Was Calvin a Christian Hedonist?
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Welcome back to a new week on the Ask Pastor John podcast.
00:00:06.700 | A long time pastor and author, John Piper.
00:00:09.660 | Well, Pastor John, a listener named Lindsey from Memphis
00:00:12.920 | would like to call you to the witness stand.
00:00:15.140 | She asks this, "Dear Pastor John,
00:00:17.000 | "thank you for taking my question.
00:00:18.020 | "I'm really curious.
00:00:19.560 | "Do you think John Calvin would have considered himself
00:00:23.000 | "to be a Christian hedonist as you define it?"
00:00:27.700 | - Oh, I would like to think he would.
00:00:29.960 | As I define it means I get to spend an afternoon with him.
00:00:35.120 | Right? - Yeah, of course.
00:00:35.960 | - I get to talk to him and we sit over the Bible
00:00:38.440 | for three or four hours.
00:00:40.480 | And I haven't had time to do the research
00:00:44.640 | to know what the word hedonist meant in the 1500s.
00:00:48.680 | And so I might have a stumbling block there.
00:00:51.580 | I might not, I don't know.
00:00:53.520 | But if I said to him, "Now, Mr. Calvin,
00:00:57.520 | "there are people who wanna know if you agree with my view.
00:01:00.520 | "And here's my view.
00:01:02.400 | "I think that it is right to pursue happiness,
00:01:07.400 | "to pursue joy, to pursue pleasure in Christ, in God,
00:01:12.820 | "because I think it helps us honor God.
00:01:20.000 | "And I think it helps us love people."
00:01:24.940 | You agree with that?
00:01:26.220 | I think he would pause and he would say,
00:01:29.420 | "Well, I can think of some verses
00:01:32.060 | "that go in that direction."
00:01:34.860 | Then he might ask me some questions
00:01:36.300 | about what I think about suffering
00:01:38.580 | and what I think about sacrifice and persecution
00:01:41.660 | and self-denial.
00:01:42.580 | And I'd give you all my standard biblical answers to that.
00:01:46.980 | And my own conviction is I think he would say,
00:01:50.440 | "Yes, I don't know if I like your name,
00:01:53.760 | "but that's surely what I believe."
00:01:55.700 | And so I did have the time to look up some places
00:02:00.000 | where he says something that gives me hope
00:02:02.420 | that he might agree.
00:02:03.760 | And so let me give you a couple of those.
00:02:06.360 | He says, "We must therefore constantly call
00:02:12.740 | "to our minds this truth,
00:02:16.920 | "that it can never be well with us,
00:02:20.000 | "except in so far as God is gracious to us,
00:02:24.660 | "so that the joy we derive from his paternal favor
00:02:29.660 | "towards us may surpass all the pleasures of the world."
00:02:35.320 | In another place, he says,
00:02:38.560 | "We have all a natural desire to pursue happiness.
00:02:43.080 | "And the consequence is that false imaginations
00:02:46.600 | "carry us away in every direction.
00:02:48.920 | "But if we were honestly and firmly convinced
00:02:53.600 | "that our happiness is in heaven,
00:02:56.920 | "it would be easy for us to trample upon the world,
00:03:01.920 | "to despise earthly blessings
00:03:05.460 | "by the deceitfulness of attractions to the world
00:03:09.260 | "that the greater part of man are fascinated with,
00:03:11.800 | "and to rise toward heaven."
00:03:15.700 | Or here's another one, "Rejoice and leap for joy."
00:03:18.720 | This is his commentary on Matthew 5, 12.
00:03:21.960 | "The meaning is a remedy is at hand."
00:03:25.680 | A remedy for being crushed under persecutions.
00:03:28.740 | "A remedy is at hand that we may not be overwhelmed
00:03:32.700 | "by unjust reproaches,
00:03:34.620 | "for as soon as we raise our minds to heaven,
00:03:39.300 | "we there behold vast grounds of joy,
00:03:44.160 | "which dispel sadness."
00:03:47.440 | And one other place,
00:03:50.040 | one of my favorite passages is Hebrews 10, 34,
00:03:54.800 | where the Christians are identifying with those in jail.
00:03:59.080 | And when they do that, their goods get plundered.