I decided to attend Reformation Montana this year. I had never heard of the event prior to this, nor was I familiar with the organization or the particulars of their purpose. I was listening to the Dividing Line one day when I heard that Dr White was speaking at a conference in Montana. As a Canadian living just north of Montana, I was drawn in mainly by the speakers who were there and the relative nearness of where I lived. I do not attend a Reformed Church, there are no reformed people in my life, and the fact that three of the main speakers – Chris Rosebrough, James White, and Phil Johnson – represented three of my top 10 podcasts that I listen to on the daily basis was very significant. While my wife could not attend with me, being how it was “only” 1500 km’s away, and being on a budget, I thought it would be a great road trip. Though I knew little about the event, the fact that these calibre of speakers were willing to attend ensured that it would be well worth my time.

I left Wednesday at 3:00pm. I packed a cooler with food, a bag with all requisite road trip necessities,  a phone with a ton of podcasts, and my pillow and blanket. I was travelling on a budget, and I pulled into some small town at night. I curled up in the backseat of my car, slightly cramped, and slept for the night. I woke up in the morning, brushed my teeth, rinsed my face, and kept on driving. I was delayed a bit at the border but finally arrived in Helena, Montana in the early afternoon. I checked into a hotel for that night, hung out a but, then headed down to the conference to hear the debate. I arrived a little early and met up with several other Canadians who had traveled from Saskatchewan.

Before the debate began, people were mingling and talking. It was a smaller event, only about 100 or so people, though less than were there for the pre-conference debate. Note that this picture was taken before the event; things filled up quite a bit more after this picture was taken.

Prior to the event starting I saw Chris Rosebrough and his shiny new glasses along with his wife. A group of us went over to talk to them and say hi. I was trying to keep the fanboy inside of me on its best behavior, but it was difficult. This was a man whose piratechristianradio.com ministry had deeply affected my walk with Christ and who helped develop and mature my discernment capabilities coming out of a bad Church. He was friendly and soft-spoken, and within 30 seconds of saying “Hi” he was talking about the gospel and the faithfulness of Christ. It was surreal to me, and yet amazing. I saw Justin Lee come in. I greeted him warmly and told him I was looking forward to the debate that they were about to have. After about half an hour of mingling, it all started. Oh- and the price of the conference was only 50$, which was a steal.

Thursday at 7:00 The Debate

I was a bit disappointed in the debate, but not in the way one might think. I was expecting a formal debate where Justin could really be grilled on his interpretation of scripture,  but it seems that he only agreed if they could have more of a conversation than debate. I think the debate suffered because of this constraint. I was in no way privy to the insider baseball that was going on during the formulation of this debate/hybrid conversation, but it seemed that both were frustrated at the “restrictions”, particularly with Justin wanting to keep it a “conversation”. Later on I learned that while Justin Lee was initially excited to do a formal debate, he changed his mind after doing his research on Dr White and how he dealt with Mathew Vine and his presentation. I got the impression that James White switched gears early on to avoid having Justin leave the table and walking out. After Justin’s opening, which had nothing to do with the format of the debate, but as more in line of having a conversation, James took on a teacher/pastor role, and I think that was the best choice given the circumstances. It was pretty evident to all that James White could have destroyed his argument any time he wished and that he had to adapt to Justin’s reticence to meaningfully interact with the scriptures and with what the Bible says about it.

Friday.

We had sessions by JD Hall, Chris Rosebrough, and Dr James White. The first session was  my first real introduction to JD Hall. I had heard of the pulpit and pen blog but didn’t know anything about it other than it was reformed-ish. He got up and spoke passionately about the life of John Knox and how while John Knox was viewed as contentious by many, he truly sought reformation. I was amused when he mentioned the Knox booklet “The first blast of the trumpet against the monstrous regiment of women,” as I have that on my kindle and had listened to it a weeks ago. A very good talk. Chris Rosebrough spoke on the various chicanery going on in the Church today, and James White spoke on the reliability of the New Testament and how we could trust it.

Dr White was in full on Grandpa mode/remission, and at one point he picked up a little infant and gave part of his talk speaking to him. Very cute and funny :

I enjoyed all these sessions quite a bit, even though I had heard them before or some variation. At one point James White asked the audience how many textual variants there were in the New Testament. Someone said a few hundred; someone said five thousand. I chimed in 400,001, and Dr O.  jokingly said that I must have heard this before and said something about me spoiling the punchline. It was a trip to hear him speak, however, as he’s one of the men who gave me confidence to articulate the doctrines of grace, and I was elated the entire time, smiling ear to ear.

I also really liked the worship. We had it interspaced every few hours, pretty much before every session. There was just a guy on guitar and his new wife on the keyboard, but there was really full and robust congregational singing, worshiping with a mix of modern hymns. We did one or two songs 5 times a day, and I was really appreciative for that.

Saturday.

I spent the night sleeping in my car and then went down to the Red Lion for the rest of the sessions. I sat right in the front seat the entire time, and it was nice to see people up close and in action. Chris Rosebrough opened it up for a live sermon review. One of the things he does on his program is that he picks certain churches and “compares what people are saying in the name of God to the word of God”. In this case he reviewed a sermon recently preached by Adam Hushka of Narrate Church, which is a local seeker-sensitive Church. This was one of my favorite parts of the weekend. I’ve been listening to sermon reviews for years now and am one of the people who listen to them all the way through, and so to see Chris in action was fun to watch, especially with his facial expressions and moments of puzzlement, disbelief, indignation, amusement, and anger. Later someone asked his wife if that’s how he does things, and she confirmed that yes- he sits at his desk with furrowed brows thinking, “what on earth did I just hear?”. 

Next was Phil Johnson. I went over and introduced myself to Phil and told him how much I appreciated his ministry. When I first came out of the Charismatic wasteland, he and John MacArthur were two men who help me land on solid ground. I found Phil’s two talks to be fantastic, and really, really enjoyed them.

Right in the middle of those two talks, however, was JD Hall’s barn-burner of a plenary, which I mentioned before. I think his message above all really summarized the heart of the theme, which was “The Compromised Church”. I could not have agreed more with everything that was said, and I really felt the weight of giving such a message. I imagined that there would be plenty of fallout, and his courage gave me courage to speak up when I need to.

As it were, I left Saturday afternoon and made my way back home. I crossed the border a little before midnight, slept again in my car in some little town in a residential zone, and then made my way back up to Fort McMurray, arriving home in the evening.

Reflections

This was such a phenomenal conference and I am so glad I went. I am definitely attending Reformation 2014, which will be in Billings next year. I found the whole event to be really well-organized and found it to be quite intimate, actually, in that it wasn’t a big event, and there weren’t more than a hundred or so people. This let me approach people who I admire, talk to them, and dialogue about different issues, as well as approach other people that I didn’t know and get to know them. It was comforting to know both that a conference like this exists, and that there are like-minded people. I have many Christian friends and acquaintances who would have hated the event and would view it as divisive and unloving.  Yet being there and hearing the message really brought the truth out and confronted people with the question, “Who here is being truly unloving? Who here is being truly divisive?”. It’s not us, and it wasn’t them.

The biggest highlights though were talking to these men for several minutes about some issues that were of interest to me and being with other believers who share the same concerns and convictions I do. If I had one complaint, is that we had too many breaks in between each speaker. I would have preferred more content and teaching with fewer breaks in between, but that’s me. As a whole though- a great time, and I am looking forward to attending it again next year.

The Gospel at 40,000 feet

I believe that from a bird’s eye-view;  salvation from 40,000 feet, all of us are sinners. We are born with original sin and then sin early and quickly and often as we progress through life. As such, in our total depravity, God would be well within his right to send everyone to hell, and that would be good and just. But because He is loving and gracious and so merciful, He unconditionally elects some people to salvation. These people are predestined before the world even began. Why does He choose who He chooses? I don’t know. God only knows this is so, and why in this particular redemption He forms some to be vessels of destruction. But as for why He elects some, well, He does this to make the riches of His glory known to the objects of His mercy.

As it were, we are all sinners on earth; dead in our sins and hopeless and heartless. We can’t and won’t come to God on our own. We will never exercise our will or  choose him on our own volition. We will never freely choose Christ because we are children of wrath and are at war with Him and are his enemies. And yet God calls some people. He breaks into their world and gives them faith and reveals himself to them. These people are irresistibly drawn to God through an irresistible grace, and because they now have faith, they can make that choice and repent of their sins and they put their faith and trust in Christ. Do you ever wonder why there can be room full of 100 people, all of them needing Christ, and then after a pastor presents a gospel message, only one man responds? A single man out of a multitude who was a wretched sinner who had heard it all a hundred times before, all of a sudden he just gets it, his soul cries out for it,  he feels like he can’t live without it, and he believes it. What happened there? It was God calling him and giving him faith. This person is justified by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. Once saved he begin a life of sanctification with God drawing him to himself, as the saints persevere unto eternal life. These people will not fall away but will remain in Christ until they breathe their last, and then will be glorified in heaven on that day.

The Gospel at ground level

That’s the theology of it at 40,000 feet, but to bring this down to a smaller perspective, what it looks like on the ground level, is we live our lives separated from God and doing our own thing. One day we hear of the gospel message and all of a sudden it just clicks for us. We then say “I believe that” and we put our trust and faith in that. A pastor may give the gospel, and whereas our whole life we didn’t care- for some reason this time we get it and we respond to it in repentance. After that, then begins the life of sanctification. It can be slow, and agonizing, and have deep, deep, ups and downs. But what happens is that our life changes. The sins we once loved we start to hate. What was once acceptable and enjoyable now becomes loathsome and shameful.

Because we have the Holy Spirit in us, life is viewed through a different lens. We get baptized and we are buried and raise with Him. And so not only does our life start looking different, but we can also look outward to our baptism as a witness to our faith. And so our life is lived, year after year, growing more intimate with the Father, Son, and Holy spirit. Year after year we see the trajectory of our faith and works and fruits, while Christ ruthlessly goes after our heart and calls to attention hidden sins and desires and asks us to mortify them. By the power of the Holy Spirit we slowly put to death our sinful nature over the course of a lifetime, where near the end the sins that we brushed aside in our youth now ache and pain us.  The Bible describes the characteristics of saving faith, and we look to those as witnesses. It’s not moralism, but rather a changed life through faith in Christ. We read his word and pray and go to church and love the brethren and find our fulfillment and our peace with God, knowing our sins are forgiven and always turning to God when we do sin. We take communion, understanding that we are eating the very body and drinking the blood of Christ, and our affections for Christ are stirred and magnified as we rejoice in our intimacy with God and the grace we receive.

We share our faith with others and witness to them and we direct them to Christ whenever we can, because people are saved through the preached word and God uses our witness and our sharing the gospel as a means of saving people. All the while we run the good race, fighting the good fight, and keeping the good faith. We are strengthened by the knowledge that we have eternal life, and we rejoice in the security of Christ’s promise that no one can snatch us out of His hand and that security gives us joy and an even deeper desire to know God and even more reason to love Him. This is life for as many years as God gives us, until we grow old, and quiet, and we pass away. From there, we find ourselves in the presence of God, not having to pay for our sins in any way but rather knowing that Christ paid it all on the cross and deemed us righteous and holy, because through the shed blood of the lamb He is our righteousness, and we don’t stand before God as tainted and sinful, but white as snow; as white as the wool on the Lamb who was slain. God tells us “well done, good and faithful servant” and we

In case anyone was wondering who I am listening to, and what podcasts I am influenced by, Here is my setlist that I listen to every week.

1. The Dividing Line

Fantastic apologetic resource, as well as my source and inspiration for proper exegesis and handling of the biblical text. This is my favorite podcast and the one I look forward to the most. I admire James White’s keen mind and it seems near encyclopedic memory of…well…..everything. This is clearly a man who has thought through things many times, and who has such a wonderful understanding of the doctrines of grace and is able to articulate them and defend them the best.

2. Fighting for the Faith

Another favorite of mine. This is the flagship of Pirate Christian Radio, helmed by the captain himself, Chris Rosebrough. This is a good apologetic podcast as well, but I like it primary for the way he addresses current issues in Christian evangelicalism today. It’s all about discernment with this one, and how to discern. While I’m not a Lutheran, I definitely value the framework that he approaches things through, whether its dealing with seeker sensitive churches, wacky charismatic, dominionists, free spirited William Tapley sorts, emergent church players, and everything else in between. The whole idea of “compare what people are saying in the name of the name of God to the word of God” is fantastic, and it doesn’t matter who you are- if you abuse scripture in your sermon, you’re going to get a flag on the play.

3. Berean Bible Church

This one is the odd man out. David Curtis who is the pastor of this Church is a full-blown Calvinist preacher, which I like, but he is also a full-preterist, which I actively don’t like and consider it heresy. It’s an odd combination, and can often be unnerving. That being said, its impossible to listen to any sermon without being deeply challenged and without learning something. As long as you can be discerning about it, this one will get under your skin, in all the best ways. I particularly like how he does verse-by-verse exegetical preaching, and his sermons always stay very close to the text.

4. The Village Church

Matt Chandlers Church. This is one of the first podcasts I listened to which got me into reformed theology. Matt is an amazingly charismatic guy who has the most impressive gift of communication I’ve seen from a pastor. Very funny and occasionally provocative, he is one of the most quotable pastors I know. He has a way of taking biblical concepts and speaking about them in a way that everyone can relate to. It is contextualization in the best possible way.

5. Dr James White Sermons

This is the Sunday school sermons playlist from the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church, which James White is a co-elder. They’ve been going through the book of Hebrews now for years, and are currently talking about the sacrifice of Issac. This is a deep, extremely thorough handling of the word, routinely going into the greek and into textual variants in the texts, and everything else. It’s impossible to listen to without thinking “that’s about the deepest and most direct handling of the text that I’ve ever encountered.

6. No Compromise Radio

The Brain child of Mike Abendroth and guest starring Tuesday guy, their motto is “always biblical, always provocative, always in that order.” You have a mix of interviews, discussions on current issues, various zany interactions, clips from his sermons, and also most commonly are the topical ones, where they discuss controversial topics. The one downside is that this podcast is recorded weeks if not months and advance, and so it’s arely current when they are discussing current events, but its a snappy 22 minutes a pop, and cover my drives down to work and back.

7. White Horse Inn.

Great Podcast. You have four men from  different denominational backgrounds having fun discussing culturally relevant theological matters, helping Christians “know what they believe and why they believe it.” You have Michael Horton,  Dr Rod Rosenbladt, Ken Jones and Dr Kim Riddlebarger. I like the interaction and hearing about the agreements and disagreements with four men who are passionate and educated on a subject.

8. Issues Etc.

I don’t visit this one as often as I should I mainly use it for the topics that stand out to me. But this is Christ-centred, cross focussed radio by Todd Wilken, from a distinctly Lutheran perspective. Tons of special guests and guest speakers, and a good potpourri of topics.

9. GTY.

An oldie but a goodie. I’ve been making my way through 40 some years of sermons from John MacArthur, and this is the vehicle by which I do it. You have verse by verse preaching through the entire New Testament, with an emphasis on verse by verse. You’ll get some messages where he discusses just 2 or three verses. You’re talking about a guy who spent 10 years going through the book of Luke, from 1998 to 2008.  Trust me when I say that this is thorough as they come. I’m not there in Luke yet- I’m still in 1986, but I look forward to it, as Luke is my favorite Gospel.

10. JD Hall Sermon Podcast

Just started listening to this one in the last few weeks. This is one passionate man. Right now we’re doing something called “66 Gospels” where he talks bout salvation from Genesis to Revelation. JD Hall is a guy that I really respect and have come to appreciate, and while I haven’t got a good idea of the flavor of his podcast, his sermons have proven to be fantastic, so I have high hopes for this one.

11. I also listen to all the weekly sermons from the MGA, Alliance, FBC and the FCC.

click to embiggen

About two weeks ago I noticed that YC had uploaded their workshop matrix, which references which speakers would be filling which slots.  I was perusing the setlist when I noticed that Brad Jersak was leading two sessions.  This caused me great concern, as I had a few run-ins with Brad Jersak in the past- having thoroughly reviewed one of his sermons that he preached at a local Church and finding it to be theologically perverse, historically unorthodox, and basically  a hot mess of a message. I sent an email of inquiry to the extremedream.ca contact, which is the organization that hosts YC. The message came back with a server error, indicating it had not sent. I had sent emails to that address in the past, and so because the avenue was temporarily unavailable to me I did the next best thing.

Contemplating my options, I decided to go nuclear. This was not done out of a sense of vindictiveness or mean-spiritedness, but rather out of a grave concern for the people attending, and the “cred” it would give Brad Jersak and further along his cause and influence.  The first thing I did was write out my “Open letter to YC” and then post it to my website. After that, I contacted every headliner, speaker, band, and worship leader who was attending and asked them how they felt about having Brad Jersak speak at this conference, given what he believes and teaches. (This would be the nuclear option I spoke about) Lastly I contacted Mike Love and sent him the link, along with a little larger explanation on my concerns and why I felt as strongly as I did.

Several of the speakers wrote back. One person said

“I don’t know Brad Jersak. Never heard of him. From your description above I also don’t agree with any of these things that he believes. Don’t know what process was involved in bringing him to YC. However, I DO know Mike Love. I do know what he believes. He’s the one who invited me to come. As in past years I gladly agreed and won’t be breaking my promise to do so.

In light of what you’ve shared here, I understand your concerns and  I think that you should address them directly to Mike if you’ve not done so already”

Pastor Glen Forsberg of the MGA Church recently preached a sermon on May 5, 2013 entitled “Can you see the future from here”.  Within the sermon he included this little snippet which caught my attention and with which I wanted to interact with a bit. I’m hoping to have a bit of friendly, brotherly dialogue- but even if not, I think it might be edifying for other people to be able to exegete and interact with this text. Specifically, at the 9:40mark, he said this:

“God is all about loving the world, so much so, that not a hoof will be left behind. God is all about loving the world, so much so, that not one person shall perish. And in [ 2 Peter chapter 3:9 it says that] He doesn’t want anyone to perish, but that all should to come to repentance. That all should come to the change point in their lives. That everybody on this planet would come to a place where they would make a change of heart and a change of mind and begin to follow Jesus Christ. That’s God’s will. God’s will is the entire city of McMurray to be born again. God’s will is for the entire province of Alberta to be born again. God’s will for the entire nation of Canada to be born again. He does not want to see one soul left behind. God does not pick and choose and say “you I have and you I don’t have.” No- He says, he puts it out there for everybody. But, it’s up to individuals to respond to the invitation.”

I have a tons of issues with this whole paragraph, and would take  exception with a lot of what he has to say, particularly the last three sentences. I am not a synergist but rather am a mongergist, and I don’t limit the atonement in the way that Glen Forsberg does. But those issues, while extremely relevant, are beyond the scope of what I wanted to talk about. Specifically, I wanted to assess his use of 2 Peter 3:9 and see if it can really be used to substantiate his point. To put the verse back into its context, we read:

 This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, ² that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, ³ knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. ⁴ They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” ⁵ For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, ⁶ and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. ⁷ But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

⁸ But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. ⁹ The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.¹⁰ But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

¹¹ Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, ¹² waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! ¹³ But according to his promise we are waiting for new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. 2 Peter 3;1-13

To get things started, the first thing we see is that salvation is not the topic being discussed by Peter.  The phrase “all should reach repentance” is incidentally made in passing within the broader scope  of the intended topic, which is the coming of Christ. We read that  in the last days they’ll be scoffers who will question the validity and truthfulness of Jesus’ promises, and so Peter is explaining to his audience the reason that Jesus has not returned yet and why his coming has been delayed so long.

Within that framework, we see a clear identification of the audience that Peter is speaking to. When he speaks directly to his audience, he calls them “beloved” and “you”. In this way we see a clear delineation drawn between the “you” and the “them”. The “you” are the ones who have “sincere minds,” are called “beloved,” are looking forward to the day of the Lord, and who behave in “holiness and godliness”. Paul includes himself in this audience in verse 13,  where he says that “we are waiting for a new heaven and new earth.” When speaking of the scoffers to his audience, he refers to scoffers or mockers in the third person, as “them”. The “them” are the ones who deliberately overlook biblical truths and who follow their own “sinful desires”.

This is extremely important and significant for several reasons. First of all, Glen Forsberg only quotes half of the verse in that snippet, and then proceeds to expand his verse fragment based on a faulty assumption, which would have been cleared up if he read the verse in context. The assumption being made by Glen Forseberg is that when verse 9 says the Lord is “patient towards you” [which he did not read] that this “you” refers to everyone who has ever existed. In the same way when the scriptures say “not wishing for any to perish” but “all to come to repentance,” it’s assumed that the “any” and “all” refers to anyone at all of the human race.

And yet the context shows us that the audience is quite specific. In writing this, Peter has very particular people in view. Its unfortunate that while people interpreting scripture are usually really careful to figure out who is speaking to what audience and when and why and so forth, it seems that for this verse,  this simple but fundamental necessity is often overlooked when this passage is cited. [This is the same thing that always happens  with Matthew 23:37] In any case, In 2 Peter 1;1-3, we see the specific audience to which Peter is writing to

“SimeonPeter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. ³ His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence. 2 Peter 1:1-3

Peter is writing to a specific group, and not to all of mankind. The “you” is  “those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours”[ie, Christians]  and does not include the scoffers who follow their own sinful desires. [Non-Christians] This clearly limits the context of the saved, for they have received this faith “by the righteousness of our God and savior, Jesus Christ” There isn’t anything in chapter three that indicates a change in audience, but rather everything we read confirms for us that the audience is exactly the same.

When Pastor Glen quotes it the way he does and hyper-atomizes the scripture, he misrepresents what Peter is really saying. I don’t think he did this on purpose- I just think it’s a result of speaking extemporaneously and having this idea based more on tradition than sound and thorough biblical exegesis. Despite this however, we see that the patience of the Lord is demonstrated to his elect people, which is the  “you” in verse 9 . Therefore, “not wishing any should perish”  must be limited to the same group already in view; the elect. In the same way, the “all come to repentance” must be the very same group. Put simply, the “any” and “all” are limited to the group of “you,”  which are “those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours”. Put another way

“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any of you should perish, but that all of you should reach repentance”

In the same way if I was writing a letter to my family, and I wrote ” To my family members…..you are all very special to me, and I miss everyone.” I’m not saying that everyone in the entire world is special to me, nor am I saying that I miss everyone in the world. Rather I’m limiting the context of “everyone” to my family members, the “you” who are special to me.

As it were, what Peter is saying in these passages is that the coming of the Lord has been delayed so that God’s people, his elect, can be gathered in. There is no reason to expand the context of the passage into a universal proclamation of a desire on God’s part that every single person come to repentance. Instead, it is clearly God’s plan and will that all the elect come to repentance, and we can have confidence that they will.

Just some food for thought

Taken from http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/those-deleted-tweets

Monday night, in the wake of the devastating tornado in Oklahoma, John Piper posted two tweets at 11:00pm (CST). Both tweets quoted the first chapter of Job. He first cited Job 1:19, and then Job 1:20, and they were posted together consecutively:

• @JohnPiper: “Your sons and daughters were eating and a great wind struck the house, and it fell upon them, and they are dead.” Job 1:19
• @JohnPiper: “Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped.” Job 1:20

Later he decided to take down both tweets.

Many of you may be unaware these tweets appeared online, but some have made what we think is unfair criticism based on misinformation worth briefly addressing.

The impression given by online sources is that only Job 1:19 was posted, an isolated tweet some critics have thought “crude” and “insensitive,” thereby neglecting the most important point made in the second tweet, of Job’s response, and why our sovereign God is still worthy of worship even in the midst of the most unimaginable suffering and personal tragedy.

Job 1:20 not only comes in the direct aftermath of a storm, but also holds out hope and comfort to Christians directly affected by tragedy today, reminding us that trust in God and worship of God are always right, even when we are kneeling in tears in the rubble left by a tornado. Job wept and he worshipped. God’s sovereignty over his suffering provided the basis of his grounds of worshipping God in the suffering (see chapter 1 in Suffering and the Sovereignty of God).

As Pastor John has said in a sermon,

Satan proved to be wrong. Job did not curse God when he lost his wealth and his children. He worshiped and he blessed God. And so the superior worth of God became evident to all.

Job’s steadfast response becomes for all Christians a model to follow in enduring suffering (James 5:11).

Sadly, by citing only the first tweet, Job 1:19, online critics muddied the point.

Why the Tweets Came Down

Different motives were assigned to Pastor John for deleting the tweets. What he told us was this: “The reason I pulled my tweets from Job is that it became clear that what I feel as comfort was not affecting others the same.” He also said,

When tragedy strikes my life, I find it stabilizing and hope-giving to see the stories of the sheer factuality of other’s losses, especially when they endured them the way Job did. Job really grieved. He really agonized. He collapsed to the ground. He wept. He shaved his head. This was, in my mind, a pattern of what must surely happen in Oklahoma. I thought it would help. But when I saw how so many were not experiencing it that way, I took them down.

Whatever final conclusion you draw about the tweets is between you and the Lord. But we wanted to take a moment to address misinformation online as you make your own conclusions on the matter. We appreciate those of you who have come to Pastor John’s defense online, but our sense is that this isn’t a matter worth debating. Our purpose in posting here is simply to provide you with more information.

Weeping with Those Who Weep

At times like this when tragedy strikes, it can be difficult to reconcile how God is sovereign over all calamity, and yet prioritize responses of compassion and weeping with victims of tragedy. You can read and hear how Pastor John reconciles his responses to public natural disasters in an episode of the Ask Pastor John podcast series we released a few weeks ago (see here).

Our prayer at Desiring God for those impacted by the tragedy in Oklahoma City is echoed in Pastor John’s tweet yesterday morning that sought to make explicit from James what was implicit in his Job tweets:

• @JohnPiper: My hope and prayer for Oklahoma is that the raw realism of Job’s losses will point us all to his God, “compassionate and merciful.” James 5:11

Note, I too find comfort in the fact that God is sovereign over all things, including nature. It is a balm to the soul in times of terror, sorrow and fear, and I derive much comfort from it.

Part 1

Part 2

Update. Here is the full audio, cleaned up. Please check it out and share!