Healthy Church or "Hellthy"?-- The Daniel Plan.. with Rick, Amen, Hymen and Oz

Healthy Church or "Hellthy"?

The Daniel Plan is the latest phenomena to crest like a wave over Saddleback church, her "Christian"  affiliates and satellite churches.  Advertised as, "God's prescription for your health," the observer must wonder if it really is God's prescription, or just another fancy man-made wave to ride in order to look cool.  The reason Christians should inquire about such a thing is because the true prescription, given by God however, begins and ends with the great physician, Jesus Christ... the author and finisher of our faith.  With this new "plan" being announced, it is only appropriate that one give careful consideration to what this "Daniel Plan" is, and maybe more importantly what the Daniel Plan is not.

As far as health goes, people, Christian or not,  just might be healthy, they might have their act together, say and do all the correct things...but truth is, it is not the healthy who need a doctor.  IT's the sick, the weak, the lame, the blind, the deaf.  Physically speaking, it's also true that a lot of skinny, perfectly healthy people who reject the salvation offered by God in Jesus Christ are not healthy at all by God's standards. The Bible would even go so far as to suggest that these people are much more than merely ill, they are dead; dead in their trespasses and sins.  Until one comes to Christ Jesus in faith to be born again, to have their sins removed, forgiven, all people are, for lack of a better word, "hellthy;" but now Rick comes to the forefront to announce the Daniel Plan as "God's prescription."


"The Bible says that God wants you to be as healthy physically as you are spiritually," said Warren announcing the event to be known to the world as the "Daniel Plan" to his congregation.  Not giving a bible quotation or reference that says that, not mentioning where in the Bible he makes this inference from, except to say, the Old Testament book of "Daniel," Chapter One, Warren continued promoting his 2011 propaganda for purpose and health, saying, "The plan will help you feel better, look better, have more energy, get in shape, and use your body the way God wants you to."

Loosing undesirable weight is a healthy thing to do... using the example of an athlete in training to understand the Christian life is not un-biblical... Being healthy and "in shape" is good for a person's all -around well being, so it's, no doubt, a bit refreshing to Saddleback members that Rick, who always tells his followers to "get into S.H.A.P.E," is finally taking his own word acronym literally.  After being known for his own obesity, deciding that he, like so many other people, shouldn't be over weight, he is definitely making himself vulnerable as he publicly sets out to loose 90 pounds of excess weight this next year.  Not only that, he is planning to take his congregation with him as he plunges into fitness and exercise and living a healthier lifestyle.

In fact, Rick is not promoting a product like diet pills, and he is not suggesting it will be an easy fix, instead he is recommending some common sense eating, offering great diet recipes and ideas on his website and promoting a vivid concept of active living,  In addition, he is seeking counsel from what he believes to be the most knowledgeable men, who happen to be "doctors."  What could be wrong with this picture as he sets out ton this next Saddleback Plan?  The main problem is the usual problem when it comes to Rick.  It sounds like Bible, looks like Christian, tastes and smells spiritual, but at the root, it is just not biblical, and there is no Jesus in it.

.

Rick's Daniel Plan is not the Daniel-of-the-Bible's Plan at all.  Think about it.

Daniel didn't inquire of the wise men of the world; He inquired of God.  Daniel didn't refuse to eat the king's meat in order to loose weight or to be healthier.  Daniel refused the king's meat, or you might say, "Daniel "went vegetarian," because he refused in his heart to eat meat sacrificed to gods other than the true and living God.  He refused to eat meat sacrificed to idols. More importantly, Daniel didn't loose weight eating what he ate, he either remained the same as when he began or he gained it... IF he had lost any weight doing it, the king would not have viewed his diet as "healthy."

But lets talk about church health.  Will getting aboard the "Daniel Plan," as Rick calls it, be a matter of "health" or "hellth"? 

The church should know and understand the fundamental truth that without Jesus Christ as your Lord and God, you are not "healthy" at all; there is not life... no true light in you!  The harsh reality of life is that a place called hell waits for those who go through life "dissing" and dismissing the existence of God and trivializing sin, specifically their own sin, before one so holy as the God who made both the heavens and the Earth.

Meanwhile back in the Saddle, Rick Warren of Saddleback church, partners with his three friends, doctors Amen, Hymen and Oz, and puts them in charge of small groups at church announcing that these wise men will begin "personally over seeing your health plan for the next year." Unlike Daniel ,who believed God and sought out wisdom from God because he loved God with all his heart mind and strength, Rick is giving his church the wonderful wisdom of the world, (from modern-day television celebrities,) and we must mention, men who are not professing "believers" in Jesus Christ. 

There is something wrong with this picture!

Rick even composed a poem for the occasion, a sort of prayer.  Rick Warren's Daniel Plan poem:  originally posted at http://saddleback.com/thedanielplan/ 1-18-11, goes like this:

"Lord, grant me the strength that i may not fall
into the clutches of cholesterol

At polyunsaturates i'll never matter
for the road to hell is paved with butter

Whip cream is cursed and jelly is awful
yes, satan is hiding in every waffle

He appears to me as a cinnamon roll
Eager to fatten and clog my soul

So teach me the evils of hollandaise
Of ribs and pasta and mayonnaise

May I have the presence to realize
that evil lurks in in and out fries

And crispy fried chicken from the south
Lord if you love me, shut my mouth

--Rick Warren

Humorous?  Well, somewhat, in that we all know the temptation to be indulgent, but as a prayer, in this context, to joke about it, and make it look like it is someone else's fault, (like Satan's or God's ).... and not one's own?...  No. not humorous, not really. 

Open Note to Rick:

There are no "if's" about it Rick, ("Lord if you love me, ")  God does love you.... tubalard and all... every inch.  (Jesus died for you... and me... and anyone who would believe.  John 3:16!)

There is nothing you, or anyone else, can do physically to earn His favor.... all we have to do, (whatever our shape,) is come to Him, just as we are, knowing we need his grace and mercy and thus repenting of our sin. 

Believe in Jesus.