Christians and the unsaved: A Comparative Examination of John MacArthur’s and Rick Warren’s Views of People Outside the Church

Abstract

The article is a comparative analysis of two sets of sermons by John MacArthur and Rick Warren (25 sermons from each preacher) with respect to how each of the two pastors portray people outside the Christian community and how they instruct their members to relate to the "unsaved." As evangelicals, both MacArthur and Warren share similar theological convictions, however, when they speak about relationships to those outside the church, significant differences in emphases come to the surface. The article traces these back to different concepts of the world (in the sense of human society as such). Deductive theology by MacArthur tends to see the world negatively and encourages Christian separation from it, whereas dialogical theologizing by Warren emphasizes individual and sees humans in a more positive way, thus encouraging creative but discerning involvement in their lives. The choice of the topic is based on perceived influence of both preachers on emerging theology of missions among evangelicals in Russia.