Yesterday John Piper gave a challenge
to his readers to try to support their understanding of showing love to
the unbelieving poor with “strong pillars” of theological argument.
People are lost and on their way to hell, and many of them are suffering
in this life as well. It has always struck me as particularly
meaningless and eternally inconsequential when churches use their
resources to do that which God has not called us to do. The poor, as
Piper said, deserve better than bad arguments with bad theological
foundations.
Last week I made the case that the Bible does not command churches to use their resources to lower the poverty rate,
and I quibbled with Tim Keller’s statement that Christians owe the poor
as much as we can possibly give them. But Keller’s views on mercy
ministry are really so extreme, that it is easy to be accused of arguing
with a straw man (plus I want to take this to heart) so I want to spend a few posts explaining what I see is a full biblical view of mercy ministry.
So over the next few weeks/months, I will use this blog to explain
how our response to the poor should be influenced by Scripture (only one
post a week, so no need to tune out till November if this doesn’t
interest you). If you have sat on a mission’s committee and been
frustrated by the social agenda of many missionaries, if you have seen
the homeless man on the side of the road with the sign that says “will
work for beer” and wondered what you should do, if have ever dared to
ask the question: “does the Bible command Christians to work for social
justice issues?” then this series of posts will be helpful to you. Keep Reading...
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