John Piper, a Reformed Baptist pastor and theologian with a focus on New Testament studies, was born on January 11, 1946. In addition, he serves as chancellor of Minneapolis, Minnesota’s Bethlehem College and Seminary. Before spending 33 years (1980–2013) as the pastor for preaching and vision at Bethlehem Baptist Church (Converge) in Minneapolis, Piper spent six years (1974–1980) teaching biblical studies at Bethel University.
In addition to being the founder and senior instructor of Desiring God (desiringgod.org), which was named after his book Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist (1986), John Piper is the author of several award-winning books, including bestsellers Don’t Waste Your Life and The Passion of Jesus Christ, as well as ECPA Christian Book Award winners Spectacular Sin, What Jesus Demands from the World, Pierced by the Word, and God’s Passion for His Glory.
He has been quite active on the internet, especially with his Ask Pastor John podcast, where he responds to questions that people have submitted. There are more than 2,000 episodes.
Biography of John Piper
Bill and Ruth Piper welcomed Piper into the world on January 11, 1946, in Chattanooga, Tennessee. For more than 60 years, his father traveled around as an evangelist. His family relocated to Greenville, South Carolina, when Piper was a year old, and he spent the rest of his childhood there, graduating from Wade Hampton High School in 1964.
John Piper claims that when he was six years old, while on a family vacation in Florida, he was converted to a different religion at his mother’s knee. According to Piper, the fact that he was converted at the age of six “blows him away”—not because he recalls the incident, but rather because he believes that the Bible describes the hopeless state of all unconverted people.
In December 1968, John Piper wed Noël Henry, and the couple has twelve grandkids, four sons, and a daughter. From 1964 to 1968, he attended Wheaton College, where he majored in literature and minored in philosophy. After studying romantic literature with Clyde Kilby, John Piper developed a special interest in poetry. He has written multiple poetry collections and continues to explore the deeper realities of social, theological, and personal reality through his poems. His reasons for writing have been elucidated in both prose and poetry. According to Piper, the “combination of rational precision with language, and profound poetic perception of reality” is the fundamental reason why C. S. Lewis has continued to have a significant impact on Piper’s life.
John Piper contracted mononucleosis in the fall of 1966 while listening to Pastor Harold John Ockenga on WETN, the college radio station. “I can remember listening there on my bed to his messages on the radio and feeling inside my heart simply explode with longing to be able to handle the word of God the way he was handling it in the pulpit at Edman Chapel,” Piper said, relating that experience to his call to the ministry of God’s word. Prior to the end of those three weeks, I made the decision to discontinue organic chemistry. I think my call to the ministry of the word was that.
But the most influential period theologically was still to come: three years from 1968 to 1971 at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, where Daniel Payton Fuller taught. He gratefully acknowledges the immense impact Fuller had on him. Three characteristics of Piper’s life can be linked to that influence: a strong belief in God’s all-encompassing sovereignty, what Piper came to refer to as Christian Hedonism, and meticulous attention to exegetical detail in Bible study (indeed, in all readings).
Under Leonhard Goppelt, Piper earned a Doctor of Theology degree in New Testament studies from the University of Munich in Germany from 1971 to 1974. Baker Book House and Cambridge University Press published his dissertation, Love Your Enemies. After earning his PhD, Piper spent six years (1974–1980) teaching biblical studies at Bethel University in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
On December 16, 1974, Piper’s mother perished in an Israeli bus accident. After this occurrence in 1990, Piper’s booklet What’s the Difference? featured an homage to her.
Desiring God
John Piper was appointed pastor for preaching and vision at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1980. He served there until March 31, 2013. After his book Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist was published in 1986, he gained more and more recognition in evangelical Christianity. Since then, he has published dozens of works that further develop his theological viewpoint. Desiring God Ministries was established in 1994 by Piper with the intention of “spread[ing] a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ.” Desiring God Ministries provides free internet access to the majority of Piper’s publications as well as all of his sermons and articles over the last thirty years.
From May 1, 2010, to January 9, 2011, John Piper took an eight-month leave of absence from his ministry. In June 2011, he declared his intention to leave his position as pastor. In March 2012, a successor was named, and on May 20 2012, Jason Meyer was elected (784 yes to 8 no) to follow Piper as the next pastor for preaching and vision.
John Piper delivered his last sermon as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist on Easter Sunday, March 31, 2013, and wrote an open letter to the congregation announcing that he and his family would be relocating to Tennessee for a minimum of a year so that the new leadership could create a strategic plan for the church free from outside influences.
He has been busy working online through his Desiring God ministries after he retired from his active pastorship of his church. His Ask Pastor John podcast, in which he responds to listeners’ concerns about the Bible and life in general, has made him particularly well-known. He also contributes to a video series called “Look at the Book” (“LAB”), in which he provides in-depth exegesis and annotations on a selection of Scripture. Tony Reinke, the podcast’s host, turned the Ask Pastor John podcast into a condensed book, which was published in 2024.
100% of the proceeds from the sale of Piper’s books are donated to different charity, per his personal rule.
Christian Theologian
In 2010, Don Carson, Sinclair Ferguson, G. K. Beale, Thomas R. Schreiner, Wayne Grudem, Al Mohler, C. J. Mahaney, Mark Dever, John MacArthur, and Bill Mounce contributed to a Festschrift titled For the Fame of God’s Name: Essays in Honor of John Piper.
He was listed by Baylor University as one of the Top 12 English Preachers in 2018.
Personal Life
He has five children, including an adopted daughter, and was married to Noël Henry in 1968. Abraham Piper, his son, has openly attacked evangelicalism.
Piper revealed that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer on January 11, 2006. In a letter to his congregation, he and his physicians said they thought the illness was completely curable. Following his diagnosis, Piper said the following:
This news has, of course, been good for me. The most dangerous thing in the world is the sin of self-reliance and the stupor of worldliness. The news of cancer has a wonderfully blasting effect on both. I thank God for that. The times with Christ in these days have been unusually sweet.
On February 14, 2006, John Piper had surgery, and it went well.
John Piper Books
- Love Your Enemies: Jesus’ Love Command in the Synoptic Gospels and the Early Christian Paraenesis (Cambridge University Press, 1980; Baker, 1991).
- The Justification of God: An Exegetical and Theological Study of Romans 9:1–23 (Baker, 1983; 2nd ed, 1993).
- Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist (Multnomah, 1986; 2nd ed, 1996; 3rd ed, 2003; 4th ed [25th Anniversary], 2011).
- The Supremacy of God in Preaching (Baker, 1990, 2nd ed, 2003).
- The Pleasures of God (Multnomah, 1991; Expanded edition, 2000).
- Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (Co-editor) (Crossway, 1991).
- Let the Nations Be Glad! The Supremacy of God in Missions (Baker, 1993, 2nd Edition 2003).
- Future Grace: The Purifying Power of Living By Faith In Future Grace (Multnomah, 1995).
- A Hunger for God: Desiring God Through Fasting and Prayer (Crossway, 1997).
- A Godward Life: Savoring the Supremacy of God in All of Life (Multnomah, 1997).
- God’s Passion for His Glory: Living the Vision of Jonathan Edwards (Crossway, 1998).
- The Innkeeper (Crossway, 1998).
- A Godward Life, Book Two: Savoring the Supremacy of God in All of Life (Multnomah, 1999).
- The Legacy of Sovereign Joy: God’s Triumphant Grace in the Lives of Augustine, Luther, and Calvin (Crossway, 2000).
- The Hidden Smile of God: The Fruit of Affliction in the Lives of John Bunyan, William Cowper, and David Brainerd (Crossway, 2001).
- Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ (Crossway, 2001, 2nd edition, 2004).
- The Dangerous Duty of Delight: Daring to Make God the Object of Your Desire (Multnomah, 2001).
- What’s the Difference?: Manhood and Womanhood Defined According to the Bible (Crossway, 2001, reprint 2008).
- The Misery of Job and the Mercy of God (Crossway, 2002).
- Brothers, We Are not Professionals: A Plea to Pastors for Radical Ministry (Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2002).
- The Roots of Endurance: Invincible Perseverance in the Lives of John Newton, Charles Simeon, and William Wilberforce (Crossway, 2002).
- Counted Righteous in Christ: Should We Abandon the Imputation of Christ’s Righteousness? (Crossway, 2002).
- Beyond the Bounds (co-editor) (Crossway, 2003).
- Don’t Waste Your Life (Crossway, 2003).
- Pierced By the Word: Thirty-One Meditations for Your Soul (Multnomah, 2003).
- The Prodigal’s Sister (Crossway, 2003).
- The Passion of Jesus Christ (Crossway, 2004). Also released under title 50 Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die
- When I Don’t Desire God: How to Fight for Joy (Crossway, 2004).
- Life As a Vapor (Multnomah, 2004).
- A God Entranced Vision of All Things (Co-editor; Crossway, 2004).
- Sex and the Supremacy of Christ (w/ Justin Taylor, Crossway, 2005).
- Taste and See: Savoring the Supremacy of God in All of Life (Multnomah, 2005).
- God is the Gospel: Meditations on God’s Love as the Gift of Himself (Crossway, 2005).
- Contending for Our All: Defending Truth and Treasuring Christ in the Lives of Athanasius, John Owen, and J. Gresham Machen (Crossway, 2006).
- Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die (Crossway, 2006).
- Suffering and the Sovereignty of God (Crossway, 2006).
- What Jesus Demands from the World (Crossway, 2006).
- When the Darkness Will Not Lift: Doing What We Can While We Wait for God—and Joy (Crossway, 2007)
- Amazing Grace in the Life of William Wilberforce (Crossway, 2007).
- The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World (co-editor w/ Justin Taylor, Crossway, 2007)
- Battling Unbelief: Defeating Sin with Superior Pleasure (Multnomah, 2007)
- The Future of Justification: A Response to N. T. Wright (Crossway 2007).
- Spectacular Sins: And Their Global Purpose in the Glory of Christ (Crossway, 2008).
- John Calvin and His Passion for the Majesty of God (Crossway, 2008).
- The Hidden Smile of God: The Fruit of Affliction in the Lives of John Bunyan, William Cowper, and David Brainerd (Crossway, 2008).
