Does John Piper's Son Disqualify Him?

Hello, welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist.

This is a daily conversation about scripture, culture, and media from a Reformed perspective.

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Here's your host, Pastor Keith Foskey.

Welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist.

My name is Keith Foskey and I am a Calvinist.

Today I want to talk about a subject which really breaks my heart as both a pastor and a father.

Recently I found out that one of John Piper's sons, his name is Abraham Piper, has been coming out on social media and other platforms expressing himself to be an atheist, somebody who has left the Christian faith, certainly having been brought up in a Christian home.

And immediately when I saw that, there are videos that he's posted and all kinds of statements that he's made on social media and he's gained quite a following for himself, certainly because his father is a very well-known and well-respected Christian pastor.

And again, as I'm thinking about this, I immediately realized just from being a father myself and a father to five children, just how much my heart yearns for the salvation of my children and just how much my heart would ache if one of my children were to repudiate the faith and to go against all that he had been taught, or he or she had been taught all of their lives, and then to use whatever platform that I had gained in my ministry as a platform to go against the gospel and against the Lord Jesus Christ.

So right away from the very outside of this, I want to say that my heart goes out to John Piper.

I am broken in the sense of, my heart breaks for him rather and for his wife, and I'm sure that this is a difficult time for both of them.

And I want to say that from the outset, just talking about this is first and foremost, my call would be to all of you as listeners to please pray for John Piper, please pray for his family.

I don't know how long this has been going on.

Again, this just came across my desk as far as information that I saw.

This could be going on for quite some time, and I had just not heard about it.

But I will say there is something that came out of this that caused me to want to do today's program.

This is not just a call to pray for John Piper or for his wife or for their son.

Today, I want to address an allegation which has been made, or might I say, maybe an allegation is not the right word, a statement that has been made by many people in social media regarding the status of John Piper as a preacher of the gospel.

There are those who are calling for John Piper to step down from the preaching ministry because his son is not a believer, because his son is an apostate.

Or when I say apostate, you know, having once claimed to be a Christian or brought up in a Christian home now is repudiating the faith.

And there are people who are saying that John Piper, because his son is not a believer, must step down from preaching.

Now, first of all, let me just say this, John Piper is, as far as I know, a retired pastor.

I don't believe that he is anymore the full time pastor.

In fact, the last I heard, and this could be different now, but the last I heard, he was the pastor emeritus of the church where he was pastor for a long time, Bethlehem Baptist Church.

And so as far as him having to step down, I don't I'm not quite sure what he would step down from, because quite honestly, I don't think he holds a position any more than what we would call an emeritus position, which is basically a position of respect given to someone who has held a position for a very long time.

That being said, I want to address this concern that people are raising that John Piper is if he were in a position of pastoral ministry, that because his son is an unbeliever, that his son would necessitate his stepping down.

Now, the accusation is being based on First Timothy chapter three and Titus chapter one.

I want to read two passages for you.

The first one is in First Timothy three, four regarding the office of an elder.

It says he must manage his own household well with all dignity, keeping his children submissive.

Again, this is the this is the requirement for an elder.

He must manage his own household well with all dignity, keeping his children submissive.

OK, now you might say, well, how does this apply? Well, let's look at the Titus passage.

And I think you'll see because it's really the Titus passage that causes the most causes the most argument.

If you go to the end of Titus, it says in verse chapter one, verse six, speaking of an elder, it says, if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination, that's a qualification for an elder.

But I have to quickly note that I am reading from the ESV translation of this particular text.

The ESV clearly says that this person's children must be a believer.

And again, I'll read it to you.

It's verse six.

If anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife and his children are believers.

And that's where the issue is.

People are saying, see, if if John Piper's son is not a believer, then he cannot be a pastor.

He cannot serve as an elder.

But right away, if you're holding an ESV Bible and you're looking at that text with me, I want you to notice there's a superscript next to the word believers.

That superscript number takes you down to the bottom of the page where it's clarified that the word in the Greek actually is the word for faithful, not technically the word for believer.

Now, if you have a King James Bible, that's exactly what it says.

It says in the King James Bible, if any be blameless, the husband of one wife having faithful children, not accused of riot or unruly.

And now another translation that I like is the New English translation.

It says this, an elder must be blameless.

The husband of one wife with faithful children who cannot be charged with dissipation or rebellion.

And if you have the NET, which I doubt because it's not a popular translation, but the NET also has a superscript next to the word faithful and it says this, the phrase can be translated believing children.

But the parallel in First Timothy three, four, keeping his children in control argues for the sense given in this translation.

So again, the parallel passages are Titus chapter one, verse six, and First Timothy chapter three, verse four.

And the idea is that a pastor who has children in his home is to manage his children well.

He is to be a man of discipline and within the home, his children are to be under his discipline and they are expected while in his home to be faithful to his leadership, to be expected, to be faithful to his discipline.

And if his children are unruly or as the King James language uses the word riotous or unruly, then that is a man who does not have his home under control.

And therefore, when we go back to First Timothy chapter three, it goes on to say in verse five, if anyone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? So the context of Titus one and First Timothy three is not specifically that the children of a pastor must be believers, but rather that while those children are in the home of the pastor, they must be disciplined properly by their father.

The household must be managed well.

If a man has a house that is overrun by the children, the children are riotous, unruly, undisciplined, and there is no control in the home, then that man has no right to serve in the church.

This is not talking about children being believers because, quite frankly, no man, pastor or otherwise, has the power to force his children to be believers.

There is no authority given to the father whereby he can make his children believe the gospel.

The only person who can convert the heart of a person is the Holy Spirit of God.

He is the only one who can convert the heart.

The pastor, no matter how gifted he is, does not have the power to convert his own children.

I will say this.

Every pastor I know prays that his children be converted.

I pray for my children.

I have five children and I pray every day that God will save every one of their souls because I desperately want my children to be in heaven.

I desperately want my children to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and live in honor of him.

I desperately want to see my children follow Jesus Christ all of their lives.

And as a pastor, I don't know any pastor who doesn't pray the same thing for his children.

But we cannot convert our children.

All we can do is preach the gospel to them, magnify the Lord Jesus Christ in the home and in the church, and pray that the Holy Spirit would change their heart in his good time.

So anyone who might come and say, well, your children are not believers, therefore you are not qualified to be a pastor.

I would say you have misunderstood Titus chapter one and you have misunderstood First Timothy chapter three.

So anyone out there who may have said this about John Piper, let me say to you, I believe you've misunderstood this passage.

John Piper does not have the power to change Abraham's heart.

If he could, I think he probably would, because I know he loves his son.

And so rather than berating John Piper, rather than claiming he needs to step down from a position he's not even any longer in, maybe we need to step back and pray for Abraham and pray that the preaching that he has heard for all of these years about the glories of the Lord Jesus Christ would actually be used by the Holy Spirit to change his heart.

And again, this is something that really touches my heart because I pray for my children.

I pray for John Piper's children.

And listener, if you have children, I hope your children are believers.

And if they're not, I pray for them as well.

Thank you for listening today to Coffee with a Calvinist.

This has been the episode.

I hope that it was an encouragement to you.

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My name is Keith Foskey and I've been your Calvinist.

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