A Passing Thought on Something John Piper Wrote
“We have moved far away from the biblical Christianity of Jonathan Edwards.”
~John Piper
Actually, it has never been my goal to move toward the Christianity of any mere man; the Christianity we are moving away from is that of Jesus Christ Himself. And I really don’t care to read the musings of some guy that lived hundreds of years ago who had to write a whole book in order to communicate what Jesus Christ can say in one sentence. And I know this is utterly shocking to you Dr. Piper, but I am not going to take your word for it that Edwards followed Christ. Again, I would have to read all of his stuff , and why would I do that? The 42 guys in the closed canon are a sure bet, who is Jonathan Edwards?
Paul's Passing Thoughts 
Yikes!
LikeLike
ha ha Paul- your post is exactly what I have said to my friends. When I went to a Reformed church a year and half ago, we were in a Bible class on “contentment”. The class was based on a book of a well-known Puritan who wrote 300+ pages on this topic. I remember many times I would talk about the Holy Spirit helping us when we look to Christ for the answers on contentment- they did not like that. I always wondered WHY?? we needed this 300+ page book when the Bible simply tells us in
Philippians 4:11-12-
Not that I speak from want; for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.
This verse states quite clearly how we need to look at our circumstances- no matter what the outcome. What is so hard to understand? And if we do have trouble in this area- the Holy Spirit is always there with us to mold and sanctify us to be more like Christ if we are so willing to submit to Him. Why do so many of these men feel the need to expand on the topic more and then ADD to it (which even unintentionally they all start going this direction). I thought of something the other day about the Israelites when they were crying out to God for a King. God told them that if they wanted a king it would be hard and not good in the end.
They would not listen to God and cling to Him and His Word; they wanted to follow a man. This is the same today as it was back then- we tend to follow men instead of God. We put man on pedestals, instead of searching for the whole counsel of God.
LikeLike
T4H, Moreover, I have never evaluated to what extent these guys cite men and creeds as compared to Scripture, but I would imagine it’s pretty hefty.
> —–Original Message—– >
LikeLike
A few years back I had a learned friend (retired Greek prof from seminary) tell me that for these guys Christianity started during the Reformation and their filter for the Word was from that tradition to today. It is a man made religion, pure and simple.
I find it interesting at how much of Puritian history has been rewritten by the Reformed crowd.
I like the warning NT Wright gives about the creeds: They are used as a syllabus for Christianity and leave out a lot of the real important stuff such as kingdom living today. That WE can Obey God today
(This is not a blanket endorsement of Wright, I disagree with him on ecclessiology but he seems to have nailed these guys are their wrong defintion of Justification as in Jesus imputed obedience to us on the cross)
LikeLike
Lin, Right.
> —–Original Message—– >
LikeLike