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John Piper on Alcohol Consumption

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John Piper

John Piper’s view on alcohol consumption is encapsulated in these four sources:

  1. “Total Abstinence and Church Membership,” a sermon preached on October 4, 1981
  2. “Flesh Tank and Peashooter Regulations,” a sermon on Colossians 2:16–23 preached on January 17, 1982
  3. “Is It Okay to Drink Alcohol?” Ask Pastor John podcast, May 8, 2010
  4. “Is Drinking Alcohol a Sin?” Ask Pastor John podcast, October 23, 2013

Total Abstinence and Church Membership

“Total Abstinence and Church Membership,” though delivered nearly 32 years ago, is his most extensive treatment on the subject (that I’ve come across). In it he gives four main reasons that he personally abstains from alcohol consumption:

  1. “. . . because of my conscience.”
  2. “. . . alcohol is a mind-altering drug.”
  3. “. . . alcohol is addictive.”
  4. “. . . to make a social statement.”
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Free Download: Life in a Risen Saviour by Robert Candlish

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Life in a Risen Saviour Being Discourses on the Argument of the Fifteenth Chapter of First Corinthians

Life in a Risen Saviour: Being Discourses on the Argument of the Fifteenth Chapter of First Corinthians by Robert Candlish is free from Logos Bible Software this month as part of their Free Book of the Month program. After you get the free book, you can read in one of the free reader apps for PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android, or Kindle Fire—or online at Biblia.com.

You can also enter to win a free copy of the 15-vol. Works of Robert S. Candlish.

Life in a Risen Saviour consists of 21 sermons. Here’s how Candlish introduces the volume:

I have endeavoured, in these Discourses, to illustrate the line of argument pursued by the Apostle. It is not, as I apprehend it, an argument about the resurrection generally. It has respect to one particular view of the resurrection; its bearing on the believer’s spiritual and eternal life. I have sought to trace the line of thought which gives unity and coherence to the Apostle’s reasoning. I have by no means, however, aimed at anything like a complete commentary or exposition. I have rarely discussed different interpretations, and have abstained from minute criticism. There is no attempt, on my part, to occupy the place already so well filled by such learned and acute scholars as Dr. John Brown, and other recent writers, who have bestowed research and study on the examination of this portion of Scripture. I have not quoted authorities. But I must name Isaac Taylor’s “Physical Theory of Another Life,” as having suggested interesting lines of thought connected with the future state.

I crave indulgence for some diffuseness, as well as for occasional repetitions, not easily to be avoided in a series of compositions for the pulpit, prepared often hastily from week to week, and all having reference, more or less directly, to one theme. I might have recast what I had thus prepared, so as to give it the form of a more compact treatise. But that is always an irksome task,—and not always a successful one. I have thought it best to publish the Discourses very much as they were when I preached them.

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One with Christ: An Evangelical Theology of Salvation

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One with Christ: An Evangelical Theology of Salvation

A reader pointed out a forthcoming book on union with Christ: One with Christ: An Evangelical Theology of Salvation. This 256–page book by Marcus Peter Johnson is supposed to be published by Crossway on August 31, 2013.

Here’s the description from Amazon:

Regeneration, justification, sanctification. These are the primary words that come to mind when talking about the theology of salvation. However, the Bible teaches that each of these concepts is firmly rooted in something more foundational: our union with Christ. In this accessible book, Johnson introduces us to this neglected doctrine, arguing that it is the dominant organizing concept for salvation in the New Testament. In eight thought-provoking chapters, Johnson shows how a believer’s position “in Christ” is the lens through which other all other facets of salvation should be understood. Interacting extensively with the biblical text and drawing on lessons from church history, Johnson presents a compelling case for the unique importance of this beautiful, biblical doctrine.

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D. A. Carson on Assurance of Salvation

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D. A. CarsonYesterday Andy Naselli highlighted six resources by D. A. Carson on assurance of salvation. It reminded me of Carson’s article “Reflections on Christian Assurance,” which is one of my favorites on the subject. Carson skillfully holds together what many tear asunder. If you haven’t read it, I’d strongly encourage you to. The balance he strikes is exemplary. I can’t speak to whether some of his other treatments are better, but this one is superb.

He originally presented “Reflections on Christian Assurance” as a paper at Tyndale House in June, 1990 as the Annual Biblical Theology Lecture. Two year later it was published in Westminster Theological Journal 54, no. 1 (Spring 1992): 1–29. In 2000 it was republished as “Reflections on Assurance,” in Still Sovereign: Contemporary Perspectives on Election, Foreknowledge, and Grace, ed. Thomas R. Schreiner and Bruce A. Ware (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2000), 247–76.

Here’s the outline of his article:

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Responding to Cancer

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Rod Decker

Professor and blogger Rod Decker posted on his blog this weekend about his cancer. It appears to be more widespread, more aggressive, and more serious than they originally thought. He’s begun treatment to control and reduce the cancer, and he’d appreciate your prayers—as we all would if we were in his shoes.

As I read his post, I was reminded of how often I hear about a friend’s or acquaintance’s getting or dying from cancer—especially with how connected the internet has made us all. I was also reminded that the chances are good that it will touch me or my family at some point.

While it’s not appropriate to worry about a “frowning providence” that God might have in store for us, it is good to equip ourselves with biblical thinking about sickness and death (Ec 7:2). To that end I’d encourage you to read Rod’s post, especially the third paragraph.

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Does Matthew 5:48 Require Sinless Perfection?

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Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). This is often interpreted as a call to sinless perfection, something that Christians cannot attain prior to glorification.

God is thus able to issue this injunction to his people: ‘Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect’ (Matt. 5:48). This is absolute, sinless and peerless perfection.

Wayne Detzler, Living Words in Philippians (England: Evangelical Press, 1984), 93.

Absolute sinlessness is a goal which Christians must seek (cf. Mt. 5:48; 2 Cor. 7:1; Rom. 6:19) but which they do not as yet find (Jas. 3:2; 1 Jn. 1:8–2:2).

J. I. Packer, “Perfection,” ed. D. R. W. Wood et al., New Bible Dictionary (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1996), 901.

While absolute sinlessness is a goal which Christians must seek (Mat. 5:48; Rom. 6:19; II Cor. 7:1), still, it is a place which they do not yet find (James 3:2; I Jn. 1:8–2:2).

Jimmy Swaggart, Jimmy Swaggart Bible Commentary: Romans (Baton Rouge, LA: World Evangelism Press, 1998), 102.

The only standard the Bible ever identifies is absolute, 100-percent sinless, moral perfection (see Deuteronomy 18:13; Matthew 5:48; James 2:10).

John Ankerberg and John Weldon, How to Know You’re Going to Heaven: Assurance for Today, Hope for Tomorrow (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 2014).

It’s then often used as a hermeneutical key to understanding the Sermon on the Mount as a whole. In this view, Jesus is not laying out the way of life for his followers. Instead, he is setting the bar so far out of their reach that they must turn to him for mercy and find acceptance in his righteousness.

Matthew 5:48 Verse Art from Faithlife

I fully embrace the theological conclusions of this position: Christians cannot live sinlessly in this life and can only be accepted by God on the basis of the imputed righteousness of Jesus received by faith. However, I don’t think this text teaches that point.

There are three reasons for understanding this verse as something that every Christian should and can by grace obey.

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God’s Love: A Bible Storybook

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God's Love: A Bible Storybook

If you have an iPad and kids or grandkids (or plan to one day), you’ll definitely want to download the iPad app God’s Love: A Bible Storybook, which is free until Monday morning.

Here’s the description:

Explore God’s love from the creation of the world to the ascension of Christ. Featuring 120 story pages and three hours of spoken audio, this storybook app can help parents and Bible teachers alike share God’s majesty with children.

Here’s the book’s intro:

Before Creation, God’s heart overflowed with love for the other members of the Trinity. Then as God spoke the universe into existence, His love exploded into a kaleidoscope of shapes, sounds, smells, and tastes. Yet above all this beauty, we find the fullest and brightest expression of God’s love in the Person and work of Jesus Christ. As you explore God’s majestic love, we pray that this storybook will encourage your family to develop a new awe for Him.

We purchased the iPad app for $9.99 last summer and then the print book [Amazon] for Christmas, and we’ve really enjoyed both with our daughter.

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Piper on Calvinism, Arminianism, and Logic

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Tulips

I think John Piper is on target with this assessment of Calvinists, Arminians, and logic:

It is a great irony to me that Calvinists are stereotyped as logic-driven. For forty years my experience has been the opposite. The Calvinists I have known (English Puritans, Edwards, Newton, Spurgeon, Packer, Sproul) are not logic driven, but Bible-driven. It’s the challengers who bring their logic to the Bible and nullify text after text. Branches are lopped off by “logic,” not exegesis.

Who are the great enjoyers of paradox today? Who are the pastors and theologians who grab both horns of every biblical dilemma and swear to the God-Man: I will never let go of either.

Not the Calvinism-critics that I meet. They read of divine love, and say that predestination cannot be. They read of human choice and say the divine rule of all our steps cannot be. They read of human resistance, and say that irresistible grace cannot be. Who is logic-driven?

For forty years Calvinism has been, for me, a vision of life that embraces mystery more than any vision I know. It is not logic-driven. It is driven by a vision of the ineffable, galactic vastness of God’s Word.

Let’s be clear: It does not embrace contradiction. Chesterton and I both agree that true logic is the law of “Elfland.” “If the Ugly Sisters are older than Cinderella, it is (in an iron and awful sense) necessary that Cinderella is younger than the Ugly Sisters.” Neither God nor his word is self-contradictory. But paradoxes? Yes.

We happy Calvinists don’t claim to get the heavens into our heads. We try to get our heads into the heavens. We don’t claim comprehensive answers to revealed paradoxes. We believe. We try to understand. And we break out into song and poetry again and again.

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