Free PDF and Review: Coronavirus and Christ by John Piper

John Piper. Coronavirus and Christ.  Wheaton, IL: Crossway, April 28th 2020.  112 pp.

5 out of 5

Free: PDF and other format at Desiring God

Purchase: Amazon

According to the Bible what are the possible things God is doing with the Coronavirus?  In this book by pastor and theologian John Piper the author looks at the issue from a Gospel driven perspective.  Piper is nuanced in the beginning to say that no doubt readers will know more about what will happen with the virus situation than the book is able to capture at the moment he wrote this book; instead Piper is going to focus on God’s work in crisis and also look at the issue of death and suffering from an eternal perspective.  I am grateful that Piper wrote this book.

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Review: What’s the Difference?: Manhood and Womanhood Defined According to the Bible

John Piper. What’s the Difference?: Manhood and Womanhood Defined According to the Bible.  Wheaton, IL: Crossway, June 29th 2001.  91 pp.

4 out of 5

Purchase: Amazon

The author John Piper is one of the editors along with Wayne Grudem of the massive Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.  In fact this present book was originally written as a chapter for the larger work and while Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.  While that work is more detailed in providing exegetical support and the reasons for why Piper and company takes the position they take yet Piper published What’s the Difference? as a stand-alone book is to present “a Biblical vision of manhood and womanhood as clearly and concisely as possible, and to leave the comprehensive technical discussion for other publications” (14).  Piper also wrote in chapter one that he wanted to have What’s the Difference? as a “portrayal of the vision that satisfies the head as well as the heart” (16).  In other words Piper’s second purpose is his desire to show how a biblical view of manhood and womanhood is “deeply satisfying gift of grace from a loving God” (16).

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Review: Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus: Experiencing the Peace and Promise of Christmas

Nancy Guthrie. Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus: Experiencing the Peace and Promise of Christmas.  Wheaton, IL: Crossway, August 1^st, 2008.  142 pp.

5 out of 5!

First let me say that I have a hard time with devotional books; I prefer heavier theology books since I find most devotionals to be rather shallow.  But I enjoyed this particular collection of devotional readings for the Advent.  So if I enjoyed this book in light of my bias against devotionals, I think that this work might be something worthwhile for others too.

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Video: Piper Responds to the Insider Movement

Our series on “Missions, Culture and Being Biblical” have featured some articles written against the Insider Movement and if you need a short summary of the problem in video form here is a short video by John Piper responding to the Insider Movement:

Even thought it was two years ago it is still good and have been shared around on Twitter again this month.  Speaking of twitter, in light of our series you might also want to check out our Twitter @Domainfortruth where we are tweeting and re-tweeting other resources against the Insider Movement.

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Philippe Paul-Luc Viguier’s Thesis: “A Biblical Theology of the Glory of God”

John Piper had this on his facebook (and I presume this was on his twitter as well):

It was posted in response to Andy Naselli’s post on his blog about Viguier’s Thesis for his Master of Divinity and the definition of God’s Glory.

The glory of God for me is not something easy to define but something I finally felt I had a better handle on as the result of seeing it unfold in Redemptive History as the flow and outworking of the Old and New Testament.

I have asked Andy Naselli where he found the thesis and he said on TREN which is where I typically go to survey what thesis are on there of works of others.  I saw his comment section others have asked the same thing.

Apparently the author of the thesis, Philippe Paul-Luc Viguier, has made the PDF of his thesis available online!

You can download it by clicking HERE.

Thank you Philippe Paul-Luc Viguier for writing this thesis and also for making it available online!

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Update on John Piper’s Transition

Please see the link regarding John Piper’s transition from pastoral ministry.

John Piper

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Book Review: Think by John Piper

Purchase: Amazon

The topic of this book is the relationship of thinking and the Christian life. As the beginning of the book admits, there have been other Christian works on the topic of the relationship of the intellect and the faith, with each having it’s different emphasis (such as the cultural aspect, role of faith and science, etc). This work emphasized more of thinking in terms of reading, and is more driven by biblical exposition and not a defense higher institution learning per se. I enjoyed the fact that the author is a preacher of the Bible first, who also began his career orignally in academic ministry. The author John Piper devotes two semi-biographical chapters to explain his own intellectual Christian life, including a discussion about the influence of Jonathan Edward’s Trinitarian approach to the relationship of the intellect and action. This gives the readers an honest picture of where Piper is coming from. The book is not a textbook on logic but comes across as a book giving a summarized Christian theology of the relationship of the mind to the faith and I would even say with enough devotional flavor. Piper covers the relationship of the mind to coming Christ and also in sanctification, and presents a balanced approach of both/and when it comes to the life of the mind and living faith. Piper underscores the need for the faculty of the mind to be used to treasure Christ, and that just thinking about the things of God is not loving God with all our minds if we don’t end us savoring him. To use an analogy in the book, the intellect provides the wood to stir our passion in loving Jesus. This works also refutes relativism and also dealt with the issue of anti-intellectualism and autonomous intellectualism, with the call to submit all reasoning in the service towards Christ and helping others and ourselves love Jesus more. Good work–readers might find it a treat to read Mark Noll’s preface, and the fact that Piper and Noll were both roomates at one time during the college days in Wheaton. Of course, Noll’s view on things are not views I would totally agree with (especially in terms of his stance on evolution).

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