Posted on 10/27/2020 9:06:32 AM PDT by Kaslin
Evangelical thinker, author, and Christian pastor John Piper stirred the Christian community and a larger public intrigued with how Christians may vote in the this election with his recent essay, “Policies, Persons, and Paths to Ruin: Pondering the Implications of the 2020 Election.”
Piper concludes: “I will not develop some calculus to determine which path of destruction I will support.” After rejecting the sin of boastfulness with a terminology diagnosed in the Greek with the term “eristikos,” he is willing to forswear voting on or in the Presidential election of 2020. Piper’s critique of leadership character is one of several made by other major evangelical thinkers like Max Lucado and Beth Moore. Piper’s thesis cannot be reconciled to the rhetoric and arguments of basic Biblical hermeneutics.
Piper complains early in the essay: “I find it bewildering that Christians can be so sure that greater damage will be done by bad judges, bad laws, and bad policies than is being done by the culture-infecting spread of the gangrene of sinful self-exaltation, and boasting, and strife-stirring (eristikos). How do they know this? Seriously! Where do they get the sure knowledge...” Piper is condescendingly stunned that Christians might vote in the current election given the tragic political character flaw of boasting that for him obviously precludes the task of voting for President. Piper does not provide biblical examples to support his thesis and offers only the well-worn hermeneutic that all sin is of equal offense in the eyes of God so boasting will be as “deadly” as abortion, according to Piper. In reality, the Bible is replete with human beings plagued with boasting character flaws and yet assigned to not only leadership but political sovereignty.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
This guy is an idiot. He’s not seeing the big picture.
Jesus Christ is never on the ballot.
Just like many of those attacking Trump....someone made a “donation”
Jesus Christ is never on the ballot.
Why, Gee, No, of COURSE not, Mr. Piper... Let’s vote for the Arrogant Idiot and the Commie Psychopath who want to rip the country apart instead, because that’s WAY more “Christian”.
What a moron. And anyone that follows the man is a moron as well.
Only if they’re Republican.
EVERY politician is vain and boastful!
Should Christians be petty and judgmental?
As they say, you shouldn’t leave a church because it’s not “perfect” — if you found the “perfect” church, they probably wouldn’t take you as a member.
How much more true is this for politicians? I don’t look for a “perfect” candidate. I look for someone who wants what I want.
It’s odd that the nature of politicians and campaigners is to be vain and boastful yet only Trump is seen as this when he is in fact less so than standard politicians like Obama and Biden.
I think it’s a mistake to think that the USA can be transformed into a theocracy, or to vote like that’s the goal.
Don’t be stupid.
Christians are called to the light- to be awake and ready, not to be stupid.
God cares about SUBSTANCE much more than style.
He cares much more about substance than form.
So should we.
This guy is a useful idiot of the Left.
This guy thinks highly of himself, doesn’t he...
As if Joe Biden isn’t boastful when he appropriated a British politician’s lifestory as his own in the 1980s or told tall tales of Corn Pop
No. Christians should sit out every election because that description applies to just about every politician everywhere. We should be ruled by godless people who vote for godless people. That’s much better... more just... my virtue is signaled.
The vain and boastful ... the corrupt and treacherous (and murderous and perverted too?) ... there’s an old saying: if you refuse to choose you’ve still chosen.
And if all you’ve got in your estimation is the lesser of evils then it all comes down to what you think is truly evil.
It is perfectly legitimate to simply and flatly oppose the Left even if you cannot be happy with the alternative.
Yep. If I had any of his books (I don't) I would have to question whether he knows what he is talking about on any subject when he misses the big picture so thoroughly.
Exactly
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