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John Knight

John Knight is a Donor Officer at Desiring God. He is married to Dianne, and together they parent their four children: Paul, Hannah, Daniel, and Johnny. Paul lives with multiple disabilities including blindness, autism, cognitive impairments, and a seizure disorder. John writes on disability, the Bible, and the church at The Works of God.

Will My Son Go to Heaven? Infancy, Disability, and Sovereign Grace

Will My Son Go to Heaven?

Infancy, Disability, and Sovereign Grace

“Will my child go to heaven?” That question can feel agonizing for any parent — and all the more so for parents of children with severe intellectual disabilities.

Ordinary Gifts for Extraordinary Trials: How God Carries Us Through Suffering

Ordinary Gifts for Extraordinary Trials

How God Carries Us Through Suffering

God is giving you the help in trials you’ll need ten years from now while you listen to his words today.

The Altar of “Progress”

The Altar of “Progress”

The Horrifying Science of Child Sacrifice

When children are conceived for experimentation and discarded when they’re no longer useful, we must call it what it is: child sacrifice to scientific “progress.”

Dispel the Myths About Down Syndrome

Dispel the Myths About Down Syndrome

March 21 is World Down Syndrome Day, and a day for celebration. But we should be careful that we are celebrating the right things.

Would Hollywood Want the Disabled Dead?

Would Hollywood Want the Disabled Dead?

An eleven-year-old wheelchair athlete may have written the most helpful, clearly articulated response to the new movie ‘Me Before You.’

Disability Does Not Justify Abortion

Disability Does Not Justify Abortion

The Zika Virus Is No Excuse

Abortion advocates are taking advantage of the Zika virus outbreak to encourage liberalizing abortion laws in Brazil. It is shamefully prejudicial against unborn children with disabilities and does not address real public health issues.

The Blind Eyes of Abortion

The Blind Eyes of Abortion

The abortionist’s light-hearted comment about an eyeball opened up memories of deep personal disappointment and hurt. For years, I perceived my son’s disability as causing useless pain, and my own hurt as having no purpose. Then God opened my spiritually blind eyes and began to help me see.

Should We Call Them Bullies?

Should We Call Them Bullies?

Nobody condones bullying, right? Websites and radio and television public service announcements rightfully condemn bullying and encourage everyone to speak up for vulnerable children. My children’s schools have guidelines about what bullying is and who is protected from it: Bullying…

It Is Insane to Kill Humans Because of Their Cognitive Abilities

It Is Insane to Kill Humans Because of Their Cognitive Abilities

Sam Storms, in his message earlier this year at our Conference for Pastors, painted such a beautiful picture of God and what it means for us to receive glorified bodies in the age to come. I thought my heart was…

United Through Disability

United Through Disability

Spanning Our Divisions of Race, Culture, and Class

Might God destroy this massive work of the devil — separating us by ethnicity, social class, and income — through the so-called weakest members among us? Perhaps God might allow brothers and sisters experiencing disability to build pathways for spanning our other divides.

The Happiest People in the World

The Happiest People in the World

There is a chasm between experiencing Down syndrome and the perception given to future parents about how awful life with Down syndrome will be.

Four Unthinkable Conversations

Four Unthinkable Conversations

Do we need more evidence that discriminatory attitudes remain against people with disabilities? Shouldn’t killing them before they are born or awarding “damages” when they are “wrongfully” born be enough to convince us?

When No Experience Is Necessary

When No Experience Is Necessary

People hear and see things like that and begin to imagine what life must be like to raise a child with a disability: “His or her quality of life must be low, so low that nobody would want to live that life if given a choice” or “The marriage and rest of the family must be significantly...

Was Richard Dawkins Right?

Was Richard Dawkins Right?

The argument from sentiment is irrelevant to this particular case. If we grant our feelings as primary, rather than as a by-product, we put all people at risk, not just unborn children.

Men, Are You Settled on the Issue of Abortion?

Men, Are You Settled on the Issue of Abortion?

How does Willie Parker, a former “boy preacher in Baptist churches” who became a doctor and delivered thousands of babies, turn from helping women bring forth life to destroying life in the womb through surgical and chemical abortions?

Brooklyn’s Bridge

Brooklyn’s Bridge

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? (Psalm 22:1) Adam and Corrie Hull were given Brooklyn, an amazing little girl. For 118 days. She…

How I Almost Became a False Teacher

How I Almost Became a False Teacher

What does a false teacher in the church look like? Some of them are easy to spot. Health-and-wealth, prosperity preachers hardly require any effort at all. Those who ignore or sneeringly distort the Bible also are fairly obvious. But what…

When the Bible Is Hard to Understand

Years ago Noel Piper recommended a way to read the Bible that helped her, and, as I eventually discovered, helped me as well. She introduced a strategy that turned Bible reading from duty to delight: I became a hunter, and…

Four Kinds of Churches Worth Leaving

Four Kinds of Churches Worth Leaving

Parents of disabled children should never have to hear from a church, “You don’t belong here.” Here are four kinds of churches that are better left behind.

Why We Need Pastors with Big Hearts

Why We Need Pastors with Big Hearts

There are things you cannot know without suffering. So writes John Piper in his foreword to How to Stay Christian in Seminary. This is true, and yet those are the very things pastors must know, in some sense, as…

What Abortion Shows Us

What Abortion Shows Us

More than 55 million children have been slaughtered in the 41 years since the Supreme Court created a new right in the Constitution. If any benefit can be found in the rivers of blood that have been spilled, it is…

Shouldn’t They Know Better?

Shouldn’t They Know Better?

One of the more successful tactics of our enemy is to turn our hearts against the ones under our care — to turn protectors into executioners. For decades parents and doctors have legally killed unborn children in the name of…

The Subtle Art of Destroying Humans

My dearest Grubnat, I am glad to see you are finally learning to be subtler in manipulating your human. As I had warned you, I was concerned that your boisterous assault on the unborn vermin with the rare chromosomal makeup…

Protect the Children from Chemical Weapons

Dear Mr. President, I am joining the unknown numbers around the world who are praying for wisdom for you as you confront this present evil of chemical weapons in Syria. God has promised to provide wisdom to those who trust…

How to Serve Families with Disability

I was enjoying some friendly conversation with old friends after church when my teenaged daughter whispered in my ear, “Dad, he’s losing it.” A quick glance at my son confirmed her assessment of her older brother with disabilities. Experience had…

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