Emojis?
In Defend the Meta, I like your illustration of the “levels” of presuppositions that when “stacked” upon each other create a worldview. These are helpful word pictures that give our brain a shortcut to remembrance and understanding.
Along those lines, I also like Greg Bahnsen’s word picture of the presuppositions of a worldview being like the strands of a spider web. His point being that when you pull at one strand the entire web collapses. Again, an apt illustration that stays with you.
Keep envisioning theological word pictures for us to embrace, like religious emojis. Symbolic theology.
David
David, thanks much,
Providential Preservation
I have been blessed by your books that I have read, the blog posts that you write, the podcasts you have produced, and many other tidbits of information over the last several years that you have shared with the public. We classically home-school our children, and have looked into enrolling our oldest son into your Logos School online. I would love to come up there sometime and see the place.
The reason that I am taking the time to write this, is regarding your written debate on the text of Scripture with Dr. James White. While I respect the opinions of Dr. White and the plethora of those who stand with him, my conscience won’t let me join them. I could be wrong, but after reading various publications by H. J. De Jonge, Dr. Jeff Riddle, Dr. Joel Beeke, Dr. E. F. Hills, Dr. Theodore Letis, Dean Burgon, and various publications from Confessional Bibliology’s website, I cannot stand with the secular mindset that has brought us the ever evolving Critical New Testament Text. Dr. Riddle and Robert Truelove are the two most outspoken voices on this subject. They are both Reformed Baptist pastors who have both been challenged by Dr. White, but as far as I know haven’t accepted his invitation. Dr. Riddle’s site is jeffriddle.net. He can be contacted at info.crbc@gmail.com. He hasn’t published anything on the subject, but I expect that he will in the near future. He also has a podcast on sermon audio, and it has been a good source of information regarding the Confessional Text of the New Testament. He even did a review of your debate with Dr. White. I think that he would be a strong ally since we all are in the minority on the subject. What you do with the info is up to you, but I wanted to know that these guys are out there. They are making a small splash in a large pond, but the ripples are being noticed by several.
My wife is a huge fan of yours and your children Rachel and N.D. I have to say that I and my family have been impressed and helped greatly by your family. It almost makes me want to become a Presbyterian! Thanks for being out there, and may God bless you and keep you.
Phil
Phil, thanks for the kind words, and thanks for passing on the info.
In the Spirit of Ambrose
While listening to Plodcast 94, following an over-indulgence in Ambrose Bierce (per episode 53) I found myself entertaining the following cynical definition:
PRIVILEGE n. Those advantages bestowed upon A, regardless of his merit and without his consent. Prehistorically used in the service of the deity Selection for furtherance of personal interest (i.e., survival of the fittest). The Current Arbitration having deemed the old gods insufficently moral (cases concerning “reproductive rights” excluded), use of privilege for furtherance of any interest at all shall be construed by the Inquisitors as consent; merit shall be suspended until Compliance has been confirmed.
Thank you for your much more edifying thoughts on the matter. I have decided to regulate my consumption of Mr. Bierce’s work to amounts more suited to my constitution.A.D.C.
Dear ADC, in the future you need to make sure to be careful how you shape that D.
Sabbath Question
I’ve heard much about the Wilson Family Sabbath Feast and some about the catechism. I drudged up this article from 2004. I suspect there have been several modifications in the last 15 years (notably the “Kill the Dragon – Get the Girl” finale). Would you please consider publishing an updated version of the catechism (or the whole liturgy)? If you have, could you please redirect me? Thanks very much and Lord bless,
Brandon
Brandon, here is a recent sample of the Sabbath liturgy.
Welcome to our table:
A special welcome to the [guests]. Welcome to our table.
A Sabbath Toast (please raise your glass)
This is the day the Lord has made . . .
We will rejoice and be glad in it!
Prayer [changes every week]
Father and gracious God, we pray to You now in the name of Jesus, and amen. We ask You to bless our time here in preparation for worship in the morning, and ask that this preparation would be consistent with the character of the worship itself. We pray that our eating and fellowship and singing would rest on the firm foundation of gospel, and we ask for this in the name of Jesus, and amen.
A Blessing for my Wife [I stop at various places and the kids fill it in]
May her house always have seven pillars and may she always mix her wine with wisdom (Prov. 9:1).
A Blessing for the Children [same]
Happy are the people whose God is the Lord. May our sons flourish like saplings, grown up in their youth, and may our daughters be as columns, sculpted in the palace style (Ps. 144:12).
Catechism questions for all:
Do you love God? Yes!
Are you baptized? Yes!
Is Jesus in your heart? Yes
Will you take the Lord’s Supper tomorrow? Yes!
Catechism questions [older kids have rotated out when they graduated high school]:
Michael, are you glad to be here? Yes!
Moses, are you glad to be here? Yes!
Adeline, how about you? Yes!
Shadrach, who made you? God.
Max, who made the sun, moon, and stars? God.
Blaire, what is God like? God is love.
Marisol, who reveals God to us? Jesus
Livvy, how do we learn about God? From the Bible.
Titus, what day is it? The Lord’s Day
Chloe, why is it the Lord’s Day? Because Jesus rose
Daphne, what kind of day is it? A sweet day
Seamus, what did Jesus kill on this day? The dragon
Judah, what else did Jesus kill? The dragon in our hearts
Ameera, why did God give us the sabbath? So we could rest
Lucy, why did God give us Jesus? So we could rest in our hearts
Hero, what day of the week is this? The first day, the foundation day of grace.
Kids, what’s the point of the whole Bible? Kill the dragon, get the girl!
Song
Behold bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who by night stand in the house of the Lord . . .
Reefer Madness
I enjoyed your plodcast, Marijuana Debunked. While you don’t have to convince me that marijuana is something that we should completely abstain from, the question about whether it should be illegal is a bit more of a challenge to me. Any thoughts?
Bill
Bill, yes. I am currently working on a book for Canon on marijuana, and there will be a whole chapter devoted to the sin/crime issue.
Earth First! We Can Log the Other Planets Later
I have a question about your views on environmentalism.
I understand that there is a huge nationwide dispute around global warming, but I’m genuinely confused by the current evangelical stance on environmentalism itself. It seems undeniable to me that animals are going extinct, natural environments are getting smaller, there’s less fresh water to go around, the air has more junk in it, the oceans are filling with garbage etc.Despite these things which seem fairly straightforward, conservatives I know all seem indifferent or have adopted a stance which acknowledges these things but sees nothing significant. I find this all very confusing. Isn’t filling the ocean with garbage irresponsible? Isn’t it bad to drive animals to extinction?
What do you think needs to happen to counter these things, or do you think these things are so secondary to more pressing issues (abortion for example) that they aren’t worth the Church’s time?
Paul
Paul, of course, God commanded us to be good stewards of the world around us, which would include the health of the environment and the animals dwelling in it. So break my attitude down into two components. Where there is a genuine environmental challenge, I prefer free market solutions, not governmental solutions. But for much of it, I believe that the warnings of the environmentalists are simply hype calculated to get people panicked enough to surrender total control of our lives to the state. A case in point for this would be climate change alarmism. I just flat don’t believe them anymore.
Resurrected Law
I’m not sure what you mean by this phrase “the law kills and we are raised, together with the law.” What do you mean by being raised together with the law? This quote is from your post on Galatians.
P.s. I enjoy your posts and appreciate your ministry. God bless.Paul
Paul, the law which condemned us was nailed to the cross, as Paul explains in Ephesians, and anything nailed to the cross with Christ is raised again with Him. In our case, it is raised again as the law of love. Love does no harm to its neighbor, etc.
Slavery and Abortion
There’s a fairly glaring distinction you’re failing to make. Slavery and Jim Crow were invented explicitly because its victims were black. Very few, if any, abortions happen because the fetus is black. They happen because the woman carrying the fetus—who most often is black herself—has decided she doesn’t want to carry it to term. It may be murder, but it’s not racism.
The mere fact that a victim is black does not make it a race-based murder. It’s only race-based if the victim was killed specifically because he was black. In the case of abortion, he was killed specifically because the woman carrying him didn’t want a child.
I don’t know if you’re racist or not, but you certainly do say things about race that are incredibly tone-deaf. This is one of them.
And by the way, Margaret Sanger may have been a racist, but then again so were Martin Luther and John Calvin. You might want to ease up on guilt by association.
MIchael
Michael, sorry, but that won’t wash. The way I expressed it was that the disproportionate levels of blacks in the population and blacks obtaining abortions means that the policies governing the whole operation, which go back to Margaret Sanger, lean genocidal. And they do. So a quick consistency check for you. Do you think disproportionate imprisonment of blacks means anything?
And We Shall Be With God
Sorry to be a bother, but I’ve been going back and forth with a friend who is amil and accuses us posties with being too caught up in the here and now which will be destroyed. He thinks both you and I are not interested in the beatific vision. I tell him it is simply an uncontested issue between us, that we all believe the good guys win in heaven. I told him I would send him a post from you concerning the beatific vision but I can’t find one. Would you either direct me to one or write one? Thanks
Anthony
Anthony, that was a good answer. There is no disagreement when it comes to that issue. Think of it this way. If postmills believe that church history is going to go on for thousands of years more, and that we all are going to live eighty years or so, then that means all of us share the much more immediate hope of departing and being with Christ.
Paul should also read A Different Shade of Green, by Doug’s brother: https://canonpress.com/collections/new-releases/products/a-different-shade-of-green-a-biblical-approach-to-environmentalism-and-the-dominion-mandate
Paul, Although there is great wisdom here on many topics, this blog is not where I would come for any biblical insight into a godly understanding of creation care. Although “of course God commanded us to be good stewards…,” you won’t find development of that theme here. The commitment to political libertarianism is greater than to biblical teaching regarding God’s gift of the material world and the best you will find is mockery of that position. Check out Douglas Moo & Jonathan Moo’s book: “Creation Care: A Biblical Theology of the Natural World” for an in depth look at this… Read more »
This perspective on this blog has not been my experience. I will concede that Doug is far more libertarian than I am, and that he always seems to be on the side pushing against environmental ideas. True enough. And, I am far more likely to support nationalizing parks and conservation areas, and creating wildlife refuges and wilderness preserves under the auspices of the government than Doug is likely to support. But, that is not evidence that he is somehow against care for the natural world. He is a post millennial guy, for crying out loud. We posties seek a day… Read more »
BJ, I’ve been reading Doug since the mid-90s and have had my ideas changed and grown on a vast array of topics. Unfortunately, I have never read a single piece on how believers might respect, improve or protect the beauty and goodness of God’s creation. Even if he was simply opposed to statist objectives, you would expect something pastoral, given that he has an opinion on everything. Over that time same time I can’t tell you how many posts, articles or talks where Doug disparages or mocks those same ideas. The most telling discussion was the environmental Disputatio that was… Read more »
I’d argue it’s more a commitment to general Republicanness rather than libertarianism. Wilson is perfectly happy to wield state power against someone or something he dislikes.
“Wilson is perfectly happy to wield state power against someone or something he dislikes”
Matt with a typical strawman comment. I wonder who upvoted that? If you’re going to make a ridiculous accusation like “Wilson is perfectly happy to wield state power against someone or something he dislikes,” provide evidence.
Pornography, marijuana, homosexuality…there’s three for you.
Jeez man, Wilson doesn’t even claim to be a libertarian; what exactly are you trying to defend here?
“Jeez man, Wilson doesn’t even claim to be a libertarian; what exactly are you trying to defend here?”
How specifically does DW want to wield state power against such people. I asked for evidence…as in quotes and links. Instead I got another drive-by comment and a couple of downvotes. Not that I care about voting, but that’s a bit unusual for this place. Your pals like Clay must be Crouching around here…
Anthony might, along with “to be with Christ which is far better,” read the chapter in Iain Murray’s book The Puritan Hope on why the 2nd coming of Christ is greatly to be desired even (?) for postmillennialists; and bear in mind what N T Wright says about “life AFTER life after death,” the resurrection after awhile in Heaven.
Warning heeded. And, in the case of other, more woeful resemblances – may God have mercy.
For anyone interested:
https://player.fm/series/the-ezra-klein-show/john-mcwhorter-thinks-were-getting-racism-wrong
Surprising proof that vox can be interesting.
Haven’t listened yet, but John McWhorter is ALWAYS interesting so anything about what he has to say is a worth a listen.
Jane,
I agree. I have long enjoyed McWhorter’s writing. And use phonics – https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/06/phonics-not-whole-word-best-teaching-reading/591127/
I didn’t even realize he’d written on phonics, but it makes sense that he would. And I figured that out 25 years ago (not all on my own of course), and taught my kids that way.
I listen to his biweekly linguistics podcast, “Lexicon Valley.” And I’ve read some of what he’s written on other topics as well. I don’t always agree, but he’s always thoughtful.
For most children, phonics should probably be the most important part of direct instruction although a generation of people my age learned to read quite well with whole word. In some school districts, however, phonics has become almost the only component of reading instruction in the primary grades and this is deadly. Scripted teaching of phonics rules (drill-and-kill) for a couple of hours a day is guaranteed to make reading seem like punishment–both for the kids who arrive at school already fully literate and for the ones who haven’t spent their early childhood in print-rich homes.
Jill I think the problem there is “a couple of hours a day.” That’s manifestly counterproductive no matter what you’re doing, when you’re talking about 4/5/6 year olds. I don’t think there’s a problem with phonics being the only component of reading instruction early on. Certainly there should be a shift to actually engaging in reading once they begin to grasp the phonics, but you don’t just throw algebra problems at kids while they’re still learning their multiplication tables, on the theory that you need to mix it up with more interesting stuff, because it doesn’t do any good and… Read more »
Jilly,
I mostly agree with jane. Anything drilled for hours will be intolerable. And different kids have different learning needs. The way we use phonics is to teach the phonemes and then let the kids try then out in the wild. We also use some vertical phonics, which some argue is a version of whole world.
It seems to me that it is easier to “drill-and-kill” with sight words than with phonics, where you are giving kids the ability to solve words they have never seen.
Jane and Demo, I think my reservations about phonics-only instruction are really only relevant to a school literacy program that doesn’t address the other components of reading readiness. Children who are being taught phonics at home are undoubtedly also children whose parents read to them, talk about meaning, help them develop fundamental skills such as inference and prediction, and above all, provide a language-rich environment where the child picks up phonemic awareness. Without these in the primary grades, the child may learn to decode very well but have little comprehension of what he is reading–just as I can remember my… Read more »
Jill, I agree with what you’re saying, but that’s not teaching phonics as such. That’s teaching phonics in a particularly terrible manner.
Those math standards are also terrible.