Piper says that all unbelievers desire God and seek after Him. He writes, "Moses... cried... "I pray thee, show me thy glory". THIS IS THE HEART-PANG OF EVERY HUMAN BEING ... Only a few diagnose the LONGING BENEATH EVERY HUMAN DESIRE -- THE LONGING TO SEE GOD." (The Supremacy of God in Preaching, p 108)

So John thinks that all unbelievers long for God. He affirms that every desire an unbeliever has, is actually a desire for God. However, if John is right, what's the difference between believers and unbelievers? If unbelievers desire God, and believers desire God too, how can we ever work out whether we are an unbeliever or a believer. John seems to be saying there's no difference at all between believers and unbelievers ! Remember, he said, "Moses... cried... "I pray thee, show me thy glory". THIS IS THE HEART-PANG OF EVERY HUMAN BEING ... Only a few diagnose the LONGING BENEATH EVERY HUMAN DESIRE -- THE LONGING TO SEE GOD." (The Supremacy of God in Preaching, p 108) Clearly, John's blurred the distinction between believers and unbelievers. And this destroys assurance of salvation, because if John is right and the unregenerate already believe in the True God, then how can you be sure you're not unregenerate? And if the unregenerate naturally seek after God, can we be certain that we didn't seek our way into salvation, all by ourselves? Couldn't you be an unregenerate person who by "seeking" found salvation all by yourself (according to Piper). If God is the "heart-pang" of unregenerate men, are all your longings, merely those of an unregenerate person ?

Clearly, Piper's view that all men know "deep down" God destroys assurance of salvation because it makes it impossible for the believer to ascertain whether his faith is based on "innate longings" he has naturally, or actually based on the work of the Spirit.

Piper, elsewhere, actually admits that his view makes assurance of salvation troublesome. Indeed, he acknowledges that his idea (that you can seek after God and still be lost) makes assurance difficult. He writes,

"we [may] be tempted to think of our thirst and our spiritual drinking and our giving as merely an emotional, religious experience TRIGGERED BY OUR INNATE LONGINGS " www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/1981/306_Rivers_from_the_Heart/

So Piper just admitted that his view tempts men to wonder if their "spiritual drinking" is "triggered by innate longings" which someone can have, even if they are unregenerate.

Now ask yourself. Is Piper right when he says, "Moses... cried... "I pray thee, show me thy glory". THIS IS THE HEART-PANG OF EVERY HUMAN BEING ... Only a few diagnose the LONGING BENEATH EVERY HUMAN DESIRE -- THE LONGING TO SEE GOD." If only people could articulate the SILENT CRY OF THEIR HEARTS" (The Supremacy of God in Preaching, p 108)

If so, can you ever be sure you're not just an unregenerate person seeking after God? Will not we always "tempted to think of our thirst and our spiritual drinking and our giving as merely an emotional, religious experience TRIGGERED BY OUR INNATE LONGINGS "

Clearly, Piper's view destroys assurance of salvation. He says that the unregenerate seek after God, so we cannot ever be sure we're not simply unregenerate people seeking after God. In fact, Piper admits that his view will cause us to doubt our salvation. His view does tempt us to suspect that we are unregenerate people and that our spiritual drinking have been "triggered by innate longings" that unregenerate people can have (according to his view).

Indeed, Piper's view that all men know "deep down" God destroys assurance of salvation because it makes it impossible for the believer to ascertain whether his faith is based on "innate longings" he has naturally, or actually based on the work of the Spirit.

Ironically, in another context Piper wrote, "The aim of this book is to LIBERATE PEOPLE FROM FEARS and desires THAT ENSLAVE THE SOUL and hinder radical obedience to Jesus." (p354, Future Grace)

Well, sorry but you failed, John ! Your view that is MORE than believing in the true God and Christ causes people to FEAR that they don't have faith (because you make faith mystical, so people cannot work out if they have it). You enslave people into thinking that "we can believe the promises of God and still be lost" (Future Grace, p199). Whereas Paul said "have peace and joy IN BELIEVING" (Rom 15:13), you say that belief in the truth is USELESS and can provide NO PEACE to a man, because you say "we can believe the promises of God and still be lost".

Piper has no good news to bring. Whereas Christ says, "he that believes will NOT BE ASHAMED". Piper says, he that believes COULD BE LOST.

And Piper's confusion begins with his error in thinking that "...there is in all human beings a knowledge of God ... this knowledge of God includes a knowledge of his moral law ... EVERY PERSON WE WILL EVER TALK TO, ALREADY KNOWS GOD, deep down, and knows God's law." http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/1998/1057_Doing_and_Endorsing_Evil/

Wow. I didn't know unbelievers had knowledge in them. Didn't Isaiah say, " If they do not speak according to this Word, it is because THERE IS NO LIGHT IN THEM!" (Isa 8:20). So the unregenerate have NO LIGHT -- no knowledge of the truth -- in them. And here's a question for Piper. How can unbelievers have God's law on their hearts, when they have been seared "in their own conscience as with a hot iron" (1 Tim 4:2). Surely, if their consciences are seared, the Law is not there at all ! (In fact, Jeremiah 31 says God writes the Laws on a man's hearts only when He converts the man, not before!)

Ask yourself. Does the unbeliever know God deep down, or are "All his thoughts, There is no God." ? (Psa 10:4, ASV). If the unregenerate are saying in their heart "there is no God", then DEEP DOWN THEY ARE ALL ATHEISTS, and do not believe in the God who saves and damns men by his own pleasure (Rom 9)

Consider also -- When he was an unbeliever, did Saul (later Paul) know "deep down" that murder was a sin against the True God, or did he do it "IGNORANTLY" (1 Tim 1:13) ? Clearly, Saul HEARD about God's Law from his childhood, but he was still IGNORANT of "the righteousness of God" (the imputed righteousness of Christ). And has a man understood the Law, until he understands how Christ had to obey it perfectly to save His people?

Of course, all men feel some guilt when they break societal norms. But when a Muslim sins, for instance, he thinks he is sinning against Allah. And when an Arminian sins, he thinks he is disobeying the pansy Arminian god. The Arminian, for example, has NO IDEA that he is actually sinning against the All-controling Jehovah who "works ALL thing according to the counsel of His will". And "deep down" the Arminian thinks he is responsible to a miserably weak "christ" who FAILED to save all for whom he died. The freewiller has NO IDEA that he is actually sinning against the Christ who "SAVES his people from their sins". The Arminian is IGNORANT of the Law, because he doesn't know Who wrote it, (the God who creates light, darkness, good, and evil -- Isa 45:7 and does not save men because they are "willing or running .... or working" but according to his "mercy" Rom 9:16).

So, yes, Arminians "deep down" believe in a god -- but it is a god that "cannot save", a feeble god that wants everyone to be saved, but fails to save them -- and thus they "know nothing" of the Just God and Savior (Isa 45:20-21).

You probably think this teaching is dogmatic, intolerant and exclusive. It is, just like Paul's gospel. And ironically, it is this teaching -- not Piper's -- that "LIBERATES PEOPLE FROM FEARS and desires THAT ENSLAVE THE SOUL".

Let me how explain how this teaching gives believers full assurance of salvation AT ALL TIMES.

First, if unbelievers are "darkened in the INTELLECT" (Eph 4:18), then if you "believe" in your intellect "that Jesus is the Christ" you must be "born of God" (1 Jn 5:1). And can a man believe the Gospel, and even for a moment, doubt he is a believer of it?

Second, if Satan has "blinded the THOUGHTS of the unbelieving" (2 Cor 4:4), then if you have the "MIND of Christ" you have "known the Lord" (1 Cor 2:16). And can a believer call God a liar in this promise? Or aren't those that doubt God's promises, "not believing God", that is, unbelievers (1 Jn 5:10) ?

Third, because unbelievers do "not know...the Righteous Father" (Jn 17:25) -- they don't know God -- then if you believe the God who is "Just and Justifying" believers by the righteousness of Christ by putting it "upon" them (Rom 3), God assures you, that you are saved by the righteousness you believe in. And will a believer ever deny God by doubting their salvation? Of course not, they have SET TO THEIR SEAL THAT GOD IS TRUE. John 3:33. And if a believer knows God is true, could they call him a liar when he says, "EVERYONE BELIEVING IS JUSTIFIED" (Acts 13) ? No, believers are "hold fast the beginning of the assurance firm to the end" -- they have assurance at all times -- and "hold fast to the boldness and rejoicing in the hope" (Heb 3) -- they are never without boldness and confidence that Christ's righteousness is enough for them.

Forth, if animals have more knowledge of their masters, than unbelievers do about God (Isa 1:3, Jer 8:7), then if you possess the knowledge that Christ was "made under the Law" and is the "fulfilment of the Law for righteousness", you must be a believer.
If unbelievers are simply "flesh" and their every thought is "evil all day" (Gen 6:5), then if you believe Christ "died according to the Scriptures" 1 Cor 15 (i.e. you believe he died for his people / the sheep only) then you believe the Gospel and are saved (Mk 16:16). And the unregenerate are "NOT KNOWING GOD" (2 Thes 1:8), so if you believe that "by the obedience of One, many shall be constituted righteous" (Rom 5:19) you have been converted to the knowledge of the Just God and Savior.

Almost every page of the New Testament says all believers ARE saved. So how could a believer ever doubt their salvation? Isn't the promise of God a "SURE" and "STEADFAST ANCHOR FOR THE SOUL" (Heb 6), or at some times do the promises of God fail to assure believers of their salvation? Does even the faith of even the youngest believer (the faith of a grain of a mustard seed) move mountains and is without doubt (Mt 17:20), or not? Are not believers, "GROUNDED and SETTLED and NOT BEING MOVED AWAY FROM THE HOPE of the Gospel" (Col 1:23). In other words, believers never doubt their salvation, do they, because that would mean the Holy Spirit had failed to "witness to their spirits that they are children of God" (Rom 8)? And if believers have the "spirit of adoption, crying abba father", you won't find them wondering whether or not they believe.

CONCLUSION

Piper's view that all men know "deep down" God destroys assurance of salvation because it makes it impossible for the believer to ascertain whether his faith is based on "innate longings for God" he has has naturally, or actually based on the work of the Spirit.

Moreover, Piper's further erodes assurance of salvation when it is added that "we can believe the promises of God and still be lost" (Future Grace, p199). After all, if belief cannot prove to a man he is saved, what can? His works? But how can he produce a "labor of love", if he doesn't ALREADY know he is saved ? Can a man love God, ignorant of God's love for Him? Of course not. So works cannot prove to a man he is saved, since, in order to do the works, the man needed to already know God had redeemed him. "We love Him because he first loved us."

Now, if we say the unregenerate "KNOW NOTHING" in themselves about God (Isa 45:20), then we will always have assurance of salvation. Because we will think, "I believe in the facts of the Gospel, and the lost know nothing of God in themselves, so I must be a believer." Indeed, we will always be assured at all times, because we will know that the natural man CANNOT receive the things of the Spirit of God because they are FOOLISHNESS to him, and he is UNABLE TO KNOW THEM. And thus, we will think, "The facts of the Gospel are foolishness to the natural man, but they are truth to me, so I must be a believer."

Give the lost NO knowledge of God in themselves, and be assured fully of your salvation.

On the other hand, if you give the unregenerate a "heart-pang" and "innate longing" for God, you will be forever wondering if you are simply an unregenerate seeker. Or if you say, "we can believe the promises of God and still be lost" (Future Grace, p199), you will be forever wondering if you are a "lost believer", as Piper calls them.

Of course, don't forget that if you have any doubts about Christ being in you, you are not saved (2 Cor 13:5).

Search the Scripture! The lost have no knowledge in them -- faith is simply the knowledge of the facts of the Gospel -- and thus believers know at all times they are saved, for can someone have such a simple thing as a belief of the truth, and not realise it? Of course not.