The Faithful Christian a blog of The Lighthouse Ministries

The term  Christian hedonism  may sound like an oxymoron at first. After all, if “hedonism” is the pursuit of  pleasure , then how can it be Christian? But, as John Piper points out, pleasure  per se  is not anti-God. Pleasure, in one sense, is a gauge of how much importance we place on what we value. Piper coined the term  Christian hedonism  as a provocative way to express a timeless truth: God is not glorified in us as He ought to be when He is not our greatest joy. Or to put it positively, in the words of Piper, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.” Underlying the truth of Christian hedonism is the idea that God has designed each of us with an innate desire to pursue happiness. The problem is not that we seek pleasure; the problem is that we seek pleasure apart from God. In the Bible God does not condemn people for seeking happiness but for seeking it in ways that ignore, neglect, or rebel against Him ( Jeremiah 2:13...

In some churches, it is a word that conjures up images of an angry and capricious God who acts arbitrarily to save some, but consigns most sinners, including deceased infants, to eternal Hell. For many professing Christians, it is the mother of all swear words. Let the pastor breathe it in the presence of the deacon board and he risks firing, fisticuffs or worse. A God who chooses is anti-American, anti-democracy. It bespeaks a long-faced, puritanical religion, a doctrinal novelty invented by a maniacal 16th-century minister whose progeny manufactured a theological “-ism” that has plunged countless souls into a godless eternity. In other churches, it is a cherished word that describes a beloved doctrine, one that bestows comfort and unshakable confidence that not one maverick molecule, not one rebel subatomic particle exists outside of God’s loving providential control, even in the matter of salvation. Want to start a lively conversation? Then utter the word: predest...