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it’s not about separation

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Tim Challies makes a concluding observation about the Piper-Warren kerfuffle that, I think, misses the point.

At yet let’s heed Piper’s warning not to fall into an error of secondary separation. There is no need for us to separate from Piper over such a decision. We have plenty of latitude to disagree with him; let’s do so with respect for him and for his long and faithful history of ministry to the church. The sky is not falling, the world will go on.

JayC over at Sharper Iron asks a question:

In a context like mine, I’m not really sure that I ~could~ “separate” from Piper. The extent of the relationship that Piper and I have is that I download his books and will occasionally download a sermon. So in what meaningful way could I “separate” from Piper?

Jay’s question is a good one. How would anyone actually do secondary separation from Piper (assuming it is warranted)? In fact, let’s go a step further: How would anyone actually do primary separation from Piper?

The only way I could do either is if I was in some kind of ministry partnership with Piper. That is, if I was also invited to speak at Desiring God, then I could refuse to attend because of the Warren invite. Or if I was on the staff of Bethlehem Baptist, or a member, I could confront Piper personally and if I failed to achieve reconciliation, I could leave. If I were part of the BGC, I could raise the issue in the AGM and, if not satisfied with the Conference response or Piper’s response, I could pull out of the BGC. If I were involved in some other joint ministry with Piper (T4G, etc.) I could tell Piper that either he dis-invites Warren or we are dis-inviting him. Or failing that, I could break my relationship with him in this ministry and simply refuse to participate any longer as long as Piper were to remain part of it.

Have I covered every possibility?

Now, I am in NONE of these relationships with Piper.

So why should I care about who he invites to Desiring God? What difference does it make to me? What, if anything, should I do about it? Should I comment to anyone, should I make any criticism to anyone, should I discuss it with anyone? Should I blog about it?

All of what I have said so far assumes that I agree with Tim Challies in his evaluation of Piper’s decision to invite Warren to Desiring God. Well, I do agree. Challies says the invitation was wrong. I think Challies is right, Piper is wrong about this. It is a foolish decision, especially given the kind of influence Piper has in Christian circles.

But I think Challies final comment, dismissing ‘secondary separation’ is irrelevant and misses the real significance of Piper’s error.

Here is how I, as a local pastor of a small church should look at this situation:

  • Piper is demonstrating tremendously poor judgement in this case. Read Challies for a lot of good reasons why this is so.
  • Piper has, in fact, shown similar poor judgement in inviting others in the past (Mark Driscoll – twice! – is perhaps the prime example).
  • Piper’s poor judgement belies a number of things he has written in his own books. Which speaks louder, words or deeds?
  • Piper’s books and sermons are widely available. The people in my church can and do ask me about them from time to time.

THEREFORE I should be extremely careful about recommending Piper as a reliable source for my people to develop their spiritual lives. I shouldn’t recommend attendance at his meetings or support his gatherings by pointing my people to the online resources. And so on…

The point of this error is that Piper’s judgement is certainly open to question. This error is very significant, even evangelicals are criticizing it and using the “s” word in the discussion (“separation”).

If Piper’s judgement is so flawed, the next question is not “should we practice secondary separation?” – that is irrelevant, not a reality. But there is a follow-up question: Should we as pastors use and recommend his resources to others? How valuable are they if the author’s judgement is revealed to be so fatally flawed?

I suspect that evangelicals will answer the follow-up questions by “no, not yet, we still like what Piper does most of the time.” Fair enough, they haven’t evaluated the past history the same way I have. They see this as an aberration, not a pattern.

I don’t think fundamentalists should have the same reaction. Personally, I think this is yet another reason why we can’t really recommend Piper’s works for the profit of our people. This is yet another error in a string of errors that reveal fatal flaws in ministry philosophy. So I’m not going to promote him, and I don’t think other fundamentalists should either.

Well, what then? Will all fundamentalists follow the popery of the oxgoad as expressed in my last paragraph? As they say, don’t hold your breath. So what should I do about my fellow fundamentalists who don’t follow or agree with my advice?

Answer: mostly nothing.

The reason I should do mostly nothing is because for the most part, my fellow fundamentalists have little influence on the flock I am charged with guarding. They just aren’t big enough fish for my people to come and say, “What do you think about so-and-so?” So their decisions have little to no impact on me.

But you know, if my fellow fundamentalists become a group of people generally pushing the works of men who make such significant errors as this… well, we are going to have problems getting along. We are likely going to find ourselves in contention when things like this come up. We are going to find less and less in common and will likely find ourselves operating in distinct spheres of fellowship.

I hope that fundamentalists will see these errors as very significant and will begin to pull back from the love affair they have been having with Piper and others. I hope they will become more critical and discerning and at least less enthusiastic in their endorsements of men like this.

But it’s not about non-existent separation.

don_sig2

UPDATE: This comment by Matthew J on the Sharper Iron thread illustrates exactly the problem I am talking about. As a pastor, one has to be concerned at the inconsistencies of these men. This is why I have been warning against the wholesale use of their materials with little to no disclaimers by many. Inevitably, these guys will do something that makes the faithful pastor queasy about his previous recommendations.


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