Novembletters

Saying, “I believe in democracy” or “I believe in a multi-ethnic state”, etc. is the equivalent of saying, “I believe in love.” However, “love” is a noun of indistinct definition meaning something very different to a horny young man than to a young lady looking for a husband. “Democracy” has a distinct definition and exists whether I ‘believe’ in it or not. Would it not be better to state “I prefer a democracy over a republic”? OR “I prefer to not live in a society of people who look similar to me”? As the great Rush Limbaugh used to say, “words mean things.” Additionally, I’m so glad you have been trying to burn that couch for the last few years. My husband says it looks as if a fruit salad exploded over it . . .

Melody

In light of the framework described in said post, how should American CNs think about the relationship between the USA and Puerto Rico? How should Puertorican CNs think about it?

CS

Your piece about democracy as a potential idol resonates with a talk that Jonathan Pageau gave at the recent ARC conference. I wonder if you saw it and would be willing to comment on it, particularly on the obvious imbalance between the overtly religious and the secular in this loose ad hoc organization that gathered together because they are seeing the need to resist Mr. Global whoever he is in the name of God. That’s more than I see any of our politicians doing. The thing of the elephant in the room is one you regularly are willing to say, but might you have something to say about our propensity not to notice elephants in the room. It seems there were more than just the one elephant in the ARC room which Jonathan chose to name.

Michelle

I just finished reading you article “A Round-Up On Race, Ethnicity, and Antisemitism” and I wanted to say thank you. Thank you for the clarity you wrote with on the topic.

This was a blessing to read. I’m a Christian of partly Jewish descent, and this has while matter of antisemitism, ethnicity, and the like has been lodged in my mind for a while. Especially recently, as you can imagine. It’s been a time of very acute temptation to fear and distrust the Lord.

But thank you for calling our brothers and sisters to a Pauline love for Jews. It was this love that I saw while reading Calvin’s chapters in the Institutes on Baptism and Circumcision, for instance, that encouraged me to give thanks for the Reformed fathers.

My heart breaks and sometimes I groan for the Jews who still abide in disbelief. And it grieves me to see godly Christian people condemn them and wish them cut off, and even gloat over them as if Paul never warned against these things.

Jacob

I have seen you lend your wisdom to personal questions on here before, and I wonder if perhaps you have any advice for a painful family situation I am facing.

Some background: there was a lot of tension between my parents during my childhood. From as early as preschool age I have so many memories of my mom being very disrespectful to my dad. Of course, as a child, I had no words for this. As I grew older and began to zero in on what was wrong with my family, I could see faults on both sides, but my dad’s many attempts at affection and levity were almost always rebuffed with painful callousness from my mom. Tragically, my father took his life many years ago when I was a young adult. My mother expressed some level of regret at the way she had treated him, but she seemed to quickly assuage her conscience by saying, “Lots of men have a b—- for a wife and they don’t kill themselves.” I never wanted to add to her guilt or stand in judgment over her. I believe my dad has to answer for his own actions on Judgment Day. So I was content to be what comfort I could to my mother without speaking to her actions as a wife.

Now, there is a man in her life. I know intellectually that she is not bound and is free to have this relationship. I can honestly say that I am glad she is not lonely. However, hearing her speak so highly of this man and seeing her treat him with admiration and respect is breaking my heart all over again. I don’t want to hear about this relationship, be involved in it, or witness it. To see her respect this man when she refused to respect my father is unbearable to me. I am on the verge of tears even as I type this.

When I tried to address this with her, the response was, “Well, you never heard my side of the story, and there are things about your father I will never tell you.” No apology, no awareness that she was a foolish woman who tore her house down with her own hands. While she is a professing and practicing Christian, I don’t believe she is aware of 1 Peter 3, or that her rendering of respect was not meant to be contingent on her husband’s behavior. She was not interested in my suggestion that we seek pastoral counsel.

My husband (who knows I am writing to you) thinks that my feelings are understandable and that I am not in the wrong to have a boundary when it comes to this relationship. He encourages me to invite my mom over and have a relationship in other ways, and if she refuses to interact with us without this man then that is her choice. The problem is, she actually is refusing! She has turned down every dinner invitation, and her standing weekly invitation for us to have dinner with her has been rescinded because she now wants to include him and will not host us at her place without him there. I don’t know what to do. The stress has been manifesting in physical symptoms apart from tears of sadness.

In the last months of my father’s life, I approached him about my mom’s behavior (he was much more approachable than my mom) after reading Emmerson Eggerich’s book “Love and Respect,” which had really opened my eyes. Even in his pain, my dad was a father to me and told me that I am to honor my mother because God commands it. How do I honor her in this situation?

T

Are there resources you would recommend for counseling for a miscarriage? Lord willing, I never have to use it, but I want to receive wisdom on this subject and be prepared.

Thanks

Stephen

Re: The Little Drummer Boy Responds . . . You talk about folks “feeling judged” when you satirize a certain TYPE of person, and about their reaction “if the shoe fits”. . . Well . . . If some of your critics are among those who’s staid decorum is what got us evangelicals into this current mess in the first place . . . Perhaps the shoe fits . . .

Michael

Based on 1 Peter 3:6, do you believe that women should literally call their husbands “lord” today? How would you respond to an egalitarian who says that Peter mentions Sarah obeying Abraham and calling him “lord” together, so that if women do not literally have to call their husbands “lord,” the command to obey their husbands must not apply any more either? You have argued that a woman’s marriage vows should include the word “obey” (as they traditionally have), and this would seem to be the clearest text to support that. While I would tend to think that “submit” (which wives are commanded to do to their husbands in a number of other verses) would include obeying, some egalitarians have argued that “submit” and “obey” are completely different and that there is no command for wives to obey their husbands.

Will

Thank you for writing Rules for Reformers. I don’t have a reference copy on hand, but I do have a situation that needs your wisdom.

For context, I’m a hospital worker in Humboldt County, which is in a rural and very blue corner of California. HR wanted everyone to get both COVID and influenza shots, but I declined both. I hoped the pressure would lessen somewhat. Then, my boss forwarded an order from the county Health Officer mandating that all hospital caregivers who decline the COVID & flu vaccine “wear a mask in patient care areas during the influenza season.” This “influenza season” begins November 1 and supposedly ends April 30. They sent this on Oct. 30, giving under two days’ notice.

This is clearly segregation on a 21st century level, and I’ve already made up my mind to not comply. I am preparing to just quit and find another job (there’s nothing much at stake in my situation).

But if I were to escalate this, where should a 19-year-old receptionist start? Should I start by whistleblowing on social media, contacting a good law office, or confronting the health officer herself? Is it even worth the fight?

Thank you for all your help. Keep up the good work in Moscow.

Joan

No post in particular, just regarding the current season. Pastor Doug – do you have any recommendations for books or resources for kiddos to teach them about Thanksgiving? I’m talking about little ones under 5. Some of the resources I’ve come across, even for that age, have a woke bent that I’d like to avoid.

Brandon

I would like to hear your thoughts about the “Great Commission.” If in the Apostles’ view the nations were reached (1 Thessalonians 1:8, for example) and if we understand the “age” that was ending as the “Jewish” age how should we justify our efforts to reach the World for Christ in this present time? Are the “nations” in Matthew 28:19 the same that were reached in the 1st century (Colossians 1:23), or are they the parts of the “unreached world” right now?

Is the “age” in Matthew 28:20, that “Jewish” age that ended in 70 AD or this present age that will end with the 2nd coming of Jesus?

Gustavo

In response to the recent NQN trailer: There’s a curious rumor going around that you torched Ariel in the NQN trailer as a declaration of war against Baptists, as she was clearly fully immersed, and possibly even 1689. Can you confirm or deny this? Curious minds want to know.

Gregory Gilbert Gelderson, or G3 for short

A bit more about Jew-envy. One thing I have noticed about a certain kind of Christian is a begrudging of modern unconverted Jews their ancestral connection to true religion as though the Torah is in no sense Jewish. It is, in fact, read aloud in Jewish congregational gatherings and it is studied diligently by modern Jewish scholars. What’s more, there are orthodox Christian pastors who consult Jewish commentary to better understand the Torah.

This is so crass. A Christian who is a physical descendant of King David does not have a different or better spiritual ancestry than I do. We are both true branches. The most he can claim is that some of his ancestors got there before some of mine—but how does that diminish me as a son of God?

It smells like envy to me, but it’s so petty as to be grotesque. Why envy unconverted Jews their blood heritage when it does them little good without the spiritual heritage, which every Gentile believer has in full?

Daniel

First, thank you so much for the daily strengthening and encouragement you bring to your content, especially during NQN. “Fell deeds awake, fire and slaughter!” just about sums it up, and I’m here for it!

Second, my family is crazy about your description of the “stylistic differences” between postmill and premill brothers. We were going to have a T-shirt printed for one of my brothers with “I don’t think so, Scooter!” captioning an appropriate picture, but we didn’t want to steal any of your intellectual property. Could we suggest, in honor of NQN, that Blog and Mablog release a shirt involving that quote? We were thinking, for the picture, something along the lines of a Dore engraving of an Old Testament prophet, or possibly Gideon cutting down the groves of Baal—but we don’t want to be pushy. We will be your first customers if such a thing ever came on the market!

Thank you!

Hannah

Good stuff as always, thank you.

I would really love to see a scene-by-scene break down of Jordan Peterson’s freshly released “Post Modernist Drinking Song”—many of his references are too obscure for me, one who has never read deeply or studied philosophy, but I imagine that Doug could really take us all to school on this one, and it wold be for the better I suppose. Grace and Thanks.

Daniel

I’m working through your Liberty Catechism adding proof texts as we discuss it in the government class I teach. I’m coming up on question 23, in which you wrote, “to prevent a helter-skelter approach to the making of laws, the legislative body should be divided into two houses, to make the process of legislation more deliberative.” In reading this, I’m reminded of the federalist/anti-federalist debate over our bicameral legislature. The federalists wanted it to put a check on democracy (as you put it, make the process more deliberative), which included making the Senate more accountable to the state legislatures, while the anti-federalists thought two houses would make Congress less accountable to the people. Both deliberation and accountability to the people have biblical support, but I’m having a hard time coming up with proof texts for a bicameral legislature, e.g., passages that might place a stronger emphasis on deliberation or avoiding a helter-skelter approach rather than on accountability or responsiveness to the people; especially given that Senate accountability to the states was removed by the 17th Amendment. Thoughts?

Bill

It’s 3 am EST and I’m sitting here excited for the very first NQN of the month! All I have to say is thanks for using your gifts in this way. God bless.

Tony

I’m in a training program for ministry at a Baptist Church and they recently found out I hold to theonomy and they are less than ok with it. So much so that they had a last minute meeting with me and were emphatic that being a Baptist and a theonomist was inconsistent which I don’t believe to be the case

They gave me 9marks “Church Matters: A New Christian Authoritarianism” and a podcast episode to listen too and I’ve read the book and listed to the episode and am wholly unconvinced of the critiques offered, though I don’t think I could address every argument thoroughly

I was wondering if you had resources I could read that address 9marks and I was wondering if you or someone else planned to refute 9marks

I also learned that they hold to progressive covenantalism and was curious for resources on that as well

Thank you for your ministry. My young family and I are routinely blessed by you and everyone else in Moscow

Matt

I’m a servant to Jesus Christ, husband to my wife of 21 years, father to 3 boys 18, 14, 4. I’m a Captain on sport fishing boat in Destin Florida. I wanted to take a minute and write to you to thank you and maybe encourage you a little. I am thankful to have found your content on youtube a few years ago, and your messages, your preaching, your humor, your wit, frequent sarcasm, immediately resonated with me. It just clicked, I find myself laughing out loud and agreeing out loud to the screen when your doing Blog and Mablog, I have never been much of a book reader, I can listen like a champ though, lol. God has given me a blessing in my job most days I have many hrs where I’m working alone cleaning or fixing stuff on the boat, plus a one hour commute each way each day, plus many hours at the helm on fishing trips traveling sometimes 200 plus miles offshore, so I get to “listen” a lot to my ear buds. The Canon app is a treasure trove for me. I gave my life to the Lord in 4th grade I am 43 now, and was raised in a Christian household bounced between Baptist and Presbyterian. Like many I believed what I was taught not what I read on the “end times” that we would be raptured up any time and we should make sure “our house is in order. “ True, but this never made much sense to me when trying to explain to a friend, especially after reading the Bible more, starting in old test.

I was never aware of a “postmil “ view but when I did, first from some Jeff Durbin’s videos , then yours, then I kept digging from there, it just “clicked “ much more of the Bible makes sense now, I can explain the gospel with more confidence and clarity, live with more confidence, everything that Christ did for us means more, all the metaphors make sense. To me it’s a “BIG PICTURE “ view, it’s God sent his Son to die for a bigger reason, a Bigger reason than I once believed, the Grace is bigger, the Love is bigger, the resurrection is bigger, everything is. So thank you for doing what you do, thank you for being obedient, and faithfully diligent, I’m so glad God gave you the gifts you have, and the platform to use them. Not just the great articulation of your Postmil views but for your views on being a good father, good husband, and steadfast Christian Man. I’m so thankful for you and your ministry it has blessed me and my family, and I know so many others. Keep up the good work.

Sorry for the long blabbering, writing isn’t my strong suit. If you ever get to the Florida Panhandle, look me up.

Jeremy

To your rejoinder to Denny Burk I say “Bravo!” I have never once thought of your loquacious and magniloquent language to be problematic. You emulate Chesterton well and illustrate the epitome of a “happy warrior.” I have a much harder time with other Christian “leaders” who refrain from satire, sarcasm, and the occasional biting word but have no problem with being outright mean in their mockery.

I will take your approach over their mockery any day. Like you said – not everyone is gifted in this area.

Jeff

I have given out dozens of copies of Reforming Marriage over the years and continue to use it for pre-marital counseling.

Has anyone created a convenient study guide to lead couples through a counseling session (assuming, of course, that they read the material in advance)?

Christian

My homeschooling family and I have been touring the great Roman Catholic and Orthodox cathedrals of Europe and have been inspired by the glory of the architecture, created by men on a mission to glorify God according to their understanding. As we then entered a rather dull brick building on Sunday morning in England for a visit to a rather dull service in a local evangelical church, I find myself considering my own beliefs with regard to extravagant temple buildings, ecclesial ritual, and “high church.”

Have we Protestants perhaps gone too far in our intense focus on the bare preaching of the word as compared to physical expressions of beauty and temple? Have we some lessons to learn from the enduring attraction of the buildings and ceremony of our RC and Orthodox friends?

Joshua

Re: The Little Drummer Boy Responds to Denny Burk

While the women were on the way to deliver the message to the 11 of what they had seen and what the angel told them, a group was working to call it a lie, using money (Matt 28:13-15). Upon telling the 11, the resurrection was taken as an idle tale (Luke 24:11)

The Greeks later held it was impossible (Acts 26:8) and mocked those who proclaimed this message (Acts 17:32)

The disciples who obeyed the Lord by waiting in Jerusalem for the Spirit of Truth were accused of being drunk (Acts 2:13)

Team reigning religion arrested those who believed (Acts 4:2-3) while one of them met the one he persecuted and ended up writing a lot of books in the word of God. He was also accused of introducing new gods (Acts 17:18-20)

Later he received unwelcome commandments from soothsayers (Acts 16: 16-18)

David the man after God’s own heart was for a time the preferred object lesson of mothers to their sons, relegating the town drunk to a higher status

Even the son of the one who merely defends the one who believes is subject to attempted murder by the father (1 Samuel 20:26:33).

The heart is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things, who can know it?

As the weeping prophet said

And you, sir, continue to receive the same by today’s 11 (or 10, maybe 9 as Peter and John had a foot race) and Greeks.

Well done and keep it up

Murk