What Is the Role of Pentecostalism in the World?
00:00:00.000 | Well, what is the role of Pentecostalism in the world today?
00:00:08.680 | It was a question put to John Piper in early June at one of his international stops.
00:00:13.180 | He was doing a television interview in Monticevano, Italy, and there he was asked the question.
00:00:18.520 | Here's a field recording of what he said.
00:00:20.520 | Pentecostalism in the world.
00:00:22.520 | Well, it's huge.
00:00:24.520 | I mean, when you think of the awakening of evangelicalism, true lovers of the gospel,
00:00:36.240 | lovers of being born again, lovers of scripture, lovers of the Bible, lovers of evangelism
00:00:43.840 | and world missions, when you think of that evangelicalism, it is decreasing in the Western
00:00:53.280 | world to an extent.
00:00:55.240 | At least over the last century, it has hugely decreased, right?
00:00:59.120 | In Europe, which was once the center of evangelicalism, today is very small.
00:01:05.400 | Whereas at the beginning of the 20th century, probably 5% of Africa were evangelical, and
00:01:15.320 | today it would be close to 50%.
00:01:18.120 | Same thing in South America, same thing in Asia.
00:01:21.680 | Now, if you ask, "What's the nature of that evangelicalism?"
00:01:25.040 | It's mainly Pentecostal.
00:01:27.040 | So Pentecostalism, that is people, this is my definition, people who are believing in
00:01:34.320 | the power of the Holy Spirit, believing that the Holy Spirit does miracles today, believing
00:01:39.200 | that the gifts of the Holy Spirit described in 1 Corinthians 12 are still active today,
00:01:45.080 | that kind of people are at the cutting edge of the growth of Christianity around the world.
00:01:52.760 | Now, my caution would be this, mingled with Pentecostalism in many places is a prosperity
00:02:00.520 | gospel, a prosperity preaching that identifies Christianity with "things will go better for
00:02:06.960 | you, you won't suffer when you're a farmer, your crops will prosper, your wife will never
00:02:12.000 | miscarry, your pigs will have eight little piglets and never lose the piglets, everything
00:02:16.920 | will go better for you if you follow Jesus."
00:02:19.160 | That's not true.
00:02:20.480 | And that kind of prosperity preaching is hurting the church, and so to the degree that Pentecostalism
00:02:28.360 | is associated with prosperity preaching, I've got concerns.
00:02:34.140 | And the next question, which was not entirely related, but it's worth publishing and putting
00:02:38.520 | out there, it was a question about how and why Pastor John corrects or debates people
00:02:42.120 | on issues of disagreement or concern, specifically regarding his conversation with Rick Warren.
00:02:49.640 | Here's what Pastor John told the audience in Italy.
00:02:53.040 | I think it's absolutely crucial when someone has great influence and you have a sense that
00:03:00.000 | some of that influence may be negative, that instead of just talking about the person,
00:03:07.560 | you should talk to the person.
00:03:10.000 | So I want to write to people or talk to people who I think are negative, unless they have
00:03:21.600 | written books that are out there in the public and you can talk about the book.
00:03:27.280 | You don't have to call everybody on the telephone who's written a book.
00:03:30.320 | I mean, I've written books.
00:03:31.800 | I don't expect people who disagree with me, I don't expect them to call me on the telephone
00:03:35.880 | first.
00:03:36.880 | I have a right to disagree with John Piper, put it in writing, put it on the internet,
00:03:42.440 | disagree with me.
00:03:43.440 | And I feel the same.
00:03:44.440 | But if you know somebody, so we were talking about Rick Warren.
00:03:49.800 | I love Rick Warren.
00:03:51.320 | Rick Warren is one of the most influential pastors in the world.
00:03:54.320 | He's written the book that has sold more than any other Christian book outside the Bible
00:03:57.800 | and maybe one or two others.
00:04:00.240 | And I think it's a good book, by the way.
00:04:03.120 | But I call Rick up.
00:04:04.480 | In fact, I asked him to come speak at our conference and it was very controversial.
00:04:08.840 | Why are you having Rick Warren come to your conference?
00:04:11.240 | Because you two guys aren't the same.
00:04:13.160 | And I said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa."
00:04:14.600 | So I called him.
00:04:15.600 | I said, "Can I come and interview you for 90 minutes?"
00:04:18.280 | And we sat at a table just like this.
00:04:20.840 | And for 90 minutes, you can see it online.
00:04:22.520 | You can go there and type it in.
00:04:24.360 | And I just, I gave him every hard question I could think about theologically, because
00:04:29.200 | I want to know, are you teaching something essentially different?
00:04:33.440 | We are different, very different.
00:04:35.160 | He's much more pragmatic than I am.
00:04:37.000 | I'm much more theologically oriented than he is.
00:04:40.440 | And I said to him at the end of our conversation, which turned up the fact that we didn't disagree
00:04:45.760 | on essential theological matters.
00:04:48.360 | The disagreement is method and emphasis.
00:04:51.360 | And I suggested to Rick, and he could listen to this and I wouldn't be ashamed.
00:04:54.880 | I suggested, "You know, I think if you spent the last decade or two of your life being
00:05:01.240 | more doctrinal, more theological, your impact would be deeper and longer."
00:05:08.320 | And I don't know that he, I don't think he agreed with me, but my willingness to say
00:05:13.120 | that to him in person and in public is I think significant.
00:05:17.520 | So I think leaders ought to do that for each other.
00:05:20.040 | We should confront one another when we have disagreements.
00:05:22.640 | Yeah, so good.
00:05:23.880 | This was a field recording captured during John Piper's television interview in Monticellano,
00:05:28.680 | Italy, recorded on June 3rd during his recent international trip.
00:05:33.160 | Piper was there for the International Ministries' Congresso Missione 2016 conference, and he
00:05:37.680 | was being interviewed by Alessandro Iovino.
00:05:40.800 | Little clips like this remind us of the vast reach of the web and of course Desiring God
00:05:44.760 | content around the world.
00:05:46.320 | Our internet distribution strategy allows people from every nation to access our content, mobile
00:05:52.040 | apps free of charge.
00:05:54.000 | And Desiring God and this podcast is supported almost entirely by the generosity of our donors
00:05:58.640 | around the world who make this international work possible.
00:06:02.080 | So thank you for your generosity that makes it all possible.
00:06:05.840 | Well if all of us, every single human being on the planet, if we're all descendants of
00:06:09.840 | Adam and Eve or even we could say of Noah, where did all the unique races on the planet
00:06:16.280 | originate?
00:06:18.040 | Such a good question, and that is tomorrow on the podcast.
00:06:21.040 | Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast with longtime author, theologian,
00:06:24.440 | and pastor John Piper.
00:06:25.760 | I'm your host Tony Reinke, and we'll see you tomorrow.
00:06:27.720 | [music]
00:06:28.720 | [music]
00:06:28.720 | [music]
00:06:33.720 | [BLANK_AUDIO]