He seems to be particularly upset with J.P. Holding, to the point of overestimating his faults and underestimating his strengths frequently and to a large degree. Remember, it was just recently that Matthew radically changed the nature of his public comments about J.P. Holding. I haven't said or suggested that I agree with J.P. Holding on every issue. I don't think I need to include qualifiers about my degree of approval of a source every time I link to something that source has written. I don't claim that J.P. Holding is sinless or correct on every issue, but I hold a far higher view of him than Matthew Green does, and I think I've been reading his material and have been in correspondence with him longer than Matthew has.
Regarding John Piper, I consider him one of the best Christians of our generation, and anybody significantly familiar with his ministry should realize that he has commendable motives in writing a book like the one Matthew has criticized. I'll close with a few sections of that book that I quote in my article, the article that Matthew has been criticizing. I think that these segments of his book give us an indication of why John Piper would want people to do more with their lives than play softball and collect seashells:
Oh, that young and old would turn off the television, take a long walk, and dream about feats of courage for a cause ten thousand times more important than American democracy - as precious as that is....
Christ came and died and rose again in order to gather a joyful, countless company for his name from all the peoples of the world. This is what every Christian should dream about....
This is God's design in world history - that people from all nations and tribes and languages come to worship and treasure Christ above all things. Or as Paul put it in Romans 15:9, "that the Gentiles [all the peoples] might glorify God for his mercy." There can be no weary resignation, no cowardly retreat, and no merciless contentment among Christ's people when he is disowned among thousands of unreached peoples....
Let love flow from your saints, and may it, Lord, be this: that even if it costs our lives, the people will be glad in God. "Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you! Let the nations be glad and sing for joy." Take your honored place, O Christ, as the all-satisfying Treasure of the world. With trembling hands before the throne of God, and utterly dependent on your grace, we lift our voice and make this solemn vow: As God lives, and is all I ever need, I will not waste my life
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Ed,
ReplyDeleteYou've added qualifiers to John Piper's comments that he didn't include. He didn't suggest that people "try to find new ways to call other people fools" and "contend for the faith and be contentious about it". Those were your inaccurate descriptions of what you think John Piper would want people to do. You refer to collecting seashells as "giving a pleasant nod to our Creator’s handiwork", but many things that people do could be described in that manner. The question still remains, how would we best use the time and other resources we have? You must have a highly trivial view of life if you think that the sort of retirement lifestyle John Piper was criticizing is something that shouldn't be criticized.
Your list of quotes is problematic also. The Christian view of Heaven involves much more than you've suggested. Christian hymnals cover a larger variety of topics than you've addressed. Etc. What did you do, just copy and paste a few pages from a poorly written atheist quote book or web site?