UPDATED: It's Confirmed: John Piper to Host Rick Warren at Desiring God 2010 (with video from Piper)
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
This is a sad day. I'm a little shocked but not much, honestly. It's sort of like the person you knew who was in the hospital for the past three years or so. You knew the end was coming soon as you slowly watched them deteriorate, but you just didn't know when. That's how I feel about John Piper's discernment after it has now been confirmed that John Piper has invited Rick Warren to speak at the Fall 2010 Desiring God Conference.
Here's your confirmation from Piper, himself. In it, he shares this thought:
"At root I think (Rick Warren) is theological and doctrinal and sound.”
HT: CrossTalk Blog for the audio
As I said in my Tweet yesterday, "If this is true, I cannot, in good conscience, endorse @JohnPiper again." You may now change that "If" to a "Since." At this point, I'm sure that many of you will write me off as "fundamentalist" or whatever else, but I really don't care. I believe that God is sovereign and all things work together for the good of those who are called and love Him, but, frankly, I can't help but feel a little discouraged today. John Piper has wonderful, wonderful things to say, but I honestly feel like I would if I were to find out that my Dad was having an affair. I can't imagine the two feelings being that much different. Piper is looked to as an authority on Reformed Theology (which I hold to passionately as I believe it's true), and he just brought in the camp the the equivalent of the town prostitute to "meet Mom and the family" under the guise that "he's trying to help her by inviting her into our household to stay and mingle with the family." (That analogy may seem harsh to some, but those who have seriously invested time in investigating Warren and his double speak to sell himself whichever way he can to whichever group is available may realize that the analogy is not far off.) Yeah, right; let your Dad try that with your Mom and see how well that goes over. If your Dad were to stay with the prostitute at the expense of the well being of the rest of his family because it's "in her best interest," it would say a lot about his priorities and character, would it not? It's one thing to hold to God's sovereignty while things are going well, but it's quite another to hold to it and still see people you have respected as people with Godly discernment discredit themselves with decisions that undermine the Gospel like it's been revealed about John Piper today.
All this "wait and see" stuff I'm hearing from people who would rather rely on unsubstantiated optimism than already established facts is nonsense. John Piper invited a false Gospel to his conference and called it sound. What's left to wait and see?
Please click this link to hear and read what I consider to be sound critiques of the Purpose Driven Movement and the cult-like tactics it employs in seeking to win a church culture over who is more concerned with being groupies in a land full of "Christian celebrity" than disciples of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If sound doctrine doesn't matter, I'm on board with Warren, too. It's the easy way for me, and I'll probably even sell more books if I ever write one. Unfortunately, for everyone who believes that a precher's popularity determines his credibility, theology does matter. May God have mercy on this situation and bring repentance. Piper, Warren, and those who condone this are sincerely in my prayers.
UPDATED: Maybe the most concerning thing about all of this is the reasons why Piper has accepted Warren to instruct the body at Desiring God 2010. In this short video, Piper gives his reasons (none of which I found convincing in the least).
