Finally Alive: What Happens When We are Born Again

do you know when it will be released, or does it have a publisher yet?

I look forward to this book being published. No doubt it will be a great book to give away! I listened to the series on my iPod and then urged friends and family to follow suit. My Methodist mother and step-father enjoyed the series and have since begun Piper's, 'Don't Waste Your Life' study with their small group. This study has produced some very lively discussion. I cherish the opportunity to use my current seminary studies (SEBTS) to share biblical truth with them. This is very encouraging considering where they are coming from doctrinally. If you have not had the opportunity to listen to the 'Born Again' series...get going!
Darcy

A Cautionary Note: The soul’s regeneration, or “being born again,” is inextricably linked to predestination. I believe that this doctrine is a two edged sword. I grew up being taught to pray for “a new heart” so that I could believe and be saved. Implied was that regeneration was primary and something felt/ experienced so that one would know that he/ she was elect and could then confidently respond to the gospel offer. I suffered under this depressing delusion for many years and suffered major long-term depression because of it. I would recommend Matt Rogers’ “Losing God” (Intervarsity, 2008) as a similar case, and a study of what can happen. I am pleading for great care and gentleness in “reviving” this doctrine. Pastors and well-meaning brothers and sisters may well conclude that they or many of their fellow Christians are self-deceived, and this must be treated with the utmost delicacy. The doctrine of predestination, and the fact that we could never have acted faith without God working in us, are what JI Packer has called the family secret. It is also what Spurgeon described as what we learn when we enter the gate of salvation under the banner, “Whosoever will, may come,” only to look back at the gate through which we came and see, “Predestined from before the foundation of the world.” When one is appreciative of the one thing needful, the enormity of this being cast into doubt can lead to serious clinical depression, causing needless suffering. Many have suffered on this road.

Hi Gary,
I believe you’ll find that Pastor Piper does address this vital topic with “great care and gentleness,” and a pastoral concern for those to whom he is writing. The doctrine of regeneration (and predestination as well, for that matter) is very clearly taught in the scriptures, and is a necessary truth for our comfort, security, joy, and worship. That some may have misunderstood it or taught about it wrongly makes it all the more urgent that what the scriptures actually do have to say on the subject be taught accurately and faithfully. I thank God that Piper has undertaken to do this, for the edification of believers and the evangelization of those who have not yet come to Christ.
By the way, I think it is a vastly helpful thing for many people in professing Christendom to be made to doubt or question the sincerity of their faith. Many people on the day of judgment will be surprised to hear Christ telling them, “I never knew you”. And thus the apostle Peter admonishes all believers everywhere to give diligence to make their calling and election sure, just as Paul tells us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling (taking comfort from the knowledge that God is at work in us). If you (or other believers) are struggling with doubts, I would direct you to the book of 1 John, which is written to help believers examine themselves, and so come to assurance of their salvation. Pastor Piper deals with 1 John extensively in his book, by the way.
Blessings in the Savior,
Nathan