Jesus is Our Rock of Certainty At This Moment of History
Book Review by Dr. David Craig
I am so glad to have John Piper’s theologically sound and biblically based wisdom in the midst of grappling with the Coronavirus. In this short book Piper shares from personal storms he has gone through in his own life (cancer) and the storms that all humanity must endure when living in a fallen and sinful world.
Part One: The God Who Reigns over coronavirus gives a theological and biblical foundation for going through suffering based on a robust examination of God and His attributes of Holiness, righteousness, wisdom, and sovereignty. His stated aim in this section is to “show why God in Christ is the Rock at this moment in history—in this pandemic of the coronavirus—and what it is like to stand on his mighty love.” He also repeats this statement in several of the chapters and substantiates every statement he makes like it with a plethora of scriptures and theological illustrations to back it up: “The same sovereignty that could stop the coronavirus, yet doesn’t, is the very sovereignty that sustains the soul in it.”
In Part Two Piper answers this question “What Is God Doing through the Coronavirus?” with the following six answers: (1) God is giving the world in the coronavirus outbreak, as in all other calamities, a physical picture of the moral horror and spiritual ugliness of God-belittling sin; (2) Some (not all) people will be infected with coronavirus as a specific judgment from God because of their sinful attitudes and actions; (3) The coronavirus is a God-given wake-up call to be ready for the second coming of Christ; (4) The coronavirus is God’s thunderclap call for all of us to repent and realign our lives with the infinite worth of Christ; (5) The coronavirus is God’s call to his people to overcome self-pity and fear, and with courageous joy, to do good works of love that glorify God; (6) In the coronavirus God is loosening the roots of settled Christians, all over the world, to make them free for something new and radical and to send them with the gospel of Christ to the unreached peoples of the world.
Each answer is supported by Scripture, sound theology, and supplemented with various useful applications. Overall, Piper’s treatment is deep, concise, profound, and eminently helpful. I highly recommend his book as a very positive treatment of our biblical and theological response to the coronavirus.
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