{"id":12422,"date":"2025-01-13T12:10:46","date_gmt":"2025-01-13T17:10:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=12422"},"modified":"2025-01-13T12:10:46","modified_gmt":"2025-01-13T17:10:46","slug":"john-piper-highlights-3-challenges-to-bible-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2025\/01\/john-piper-highlights-3-challenges-to-bible-reading.html","title":{"rendered":"John Piper Highlights 3 Challenges to Bible Reading"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Adobe Stock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With 2025 on its way, Pastor John Piper is using his platform to encourage his listeners<\/a> to read their whole Bible this year. A listener named Mike reached out to Piper, stating he was hoping to read through the Bible for the first time this year. \u201cI feel a little excited and a lot intimidated and enormously unprepared for the year ahead,\u201d said Mike. \u201cI\u2019ve never done anything like this before. What\u2019s your advice for me? And what obstacles must I expect to overcome to pull this off in 2025?\u201d<\/p>\n

Piper praised God for Mike\u2019s decision to read the Bible for 2025, and noted that \u201cyou should be excited, and yes, you should be intimidated. You are in significant ways unprepared. Me too. That\u2019s why we\u2019re reading.\u201d He shared with Mike that there would be three major challenges to reading the whole Bible this year, with the first being that Mike should \u201cexpect opposition.\u201d \u201cSatan hates the word of God and will disincline you, blind you, distract you, bore you,\u201d warned Piper. He encouraged Mike to \u201cpray and fight\u201d and that the tools of the devil would backfire.<\/p>\n

In addition to facing opposition, Piper also encouraged Mike and his listeners to \u201cexpect to be shocked.\u201d \u201cThe Bible is stunningly graphic in its description of both our outrageous sin and God\u2019s breathtaking judgment on sin.\u201d Indeed, many who have \u201cdeconstructed\u201d from their Christian faith have cited some of the more graphic stories in the Bible as something that turned them off from the faith. One of Piper\u2019s own sons, Abraham Piper, cited several stories that impacted his own deconstruction<\/a>. \u201cWhile other kids are learning to read with comics or whatever normal parents have around the house, here fundie (fundamental) kids are\u20266,7,8 years old devouring stories of Jezebel being defenestrated and then eaten by dogs, or Judas\u2018 bowels bursting out, or Noah\u2019s sons laughing at him when he was passed out drunk and naked,\u201d he said in one video criticizing parents making their children read their Bible. He called the Bible \u201c\u2018Game of Thrones\u2018\u2026except if you don\u2019t read it you go to hell.\u201d Piper seems to be preparing his listeners, who may be more used to \u201cfamily-friendly\u201d sanitized Bible stores for the actual rawness of the Bible.<\/p>\n

A third negative, according to Piper, was that new readers need to be prepared to be confused. He cited three reasons why this is: God continues to conceal certain things, certain revelations are hard to understand, and oftentimes a teacher is needed to offer illumination. \u201cDo whatever digging in study helps you,\u201d Piper suggested. \u201cPut things together that you can put together, and what you can\u2019t figure out, put on the shelf for later attention and keep on moving. If you get bogged down with what you can\u2019t understand, you\u2019ll never finish the reading for the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the challenges, Piper offered nine positives to Bible reading. He stated that Bible reading leads to a \u201cdeepened and strengthened\u201d faith, which would lead to \u201cserious liberating work in your life.\u201d And, despite the challenges the devil would put in the way, Piper noted that a third benefit of Bible reading would be \u201cnew power in war with Satan.\u201d He cited Jesus\u2019s temptation in the wilderness and how he used the Bible to defeat Satan\u2019s temptations. Fourthly, Piper said Bible reading would create a \u201cdeep sanctifying work in your life,\u201d that would also lead to becoming \u201ca more loving person to those around you.\u201d \u201cSo you\u2019re going to find love for people growing in your heart as you immerse yourself in the whole sweep of Scripture,\u201d said Piper. He also said the being grounded in the Scriptures would ground him in salvation, and that Bible reading would lead to \u201cunshakable joy.\u201d He rounded out the benefits by pointing out that Bible reading helps the reader to meet God and to \u201csee the glory of Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n

Piper finished his admonition by saying he would pray for Mike. He also exhorted him to hold fast to his plan to read the Bible in 2025. \u201cBe valiant,\u201d he said. \u201cMake a vow to the Lord to keep it, and you won\u2019t regret it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With 2025 on its way, Pastor John Piper is using his platform to encourage his listeners to read their whole Bible this year. A listener named Mike reached out to Piper, stating he was hoping to read through the Bible for the first time this year. \u201cI feel a little excited and a lot intimidated…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":627,"featured_media":12410,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bible"],"yoast_head":"\nJohn Piper Highlights 3 Challenges to Bible Reading<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2025\/01\/john-piper-highlights-3-challenges-to-bible-reading.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"John Piper Highlights 3 Challenges to Bible Reading\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With 2025 on its way, Pastor John Piper is using his platform to encourage his listeners to read their whole Bible this year. 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