A friendly response to John Piper (2020)
- johnkuyperliberty
- Nov 15, 2024
- 14 min read
Updated: Nov 19, 2024
John Piper has been a faithful Pastor and Christian leader for decades. I praise God for him. The Lord has used him to faithfully point many to the sovereignty and majesty of God, the inerrancy and beauty of Scripture, the joys and delights of knowing Christ, and more. I have been a beneficiary of the Lord’s work through this man.
But Piper does have a few doctrinal positions that I do not believe are faithful to the Bible’s teaching. The latest example is the article he published on October 22, 2020 entitled Policies, Persons, and Paths to Ruin: Pondering the Implications of the 2020 Election.[1] This article is a friendly challenge to many of Piper’s major points.
Destruction of Persons and Nations
Piper begins by listing personal sins like: “unrepentant sexual immorality (porneia), unrepentant boastfulness (alazoneia), unrepentant vulgarity (aischrologia), unrepentant factiousness (dichostasiai).” He says these sins “destroy persons. And through persons, they destroy nations.”
He does not explicitly state this, but I believe it is safe to assume that he believes that Donald Trump is guilty of those sins. Piper says:
I think it is a drastic mistake to think that the deadly influences of a leader come only through his policies and not also through his person. This is true not only because flagrant boastfulness, vulgarity, immorality, and factiousness are self-incriminating, but also because they are nation-corrupting. They move out from centers of influence to infect whole cultures. The last five years bear vivid witness to this infection at almost every level of society.
To make his case that these sins from a politician are nation corrupting, he quotes 1 Corinthians 5:6, 1 Corinthians 15:33, 2 Timothy 2:16-17, and 1 Kings 14:16. But do these verses teach or imply that all sins committed by any person, and specifically, by a political leader of a nation, necessarily corrupt others around the civil government official, and/or citizens living under his influence? Let’s take these texts one by one.
1 Corinthians 5:6
1 Corinthians 5:6 says, “Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?” In 1 Corinthians 5, the apostle Paul is describing a man who was having sexual relations with his step-mother. Paul rebukes the whole Corinthian church as being arrogant about it (1 Cor 5:2). The church was boasting about this horrible sin. Instead of boasting about this sin, and therefore giving approval of it, the church should have expelled the unrepentant person from their midst (1 Cor 5:13). So, when Paul says in 5:6 that a “little leaven leavens the whole lump,” he is not saying that the sins of this one man necessarily will spread to others who wouldn’t otherwise have sinned if it wasn’t for the sinful man’s negative influence. The Corinthian church was already willingly giving approval to the sin, because they were boasting in the sin. It was already in their hearts. By asking, “Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?”, Paul means that if the unrepentant sinner was not dealt with through excommunication, then others in the church who already had a heart disposition towards this same type of sin (they were boasting in it!) may be influenced to carry out similar actions themselves.
No one can force another person to sin. Jesus said:
For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person. (Mark 7:21-23, emphasis mine)
This is why James said that each person is “lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin” (Jas 1:14, emphasis mine; cf. Jas 4:1-2; Eph 4:22). Jesus could be around sinful people and refrain from sinning because he had a pure heart with pure desires. A man who has already has a disposition toward sexual immorality in his heart may do well to avoid the temptations of a California beach on a hot summer day. But a person who has zero desire to use hard drugs will not be tempted to sin if he stumbles into an alley with drug abusers high on meth.
Paul clearly did not mean that we necessarily catch sin or are influenced to sin by other people, because in this very same chapter he wrote: “I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world” (1 Cor 5:9-10). Why would he say that we are to associate with unrepentant sinners outside of the church if we will necessarily become corrupted by their leaven?
1 Corinthians 15:33
1 Corinthians 15:33 says, “Bad company ruins good morals.” Does this verse mean that if we are around people physically, or hear them talk, then we will necessarily be corrupted or ruined? Not at all. In context, Paul is discussing the false teaching of professing Christians who were saying that there is no resurrection of the dead (1 Cor 15:12). Ironically, he is quoting a Greek poet named Menander. Was Paul corrupted because he was exposed to the teaching of the Greek poet? In the verse in question, Paul is referring to not being deceived by the false teaching of religious people. Keeping company with false teachers who you are allowing to influence your thought will corrupt you. He is not saying that if a Christian befriends a non-Christian, that he will be corrupted. He is certainly not saying that if a Christian lives under the influence of an ungodly civil government official that he will be corrupted. The apostle Peter writing to Christians living under the godless Roman Emperor Nero said:
As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” (1 Pet 1:14-16)
It was possible, even expected, for the Christians to not be shaped by the ungodly civil government ruler. Therefore, the character of civil government officials do not necessarily infect others as Piper suggests.
Consider another passage from this same epistle, 1 Corinthians 7:12-14:
To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.
How would Paul’s counsel to a believing wife, for example, make any sense if the believing wife would necessarily be corrupted by the “bad company” of her husband? A marriage is the closest possible human relationship, but yet Paul says that a wife should remain with her unbelieving husband if he consents to live with her. Elsewhere, the apostle Peter even says that it is actually the believing wife who could positively influence the unbelieving husband: “Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct” (1 Pet 3:1-2). Clearly, it is possible to refrain from being corrupted if we are keeping company with or under the influence and leadership of someone who is sinning.
And not only is it possible to not be corrupted by being around unbelievers (or believers who are sinning) and listening to what they have to say, we are explicitly called to be like Jesus and to go to them! Jesus prayed to the Father: “As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world” (John 17:18). And earlier he prayed: “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one” (John 17:15). We can be exposed to non-Christians, and Christians who are sinning, and still be kept from the evil one. Even when Christians sin, we are not to avoid these brothers and sisters out of the false belief that we will somehow be corrupted by their company. We are to move toward them to help, always being aware of our own temptations and desires so we do not sin: “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted” (Gal 6:1-2).
2 Timothy 2:16-17
2 Timothy 2:16-18 (to get more context) says, “But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some.” This passage is clearly referring to false teaching. If false teaching is grasped and delighted in, it spreads like gangrene in souls and in communities. The 17th century Reformed Baptist theologian John Gill commented on this text:
And so the errors and heresies of false teachers worm and spread, and feed upon the souls of men, and eat up the vitals of religion, or what seemed to be such, and even destroy the very form of godliness; and bring destruction and death, wherever they come; and when they get into Christian churches, threaten the ruin of them; and therefore are to be opposed in time, and those infected with them to be cut off.[2]
This text has absolutely nothing to do with prideful, self-exalting words or behavior of a civil government official spreading to infect persons within a broader culture and causing the citizens to sin.
1 Kings 14:16
After referring to these texts above, Piper then says, “There is a character connection between rulers and subjects.” Seeking to prove his point, he quotes 1 Kings 14:16: “And he will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he sinned and made Israel to sin.” The sins of Jeroboam referred to here are documented in 1 Kings 12:25-33. He made two calves of gold, and encouraged the people of Israel to worship them as their gods (1 Kings 12:28). Piper (rightly) says that the fact that Jeroboam made Israel to sin does not mean that “he twisted their arm.” But wrongly, he assumes, “It means his influenced shaped the people.” This is an assumption from Piper, since the text does not say it. He is assuming that the people of Israel did not already have a heart disposition to false worship. In fact, they did. Speaking to Jeroboam in 1 Kings 11, Ahijah the prophet said:
Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I am about to tear the kingdom from the hand of Solomon and will give you ten tribes...because they have forsaken me and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of Moab, and Milcom the god of the Ammonites, and they have not walked in my ways, doing what is right in my sight and keeping my statutes and my rules, as David his father did.’ (1 Kings 11:31-33)
So before Jeroboam became king, the people had engaged in false worship under Solomon. When Jeroboam set up a new avenue for the people to worship false gods one chapter later, the people were not doing anything different from what they were used to! Furthermore, Israel is the name of a nation. God’s call was for both the people of Israel and the king to walk in his ways:
If you will fear the Lord and serve him and obey his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, and if both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God, it will be well. (1 Sam 12:14, emphasis mine)
If the monarch did not obey God as the ruler and key representative of the nation, he would, in one sense, make the whole nation fall short of God’s standard (i.e. sin). Jeroboam “made Israel to sin” both in providing a new avenue for the people to exercise the false worship that already existed in their hearts (and previous actions), and by falling short of God’s standard as the monarch ruler and representative of the people of God.
After quoting the texts above to try to make his point, Piper then asks:
Is it not baffling, then, that so many Christians seem to be sure that they are saving human lives and freedoms by treating as minimal the destructive effects of the spreading gangrene of high-profile, high-handed, culture-shaping sin?
What is actually baffling (with all due respect to such a wonderful man of God) is how someone could suggest that the leader of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States of America in Washington D.C. has so much influence over the character of citizens in this constitutional republic, and the cultures of a rural South Dakota town or inner-city Philadelphia. I am not convinced by Piper’s attempt to use the Bible to suggest that United States citizens are not much more than blind sheep, and that we and the culture necessarily have our thoughts, actions, and affections profoundly shaped by the leader of the executive branch of the federal government. This would not even be true if President Trump were a monarch. His argument is not biblical. It gives the Holy Spirit too little credit, and the influence of civil government (and one man within that civil government) too much credit.
Policies and Persons
Piper goes on to say:
Therefore, Christians communicate a falsehood to unbelievers (who are also baffled!) when we act as if policies and laws that protect life and freedom are more precious than being a certain kind of person. The church is paying dearly, and will continue to pay, for our communicating this falsehood year after year.
I have not communicated with one Christian who will be voting for Donald Trump in 2020 who acts as if policies and laws that protect life and freedom are more precious than being a certain kind of person. Piper’s assumption here is that policies and laws that a person supports or implements are not a direct perspective on and outflow of a person’s character. But it is obvious that policies that a civil government official supports and implements are directly related to being a certain kind of person. What “kind of person” supports the killing of children in their mother’s womb? A murderous kind of person. What kind of person supports socialistic taxation policies? A thief. Would we defend a genocidal dictator because he is honest, nice to his wife, and he refuses to speak words of self-exaltation on social media?
Also, I have not heard any Christians say or suggest that sins like sexual immorality, boastfulness, vulgarity, or factiousness are no big deal. These sins certainly matter, and they may have an indirect impact on effectiveness in governance to varying degrees. But civil government officials are instituted by God for a specific purpose: to govern well, executing justice on wrongdoers according to God’s definition of justice in his Word (Rom 13:1-6). A born-again mature Christian, with strong character, who understands and applies the supremacy of God’s Word and Lordship of Christ over all of life would be ideal, certainly. But common grace also exists. Not every civil government official governs equally well. We should choose our civil government officials based on how well they are following the principles of civil government found in God’s Word, and executing justice against evildoers. That is their role.
Christians do not communicate a falsehood to non-Christians when we cast our vote for a morally flawed candidate. Of course, we are all morally flawed (Rom 3:10; 7:13-20; 1 Jn 1:10; Jas 3:2). And we have never communicated to non-Christians that our vote for a given political candidate is a complete endorsement of his/her character (or at least we shouldn’t have). It is an endorsement of his/her ability to govern in greater accordance with God’s Word over and above another possible candidate.
Piper continues and says:
I find it bewildering that Christians can be so sure that greater damage will be done by bad judges, bad laws, and bad policies than is being done by the culture-infecting spread of the gangrene of sinful self-exaltation, and boasting, and strife-stirring (eristikos). How do they know this? Seriously! Where do they get the sure knowledge that judges, laws, and policies are less destructive than boastful factiousness in high places?
Once again, with all due respect, this is a mind-boggling statement. Where do we get this sure knowledge? From Scripture, of course (example here). Piper has commented rightly on this issue in the past in his Ask Pastor John series:
First, not everybody is hurt in the same way by every sin. In other words, if I shoot Michael dead right now, or if I just spit on him, both are very ugly sins and Jesus calls hatred murder. But he’s not dead if I only spit on him! So worse sin—meaning worse in its effect—would be killing over spitting. And I think we should say that. It is! Because consequences matter—at least for you![3]
This is biblical, and it is why the damage done by bad judges, bad laws, and bad policies are worse than pride and arrogance in a civil government official.
It is bad to look at a woman with lust. It is worse to rape her. It is bad to speak a hateful word to your neighbor. It is worse to murder him. It is bad to be disrespectful on social media and make self-exalting comments. It is worse to support or implement policies allowing abortion (the murder of children), civil government controlled secular humanistic education, firearm confiscation, socialistic economic/taxation/business/healthcare policies, cultural Marxism, and more. Piper continues: “I think it is baffling and presumptuous to assume that pro-abortion policies kill more people than a culture-saturating, pro-self pride.” An estimated 862,320 people were murdered by abortion in 2018.[4] We have such deep respect for John Piper. But it is simply absurd and utterly astounding to claim that alleged “pro-self pride” in a President of the United States comes close to killing that number of people in any given year.
The Kingdom of God and the Life of a Christian
Piper encourages pastors to preach to cultivate Christians “who see the beauty and the worth of the Son of God.” He questions:
Or have you neglected these greatest of all realities and repeatedly diverted their attention onto the strategies of politics? Have you inadvertently created the mindset that the greatest issue in life is saving America and its earthly benefits? Or have you shown your people that the greatest issue is exalting Christ with or without America? Have you shown them that the people who do the most good for the greatest number for the longest time (including America!) are people who have the aroma of another world with another King?
Piper has done some of his best work in helping others to see and cherish the beauty and glory of Christ above all else. He has rightly emphasized the fact that the greatest good of the gospel is that we gain reconciliation with God himself. Amen! But we must never communicate these beautiful truths in a way that causes Christians to see Christianity as a mere immaterial endeavor.
Pastors should certainly cultivate Christians who could joyfully accept the plundering of their property (Heb 10:34); who can get physically persecuted and rejoice (Luke 6:22-23); who count everything as loss for the sake of knowing Christ (Phil 3:8); who recognize that this is not yet the New Earth (1 Pet 2:11) and know that their primary citizenship is there (Phil 3:20); and who know that to live is Christ and to die is gain (Phil 1:21). But they should also cultivate Christians who understand that all of those things are not at odds with intense strategizing in and involvement with politics, the future of America (or whatever nation they currently live in), or earthly benefits. Physical human flourishing, and gratitude to God for it, is a very good and biblical thing. Christ is Lord of all of life, and Christians are called to make disciples who obey Jesus in all areas of life (Matt 28:19-20), who will then fill the earth and subdue it for Christ’s glory (Gen 1:28), joining with him as his helper as he puts all of his enemies under his feet and renews all things (1 Cor 15:21; Rom 16:20; Eph 5:32 – the church as the bride of Christ is the helper of Christ on his mission).
It is for this reason that on election day, Christians should see no problem casting a vote for the candidate who will clearly and obviously govern with greater faithfulness to the principles of God’s Word than the other option. I believe in the Lordship of Christ and sufficiency of Scripture over all areas of life. I have some ideological and political disagreements with Donald Trump, and I do not endorse the totality of his character (or anyone else’s, for that matter). But (among many other things) I praise God for the fact that Donald Trump defends our God-given right to hold to and voice biblical political positions, and to openly speak the gospel of the grace of God to others as we pray and work for the regeneration of individual hearts and transformation of society. I praise God that Donald Trump governs vastly more consistent with biblical principles than Joe Biden: in a nutshell, Donald Trump is for a more limited civil government involvement in our lives (which is more consistent with biblical principles), and he has a more biblical understanding and application of what it means to enforce justice against evildoers (1 Pet 2:14; Rom 13:1-6). Because of this, I will vote for Donald Trump and encourage other Christians to do the same.
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[1] Quotes below without a reference come from this article.
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