Church Confusion + Voting Clarity

Give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil.
[1 Kings 3:9]

In case you haven’t heard, Dr. John Piper, a highly influential evangelical pastor, recently wrote an article explaining his views and concerns about the upcoming presidential election. He also shared his reasoning for who is he is likely to vote for – or not. Later, after many on the left (and right) celebrated his apparent conclusion (and others were dismayed), Piper published a tweet seeking to clarify the confusion, in which he stated that he will not be voting for either candidate.

Setting aside his bewildering conclusion for a moment, there are a number of other serious concerns with Piper’s original post. These include, but are not limited to: faulty and unbiblical reasoning, logical fallacies, false assertions, shaming of Christians, direct contradiction of his own stated principles, and an overall mishandling of an extremely important subject.

We want to be clear at the outset that our goal is not merely to point out the problems with Piper’s article, which are legion, but to highlight how dire the times are in which we are living and to draw attention to the fact that many church leaders are failing not just the church, but the world as well. While Piper’s post contains more errors than we can address here, we’ll do our best to focus on a few of the main concerns, starting with this.

Actually, this is a long-overdue article attempting to explain why I remain baffled that so many Christians consider the sins of unrepentant sexual immorality (porneia), unrepentant boastfulness (alazoneia), unrepentant vulgarity (aischrologia), unrepentant factiousness (dichostasiai), and the like, to be only toxic for our nation, while policies that endorse baby-killing, sex-switching, freedom-limiting, and socialistic overreach are viewed as deadly.

First, what does this even mean? Many readers were more than confused by this and other statements, and understandably so. While very muddled, it seems Piper is trying to compare the lawlessness, anti-Judeo-Christian values, and assured destruction of the socialist polices of the Biden/Harris party to the personal sins of one individual: Donald Trump. And this is not merely an isolated observation on Piper’s part; rather, it is his foundational argument for everything that follows. Which makes it both exceedingly erroneous and perplexing, especially coming from a Christian pastor.

Adding more error and confusion, and if we go along with his judgment of Trump, Piper also gives a complete pass to the many personal sins, if not overt corruption, of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Even worse, while there is no comparison, he inverts reality by making Trump’s individual sin out to be much worse than the public policies of Biden/Harris, when, in fact, the practices, ideas, and goals of the left are infinitely worse on a multitude of levels.

Piper then goes on to say this about Trump’s perceived sins (conveniently, without naming him).

“They are not just deadly. They are deadly forever. They lead to eternal destruction (2 Thessalonians 1:9). They destroy persons (Acts 12:20–23). And through persons, they destroy nations (Jeremiah 48:29–31, 42).” *emphasis in the original

These personal sins of Trump will “destroy nations”? No. Piper cites some verse references, but, because he misapplies Scripture, he misleads his audience. At a minimum, the Bible verses he refers to in no way, at all, support the notion that Trump’s sins will “destroy nations.”

While the argument could be made that one individual’s personal sin could possibly destroy a nation, such sin would have to be massive, widespread and sustained over a long period of time, and would require a monarchy, dictatorship, or totalitarian government to be in place (which, it’s important to point out, is what the left actually wants, even while falsely accusing Trump of such ambition). Yet this is not even close to the current reality.

Nevertheless, John Piper personally singles out Donald Trump and makes an absolute judgment and condemnation about the sitting president of the United States: declaring that his personal sins will destroy America. In addition, Piper also ignores the fact that our country (and countless other countries) have experienced far worse when it comes to their leaders, and yet were not “destroyed.”

Furthermore, Piper seems to be stating that Trump’s individual sins are “deadly forever” and will “destroy nations,” while the murder of millions, totalitarian oppression of billions, mass killing of the unborn, and many other forms of extreme rebellion against God and His Word are only deadly in this world. Again, this is an inverted reality. According to John Piper, we must conclude that one is eternally deadly, and Trump is guilty of this “forever” death, while the other is only a temporal death – therefore, the left is not as bad as Trump.

Not only does this reveal a serious lack of discernment (cp. 1 Kgs 3:9; Prov 2:11ff; Phil 1:9-11), it is flagrantly false. However, Piper, building upon his own faulty reasoning and egregious errors, concludes that voting for Trump is actually worse than voting for Harris/Biden. Compounding his error, this spiritual leader goes on to publicly proclaim his erroneous reasoning and errant conclusion to hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of followers. Such an article, in and of itself, however remote the chance, could potentially sway the entire election. Piper’s home state, Minnesota, is a critical swing state and could easily affect the outcome of a close race.

Now, to be clear, all sin is serious. And deadly. In our upcoming book Sin, Love & Counterfeit Love, we have a list of twenty-five significant consequences of sin. So, yes, we should all be able to agree that sin is deadly and destructive in a multitude of ways, and always needs to be addressed accordingly. Furthermore, it is critically important for every Christian to understand sin and how to accurately handle it in the right way.

It is absurd, however, to imply that the personal sin of Donald Trump will destroy America. This assertion becomes even more ridiculous in light of the overt lawlessness and evil going on all around us. While Piper’s reasoning is wrong on different levels, he makes it worse by claiming that the sin of one person is more deadly and destructive than the admitted policies of an entire party—especially when the individual in question is fighting against these evil policies, policies which come from sin. These particularly egregious sins of the left do, in fact, destroy nations—as well as people, families, churches, and whole societies. They are destroying this nation and the world, believers and non-believers alike. They are also deadly. Forever.

Yet John Piper ignores this truth. Instead, his response to these obvious realities is to judge and condemn President Trump for his personal sins, and to shame Christians for not following his upside-down reasoning.

It is worth mentioning again that by presenting this inverted reality, Piper equates one person’s sins with the all-encompassing sin, deceit, darkness, and utter destruction of the left’s ideology and actions. Furthermore, Piper declares that he personally is not going to even vote against what he admits is exceedingly evil. Still worse, he is effectively teaching and encouraging countless others to do the same.

This is wrong. And just as the apostle Peter was openly confronted by Paul for misleading and harming other believers in the second chapter of Galatians, John Piper needs to be called out.

Why? Because, in the midst of the darkest time of this generation—when the Church, the country, and the world need leadership and clarity the most—what does one of the nation’s leading pastors do?

He writes a cryptic and confusing article—gleefully celebrated by those who embrace the left, who hold to world-approved theology, and who shame and attack anyone with biblical values—which is inaccurate, hurtful, and even sinfully damaging to millions of conservative Christians.

Upon reading his recent article, most people—those on the right and left alike—understood Piper to be saying he would likely vote for Joe Biden over Donald Trump. However, in his attempt to clarify his confusing article, Piper later tweeted that he “won’t be voting for Biden or Trump.” Perplexingly, this declaration contradicts his own clearly stated principles and past exhortations from Scripture.

In a post written in a previous election year, Piper defeats his newest convoluted arguments by admitting what we all know—that is: we cannot abstain from voting until we are presented with a flawless candidate, lest we wait forever.

Now, if you are dissatisfied today the way I am, why vote? The answer is that if you don’t, you are guilty of the very oversimplification you condemn. There is no escape from responsibility by pointing out the imperfections of leaders. That is the only kind of leaders there will ever be. Our calling in this world is not to wait for the arrival of the perfect, but to pick our way through the thicket of flaws. We would be arrogant to put ourselves above this fray and say, “A curse on both your houses.” The Lord Jesus does not give us this luxury of disengagement …. Because God Almighty, whom we serve above all men, made human governments his way of running the world …. In a democratic republic like ours that means at least: VOTE.

Wise words. So, what changed? John Piper is (now) going against his clearly stated principles of less than twenty years ago. He is also seemingly at odds with what he once strongly declared we are called by God to do.

By Piper’s (current) selective reasoning, we should sit out every election, since they will inevitably be between two or more sinful individuals. According to this flawed logic, we would be duty bound to refuse to vote for Abraham Lincoln, a sinful man with human struggles, but one who succeeded in abolishing slavery and preserving the union of the United States of America.

As heinously evil as slavery is, this country, and most of the world, is facing something far worse today. What potentially lies before us is the wickedness of slavery many times over, albeit in different ways. As proven by history, the death, destruction, and enslavement that accompanies leftism (e.g., Marxism; totalitarianism; socialism) will come in multiple forms and on a much wider scale. Left unchecked, it will include the loss of most, if not all, freedoms; the overt theft of personal property; the merciless crushing of any dissent; along with the general oppression and outright murder of an untold number of people.

We are bitterly divided and on the brink of disaster and irreparable harm as our country is being overrun by darkness and leftist ideology, a fact which even Piper seems to agree with. However, instead of encouraging those who are arduously fighting against these ever-increasing dangers, he is supporting (at least indirectly) the side that is primarily driven by those who are “enemies of the cross” and who espouse counterfeit love and justice while championing totalitarian ideologies which seek to subvert Christianity, strip away our precious freedom, and transform America into a socialist/Marxist state.

This is what America, the Church, and the whole word is facing in the current election. Yet John Piper, as is the case with so many others today, cannot see or recognize this looming evil. Or, more tragic still, perhaps those, like Piper, who choose to “sit out” this election know what is at stake, but are simply unwilling to lift even a finger to vote in order to retain that priceless gift from God – the freedom that so many others have literally died to secure for us.

May we not take such sacrifice for granted.

And when we someday stand before our Creator, may we be found faithful. Faithful in our obedience to His Word and faithful to truly love our neighbor as He implores us to do.

Deliver those who are drawn toward death,
And hold back those stumbling to the slaughter.
If you say, “Surely we did not know this,”
Does not He who weighs the hearts consider it?
He who keeps your soul, does He not know it?
And will He not render to each man according to his deeds?
[ Proverbs 24:11-12 ]

For more on this and other topics, see our books: Jesus Was A Socialist? and Making Sense of The Madness – along with other Hope For Life Resources