The books and conference appearances of John Piper, pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, have had a tremendous influence on evangelicalism in the UK in recent years. This is the final part of an interview which EN obtained with him recently.
Manhood & womanhood?
EN: You were co-editor of the book Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood with Wayne Grudem which came out in 1991. Also you have been involved with the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood for a number of years. Where do you think the issues of the Bible and gender are now?
JP: I am a fallible cultural observer. But I am more hopeful from my complementarian side than a lot of people are. Many feminists, especially secular feminists, would say 'the battle is over and we've won it!' I think that is extremely naive, because while the battle is over in certain denominations, they move on to fight the battle for homosexuality. Let me just put my cards on the table. If you become rigorously feminist in approach and you say that Galatians 3.28, 'There is neither ... male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus', really means there are to be no role distinctions, then your next move logically will be that there are to be no distinctions between who you marry - man or woman.
The re-emergence of heavy shepherds
What would you think if you received a letter from your church leaders that read like this? ‘Are church members …