John Piper, Log In Your Eye??? Blasting the Emergent Church

Hmmmm. This little snippet made me angry on so many levels. First, the arrogance is palpable and sickening, the self-righteousness. Pointing a finger at the 'immorality' of the emerging/emergent (he ignorantly uses the two terms interchangeably) community when I know from experience that the same sin is in Piper's own doctrinal camp, just covered up better. And Piper refuses to do anything about these things! Because they buy his books? I don't know why but anyway....

Could it be that the people who are drawn to the emerging church have already been screwed up by so-called orthodox churches? By powerrful men who preach the 'truth'? Could it be that at least part of the fault of the implosion of personal lives lies with churches like Piper's church? I don't know what Piper's church is like, never been there, never looked into it. I do know what kinds of things go on in a SGM church, or Mark Driscoll's church, and all of it is endorsed by Piper by his words and by his silence. I've never heard him criticize or address any of these men in the way he is willing to blast and name men in the emerging/ent church. He blasts Mclaren's book even after admitting he's never read it! Isn't this more akin to slander? I mean, if he'd read it and has criticism, fine. But to spread negative things about it on hearsay just seems wrong to me.

And forget the whole pot calling kettle black! All the reform guys I'm familiar with are preaching at least some heresy. Yes, they are commonly accepted traditional lies that most people believe, but that doesn't make them any more true. Legalism is a doctrine of and from demons. Yet they continue to live it and preach it. I'm so done with the shiny man on the pedestal, book deal in hand. Am I cynical? I guess. But it's not that I have no faith in God, it's just I know God's heart is so far from these self-righteous moral judgements, the kind that can hardly contain the glee over people's lives falling apart.

Honestly? The emergent church and reform camp have a major flaw in common. They're both still trying to live under law, it's just the emergent crowd has decided to loosen up some rules and reorganize the priority of others. They will do away with rules about homosexuality and set up new standards in fighting injustice and poverty. In the end, people subsctibing to either of these sets of standards will end up falling hard, hopefully during this life and not standing before God on the day of judgement, however you believe that goes down.

The reform guys boast of their knowledge of truth, the emerging guys boast of their knowledge of the world and their compassion, as far as I can see, both groups are still being crushed and can't carry the heavy burdens they want to put on other people.

I love you both. You both have some good points, but you're both wrong. But Piper needs to wake up and realize that just like feminists exist because the arrogance and selfishness of men in the church, so the a large group of people have emerged from 'traditionsl' churches and religion due mainly to being very hurt and confused. Maybe it's time to take a look at the huge log in your eye...before you start casting stones.

Is Our Sin Gone, or Will it Only Be Completely Removed at the Return of Jesus???

Hebrews 9:27-28:

"And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him."

It is only our physical bodies that are not yet completely redeemed, including our mind, which is being constantly renewed and conformed to the mind of Christ. Our sin has been dealt with once for all, and it is wrong for us to teach people that our sin will not be removed until we get to heaven.


I have been spending some time looking up sin on Bible Gateway, as well as battle, and fight. I can't find even one single reference to fighting against sin. What about the fight against sin? There is call for fleeing sin (1), throwing it off(2), exhorting and encouraging our brothers not to sin (i.e. lose faith)(3). There are calls to fight for faith, fight against our enemy the devil but I can't find anything about fighting sin. I have a sneaky suspicion why....

I bet some of you are afraid I'm going to claim that no fight against sin is needed! Well, you can sit back and relax. Take a deep breath and try not to jump to any conclusions! Not only is a fight against sin absolutely necessary, but a victory over sin is crucial if any of us want to escape hell! And that is why Jesus came, yes, it's the good news! Jesus came and fought sin and defeated sin on our behalf. It's a done deal as a matter of fact. That's why Scripture constantly refers to us as being dead to sin (4), having put it off (5), free from the slavery of sin(6) etc... That's why we're never told to fight sin, it's been removed from us as an entity, we're no longer in old Adam but in second Adam, Jesus, and I think we can all agree that in him there is no sin!

I'm not saying we never sin, but that we are to view sin as something we're in too big a hurry to pay much attention to. We're busy running a race, when sin gets in our way we throw it off while we're running, we don't stop and fight a long battle against it, because we don't have to! Sin is no longer our master, righteousness is.

"I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

"Death is swallowed up in victory." "O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?"

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." (I Cor.15:50-57

)

1Cor. 15:26 says that the last enemy to be destroyed is death, not sin.

I also wanted to mention that the promise of peace to those who believe in Jesus stills stands. We are not to be at war with ourselves, or any enemy within, we are to live with the inner peace of the Spirit of Christ. It isn't possible to to live by the flesh and by the Spirit at the same time, that's why Romans 8 and Galatians 5 (among others passages) remind us over and over and over that being preoccupied in any way with our flesh will hinder us from living by the Spirit.

Stop fighting against the flesh that Christ has circumcised already and start abiding in the the vine that is Jesus! Am I saying don't flee sin, don't throw it off? NO!!!! I'm saying, embrace the Spirit, believe in Christ and his finished work, and stop trying to remove your own sin. If you could remove your own sin you didn't need a sacrifice. REST in his finished work. TRUST that your father is satisfied. Take your eyes of yourself and your perceived imperfections and fix your eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of your faith. Stop trying to perfect yourself!

I freely acknowledge to be a bit of babbling on and on, and I also encourage any of you to share Scripture with me that I may have missed. This process of discovering that things I've been taught all my life are not actually in the Bible is pretty weird but exciting!






some of the Scripture passages alluded to:

(1) 1Cor. 6:18, 10:14, 1Tim.6:11, 2Tim.2:22

(2)Heb.12:1

(3)Heb.3:12-14

(4)Rom.6:11

(5)Col. 2:11-12, 3:9, Eph.4:20-24

(6)Rom.6:15-22