Dr. Couch, I understand John Piper has gone mystical. Have you heard about this?
ANSWER: Yes, I have. Piper sent out a short article on his recent charismatic-like experience.
Piper has made some meaningful contributions
in his writings for the body of Christ, even though he is an allegorist
(amillennialist), and a Covenant guy. Unfortunately, because of his
Covenant position and allegorical interpretation he would deny the clear
biblical doctrines of the rapture of the church, the seven-year
tribulation, and the earthly millennial reign of Christ, the son of
David.
His article is entitled "The Morning I Heard
the Voice of God." This "wonderful experience" happened to him in the
early morning of March 19, 2007 at a Minnesota retreat grounds. Well
over thirty times he focuses on God’s speaking directly to him. Over and
over again he kept using the pronouns "I," and "me" which highlighted
the moving experience he was having in this encounter. This "experience"
was more about something missing in Piper’s life rather than about some
new revelation in regard to the greatness of God.
On one hand Piper glories in the fact that he
had this direct voice revelation. However his article is full of
contradictions and even conflicting points. He argues for the fact that
now in this age God is speaking directly to people, and yet he then
tries to verify that God only speaks through the written Word! It is as
if Piper is exalting in his experience, catches himself, and comes back
down to earth to verify that, no, God really only speaks through His
written revelation.
In the article Piper writes that he "heard the
words in my head just as clearly" as if when one has a conversation
"across your consciousness." "God actually spoke to me," he adds, "There
is no doubt that it was God." From this "absolute self-authenticating
ring of truth, I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that God still speaks
today." What does Piper mean by "self-authenticating"? By writing this,
no one can check and balance what Piper experienced.
Piper adds that that morning he "couldn’t
sleep for some reason." He then adds that "God moved me out of bed." Was
God simply using his sleeplessness for an opportunity to speak to him,
or was the revelation planned and executed by His providence?
While praying and musing, God said, "Come and
see what I have done." Piper adds that "in his mind" these were the very
words of God. God was speaking to him with absolute authority and
self-evidencing reality. He adds, "God was near." Ironically, God did
not show Piper anything in visible form, though he said the Lord said
"come and see."
What message did Piper get? The Lord simply
quoted Psalm 66:5-7 which reads: "I turned the sea into dry land; they
passed through the river on foot. There they rejoiced in Me …" Piper
adds that he was being taken back several thousand years when God dried
up the Red Sea and the Jordan River. "I was transported by his word back
into history to those great deeds. This is what he meant by ‘come and
see.’"
So the Lord give Piper some special
revelation, a quoting of Bible passages, that he could have read at any
time, and all of us have the privilege to read for ourselves! With all
due respect, what is the big deal! The "big deal" is that Piper could be
privy to an "experience," a feeling, a sense that he was important with
the Lord. For some reason he needs such an experience. He is having
trouble it seems in trusting what the Lord has already revealed in His
recorded Word!
Piper then adds what I consider many self-serving and arrogant phrases in his testimony.
- "This was a holy moment in Minnesota."
- "God Almighty had come down and was giving me the stillness and the openness and the willingness to hear his very voice." [Whatever this means!]
- "This was breathtaking." "At least a warning."
- "This is glorious."
- "The very words of God in my head."
- "God still speaks in the twenty-first century."
- "I heard his very words. He spoke personally to me."
- "It filled me with a fresh sense of God’s reality."
- "It strengthened my faith."
- "He cares for me."
"Why else would God come and tell me these things?" he asks. The Word
of God was apparently not sufficient for John Piper. We know God cares
for us and strengthens our faith through His established written Word,
and by the illumination of His Holy Spirit. Some super-duper experience
is not necessary!
Piper then does something strange in his
article. The final three paragraphs seem to confirm that he holds to the
authority of the written Word, sola scriptura, if you will! To
substantiate this point he closes his article with, "Still hearing his
voice in the Bible." By the strange contradiction Piper may be trying to
say, "Yes, we have the written revelation, but I now believe also that
God comes and gives direct experiential revelation to us individually."
Piper is advocating a "both-and" in this testimonial. Whatever the case,
Piper apparently needed to claim that God spoke directly to his soul,
audibly!
Three things stand out in Piper’s article. (1) He
has opened the door for many in the Covenant theological movement to
follow his lead in having charismatic experiences. (2) What God said to
him was already recorded in the verses the Lord quoted. Why then did He
need to reveal some so-called new message above His written Word? (3)
Just ever so little, Piper moved the written Word of God down a notch
from its certain and exalted position as our only revelation of what He
wants us to know. This will not bode well for the body of Christ that
has respected Piper throughout the years!
Thanks for asking.
Dr. Mal Couch
