It was John Piper who was instrumental in my becoming a Calvinist. I read Piper's chapter on Conversion in Desiring God and it all fell into place in one go. I was left wondering how I could have been so stupid!

Dr Piper's ministry has been invaluable to me and my family and to all I come in contact with. As God has worked in my life over the last several years convicting me of His sovereignty, I have often wondered if I was going crazy. My SBC church did not affirm the things that God was teaching me.
It was John Piper that convinced me that I was not on the wrong page. God had enabled him to articulate the things that I wanted to tell the world around me. I often sit and listen to his sermons and just say amen...amen...amen.
I pray that the SBC could taste and see the incredible sovereignty of God in all things.

I've just returned from a conference in Asheville, NC where Dr. Piper spoke on Romans 12 and 13. Many wonderful and glorious things can be said that are much too long for a blog comment, however, one keeps rising to the surface, especially in his response to the bridge collapse: the uncanny combination of straightforward, unabashed, confident teaching with a level of humility that most of us could never achieve. The Holy Spirit is providing us so much using Pastor John as an example.

There are not words to express my gratefulness to God for His use of John Piper in my life.

He is the means by which God showed me the truths of His doctrines of grace, and thereby transformed my life dramatically. Everything changed for me when I saw God--really saw Him--in His sovereignty. Changing from Arminian belief to Calvinistic belief was nearly like a personality transformation, which even other people noticed. Gone was the characteristic anxiety that had plagued me for over 30 years. In its place was a blessed, quiet dependence on a God who really is in control and utterly trustworthy. I bask in His sovereingty. And I simply did not see it (or love it)until I saw it through John Piper's teaching.

Charles,
My wife and I were also at the Cove this past weekend. It was a glorious weekend!

Yep. Piper played a huge roll in my conversion to Calvinism. I am very greatful.

If I ever have the honor of meeting him I have decided to say: "Thank you for introducing me to Jonathan Edwards."

Mark, thanks for using the word "fructifying" in your blog. I got such a kick out of it from the T4G video.

I heard about Piper from MacArthur and, frankly, was shocked by what I read. I still don't think that I have recovered from his Bible-saturated, awe-inspiring view of God

I couldn't just give a hearty 'AMEN' here, so I had to blog about it myself. Thanks for this excellent post.

John Piper has been instrumental in helping me understand and embrace the doctrines of grace but it wasn't directly through Piper that I was first exposed to Calvinism.

It was through Sam Storms, my systematic theology professor during my senior year of college, that I was exposed to texts in Isaiah that totally confounded my Arminian perspective.

I'd come to find out later just how influential John Piper was and is in the thinking, theology, and ministry of Storms.

And it's John Piper's materials that I most frequently using to help communicate to my congregation a God-entranced view of Jesus Christ, the sovereignty of God, and the glory of God. I've even done a book study of "God is the Gospel" with three high school students that went exceptionally well.

Thanks John for the ministry you've already had.

When I was in college, I was working through John 6 in a hermeneutics course, and my professor would begin each session with a meditation from John Piper. That summer, I read the Pleasures of God. The experiences of working through John 6 and reading Pleasures were life-changing. I could honestly say that I was a Christian before then, believing in the Gospel, but in those months I met the God of the Gospel. I thank God so much for His grace in putting me face to face with His sovereignty in all of life.
What I love most about Dr. Piper's ministry and teaching is that he has been his indirect approach to Calvinism. I don't mean that he is deceptive in his theology-- he keeps no secrets about where he's coming from (he is a self-proclaimed seven-point Calvinist). I mean that he has so brilliantly shown us that the God of the Bible is infinite in His beauty, wisdom, power, rule, glory, etc. And we do not find fullness of joy until we delight in His supremacy with all our being. That's incredible! When God is most supreme (i.e. Calvinism), I find most joy. This is a biblical worldview. Seeing this worldview fleshed out in the current issues of our day, such as postmodernism and the new perspective; and age-old issues, such as suffering and tragedy, sexuality, ecclesiology, missions and evangelism, etc., has for me been so helpful. Such God-focused consistency has revolutionized my approach to life and ministry, and, if God permits, will continue to ignite our generation to go to great lengths for the sake of the Gospel and the glory of God.

The Pleasures of God was one that showed me the practical implications of Reformed doctrine and the comfort it instills in the believer. It was very instrumental in my introduction to the doctrines of grace.

I have 10 Piper books in the mail and am about 1/3 of the way through Desiring God. John Piper has been a huge influence in my life.

Amen. John Piper. I first learned of Piper through Passion Conferences, hearing his OneDay 2000 talk. And over the years, his sermons (commentaries) have helped me tremendously in understanding Paul's Epistles -- especially Romans. Certainly, without the influence of Piper, I would not be Reformed nor would I have heard God's call to ministry so clearly.

Mark: I don't know if anybody's said this, but I think this blog series should be expanded into a book! Maybe with a catchy title like "The Emerging Calvinists" that would everybody to be interested in reading, Emergent types and Calvinists!

You're right...I have been waiting for this one.

My experience with Piper was similar to Packer's experience hearing Lloyd-Jones for the first time: it was like lightening struck in my soul.

Mark, regarding your overall thesis in this article:

I'm 29 years old and grew up in a typical, non-Reformed SBC church. I had never even heard the term Calvinist until I heard John Piper about 3 or 4 years ago. I'm almost positive that I would not have heard the term otherwise. I say that not primarily because no one in my church even mentions Reformed theology but primarily because no one I've ever read or heard in all my years of church and youth events stirs up my soul the way Piper does. Without Piper's influence, all the other names and ministries you've mentioned so far in this series would have never interested me like they do now. Piper is the springboard by which I've jumped to all the other names you've mentioned.

Here! Here! There is no other pastor I love to listen to more than Dr. Piper. I just finished teaching a college theology class, and both to my surprise and delight, Piper came up every single day. His influence on me personally is very great (I am a "youngish" 33 years), and I am thankful that a new generation of ministers is being weaned on the God-saturated vision of Dr. Piper. Dr. Dever is right. Very well said!

Barry Joslin

"When all those seminarians and ministers in their 20's stood up at Together for the Gospel in April of 2006, if I couldn't give a 10-part answer, but if I had to give a 2-word human explanation for their presence there, I know what two words I would utter: "John Piper."

I was one of those men whom you are describing. I am in my late 20's. I was there at TFG. I am a pastoral student. And, yes, I owe most of it under God to the ministry of John Piper.

Since God ripped open my eyes to the doctrines of sovereignty and grace during the first 2/3 of 2005, it was God's Word, much through the planting of John Piper's materials (whether directly or through a friend who introduced me to them) that set my heart on fire for these doctrines, that caused me to love and cherish them, to make them a non-negotiable part of my view of the nature of God, to humble me and cause joy to well up as it never had before. As I write this, I fight the lump in my throat as I am moved almost to tears. From Him and to Him and through Him are all things. He is supreme.

It was when I read John Piper's book, "The Pleasures of God", that I came across his chapter on God's pleasure in election and my life hasn't been the same since. His ministry has had a profound impact on my life and that is why I share his numerous DVD series with my church as much as I can.

I heard Bob Kauflin say that when he first got a chance to meet John Piper in person he said something like, "Your books have helped me love the Savior more." That is precisely the effect that Piper's books and sermons have had, and still have, on me.

His passion is infectious. His vision of God is effectively transferred through his preaching. And it really does leave us young Christians yearning for more of Christ and for a greater, that is, more accurate, picture of this exalted and invincibly happy God.

I hope John Piper doesn't read these comments. I hope he stays humble and I hope he finishes well.

I'm grateful to God for the awakening in my soul and the passion in my life's pursuit...the flames of which were and are fanned by the Holy Spirit through words that come from the man John Piper.

Generations will continue to be affected. As a father of 2 with a third on the way - my own children will here their dad speak in ways and use phrases that have been imprinted on my mind and heart from John Piper's ministry.

And hopefully, they'll see Jesus in my eyes.

I would be remiss if I did not thank God publicly here for what he's done in my life through the ministry of John Piper.

I came to a radically, life-changing realization of what John Piper calls "Christian Hedonism" before I ever knew who Piper was. In fact, the day after God completely changed my life through difficult circumstances and a time of saturation in prayer and in his Word, I heard a Piper sermon for the first time. It was shocking and encouraging and refreshing to here expressed so eloquently the truths that God had just begun to teach me.

Since then John Piper's ministry has had a profound influence in my life and in the lives of several of the young men I have discipled. Praise God for his servant, John Piper!

In the summer of 2000 I was leading a small Christian ministry in Williamsburg, VA. I had a young lady on my staff who was going to join a church who believed in predestination after that summer. I told her she was crazy. The Bible no where taught such nonsense.

Not long after this my former youth pastor came to visit. I told him about this girl and asked him for help pointing her to the Scriptures to show her that she was wrong. I told him that she was talking about Romans 9 and I just knew that's not what it taught. However, his reply was something like this, "I don't think I can help you. I'm not sure that she's wrong. I have been reading a book called Desiring God by John Piper. You should go and check it out and check out their ministries website.

So that's what I did. I set out to prove John Piper was wrong. It only took about two months for me to see the Christ-centeredness of his teaching and writing.

I was only a couple of years into my faith (not sure why I was leading a ministry), so I didn't have to work through too much tradition. I soon embrace the doctrines of Grace and Christian Hedonism. I cannot thank God enough for the ministry of John Piper. Not one time do I come away from hearing him speak or reading his books without having been captivated by the glory of God.

Yep Mark you're right. I'm one of those guys. From listening to conference tapes, to then buying resources, Piper taught me what God is really like. I have since changed churches and am about to move towns to be near a church that preaches faithfully.

Tim

P.S. My wife loves the CHBC resources and is growing loads through them - thank you.

After reading Desiring God for the third time, God led me to write this poem. It's how God's sovereign grace saved me.

Now I see
The hate your love replaced
The gift of faith and grace

Now I see
The life you lived for me
The death that set me free

Now I see
The Spirit that dwells within
The desire to glorify Him

Now I see
The Lion and the Lamb
The beauty of “I AM”

Now I see
If choice was left for me
In death I feel the sting

Now I see
What you’ve done for me

Now I see
What you’ve done for me

HM1(SW/AW?FMF)Steven K. Andrews
USS EISENHOWERS
UNITED STATES NAVY
29 AUGUST 2006

God placed the truths of the book Desiring God in my path during the darkest days of my short 25 year life. I read about the book in one of the footnotes of Wayne Grudem's Bible Doctrine. At the time, I had no idea who John Piper was, but the word "hedonist" intrigued me. I was in the middle of a extraordinarily painful separation from my wife that, unfortunately, ended in divorce. This book and Dr. Piper's preaching through Romans (which I downloaded from DG) was an absolute grace of God that changed the way I think about everything from orange juice to the pleasures of God. God, through Dr. Pipers exposition of Scripture, lifted my heart and mind from the depths of depression to places of worship that I never knew were possible.

Thank you Jesus for your life and your death and your words. Your love is truly better than life.

Thank you Dr. Piper for obedience to our Lord.

Thank you Mark Dever for this post.

My first encounter with John Piper can only be described as a divine appointment. He put into words, at the right time of my life, the thoughts and ideas that God was beginning to use to shape me.
Piper eventually made a calvinist out of me, but his affect on my life goes far beyond helping me to decide which side of a debate I belong to. God used him to shatter and rebuild the worldview of a young college freshman into a Christ-centered and Christ-exalting worldview. It is for this reason, foremost, that I am so thankful to God for using John Piper in my life.
On the similar note, it's both amazing and encouraging to see so many other people, on their own journey, walking along the same path.

I think this is the first long thread in bloggerdom that has yet to have someone disagree. No one that has commented has said a single negative thing.

I won't be the first. I want to name one of my children John. Of course there is, John the Baptist, the Apostle John, John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, John Owen, John MacArthur and John Piper.

Thank you John Piper for being faithful to the ministry God has given you.

I was a Calvinist before I was introduced to Piper. But it was Dr. Piper who provided a more robust and passionate Calvinism that was certainly not present before. He also brought a seriousness that was not present in my life before as well. Finally, he was the largest influence in my life to start reading old books through his audio biographies. Dr. Dever, I do think those biographies are a major part of his influence to the 20 somethings these days. Don't you think?

How's this...got asked by my pastor to teach a lesson on Romans 9...in preparing, I heard this guy, John Piper, had been going through Romans for years...downloaded all his Romans 9 messages...so the first time I heard him was Romans 9...to quote him, "Romans 9 is like a tiger, going around devouring free-will-ers like me"...what an instrument of God's glorious grace John Piper has been in my life!

In 1996 or 97, when I was a student at SWBTS, Piper came and led a conference on worship with Robert Webber. I had never heard of him, but a friend had come to the conference and stayed at my house, so I went to one of the sessions. Piper simply spoke about God from Isaiah 6. After the morning session, I went back to our apartment and wept. Never had I heard such a vision of the greatness of God. Then I skipped every class to attend the remaining sessions. After graduating, I subscribed to Piper's sermon tapes (remember those?) for a while and was delighted when the internet allowed sermon downloads. I've often marveled at the plan of God in using Jonathan Edwards to spark the first great awakening, and perhaps his most prominent disciple to spark the next. How wonder-full to see and experience the work of our gracious and sovereign God.

You hit a bullseye Mark!

Back in the days when Multnomah Press was still affiliated with Multnomah Bible School of the Bible (circa 1986), I was a student at the college. As such, we were blessed to get discounted prices on press overruns, misprints, damaged books, etc. I picked-up a slightly damaged, hardback book by a "new" writer named John Piper. The subtitle - Meditations of a Christian Hedonist - caught my eye. That was about 20 years ago. I was so unaware how that simple $3 purchase of a damaged book would impact the remainder of my life.

Mark, thank you for this series. The writings of J I Packer, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and John Piper have been some of the most impactful in their ability to drive me to the Word, to see the greatness and depth of the mystery of the Gospel.

Thank you for T4G.org and all you are doing to further the Kingdom.

Hearing how God has used John Piper's words to encourage and strengthen the hearts of so many has given me greater enthusiasm and faith to put those Desiring God ministries books, etc., out on the booktable at our campus church tomorrow~

Dan Fuller introduced me to Piper's books in seminary (I was already a "fully Trinitarian" Calvinist from reading Packer, Lloyd-Jones and observing Wimber).

Then a friend gave me a bootleg tape from a NRB convention. I wore it out and it echoes in me still:

"God is not a Person to be taken for granted. Every week, 1,000's of words are published in the newspaper, millions of words... And there is not one word about God... There is not one square inch of the universe that Christ does not say, 'MINE!'"

I gobbled up "Supremacy of God in Preaching"--and all the others--desparate to know that God, compelled to proclaim His Holy Love and Sovereign Grace.

Piper's God sustained me through failed church plants and times of seeming abandonment.

Father, thank you for John Piper and give us more like him.

God bless this man and his ministry.

I love the Jesus Christ I see in the life, testimony, witness and passion of John Piper. He is one of the top 2 heroes in life. I really love Jesus more and I think Piper has played a huge part in helping me savor Him.

Met him in a gas station. Nice guy.

I first heard about John Piper from John MacArthur
When he aired some lectures he did, I think at Master's Seminary, in which he talked about a book he had read, and basically did a book summary on it. The book was "legacy of Sovereign Joy" by John Piper. Since then I read piper's books and listened to his Sermons and have been powerfully encouraged by and through his ministry. What touches me is that he knows the word and he is bold, passionate, sincere, sold-out, all-in, ready to die for the gospel. This is the kind of preaching we need today. This is the kind of preaching we preachers need to preach today. Oh yea, The other thing that really touches me is his emphasis on joy, Joy that comes from a sovereign God. And, by the way, it's true that a lot of SBC churches haven't been effected by calvinism yet. It's hard to find reformed teaching in my area. But I'm doing my part. Hallelujah! thank God for John Piper, John MacArthur, Martyn Lloyd Jones and others who have a influence on my life. I better quit. My blog is getting like my sermons.
thanks, Robin

Mark,

I imagine you won't be naming yourself in post number 10, so let me thank you for YOUR influence on so many young guys. I showed up at your church while doing a political internship in 2003. Through your preaching and the discipleship of James Santos (looking at Piper's The Pleasures of God, naturally!), I became convinced of the far-reaching implications of God's perfect sovereignty. After being called to the ministry, I'm at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and attending Third Avenue Baptist Church. The place is saturated with your influence! Thank you for your faithful service.

Indeed, after reading Pink's The Sovereignty of God - and still wrestling over the apparent dryness of Calvinism - John Piper's pastoral application of Calvinism has made me a happier, and humblier (I pray) Christian. Furthermore, here in Cape Town, South Africa, my experience has been that no other preacher or Christian writer of the Reformed tradition has attracted, and won the respect of,so many Christians - across the entire denomonational spectrum as John Piper. What a blessing John Piper has been. Praise God.

John Piper IS today's Jonathan Edwards.

I'll add my name to this list. I'm a 23 year-old hoping to plant churches.

I grew up in a Christian home and never read a line of theology in my life before I got to college and a friend of mine recommended Desiring God to me.

Needless to say... my life was changed forever.

Amen to all of the above.

I am blessed to have a job where I can listen to audio while I work. And I keep coming to the free stuff at the Desiring God. Now when I road trip, I download 8 hours of Piper lectures or sermons on to my mp3 player and hit the road.

I have been truly blessed by the preaching of John Piper and by the resources made available through Desiring God ministries.

Thank you, cannot say enough.

Amen. I thank God for John Piper. God has used him, more than any other man to change my whole life. I have never had any real mentor int he gospel, other than Christ himself, and John Piper from a distance.

I had the opportunity to tell him so at Southwestern Seminary 4 years ago, and all I could say was "Thank God for you." It's good to see that I am not the only one who loves and respects him as I do.

I first heard of John Piper when I had heard he had been speaking at the FIEC annual conference at Caister here in the UK in about 2000. I heard of him again last year and was aware that he was speaking at my former home church, St George's-Tron in Glasgow (where Eric Alexander was a huge influence on me in my student days in the 80s) at the Scottish Ministers' Assembly. Sadly I was unable to attend due to work commitments (I'm not a minister (yet!) but I do preach regularly) but on holiday in Northern Ireland last summer, the thought came to me "Wasn't John Piper to be speaking at New Horizon this year? And is it maybe on during the second week of our holiday?" Imagine my delight to learn that this was indeed the case and that such thoughts were clearly prompted by God! I was blessed with thousands of others to hear (as R T Kendall put it on the second night) "the best sermon[s] I have ever heard". I got the CDs and have been hooked ever since! I was Reformed for many years before I was introduced to Dr Piper's ministry, but there is a new joy and passion to my faith and understanding that wasn't there before. When Desiring God had that book sale recently, I ordered just about everything I didn't have! Can't wait to get the BIG parcel! It's so encouraging to see (as others have remarked) how wide an audience and big an influence John Piper has had - with the passing of Martyn Lloyd-Jones, some of us wondered if ANYONE could/would be the "voice of God for the next generation" - I believe John Piper IS that voice and thank God every time He speaks to me through anything this dear brother writes or preaches. I'd like to share one of his poems that he referred to in his second message at New Horizon, on sustaining grace - it's in the form of a prayer:-

Not grace to bar what is not bliss,
Nor flight from all distress
But this:
Grace that orders my trouble and pain,
And then - in the darkness - is there to sustain.

Amen!

I love the word Piper uses related to DG materials: "Spreading." Indeed that's been his legacy for me, is sharing that with which he has blessed me. And to a person, when they meet Piper's passion in one of his books, they are shaken, and never the same.
Mark, 9Marks was seminal for me. In the face of growing dissatisfaction with seeker-driven/purpose driven contemporary evangelicalism, the questions you asked in a sermon (as recorded on pages 21-24) were exactly what I needed to hear about the glory of God in his church. Very important.

John Piper spoke to me, in a field in Tennessee in 1999 like a Father. But his fatherly nurture went beyond the temporal unlike my Father's custom. His encouragement to not waste my life at 18 still rings true today at 26 with a newly found wife, my first real job out of college, and many chapters (god willing) to write in the story of my life. I'm so greatful for his life and labor and the fact that he isn't a super human and allows the watching world to see his faults and points them to see so much more of his God.

I was first introduced to John Piper's teachings in 2000. Followed by a gift from a friend, "Tulip, The Pursuit of God's Glory in Salvation." And quite frankly, it changed my life. Since then, I have read many of John's books, listened to sermons, and frequent desiringgod.org almost daily. I recently encountered true, God drenched community and through it, I saw John's impact in the lives of people willing to lay down their life for others. Its truly amazing to see Jesus using John to help in bringing a nation to Himself, for His own names sake, and not our own.

Mark, thank you for your wonderful blog.

John Piper "sealed the deal" for me. I was a nascent Arminian when I was saved, but when he came to speak at our church just after by baptism about three months later, all the jigsaw puzzle pieces fell into place. It became clear I'd been God had led to salvation through solid Biblical preaching week after week, and Piper was just expressing in his own inimitable style what our own pastor had been teaching week in and week out.

Poor Pastor John Piper has come in for a bit of unwarranted criticism lately for being "too God-centered," but where would the Bride of Christ be today if were not for God working through such "God-centered" menincluding yourselfdown through history?

There should be dashes between "men--including" and "yourself--down."

"Missions is not the ultimate goal of the Church. Worship is. Missions exist because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever."

This first paragraph from "Let the Nations be Glad" transfixed me. I could go no further. I was like a 4X4 barried to the axles. I could go no further. I was like a child on a spinning ride at a carnival. I had lost my bearings.

What was this strange new teaching that was basically stating that this world was not about me (man)? What was this new sweet tasting fruit that was nourishing my bones?

Thank you John Piper. Thank you for your faithfulness to the preaching of God's Word. Thank you for showing me that the reason that God is faithful to me is because He is FIRST, faithful to Himself. He will not yield His glory to another.

mike

In he early 90's after going through some major turmoil in my live I decided to audit a course at Western Theological in Phoenix taught by a friend and former teacher Dr. Norm Wakefield. He introduced Piper and Desiring God to his class of Baptists(non reformed) Bible Church students and one Presbyterian (me). The book shocked most of the students I wonder how many are reformed teachers now.

Praise God for providing in Dr. Piper a man whose books and sermons consistently turn my gaze upward. The Holy Spirit has used him, first in Desiring God and most recently in God is the Gospel, to convict and motivate me to exalt God above all lesser things (read idols). May Dr. Piper's God-saturated influence on me overflow into the lives of those around me.

Thank you for this series, Mark. It is spot on and I praise God as I read it because I see, as you describe it, the swell building so that God could simultaneously with saving me smack me with the tidal wave of his graciousness revealed in the doctrines of grace.

This post sparked my own blog post recounting God's graciousness in my salvation and introduction to Calvinism: http://www.hantla.com/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=453

John Piper may be a great guy, but his philosophy of "Christian Hedonism" is unbiblical. His teaching that life is about maximizing our own happiness and his revelation that the best way to maximize it is to find it in God still puts self at the center of your motives. Piper states, "A Christian Hedonist is a person devoted to maximizing his own happiness and who has learned how to do it from the Bible." As well as "I do what I do because I think it will make me happier in the long run." I'm sorry, but I do what I do to please God, not self and as a by-product God gives me tons of happiness. Please see this website for some cogent articles concerning the errors of "Christian Hedonism". http://www.thefaithfulword.org/cathedonism.html
Please note that neither I nor the articles on the referenced website are attacking Dr. Piper as a person, we are refuting what we see as an unbiblical philosophy of life.

Unknown to many, there is a small private pentacostal college blocks from BBC. I attended this college. In my attempts to get as much sleep as possible on sunday morning, I would wake and head over to the nearest church. What a great and awful experience this has been. It is now 10 yrs later and through many twists and turns, the Spirit of the God of the Bible continues to use Piper to quicken, chastise, humiliate and enliven my own heart. Oh the depths of grace and mercy that God reveals through Pipe. "God gets the glory, I get the help."

I first heard Piper speak at a Passion conference when I was 18 years old. (9 years ago). I remember hearing him preach on God's soverignty in suffering and I began to cry. There was something so different about him and his teaching than I had ever heard before, although I had been in a good Southern Baptist Church. I bought "Desiring God" at that conference and read it, and I would never be the same. I think one reason that Piper has reached these young generations because he is willing to go to conferences like these and preach to college students from all denominations. They are at a crossroad in their lives. If he can get them to understand early on these truths then it will direct the ways they live out their lives. He has had more of an impact on me and my husband (who got saved at a similar conference when he was 22) than any other preacher. Praise God for HIS ministry through Piper.

I was raised in Assemblies of God, Foursquare and Word of Faith Churches. I am a student at an AG bible college. I have been reading John Piper and studying reformed theology on my own. I have come to the conclusion that my god was toooooo small. The God of spripture is huge and totally sovereign. To think that my will could stop the Star Breathing God of the universe from saving me; now seems silly. I plan to finish my current studies but will then transfer to an Reformed Seminary. I want to thank God for Dr. Piper and his teaching and preaching. I cry when I think about Great a God we serve. I am now a five point Calvanist.

all this talk of peoples conversion to calvinism. this john piper is getting credit for this. people are praising and lifting up a MAN in order to be "converted" to another MAN. away from Christ, through Piper, onto Calvin. where did Jesus go. Lets focus on Jesus and not on man.

To KJV Baptist: I think what you said is terribly unfair. People are here to discuss John Piper's role in their lives and to honor a man. There is nothing wrong with that. Piper's teachings are 100% CHRIST based and he takes no credit for himself. There is nothing wrong with honoring the person who helped you in your faith. If not for these people, some may not ever have the chance to know Christ.

To KJV Baptist: I think what you said is terribly unfair. People are here to discuss John Piper's role in their lives and to honor a man. There is nothing wrong with that. Piper's teachings are 100% CHRIST based and he takes no credit for himself. There is nothing wrong with honoring the person who helped you in your faith. If not for these people, some may not ever have the chance to know Christ.

On August 7, 2007 Martin posted this:
"John Piper IS today's Jonathan Edwards."

I couldn't agree more, for it was Jonathan Edwards who said, "The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes, than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours. "

Thank you Jonathan Edwards, and thank you John Piper, for reminding us all how much god hates us. Or are you among the lucky "elect" that He has chosen to "love?"

And when you have finished creating your "god" in your image you will find that he hates the same people that you do.

On August 7, 2007 Martin posted this:
"John Piper IS today's Jonathan Edwards."

I couldn't agree more, for it was Jonathan Edwards who said, "The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes, than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours. "

Thank you Jonathan Edwards, and thank you John Piper, for reminding us all how much god hates us. Or are you among the lucky "elect" that He has chosen to "love?"

And when you have finished creating your "god" in your image you will find that he hates the same people that you do.

I am deeply troubled by John Piper. His view basically denies the Trinity and the deity of Jesus Christ.

I would encourage everyone to be diligent students of the Scripture and not be so quick to just buy into a teaching that gives us a dual-natured God.