Speculation about John Piper’s tweet, pictured above, seems to be the thing to do, so here’s my 12 cents (up from 2 due to inflation).

There’s an old joke about an elderly couple driving down the road in a pickup truck. The man sat behind the wheel while the wife sat on the other side of the truck, next to the passenger door. At one point the wife turns to her husband and says, “You know, we used to sit a lot closer to each other when driving around.” The man, still driving, turned to his wife and replied, “Well, I haven’t moved.”

Piper’s farewell to Rob Bell was a wave toward the one who was moving. Bell’s trajectory has always been away from orthodoxy but this new book positions him well outside biblical Christianity. Piper’s tweet was a recognition that Bell has departed from any appearance of biblically faithful Christianity. Farewell, indeed.

Thank God that by God’s grace Piper has not moved. I pray he never will. Pray that I never well. Pray for other believers to remain faithful, held from wandering by God’s merciful hand. And pray for Bell that he would realize he is the one who moved, and moved into very dangerous territory. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

This is a discussion I take great interest in so I appreciated hearing Piper’s take.

Here is something else Piper has said on the subject, this one addressing the beliefs of the leaders at Bethlehem Baptist:

I was pleasantly surprised. In the past Christian rap artists have made good efforts but haven’t had very high quality. In this video the video itself is good quality, the song is well done, and the message is outstanding.