FAQ #11 Can I still be saved even if I don’t convert to Christian Hedonism?

Question 11.

Can I still be saved even if I don’t convert to Christian Hedonism?

Answer 11. Yes. God does not limit salvation to those who, even before they repent, are overcome with joy at finding Jesus to be a treasure chest of pleasure. Nor is the kingdom of God reserved exclusively for those who convert to Christian Hedonism.

Though the book Desiring God (pages 67, 68, 69, 1996 edition) states that one must experience joy prior to the act of repentance and prior to being granted saving faith, this pattern is not at all typified as the normal salvation experience in Scripture. Bold emphasis will be added to the text from Desiring God to highlight that the doctrine of Christian Hedonism requires the would-be convert to Christ to embark on “the pursuit of joy in God” before repentance or he is not really saved at all, thereby replacing the need and the ages-old doctrine of “faith alone” for the new doctrine of “joy first”.

“Something has happened in our hearts before the act of faith. It implies that beneath and behind the act of faith which pleases God, a new taste has been created. A taste for the glory of God and the beauty of Christ. Behold, a joy has been born!” (page 67) “Before the decision comes delight. Before trust comes the discovery of treasure.” (page 68).

“The pursuit of joy in God is not optional. It is not an ‘extra’ that a person might grow into after he comes to faith. Until your heart has hit upon this pursuit, your ‘faith’ cannot please God. It is not saving faith.” (page 69)

Faith is the biblical requisite for salvation: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval.” “Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” The word “joy” is not mentioned as a prerequisite for salvation or for pleasing God. Faith is the key.

Far from experiencing joy, pleasure, or hedonism before coming to a God-pleasing faith in Christ, most people first come to see their own wretched sin and feel the terror of their helpless condition as they face a holy and just God who does not look upon sin. It is this holy fear of damnation that drives us to our knees in humble desperation, begging God to forgive us the corruption we had chosen as our lifestyle. Only then, after we have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit does God say to us, “Fear no more, you have been perfected in My love.” Then, and only then, do we feel the joy of Christ well up inside us, because, for the first time, He is actually present within us. Joy is the wonderful realization that our sins have been forgiven after we repent, after we have been born again, and we only just begin to glimpse the mercy we have been shown while our gratitude to God emerges.

Dear brother or sister, if your salvation experience was predicated on a fear of hell and a certain expectation of judgement under a crushing weight of sorrow for your sinful estate, you are no less saved than those exceptional few who prior to repentance find that “Christ becomes … a Treasure Chest of holy joy” (page 66, Desiring God).

Finally, nowhere in the Bible are words recorded such as are found on page 55 of Desiring God:

“Could it be that today the most straightforward biblical command for conversion is not, ‘Believe in the Lord’, but, ‘Delight yourself in the Lord’? And might not slumbering hearts be stabbed broad awake by the words, ‘Unless a man be born again into a Christian Hedonist he cannot see the Kingdom of God’?”

Such musings regarding the need to be converted to Christian Hedonism in order to “see the Kingdom of God” are less than useful when the real need for a sinner is to see how he truly looks while standing before an entirely righteous God and King. Again, the above quoted text from Desiring God have no basis in actual Scripture and should not upset the faith of a true believer.

FAQ #10 Isn’t there a Bible verse that tells us what most glorifies God?

Question 10.

Isn’t there a Bible verse that tells us what most glorifies God?

Answer 10. No. There is no Bible passage of which I am aware that describes or defines what most glorifies God. Please read the following two articles for greater understanding. God Is Most Glorified…When?, and, Satisfied in the Lord, a Re-examination of the Motto.

FAQ #9 If it weren’t called "Christian Hedonism" would you still have a problem with the philosophy?

Question 9.

If it weren’t called “Christian Hedonism” would you still have a problem with the philosophy?

Answer 9.

This question takes on many forms and has been directed to me times too numerous to recount. Most often what is meant is: “the only improper part of the doctrine (philosophy) of Christian Hedonism is that the word ‘hedonism’ is used, so we can just discard the name and keep teaching the doctrine.”

So very many times I have been told that Dr. Piper only used the word hedonism for its shock value to ensure people gave attention to this books. He even says something very much like that in his own book when he says one reason he chose the word was for its “jolting effect” (Desiring God, Appendix 4, page 289, 1996 edition).

This may be likened to a snack food company called Mann-Ore Inc. Mann-Ore decided to begin marketing a new convenience snack food and sought to give it mass market exposure quickly so that people would be talking about it everywhere, bringing the company from virtual obscurity to national attention inside one year. They sought free and widespread publicity on a limited budget, so they opted for a shocking name for their product. They called it “Dog Poop Snack Bars.”

As it turned out, “Dog Poop” was an offensive name for a food product, but it caused the desired instant celebrity for the product that Mann-Ore desired. Kids ate it up, adults tolerated it. And it would have been a happy fairy tale ending, except. On the wrapper, in fine print, the ingredients were listed, “Primary Ingredient: Dog poop and other animal waste products.” In other words, the name was not just a clever marketing scheme, the name actually stood for what the product actually was.

This is how it is with Christian Hedonism. Yes, the name may have been given for shock value, to draw in the public. A name rarely says much about the nutritional value of a food product and rarely says much about the substance of the doctrine behind it, witness “Calvinism” for example. That is, unless the name genuinely does characterize the doctrine, and is a truly accurate description of the philosophy.

Many times Dr. Piper has written that the name is a valid and meaningful label for his philosophy.

“Why call it Christian Hedonism? I am aware that calling this philosophy of life ‘Christian Hedonism’ runs the risk of ignoring Bishop Ryle’s counsel…Nevertheless I stand by the term for at least six reasons.” (Piper, Desiring God, page 287, 1996)

What Piper writes after that is a six point defense stating: the dictionary definition is precisely what he means by the word (a living for, and a devotion to, pleasure), the Encyclopedia of Philosophy favorably (in Piper’s opinion) defines the word hedonism as a person seeking maximum pleasure for himself, C.S. Lewis once said that to enjoy God’s created world is to draw “no distinction between sensuous and aesthetic pleasures” which can properly be called hedonism, V. Eller and Clark Pinnock each used the term “hedonism” in one of their writings, the term has an “arresting and jolting effect”, that Jesus used the offensive term “thief” by which to describe the Lord’s soon return, and finally, because “the Bible teaches that man’s chief end is to glorify God BY enjoying him forever.”

So, the content of the doctrine of Christian Hedonism is “hedonism”. Or at least this is what the individual who is marketing the product has put on the ingredients list.

We can easily test this. Is Christian Hedonism really comprised of “hedonism”? Consider a few of Dr. Piper’s own statements defining the core belief of Christian Hedonism as meaning the pursuit of one’s own pleasure as a higher priority than any command in God’s Word or any personal priority that a person may have.

“It is a general term to cover a wide variety of teachings which have elevated pleasure very highly.” (Piper, Desiring God, page 287)

“Christian Hedonism does not put us above God when it makes the joy of worship its goal.” (Piper, Desiring God, page 85, 1996)

“I came to see that it is unbiblical and arrogant to try to worship God for any other reason than the pleasure to be had in him.” (Piper, Desiring God, page 16, 1996 edition)

“To that end this book aims to persuade you that ‘The chief end of man is to glorify God BY enjoying him forever’.” (Piper, Desiring God, page 15)

“The radical implication is that pursuing pleasure in God is our highest calling.” (Piper, page 21, The Dangerous Duty of Delight)

“Maximizing our joy in God is what we were created for.” (Piper, page 16, Dangerous Duty)

“The aim of life is to maximize our joy.” (Piper, page 19, Dangerous Duty

Now, admittedly, the definitions and semantics become quite difficult to discuss since Dr. Piper’s use of some words might be considered a bit loose or imprecise. He seems to regularly interchange joy for pleasure, and happiness for joy, and delight for hedonism (the common use of the word hedonism in our culture usually means “the love of all kinds of pleasure”). From a doctrinal and biblical perspective this type of word-swapping endangers the meanings of the words themselves, the meanings the words have in the texts of the sacred Scriptures, and therefore the proper interpretations of those passages of Scripture. These words have their own meanings and they are not quite so interchangeable as Piper’s use of them in his writings. That, however, is a matter for a different FAQ.

Suffice it to understand here that Christian Hedonism is a poor enough title for any Christian philosophy or doctrine. As offensive as it might be, however, it is at the least a very descriptive title for the core of the philosophy itself and is a meaningful label that reveals the substance of the underlying proposition. On this fact Dr. Piper and I both agree: The true core of Christian Hedonism is hedonism.

FAQ #8 If it is not the emotion of joy that makes worship “authentic”, then what does?

Question 8.

If it is not the emotion of joy that makes worship “authentic”, then what does?

Answer 8.

Worship is divorced from a physical location, be it temple, mountain top, synagogue, or church building–at least according to Jesus when He proclaimed that a “time now is” that God will seek those to worship Him in spirit. The spirit is free to worship at any location and at any time. So long as the worshipper is also worshipping in truth.

Worship is never narrowly defined in the New Testament as a church gathering. Worship can, and does, occur in church gatherings, but New Testament worship is so much broader. Romans 12 teaches us that worship occurs as acts of service in which we make our bodies available for labors of love to God and to our fellow believers in any setting imaginable. God calls these labors “reasonable services of worship”.

When we use our bodies in the service of others, we are worshipping. As we worship God in this way, our worship is by New Testament standards, authentic.

When worship occurs in church gatherings, Paul tells us the way to make the worship authentic is to do all aspects of speaking and singing for the goal of edifying the hearers (1 Corinthians 14). When Paul commands us to edify the hearers, he means that the hearers are instructed in the ways of righteousness, rebuked for sin, encouraged to perform deeds of righteousness, instructed on how to preserve their marriages in difficult times, and are taught the basic doctrines of the faith. Authentic worship during church gatherings are those times when the spoken and sung messages are edifying to the congregation.

This is in stark contrast to the Pharisees. The Pharisees gathered their brethren together in the temple, but they taught their own home-spun doctrines as if they were Bible passages. Then they conducted the temple ceremonies by rote instead of examining their hearts to see if they were hiding sin within themselves. They quite literally offered up their livestock as sin sacrifices, but only said prayers of repentance by quoting memorized liturgies and did not utter words of genuine sorrow for their own sins even as their animals died on the altar. By teaching extra-biblical materials as if they were genuine Scriptures while they participated in ceremonies by rote, the Pharisees were conducting vain worship. The heart that is far from God is the heart that hides its sin and does not confess it.

Authentic worship are acts of service to God and to our neighbors, participating in church gatherings where our prayers are not rote but are actual petitions to God, and where our words are designed to be edifying (instructional) to the hearers. Church gatherings where sorrow over sin and joy over forgiveness are expressed certainly enhance the experience, but nowhere does the Bible refer to these elements as “authenticating” the worship of the saints.

FAQ #7 Weren’t the Pharisees severely condemned by Jesus for worshipping God without cultivating sufficient joy in the temple services?

Question 7.

Weren’t the Pharisees severely condemned by Jesus for worshipping God without cultivating sufficient joy in the temple services?

Answer 7.

No, the assertion that Jesus scolded the Pharisees for worshipping God without adequate emotional levels is based on a faulty reading of, or possibly an incomplete quotation of, the biblical text.

We find that the Pharisees had a tremendous zeal and enthusiasm for God and for Judaism (Galatians 1:14, Philippians 3:5-6, Romans 10:1-3, Acts 22:3, 21:20). So what did they lack? Why did Jesus so thoroughly rebuke them? First, they lacked knowledge about God’s righteousness.

For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. For not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. (Romans 10:2,3)

Why did these Jews of the Jews lack knowledge? And why did they seek to establish their own righteousness instead of relying on God’s?

‘BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.’ ” (Matthew 15:9)

‘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 are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition…. thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that.” (Mark 7:7-9,13)

We are told that the Pharisees gathered their brethren together in the temple, but they taught their own home-spun doctrines as if they were Bible passages. In fact, Jesus called them experts at ignoring the real Scriptures and teaching the extra-Scriptural traditions instead. These experts in tradition did not know their own Scriptures.

The cause for the rebuke they were given was in how they gave attention to their own philosophies and writings during temple worship, treating their extra-Scriptural traditions as if they carried the same weight or authority as the Word of God. And when extra-biblical writings are treated as being as authoritative as the Bible, the Bible is the first thing that gets “set aside”.

Oh, the Pharisees had a great zeal and a tremendous amount of enthusiasm and emotional affection, just as did the apostle Paul before his salvation. What the Pharisees lacked was an understanding of how to be genuinely righteous. They taught a form of Judeo-hedonism: pursue your own pleasures but couch it in a language of religiosity and tradition (Mark 7:10-13).

Then they conducted the temple ceremonies by rote instead of examining their hearts to see if they were hiding sin within themselves (“Then the Lord said, ‘Because this people draw near with their words And honor Me with their lip service, But they remove their hearts far from Me, And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote’” Isaiah 29:13).

By teaching extra-biblical materials as if they were genuine Scriptures and by conducting ceremonies by rote without uttering genuine prayers of repentance, the Pharisees were conducting vain worship, not joyless or unemotional worship (Isaiah 1:10-17). The heart that is far from God is the heart that hides its sin and does not confess it. The Pharisees should have offered legitimate prayers during the temple ceremonies instead of just reading or reciting the same old repetitions over and over. Short sincere prayers of repentance will be heard while long prayers read for their grand linguistic stylings will not.

What then was the sin of the Pharisees? Certainly not a lack of zeal or emotion. It was teaching the people to replace true Scripture for their own philosophies and precepts. It was for conducting temple ceremonies by liturgical rote instead of actually calling on the Lord for forgiveness and actually repenting while sacrificing animals. In short, the Pharisees had set aside the one true religion for a man-made counterfeit that pleased them more.