On Francis Chan and John Piper...

[Continuing on from this and this]

After a break of nearly 2 months from the topic regarding Francis Chan's gospel presentation, I am returning to it very soon. Since I am going to address the underlying issues and NOT the people involved, I hope that this would be the last time I would be mentioning Francis Chan by name.

Before I continue, I would like to make it absolutely clear that I have nothing personal against either Pst. Francis Chan or Dr. John Piper, of which I will talk more about his soteriology later on. In fact, before that entire controversy break out, I didn't know who Pst. Francis Chan is. Frankly speaking, it can be any other pastor in his place and it matters little. As for Dr. John Piper, I have read some of his books and the articles at desiringgod.org, and I am impressed by his passion and love for God and His Word. Of course, I have certain reservations regarding his theology, but hs does not deny any essential Christian, Reformed and Evangelical doctrine, and thus I esteem him as a pastor who acts worthy of his calling, which is rather scarce today in contemporary Evangelicalism, I may add.

With that said, I would be discussing the Gospel and its presentation, followed by the idea of 'common grace' as embraced by people like Dr. John Piper. Again, I would like to emphasize that the people are not important, the issues are. I have no qualms and questions regarding the orthodoxy, love for God and sincerity of Pst. Francis Chan and Dr. John Piper. To say that Pst. Francis Chan is deliberately dumbing down the Gospel; to impute evil motives to him is not only to be judgmental, it is downright evil and constitutes slander against our fellow brother in Christ. Unless there is tangible proof of such compromise, I would maintain that those who make such accusations should repent of their false accusations.

Therefore, the first part of this upcoming series would be on the Gospel and its presentation, especially with reference to the issue of whether it is right to present the Gospel as saying that God begs the sinner to receive Him as their Lord and Savior, which Chan's movie clip did mention to that effect. The second part of this series would then be focused on the issue of 'common grace', and more specifically, whether it is right to say that God desires the salvation of all Man and everyone, everywhere.