“Pastor” John Piper Says Christians Should NOT Have A Gun in Their Home For Self & Family Protection

Well, here is John Piper on the issue of the Second Amendment. Listen to this, which I think, again, helps prove the point: John Piper is not a social conservative. We'll see next week he's not a theological conservative, either. Watch this:

John Piper:  If there is someone in your church clamoring for you to show them from the Bible that they have a right to carry a gun and defend themselves and their family from suffering, by all means spend ten cents dealing with that. And then spend a million dollars dealing with this. You get that? Because you don't need the Bible and you don't need the Holy Spirit to encourage human beings to defend themselves. None. None. They are so ready, you – "Just tell me it's okay, 'cause I want to do it."

[Laughter]

And so does the world, without the slightest need for regeneration or the Holy Spirit or the Bible. So yeah, by all means, give it ten cents. And then work on miracles. Right? Who of you rejoices when you're slapped?  Who of you rejoices when you're insulted? Who of you rejoices when the marriage is difficult, and the kids are breaking your heart, and your church is splitting apart? Who of you has that miracle working in your life? Spend a million dollars on that. That's my burden.

And if somebody says to me, and they're going to write – I'm going to get emails about this – they're going to say, "Oh, there you go again, Piper, confusing a burglar breaking into your house with Christian persecution."

I said, "I'm not confusing that. I said give it ten cents. "

[Laughter]

Just tell them what you need to tell them. It's worth ten cents; it is. It's in the Bible; got that, world?

[Applause]

Now, when you spent your ten cents, tell them the most obvious thing in the world that the carnality wants anyway: make some miracles happen. Get on your face before God and ask to become a new kind of person that the world cannot explain. You know what? The world does not ask you for a reason for the hope that is in you if you tell them it's in your holster.

Response:  Preach that. Right on!

John Piper:  They don't. Nobody's going to get converted by Christians being savvy when the Muslims show up. No, they're not. And talking like that does us no good. That's number four. [end quote]

A lot of laughing going on there. Sounds like a pretty immature audience to me, laughing at these things and just buying it hook, line, and sinker. There's several problems. And we have another clip by John Piper on what he thinks about Christians owning guns. He says they shouldn't. But first, he says, "You don't need the Bible and Holy Spirit to encourage human beings to defend themselves." I would say that might be the case in some areas, for some people. But I would say to make a blanket statement like that is wrong. In fact, I have found over the years, one of the most common questions people email to me, wanting us to address on radio or television, is: What is the biblical worldview on the issue of self-defense?

Many people struggle with this. They rightfully struggle and are conflicted, have great consternation, on the idea of taking someone's life, and well they should. And they don't know if they should do it or they should not do it if they find themselves in a situation where their life or the life of their family or friends or other innocent people is at risk.

And so I would say, John, you're wrong when you say you don't need the Bible and Holy Spirit to encourage human beings to defend themselves. In fact, I've had to use the Bible and the Holy Spirit that illuminates the word of God to explain to people, "You do have the biblical right, if you deem it necessary, to use force, deadly force, to defend yourself or the life of your family and friends and the innocent people around you."

The Old Testament says that if someone breaks into your house and his blood is shed, there's no guilt on your hands. The Bible speaks to the issue of self-defense. And we need the Bible to have a biblical worldview on the issue of self-defense. We need the Holy Spirit to help us understand the text that we're reading. So I find it offensive and foolish to say that we don't need the Bible and the Holy Spirit to understand or to encourage people to understand the issue of self-defense.

Secondly, he concludes by saying no one gets converted by being savvy when the Muslims shows up. Well, let me just simply say, as I was talking to one of my friends last night in the military, who has had extensive training in firearms and gives training in firearms. His response to me was, "You mean to say if I'm in a restaurant and someone comes in and starts shooting and I do nothing, and later it's found out that I was armed and proficient and could've saved innocent lives, and it also turns out that I'm a Christian, you don't think that that's going to be a bad testimony? You mean, 'Sir, you sat there, with your training, with your firearm, with your carry permit, and you could've stopped the slaughter of innocent people but you didn't do that' – you don't think that's a bad testimony?" Indeed, I think it is.

In fact, what if that person was to stand up and stop a gunman and be shot and die?  Would that not also be a testimony to say that that Christian, who was armed and carrying legally, sacrificed his life so that others might live? "Greater love hath no man that he lay down his life for his friends or for his neighbor." Why did he do this? Because he was a Christian and he understood the value of all life. And he was willing to engage that shooter and die to save innocent lives, so that they might hear the gospel.

So I don't buy, again, this broad brush that no one gets converted by being savvy when the Muslims shows up. In fact, some may be converted by the gospel being lived out by the self-sacrifice of those who stopped the slaughter of the innocent.

Now, listen to this next clip by John Piper, who says Christians should not own guns, as we prove this week that, I believe, John Piper is a social liberal. Next week, we'll prove, I believe, that he's a theological liberal and he's influencing many, many pastors who influence many, many people across the country and the world. Watch this.

John Piper:  So I thought, if somebody enters my house as a thief, he probably is not ready to go to heaven either. So – and then I just ended the blog. I hope you don't take your economic stimulus money and buy a firearm. I've never had one, never owned a firearm. Had a pellet rifle when I was little, and I killed squirrels, and I'm sort of ashamed of the way I killed squirrels, because I didn't eat them and didn't do anything with them. I just felt it was cool. And I don't think that's a very wholesome thing.

No, I'm not a pacifist. I'm not a pacifist principally; I'm not a pacifist actively. So somebody asked me, "So would you protect your daughter if you had a gun?" And I wrote back to Abraham one-word answer: "Probably," [Laughs] meaning the circumstances are so unpredictable. What would you do? Would you shoot the guy in the head, shoot the guy in the chest, shoot the guy in the leg, or throw the gun at him, or hit him over the head with it, or – of course I'm going to protect my daughter. But I'm not aiming to kill anybody, especially an intruder who doesn't know Christ and would go straight to hell, probably. Why would I want to do that if I could avoid it?

So no, I'm not a pacifist. I'm not a pacifist. I believe there should be a militia. I believe there should be policemen with billy clubs and guns.  They should take out guys who are killing people. And I believe in a military to protect a land from aggression. And I believe that fathers should protect their children, even using force, but if they can avoid killing somebody, of course they should avoid killing somebody, and having a gun is a good way not to avoid killing somebody. We don't need guns in our house.

And I'm not against hunters, good grief. Don't get on my case – just don't write any letters about "Piper doesn't believe you should have bows and arrows and rifles and hunting gear." Of course that's a fully legitimate thing and I don't even – I'm not going to get in your face if you have a gun lying in your drawer. I just think it's not very wise. Those who live by the gun will die by the gun. [end quote]

Why anyone listens to this guy is beyond me, but I'm shocked at the theologically so-called conservative pastors who show up and speak with him at conferences and thus, I think, are a bridge to his liberalism. But notice what he says: "Do you shoot them in the leg if an intruder breaks in? Shoot them in the leg, the head, the chest, throw the gun at them, hit them over the head with it?" This is silliness. He asked, "Would you protect your daughter?" He says, "Probably." Later, he says he would. He's talking out of both sides of his mouth.

An intruder breaks into your house, and you feel your life or that of your family’s is at risk, you're not messing around trying to shoot them in the leg. If you go through proper training, what they're going to tell you to do is shoot at the center mass, because you're getting nervous, you got adrenaline going, and you're going to miss something as narrow as a leg. You shoot for center mass. Your goal is not necessarily to kill; it is to stop the threat, to neutralize the threat. If the person dies in the process, no guilt is on your hands when someone breaks into your home and they die, according to the Scriptures.

But you don't then start saying, "Do I shoot them in the hand, shoot them in the leg, hit them over the head?" This is foolish talk. This is juvenile talk from a guy who's admitted he's never owned a gun. He should be keeping his mouth shut. This goes right back to what the assistant director of the FBI, Sullivan, said: these pastors are talking about issues and topics they have no business talking about.

But then he goes on to say, "We shouldn't aim to kill anybody." Correct, we should aim to stop the threat, but if they die in the process, no guilt is on your hands. He then goes on to say that he wouldn't want to shoot an intruder, because that intruder might die and go to hell. Now, this, again, is a problem because this guy says he believes in reformed theology. That also includes the idea of election or predestination. I believe in election and predestination. I'm not a Calvinist, but I believe in election and predestination because it's taught in the Bible.

I also believe in man's responsibility. Matthew 11, John, we see both of them right next to each other – "Come, come, all you who are weary and heavy-laden, come." Man's responsibility. We also see "all that the Father gives to me." They're both true – the doctrine of confluence or the doctrine of concurrence that I've taught a thousand times. But if John Piper really believes in election or predestination, and an intruder breaks into his house and he shoots them and they go to hell, guess what? They weren't one of the elect. They were not predestined to become a Christian.

What is interesting is that these guys, many of them, their highfalutin theology, they have orthodoxy; they have no orthopraxy, really. They can't seem to take their theology and apply it to the real world. So they have a theology that's not even consistently lived out. So now all of a sudden I don't want to shoot an intruder, 'cause if I do and he dies and he goes to hell, that's a problem, as though "Oops, I can't believe he got shot." God's saying, "I was going to save him next week." No. If he dies, no guilt is on your hands; he wasn't predestined.

Notice how these people can't even make their theology work in the real world? And then he says Christians should not own guns. Really? What would you do if you were in Nazi Germany, when the Nazis were doing what they were doing to the Jews? Would you have been wishing you had a gun to stand up and defend the innocent life? Why do we have a Second Amendment? It is not for deer hunting. It is not for going out, as he says, and hunting deer.

It is to avoid tyranny from a government. Freedom is when the government is afraid of the people. Tyranny is when the people are afraid of the government. And when you have Muslim gangs, MS-13 gangs, communist groups, and certainly, reports by national security experts, Muslims bringing in automatic weapons into mosques to build as their armory for the day they declare jihad, you better hope American Christians are armed to defend the innocent, the elderly, the infirm, the sick, the widows, the orphans.

And then he says we don't need guns in our house. And he says, "A good way not to kill someone is to not have a gun." This, again, is immature, I believe, foolish, liberal talking points. And the sad thing is the many pastors who should know better, that quote him and speak with him and, I believe, are a bridge to his liberalism. Next week we'll look at his theological liberalism and whether he believes the Ten Commandments are for Christians today.

What is Christian hedonism that he's been promoting since 1986? The pursuit of pleasure? And he says, "If you don't believe in Christian hedonism, you're not a Christian." We'll look at the unbiblical teaching of Christian hedonism and his definition of sin, next week. Why? Because he's a very prominent pastor, author, teacher. Many are reading him. Many are being – well, they're being trained by him; they're developing his worldview. And I think this is the religious Trojan horse that I've been warning about for years. I've warned about religious Trojan horse in this book and The Coming Religious Reich, and I believe it's men like John Piper and others who are helping to, I believe, implement this kind of liberalism that's very dangerous socially and theologically.

Thank you so much for watching. Next week we'll pick it up and look at the theological liberalism of this very popular man who's being followed by people across all denominational lines – his name? John Piper – as we explore the worldview of John Piper. This has been the Worldview Weekend Hour. Thanks so much for watching. Take care.