Response to Peter Masters’ Critique of Desiring God

One of the courses in The Bethlehem Institute is called Practical Theology: The Pursuit of God in All of Life. It consists of a series of seminars by Pastor John Piper on the following topics: Future Grace; Why We Believe the Bible; TULIP; Sexual Complementarity; Biblical Eldership; Desiring God; Corporate Worship; Prayer, Meditation and Fasting; and Suffering. On some of these topics, Piper has written full-length books for a mainstream audience. On others, he has only written shorter booklets available at Bethlehem Baptist Church via Desiring God ministries.
For each of these seminars, Apprentices (such as me) are required to read what Piper has written on the topic as well as a selection of critical responses from writers who disagree (e.g., an essay critical of Future Grace, or a book representing Arminianism or Open Theism). Our writing assignement is often to respond to a particular critic.
So for the Desiring God seminar, we read Desiring God and chapter two of The God Who Commands by Richard Mouw (Notre Dame Press, 1991). Mouw is critical of Desiring God, claiming that its thesis places the “attainment of [personal] happiness as the single motivating and sustaining factor in the Christian life” (Mouw, p. 37). Note that there is a published response to Mouw from John Piper (1993), which we also read.
Lastly, we were asked to read and respond to this critical essay by Peter Masters (2002). Here is my response.