The Gospel According to Richard Rohr

Jesus had just had a big blowup with the Pharisees. He knew because of their disbelief that God would allow the temple to be demolished, Jerusalem destroyed, and the nation laid waste. This would happen in 70 AD, 40 years in the future, but Jesus saw it clearly from his time. Jesus was anticipating an excruciating death in just a few days. When his disciples were awed by the beauty of the glorious Jewish temple, Jesus told them plainly, “not one stone will be left on top of another.”

This must have rocked his disciples back on their heels. Four of his closest followers pulled him aside. They thought that Jesus must have been talking about the future kingdom of God when Jesus would destroy his nation’s enemies and be recognized as the Messiah, Israel’s king. They asked the question, “Tell us, when will all this happen? What sign will signal your return and the end of the world?”

In response, Jesus gives a series of circumstances that looks suspiciously like our current days. But the first words he said were, “Don’t let anyone mislead you, for many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah.’ They will deceive many. (Read the full story in Matthew chapters 23 and 24). In this desperate hour, this was the most important message Jesus wanted his followers to know. Before his second coming, many deceivers would come in his name. Jesus wanted us to know, “Don’t be deceived!”

This isn’t only a message from Jesus, His followers echoed his message after him. The apostle Paul tells us, “Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some will turn away from the true faith; they will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons.” – 1 Timothy 4:1 NLT. John the beloved disciple, says, “Dear children, the last hour is here. You have heard that the Antichrist is coming, and already many such antichrists have appeared. From this we know that the last hour has come.” – 1 John 2:18 NLT. And Peter, whose testimony is the foundation of the church, said this, “Most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires.” – 2 Peter 3:3 NLT.

As I write this, the United States has just bombed the uranium enrichment facilities in Iran. The Bible indicates that WWW III will originate in the region of the Euphrates River so some prophecy experts are wondering if this may be its beginning. I think the end of human government that will commence with the return of Jesus Christ will be soon. However, soon is a relative term. Whether Jesus will return in 50 days or 50 years, we can believe these are the last days and so we should ask ourselves. Are there already deceiving antichrists teaching doctrines of demons? Yes, there are. You may recognize some of the names. Andy Stanley, Jen Hatmaker, Rob Bell, or the late, Rachel Held Evans may fit the bill. Not all of these believe the same things. Some are more egregious than others. Each of them has their own brand of heresy, but they would all fall under the label Progressive Christianity.

As an example of these heretical doctrines, let’s look at one of the Progressive darlings. Richard Rohr. Father Rohr is a Franciscan monk and the leader of The Center for Action and Contemplation. Many of the Progressive Christian teachers mentioned above have been influenced by him and consider Richard Rohr a mentor.

So, what are the teachings that Richard Rohr espouses that has the traditional Christian world riled up? Let us compare and contrast three traditional doctrines with the new revelations of Rohr.

The Person of Jesus Christ

In the fourth century of the common era, the Roman Emperor Constantine convened a council of church leaders at Nicaea. Despite popular tales, it did not pick the books of the Bible, suppress the contributions of women, or invent the Trinity. But the divinity of Jesus according to the scriptures was the topic of discussion.

They met to settle a dispute between two church leaders from Alexandria in Egypt. One leader was Arius and his followers who believed that Jesus was a created being and was separate from God the Father. Arius’ opponent was Alexander. He believed that Jesus wasn’t created. Alexander believed that Jesus was eternal. He declared that Jesus existed of the same substance as God the father.

The council sided with Alexander and rejected the view of Arius. They wrote the Nicene Creed, one of the first formal creeds of the Christian era. It stated this about Jesus:

I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,

the Only Begotten Son of God,

born of the Father before all ages.

God from God, Light from Light,

true God from true God,

begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father;

Richard Rohr, like Arius, has an errant view of who Jesus is. Rohr’s idea of Jesus is that he was a created man, not much different from the rest of us. But Rohr divides the concept of Jesus, the man, from what he calls the “the Universal Christ .” According to Rohr, Christ is like “The Force” from the movie Star Wars. Obi wan Kenobi describes it like this, “It’s an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together.” In Rohr’s understanding, Jesus of Nazareth, the man, had mastered the universal Christ in himself.

This is how Richard Rohr himself describes it. “Christ is the eternal amalgam of matter and spirit, human and divine, physical and metaphysical. Christ is what God has been doing all along — everywhere and in everything.”
— The Universal Christ, p. 45

Remember, Rohr separates the eternal Christ from Jesus, the man constrained by time and space. In Rohr’s view, we all can actuate the “Christ” in ourselves through prayer, meditation, and contemplation. Through this practice, we will begin to see the Christ in all things. The goal is to lose our individuality and actually become absorbed into this universal Christ.

This is not the Christian view of Jesus Christ presented to us in the scriptures. It is more like the God of pantheistic religions, like Buddhism and Hinduism. We do not become like Jesus Christ through meditation. We are transformed by the Spirit through God’s grace, getting the good we don’t deserve, and his mercy, not getting what we in our sin do deserve. As it has been said before, “If you’re wrong about Jesus, it doesn’t matter what you’re right about.”

The Atonement

But Richard Rohr’s errant theology doesn’t stop with the person of Jesus Christ. He is also wrong about the fate of sinners who refuse God’s grace. This is the gospel or “good news” that Paul preached, “I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said.” – 1 Corinthians 15:3 NLT. Christians believe that we deserve death because we have rejected grace and sinned against a holy God. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 6:23 NLT. Everyone who sins deserves death (eternal separation from God), and that is everyone. “If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth.” – 1 John 1:8 NLT.

In Father Rohr’s understanding, justice is not retribution for rebellion. Here’s his view in his own words, “The only justice that God ever offers us is restorative justice, not retributive justice. God doesn’t punish. God heals.” – The Universal Christ, p. 182. We simply need to rid ourselves of shame and guilt and be united with the “universal Christ.” Recall that, according to Rohr, Christ is not a person but a force that unites us with the pantheistic god or what we would call the universe.

As Rohr’s sees it, the death of Jesus did not pay for our sins. A loving, forgiving God won’t demand any payment in Rohr’s view. God simply wants us to recognize the goodness that we already have and reject our “false self.”

Rohr’s perspective is that any religion will save us if we rid ourselves of shame and feelings of guilt. Jesus’ death was nothing more than an illustration of the universal principle of death and resurrection. Just like trees die in winter only to resurrect in the spring, Jesus’ died and rose again to show us that death is not the end. According to Rohr, God didn’t need Jesus to die, we did. Here’s what Rohr says about Jesus’ death, “Jesus dies ‘for’ us not in the sense of a substitute but much more in solidarity with the suffering of the world.” – Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality.

In Rohr’s opinion, hell is not just after we die. We all will rise out of the hell of guilt and suffering eventually. Some before we die, some after. It seems that Rohr would include Adolf Hitler, the Columbine shooters, and the 9/11 terrorists. Rohr is scandalized by the idea that God would punish anyone. In his book, Immortal Diamond, Rohr says, “Hell is when we refuse to die to our small self and never find our Big Self in God.”

Rohr’s views are contrary to what the Bible teaches. But Rohr doesn’t have a problem with that. He see scripture through the lens of his “Jesus hermeneutic.”

The Bible

Richard Rohr twists the scriptures to support his position. He does this quite cunningly to mislead his readers. This is exactly what Jesus and his disciples warned us about as the last days of human government draws near. According to Rohr, he is simply doing what Jesus did, what he calls his “Jesus hermeneutic.” You can almost imagine the forked tongue of a serpent slipping through his lips as he says, “Has God indeed said…?”

This is what Rohr tries to make us believe. Rohr implies that Jesus selectively quoted scripture to make his point, reinterpreted the scriptures to suit his fancy, and simply ignored the commands of God when they didn’t please him. He insinuates that we also should ignore scriptures that we think violate Jesus’ teaching of love, mercy, and inclusion.

For example, in the gospel of Luke, Rohr infers that Jesus selectively quoted Isaiah to show he abhors punishment for sin. Jesus reads in the synagogue, “The Spirit of the LORD is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the LORD’s favor has come.” – Luke 4:18-19 NLT. This is a quote from the prophet Isaiah. Rohr says that Jesus intentionally omitted the final phrase of this passage, “…and with it, the day of God’s anger against their enemies.” – Isaiah 61:2 NLT. Rohr’s opinion is that Jesus omitted this phrase because it spoke of God’s punishment. He doesn’t believe that God punishes sin, and in his opinion Jesus doesn’t believe that either.

What Rohr ignores is that the Isaiah passage speaks of the Messiah’s first and second coming in the same passage. After reading the Isaiah scroll, Jesus says to the people in the synagogue, “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled THIS VERY DAY!” (Emphasis added) That wouldn’t have been true if he had read the remainder of the passage. Jesus says of his first time on Earth, “God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.” – John 3:17 NLT. While God didn’t send Jesus to condemn the world the first time, he will send him again for that very purpose, “The day of the LORD is near, the day when destruction comes from the Almighty. How terrible that day will be!” – Joel 1:15 NLT. The “day of the Lord” is the time when Jesus returns and God will punish those who have rejected his offer of grace.

Rohr also applies his “Jesus hermeneutic” to passages from the sermon on the mount. There are a few passages in Matthew 5 where Jesus says, “You have heard… but I say,” Rohr believes these are examples of Jesus reinterpreting the scriptures because he didn’t like what the scriptures said. Instead of Jesus reinterpreting the scriptures, Jesus is correcting the misunderstanding of the scriptures that the Pharisees taught.

Look at this example, “You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’ But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell.” – Matthew 5:21-22 NLT. Jesus wasn’t reinterpreting the prohibition against murder. He was simply pointing out that the sin of murder didn’t occur the moment you plunged the knife into the object of your hatred. It begins when the seed of hatred is sown in your heart.

Likewise, Jesus didn’t reinterpret the sin of adultery in Matt. 5: 27-28. He clarified it. Nor did he change the scripture’s teaching on divorce and remarriage in Matt. 5:31-32. Jesus explains this teaching further in Matt. 19:1-9. Notice in Matt. 19 that Jesus starts this explanation with, “Haven’t you read the Scriptures?” When Jesus says this, he is affirming the authority of the scriptures, not reinterpreting them.

Two of the final three, “You have heard… but I say,” constructions are not even founded on scripture. Jesus clarification on oaths is a refutation of the Pharisaical rules for swearing by the temple and by the altar (see Matt. 23:16-22). And the “Love your neighbor, but hate your enemies.” Ideology (Matt. 5:43-44) was never promoted in the scriptures. On the contrary we are commanded, “If you come upon your enemy’s ox or donkey that has strayed away, take it back to its owner. If you see that the donkey of someone who hates you has collapsed under its load, do not walk by. Instead, stop and help.” – Exodus 23:4-5 NLT. And “If your enemies are hungry, give them food to eat. If they are thirsty, give them water to drink.” – Proverbs 25:21 NLT. Jesus was confirming scripture, not reinterpreting it to fit his wishes.

Finally, Jesus didn’t ignore the commandments that he didn’t like. “One Sabbath day as Jesus was walking through some grainfields, his disciples broke off heads of grain, rubbed off the husks in their hands, and ate the grain. But some Pharisees said, “Why are you breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath?” Jesus replied, “Haven’t you read in the Scriptures what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He went into the house of God and broke the law by eating the sacred loaves of bread that only the priests can eat. He also gave some to his companions.” And Jesus added, “The Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath.” – Luke 6:1-5 NLT. Jesus is merely helping the Pharisees understand what the Sabbath is about. The disciples weren’t violating scriptural law, they were only going against the heavy requirements the Pharisees placed on them by their harsh interpretations. We see this today with Orthodox Jews who won’t flip a light switch or press an elevator button on the Sabbath. The disciples were doing precisely what is allowed in the scriptures. In the description of the Feast of Weeks (called Pentecost in the New Testament), a special Sabbath, the law says, “That same day will be proclaimed an official day for holy assembly, a day on which you do no ordinary work. This is a permanent law for you, and it must be observed from generation to generation wherever you live. When you harvest the crops of your land, do not harvest the grain along the edges of your fields, and do not pick up what the harvesters drop. Leave it for the poor and the foreigners living among you. I am the LORD your God.” – Leviticus 23:21-22 NLT.

As to the time Jesus healed on the Sabbath, Jesus makes it clear that healing is not a violation. Healing is the sort of good work we should be doing on the Sabbath or any other day for that matter. “But the leader in charge of the synagogue was indignant that Jesus had healed her on the Sabbath day. ‘There are six days of the week for working,’ he said to the crowd. ‘Come on those days to be healed, not on the Sabbath.’ But the Lord replied, ‘You hypocrites! Each of you works on the Sabbath day! Don’t you untie your ox or your donkey from its stall on the Sabbath and lead it out for water? This dear woman, a daughter of Abraham, has been held in bondage by Satan for eighteen years. Isn’t it right that she be released, even on the Sabbath?’ – Luke 13:14-16 NLT. The times Jesus healed on the Sabbath was not a violation but a fulfillment.

As far as Jesus relationship to word of God, Jesus made it clear that he recognized its authority. He didn’t play fast and loose with the scriptures, as Rohr suggests that he did. “Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God’s law will disappear until its purpose is achieved. So if you ignore the least commandment and teach others to do the same, you will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But anyone who obeys God’s laws and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.” – Matthew 5:17-19 NLT.

Jesus was not a law breaker who picked the parts of scriptures he liked and rejected the rest as Rohr suggests he did. He stated, “the law of Moses should not be broken” (John 7:23). He criticizes the religious rulers because they rejected the word of God. “… Jesus replied, ‘Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God’.” – Mark 12:24 NLT

Let this not be said of us. Strive for a mature faith. Study the Bible and do not be deceived by the glib words of Richard Rohr and those like him. We must press onward, “This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.” – Ephesians 4:13-14 NLT.

Chuck Livermore is an author and speaker. His latest book, Beyond a Reasonable Doubt: Evidence for the God of the Bible They Don’t Want You to Know, is available on Amazon (click here) Chuck is married to Rebecca Livermore and is a board member at The Well church in Hemet, CA. He is currently leading his Sunday School class in a study of J. P. Moreland’s A Simple Guide to Experience Miracles.

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