Rick Warren speaking during the recent AIDS Summit at his Saddleback Church (Photo: Dan Wooding)

LAKE FOREST, CA (ANS) -- Rick Warren, the senior pastor of Saddleback Church, Lake Forest, California, says that if Jesus was walking the earth today, he would be spending time with people with AIDS.

In an interview during the recent 3rd Annual Global Summit on AIDS and the Church, he told ANS, "Jesus would be with people who have AIDS because, like the lepers of the first century, these are the people nobody wants to hang out with because they are afraid of them; they're frightened. I know the most Christ-like thing we can do is to care for the people Jesus cares about most."

In the interview, I asked Warren why Christians should be involved in the present-day HIV/AIDS pandemic.

He replied, "What I care about most of all is the Church of Jesus Christ. It's going to outlast everything else. If Jesus hasn't come back a thousand years from today, there probably won't be a Microsoft or an Intel; there're probably won't be even a World Vision, or even a United States, because no manmade organization lasts forever.

"But the Church is going to last forever. The reason it's going to last forever is it's why God created the universe. The Bible tells us that God created the entire universe just so He could create this galaxy; just so He could create this planet; just so it would tilt on the right axis so it doesn't burn up or freeze up, so it could sustain human life; just so He could create the human race, so he could love you and me.

"And the bottom line of this is that God wanted a family and everything in the world is created because God wanted a family. And so He made us in His image; human beings, which means we have the right to choose -- choose to love Him or choose to reject him. It's not true love unless you have the choice to love or not love Him.

"God knew that many people on this planet would choose to intentionally love him and He would bring them into His family. So the story of history is that God is creating a family. History is 'His story' and it's all moving toward a climax. You remember, in the movie The Lion King, it talks about the circle of life; well life is not a circle; life is linear and we are moving toward a climax and it will end at the time God wants it to end."

Warren then added, "The moment that last person comes into the family of God, then boom, it's over and we're going to phase two, which is eternity. The earth is going to be shut down and the temporary stage here is over. While we're here on earth, since we're only here sixty, eighty or maybe ninety years at the most, we have to realize that we are going to spend trillions of years in eternity.

"I wrote a book about what on earth we are here for. In that book, I talked about how this life is preparation for the next; and this life is where we practice what we're going to do forever in eternity. We're going to do four things in eternity; we're going to worship; we're going to fellowship; we're going to grow and we're going to serve God. So God wants us to practice those things here.

"Now under the issue of serving others, we have this giant problem called AIDS. We also have this giant issue called poverty, as well as the giant issues of diseases, illiteracy, equipping leaders and promoting reconciliation. That's what the P.E.A.C.E. plan is all about. It's just doing the five things that Jesus did; promoting reconciliation, equipping leaders, assisting the poor, caring for the sick and educating the next generation.

"And, under caring for the sick, we have this enormous pandemic called AIDS and I think it is our greatest opportunity. Since it's the greatest pandemic, it is the greatest opportunity for us to show the love of Jesus Christ."

Note: I would like to thank Robin Frost for transcribing this interview