Many regrets to all of you good folks, and here’s the deal. Something went south in the WordPress template that I use for letters, and I don’t know how to fix it. I cannot block and copy letters straight into the template anymore, and have to use a roundabout route. This is cumbersome, and takes up more time, and consequently, I have had to greatly restrict the number of letters I respond to. It wasn’t anything any of you wrote, honest.
I do know that everything looks the same, but such appearances are talking to you like some spokesman from the CDC.
Show Outline with LinksFamily Snarls
Family members A and B have a conflict and seek to work through it. Family member C cuts off communication with A (having never discussed the situation with A) because B has been “venting.” Do you have advice for A?
JB
JB, yes. A should continue to pursue reconciliation with B, and the problems created by the “venting” should be added to the list. Seek out pastoral mediation if necessary, and don’t leave anything out. When that conflict is resolved, A and B should go to C together in order to put things right again. If A and B are unable to reconcile, then A should make the attempt with C several times, seeking pastoral help for this also.
Is Gilder a Christian?
I was turned on to George Gilder after one of your podcasts about Men and Marriage several years ago. Since then I have read several of his books and watched countless interviews. Clearly, he is a God-fearing man, but I could never get a clear idea if he trusted Jesus Christ and is born again. Did you have any conversations with him about this when he was in Moscow filming Man Rampant? Is he a Christian?
Thanks,Tim
Tim, yes. I believe he is a genuine Christian. I am taking this from his writing though, and not from any conversations we have had.
General Strike
In your suggested resolutions for the year, I have a question about #10. Do you have any specific suggestions of an appropriate response beyond a general strike? Also, do you mean by a “general strike” that all conservatives should just stay home from work? Thanks for your work. I too think this year could go south quickly
Matt
Matt, in order for a general strike to be effective, it would have to involve far more than self-confessed conservatives. It would need to be something like the “revolt of the normals.” But in order for it not to be an example of “taking the bait,” it would need to be a revolt that presented no handles. If you man the barricades, they can bulldoze the barricades. But if everybody has the flu, that is harder for them to deal with.
The Introspection Trap
How does a man know when he has put his hand to the plow, looked back, and become unworthy of the Kingdom of God? Thanks for your time.
Just Me
Just Me, two things. That is not something we are supposed to know. Those who are guilty of it can’t know it, and those who aren’t guilty shouldn’t try. In other words, if you are worried about it, that means you haven’t done it.
By What Standard?
In your debate with James White on the text of Scripture, you argue for a “penultimate TR with a teleological future.” You acknowledge that there is text criticism to be done, but argue it should be done within the stream of the Byzantine family, especially aware of the TR used for the first KJV translation and this means there is way less work to do. This debate brought me to read some of those you quote (Letis, Hills, Burgon), and I’m grateful. Since you say that there is progress to be made, I wonder if you could briefly comment on how that progress could be made. If we gathered textual critics in a church scriptorium away from big business interests, on what basis would they choose one variant over another? What would be the standard?
Nathan
Nathan, what they would first do is hammer out the principles of confessional textual criticism, and come to agreement on that. The work of Edward Hills should be helpful there. Once they have specified how they are going to make their decisions, and justify their processes from Scripture, they should then proceed.
More on the Jews
I sincerely believe you are an honest man. Do you have any evidence of the beheaded babies, since you have mentioned them in past blogs as a fact? I’m sure you know about the many fraudulent accounts that were made up by the Jews against the Nazis after WW2. For example the “human lamp shades.” Also might be a good time to put down the Scofield Study Bible and pick up Martin Luther’s book “Jews and their Lies.” Continued promotions of Zionism will not be tolerated by this subscriber.
Dan
Dan, honestly, the fact that you call the position I argue for “Zionism,” and think that I need to put down my Scofield Bible, tells me everything I need to know. In the meantime, I would recommend this.
Where Have You Been These Last Few Weeks?
I know this is an age-old question, but is there a hierarchy in the Trinity? I have heard that they are ontologically equal, but there may be an economic hierarchy in the Trinity. The topic itself seems esoteric—is this a concept necessary to understand for the lay Christian ?
David
David, thanks for the question. I would recommend you start here.
Whether to Confess
Thank you, and God bless you and your ministry. I am a woman in my early twenties, seeking guidance regarding confessing past sins. Despite being raised in a Christian home, there was a period in high school when I distanced myself from Christ. I had a boyfriend behind my parents’ backs, and we slept together. I have since repented and believe that I have been regenerated. My parents have noticed the changes in me. However, I have only confessed to having had a boyfriend, not revealing the full extent of what we did. It is confessed to my fiancé and an elder and his wife who knows me very well.
I am uncertain about whether I must confess this sin to my parents. While they are devout Christians, they come from a different country and culture, they still only speak in their mother tongue and are not so well-acquainted with the secular world, so I was not well equipped to face adolescence and was rather naive in my encounter with the world (e.g., we never had discussions on sexuality or reproductive health, as it is a bit taboo in their culture and generation). Regrettably, I took advantage of my parents’ gullibility and lied to them a lot during this period. I am concerned that telling them the full truth may deeply hurt them, affect their well-being and potentially affecting our otherwise strong relationship and altering their perception of me and their parenthood. I was rebellious in other areas too during this time, I am uncertain about which sins I am obligated to confess. It does weigh on my conscience time to time.
Can you speak into my situation?Anonymous
Anonymous, I would answer you this way. I think that you should be willing to tell your parents, and have the issue fully surrendered before God. I think it is likely that the question is going to be something like “where and when” to tell them the whole story. After you are married, and they have seen a real transformation in you, could be a good time to confess specifically. I trust that you have already confessed things like your deception generally, and they have forgiven you.
Alistair Begg
I have just been informed by Alistair Begg himself that the time to take risks as Christians is here. What risks you may ask? Well, he says he told an old grandmother, who was asking for his advice, that she should attend the ceremony of her grandson to a transgendered person. And it would be showing the love of Jesus to buy them a gift as well. As long as they know you don’t approve of what they are doing. If you question me just look up Bethel Mcgrew on X and see for yourself. She time stamps the video from one of Begg’s Truth for Life episodes on YouTube. I realize you have been calling people out by name before and so I commend you for that. I am a subscriber to Canon+ and have been greatly blessed by you and the content on the app. But before you I was blessed by Pastor Begg and his ministry and this is a grievous blow to me. Please stand up and rebuke him by name. How can this stand? How can he define love this way? “Love is not love that bends with the remover to remove. Oh no! It is an ever fixed mark.” So said a mere poet Bill S. His words stand in rebuke of Alistair Begg’s words of “wisdom,” yet on he goes. You once did conferences with him I believe. Can’t you stand up and torch him for this? His words are like a traitorous stab in the back as we sit in the trench of cultural warfare. Why keep fighting when I am getting stabbed by a lieutenant? Please rise up and lock him in ecclesiastical irons and make him recant in front of the whole army or if he will not just repudiate him wholly. He is no shepherd of a flock but a wolf. I am so discouraged—I have lost a job, a church, friends, family, and influence to hold on to hard truths. Please somebody with more influence then me start trashing these men who claim Christ but have given in to the spirit of the age.
Joel
Joel, yes and no. This error of his does deserve the strongest of rebukes, which I believe is happening from many different quarters. But whether this was an example of a thoughtless moment or indication of a deeper rot will be seen in how he responds to the rebukes. I do remember that something very similar happened with Russell Moore, which gave me my first really serious uh oh.
Drinking Alcohol
It is a pleasure to write to you today. My name is Tate, and I am a girl from Indiana. First off, thank you for fighting the good, fierce fight these many years. Am I ever thankful for Classical Conversations, Peter J. Leithart, and Notes From the Tilt-A-Whirl which eventually introduced me to Canon and so forth.
I write to you because I am confused about the relationship a believer should have with alcohol. Can you explain to me your stance on Christians & drinking? I know the answer is not one size fits all, but I would appreciate a better understanding of your thoughts on the subject.
I come from a background of “drinking is not a sin, but it can easily lead to sin; therefore, abstain,” “if something [alcohol] causes your brother to stumble, do not practice it,” and, “alcohol is the pacifier of the weak.” My grandparents were also killed by a drunk driver, so alcohol is not my family’s bestest friend. In truth, I will always be a teetotaler, and I see nothing wrong with this.
Recently, however, I’ve realized that a lot of my denomination’s thoughts on alcohol originated in that dreadful feminist movement. I want nothing to do with feminism. I’m left wondering, then, if alcohol is perhaps not close kin to the evil of the century I always believed it to be.
I’ve also realized that many Reformed Christians drink. Since you all are as conservative as me in every other area of thought, I am wondering why the Reformed stance on alcohol is—to my inborn notions—so liberal. Have I been horribly miseducated on this subject? Is not tipsiness drunkenness, and drunkenness a sin?
Thanks for your time!
P.S. I hope you do not at all take this as an accusatory letter. I’m truly curious.
In Christ (& in soberness),
Tate
Tate, you are correct that we do not abstain from alcohol. The Bible teaches that drunkenness is a sin, but Jesus made about 160 gallons of the stuff at Cana. I would recommend this for you.
Getting Caught Up
Growing up in the public school system, I was taught the oversimplified narrative of slavery being the singular driving force behind the Civil War. Could you recommend a book or two that would help broaden out my perspective on the different dynamics at play?
KP
KP, I would recommend Genovese’s A Consuming Fire, Noll’s Civil War as Theological Crisis, Dabney’s A Defense of Virginia, and my Black & Tan.
I, too, have a WordPress blog, and yes, they keep changing features. My sympathies.
Dan:
Hitler was modest, Hitler was good, and clever and modest and misunderstood. (Apologies to Michael Flanders)
He also liked children and dogs.
Whenever I see the allegation that the Jews lie about the Holocaust, the pogroms, and now the beheaded babies, I’m tempted to ask if that means that the Bible is also lies since it was mostly written by Jews. If the Jews are liars, then how can the Bible be trusted?
The very nature of the claim is head scratchingly sketchy. So you accept the premise that vicious racist genocidal murderers forced their way into Israel, and went door to door killing civilians at random. Taking this information, you then give the murderers the benefit of the doubt, and question the truthfulness of the victims, because they do not post pictured of dead babies on the internet. Its just moon logic from beginning to end. If they were trying to argue that no attack took place on October 7th at all, that would actually be *more* credible, because then it would… Read more »
Being on the other side of the Pond to you I must say I find the ignorance in the views expressed by the likes of Dan to be truly frightening as well as distasteful in the extreme.
The link between the Jews (or Israelites, or Hebrews, or whatever you want to call them) who wrote the Bible (except for Job, Luke, and Acts, and maybe parts of Proverbs) and the Jews who may or may not have told certain lies about those things is tenuous. We know from the words of Christ that the Pharisees traveled over sea and land to make a single convert, and would make him twice as much a son of Hell. How much Israelite blood Jews have is debatable, but what Jesus and St. Paul (their former henchman) is not. Both condemned… Read more »
Wait, what? 1) The Bible was written by men through the inspiration of God. They were fallible men who almost certainly lied about other things at some point in their lives…like most people. We trust God’s inspiration of the Bible, not the moral purity of the men He chose to write it. The race of the authors is immaterial and tells us nothing about their descendants. 2) So every alleged horror of the Holocaust and other events the Zionists tell us is true…or else we can’t believe the Bible? Seriously? What about Jews like Ron Unz or Norman Finklestein, author… Read more »
“We trust God’s inspiration of the Bible, not the moral purity of the men He chose to write it. “ I agree with you, but this is a stickier wicket than most of us like to admit. The underlying problem is we have no word from God about what specifically does and does not qualify as divinely inspired word of God. We have strong reasons to conclude the way we have, but we don’t have the word of God to determine the way we have. So you must then add the council of Nicea and the reformers in your list of… Read more »
It’s not a binary issue so much as pointing out that the claim that Jews lie and therefore the Holocaust didn’t happen is a logical fallacy. (Specifically undistributed middle.) The argument is that *because they are Jews* they cannot be trusted. And if that’s the case, then nothing any Jew says can be trusted. That’s the logical conclusion to the argument, and it’s the premise of it that I’m rejecting.
Actually, now that I think of it, it’s more ad hominem than undistributed middle, but it has some of both. What it ain’t is sound logic.
I agree that the scripture is inspired, not the human authors – although this does not mean something of their individual personalities hasn’t survived in the text. On holocaust denial in Germany, the law on this was designed to prevent the survivors having to have their suffering and loss approved of, trivialised, or outright denied, something the generation involved were prone to. The constitution guarantees the right to freedom of opinion, but the uniqueness of the holocaust in German history makes it a partial exception to this. It is so well documented that denial is on a par with believing… Read more »
I’m pretty close to a free speech absolutist so I find all of these laws criminalizing speech disturbing. Which group is unpopular at the moment changes over time, so the speech that’s being banned today will be celebrated tomorrow. While I recognize that unfettered free speech produces some harm (would anyone really be worse off if supermarket tabloids went out of business?) so does any other right.
No one (or almost no one) denies that Nazi Germany persecuted Jews. Almost all Holocaust skeptics believe that there were concentration camps, which is beyond a shadow of doubt. They usually say that the death toll was grossly exaggerated, and that there were no gas chambers. I will not endorse that position, but I will say that there are some things which make it better than ridiculous. There was a time when the death toll at Auschwitz was believed higher than it is today, and Elie Wiesel, whose work is still taught in school, claimed babies were burned alive, which… Read more »
James, the problem with the argument that the Jews are disproportionately responsible for whatever they’re being blamed for today is that I doubt that there is any group (including yours) that isn’t disproportionately responsible for some bad thing or other. Name any group — racial, religious, gender-based — and there will be some terrible thing that it excels at. We’re all sinners and different groups of people tend to have different ways to express it. If you’re a Manhattan police officer and someone held up a liquor store, statistically you’re probably looking for a black male. But if someone committed… Read more »
I couldn’t think of a more systematic genocide than the murder of European Jews. Much documentation survives in the Federal Archives detailing when and where Jews were arrested, where they were taken to and when they were murdered. There was no excuse for it, it was not provoked by the social degradation of the Weimar Republic. Hitler did not gain power on anti-semitism but because Conservatives engineered it hoping he would put down the Communists after which he could be pushed back out of power. The anti-semitism of the Nazis was unpopular in Germany and initially resisted. Hitler’s rise to… Read more »
When I clicked the link Doug gave about drinking, I was very much hoping it was some sort of bourbon recommendation.
Tate, I was raised southern baptist and to abstain from alcohol but have since realized that it’s not the alcohol that is the problem, otherwise we would have to get rid of all sorts of enjoyments such as regular food or money or sex which can each become a vice in and of themselves. I do enjoy wine and beer but I have personally drawn the line on consuming alcohol by not going after the “buzz” or heavy social drinking. Not judging those that do consume for such but it helps me keep it all in perspective. Some might say….… Read more »
Regarding the new years resolutions, its weird that it’s just assumed now that if Trump looses the only possible explanation is that it’s due to an unfair election. Some people could use getting out more, there are some other explanations. This might be a surprise, but outside the MAGA bubble, even in conservative Christian circles, in many places he’s incredibly unpopular. Of the conservative Christians I know whose politics I know, the vast majority plan on voting for Biden over Trump if it comes to that (they hope against hope it won’t, go Haley :’) and these are life long… Read more »
If they’re voting for a baby-murdering, sodomite-loving, invasion-enabling seditionist like Biden, you can be assured they’re neither conservatives nor Christians. Also, being unpopular among such a crowd is more likely a compliment than an insult.
Or maybe they recognize the reality that the winner will be either Trump or Biden and they’ve made a determination that Trump’s negatives are even worse. You may disagree with that determination but it’s not irrational.
It’s both irrational and unbiblical. And indefensible.
Agreed. I don’t know why it’s so hard for people who already believe that our country is a spiritual and moral mess in a general way, to believe that the majority of people could vote for a wicked an incompetent candidate (who also happens to be the one they don’t like). The corruption obviously occurred, and whether or not it was on large enough scale to turn the election, it shouldn’t be inconceivable that the candidate you don’t like actually was more popular.
Cherrera, not to straw man or anything…. Right? It does take a failure of imagination not to see the other side of your argument there. I recently heard someone talking about liberal bias in law schools, they were saying when they make a pro democracy argument against chevron to left wing law students, the students are shocked, only having heard caricatures of the opposing arguments from their professors, their professors being, overwhelmingly, left wing. Not exposing yourself to the best (or at least half decent) arguments on the other side is a bit of an issue, like coaches in high… Read more »
I don’t need to hear the other side when what I said was true regarding abortion, sodomy, the denial of “God made them male/female” and Biden allowing an invasion that goes directly against what the Constitution says in Article 4, Section 4. We’re a republic, not a democracy, so your rambling law school anecdote didn’t go anywhere with me. What I said wasn’t a straw man–you should probably brush up on logical fallacies before accusing others of making them. I’ve read some arguments from alleged “conservative Christians” and get out enough, thank you. You in fact committed a straw man… Read more »
Okay, well to try to bring this back to what I actually said, I didn’t say you have to agree with their position, that’s very nice that you’ve heard the argument and don’t think much of it, its also irrelevant, you just have to know other people don’t think exactly the same as you. The fact that lots of real life long Republicans plan on voting for Biden in a Biden Trump rematch suggests that it could be possible for Biden to win without any funny business. The whole point being, the options aren’t “we win, otherwise someone cheated” you… Read more »
Anonymous, Cherrera was recently called out as a liar for flat out making up what someone here said: From: The Moral Obligation of Knowing What the Heck Is Going On | Blog & Mablog (dougwils.com) Cherrera: Keep in mind, Kathleen tried to justify the real insurrection: 6+ months of burning, looting, murder, assaults, shutting down interstates & attacking cars, to the tune of over $2 billion in damage, over 30 deaths and hundreds of injured police officers. Kathleen: Oh really. When did I justify the Floyd riots? I don’t remember if I said it here since this is not the only blog… Read more »
Ahh, thank you for the heads up 🙏
Anon, I am late to the game, but showing that the machine vote tally can be changed isn’t just a circus trick. It shows the insecurity of the voting system using such machines and shows how easily the public is deceived. Look past the cases that went to court over vote tallies as it was also shown in court that the machines printing the paper ballot could fill in the circles with different pen strokes so that the ballots didn’t look as though they were filled out by the machine or the same person. The Dominion software guides told the… Read more »
Dave, sorry you misunderstand me. I know its a problem, but twitter format tailored to the short, American, “who cares about details” attention span drives me insane, that’s the point. Securing elections is important and pretty complex, and maybe a hysterical post on twitter tailored to a nontechnical, uninformed audience isn’t the place to go for information on how to solve the problem. It’s a serious problem, let’s try to avoid being overly distracted by the party tricks and focus on more informed discussion. Everyone is so shocked because “you can hack it with just a pen.” Which is cool.… Read more »
*yawn to validate form*
Anon, where will this fair presidential election take place? If you watched the video of Jeff DeWitt, Arizona GOP Chair, attempting to bribe Kari Lake, you listened to just a tiny bit of the corrupt system we all live under. If you are following the Georgia election corruption trial, you may have noticed J Alex Halderman, in court, change the vote tally on a Dominion machine without opening it or using special tools, but only a pen. A similar event was demonstrated in federal and state court in a midwest state’s contested election. The vote tally was changed to whatever… Read more »
To this one, yes election security is concerning, but I’ll say again, evidence that something can be done isn’t evidence that that thing happened. Exploiting a vulnerability once there is functioning exploit code publicly available is usually trivial, but that’s not evidence that someone used it and should be thrown in jail for it, you would need evidence that person did do it. I’m guessing although I haven’t read the decisions you’re referring to, that that would be an issue with this case. There will always be a new vulnerability with every piece of technology, but we can’t retroactively throw… Read more »
I agree with most of your points, but there’s a critical assumption that doesn’t hold. Election results, unlike natural persons, are not entitled to be considered innocent until proven guilty. Instead, because of the extremely high prior probability and consequences of corruption, they should be presumed corrupt until proven beyond reasonable doubt that they are legitimate. The state of the electronic voting art, as you admit and as almost all experts agree, does not permit this and is not likely to within the reasonably near future. So we need to stop using those systems, regardless of whether we can prove… Read more »