Yes I totally agree with you Pilgrim and your response to Tom. All one has to do is read his material, and the biblical, discerning Christian will see for themself what I've seen (and also maybe with a little help from critiques also). And as far as Tom's comment about wondering if Rick Warren really beleives in the objective Truth, that is exactly one of the things I've suspected. And what I see is that it's the postmodern thinking that I've seen creep right into my church. And along with it is a low standard of the Word of God - and this is VERY evident with Rick Warren.

I know many here have not bothered to read Rick Warren. I wouldn't either, if I didn't know anyone else that were reading it and I weren't right in the thick of it with the church I'm in. But unfortunately I'm right in the thick of it and know many neighbors and relatives that have read the book and gone through the 40 days and our church did it. On a positive note, after going through the program, some of our leaders saw some red flags, ie. like the pathetic invitation to Christ and no dramatic change that I think some expected as a result. And there's a video too that goes with the 40 day program. And believe it or not the "invitation" for a person to receive Christ is actually WORSE in the tape than the book!!!! That's what I remember. And I did make a comment and so did my husband in our group about it.

Over the last several months I have read several critiques of Rick Warren's Purpose book. One of the most interesting one I found was by Don Venoit of MidWest Christian Outreach (an apologetics ministry in the Chicagoland area). Unfortunately the article is not on line to put here for you, but he analyzed just this one part from Rick Warren's book and it was so eye opening to me to the "twisting" of ideas from God's Word. From what I know of some of you here and your wonderful background of knowledge from Scripture I bet you see the problems too with this:

from page 9 and 10 of The Purpose Driven Life=

"YOUR NEXT 40 DAYS

Today the average life span is 25,550 days. That's how long you will live if you are typical. Don't you think it would be a wise use of time to set aside 40 of those days to figure out what God wants you to do with the rest of them?
The Bible is clear that God considers 40 days a spiritually significant time period. Whenever God wanted to prepare someone for his purposes, he took 40 days:

-Noah's life was transformed by 40 days of rain.
-Moses was transformed by 40 days on Mount Sinai.
-The spies were transformed by 40 days in the Promised Land.
-David was transformed by Goliath's 40-day challenge.
-Elijah was transformed when God gave him 40 days of strength from a single meal.
-The entire city of Ninevah was transformed when God gave the people 40 days to change.
-Jesus was empowered by 40 days in the wilderness.
-The disciples were transformed by 40 days with Jesus after his resurrection.

The next 40 days will transform your life." (This section is followed by about 2 more paragraphs of more hype of how the 40 days and his book will transform and change your life)