Thursday, July 12, 2012

Pursue Love... Not Joy... Not Christian Hedonism

I have't picked on Piper for a while.
Apparently men still worship his words and defend his honor. You see this around the Blogsphere.
It gets tiring, to say the least.
Piper is off-balanced. He takes tertiary things and makes them main things. His view on women is one of these things saying such things that if people don't agree with his view on Manhood and Womanhood they may be saved, but they do violence to the gospel. Whatever.

Another thing he does is take joy from it's proper place and shove it up to the front of the line before love.
It amazes me that he can do this, seriously, yet claim to be a Bible scholar with a straight face.
Rather than go into this myself, there is an old article on this that I want to share.

Myth: To Reject Christian Hedonism is to Reject Joy

I don't know where Christians get this all or nothing thinking. But it's not healthy.

4 comments:

Lynne said...

Great article. I have always thought Piper's fundamental premise was flawed. I have heard so many people quote "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him," and I don't get it. What has my emotional state got to do with God's glory? Isn't God MORE glorified when, with no positive emotions at all, i still seek to obey Him? Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane certainly wasn't feeling satisfied in God (whatever that means anyway)yet His "nevertheless, not my will but yours .." cuts to the heart of discipleship.

Mara Reid said...

Yeah.
I just find Piper confusing all around. He seems to have a knack for taking the simple and making it complex and for missing an entire forest over a favorite tree.

Sometimes I think preachers get so enamored with their own view of doctrine that that doctrine becomes the idol.
Sometimes pet doctrines need to be treated like Isaac, offered up as a sacrifice, or if they are really kooky, driven out like Ishmael.

Lynne said...

anyone who loves doctrine more than people has already missed Jesus. And anyone who wants to make a name for themselves by putting up a new doctrinal twist .. well, that doesn't actually sound like glorifying God to me. I used to have some respect for Piper as a godly man that I just happened to disagree with, but as time goes on, my doubts about him are growing exponentially

Mara Reid said...

You know, Lynne.
Just before I checked my blog and read and posted your comment, I read a blog post by Doubtful over at TWW.

I think maybe what you are seeing in Piper is something that Doubtful describes.

I'm going to link it in a post. I'd be interested in your thoughts.