staff" Involved

Is King's Way an Interfaith Document or Not? You Be The Judge.

Recent Document Shows Rick Warren's Compromise with Muslims

New Theological Position of Saddleback Church Concerning Islam

Rick Warren Addresses Chrislam Controversy

A Common Word Between Us and You (Interfaith document created by the Muslim community, aimed at uniting Christians-Muslims)

A Christian Response to A Common Word Between Us and You (Interfaith document created by the Christian community, signed by Rick Warren)

Controversy Over An Article About Rick Warren's Efforts to Bring Muslims, Christians Together

Islamic Center of Southern California Co-authors Historic Interfaith Document ("King's Way")

"Historic Interfaith Document" (King's Way) was "One Year in the Making"

Critical Issues Commentary: A Biblical Look at Rick Warren's Teaching

Isaiah 12:1-3

Posted by Christine Pack

In that day you will say:
  “I will praise you, LORD.
Although you were angry with me,
  your anger has turned away
  and you have comforted me.
Surely God is my salvation;
  I will trust and not be afraid.
The LORD, the LORD himself,
  is my strength and my defense;
  he has become my salvation.”
With joy you will draw water
  from the wells of salvation. 

Breaking Dawn, The Movie, Part One: Bloodier Than Ever

By Marcia Montenegro (Christian Answers For The New Age)

Thank you to Marcia Montenegro for writing this review of Breaking Dawn, the movie version of one of Stephanie Meyer's books from her enormously popular Twilight series. The reason we are publishing this review on a Christian discernment blog is because many Christian women have become ensnared by these books. We have written a 2 part series, from a Christian perspective, on the Twilight books/movies here and here. Also, please note, there is some graphic content in this review that might be disturbing to some readers.

Note from Marcia Montenegro: This is an overview of the movie with comments, not a review, and not a summary of the plot or characters. 

This movie is part one of the story based on the last book in the Twilight series. Bella, a human, and Edward, a vampire, are to be married, which means at some point she must become a vampire. This is something Bella has wanted for a long time, so she is delighted.

Early in the movie, Edward tells Bella about his past when he decided to give in to his blood lust as a young vampire. However, he killed only murderers, as Bella kindly points out. Edward tries to get Bella to consider changing her mind about becoming a vampire but she is not to be persuaded.

Bella encounters her friend Jacob in the woods right after the wedding. Jacob is a Native American who, along with some others in his tribe, is able to turn into a large wolf.  The wolf creatures are the ancient sworn enemies of the vampires.

Jacob fell hard for Bella after she first came to Forks, and is upset to discover that Bella plans on a “real” honeymoon. To Jacob, this means that Bella will die because Edward is too strong as a vampire to have intimate relations with a human. This danger, and this alone, is the reason that Bella and Edward have abstained from total intimacy throughout the story – not for moral reasons at all, only due to fear that Edward might kill Bella in the act of love (however, Bella tried many times to seduce Edward, and they slept in the same bed). Distraught, Jacob tells Bella she will die.

 THE HONEYMOON 

Bella and Edward arrive at their honeymoon destination. The marriage is consummated that night (brief and not too graphic). The next morning, when Bella awakes, she discovers the room is wrecked (apparently Edward got carried away). Later, Edward discovers bruises on Bella’s body, made by him during the lovemaking. The movie has softened this from the book because in the book, the description depicts more severe bruising than what is shown here.

Still on the honeymoon, Bella realizes she is pregnant and is already showing, which is normally impossible. Edward and his family are alarmed, as a human conceiving a vampire baby is unheard of.

The maid who works at the resort, apparently due to her ethnic background, has special knowledge of local legends of vampires and similar ghouls, so Edward asks for her advice. She touches Bella’s belly and says “Death” (in Portuguese – they are in Brazil).

Upset, Edward promises Bella that Carlisle (the head of Edward’s clan and a medical doctor) “will get that thing out.”

 THE BABY COMETH 

Edward and Bella rush home where the vampire clan is in a tizzy over the pregnancy. The baby is growing at a rapid rate, about nine times faster than in a normal human pregnancy. Most want Bella to let Carlisle abort the baby, but Bella is against this, and has Rosalie on her side. Edward even gets Jacob to try to talk Bella into ending the pregnancy, but Bella refuses. Jacob is so angry about this that when he leaves, he rushes off as a wolf (apparently, you have to run really fast to turn into one, unless attacked by a vampire).

Jacob finds himself at a gathering of other wolf-humans, led by Sam, who are intent on killing the unborn child for fear it will be too strong. There is sort of a wolf pack-think, so the other wolf creatures have picked up on this information about Bella from Jacob’s mind. Jacob defends Bella (of course) and says he will not do it (this is all in wolf-speak but the movie people have kindly translated it for us).

Back at the vampire crib, Edward is scanning pictures of strange hybrid babies on the Internet, and everyone is sitting around looking pained and gloomy.  Meanwhile, Bella is suffering real pain because the baby is crushing her “from the inside out” (said at 1:13:57 in the film – just so you know I really watched it!).

Carlisle gives Bella the bad news: the unborn child is too strong and Bella can’t get the nutrition she needs because the baby is taking all of Bella’s nutrients and still not getting enough. Carlisle fears Bella’s heart will give out before the birth.

All at once, everyone realizes that the unborn baby needs human blood. Carlisle conveniently has some O positive blood (set aside for Bella) which he fetches. Hesitant at first, Bella drinks the blood from a cup through a straw. After the first sip, she announces with blood stained lips, “It tastes good.” (Bella at this point is not a vampire but seems to be getting ready for it superfast). The movie is milder on this scene, because in the book, Bella greedily drinks so much blood that Carlisle must rush off to get more.

 THE BIRTH AND ALMOST DEATH 

Carlisle and Esmee, the heads of the vampire clan, are hunting (animals) in the woods when the baby comes. The birth is a horrific scene with Rosalie going wild over the blood (she wants to drink it), Bella screaming “get him out now,” and Edward working at her with a knife. Bella passes out and soon there is a baby girl.

As soon as the baby is born, covered with blood, Bella’s heart gives out. Edward grabs a huge plunger filled with his venom (a vampire’s saliva –since they are dead, they don’t have regular saliva), shoving it into Bella. He tries CPR but Bella seemingly remains dead. Jacob, who has been present the whole time, runs outside, enraged and grieved.

Edward begins biting Bella all over her body, injecting his venom into her veins to “turn her” so that she will become a vampire. This scene is very graphic and repulsive in the book and has been mercifully shortened for the film.

The news goes out that Bella is dead (though she is really in a deep state of turning into a vampire, which takes 3 days). Jacob returns to the house, intent on killing the newly born girl, whose birth he believes has killed his true love, Bella. As soon as he sees the baby, (held by Rosalie, who apparently has overcome her blood craving problem), however, he “imprints” on her.

“Imprinting” is how the wolf creatures find their mate. It is a special feeling; no choice is involved, it just happens. So now Jacob has imprinted on Bella’s just born baby girl. Thus ends his fiery passionate love for Bella as it shifts to her daughter. This imprinting saves Bella’s baby from the pack because wolf-creatures cannot hurt anyone on whom one of them has imprinted (I found this romantic adult-baby bonding rather repellent).

 ...AND REBIRTH 

While Bella is in the state of turning into a vampire, there is a dream sequence where she sees her human life back to babyhood. As she wakes, she opens her eyes and they are red. Bella is now a vampire, finally achieving one of her fondest desires since she first fell for Edward.

The stage is set for part two, schedule for late 2012.

 REDEEMING POINTS? 

There are no redeeming qualities in this film. The violence, blood and gore, unhealthy romance, constant anger, and obsessive passions distort anything that begins normally into a disturbing and revolting frenzy.

One wonders why Jacob and Edward are so crazy about a sulking self-absorbed girl like Bella, who exhibits few attractive qualities. Jacob broods throughout the entire movie, while Edward smiles wanly only a few brief times.

The only thing left for viewers to look forward to in part two is how Bella will live life as a vampire. This is a rather dark and unappetizing thought to contemplate considering what has been revealed in part one.

Link to CANA review of book, Breaking Dawn

Link to CANA overview of Twilight series


 Additional Resources 

Twilight - Part 1: Emotional Porn

Twilight, Part 2: Satan's Grim Parody of Blood Leading To Eternal Life

Is a Saddleback pastor teaching on the Kingdom Circles?

Article by Amy Spreeman, reprinted in full (Stand Up For The Truth)

With all the buzz about the interfaith aspect of Saddleback Church’s P.E.A.C.E. Plan and the controversy over the King’s Way initiative that partners Rick Warren’s church together with the Islamic community, many question just how Saddleback is reaching Muslims after promising not to convert anyone to Christianity.

Could it be that not converting anyone is one reason Pastor Warren is getting so many questions about Chrislam?

This is a photo of Emmaus Weekend Pentecost, an event held last June 11 and 12 in The Parish of Our Lady of Wisdom Catholic Church in Sophia Antipolis, a town near Nice, France:

In “The Mission” workshop, which was part of an International Ecumenical Fellowship, Saddleback Pastor Abraham Meulenberg and his wife Marieke spoke to a small group of attendees.

If you’ll notice the diagram behind him, the Kingdom Circles are part of the session. Basically, it’s a simple but highly questionable evangelical tool that people are being taught to draw (sometimes called the “napkin drawing”) to demonstrate how those of other faiths can enter the Kingdom of God without converting to Christianity. If you’ve not heard of this, you need to. The video from the Common Path Alliance as well as this article from the Jesus in the Qur’an organization explains it:

The question is, does Meulenberg teach this? Or were those Kingdom Circles diagrams left over from a previous speaker, and Meulenberg taught on a different subject?

Who else teaches the Kingdom Circles methodology? Those who are proponents of “C-5 Contextualization,” a highly controversial movement that many believe is pure syncretism; the blending of two faiths—Islam and Christianity – into Chrislam. Those who are C-5 proponents say that just like Messianic Jews, there can be Messianic Muslims. Never mind that the “Isa” found in the Qur’an is NOT the Jesus of the Bible.  Isa is not the Son of God.

Yet these Isa-worshippers say that they are Christian, and a growing number of Christian leaders are changing their paradigm from No way to Maybe to Sure, why not, in this “global conversation”:

There are many questions about how Christians should be reaching out to Muslims with the truth of the Gospel. If the gospel must be contextualized, how far can contextualization go without violating the gospel? And do the Kingdom Circles do that?

The one answer we can be sure of: There is no hope, no atonement for our sin and no way into the Kingdom of God without Jesus Christ. Christianity is the only faith that worships Jesus as the Son of God. He is our Messiah; our King.

Any movement that tells believers of other faiths and beliefs (Buddhism, Hinduism, New Age, Muslims, etc.), that they can enter the Kingdom of God without converting to Christianity must be questioned.

Related Articles:

• Rick Warren’s Letter to Church comes as Reporter Releases Second Article
• The King’s Way denial has no clothes
• He said/They said: A visual conundrum for Saddleback leadership
• Rick Warren Promotes Chrislam by Practice (christiannewswire.com)
• King’s Way? No Way! Rick Warren at odds with the Orange County Register(christianresearchnetwork.com)
• Rick Warren Addresses Chrislam Controversy (solasisters.blogspot.com)
• Rick Warren: Christians and Muslims Worship the Same God (solasisters.blogspot.com)
• Rick Warren: Report ‘flat out wrong’ (onenewsnow.com)
• Maitreya: A Purpose-Driven False Christ (mountainstreampress.org)
• Rick Warren Says No King’s Way Document and No Saddleback “Staff” Involved(christianresearchnetwork.com)
• Rick Warren Builds Bridge to Muslims (revelation22-20.blogspot.com)
• Rick Warren’s denials under a microscope (standupforthetruth.com)

King's Way, Rick Warren Controversy Continues

Posted by Christine Pack

After reading Ken Silva's excellently researched article on the ongoing King's Way controversy, I decided to chart Pastor Silva's findings for the purpose of giving a quick thumbnail sketch of the issue to anyone not familiar with the controversy. Rick Warren, author of Purpose Driven Life and pastor of Saddleback Church, is claiming that an Orange County Register reporter inaccurately reported that Saddleback is working with the local Muslim community on an interfaith document known as King's Way. The reporter (Jim Hinch) stands by his story. Below is a chart detailing some of the conflicting claims:

 Additional Resources 

Are We Witnessing a "King's Way" Cover-up?

Rick Warren Says No King's Way Document and No Saddleback "Staff" Involved

Is King's Way an Interfaith Document or Not? You Be The Judge.

Recent Document Shows Rick Warren's Compromise with Muslims

New Theological Position of Saddleback Church Concerning Islam

Rick Warren Addresses Chrislam Controversy

A Common Word Between Us and You (Interfaith document created by the Muslim community, aimed at uniting Christians-Muslims)

A Christian Response to A Common Word Between Us and You (Interfaith document created by the Christian community, signed by Rick Warren)

Controversy Over An Article About Rick Warren's Efforts to Bring Muslims, Christians Together

Islamic Center of Southern California Co-authors Historic Interfaith Document ("King's Way")

"Historic Interfaith Document" (King's Way) was "One Year in the Making"

Critical Issues Commentary: A Biblical Look at Rick Warren's Teaching

Are We Witnessing a "King's Way" Cover-up?

Article by Erin Benziger (from the Do Not Be Surprised blog, printed in full)

Could it be that Saddleback Church's interfaith initiative, known as the King's Way document, has been a bit more trouble than it's worth?

Last week, Orange County Register reporter Jim Hinch broke a story that quickly went viral. Saddleback church, he reported, in conjunction with the Islamic Center of Southern California, had co-authored a historic interfaith document. Hinch's report reads in part: 

The Rev. Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest and one of America's most influential Christian leaders, has embarked on an effort to heal divisions between evangelical Christians and Muslims by partnering with Southern California mosques and proposing a set of theological principles that includes acknowledging that Christians and Muslims worship the same God. 

The effort, informally dubbed King's Way, caps years of outreach between Warren and Muslims. 

The effort by a prominent Christian leader to bridge what polls show is a deep rift between Muslims and evangelical Christians culminated in December at a dinner at Saddleback attended by 300 Muslims and members of Saddleback's congregation. 

At the dinner, Abraham Meulenberg, a Saddleback pastor in charge of interfaith outreach, and Jihad Turk, director of religious affairs at a mosque in Los Angeles, introduced King's Way as "a path to end the 1,400 years of misunderstanding between Muslims and Christians." (Online Source) 

Rick Warren quickly responded to this post with the following: 

This post by Warren was later removed. Warren followed this up by producing a white paper which first appeared on the blog of Ed Stetzer, and later also appeared on Warren's own blog. Part of this white paper reads as follows:

QUESTION: A recent newspaper article claimed you believe Christians and Muslims worship the same God, that you are "in partnership" with a mosque, and that you both agreed to "not evangelize each other." You immediately posted a brief refutation online. Can you expand on that? 

WARREN: Sure. All three of those statements are flat out wrong. Those statements were made by a reporter, not by me. I did not say them ... I do not believe them... I completely disagree with them ... and no one even talked to me about that article! So let me address each one individually: First, as I've already said, Christians have a fundamentally different view of God than Muslims. We worship Jesus as God. Muslims don't. Our God is Jesus, not Allah. Colossians 2:9 "For in Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." Second, while we urge our members to build friendships with everyone in our community, including Muslims and other faiths, ("Love your neighbor as yourself"), our church has never had any partnership with a mosque. Friendship and partnership are two very different levels of commitment. Some of our members have hosted a Bible study with Muslim friends, which I applaud, but I've never been to it, and a Bible study certainly isn't any kind of partnership or merger! It's just crazy that a simple Bible Study where people explore Scripture with non-Christians would be reported as a partnership and others would interpret that as a plan for a new compromised religion. Just crazy! Third, as both an Evangelical and as an evangelist, anyone who knows me and my 40 year track record of ministry that I would never agree to "not evangelizing" anyone! I am commanded by my Savior to share the Good News with all people everywhere, all the time, in every way possible! Anyone who's heard me teach knows that my heart beats for bringing others to Jesus. (Online Source)

While Warren's words seemed to contradict previous actions, this statement nevertheless was acknowledged by those who initially reported on the story. Not long after this, however, Ken Silva ofApprising Ministries corresponded with OC Register reporter Jim Hinch, who shared with Silva an excerpt of this elusive King's Way document. Upon reading this excerpt, it is not difficult to see why or how Hinch arrived at the conclusions that he did when he stated in his article that the document proposed, "a set of theological principles that includes acknowledging that Christians and Muslims worship the same God." Below is the excerpt of the King's Way document that was sent by Jim Hinch to Ken Silva:

The document, which was given to me [Jim Hinch] by a source for this story on condition it not be published in its entirety, outlines several areas of theological agreement between Christians and Muslims and commits members of both faiths to three goals: becoming friends; making peace; and sharing “the blessings of God with others.” Here is how the document describes the points of theological agreement: 

I. WHO: we believe in ONE GOD: 

1. God is one (Mark 12:29; Muhammed 47:19) 

2. God is the Creator (Genesis 1:1; Al Shura 42:11) 

3. God is different from the world (1 Timothy 6:16; An An’am 6:103) 

4. God is Good a. God loves (1 John 4:16; Al Buruj 85:14) b. God is just (1 John 1:19,Romans 3:26; Hud 11:45) c. God’s love encompasses God’s judgment (1 Peter 4:8; Al A’raf 7:156; Al Ghafir 40:7) 

The Register story based the phrases “same God” and “one God” on the phrasing in this document, which states that Christians and Muslims believe in one God. (Online Source)

Thus far, the contents of this King's Way excerpt have not been addressed by Rick Warren. This is unfortunate, as clearly some further explanation is necessary.

Today, however, has yielded another interesting discovery. In the post, "Historic Interfaith Document was One Year in the Making," it was noted that the following post was found in the December 2011 archives of the blog of the Islamic Center of Southern California (ICSC):

Last Sunday, a historic event took place at Saddleback Church in Orange County, California. Saddleback is known for its famous pastor, Rick Warren, who delivered the prayer at President Obama’s inauguration ceremony. The Church hosted a number of Muslim communities in based in Southern California for its second annual celebration of Jesus (pbuh). This event is significant because Saddleback is a large evangelical church with over 22 thousand members. Although only a select number of individuals were invited to this dinner, it demonstrates the new theological position of Saddleback. At the celebration, a document one year in the making was presented which encourages Christians and Muslims to appreciate the similarities of our faiths. 

The document encouraged that our communities work together towards the common good and to combat bigotry in a 1-2-3 plan. The first step in the plan identifies the belief in one God. The second step acknowledges God’s commandment to love God and your neighbor. Finally, step three is for our communities to commit to three things: making friends, building peace, and serving the world at large together. 

This relationship with Saddleback Church was initiated over a year ago with a friendship between one of the pastors, Abraham Meulenberg, and the ICSC’s Jihad Turk. Pastor Meulenberg reached out having heard about the Center and our interfaith work. From this friendship developed an institutional link between their respective organizations. (Online Source. To view pictures of this event, visit here.)

If one attempts to click on the links above, which initially led to the original blog post and to the ICSC Flickr page containing pictures of the event, it will be noticed that these links either lead to a different blog post, or, in the case of the pictures, the link no longer works.

Is this a mere coincidence? If Rick Warren is being so honest with his denials of the claims of the OC Register story, then why is all of the evidence of the King's Way document suddenly disappearing? Well, thanks to today's technology, the missing ICSC blog post has been preserved, captured, and can be viewed right here:

(Click to Enlarge)

This blog post by the ICSC is not just a mere blog post, however. It is important to note some of the language used within this post, specifically the following statement:

This event is significant because Saddleback is a large evangelical church with over 22 thousand members. Although only a select number of individuals were invited to this dinner, it demonstrates the new theological position of Saddleback.

A new theological position? For a Christian church? Perhaps the members of the ICSC misunderstood the intent of this entire endeavor. If so, one wonders why Saddleback did not seek to clarify such a misunderstanding sometime between December and today.  One also must surely wonder why the King's Way excerpt that has emerged has been ignored by Warren and his team. Finally, it cannot help but be questioned why it is that the ICSC has suddenly deleted this clear, boastful evidence of the December event and this "historic interfaith document." In the interest of Christian ethic, we certainly hope that there is no "King's Way Cover-up" underway.

 Additional Resources 

Rick Warren Says No King's Way Document and No Saddleback "Staff" Involved

Is King's Way an Interfaith Document or Not? You Be The Judge.

Recent Document Shows Rick Warren's Compromise with Muslims

New Theological Position of Saddleback Church Concerning Islam

Rick Warren Addresses Chrislam Controversy

A Common Word Between Us and You (Interfaith document created by the Muslim community, aimed at uniting Christians-Muslims)

A Christian Response to A Common Word Between Us and You (Interfaith document created by the Christian community, signed by Rick Warren)

Controversy Over An Article About Rick Warren's Efforts to Bring Muslims, Christians Together

Islamic Center of Southern California Co-authors Historic Interfaith Document ("King's Way")

"Historic Interfaith Document" (King's Way) was "One Year in the Making"

Critical Issues Commentary: A Biblical Look at Rick Warren's Teaching