Posted on 04/15/2021 7:43:31 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Ping for thought.
“Pay attention to me, daddy”
This is the generation that focuses completely on their “mental health”.
Thanks for posting, but painful to watch it happen.
“unless I could speak with him personally, I have no way of knowing”
Even if you talk to someone personally, you cannot “know”. I’m not convinced people know themselves that well, and certainly no other human can truly know what is in a man’s soul! In my honest moments, I admit I’ve lied to myself (and God) many times in my life. And I’ve deceived myself, let alone others!
Rebellion against God always looks ugly and petty. If he just wanted to walk away from God, he could. But he knows the Truth and his soul is tormented from the rebellion.
I’ll also add that, as a father, I’ve come to realize I can guide a kid but I do not control the outcome. If a kid wants to rebel against God, he/she will. It really is true: You can lead a horse (or kid) to water, but you cannot make him drink!
“This is the generation that focuses completely on their “mental health”.”
It sure doesn’t seem to be doing them any good.
Yup. "By their fruits..."
Why do we care about what Abraham Piper thinks? Why are we shocked there is a falling away?
God is the only one who converts. If He didn’t convert Abraham yet, that is His sovereign choice.
***What are we to make of all this? ***
Nothing new in youth rebellion. The Prophet Samuel’s sons became judges in Israel, and sold their judgement for bribes.
The son of Atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair became a Christian. She then rejected him before she and the rest of her family were murdered by her atheist hangers-on.
Has not John Piper himself had some recent issues with his theology?
RE: Thanks for posting, but painful to watch it happen.
Please remember that this is not without precedent.
The Bible tells us that the leaders of Israel, yes those prophets and priests who actually SPOKE with God had children who were blasphemous and pretty useless.
The tragedies of The High Priest Aaron, Eli and the prophet Samuel come to mind.
Like Father like son?
I’d lump Charles and Andy Stanley into the same category too.
RE: Has not John Piper himself had some recent issues with his theology?
Piper’s theology is sound but his APPLICATION of his theology in real life is awful. He wrote an article publicly stating that he was going to boycott the November 2020 elections because he could not vote for either Joe Biden or Donald Trump criticizing the personal morality of the latter as justification for not voting for him.
According to this duckduckgo search, John Piper has stirred the pot in both the political and theological realm.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=john+piper&t=h_&ia=web
So is this becoming a like-father, like-son issue?
I have a few difficult things to say about this article.
One is that John Piper should possibly not be in a pulpit ministry. I am basing this view, in part, on Paul’s instructions in Titus 1:6 “...having children who believe ...” regarding qualifications of an elder.
The other thing is to agree on the part about people not living out their claims about what Christians should be doing in their own lives. It seems like a lot of people are “pulling on the wrong rope” to use a sailing analogy. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that because you aren’t out knocking on doors, or proselytizing to all you encounter, that God is not at work in the lives around you.
YOU are not the determining factor in who comes to Christ.
You MIGHT play a part.
But don’t get the idea that you have any POWER in the matter.
I hear you!
I’m sorry to hear that you are suffering from that as well.
I have two young ones that I pray with and teach them about The Lord daily. I hope The Lord never lets them fall away, but I would be naive to think that it’s possible that they may.
My brother is was raised in the faith, did a full public baptism and profession of faith and is now living like hell and on his way there if he doesn’t wake up.
The road truly is narrow.
“Second, Abraham is right to challenge evangelical hypocrisy, asking on one video about hell, “How are you going to take your family to Outback after church while millions of people are burning alive?”(from the article)
I don’t think Abraham was or has the “right to challenge” anything. The premise that there is some virtue in Abraham’s accusations despite his rejection of God is one I reject strenuously. If Abraham acknowledges himself as non-Christian then he hasn’t the judgment to question how real Christians should live their lives. He has no moral authority to suggest that other Christians have no moral authority since he is coming from a thought process that assumes that there is no God. He doesn’t even have any basis to suggest that Christians going to Outback* on a Sunday don’t care about real people going to hell since he doesn’t believe in all that “hooey” Christian stuff anyway.(*The Jews accused Jesus and his disciples of grabbing corn and eating in from a field on the Sabbath and with unwashed hands, oh the horror!... they accused him, Jesus who called himself in his reply..The Lord of the Sabbath. Yeah I guess Christ didn’t care about people burning hell,either./extreme sarcasm implied).
Now if Abraham were a serious Christian reformer, fasting and praying that the modern body of believers be infused with Holy Spirit fire and repentance so that the World knows that the living God is truly in our camp then it would be a different matter. But this Abraham is not such a man, nor does he have any desire to be.... for himself, for Christ,or for us. He can go “hypocritize” his own self! He is nothing but a bit of sulfurous flattulence...released in Christianity’s “general direction”!
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