{"id":1300,"date":"2009-05-22T10:36:02","date_gmt":"2009-05-22T18:36:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/?p=1300"},"modified":"2009-05-22T11:27:20","modified_gmt":"2009-05-22T19:27:20","slug":"an-important-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/2009\/05\/22\/an-important-question\/","title":{"rendered":"an important question"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m not going to make my blogging simply a point-counterpoint with Dave Doran, but he asks an important question<\/a> today that does get to part of the current controversies roiling Fundamentalism.<\/p>\n

Is it possible to appreciate this man’s [Piper’s] heart for the Word, expository preaching, people’s souls, and God’s glory without being questioned about one’s fundamentalist convictions?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think the answer is no, given Piper’s notable errors on matters that are fundamentalist convictions.<\/p>\n

For one, Piper is clearly wrong on the divisive issue of charismatism. His associations with charismatics and his teaching on these doctrines call for censure, not approval.<\/p>\n

For another, Piper is clearly wrong in his support of the blasphemer. I think you know who I mean. This is in spite of quite clear evidence and even direct argumentation by John MacArthur. If we are going to praise Piper and hold him up as an example for young men, you can’t really divorce this from the mix. He is who he is and he is clearly wrong on this point. His support of the blasphemer is one of the reasons, I believe, that some professing fundamentalists are unwilling to be as clear and straight-forward as MacA.<\/p>\n

Finally, the music Piper allows, apparently with delight, in his ministry points to serious error in his thinking. While exact definitions on musical points may be questionable to some extent, no fundamentalist ministry I know of would tolerate the kind of music Piper tolerates. If we are ‘expressing our appreciation’, we are lifting up a man whose whole philosophy of ministry is quite widely different from fundamentalist philosophy. These differences are significant and can’t be dismissed as trivial or side issues.<\/p>\n

So I would answer the question, No. No, because ‘heart for the Word, expository preaching, people’s souls, and God’s glory’ is much too subjective and isn’t the standard upon which a ministry should be evaluated or appreciated. “He has a good heart!” Right. So did Billy Graham.<\/p>\n

Maranatha!
\nDon Johnson
\nJer 33.3<\/p>\n

UPDATE:<\/strong><\/span> It occurs to me that this points to a critical problem we have in Fundamentalism. The tail seems to be leading the dog. Men like Piper are appealing on some fronts, but the leadership, especially the leadership in our institutions, have either failed to significantly point out the serious errors (and the seriousness of the errors) or they have in fact been leading cheerleaders for men of this sort. I am not sure how this is helpful for the upcoming generations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m not going to make my blogging simply a point-counterpoint with Dave Doran, but he asks an important question today that does get to part of the current controversies roiling Fundamentalism. Is it possible to appreciate this man’s [Piper’s] heart for the Word, expository preaching, people’s souls, and God’s glory without being questioned about one’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[91,37,71,68,63,44],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2fYWj-kY","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1300"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1300"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1305,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1300\/revisions\/1305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}