Bøger af E. S. Williams

Many people sense that there is something profoundly wrong with combining the Christian Faith with the philosophy of hedonism, but few people are able to explain why Christian Hedonism is a false doctrine. This short book sets out to evaluate John Piper's teaching in the light of Scripture. We see how he amends the Westminster Shorter Catechism to say that 'the chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever'. We see how he creates a new commandment, 'Delight yourself in the Lord', from Psalm 37.4, and then tells Christians that the vocation of their lives is to seek maximum pleasure in God. We observe how he extols the worldly worship of a Passion Conference. We learn of his new definition of love as 'holy, divine Eros'. We note how he cleverly 'digs up' Scripture to find a 'happy God'. We see how Scripture is twisted to make the claim that the apostle Paul and the Lord Jesus Himself were Christian hedonists. This book provides clear evidence that antinomianism is the underlying error upon which Christian Hedonism is built.

This study contends that John Piper, the hugely popular promoter of Christian Hedonism, is an antinomian. This claim is based on his own words. The starting point of the case against Piper must be the 'Ask Pastor John' (AJP) interview recorded in 2010, when he was asked the straightforward question, 'Are Christians under the Ten Commandments?' His response is unequivocal: 'No! The Bible says we're not under the law.' Piper has relied on what many see as the proof-text for antinomianism, namely Romans 6.14-he quotes part of this verse out of context: 'We're not under the law!' The term antinomianism was used for the first time by Martin Luther. It is the belief that Christians are no longer under the Ten Commandments (or the moral law) as a rule of life. Historic Christianity has always regarded antinomianism as a heresy. Yet antinomianism is vital to John Piper's radical new doctrine of Christian Hedonism, first presented in his 1986 book, Desiring God. This charge is not made lightly; we present clear and compelling evidence to substantiate our claim

The Great Divorce Controversy deals with one of the most contentious issues of our time, the growth of mass divorce in England and America. Family breakdown has reached epidemic proportions in most countries of the western world. The USA has the highest divorce rate in the civilised world, and England has the highest rate in Europe. In the past decade almost 12 million Americans and 1.5 million English families have experienced divorce, involving millions of children in the heartbreak of a broken home. While there has been a plethora of books on the subject, this work is unique in that it deals with the issue from the widest possible perspective, searching for the ideas and attitudes that underlay the move to mass divorce. The historical context of the growth in divorce is described through a series of controversial debates in parliament and the Church which started with the Divorce Act of 1857, and have continued to the present day. These debates demonstrate the change of ideas that have led to the growth of mass divorce in England and the USA. Evidence of the effects of divorce on men, women and children is presented and discussed by the author who understands the principles of assessing the quality of research. A further strand in the debate is an examination of biblical teaching as it relates to marriage and divorce. From this large body of evidence Dr Williams is able to draw certain conclusions. He argues that a major factor is the move to mass divorce has been the changing view of marriage and divorce that flowed from the Reformation, which emphasised the secular nature of marriage and permitted divorce for adultery and desertion among other things. This new teaching, the Protestant doctrine of divorce, led to a weakening in the Church's understanding of the meaning and purpose of marriage. Other influences are an increasing acceptance of the sociological analysis of marriage, the encouragement of psychological theory to view divorce as an opportunity for inner psychological growth, and the exhortation of feminism that women should flee from oppressive marriage relationships. The author points out the grave social and personal problems caused by divorce, and demonstrates the falseness of the once popular view that parents should divorce for the sake of their children. Can the current trend in mass divorce be reversed? Is it possible for England and the USA to turn away from mass divorce? The Great Divorce Controversy deals with those questions head-on, arguing that the Christian Church needs to re-examine its teaching with regard to marriage and divorce in the light of biblical truth.