Welcome back to the Ask Pastor John podcast with longtime author and pastor John Piper. Here's today's question for you. "Hello Pastor John, my name is Darmo and I live in Indonesia. What encouragement would you give for us who have read and admired Eugene Peterson's books over the years in light of his recent admission that he would marry a gay couple?

He seems to have recanted on this position, but it still leaves in my mind a lingering question. When it comes to national or international voices in the church, when do they lose their platform? If an evangelical wavers on same-sex marriage, to what extent are their life's works valuable or not to the church in the future, both in private use and in public commendation?" What would you say, Pastor John, to Darmo?

Let me try to say something about this question without focusing too much on Eugene Peterson. It's a bigger issue than one man, but I will say that I was really sad to read his seemingly cavalier endorsement of so-called same-sex marriage and then how, in my mind, unsatisfying his retraction was.

Perhaps I wasn't as surprised as some that he would move in that direction, but when he did, at least for a moment, it was a tragic development. And I say that, I say it was tragic, because endorsing so-called same-sex marriage involves three tragic things. One, it involves a false and destructive view of marriage.

Two, it involves a false and destructive view of sexuality. And three, and most important, probably, it involves a false and destructive view of the gospel warning that those who live in unrepentant homosexual activity will not inherit the kingdom of God, and the gospel of Jesus is given precisely to rescue us from that peril.

So why would we send people into it if we are gospel people? So to me, these three false and deeply destructive errors are so serious that it's almost inconceivable to me that a serious Christian would not be prevented by biblical faithfulness and love for people's eternal good from endorsing so-called same-sex marriage.

So the question for me becomes, in general, what shall we do with books and sermons of those who, somewhere along the way, depart from biblical faithfulness in these and other serious ways? So I've just got four observations that I'll make, and I hope they provide some guidance to us as we reflect on them.

Number one, in principle, a book that was once properly seen as true and helpful may remain true and helpful, even if its author says things that are seriously untrue and unhelpful later on. The simplest way to show this, that this is true, is to notice that King Solomon was the author of many of the proverbs—Proverbs 1:1, the proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel—and he was the author of the Song of Songs, Song of Solomon 1:1.

And yet, here's what we read in 1 Kings 11, "When Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after the Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites.

So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord." So I conclude that in principle, a book can remain true and helpful, even if its author goes off the rails. Number two, second observation. If a writer does move in a seriously defective direction, doctrinally or morally, we have good reason to reread what he has written and be on the lookout for the seeds and trajectories that might give some explanation for why he went in such a wrong direction.

In retrospect, we might discover in his writings things which, in fact, we had overlooked. We had given him the benefit of the doubt, perhaps, and now we see, hmm, maybe not. Those things carried maybe the seeds of the defection or the trajectory of the defection in the end. So we might judge that the writings are not as helpful as we once thought they were on a more careful reading.

Here's the third thing I would say. In what I said under number one, I used the phrase "in principle." In principle, a book that was once properly seen as true and helpful may remain true and helpful. The reason I use the phrase "in principle" is to distinguish it from inactuality.

In other words, a book never does exist in principle alone, in abstract. It never exists isolated from connections with author, real and potential readers, churches, publisher, ministry, the fruit it bears, time in history when it served its purpose. And the point here is that the decision what to do with a book isn't based on the principal legitimacy of what it says alone, but also on its connections with people and churches and ministries and publishers and times, any of which might be very helpful or very harmful by their connections with the book, or very harmed or helped by their connection with the book.

And we need to weigh the issue of what our promotion or endorsement of a book may do in all of those connections. I'm thinking of the biblical principle of not causing your brother to stumble, because even in principle, you may have freedom to do something, but in other factors, when they're drawn in, may make that very act an unloving act, 1 Corinthians 8, Romans 14.

And the last thing, the fourth thing I would say, is that it seems to me that one lesson we should learn from these repeated situations that happen in history is that excessive, uncritical praise for an ordinary human author—and here, I'm not thinking of inspired biblical authors in any of these.

I think God, in his mercy and inspiration, has protected those authors, even though they are fallen human beings, from writing what is false. That's what we mean by inspiration. So I'm not including them in this when I say uncritical praise of an ordinary human author is probably unwarranted and may do harm, even though we have been tremendously helped by the person we're praising.

For example, I can hear excessive praise for St. Augustine or John Calvin or Martin Luther or Karl Barth or my favorite, C.S. Lewis, Jonathan Edwards, John Owen. We would probably do well to regularly remind ourselves and our audiences that all authors have feet of clay and that every book should be read through the discerning lens of biblical faithfulness.

So bottom line, test all things and hold fast to what is good. Man, this is very wise and good and insightful, and I think we can apply this to all of our favorite writers. Thank you, Pastor John. I love that line, "Uncritical praise of an ordinary human author is probably unwarranted." Amen.

So well said. Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you for listening and making the podcast part of your day and your commute. It's really an honor to join you as part of your very busy day as you drive around. I know a lot of you listen in the car.

Three times a week we publish, and you can subscribe to our audio feeds and keep up with our new episodes and even search our past episodes in our archive and even reach us by email with a question you may be facing about life, like this very good one from Darmo.

You can do all that through our online home at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn. Well, speaking of really good questions, we know that God is sovereign. He can do whatever He wants to whenever He wants to. He has that kind of power, and I think most of us agree with that. But does that also mean that God controls all things all the time?

That is a really sharp question, and it comes from a listener in Jacksonville, Florida, and it's up on Friday. I'm your host, Tony Reinke, and we will see you then. DesiringGod.org Page 1 of 10