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John Piper, Tim Keller, and Don Carson have each been used by God to influence millions. But who influenced them? And what sources beyond themselves would they encourage you to pursue and learn from?

“I really think you have to have multiple influences,” Keller observes in a new roundtable video with Piper and Carson. “If you cut a good minister like a tree, there should be a lot of rings. If you’re only learning from one or two individuals or kinds of sources, you risk becoming a clone.” He commends diving into the Puritans, Jonathan Edwards, and C. S. Lewis, among others.

Carson carries Keller’s observation a step further: “If you listen to one preacher, you’ll become a bad clone. If you listen to two, you’ll become confused. But if you listen to many, you’ll have multiple influences shaping you and will actually be freer to be yourself under the authority of the Word.” He cites John Calvin’s Institutes and Arnold Dallimore’s biography of George Whitefield as being particularly formative for him personally. Carson also highlights the profound influence of personal mentors, noting the impact of an ordinary local pastor who taught him to pray.

“I want people to go toward the Edwardsian author because today I don’t think we suffer today from an overabundance of earnestness,” Piper explains. “We do not suffer from an excess of the weight of glory.” Both Edwards and Martyn Lloyd-Jones can be helpful cultural correctives in this regard.

Watch the full 11-minute video or listen to the audio on how Piper would describe many preachers today, the book that made Carson weep, and more.

Is there enough evidence for us to believe the Gospels?

In an age of faith deconstruction and skepticism about the Bible’s authority, it’s common to hear claims that the Gospels are unreliable propaganda. And if the Gospels are shown to be historically unreliable, the whole foundation of Christianity begins to crumble.
But the Gospels are historically reliable. And the evidence for this is vast.
To learn about the evidence for the historical reliability of the four Gospels, click below to access a FREE eBook of Can We Trust the Gospels? written by New Testament scholar Peter J. Williams.

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