The Piper Warren Interview (Part 4)

It is my deep conviction that anybody can be won to Christ if you discover the key to his or her heart. That key to each person’s heart is unique so it is sometimes difficult to discover. It may take some time to identify it. But the most likely place to start is with the person’s felt needs - Rick Warren (p219 The Purpose Driven Church)

Because of the Fall, humans are incapable of any saving good apart from the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. We are helpless and dead in sin. We have a mindset that “cannot submit to God without divine enabling" - John Piper (Summary Of The Sovereignty Of God In Salvation, online source)

These quotes not only reveal that John Piper and Rick Warren live on different theological planets, they also raise the bizarre question as to why John Piper would make a concerted effort to prove that they live on the same planet. They furthermore reveal the utter pointlessness of interviewing Rick Warren and asking him questions like the one below:



Here is Rick Warren again at his chameleon best. He is clearly not a theological dunce which makes his long history of conflicting statements even more troubling. Rick Warren, who says that "God's not mad at you, He's mad about you", claims that Jonathan "Sinners In The hands Of An Angry God" Edwards is his hero. Piper who has a long track record of excellent biblical exposition is undermining it by doing something that is so far beneath him.

Just five years ago Piper wrote:

The recent lamentations over the drift of evangelicalism into pragmatic, doctrinally vague, audience-driven, culturally uncritical Christianity are, in my judgment, warranted and needed . . . The political spin doctors who specialize in deflecting attention away from truth onto feelings and relationships and styles have their counterpart in the evangelical tendency to avoid doctrinal disputes by casting issues in terms of demeanor and method rather than truth. Serious disagreements are covered over, while vague language and pragmatic concerns preserve hollow unity at the expense of theological substance and Biblical clarity and power . . . a major shift . . . has taken place in western evangelicalism where truth has been replaced by pragmatism as the major influencer of thought and life. This path is suicidal - John Piper (online source)

Many of us who love John Piper are at a loss as to why he thinks a suicidal path is a viable alternative!

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