Piper dated his call to the ministry of God’s word to that experience, stating, “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. In the fall of 1966, Piper caught mononucleosis, and during this infection, he listened to the Pastor Harold John Ockenga on WETN, his college's radio station. Lewis has remained a profound influence in Piper's life, in large measure, he says, because of the 'combination of rational precision with language, and profound poetic perception of reality.' He has explained in both prose and poetry why he writes.

Studying romantic literature with Clyde Kilby led him to take particular interest in poetry, Piper has published several books of poetry, and continues to pursue, with his poetry, the deeper reality of personal, theological and social reality. He studied at Wheaton College between 19, majoring in literature and minoring in philosophy. Piper married Noël Henry in December 1968, and together they had four sons, a daughter, and twelve grandchildren. Piper has remarked that the fact he was converted at the age of six 'blows him away', not because he remembers the event, but due to his belief in the Bible's telling of the hopeless condition of all humans who have not been converted. Before Piper was one year old, his family moved to Greenville, South Carolina, where he spent the remainder of his youth, graduating from Wade Hampton High School in 1964.Īccording to Piper, he had a religious conversion at his mother's knee while on a family vacation in Florida when he was six years old. His father was a traveling evangelist for over 60 years. Piper was born on January 11, 1946, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to Bill and Ruth Piper. Piper is the founder and senior teacher of, named for his book Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist (1986), and has written a number of award-winning books, including ECPA Christian Book Award winners Spectacular Sins, What Jesus Demands from the World, Pierced by the Word, and God's Passion for His Glory, as well as bestsellers Don't Waste Your Life and The Passion of Jesus Christ.

Piper taught biblical studies at Bethel University for six years (1974–1980), before serving as pastor for preaching and vision of Bethlehem Baptist Church ( Converge) in Minneapolis for 33 years (1980–2013). John Stephen Piper (born January 11, 1946) is an American New Testament scholar, Baptist theologian, pastor, and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

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