Letters Keep the Gears Turning

Re: Content Cluster Muster 3/16: Ticket to Heaven Interesting, given that the lyrics seem to take the point of view of someone sending money to a televangelist . . .

Disclaimer: I am a fan of Knopfler & co.

Bugs Not Bunny

Not referencing a particular post. What is your take on why Adam followed Eve’s lead in the fall? 1Timothy 2:14 says Adam was not deceived as Eve was, so he willfully sinned. I am tending to think it was despair: he knew Eve was dead, whether she looked it or not and decided to join her in a mad attempt to save her. Afterwards, he resented it, hence God’s judgment that man would rule(harshly) over woman. I also think maybe that’s why Christ is called the last Adam instead of a new Adam. Anyway, curious about your thoughts. Best regards,

James

I’m hoping you can help me understand how God’s blessings work with judgement. Please bear with me as I’m fairly new to Scripture (and my husband and I are first generation Christians, to boot).

Generally, it seems God blesses obedience and punishes disobedience—hence our country looking the way it does. But what about small scale obedience, such as a family’s? Every so often you see a buzz of reformed folks online discussing how faithful, homeschooling families keep losing their kids to various current ideologies. Granted that doesn’t mean they won’t return, but does God revoke normal blessings during a nation’s judgement? Is he less likely to save believer’s kids? What about larger scale faithfulness, such as End Abortion Now? I understand common graces change, but what about to believers?

Thank you for your time,

H

Regarding recent interview with John Anderson on YouTube entitled America Divided.

Greetings;

Around the 45 minute mark, when you were telling the story about Covid, masking, and the young ladies buying a gift for their teacher at the store, you said “freedom doesn’t work that way.”

What do you mean by that comment?

Ryan

“any conservative Christian who addresses cultural issues at all is not worth his salt if he does not get himself accused of racism” Nah. These days it’s all about being a homophobe and transphobe.

Ian

I read some of the ‘gospel’ only guys. I think their problem is that God is too small for them. Righteous ends at abortion and sexual sin. They seemed oblivious to the tyranny rather than the required servanthood of the government during the COVID years. Romans 13 was shouted like the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord talisman. I ponder how they understand Jesus’ Kingdom parables; light, leaven, mustard trees and the rest.

Jeff

RE: Why Fox News Needs to Free Tucker. And Then a Word about the Gospel of Sovereign Grace Pastor Wilson,

I have been frustrated by certain claimed liberal conspiracies in American politics. January 6th is the one that angers me the most. What gets me spun up is the fact that the footage wasn’t in some vault in the bottom of a well. Republicans (including Trump) had as much access to it as Democrats did. If they edited together a nasty looking cut then the best time to point that out was during the impeachment. Yet Trump’s attorney Bruce Castor opened his remarks by describing the liberal edit as, “an outstanding presentation.” He then went on to give one of the most poorly written speeches I’ve ever heard. Now years have passed and Tucker is relitigating the case as though nobody knew about “Discovery” until 2023.

I think the claims of a January 6th conspiracy are a fig leaf covering up embarrassing levels of incompetence on the part of conservative politicians, attorneys, and thought leaders. It’s not victimhood if you simply didn’t prepare. I’ve been told with some confidence that Trump is rich, yet his attorneys appeared incapable of putting together a coherent sentence.

Examples include: improperly formatted legal filings, spell check errors and other typos, and missed deadlines. I’m tired of conspiracies that gloss over these failures. To borrow an analogy from you, at a certain point it’s time to stop calling everything a foul and accept that we’re just getting dunked on by a better team.

PS: (Not angry at you Doug)

Henry

Hello again, Doug. Seldom is a reader afforded the opportunity to seek clarity from a favorite author, so I thought I should take advantage of it by asking . . . In your excellent book “Gashmu Saith It,” when writing about the three governments redeemed men must learn to function within, you write, “The husband is the head, his wife is his body and the executive, and together they shepherd their little ones.”

What EXACTLY do you mean by referring to the wife in these terms? I do see the “Christ and the church” imagery in the use of the word “body,” and feel I can tease that idea out biblically, but I must admit that I’m a bit flummoxed as to what you intend by assigning the role of “executive” to the wife. The Proverbs 31 woman might be an example but would you be kind enough to elaborate and provide some scriptural pointers toward your meaning?

As always, thank you and Nancy for your diligent kingdom work. I refer your podcasts to people often.

Carey

Thank you for publishing my letter about Fairview Baptist Church and Tim Stephens.

I also read the letter from Colin who lives in British Columbia. Here are some churches I’ve found:

1. Surrey Reformed Baptist Church, Surrey

2. Cloverdale Free Presbyterian Church, Cloverdale (next to Langley)

3. Chilliwack Free Reformed Church, Chilliwack

4. Free Grace Baptist Church, Chilliwack

5. Redeemer Baptist Church, Kelowna

6. Heritage Free Presbyterian Church, Prince George

7. Sovereign Grace Baptist Church, Prince George

I hope this helps him!

CR

We have been one of the wealthiest and most free nations on earth. How appropriate, then, would it be for God’s judgment to make us the poorest and most oppressed? As in, worse than North Korea . . .

SR

If there were ever a time when your epitaph, “I was holding back” was true, it might have been in your interaction video on Jen Wilkins on the topic, “Public School for Christian Kids?” ;) You showed amazing restraint.

Luke

RE: WORDSMITHY Hey Doug, I just finished Wordsmithy (on audio actually, which I’m just realizing is a bit ironic!). In it, you talk about the need to get your writing voice in line with your speaking voice. I have to admit, I write FAR more precisely than I speak on the fly. How can I get these in line? I have a feeling it’s a bit of a confidence thing, because I notice I can think logically and coherently, but then when I go to speak those things, especially when I’m around other preachers, I sound like a babbling buffoon. Thanks, brother!

Chaz

Though I hate others telling me, “You have to read this book.” I’d love to hear your thoughts on Vigen Guroian’s Tending the Heart of Virtue: How Classic Stories Awaken a Child’s Moral Imagination, now in a second edition from Oxford University Press.

Ted

Re: 11 Theses on the Glory of the Lord’s Day First of all, let me say that thank you for your ministry. Coming out of a liberal mainline background, your ministry has helped me to think through so many different issues. I don’t think there is anyone who sees the contemporary culture through a biblical lens as clearly as you do.

Another issue that I’ve been trying to think through is the Sabbath. Where I’m at right now is that I think there is still a sense in which we should keep and honor the Sabbath, such as by gathering for worship on the Lord’s Day. In this sense, I think you are correct in what you said about the way that the New Testament speaks about the Lord’s Day. However, I would not consider myself a sabbatarian, because I don’t think the New Testament expects us to keep the Sabbath in the same way that this was expected in the old covenant. Paul says that some consider one day more sacred than another, while others consider all days alike, but each should be fully convinced in his own mind (Romans 14:5). There’s no way that Paul would have made this type of statement about worshiping idols or adultery, so its hard for me to see how he could have considered the Sabbath to be binding in the same way that the rest of the Ten Commandments were.

However, I am still trying to think through this issue and am open to being convinced otherwise, so I would like to better understand your position as a sabbatarian. Do you hold to the classic reformed position that any work or recreational activities done on the Sabbath are sinful? I love and have learned so much from the Puritans, and this seems to basically be their position. In his spiritual autobiography, John Bunyan spoke about coming under conviction for the sin of Sabbath breaking, even believing that he would have gone to hell had he continued in it. The Sabbath breaking that he had in mind was playing board games in his house. Would you consider this Sabbath breaking and therefore sinful, if not, where do you believe Bunyan and other Puritans have gone wrong?

It also seems to me that a lot of Sabbatarians are inconsistent, as they typically consider the Sabbath to be a secondary issues. Since I am not a Sabbatarian, and based on what Paul says in Romans 14, I wouldn’t consider this a primary issue or an issue that Christians should divide over, but if you are a Sabbatarian and you believe that a large part of the Church is just blatantly disregarding one of the Ten Commandments, how could that not be a primary issue? Based on what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5, we couldn’t continue to have fellowship with professing Christians who were unrepentantly engaging in adultery or idol worship, so why would it be different with unrepentant Sabbath breakers, if you consider the Sabbath to still hold the same authority as the rest of the Ten Commandments?

I really appreciate you taking the time to read my letter, as I earnestly want to better understand your position.

Will

I found your piece “11 Theses on the Glory of the Lord’s Day” interesting, and I think you made some good points. Since this traditional view of the meaning of “The Lord’s Day” is often taken for granted, I appreciate you taking the time to make the case. I do, however, want to challenge you on two points:

1. To convince people like me, you would need more than a sentence or two explaining what Romans 14:5-6 and Colossians 2:16 do and do not teach. Is esteeming every day alike not a viable option for Gentile Christians? Where are guys like Douglas Moo and Thomas Schreiner wrong in their exegesis?

2. It seems to me that many Christians in our time think of church as mainly a Sunday thing and as something we go to and from. If so, would you agree that something is missing from the picture of the Christian community we see in the New Testament, with believers sticking together, encouraging and exhorting each other daily, eating together, sharing belongings when needs arise and confessing sins to each other, together with the frequent use of family language?

Ruben

Is man eating meat a result of the fall? Without the fall would we all be vegetarians? If yes, then maybe you could answer a slightly sillier question for me. Were Adam and Eve created with canines or molars only?

Aaron

I am seeking counsel on whether I ought or ought not write a book about a correlation between the 6 days of Creation and the corresponding 6 millennia since with an open question/potential guesses for what it means about the 7th millennia. I am not a dispensationalist or anything in that way. Lean A-mill but would love Post-mill to be the case. I have just come to see a tight correlation between the method, content, and flow of each day of creation with the millennia it would be associated with when looking at each millennium from a high orbit.

My issue is that I don’t know the potential ramifications of it. I would like the reader to takeaway a new appreciation for God in His power and sovereignty, optimism in the future, and, potentially, a fresh desire to strive after Christ and His kingdom. However, doomsday predictors could use it to advance their agendas in unintended ways or people taking it too far and betting their life on a particular timing and outcome.

I really appreciate your thoughts and feedback.

Sincerely,

Stephen

I am in my lower/mid-twenties and am surrounded by a culture of Christians who seems uninterested in sharing an entire one-half of the Gospel. That of course being the Old Testament half that represents God as infinitely full of wrath and condemnation. It is, admittedly, the uncomfortable half. A God of infinite mercy and love is easy to talk about. You are fully aware of the modern church and its insistence on pegging many of us classical theologians as being cynical, divisive, and judgmental.

Is there any sense in which they might be right? Now. I’m not talking about the theology of the thing. An undying loyalty to Scripture is, in my opinion, an unspoken prerequisite to knowing Jesus. If you can’t trust part of it, you won’t be able to trust any of it. However, I have found that there are a few prominent theologians (not you) who present their loyalty to Scripture in a “jerkish” way, and I cringe when I see it because I know their actions will be used as a weapon against Scripture, not against sin. Their theology is sound but their attitude is lousy.

On the flip side, there are many likable, docile, charming “theologians” out there who can smooth-talk just about anyone into believing what they’re saying. Their demeanor is good but their theology is questionable. So is it any wonder that we and our theology are lumped in with the angry stone-throwers? Could it just be that our sensitivity meters have gone all out of whack, and we’re not used to the language anymore? Or is there some kind of historical spine behind the accusations? Maybe a little of both? Was there ever a time in church history when this was an actual problem, or are they just making stuff up? Finally, how do we sift through this on a personal level and decide if we have an attitude problem? They are fellow brothers and sisters, after all.

Laura

I’m at a point where I’m more and more convinced of Calvinism being correct. At the very least, as you said about your own journey, I’m willing to accept that it could be true. I saw your recommendation in last week’s letters to read “Easy Chairs, Hard Words,” which has really helped answer a lot of my remaining questions. I’m curious what your opinion is of children and the need for being “born again” (1 Peter 1:23, John 3:3) and for “repenting” (Luke 5:32, Acts 2:38). I guess my question is, when a child is raised as a covenant member of the church, I assume this removes the so-called “age of accountability” teaching that is prevalent in the Arminian, credobaptism world, but what do you do with texts that seem clear in their teaching for new birth and repentance? I have to believe you’ve written on this, and would appreciate being pointed in that direction.

Thanks!

Tim

I’m curious what your thoughts are on whether the USA had a Christian founding, and was it ever a Christian nation. As it relates to that, have you read Founding Sins by Joseph Moore, what are your thoughts on that book?

Reagan

Once or twice, in your book on race, you decry the “war on drugs.” As someone who works for a private non-profit for shutting down drug houses through civil litigation, could you point me to previous resources where you’ve commented against the war on drugs in more detail? Or would you recommend further reading on this issue?

TR

This question is about Erasmus’s Greek New Testament and the King James Version of the Bible.

Even though my pastor preaches from the NASB, and I regularly reference the other versions. I am mainly a fan of the KJV. I’m pushing 70 years old and the KJV is what I grew up with and memorized from and have been “imprinted” with from an early age. Also I like reading the older books which mainly quote from it. Also I like how it is embedded in the culture and I like its innate literary beauty, when it was translated, etc. And not to mention it meets all 3 conditions of your good Bible translation criteria. So after having read through the NASB and ESV I have pretty much decided just to stick with the KJV for my main reading and use. It is less confusing for me just to stick with the KJV and I like it better.

But my bubble kind of burst a little the other day when it was brought home to me (if I’m understanding correctly) that the KJV NT is based on Erasmus’s Greek New Testament . . . and that Erasmus, when he came to the last part of the book of Revelation “reverse engineered” the Latin Vulgate(?) version back into the “original” Greek!?

Pastor Wilson, is this true? . . . and if so how does that not really cheapen and/or corrupt his Greek New Testament . . . and therefore the KJV? . . . and if not true, would you please explain where I’m wrong and what really happened and how we should think about it . . . And finally, Sir, I know you’ve talked about these things before, but would you please recommend any resources about this sort of thing whatever might come to mind?

Thank you for your time and all your work for the Lord,

Robert

Have you had any interaction with the “American State Nationals” movement? I’ve recently found out a Christian friend drank this Kool-Aid and was interested if you had any advice navigating those waters of discussion?

Chris

As a single young man in his 20’s how should I look at the marriage/lust situation. By God’s grace I have had progress in this area but have slipped up with porn every few months generally. I don’t want to bring this into a marriage situation but also recognize that the Bible talks about marriage being a protection against lust. Want to be wise! Would love your thoughts.

Roger

Good morning! I was wondering if you would be willing to talk about your views on the Civil War. How much of the war was about slavery and how much of the war was about the state’s rights? I noticed you have said you are just to the right of Jeb Stuart politically and I would be interested to know what you meant by that. Thank you!

Jon