I know that John Piper is supposed to be some sort of big deal theologian, but his view of God, in this instance, is disturbing to me. I do not believe that God is running around killing babies and destroying Houston while playing a game of “Guess why I am furious with you?!”
This arises in response to a John Piper feature answering a question from a man who wonders if God caused his wife to miscarry because he viewed porn. Piper’s answer was … Might’ve.
Where to begin?
For starters, there is something amiss in the operation of a mind that makes this connection. Since there obviously is no material connection between an image on his computer monitor and a fetus in his wife’s uterus, the one could affect the other only by the operation of an intermediary — an invisible surveilling wizard with the magical power to disrupt normal chemical/biological operation without leaving fingerprints, and who would visit misfortune upon one party in order to punish another. Do people actually believe that’s the world we live in?
Second, there is something misshapen in the character of a person who worships, and hopes to spend eternity with, an invisible wizard who would do something so perverse.
I don’t care if there are pages and pages of justification for these speculations in the Bible. It’s degrading nonsense.