| JOHN STEPHEN
PIPER
January 11, 1946 - present
John Piper was born in Chattanooga, Tennesse, and is the son of an itinerant evangelist, Bill
Piper. He attended Wheaton College and graduated in 1968. He studied literature and philosophy
and writes poetry on a regular basis. He received his Bachelor of Divinity degree at Fuller
Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California in 1971 where he studied under Dr. Daniel Fuller. He
came to appreciate the writing of Jonathan Edwards under Dr. Fuller's teaching. He received his
doctorate at the University of Munich, Munich, West Germany in 1974. From 1974-1980 he
taught Biblical Studies at Bethel College in St. Paul, Minnesota. He has been pastor of Bethlehem
Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota since 1980. He is the founder of
Desiring God Ministries.
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- "Abortion And The Tree Of The Knowledge Of Good And
Evil"
The modern secular world—the world which tries to remove God from his all-creating,
all-sustaining, all-defining, all-governing place—has no choice but to make itself god and to
create its own morality. In other words, when man abandons God and his self-revelation as the
source of what is objectively true and right and beautiful, the next highest court of appeal is man
himself.
- "Answering Breg Boyd's Opennes Of God
Texts"
8 texts claimed by Greg Boyd to indicate the openness of God are refuted.
- "Brothers, Magnify The Meaning Of
Baptism"
"With the coming of John the Baptist and Jesus and the apostles, the emphasis now is that the
spiritual status of your parents does not determine your membership in the covenant community.
The beneficiaries of the blessings of Abraham are those who have the faith of Abraham.
These are the ones who belong to the covenant community. And these are the ones who should
receive the sign of the covenant: believer baptism."
- "Buried And Raised In Baptism Through
Faith"
"If baptism were merely a parallel of the Old Testament rite of circumcision it would not have to
happen "through faith" since infants did not take on circumcision "through faith." The reason the
New Testament ordinance of baptism must be "through faith" is that it represents not the Old
Testament external ritual, but the New Testament, internal, spiritual experience of circumcision
"without hands.""
- "Compassion, Power And The Kingdom Of God Are
Signs And Miracles For Today?"
"So what I think I can say for our guidance is this. 1) On the one hand, we ought to honor the
uniqueness of Jesus and the apostles and of that revelatory moment in history that gave us the
foundational doctrines of faith and life in the New Testament. 2) On the other hand we ought to
be open to the real possibility that this too might be a unique moment in history, and in this
moment it may well be God's purpose to pour out his Spirit in unprecedented revival -- revival of
love to Christ and zeal for worship and compassion for lost people and a missionary thrust with
signs and wonders. I want to have my keel deep and stable in the once-for-all Biblical revelation
of God, and I want to have my sails unfurled to every movement of God's spirit upon the deeps."
- "The Darkness of Abortion and the Light of
Truth"
"What's the flaw here? The flaw is that, while claiming to withhold judgment, the judiciary not
only speculated but authoritatively decreed on the issue: namely, it is not murder or manslaughter
to destroy the unborn. That is not a suspension of judgment. That is a decisive judgment:
namely, in the womb there is nothing worth protecting by law. To portray this as a sensitive
suspension of judgment about the status of unborn life is false and deceptive. How do you get
from, "We do not know whether this is protectable human life," to "Therefore, we will not protect
it"'? Wouldn't the logic just as likely (some would say far more likely) be, "Since we do not know
whether this is protectable human life, therefore we will protect it." Why does the judicial
uncertainty about the humanity of the unborn lead to unbridled license to destroy it?"
- "Definitions And Observations Concerning The Second
Coming Of Christ"
"Let me stress that the disagreement over pre- and post-tribulationism is not one that I think
should threaten our fellowship. It should not be divisive. The things on which we agree are so
stupendous as to overwhelm our hearts in common love for the Lord and his appearing. Let us
not make the second coming a center of controversy, but a cause for worship and earnest hope
and liberating confidence for the ministry before us!"
- "Did Christ Die For Us Or For
God"
"The root reason for why the cross is folly to the world is that it means the end of human
self-exaltation, and a radical commitment to God-exaltation. No - "commitment" is
not quite the right word. Rather the cross is a call to radical "exultation" in
God-exaltation. The cross is the death of our demand to be loved by being made the center. And
it is the birth of joy in God's being made the center."
- "Does God Make Mistakes"
A Response to Greg Boyd's Treatment of Jeremiah 3:6-7, 19-20
"I deal with Dr. Boyd's interpretation of Jeremiah 3:6-7, 19:20 as an example of the kind of
difficulties he gets into, even though he claims to be following a simple, face-value hermeneutic.
He gives the impression that, on the face of it, this text, and many others, are clear and simple
illustrations of God's openness to an uncertain future. But on careful examination, his own
interpretation involves problems even greater than the traditional one he rejects."
- SERMON 1 -"The Elect Obtained it, The Rest Were
Hardened" - Romans 11:7-10
SERMON 2 -"Pastoral Thoughts On The Doctrine Of
Election" - Romans 11:5-7
"Then Paul says in Romans 11:7b: 'The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened.' This is a
tremendously important statement for understanding how salvation happens. 'The elect obtained
it.' Obtained what? Obtained right standing with God. Obtained faith and justification and
salvation. This is what Paul had said in verse 5: 'At the present time there is a [saved] remnant,
chosen by grace.' So he says in verse 7, The 'chosen' obtain it - obtain a standing in the remnant,
the redeemed, the justified, the saved. What then of the rest, Paul? If the remnant exists because
of election and sovereign grace, then what are you saying about the rest? Paul answers (verse 7b):
'The rest were hardened.'"
- "The Enormous Ignorance Of God"
When God Doesn't Know The Future Choices Of Man
"For God not to know future volitions of humans is not a small ignorance but a huge one,
unimaginably huge. It is, for example, not a periodic ignorance, but a continual one; not a narrow
ignorance, but a universally human one; not an insignificant ignorance, but a tremendously
significant one; not a confined ignorance, but a diverse one (relating to all things a person can
choose)."
- "The Freedom and Justice of God in Unconditional
Election"
"The Fame of His Name and the Freedom of Mercy"
"The doctrine of God's unconditional election is so different from what most of you grew up with
that you not only have a hard time believing it is in the Bible, but also a hard time feeling that it is
good news. So I am swimming against a doubly difficult current in these messages from Romans
9. On the one hand, I believe that is exactly the doctrine that Romans 9 teaches, and on the other
hand, I believe that doctrine is very good news. So I must do my best both to show you that it is
there in the text, and that it is good news. That's my job in these days. It is humanly impossible,
but with God all things are possible. So, Lord, please help me."
- "How Do Circumcision And Baptism
Correspond?"
"But the people of the new covenant, called the Church of Jesus Christ, is being built in a
fundamentally different way. The church is not based on any ethnic, national distinctives but on
the reality of faith alone, by grace alone in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Church is not a
continuation of Israel as a whole; it is an continuation of the true Israel, the remnant -not the
children of the flesh, but the children of promise. Therefore, it is not fitting that the children
born merely according to the flesh receive the sign of the covenant, baptism."
- "How Open Theism Helps Us Conceal Our Hidden
Idolatries"
"All of life is meant to be lived to reflect the infinite value of Christ (Philippians 1:20). We show
his infinite worth by treasuring him above all things and all persons. Believing in his all-ruling, all-
wise sovereignty helps reveal our idolatries in times of pain and loss. Not believing that God has a
wise purpose for every event helps conceal our idolatries. Thus Open Theism, against all its
conscious designs, tends to undermine a means of grace that our deceptive hearts need."
- "I Baptize You With Water"
"The most important thing to learn is that when a Jewish person received John's baptism, it
was a radical act of individual commitment to belong to the true people of God, based on
personal confession and repentance, NOT on corporate identity with Israel through birth. This is
one of the main reasons I am a Baptist, that is, this is one of the main reasons that I do not believe
in baptizing infants, who cannot make this personal commitment or confession or repentance.
John's baptism was an assault on the very assumptions that give rise to much infant baptism."
- "Infant Baptism And The New Covenant
Community"
"Why is baptism not administered to the children of Christian parents in the New Covenant as
circumcision was administered to the children of Jewish parents in the former covenant?
Because the New Covenant members are not defined by physical descent, as the old covenant
members were, but by God's writing his law on their heart and calling them to himself and
bringing them to repentance and faith."
- "Is The Glory Of God At Stake In God's Foreknowledge Of
Human Choices?"
"Two things are crucial to note here: one is that Jesus foreknows the evil deed of Judas with
certainty. The other is that Jesus himself says that this foreknowledge is part of his glory as divine:
"I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am"
(John 13:19). If Evangelicals have a passion for the glory of Christ, we must join him in affirming,
not denying, his ability to foreknow with certainty human choices without removing moral
accountability. It's his glory to know them."
- "Thomas Oden's Charge Of Heresy"
"Concerning The Denial Of God's Foreknowledge"
"In other words, a leading non-Calvinist evangelical theologian who is not marginal or alarmist or
fundamentalistic or narrow calls this view "heresy." He does so not in a huff behind
closed doors, but calmly and with charity in a mainstream evangelical publication. This is very
significant."
- "What Baptism Portrays"
"Baptism portrays our death in the death of Christ. Baptism portrays our newness of life in
Christ."
- "What Is Baptism And Does It
Save?"
"You do not save yourself. God saves you through the work of Christ. But you receive that
salvation through calling on the name of the Lord, by trusting him. And it is God's will all over
the world and in every culture - no matter how simple or how sophisticated - that this appeal to
God be expressed in baptism."
- "Why We Eat The
Lord's Supper"
SERMON 1 - 1 Corinthinas 11:17-34
SERMON 2 - 1 Corinthians 11:17-34
SERMON 3 - 1 Corinthians 11:17-34
"So, as we spend two weeks on this doctrine of the Lord's Supper, let no one say, "What's the big
deal?" Rather let us humble ourselves and realize that while we may enjoy freedom of religion in
this country, so that no one is burned or beheaded for religious reasons, we may also have lost all
sense of the weight and wonder of what Christ has given us in the ordinances of his church. It
would do us well to admit that if their age was marked by brutality, ours is marked by
superficiality. They may have weighed things differently than we would, but it may be that we
have lost the capacity to feel weighty truth at all."
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