John Piper and Christian Hedonism Part 1 & 2, January 10, 2012 http://wayoflife.org/index_files/409d56d3ccb436064dd65d203e770900-947.html Republished January 10, 2012 (first published June 14, 2011) (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143,
[email protected]; for instructions about subscribing and unsubscribing or changing addresses, see the information paragraph at the end of the article). Part I JOHN PIPER AND CHRISTIAN HEDONISM John Piper (b. 1946) has a rapidly-growing influence among fundamentalists in general and Inde- pendent Baptists in particular. A 2005 survey of roughly 1,100 “young fundamentalists”, found that John Piper has a significant influence. Almost 50% agreed with the statement, “John Piper’s ministry has been a help to me”. The survey largely represented graduates of Bob Jones University (29% of those surveyed), Mara- natha Baptist Bible College (22%), and Northland Baptist Bible College (21%). (For more on this see the report “A Survey of Young Fundamentalists” at the Way of Life web site.) Kevin Bauder of Central Baptist Seminary has used his blog to praise “conservative evangelicals” such as Piper. John Piper is the senior pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota, which is so wishy-washy that the board of elders proposed in 2002 that the constitution be amended to allow a candidate to reject believer’s baptism by immersion if he “sincerely and humbly believes that it would be contrary to Scripture and conscience--and not just contrary to family tradition or desires-- to be baptized by immersion and thus to count his infant baptism or his adult sprinkling as improper or invalid”.