2 weeks ago
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
John Piper on the Prosperity Gospel
I just watched it this John Piper youtube video. Interesting. I thought it was interesting that he added to his “catch-phrase" in order to make his point. His catch phrase is “God is most satisfied in you, when you are most satisfied in Him,” and in order to make his point he changed it to “God is most satisfied in you, when you are most satisfied in Him… in the midst of loss.” To be honest I agree more with his first statement. Why is God more glorified in me in the midst of loss than he is in the midst of joy? His illustration of the girl flying through the windshield was way over the top and obviously made for dramatic effect…
To be honest with you I think Piper may be reacting to a beast that he helped create. His book Desiring God has the subtitle “Meditations of a Christian Hedonist.” While I have read the book and understand his point (I’m not saying that I agree with his point, but I understand what he was saying), I wonder how many people took it out of context and equated Christian Hedonism with Prosperity Gospel. It’s really not too far of a jump is it? What do you think?
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4 comments:
Ryan,
Explicitly adding "in the midst of loss" to his well-known phrase is nothing new to what he has taught many times in the past. Times of loss are also a time to show forth how much we really trust and treasure Jesus as the source of our deepest satisfactions.
I think he would say that often times of loss demonstrate the glory of God in our lives more clearly and genuinely than in times of plenty. Saying we treasure Jesus when times are good is easily done, but to express trust in God as our supreme value when times are tough seems to really prove that our words are genuine and our feelings deep. This kind of testimony is harder to argue with.
As far as the story about the child through the windshield, I also felt it might be a little over the top when I first heard it. I have since heard that this may in fact have been the experience of someone in Piper's acquaintance, such as his church, but I have not found documentation to verify it.
David
God can be glorified in loss and joy. I would even argue that sometimes it's harder to glorify God in times of joy because it's easy to forget that God gave us the blessings that made us joyful in that moment. Many times we even want to claim that we earned it and deserve it. But, it's all at a personal level and responsibility. I think it's just hard to make overarching statements like Piper did, America is always to blame for this stuff just because we are a wealthy country. We can take our own responsibility for praising God in good and bad but it's dangerous to say that just because people are wealthy, they are teaching the prosperity gospel.
I'll agree with "when we are most satisfied in Him", if we are satisfied in the Truth About Him, not what we want Him to be. And I would add, "when we are extremely Joyified in Him, not just satisfied."
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