Part 8: A Biblical Study of the Theological Foundation of “Christian Hedonism”

Still on the Horns of a Dilemma-no cornerstones, just shifting sand

Piper is still lacking any passage of true scripture to support his major precept that “the pursuit of joy is the highest calling of man”. Of course there are no true Bible passages that Piper can cite. Nor is there any passage where God even so much as passes judgments of condemnation on men solely because they lack some mystical level of joy or happiness in their hearts. This is a serious lack for Piper, and a crippling blow to his philosophy of hedonism.

Now, there are many passages of scripture where God does direct His withering wrath at unbelievers and disobedient sinners. And perhaps this is where Piper gets his inspiration. After all, Piper is desperate to claim even one New Testament passage on which he can justify his entire extra-biblical philosophy of hedonism. So he turns to those passages where God condemns the unbelieving Pharisees who had exchanged the scriptures and their faith for “the precepts of men”.

Since he cannot find any passage to elevate joy to be “the highest calling of man”, he focuses instead on attempting to elevate joy or gladness to be the most important aspect of worship. Piper attempts to replace the biblical focus of worship from being on edification and obedient service to his preferred focus on internal emotional states.

Piper unashamedly claims that the Pharisees worshipped “in vain”, not because they were unbelievers, but because they did not have enough “gladness of heart” during worship. As we began to read earlier, here is Piper’s defining statement in which he remakes worship from “acts of service” and edification into purely the emotion of “gladness”. In Desiring God Piper writes:

“But the startling fact is that all [acts of worship] can be done in vain. They can be pointless and useless and empty. This is the warning of Jesus in Matthew 15:8-9 when he devastates the Pharisees with God’s word from Isaiah 29:13,

‘These people honor me with their lips but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me.’ [sic-Piper omits the phrase: "teaching as doctrines the precepts of men."] …

“So the first thing to see in Jesus’ words is that worship is a way of gladly reflecting back to God the radiance of his worth. The reason for saying ‘gladly’ is that even mountains and trees reflect back to God the radiance of his worth.” …

“This leads to the second thing to see in Matthew 15:8, namely, that we can ‘worship’ God in vain…An act of worship is vain and futile when it does not come from the heart…What goes on in the heart when worship is not in vain? It is more than an act of mere willpower. All the outward acts of worship are performed by acts of will. But that does not make them authentic. The will can be present (for all kinds of reasons) while the heart is not truly engaged (or, as Jesus says, is “far away”). The engagement of the heart in worship is the coming alive of the feelings and emotions and affections of the heart.” (excerpts from pages 78 and 79, Desiring God, bold emphasis added)

Piper teaches that Jesus was really only concerned with how “glad” the Pharisees hearts were during worship, and that a heart that is not “glad” enough is engaged in “vain worship”. From his partial quote of Matthew 15:8-9 and his resulting incorrect interpretation Piper launches his entire teaching that worship is nothing more than how you feel.

But that is not what Jesus said at all! The sin of the Pharisees was that they had no faith or belief in their minds, spirits, or in their hearts, but they put on a show of worship anyway. It is not that they lacked enough emotion, it is that they lacked faith. As a result they replaced the very Word of God with man-made precepts and man’s traditions (demonstrating how terribly far they had turned away from having faith in God). In other words, the Pharisees had invented a new religion and were teaching others the way of death through this new false religion. Worship, when it comes from unbelievers such as the Pharisees, is “vain worship”. This is the true lesson of Jesus confronting the Pharisees.

Piper is so far astray in his rendering of Matthew 15 and in his interpretation of it, that one must assess whether anything he says concerning worship is of any genuine value. Piper is not correct about worship being only an emotion of affection (an end in itself that does not consist of words or actions), is he? Piper is not correct that corporate worship should never “focus” on “teaching children the way of righteousness”, is he? So why would we expect that Piper is right when he says that “vain” worship is due to a shortfall of “heart gladness”? He has no biblical support for such a statement. Worship is “in vain” when the worshipper does not believe in God.

Fortunately, the Bible instructs us in a most excellent way concerning corporate worship: everyone comes with a psalm, a teaching, a spiritual song, a prayer, a revelation, a tongue, an interpretation-let all aspects of corporate worship be done for the edification of the attendees (see 1Cor.14:26, Eph.5:19, Cols.3:16).

If you are an unbeliever, if you are a heretic, if you are engaged in gross sins such that no one would mistake you for a believer, God desires first your obedience to His word before you can worship. In other words, repent. For in the case of one who has turned his heart entirely away from God, your worship is indeed “in vain”. Why? God will not even listen to your prayer because you highly esteem the sin that resides in your heart (Psalm 66:18). Repent, turn your heart back to God, become obedient (which is His primary commandment for all men), and then you can praise God in your heart and edify your fellow believers in public worship.

What is the harm in adopting Piper’s Hedonism as your life’s philosophy?

As with any proposition offered by man, it is agreeable and acceptable to ask, “So what will happen to me if I do not follow it?” The reverse of this may also be asked, “So what will happen if I do follow this?”

If you reject Piper’s man-made philosophy, there is no negative outcome to your faith or to your life, so long as you cling with every ounce of your fiber to the Word of God with the intent to obey it. Piper’s philosophy is not rooted in God’s word, so it can be dismissed as easily as the imaginings of any author writing a work of fiction. Had Piper’s book never been published, the Christian faith would have continued on as it had for 2000 years prior. Indeed, your faith will increase and grow as you stand alone against the tide of “feel-good” theologies and pop philosophies by diligently exposing them to the two-edged sword of God’s word.

On the other hand, what negative outcomes will there be in your life if you choose to adopt man-made precepts over those given to us by God? All that can be done is to speculate about any actual outcomes, but we can certainly discuss what has happened to real people and to examine the warnings given in the scripture.

A Strong Warning Against “the Pursuit of Joy” from Luke

Following a “pursuit of joy”, or a “joy first” mentality can lead to a loss of faith for young believers.

“Now the parable is this: the seed is the word of God. … And those [seeds that fell] on the rocky soil are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no firm root; they believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away.” (Luke 8:11,13)

This is no trivial point. If a person is accepting the gospel only because of the joy it brings, they are not genuinely rooted in the fear of the Lord, nor are they grounded in the very Word of God so as to have lasting faith. Many evangelists refer to this as “easy salvation”. Without an understanding that repentance, trials, temptations, and persecution come along with salvation, young converts who focus only on the “joy” will not become spiritually rooted and can fall away from the faith altogether. Remember, true faith comes from hearing the Word of God (Romans 10:17), not from reading philosophy books.

Warnings of Wisdom from the Bible

• • “He who loves pleasure will become a poor man; he who loves wine and oil will not become rich.” (Proverbs 21:17)

• • “I said to myself, ‘Come now I will test you with pleasure. So enjoy yourself.’ And behold, it too was futility.” (Ecc. 2:1)
  • “If because of the Sabbath, you turn your foot from doing your own pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and shall honor it, desisting from your own ways, from seeking your own pleasure, and speaking your own word, then you will take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” (Isa. 58:13,14)
  • “What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?” (James 4:1)

Jesus Warns Us About Too Easily Accepting the Precepts of Men

Jesus Himself gave us an extraordinary warning. He told the Pharisees that because they replaced the Word of God in favor of the precepts of men, it demonstrated that they had experienced a shipwreck with regard to their faith. He even warned them that the very disciples they gathered to themselves as their students were being turned into “sons of hell”. And all this because they chose man’s philosophies over God’s commandments.

Properly Understanding Emotions

To summarize, the one who seeks pleasure for pleasure’s sake is guaranteed to be disappointed, or even eternally lost. The one who “denies” himself (Matthew 16:24), will immediately seek to please God above his own desires. And yes, ultimately this act of selflessness will be rewarded by God in heaven, where security, joy, and His good pleasures dwell forever (Psalm 16).

Joy, just like any emotion has its proper place and its proper role in human life and in worship. Experiencing emotion is not the same thing as worshipping. But emotions can certainly be a part of the service of worship.

For example, an act of worship is “contributing to the needs of the saints” (giving). God does indeed love a cheerful giver. Being cheerful is not worship. Giving to meet the needs of the saints can be worship, and being cheerful about it only improves the experience.

Almost every emotion that a man can experience was experienced by Jesus when He lived on Earth. And why not? Men are the created mortal images of the Eternal Father. God Himself experiences sundry emotions. Therefore, Jesus experienced sundry emotions.

• Jesus was grieved and cried over Jerusalem
• Jesus was angry at the money exchangers
• Jesus was extremely scared (the literal translation of “agony”) while praying in the garden
• Jesus is known as the man of sorrow
• Jesus loved Lazarus

Emotions are given by God to man to enable him to physically and mentally perform some activity. Emotions are powerful engines of biological motivation. What does that mean? Every emotion is triggered by an event outside the man, or, from a thought inside the man. Each triggered emotion prepares the body via complex gland networks to instantly undertake some form of physical or mental activity. All emotions have one biological purpose: to motivate and enable us to take some form of action. Each emotion enables different mental and physical abilities.

Anger causes us to surge with energy and to forget our fear. If this energy is properly channeled by a godly mind, it can be constructively used to purge a house of prayer from unbelieving money changers. The energy and strength (and the suppression of fear that accompanies the emotion of anger) can be used by principled men to save unarmed innocent civilians from being massacred by unprincipled soldiers.

Fear will cause your senses of hearing and eyesight to be greatly focused, along with providing your limbs with enormous amounts of available energy. The heightened senses can be used to locate the implied danger, and the energy that is suddenly available to your limbs can be used to run from the danger, or fight back against it. Once the danger is past, the biochemical reactions return to normal, but your limbs have been depleted of precious blood sugar, which is why one feels suddenly fatigued after being frightened.

Any emotion, anger, fear, joy, sorrow, can be misused, abused, wasted, or even just spent on our own lusts or pleasures. But that is not why God gave us bodies or emotions. He gave us bodies, not to spend on our own selfish pleasures, but to spend in the service of Himself and our neighbors.

This is where love comes into the discussion. We are to Love God, our true “highest calling”. This means we are to obey Him. He tells us to weep with those who weep, rejoice with those who rejoice. Edify your neighbor. Encourage your neighbor. Show pity and mercy to your neighbor. In short, God is telling us to spend our emotions in the service of others.

Part 7: A Biblical Study of the Theological Foundation of “Christian Hedonism”

Summary of Piper’s Erroneous Assertions from Dangerous Duty

As we just read from the above boxes which directly compare Piper’s teachings to those of the Bible, Piper believes and teaches the following:

• “Maximizing our joy in God is what we were created for.”
• “The aim of life is to maximize our joy.”
• “Pursuing pleasure in God is our highest calling“, our most important “duty”, the “essential motive for every good deed”.
• “Pride is the primal evil in the universe.”
• “Love is the overflow and expansion of joy in God! It is not duty for duty’s sake, or right for right’s sake.”
• “[Love] is not a resolute abandoning of one’s own good with a view solely to the good of the other person.”
• “The essential heart-act of worship as an end in itself”. Teaching others the “way of righteousness” is not “authentic worship”. Believers must come to “corporate worship” to get, not to give.

The scriptures clearly and in abundance refute each of Piper’s theological errors.

Pursuing Joy Is Not Man’s Chief Duty

God, as the Great Potter, created some men to receive mercy, he created some explicitly for destruction. So the reason for man’s creation is not universally “to maximize our joy” as Piper simplistically teaches. Is joy the chief end of the vessel created for destruction? No.

Is Love for God Spelled “P-l-e-a-s-u-r-e”?

Is “pursuing pleasure” really the believer’s “highest calling”, his most important “duty”? We know that Christ tells us that the highest calling, the most important duty of man, the foremost commandment of God is to “love God”; the second most important duty is to “love others”. And what is love of God? Obedience to His commandments (1John 5:3). Any other definition of love for God which does not start with that premise is not a biblically based definition, it is simply made up from the deceitful heart of man. And so it is with Piper’s definition of love for God, “the overflow of joy” which is both extra biblical and impractical for action.

Desire is the Primal Evil in the Universe

Is “pride” really the primal (original) evil in the universe as Piper says? No. Such a teaching is found nowhere in the Bible. James 1:15 instructs us that lust is the origination of all sin in the universe. Lust, as it is used in James 1:15, literally means “greed”, “desire”, and “coveting”. Since the Bible calls “desire” the primal sin in the universe, it is understandable why Piper rejects the Bible at this point, for Piper’s entire thesis is that man must always be ever increasing his level of “desire” beyond the current state.

Indeed, the Bible tells us that the first human sin was one of lust, greed, desire. Eve found the apple pleasurable to her eyes and to her mind. She had only one command of God to obey, but she put her desires above obedience to even one law.

Even Satan lusted for the power that God had over the creation and was greedy for the worship that God was being given by the creation. Satan’s act of rebellion was motivated by lust, resulting in death for himself and for one third of the angels in heaven; it also resulted in God deciding to create Hell itself (Matthew 25:41).

What is the difference between pride and lust? Pride is the heart attitude that says, “Look at the great things I have done by my own power.” Daniel 4:30-37 describes pride of the heart in just this way and it describes God’s condemnation of it. Lust, however, is simply greed; the desire to have what you should not have or to possess what you have not been given. Lust for power was Satan’s sin; lust for pleasurable food and greed for illicit knowledge were Eve’s sins. The pursuit of pleasure (lust, greed, desire) can be truly dangerous indeed.

Piper Defines “Love for God”

Piper also teaches his pet definition of “love for God”. Sadly, his pet definition is found nowhere in the Bible: “Love is the overflow and expansion of joy in God! It is not duty for duty’s sake, or right for right’s sake. … [Love] is not a resolute abandoning of one’s own good with a view solely to the good of the other person.” While such words sound poetic, full of emotion, and please the senses, they are not scriptural. Since loving God is man’s highest calling on the Earth, God did not leave us to our own devices to develop a definition of “love”, nor did He wait around thousands of years until Piper thought up one from his own human imaginings.

God tells us plainly and often that “love of God” is “obedience to His commandments.” He tells us this in the New Testament and in the Old Testament (Eccl.12:13, Deut.6:5, Joshua 22:5). Why does Piper feel it is necessary to redefine love into something unbiblical, something other than what God has already told us?

Is it possible that Piper’s definition of love is “also correct”, that is, as correct as that given in scripture? No. It is not possible that Piper’s definition is correct because it is entirely made up from his own heart and is not found in the pages of scripture. God has already defined love for Himself as obedience, the kind of obedience that engages the heart, mind, body, spirit, and emotions of man. Unless any definition of love for God begins with obedient service, as does Joshua 22:5, “serve Him with all your heart and all your soul” it is at best an incomplete definition of love for God if not simply nonsense.

Piper has not given us new insights into how to love God, rather, he has taken our focus off of genuine love and genuine service and placed the focus back on pleasure, back on serving self. For example, he tells us that “[Love] is not a resolute abandoning of one’s own good with a view solely to the good of the other person.” And yet, Paul tells us that if only God would allow it, he would abandon his own eternal soul to Hell for eternity just to save his fellow Jews (Romans 9:1-4). Which definition of “love for others” would you prefer? Paul’s definition of selfless love that makes others more important than yourself, or Piper’s dim view of love as being motivated by self-caring and self-gratifying pleasure?

Only Piper’s Disciples Are Capable of Authentic Worship of God

Finally, Piper speaks of corporate worship, the assembling of believers for “worship”. His premise is that adoring God in your heart is the only true goal of corporate worship, and that this is the ultimate “feast” of hedonism because the worshipper comes as a “getter”, to receive pleasure from the emotional experience. Piper claims that any other purpose or motive “belittles worship and God”, and that those who come to “give to God” during worship are not experiencing “authentic worship”.

Of all Piper’s biblical errors, this one is perhaps the one that causes me the most outrage on behalf of the scriptures and on behalf of genuine believers who are passionately obedient in attempting to follow God’s word. Piper makes it quite clear he does not understand the biblical definition of worship, in spite of holding an office as a pastor.

In his book, Dangerous Duty, Piper condemns and ridicules the way in which God’s bondservants worship, judging them guilty of not participating in “authentic worship” because they do not follow Piper’s philosophy of hedonism. This is not merely sad, it is arrogant and outrageous, and I will never understand why the church does not decry such offenses against the Word of God and such wicked accusations by Piper against the people of God.

What Piper fails to understand is the true nature of corporate worship. Piper calls our inner emotions the true objective, an “end to itself”. However, God says that true corporate worship is using our mind, body, heart, soul, and gifts to accomplish “service” for others. There are two Hebrew words that are translated as “worship”, and there are two Greek words that are also translated as “worship”-and the two sets of words share the exact same meanings. The first word for worship in both Hebrew and Greek means, “to bow down”. The second word for worship in both languages means “to serve” (and in both languages this word “to serve” often means “to serve as a slave”). So, to worship, we must both “bow down” and “serve”, often “serving as slaves”.

How then do we “bow down” and how do we “serve” (worship) during the assembling of ourselves? And what is the reason we should gather together at all? God answers this, not with theoretical philosophy, but with concrete statements and unambiguous commands.

Worshipping Through Actions of Service

In Romans 12, Paul commands us to be living sacrifices in which our bodies are dedicated to spiritual labor, literally: acts of service, which amount to worship. What are these bodily acts of service which are actually acts of worship? Paul explicitly tells us that worship is: prophesying, serving (supporting) others, teaching, exhorting, giving, leading, bestowing pity or mercy, loving, hating evil, brotherly devotion, giving others preference, being diligent and fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing, persevering in tribulation, praying, contributing resources, practicing hospitality, blessing others, and weeping.

Do all these numerous acts of biblical worship meet the standard of Piper’s precepts? Rather than relying on God’s word, Piper makes up his own definition on page 58 of Dangerous Duty:

“the essential heart-act of worship [is] an end in itself. If the essence of worship is satisfaction in God, then worship can’t be a means to anything else. … But in fact, for many people and pastors, the event of ‘worship’ on Sunday morning is conceived of as a means to accomplish something other than worship…to heal human hurts…to teach our children the way of righteousness…to help marriages stay together…to evangelize the lost…In all this we belittle worship and God. Genuine affections for God are an end in themselves.” (bold emphasis added).

Clearly, Piper’s writings do not agree with Paul’s inspired writings on what worship means, nor is there agreement concerning what it means to have a human body that is living to perform services (labors) of worship. Since a conflict has arisen between Piper’s definition of worship (as being an end-state of emotion of the heart devoid of action or service) and Paul’s definition of worship (actively using our bodies to teach, serve, edify others) then we must conclude that Piper is wrong on this point, and that worshipping hedonistically does not authenticate worship. Similarly, traditional worship does not invalidate the worship.

The Bible Provides Us the Sole Reason to Assemble Together for Worship

What do the scriptures teach us about worship and the act of assembling together? Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 14:26 the only valid reason to assemble for worship as a church:

“What is the outcome then brethren? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.”

In point of fact, Paul says that the purpose of any type of speech in a gathering of believers is the edification of the listeners (1 Cor. 14:17-19). He explicitly forbids any form of public speech that praises God in spirit only but which cannot be understood by others.

Biblically we understand that worship events, such as those on Sunday morning, are for the purpose of edifying the worshippers. Paul even says a valuable outcome is that some attendees may become saved (evangelized) as a holy result of authentic worship (1Cor.14:24). Worship is not merely an emotion, an affection of the heart toward God. An assembling together to worship has only one biblical motivation: to edify the attendees.

Even in Acts chapter 2, when the Christian church was brand new, they knew what the purpose of corporate worship truly was all about: “And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” (Acts 2:42). Hebrews chapters 8 and 9 tell us that in the Old Testament worship was divinely regulated and it was focused on specific acts of service, including publicly reading the word, prayers, and sacrifices for sins. While sacrifices for sins have been replaced with the breaking of bread (communion remembrance), the focus of worship appears consistent from age to age. And that focus is on edification and service, not nurturing self-gratifying emotions.

Even Christ said, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27) What does this mean? That the Sabbath day was initiated to be of benefit to men, to give them a day of rest and a day to help them refocus on the primary command of God, to love and obey Him. God is not the beneficiary of the Sabbath. The Sabbath was made to edify (build up) the man of God. And this is what worship is all about: serving God by edifying other men with your spiritual gifts and your spiritual labors. Worship is not a self-serving emotion bottled within a man to make him feel good; it is an act of servitude that benefits other men in the name of God, motivated from a believer’s heart made pure from his pursuit of obedience.

Worship From the Heart

We know that Piper is contradicted by the scriptures many times over when he maintains that worship is only an “emotion of the heart” and that authentic worship is not comprised of using our bodies as living sacrifices to carry out labors of service to edify others. Piper is quite explicit in his book The Dangerous Duty of Delight that worship is exclusively the event of emotion bubbling quietly and secretly inside a person’s heart solely for the satisfaction of that person. He also makes similar statements in chapter 3 of Desiring God from which the following excerpts come:

“The engagement of the heart in worship is the coming alive of the feelings and emotions and affections of the heart.”

“Now what does this imply about the feast of worship? Surprisingly, it implies that worship is an end in itself. We do not feast of worship as a means to anything else. If what transforms outward ritual into authentic worship is the quickening of the heart’s affections, then true worship cannot be performed as a means to some other experience. Feelings are not like that. Genuine feelings of the heart cannot be manufactured as stepping stones to something else. All genuine emotion is an end in itself.”

“We are transported (perhaps only for seconds) above the reasoning work of the mind and we experience feeling without reference to logical or practical implications. This is what keeps worship from being ‘in vain’. Worship is authentic when affections for God arise in the heart as an end in themselves.”

It is not always simple to comprehend, but Piper has reduced the definition of worship to just one thing: an “emotion of affection”. Piper’s conclusion: when one has an “emotion of affection for God”, he is worshipping. In Piper’s opinion, experiencing sufficient emotions and feelings is the definition of “authentic worship” and lack of sufficient feelings is worshipping ‘in vain’.

Piper tells us that if someone is singing, teaching children the way of righteousness from the Bible, praying publicly, or instructing young couples how to keep their marriage strong in God, then he is not worshipping because the activity is “a means to some other experience”. In other words, these activities have “other ends” (other motives) than simply experiencing emotion. Piper says such motives as “serving others” and edification “sound noble”, but they are not worship.

According to Piper, worship is exclusively “feelings and emotions and affections of the heart”. And he says that “all genuine emotion is an end in itself”. Therefore, worship only occurs when “we are transported (perhaps only for seconds) above the reasoning work of the mind and we experience feeling without reference to logical or practical implications.” In short, worship is just a feeling.

Where then did Piper originate this uniquely unbiblical vision of what worship means in the first place? How does he justify saying that worship is only “authentic when affections for God arise in the heart as an end in themselves”? There is no passage in the Bible that calls worship a mere emotion of affection. So, from what possible source could one possibly find an excuse to reduce worship to being nothing but an “emotion of affection”?

Sadly, his entire theology of worship is based on misquoting a single passage of scripture. On page 78 of his book Desiring God Piper writes about the things people do as acts of worship:

“But the startling fact is that all these things can be done in vain. They can be pointless and useless and empty. This is the warning of Jesus in Matthew 15:8-9 when he devastates the Pharisees with God’s word from Isaiah 29:13,

‘These people honor me with their lips but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me.’”

How horrible and tragic is this one misquotation, because had Piper faithfully quoted the entirety of verse 9 from Matthew 15 instead of cutting it off in mid-sentence, neither he nor any of his readers would have been misled. The full text of verses 7, 8, and 9 are as follows:

“You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying,

‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me. But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’”

Jesus is providing us the reason for which the Pharisees and scribes were so heavily condemned: instead of teaching the pure Word of God, the actual laws of God, the Pharisees and scribes replaced them with their own man-made interpretations and traditions. God calls these replacement commandments-these false doctrines-the “precepts of men”.

In plain language, this passage tells us that the God of creation was angry with the Pharisees because they were teaching man-made doctrines in place of the Bible. This demonstrated their hearts and souls had abandoned God as Lord. In short, the heinous nature of their sin proved they no longer were believing Jews, in spite of their titles. Their hearts had turned away from the faith; their hearts had been cut off from Judaism and were as far from God as any pagan heart could be. Because they were acting in sin and unbelief, their worship was “in vain”.

Read what God has to say about men when their hearts turn far away from Him:

“See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity; in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it. But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall surely perish.” Deuteronomy 30:16, 17, 18a.

It is because the Pharisees had abandoned their faith in God (turned their hearts “far from God”) that Jesus can rightly say to them, “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from men; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in” (Matthew 23:14). Because they were unbelievers who had created their own false religion, Jesus also calls them: vipers, blind men, fools, self-indulgent, whitewashed tombs, lawless, sons of murders, guilty, and killers. Even in this state of abject unbelief they wanted the community to think of them as “spiritual” so they continued to be seen praising God with their lips; but because they were unbelievers their worship was “in vain”.

This point is made even more poignant when the same episode is recounted by Mark 7:5-9.

“And the Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, ‘Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with impure hands?’

And He said to them, ‘Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,

‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me. But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’

Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.’

He was also saying to them, ‘You nicely set aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition.’”

When we favor “tradition” or the “precepts of men” over the actual “commandments of God”, then we are extremely guilty in God’s eyes. Even guilty of making the very men whom we disciple and teach into “sons of hell” (Matthew 23:15). How? By teaching them disobedience, and therefore, disbelief in the true God. When men are guilty of disbelief and lack of faith, their worship is vain.

Man-made doctrines (precepts of men) always sound very spiritual. But in reality they are evil because they replace God’s word, which is the truth, the only spiritual truth. Teaching our man-made “false doctrines” is bad enough. But the Pharisees also began to judge how spiritual someone appeared to be by how well they kept the false doctrines. Eventually, just following the false doctrines became more important than following God’s doctrines because that was how one would be judged within the community, and everyone knew it.

What Piper has done, through the illicit magic of partial quotations and through the use of out-of-context passages, is exchange the heinous sins of unbelief by the Pharisees for an entirely fictitious “sin” from Piper’s own imagination. This fictional sin that Piper invents is: the Pharisees were not “glad” enough in their hearts during worship, thus making their worship vain. We will look at Piper’s actual quote shortly where he reduces the sin of unbelief into a mere emotion of unhappiness, but first, we need to review one more time the biblical scorecard on hedonism.

Part 6: A Biblical Study of the Theological Foundation of “Christian Hedonism”

The Two Cornerstones of Christian Hedonism-stone or sand?

The two cornerstones of Piper’s entire philosophy are:

1. the pursuit of joy is the aim of life, man’s most important duty, and his highest calling
2. God threatens “terrible things if we would not be happy” enough

Piper’s dilemma remains, he still has no passage in all the Bible that says that “the pursuit of joy is man’s most important duty”. He is also still looking for any genuine passage of the Bible that says that God judges men guilty of sin if they do not exhibit a certain degree of happiness. All the important foundational stones of his entire philosophy of hedonism are left without any biblical support whatsoever. As yet, Christian Hedonism remains a thoroughly worldly philosophy, dreamed up not under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit but by the reasoning of mortal minds and human hearts. This philosophy sits alone, crouching outside the sanction of true scripture.

God’s Precepts Cast a Dark Shadow on Piper’s Philosophy

Below, we will examine many of Piper’s main points, key conclusions, and cornerstone assumptions from his book The Dangerous Duty of Delight and simply compare them to scripture. The reader has the responsibility of verifying the biblical truthfulness of the statements.

Piper’s Assertions from Dangerous Duty	Quoted Scripture that Refutes Piper
“Maximizing our joy in God is what we were created for.” (page 16)	“So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. You will say to me then, ‘Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?’ On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, ‘Why did you make me like this,’ will it? Or does the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use, and another for common use? What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so in order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory,” Romans 9:18-23
“The aim of life is to maximize our joy.” (page 19)	“But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; and avoid such men as these.” 2 Timothy 3:1-5
“The radical implication is that pursuing pleasure in God is our highest calling.” (page 21)”The pursuit of pleasure in Him is our duty.” (page 27)	“And [Jesus] said, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.’” Matthew 22:37-40If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. John 14:15He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me…John 14:21For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. 1John 5:3 And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. 2 John 1:6a

Piper’s Assertions from Dangerous Duty	Quoted Scripture that Refutes Piper
“Pride is the primal evil in the universe.” (page 33)	“Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.” James 1:15[Note: lust means "greed", "desire", "coveting". Lust is the origin of all sin in the universe, lust is the primal evil.]“Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.” Colossians 3:5″For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith, and pierced themselves with many a pang. But flee from these things, you man of God; and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.” 1Timothy 6:10,11 “And He said to them, ‘Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.” Luke 12:15 “and [the devil] said to Him, ‘All these things will I give You, if You fall down and worship me.’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘Begone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’” Matthew 4:9,10 “‘For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.” Genesis 3:5,6 “How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, you who have weakened the nations! But you said in your heart; ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” Isaiah 14:12-14 “But do not let immorality or any impurity or greed even be named among you, as is proper among saints” Ephesians 5:3
“Christian Hedonism answers: the pursuit of pleasure is an essential motive for every good deed. If you aim to abandon the pursuit of full and lasting pleasure, you cannot love people or please God.” (page 39)	“Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.” Philippians 2:3,4″And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore also God highly exalted Him…” Philippians 2:8,9a

Piper’s Assertions from Dangerous Duty	Quoted Scripture that Refutes Piper
“Love is the overflow and expansion of joy in God, which gladly meets the needs of others. … Love is the overflow and expansion of joy in God! It is not duty for duty’s sake, or right for right’s sake.” (page 44)	“For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.” 1John 5:3And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. 2 John 1:6a
“[Love] is not a resolute abandoning of one’s own good with a view solely to the good of the other person.” (page 45 )	“I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have a great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons…” Romans 9:1-4a
“Worship is nothing less than obedience to the command of God, ‘Delight yourself in the Lord’ (Psalm 37:4).(page 55)	“I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” Romans 12:1 [Note: the entirety of Romans 12 is about worshipping God as a living sacrifice by serving one another through the use of our spiritual gifts.]
Piper’s Assertions from Dangerous Duty		Quoted Scripture that Refutes Piper
“People ought to come to corporate worship services to get.”"If the focus shifts onto our giving to God, instead of His giving to us, one result is that subtly it is not God who remains at the center but, instead, the quality of our giving. Are we singing worthily of the Lord?…Is the preaching a suitable offering to the Lord? This all sounds noble at first.”"Third, Christian Hedonism protects the primacy of worship by forcing us to see that the essential heart-act of worship as an end in itself.”"…worship can’t be a means to anything else.” “But in fact, for many people, and pastors, the event of ‘worship’ on Sunday morning is conceived of as a means to accomplish something other than worship. We ‘worship’ … to heal human hurts, … we ‘worship’ to improve church morale; we ‘worship’ to give talented musicians an opportunity to fulfill their calling; we ‘worship’ to teach our children the way of righteousness, … etc, etc. In all of this we belittle worship and God. Genuine affections for God are an end in themselves.” “My point is that to the degree that we ‘worship’ for these reasons, it ceases to be authentic worship.” (Quotes from pages 56-59)		“What is the outcome then, brethren? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.” 1 Corinthians 14:26″Now there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. And there are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” 1 Cor. 12:5-7″But one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation. One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself; but one who prophesies edifies the church. …But now, brethren, if I come to you speaking in tongues, what shall I profit you, unless I speak to you either by way of revelation or of knowledge or of prophecy or of teaching? … So also you, since you are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek to abound for the edification of the church.” 1 Cor. 14:3,4,6,12 “And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.” Eph 4:11,12

Part 5: A Biblical Study of the Theological Foundation of “Christian Hedonism”

Additional Instruction from a Christian Hedonist

Author John Piper describes his book, The Dangerous Duty of Delight, as “a condensed version of Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist” (page 90, Dangerous Duty). By this he is equating the theology of his two books. By reading one, you are essentially learning the same material that the other contains, though perhaps with different words or emphasis and varying amounts of detail.

For this reason, since the two books teach the same foundational material, we can use one to help interpret the other. We can also verify that certain expository practices of John Piper carry forward across his various works on hedonism and are not isolated anomalies-most notably his trend to change a Bible passage’s entire intended meaning by removing cornerstone phrases and then pretending he has actually quoted the passage.

The Spark of Human Creativity: Origin of a New Philosophy

What is the origin of the philosophy entitled “Christian Hedonism”? Piper tells us that he coined the phrase himself (page 287, Desiring God). The title of his philosophy is not a biblical expression, but rather comes from an uncomfortable marriage of our Savior’s namesake, “Christian”, with the worldly philosophy of hedonism (“pleasure or happiness is the sole good in life”-Webster’s).

And from where did the actual philosophy originate? Piper is not shy about telling us. He writes that he developed his philosophy by first studying man-made philosophies. Only after he had mentally crafted and pulled together his new “way of life” did he then go to the Bible to attempt to seek out supporting proof texts.

“Before I saw these things in the Bible, C.S. Lewis snagged me when I wasn’t looking. … I picked up a thin blue copy of Lewis’s (sic) book The Weight of Glory. The first page changed my life. … Never in my life had I heard anyone say that the problem with the world was not the intensity of our pursuit of happiness, but the weakness of it. Everything in me shouted, Yes! That’s it! There it was in black and white, and to my mind it was totally compelling” (pages 21, 22, Dangerous Duty, bolded emphasis added). “Here we are at the heart of Christian Hedonism! If you get anything, get this. I learned it from … C.S. Lewis…” (page 19, Dangerous Duty).

And again on page 23 of The Dangerous Duty of Delight Piper tells us that his entire philosophy (pursuing pleasure and joy), Christian Hedonism, and its lofty throne as the primary purpose and highest calling of man was provided by Lewis’ extra-biblical writings, “Lewis helped me see this too.” And again on page 24, “So Lewis helped me put it together.”

Finally, Piper tells us that after he had put his philosophy all “together” by reason of Lewis’ writings, he then turned to the Bible to attempt to justify his new philosophy, the philosophy which “never in [his] life” had “heard anyone” teach or preach before. “The apostle Paul clinched my Christian Hedonism with his testimony in Philippians 1″ (page 24, Dangerous Duty).

Piper’s testimony tells how he came to create this new philosophy, Christian Hedonism, not by studying the Bible, but by means of man-made books and writings. Perhaps most importantly, Piper tells us that no one else had ever taught this philosophy before, except C. S. Lewis.

Now let us read together what the Bible has to say on this matter of inventing new philosophies of life, “But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. And many will follow their sensuality and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned” (2Peter 1:20-2:2).

In other words, only scripture is inspired. And any philosophy that arises must meet the acid test of being legitimately “interpreted” from out of the pages of scripture, consistently, and by any man. In Piper’s case, he admits his philosophy is from an extra-biblical source and it is a “private” interpretation, that is, no one else had ever taught this before he came along. 2 Peter calls this the “false teaching” of “sensuality”.

The Heart Deceives the Man, the Man Deceives Others

Throughout my entire Christian life I have been taught, and have taught, that one must read the Bible, and systematically develop life philosophies directly from God’s Word. Why? Because the heart of man is desperately sick and can deceive even its owner (Jer.17:9). Any philosophy a man can develop from his own imaginings can willingly be embraced by his own deceitful heart. The man, now deceived by his wicked heart will then attempt to “justify” his philosophy from any source, even from the pages of scripture. How will this justification happen? By using isolated passages and texts taken out of context until he has satisfied himself that he has created something genuinely new and “biblical” (2Peter 3:16). And always, at its core, the motivation will be self-pleasing “sensuality”.

Watch what actually happens when Piper seeks to use the Word of God to justify his homespun philosophy. Consider that Piper has deceived himself into believing that the pursuit of joy is more important than any other command of God. His problem? No Bible passage ever states this.

Therefore, to give the “primacy of joy” an appearance of being biblical, Piper must invent new scripture by rewriting genuine scripture. One way to do this is to pretend that God is displeased with men who show insufficient joy in their lives. Specifically, Piper contends that the Bible “threatened terrible things if we would not be happy”. (page 10, Dangerous Duty) Of course there is no Bible passage that ever states that God delivers judgment and condemnation on any man merely because the man had insufficient “happiness” or lacked a certain amount of “joyous emotion”. However, if Piper can convince the less discerning reader that such a passage really exists, he can use that to show how important the “pursuit of joy” is and how horrible the consequences are when men do not pursue joy.

To that end Piper takes Deuteronomy 28:47 and 48 entirely out of context and even removes words from the verses he “quotes”. When he is done editing, he has a rendering that appears to have God saying that He will pass a horrible judgment consisting of curses on the Jews only because they lacked sufficient “joy and gladness of heart”. This is the error of private interpretation that Peter warns us about in 2 Peter 1:20, “…no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation.” Piper creates his own interpretation by creatively editing scripture.

The discerning student of God’s word will read the passage in its context and discover its true meaning.

Piper ‘Quoting’ Deut. 28 in Dangerous Duty

Scripture Quoted Word-for-Word and In Context

“Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and a glad heart…therefore you shall serve your enemies” (Deuteronomy 28:47-48)

“So all these curses shall come on you and pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you would not obey the Lord your God by keeping His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you.And they shall become a sign and a wonder on you and your descendants forever.Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and a glad heart, for the abundance of all things; Therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord shall send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in the lack of all things; and He will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.” (Deuteronomy 28:45-48)

When a man has a private interpretation of scripture, he consistently harms scripture in two ways:

1. 1. takes passages out of context and declares them to be “proof texts”

   and

   2. misquotes the passage-in this case by removing defining words

As in this example, Piper often claims a given passage demonstrates that God emphasizes that man must pursue pleasure and joy (“Maximizing our joy in God is what we were created for.” Page 16, Dangerous Duty) above all other pursuits or God will have to severely judge him. And yet, what Deuteronomy 28 actually says in context is that God is primarily judging them because they were disobedient to God’s written commandments instead of gladly obeying them!

Piper attempts to make this passage say that God is judging the men only for not being joyful. However, the Bible puts the lie to this interpretation, but only if we as students are willing to look up the passage on our own, evaluate it in its full context, and properly interpret it. God actually judges men for not being obedient to the law when obedience should have been their joy-filled duty. Only in obedience will man ever experience the true joy of God with a glad heart. Joy and gladness are the results and rewards of obedience.