Is John Piper Popular Because He Makes Christianity Look Intelligent?
00:00:00.000 | Is John Piper popular because he makes Christianity look intelligent?
00:00:09.000 | It's an interesting question, one I certainly did not see coming, but one that has now arrived
00:00:14.120 | in the inbox from a listener named Jean.
00:00:16.200 | "Dear Pastor John, hello and thank you for your incredible ministry to the world.
00:00:20.680 | I was recently watching a few atheists online go back and forth trying to answer this question,
00:00:25.680 | why is John Piper so popular?"
00:00:28.840 | As you can imagine, the interchange proves that none of them really know you or the gospel
00:00:33.360 | you preach.
00:00:34.360 | Nevertheless, one point from their comments back and forth did strike me.
00:00:38.700 | One of these atheists said, and the others quickly agreed, that your popularity is owing
00:00:43.760 | to the fact that you make Christianity look intelligent.
00:00:49.520 | That's an interesting point.
00:00:50.520 | I'm wondering how much you think this is true.
00:00:53.080 | I think we can all name ample examples of Christians online and on television that do
00:00:57.740 | and say really dumb and immature things, but you actually do make Christianity look appealing
00:01:04.080 | to the intelligent.
00:01:05.600 | What concerns would you have for the people who do follow you because you make Christianity
00:01:10.940 | look smart?
00:01:16.800 | The first thing to say is that we need clarity on the meaning of popularity.
00:01:24.520 | Every listener must be aware after 30 seconds of thought that John Piper is not popular
00:01:30.920 | because in those 30 seconds, they would surely realize that he is totally unknown to 99.87%
00:01:43.480 | of the world's 7.5 billion people.
00:01:46.480 | You might say, "Where in the world did you get that number?
00:01:49.480 | 99.87.
00:01:50.480 | Well, here's what I did.
00:01:51.480 | I speculated wildly it would be a huge stretch, I think, to say that 10 million people have
00:01:57.920 | heard of John Piper and 10 million is 0.13% of the world's population.
00:02:04.840 | If you wanted to quibble and be crazy and run that number up to 20 or 30 or 40 or 50
00:02:12.080 | million people have heard of John Piper, which I think would be absurd, that means that,
00:02:17.040 | what, 93% of the world population has never heard of John Piper.
00:02:21.160 | So, let's make sure we get the picture right here.
00:02:24.160 | Piper is a non-entity, non-entity for 7.3 billion human beings on this planet.
00:02:32.560 | So, not popular, not popular among those and I'd say 7.3 billion is a pretty representative
00:02:40.500 | group on the planet.
00:02:42.040 | And I'm going to my grave, get this now, I'm going to my grave a global nobody just like
00:02:52.280 | you.
00:02:53.280 | And 99.9999% of everybody else in the world is going to their grave as a global nobody
00:03:02.760 | and we better get used to it and remind ourselves it is better.
00:03:07.600 | Oh my, oh my, 10 million times better to be known by one person, God Almighty, than to
00:03:14.360 | be known by 7.5 billion people.
00:03:17.320 | So that's the first thing to say and we better say it loud and clear.
00:03:21.600 | So the real question our atheist folks are asking evidently is why in this teeny weeny
00:03:31.680 | little evangelical pond does this fish named Piper get the attention he does?
00:03:39.120 | And they speculate, well, it's because he makes Christianity look intelligent, meaning
00:03:44.600 | his audience is gullible, he's a shyster.
00:03:47.800 | Because of course, every atheist knows Christianity is not intelligent.
00:03:51.300 | So their answer is evangelicals are fools and Piper's a magician.
00:03:55.560 | Well, I don't think evangelicals are fools and I don't think I'm a magician.
00:04:01.160 | So what's my take on their observation that I'm able to put the Bible in the black hat
00:04:06.080 | and pull out the rabbit of intelligence?
00:04:09.280 | And my take is this, the most intelligent person in the universe is not an atheist,
00:04:15.520 | he's God.
00:04:17.000 | And he wrote a book called the Bible.
00:04:19.600 | So the author of the Bible sees and knows all reality perfectly, understands its makeup
00:04:26.200 | and connections flawlessly and completely, evaluates the relative worth of everything
00:04:32.240 | with impeccable accuracy in accord with the way reality really is, and arranges it all
00:04:38.040 | with infinite wisdom and goodness and justice, and that's who the author of the Bible is.
00:04:43.840 | Now suppose I ask, say, a relatively thoughtful ninth grader who's never heard of the Bible
00:04:50.300 | to take that description that I just gave of the author of the Bible, okay, go home
00:04:55.000 | now and write me one paragraph that makes sense to you of the kind of book you would
00:05:02.980 | expect from an author like that.
00:05:08.960 | And I think he would come back with a paragraph something like this.
00:05:13.480 | The book, he says in his ninth grade twang, the book would be about reality and wherever
00:05:21.700 | it describes reality, it would do so perfectly because the author knows all reality and he's
00:05:28.840 | good and just, so he's not going to try to deceive you.
00:05:32.280 | He doesn't have to put everything he knows in the book, I suppose, but what he puts in
00:05:38.080 | the book will be true, a true picture of reality.
00:05:42.700 | And when the book talks about other parts of reality, the author puts in and describes
00:05:48.460 | the makeup and the connections among all the parts of reality, his description will be
00:05:54.020 | flawless.
00:05:56.400 | And when he evaluates things in the book, he shows us what they're really worth, he
00:06:03.420 | doesn't mislead us about what actions and things are valuable and what are worthless
00:06:09.980 | or harmful, and the book would give the wisest description of how everything works and how
00:06:19.180 | everything works together, at least everything that the author includes.
00:06:23.660 | He'd say something like that, this ninth grader, I think.
00:06:26.120 | And I would say to the ninth grader, "Right, right, me too."
00:06:30.660 | That's what I think the book would be like if it had an author like that.
00:06:37.820 | So what would happen if a person, say, who can't read very fast and so is not very
00:06:46.060 | widely read and doesn't have a very good memory and doesn't even have a television
00:06:52.820 | to give him some cultural creds and has failed to win over some of the people most precious
00:06:59.820 | to him, what would happen if he spent 50 years marinating his mind and heart in that book?
00:07:12.300 | And while he was soaking his mind in the tub of that book, he was taking every soaked and
00:07:21.220 | juicy fragment floating around him, he would take them and he would get them in his hands
00:07:27.940 | and he would twist them and squeeze them and pull on them and bite on them and suck on
00:07:34.700 | them and press them against each other.
00:07:38.440 | What might happen if he comes up out of that tub, still dripping with truth and still a
00:07:46.940 | bit drunk with the sweetness of it all and still starstruck by the glories in those fragments
00:07:56.340 | he was squeezing and he stumbles into a pulpit and start talking about what he just saw and
00:08:05.220 | felt, what might happen?
00:08:06.900 | Well, I'll tell you what happens.
00:08:09.460 | A few thousand people think he's lost his bearings and a few thousand people say, "Give
00:08:16.340 | me more.
00:08:18.500 | Tell me more."
00:08:20.140 | And of those few thousand who want more, I would guess, it's just a guess, not one
00:08:29.060 | in a hundred would say, "I want to hear more because he's smart."
00:08:34.220 | No, that's not it.
00:08:37.380 | I think they say, "I want to hear more because when he talks, I meet the author of the book."
00:08:46.460 | This poor fellow dripping in front of me is getting smaller and God is becoming bigger.
00:08:54.860 | That's my guess.
00:08:55.860 | Very descript.
00:08:56.860 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:08:58.340 | And thanks for the surprising question, Gene.
00:09:01.420 | And wherever you're listening in the midst of your day, driving to or from work, at the
00:09:05.220 | gym, working out, driving the kids around, doing chores, walking the dog, whatever you're
00:09:09.060 | doing, thank you for listening to us.
00:09:11.220 | And be sure to subscribe to Ask Pastor John in your favorite podcast app in YouTube or
00:09:15.580 | in Spotify for our episode archive or to submit a surprising question of your own.
00:09:21.020 | Go to DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.
00:09:22.020 | Well, who is God?
00:09:27.420 | Is there a more foundational or important question in all of creation?
00:09:31.260 | I can't think of one.
00:09:32.840 | So who is God?
00:09:35.420 | That question is up next on Wednesday.
00:09:37.460 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.
00:09:39.260 | We'll see you then.
00:09:39.780 | [END]
00:09:41.780 | 1. What is God?
00:09:43.780 | 2. What is God's love?
00:09:45.780 | [BLANK_AUDIO]