“John MacArthur is supporting Trump.”
John MacArthur is a good friend of John Piper. Personally, I deeply respect both men. Both are reformed theologians, and while I don’t subscribe to these views entirely, they seem better than most alternative forms of systematic theology.
Piper seems to be attributing “sins of unrepentant sexual immorality (porneia), unrepentant boastfulness (alazoneia), unrepentant vulgarity (aischrologia), unrepentant factiousness (dichostasiai)” to President Trump.
Piper also makes it clear that he is not trying to dictate his decision to anyone else, but I think he would have done better to simply keep it to himself.
The sins listed here are indeed Biblical, but how are they disqualifying for public office? Certainly I would not be looking for a man like Donald Trump to fill the role of ideal pastor. On the other hand, I would not consider John Piper or John MacArthur to be ideal for the job of president either.
Further, factiousness is sinful in the context of church, not politics. Otherwise, being pro-life and pro-family would be a sin, which is ridiculous. And how would John Piper know if President Trump is unrepentant of sexual immorality? He might have very well confessed his private sins to God in private.
I am very disappointed in John Piper’s public position on this matter.
God. Knows the end from the beginning and all. In between. Men like Piper aave not a clue regarding GOD choosing David knowing the sin(s) in David’s future. By Piper’s reasoning God made a mistake! Piper is working for the wring side in this. I wonde, in what other areas of his reasoning is he so far away from ‘the mind of God’?
He is but a man at the end of the day. Flawed and wrong, but only God knows his heart. Neither he nor MacArthur should take the place of a pope.