A Missing (or Ignored) Link: They Like Jesus But Not the Church (or Israel)

In light of the October 7th attack against Israel and the subsequent anti-Israel, antisemitic demonstrations around the world (including within “Christian” circles), it’s important for Bible-believing Christians to understand the role that many popular evangelical figures have played over the last couple of decades in bringing about a disastrous paradigm shift within the church, part of which includes a revised and dishonorable view of Israel. This spiritual-outlook shift has resulted in much of the proclaiming church now embracing immoral and harmful beliefs such as homosexuality, the New Age (via occultic practices like Yoga and contemplative prayer), “same-sex marriage,” transgenderism, “wokeism,” and replacement theology (i.e., a view that often leads to antisemitism and some say is actually a form of antisemitism).

Many Christians do not realize that these changes didn’t just happen overnight (or just since Covid) but rather have been gradually seeping into the church, especially since the late 1990s when Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, and Bob Buford came together to start a “youth” movement among evangelicals (as documented in Roger Oakland’s book, Faith Undone).¹ This movement became the emerging church, in which some estimates claimed that over 20 million young people became involved in² and morphed into today’s woke/progressive “church.”

Twenty-five years after the “birth” of the emergent movement, many evangelicals are now quick to criticize the emerging church of the 2000s but are scratching their heads as to how the “woke” church came about so “rapidly” since Covid began. Frankly, we’re not sure on what they’re blaming wokeism in the church, but one thing is for sure, too many are missing (or ignoring) the link between that early emergent church and today’s runaway train—the woke church. Rick Warren, Bob Buford, Bill Hybels, and an array of others never even got a slap on the hand for their significant roles in starting the whole thing in the first place. And now, we have welcomed into the church: homosexuality (which is different than welcoming and helping those who were practicing homosexuals but have repented and rejected their former lifestyles), same-sex marriage, rampant occultism (e.g., Lectio Divina, enneagram, centering prayer, breath prayers, Yoga, and energy healing), “wokeism” (a Marxist-oriented ideology), and overt disdain for the nation of Israel and the Jewish people (largely from embracing Replacement Theology³).

Of course, how this shift came about makes sense when you have all the facts (which Lighthouse Trails and other similar ministries, such as The Berean Call, have been presenting for years). A breach in Christian leadership (i.e., pastors, professors, and leaders who are supposed to be shepherds, helping to lead the sheep in the right direction—toward truth) is largely responsible for this happening. Here are just a few examples of how the woke mentality “crept” into the church and in particular altered many Christians’ views on Israel:

1. Southern Baptist Convention elected a president who was a defender of the very woke ideology of Critical Race Theory.⁴
2. The late Assemblies of God president George Wood not only welcomed a staunch proponent of the occultic contemplative prayer to teach AOG women, he also defended an AOG resolution that Lighthouse Trails proved was harmful toward the nation of Israel.⁵
3. Rick Warren stated in The Purpose Driven Life book (which sold over 32 million copies) that those who focus on Bible prophecy are not fit for the kingdom of God (this was an indirect rejection of Israel because a major portion of Bible prophecy is dealing directly with Israel).⁶
4. The remarkable influence of Calvinism and Reformed Theology in Christian colleges and seminaries has without a doubt played a large part in the changing views of Israel and the Jewish people. After all, Luther and Calvin (the “fathers” of Calvinism and Reformed Theology) were open about their disdain for the Jews.
5. World Vision’s president from 2001 to 2020, Steve Haas, expressed his strongly negative views on Israel on more than one occasion.⁷

There is one more example we’d like to offer of how the woke mentality and the increasingly hostile sentiment toward Israel crept into the church (although we have in the past presented multiple more examples). In 2003, as the Warren-Hybels-Buford machine (then called the Terra Nova Project) was in full-speed, one of its young blooming emergent men, Dan Kimball, wrote a book called The Emerging Church (published by Zondervan). Rick Warren and Brian McLaren wrote forewords for the book, both giving it a hearty endorsement. Warren said the book is “a wonderful, detailed example of what a purpose-driven church can look like in a postmodern world.” The popularity of that book with Rick Warren’s endorsement helped put Kimball on the map, so to speak, so much so that in 2007, Zondervan released a second book by Kimball called They Like Jesus but Not the Church. It was endorsed by Josh McDowell and several other popular figures in Christian leadership. In Roger Oakland’s Faith Undone, he discusses Kimball’s 2007 book. The following extract from Faith Undone gives another example of how “wokeness” came into a sleeping and unaware church—step by step—altering the attitude of many toward the nation of Israel.

From Faith Undone:

Dan Kimball’s new book They Like Jesus but Not the Church . . . is a compilation of interviews Kimball conducted with several young people (one being a lesbian) who tell him they like and respect Jesus, but they don’t want anything to do with going to church or with Christians who take the Bible literally. Kimball tells readers of one “fellow” who jokingly said, “They all should be taken out back and shot.”⁸ But while Kimball drives home the point that non-Christians don’t like Christians, he says these are “exciting times we live in when Jesus is becoming more and more respected in our culture by non-churchgoing people.”⁹ He says we should “be out listening to what non-Christians, especially those in their late teens to thirties, are saying and thinking about the church and Christianity.”¹⁰

Kimball believes that Christians need to be accepted by non-Christians, and we need to convince the non-believers that we are not abnormal or strange. But in order to do that, Kimball says we must change the way we live and behave. He says that for Christians to do certain things that identify themselves as Christian (like using Christian bumper stickers¹¹ or using Christian phrases such as “food, fellowship, and fun”) are “corny”¹² and might offend a non-believer or seeker. Kimball insists that “those who are rejecting faith in Jesus”¹³ do so because of their views of Christians and the church. But he makes it clear throughout the book that these distorted views are not the fault of the unbeliever but are the fault of Christians—but not all Christians, just those who take the Bible literally [which are typically the ones who believe in Bible prophecy]. He says that “to them [the unbelievers], Christianity isn’t normal.” He adds, “This is really important to realize.”¹⁴

Kimball’s theology is flawed. The Bible makes it clear that those who belong to the Lord Jesus are not looked upon as normal by the world. In fact, Jesus tells us to expect this. He said to His disciples:

“If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” (John 15:18-19)

While Jesus said the world would indeed look at Christians in a negative way, Kimball believes this attitude can and should be reversed. He states:

“Christians are now the foreigners in a post-Christian culture, and we have got to wake up to this reality if we haven’t . . . we aren’t as respected by people who are growing up outside of the church as we were in the past. We aren’t sought out as the ones to turn to for advice, and we aren’t in the position of influence in our communities. . . . we need to view ourselves the way others on the outside see us.”¹⁵

Many emerging church leaders share Kimball’s sentiments. But their reasoning is faulty. Christians have always been foreigners in the world, and they have often suffered for it. Throughout the history of Christianity, countless murders and atrocities have been committed against Christians. Jesus Himself told His disciples, “I am not of this world” (John 8:23) and “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). When He prayed to the Father, He said:

“I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” (John 17:14)

. . . In Kimball’s book, he offers a description of fundamentalist Christians:

“[P]eople who are always saying negative things about the world, are anti-gay, take the whole Bible literally, are card-carrying Republicans, are pro-Israel, read end-times novels, and endorse snake handling and fire-and-brimstone preaching. They think of King-James, finger-pointing, teetotaling, vengeful people who credit God for using natural disasters to punish people for sin, and who use Christian jargon and are arrogant and unloving toward anyone but themselves.”¹⁶

Telling readers that this is how non-Christians view “conservative” Christians, he assures them “this caricature doesn’t fit all fundamentalists.” In a rather underhanded way, Kimball condemns Christians who are pro-Israel, take the Bible literally, study end-time Bible prophecy, and talk about hell—he likens them to negative, arrogant, unloving, and vengeful people.

Kimball tries to cover himself in his book by saying he does believe in some fundamentalist ideas and that he even takes the Bible literally (but qualifies that to mean the verses he deems that are meant to be taken literally—quite subjective reasoning).

Kimball, Hybels, Buford, Warren, and so many other figures in leadership roles are masterful at taking two steps forward and one step back, making it very difficult to be caught doing anything wrong. An example of this is when Rick Warren belittled fundamentalism in 2005 at a large secular event, saying:

Now the word “fundamentalist” actually comes from a document in the 1920s called the Five Fundamentals of the Faith. And it is a very legalistic, narrow view of Christianity.¹⁷

By the way, those five fundamentals of the faith he was talking about are:

• 1. The Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ.
• 2. The Virgin Birth.
• 3. The Blood Atonement.
• 4. The Bodily Resurrection.
• 5. The inerrancy of the scriptures.

In a later date, Rick Warren likened Christian fundamentalism to Islamic fundamentalism (i.e., terrorism) in their harm to society (saying they both will be “one of the big enemies of the 21st century”).¹⁸ Then a later date still, he said he did believe in the fundamentals of the faith.¹⁹ Everyone was left to have no idea what Rick Warren really believed.

And this is what has brought on this creeping gradual shift in the Christian church today—leaders who speak out of both sides of their mouth but always moving forward to create a “new” Christianity. Sadly, too many of the new “Christians” say they love Jesus but distain the church (and Israel).

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Endnotes:

1. In Roger Oakland’s 2007 book Faith Undone, he chronicled the birth of the emerging church, dating back to the 1950s with Peter Drucker who eventually inspired another business guru, Bob Buford. Around 1998, Buford’s organization, Leadership Network, with encouragement and enthusiasm from Leith Anderson, Rick Warren, and Bill Hybels, pulled together a group of youth pastors from around the country to form what would be called Terra Nova. Some of these young men included Brian McLaren, Mark Driscoll, Dan Kimball, Doug Pagitt. Chris Seay, and Tony Jones.
2. Antonio Mora, “New Faithful Practice Away From Churches” (Chicago News, CBS Broadcasting, July 10, 2006).
3. See Mike Oppenheimer’s booklet, Israel: Replacing What God Has Not.
4. “Critical Race Theory, Southern Baptist Convention, and a Marxist “Solution” That Will Not Work” (https://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/new-booklet-critical-race-theory-southern-baptist-convention-and-a-marxist-solution-that-will-not-work).
5. “A Further Unveiling of Assemblies of God Resolution 3 & the Serious Implications” (https://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/unveiling-assemblies-god-resolution-3).
6. See our 2011 article: https://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/bible-prophecy-on-trial, which is from Faith Undone by Roger Oakland, pp. 154-157.
7. “Believing a Lie: World Vision’s Steve Haas on Israel” (https://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/believing-a-lie-world-visions-steve-haas-on-israel).
8. Dan Kimball, They Like Jesus but Not the Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2007), p. 37.
9. Ibid., pp. 11-12.
10. Ibid., p. 12.
11. Ibid., p. 40.
12. Ibid., p. 41.
13. Ibid., p. 19.
14. Ibid., p. 29.
15. Ibid., pp. 30, 32.
16. Ibid., p. 191.
17. Rick Warren speaking at the Pew Forum on Religion in 2005: (https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2005/05/23/myths-of-the-modern-megachurch).
18. Rick Warren “Annoyed” with Those Who Challenge Him – Serving Two Masters Not Working” (https://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/rick-warren-annoyed-with-those-who-challenge-him-serving-two-masters-not-working).
19. Ibid.

(photos from istockphoto.com; used with permission; design by Lighthouse Trails)