John Piper’s Damnably Heretical Born Again Teaching

Jun P. Espina         18 min read

Updated on December 3rd, 2023

One of the supreme and crucial teachings of the entire Christian doctrine is Christ’s condition for those desiring eternal life, which is to be born again. But John Piper invented a damnably heretical born again teaching. Christ said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3) No other instruction surpasses this one in significance. Life after death is impossible for those not born again. Because John Piper is at the forefront of explaining this phenomenon in cyberspace, a thorough examination of what he taught is just as important as the scriptural second birth teaching itself.

John Piper Taught Faith is Unnecessary to be Born Again

Piper said a mere “whisper of genuine desire for God” is enough to enter heaven since it is the key switch to being born again. In his post titled, “The God-Centered Ground of Saving Grace”, he said,

This atheistic statement by a hugely influential preacher, like John Piper, is like a demon-inspired distortion of the Holy Scriptures. When a Christian teacher allows his theology or human wisdom—whatever it is—to rule his mind and heart over his love and devotion to our dear Lord Jesus Christ, a scriptural problem arises.

Of the 2,591 words that composed his “The God-Centered Ground of Saving Grace,” Piper wrote the word “faith” only once—aside from the two others mentioned in 2 Corinthians 1:24 & Romans 3:24-25, which he quoted. Christ requires “faith,” but Piper substitutes “faith in Christ” (to experience Second Birth) with a mere “whisper of genuine desire for God in your heart” to be born again.

In his article, “How Are We Born Again?” Piper wrote: “Our first conscious experience of this new birth is the arising in our hearts of faith in Christ.” ² He titled this section of his post, “The First Cry of Faith.” It confirms his blasphemous teaching that faith is just the result, not the cause, of the Second Birth. Why? Because of the hyper-Calvinists (his central doctrine!) core heresy known as IRRESISTIBLE GRACE.

John Piper’s Hyper-Calvinism Leads to His Born Again Heresy

Piper said his critics accused him of having taken his Calvinism to “the nth degree, the nth power.” ³ Although he denied it, he said, “In other words, the emphasis [of old hyper-Calvinism] is put so completely on the unconditional election of God and the spiritual deadness of man and the sovereignty of grace in conversion (all of which are true).” (Emphasis added.) ⁴

He wrote the above quote in his article, “What is Hyper-Calvinism?”

Even though he criticized “old Hyper-Calvinism” for putting “so completely” on “UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION,” “TOTAL DEPRAVITY,” and “IRRESISTIBLE GRACE” (or sovereignty of grace), Piper said, “all [or all TULIP of Hyper-Calvinism] are true.”

This statement proves one thing: Piper is a modern hyper-Calvinist who supports missions and evangelism. That was his criticism since old hyper-Calvinism was anti-mission.

Whether old or modern Hyper-Calvinism, Piper is a Hyper-Calvinist. This explains Piper’s heresy that faith follows second birth. He stressed, therefore, that faith in Christ is unnecessary to be born again.

Understanding John Piper’s Hyper-Calvinism

The acronym for the core teaching of Hyper-Calvinism is TULIP, which stands for Total Depravity, Unconditional Election; Limited Atonement; Irresistible Grace; and Perseverance of the Saints. The sum of five-point Calvinism is predestination.

How Did John Piper Invent His Born Again Heresy?

Piper’s theology, as a modern hyper-Calvinist, centers on God’s irresistible grace, man’s inability to know God (total depravity), and unconditional election or predestination.

When God elects you to enter His kingdom, His irresistible grace captures you—even against your will! After all, you are predestined for heaven. So you are lucky, even if you hate heaven. Is that right? Wrong, since Christ told Nicodemus to believe. He said,

Who was Christ’s audience when he said this? Nicodemus. Remember, we are in John 3, and Christ’s born-again teaching in this chapter covers 21 verses. It is little wonder that Christ said the famous John 3:16 to Nicodemus since there is no other way to enter God’s kingdom but to believe in Jesus Christ, our Lord.

John Piper’s Born Again Heresy is Based on a Desire for God

Piper’s theology is “Born Again Now, Believe Later,” akin to “Study Now, Pay Later.” He taught that after experiencing the Second Birth—NOT by faith in Christ, but a “whisper of genuine desire for God”—then it’s time to believe in Jesus. You are saved because you were chosen to live forever before the foundation of the world. (That is predestination!)

John Piper’s Teaching is Not Christ-Glorifying, Hence Heretical

Where is Christ’s place and glory in Piper’s born again heresy? Nowhere. You cannot find the place of Christ in Piper’s damnable heresy.

Yes, John Piper’s Heresy is Supported by Tons of Scriptural Passages Just Like Jehovah’s Witness or the SDA Theology

Is his teaching supported by the Scriptures? Yes, of course. Hyper-Calvinists have plenty of Bible verses to support their claim. They formed a theology (since 1610, over 412 years ago!) out of these passages of the Scriptures.

That is why some say that even Charles H. Spurgeon was a mild hyper-Calvinist. Did you know that the famous John MacArthur is also a hyper-Calvinist? ⁵ I believe most Baptist pastors today are hyper-Calvinists, and most of them do not know they erred scripturally.

Regarding biblical support, keep in mind that the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the SDAs, and the Mormons, among other cults, have sufficient Bible verses to support their deceitful theology.

The devil is just a crafty Bible scholar.

John Piper Said Because We Are Spiritually Dead, We Must Be Born Again Before We Can Believe in Christ.

Piper, after quoting Ephesians 2:3, wrote, “Therefore, if we are going to be born again, it will rely decisively and ultimately on God. His decision to make us alive will not be a response to what we as spiritual corpses do, but what we do will be a response to his making us alive.” ⁶

In trying to humanize Christ’s thoughts about Nicodemus (related to the conversation that brought to light Christ’s born again instruction), Piper wrote: “But evidently, Jesus thinks he’s [Nicodemus’s] dead. There is no spiritual life in Nicodemus. Spiritually, he is unborn. He needs life.” ⁷

This statement coheres with the Hyper-Calvinists’ teaching regarding the spiritual deadness of man, or man’s total depravity.

Let us untangle Piper’s born again heresy point-by-point and verse-by-verse.

FIRST POINT: Man is Hopelessly Unresponsive Since He is Spiritually Dead, According to John Piper

Piper said, “When Jesus tells us that we must be born again he is telling us that our present condition is hopelessly unresponsive, corrupt, and guilty. Apart from amazing grace [that is, irresistible grace!] in our lives, we don’t like to hear that about ourselves.” ⁸

The question is: Is it true that man is “hopelessly unresponsive” to the things of God—that we hate the preaching of the gospel?

The answer is “no.” Nicodemus responded by asking questions. Was Nicodemus completely dead spiritually? Again, the answer is “no.” After Christ said, “[So] is everyone who is born of the Spirit,” Nicodemus asked a question that required a spiritual answer.

“How can these things be?” (John 3:9)

“Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things?'” (John 3:10)

The conversation between Christ and Nicodemus started and ended as a spiritual discussion about God and the born-again experience. (See John 3:1-21.)

Cornelius and Lydia in Acts Were God-Seekers and Remarkably Responsive Before Their Second Birth

The Bible states Cornelius was “a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, and gave many alms to the Jewish people and prayed to God continually.” (Acts 10:2) It happened before Cornelius’s conversion—before he met the apostle Peter, who would preach Christ to him.

He responded to God’s Word, which was delivered to him by Peter. Why was Cornelius so responsive to God’s things if a man is spiritually dead, to begin with?

For another biblical illustration, God opened the heart of a woman named Lydia, who was already a “worshiper of God” before she met Paul.

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” (Matt. 7:7)

It is a heretical teaching that man is “hopelessly unresponsive” when Christ said there is always a seek-and-find dynamic in God.

Non-Born-Again People Are Not Hopelessly Unresponsive as Alleged by Piper

Here is how Luke puts it: “A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul.” (Acts 16:14)

Lydia responded to Paul’s preaching. She, a non-born-again person, was not “hopelessly unresponsive” as alleged by Piper.

Why did God open the heart of Lydia to the gospel? To answer this question, let’s ask Christ, since He said, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matt. 6:33) I think it is helpful to reiterate that Lydia was a “worshiper of God” before she met Paul. She was a seeker of God because she was not spiritually dead.

Christ Requires Non-Born-Again People to Seek First the Kingdom of God

We must SEEK CHRIST because we can do so, not because, as Piper claims, we are spiritually lifeless. (See also Matthew 7:7.)

If it were true that a mere “whisper of genuine desire for God” makes a person born again, then God-seekers, like Lydia and Cornelius, could have been born again even before Christ died on the cross. God’s word, however, states that there is no other name, save the name of Christ, “by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)

The danger of Piper’s born again heresy is that people who would say, “OMG,” could be born again from Piper’s viewpoint. It is just ludicrous, the case of one false teaching giving birth to another.

SECOND POINT: John Piper Taught Predestinarianism

Predestination is not a biblical doctrine because it makes God the creator of sins for hell-bound souls to commit. Second, it implies that Christ did not die for all and that He hated some and loved others. It accuses our Lord that He does not love all.

Piper said, “Who is doing the hardening [of Pharaoh’s heart]? Forster and Marston assume it is Pharaoh and not God [‘the hardening of man by God appears as self-hardening.’] But in view of the prediction of 4:21 (‘I will harden’) this assumption loses its plausibility.” ⁹ (Piper was referring to Exodus 4:21.)

From this verse, Exodus 4:21, I wrote the following paragraphs in my post titled, “Psalm 23: Divine Promises of Provision, Assurance, and Hope” to clarify Piper’s misapplication of Scripture:

In other words, God did not predestine Pharaoh to harden his heart against Israel, just as He did not predestine people to hell by inventing sin and allowing them to commit it by “hardening” their hearts. 

THIRD POINT: John Piper Taught Unconditional Election

Piper wrote: “He loves us with electing love unconditionally. ‘He chose us in him before the foundation of the world . . . for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ’ (Ephesians 1:4-5).” ¹⁰

In my post titled, “Is God’s Love Unaffected by Man’s Behavior?” I found the above teaching of John Piper contradictory:

He said God’s love or election is unconditional, yet his supporting Scripture spoke against his assumption. Ephesians 1:4-5a states, “[J]ust as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself.”

God’s election before the foundation of the world through faith in Christ Jesus is a condition. Such an election is based on God’s omniscience and foreknowledge that we met the condition to trust Christ.

Paul said that “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son.” (Rom. 8:29) Unconditional election is false teaching since there is a condition to believe in Jesus. As mentioned before, let’s hear John 3:36 (KJV) again: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”

Faith in Christ is a Condition of Either God’s Love or Wrath

Faith in Christ—right now—is a condition for either God’s love or wrath. It does not matter if you were chosen before the foundation of the world, since God knows all. Before the beginning of time, God knew you would trust in Jesus for salvation. God’s foreknowledge of our faith in Jesus before the world was created does not produce a condition. It is not synonymous with unconditional election.

Faith in Christ is required for salvation, and our Lord lamented that some refuse to accept Him as their forgiver. Thus, the unconditional election preached by the Hyper-Calvinists is a man-made doctrine, since election has a condition, which is to believe and trust in Christ for salvation. (READ MORE: Is God’s Love Unaffected by Man’s Behavior?)

The ensuing Scriptures record Christ’s grief over those who are UNWILLING to come to Him to have eternal life. They prove that IRRESISTIBLE GRACE and UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION are just theological conclusions backed up by imbalanced scriptural passages.

POINT FOUR: Faith, as John Piper Puts It, Results From Being Chosen

In Piper’s article, “Is God’s Love Unconditional?“, he wrote: “He does not base this election on foreseeing our faith. On the contrary, our faith is the result of being chosen and appointed to believe, as Acts 13:48 says, ‘As many as were appointed to eternal life believed.'”

I wrote the following paragraphs in my article titled, “Is God’s Love Unaffected by Man’s Behavior?” They seek to explain Acts 13:48.

For the Hyper-Calvinists, Acts 13:48 was a “package deal” to suit their theology. For them, all the Gentiles during that preaching of Paul went to heaven, and “all” the Jews went to hell. It is just like their error in Romans 9:13, where it says, “Just as it is written, ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated’.”

The hyper-Calvinists teach that Romans 9:13 is about “unconditional election,” “irresistible grace,” “sovereignty of grace,” “predestination,” and God’s “unconditional love” for Jacob. The context of the biblical account, however, is about Abraham’s descendants. Does it mean to say all of Jacob’s descendants will go to heaven and Esau’s to hell?

It is problematic when we let our theology or denomination define and explain the Word of God to us.

POINT FIVE: John Piper Removes Human Responsibility to be Born Again

Piper wrote in his article, “Is God’s Love Unconditional?“:

Piper argues we need no condition to be born again and enter God’s kingdom. From the above article, he fortified his teaching with 1 John 5:1, where KJV, NKJV, NIV, and NASB1995 say, “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.” The ESV and other less popular versions carry Piper’s “Christ has been [already!] born of God” (1 John 5:1). We cannot build a doctrine out of a passage of Scripture that has different renderings.

Piper also mentioned John 1:13 (his favorite verse) without mentioning verse 12. It is a case of “jumping to the conclusion.” John 1:12-13 states, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were [past tense because they already believed] born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

Bible twisting is common when a passage of Scripture is pushed arbitrarily into the preferred doctrinal mold.

I wrote somewhere that, according to John Piper, some believed because they were predestined to believe. “This teaching removes the human responsibility to believe. Christ said in John 3:16 that ‘whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.’ God requires us to BELIEVE, but the Hyper-Calvinists teach we believe because of God’s irresistible grace, unconditional election, and predestination to believe. What a heretical doctrine!”

Salvation, or Second Birth, always follows faith. The apostle Paul wrote: “Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.” (1 Cor. 15:1-2) Note the phrase, “unless you believed in vain” (not saving faith!).

POINT SIX: What About Our Human Responsibility to Enter God’s Kingdom that Piper Denied?

In my article titled, “Human Responsibility to Believe in Christ,” I wrote:

POINT SEVEN: We Have a Human Responsibility to Believe in Christ to Enter God’s Kingdom

When Christ taught Nicodemus the need to be born again to enter God’s kingdom, the latter asked: “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?”

It signifies that Nicodemus understood the radical change needed by a person experiencing a second birth. His Rabbinic knowledge, however, did not help him understand the things of Christ. According to John Piper, Nicodemus experienced “spiritual deadness” just like all people on earth.

John Piper supported his theory of “man’s spiritual deadness” by quoting First Corinthians 2:14. Which says, “the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God.”

Christ, however, gave us proof Piper was wrong. Our Lord said to Nicodemus,

Our Lord lectured Nicodemus about accepting our [our Lord’s] testimony and putting aside the latter’s rabbinical bias. “Our testimony” means Christ’s Word, the holy Gospel. Again, it was Christ’s doctrine that the natural man, like Nicodemus, could understand spiritual things, if he would just humble himself, seek after the truth, put down his cap as “the teacher of Israel,” and BELIEVE.

In six verses, from John 3:10 to 15, Christ mentioned the word “believe” thrice.

How about the apostle Paul’s teaching that the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him? (cf. 1 Cor. 2:14)

First, let us use Piper’s hermeneutical guide since he said: “Bible, Bible, Bible — the whole Bible, unashamed and uncompromising in biblical balance… I include bringing our thinking into biblical balance as well as biblical truthfulness.” ¹²

Well said, John.

Yes, we need BIBLICAL BALANCE as we figure out Paul’s teaching about the attitude of the natural man regarding Christ’s teachings. The apostle Paul said the natural man DOES NOT ACCEPT the things of the Spirit of God.

Did the apostle Paul say the natural man CAN NOT UNDERSTAND? No. And it is a biblical balance since he said,

A. W. Tozer says, Christ enlightens every man. (John 1:9) This verse speaks the truth: we are not completely dead spiritually.

POINT EIGHT: We Have the Capacity to Believe in Christ to Enter God’s Kingdom Because Our Lord Enlightens Every Man

In one of my posts, I wrote the following a decade ago: ¹¹

_______
* A. W. Tozer, The Tozer Pulpit (Pennsylvania: Christian Publications, 1974), Vol. 1, Book 3, pp. 77-78

Reject John Piper’s Damnable Born Again Heresy If You Want to Please Our Lord

Reject John Piper’s damnable Born Again Heresy. Do you want to be a good servant of Christ Jesus? If so, stay away from false doctrines and deceitful Christian teachers. Paul said,

Never preach “worldly fables fit only for old women.”

READ ALSO:

• Is Living a Sanctified or Holy Life Possible?
• Of Vessels for the Master’s Use
• Is God’s Love Unaffected by Man’s Behavior?
• Human Responsibility to Believe in Christ
• Hyper-Calvinism Rejected by Biblical Christians
• Psalm 23: Divine Promises of Provision, Assurance, and Hope

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——

Notes:

[1] John Piper. “The God-Centered Ground of Saving Grace”. desiringgod.org. https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/the-god-centered-ground-of-saving-grace (accessed September 21, 2022)
[2] John Piper. “How Are We Born Again?” desiringgod.org. https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/how-are-we-born-again (accessed September 21, 2022)
[3] John Piper. “What Is Hyper-Calvinism?” desiringgod.org. https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/what-is-hyper-calvinism (accessed September 23, 2022)
[4] Ibid.
[5] http://bythisverse.com/of-vessels-for-the-masters-use/ (accessed September 23, 2022)
[6] John Piper. What Happens in the New Birth? Part 1. desiringgod.org. https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/what-happens-in-the-new-birth-part-1 (accessed September 23, 2022)
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Craig Truglia. “John Piper Subcribes to Predestinarian Heresy?” orthodoxchristiantheology.com https://orthodoxchristiantheology.com/2016/04/24/john-piper-ascribes-to-predestinarian-heresy/ (accessed September 23, 2022)
[10] John Piper. “Is God’s Love Unconditional?” desiringgod.org. https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/is-gods-love-unconditional (accessed September 23, 2022)
[11] http://bythisverse.com/hyper-calvinism-rejected-biblical-christians/
[12] Ibid. John Piper: What Is Hyper-Calvinism?