Letters to Help You Fritter Away Some Time

A question about paedocommunion (oh joy): Having not been to Moscow, how does paedocommunion function in CREC churches? Is it feeding the elements to practically-newborn infants, who have no idea what they’re eating or doing? Or is it merely to young kids who can walk and talk and annunciate some basic Christian creeds and understandings? Conversely, do non-paedocommunion Presbyterian churches typically withhold communion from such young kids AND infants, or only infants? (Do they only allow pre-teens and up to partake? etc.) I am always very confused reading arguments for and against these practices without any understanding of the actual precise line of division in children’s age/maturity…

Michael

Hi there pastor Wilson!
I heard your first “sermon” so to speak just the other day on Tucker Carlson’s . Amazing! Thank God for people like you Sir! I’m Polish Canadian who resides in Canada for the last 35 years. What I’m witnessing here is almost movie rewinding of history as of what happened in Eastern Communist Europe 100 years ago and looks like that garbage is coming back in North America. You probably already guessed that I’m Catholic and you are correct but our Catholic leaders are spineless at the present! Would really like you to run for the Pope office, Sir :o) and maybe bring back unity to the Church.
Really like your up to the point clear preaching.
I have only one question . How do you deal with John 6 ??? And the Eucharist . The Thanksgiving, the clear order of our Lord in chapter 6 of the gospel of St. John keep me in my Catholic faith. Otherwise I would be Orthodox . . . also because Eucharist.
God Bless to you and your Moscow community!

Jacek

I just listened to you Tucker Carlson podcast. You are Spot On!
Thank you so much.

Stephen

I saw you on Tucker Carlson and was intrigued. Great interview! What version of the Bible do you study? I have been looking for the most authentic version that is easy to read. I have narrowed it down to the 1611 KJV and the 1560 Geneva Bible. Although the Geneva seems more difficult to read. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.

Mario

Thanks for your bold defense of our faith in Christ on your Tucker interview. Just watched it. I really think Tucker is searching, no longer just a maverick journalist. His most recent interviews suggest he is getting warmer to a personal walk with Jesus as Savior and Lord, not just being Episcopalian. I pray this is so.
My wife and I are followers of Jesus. I grew up as one of those unlikely MK’s you mentioned, and found the Christ of the gospel anyway or maybe in spite of my growing up experience everywhere; US, London, Lagos amid Biafran War, etc. Served as a missionary pilot in Mexico, then founded a small ministry, Brigade Air, to introduce kids to technical ministry in aviation where there are no roads. My wife is 31 year Christian school teacher, hanging on as salt and light in a too often political place in recent years, sorry to say.
I will be 65 next month, and since we moved to Raleigh, NC in 2020 amid Covid, have been struggling to find a real church here. Not sure if most are polishing the brass on the Titanic, or the brass on the buckle of the Bible belt here, or maybe it’s the same thing. Either way, mainstream churches here tucked tail and closed, with wimps for leaders, etc. We need someone like you around here, but can’t find one.
In your interview, you mentioned your “friends.” Got any near us you could recommend? Tried searching through Master’s website, CMA, TGC, Acts 29, and others, still striking out. Worst experience was at SBC. (Durham has gone woke).
We need to be attached, serve, contribute in a true church here somewhere, and are weary. Never had to search like this before. Our fellowship was with one of my supporting churches for many years before relocating.
Thank you for standing strong and faithful, and I would love to support a man like you in a church near us, if you happen to know one.
Together in Christ,

Bruce

I just watched the interview with Tucker and I want to say thanks to Pastor Wilson for his clear (winsome?) description of Christian Nationalism and his addressing of the fact that our hope is not in political solutions. I also appreciated his addressing of the media’s role in not covering the positives that are occurring that point to real change coming from the ground up. God bless

Russell

Is your Cantus of Psalms with music available for purchase? I cannot find it on your website. My husband and I have begun praying the psalms together, but we only have a Psalter with plainsong accompaniment which (for me) is not helpful to easily remember them. I thought to look up the tunes your congregation uses, but cannot find them. Thank you. God bless and defend you, your family, and your ministry.

Tess

Baptist here trying to come to terms with your views on the objectivity of the covenant for all members of the visible church. You believe that anyone who receives the ordinances places himself in a covenantal relationship with the Lord, which obliges him to live as a Christian. So far, this makes perfect sense. But what obligations does this then place on God, if the man is in fact unregenerate? I.e., what does God undertake to do for the man in response to his baptism and participation in the Lord’s Supper, despite his lack of saving faith? Does this not effectively set up a “covenant of works” between that man and God?
My second question is about infant baptism. Suppose you baptize your son on the eighth day, and the Lord graciously saves him at age 15. Prior to this, he was unregenerate, and had therefore not repented and believed the gospel. This means he had been living an unbelieving, unrepentant life for his first 15 years, placing him in violation of the covenant, and bringing him under greater judgment that whole time. Why would you want to place your child under that, when the alternative seems uniformly better? He could just be baptized at 15, and avoid the compounded sin of violating the covenant for so many years?

Daniel

Please ask Pastor Doug to comment on the Lindell controversy over the stripper pole incident. If he has already commented, would you please share the link with me. Thank you

Terri

Sabbath Dinners: A general question regarding the new Sabbath
Doug, thanks for your New Sabbath message from a couple months ago. I have come to accept Sunday as a true sabbath, the new sabbath now that Christ is making all things new. I’ll be direct.
It seems that the Jews viewed a day cycle as starting/ending at sundown, and not at “midnight,” this is referenced indirectly in scripture; “evening and morning were the first day” and all that . . . my question is, would the Sabbath properly be observed from “sundown on Saturday” to “sundown on Sunday”, rather than midnight to midnight, respectively??
Some have called my question pharisaical, but seeing as the Sabbath is at least in part a moral commandment, it seems to me to be a fair question. In any case, thanks

Logan

Watched your Room for Nuance interview. As one of the evangelical Christian who wondered during BLM and the lockdowns if the whole Christian world around me had gone mad, or if it was just me, thank you. Thank you for writing to your target audience. There may not be many of us all in one place, but there are a lot of us in a lot of places.
In Christ,

JS

Context: My family has enjoyed the resources you provide for many years.
Content: I’ve served faithfully and without compromise for 21 years as an Army Chaplain. Concerning Ch. 10 of the text “How to Exasperate your Wife,” I’m not sure the comments toward Chaplain Denominations (by extension Chaplain Endorsers) are as honest as it could be. I can’t speak for those denominations that I have no real interaction with.
Multiple endorsers have in writing their concerns about women in combat roles. We have a very thorough statement on marriage, homosexuality, and women in combat.
Please note the link to my own Endorser (Associated Gospel Churches):
Thanks again for your time.
In Christ

Steven

I just finished watching “Religulous” hosted by Bill Maher. From the same producers as Borat so viewer discretion is advised!
But it was fascinating to watch it after finishing a Canon + teaching series done by Greg Bahnsen called “Basic Training for Defending the Faith” because I was able to see exactly the errors that Bahnsen said would be there in the unbeliever.
It’s a strange thing how even a raging unbeliever in real time needs to depend on the fruit of God . . . (as Bahnsen structured it)—moral absolutes, uniformity of nature, universals and laws, personal freedom and dignity.
It was striking to me how much faith Bill had about his own beliefs . . . it was doubly strange cause a lot of what he was bashing were truly perversions of the truth itself.
It’s one of those documentaries I could see being a fruitful film to engage with at NSA.
At the very least, this documentary showed to me the fruitfulness of sound discipleship. It was sad seeing the Christians who were chosen to be interacted with in the documentary to be so antithetical to the type of Christian I see Moscow desiring to form. If only he interacted with you or anyone in this camp . . .

Samuel

I’ve been wondering, who is King and why? From reading I’ve done it sounds like God is king in the Old Testament and then when the kingdom of heaven comes in Jesus that Jesus inherits and establishes the kingdom on earth. Then in 1 Corinthians 15:24, it says that Jesus will give the kingdom back to God. Why the constant changes? What is the significance of kingship for the heavenly kingdom and for our lives? Why is the Holy Spirit never called King (as far as I know)? Thanks

Jacob

Curious as a classical homeschooling mother, whose oldest child is set to take Introductory Logic next year, why the cover shows a dragon in the brain and a serpent in the minds eye?

Lehman

While I agree with Christian Nationalism i must forward this tidbit from a Yale Professor. VIA YALE
See also Zorach v. Clauson, 343 U.S. 306, 313 (1952)(“We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being. We guarantee the freedom to worship as one chooses. We make room for as wide a variety of beliefs and creeds as the spiritual needs of man deem necessary. We sponsor an attitude on the part of government that shows no partiality to any one group and that lets each flourish according to the zeal of its adherents and the appeal of its dogma.”)

Michael

General question regarding Proverbs, and how we should view them: In the church I used to attend, I was told that the book of Proverbs were, generally speaking, full of maxims, and not necessarily promises from God. By this I mean, that statements made in the book of Proverbs should be considered generally true so far as it goes, but we can’t hold to them necessarily in every circumstance as God promising A if we do B. To some extent, that makes sense, and there are some clear examples where I think that’s valid.
The question I posed to them, and I will now to you, Pastor, is this: how do we know which sayings in Proverbs are maxims, and which are promises? In particular for myself, I want to know how to treat Proverbs 22:6—”Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” It seems like a promise to me, but I was told it was not. Thoughts?

Brandon

Just wanted to say, thanks for your involvement in Brother Down’s production of Old Paths, New Feet. I discovered this venerable album while feverish and it got me through a hard day. In particular I couldn’t stop listening to Thee, O God, Yes, Thee We Praise (Psalm 75). With the blessings of Canon Press I used this song recently as the background music to a video where I hand bound a Gospel of John in the World English Bible translation, a license-free Byzantine Priority translation in spoken English.
Would love to see new albums along these lines in the future!
Blessings,

Martyn

In open letter comments on 4/16/24, you responded to one with, “I believe that we are far too interested in ourselves, and that this contributes to many problems.” This struck a nerve—much more I think could be said on this—any plans along those lines or have you (or other good sources) already done so and I just missed it?
Thanks-

Dave

This is not related to a single blog post, but if I had to assign it to one, I would put it under the post “Theonomy Is a Many-Splendored Thing.” I have been recently tasked to write a researched thesis paper for my English class, and I have decided to write mine on theonomy, and how it is necessary for a Christian with consistent theology to be a theonomist. In my research, I have seen much ado made by critics of theonomy about Reconstructionism, which, if I understand correctly, is simply the Mosaic Law copy-pasted into modern times. Do you know of any resources that can give an extensive explanation of Reconstructionism and General Equity? Much thanks.
PS
Would you describe Rushdoony, Van Til, and Bahnsen as Recontructionists?

Peter

I sent this to Canon Plus, but they said I should rather send it here.
Doug Wilson is always critiquing the Evangelicals. I’m just wondering what an evangelical is? Does Doug (and I presume everyone else at Canon Plus) dislike all Evangelicals. Does he dislike the denomination, or just those that represent it currently? What’s the difference between Evangelical and Baptist or non-denominational? Is it just an America thing, or is it a global thing? What exactly did the Evangelicals do? As far as I can tell from the critiques at Canon Plus, Evangelicals kinda wavy.
Sorry for all the questions, maybe I got here a bit late.
Regards

Louw

I am from Yorkshire, UK. I just wanted to drop you a line and say how helpful your blog on Emeth has been.
In my small group meeting recently we got on to discussing the subject of Emeth and the ‘problematic’ issues it raises. Your blog has been very insightful in helping me to think through some of these things.
Thank you

Malc

You have mentioned the objectivity of beauty, including the objective beauty of a woman’s appearance. You have backed this by multiple biblical references where it speak of various woman as beautiful (Sarah, Rachel, Abigail, etc.). I struggle with this to a point because I was idolatrous of women and objectified them by ranking against a worldly standard of beauty in my youth. I sought to find my worth by the attention I could get from a girl high on that standard.
Clearly this was wrong in a multitude of ways and not just my belief in an objective standard. My standard was flawed since the world’s standard is both sinful and changing.
Certainly there is objective beauty demonstrated by the references you mentioned and the fact that God is the most beautiful. However, I feel that the highest physical beauty of a woman must be more like a targets bullseye than a rank list. The bullseye possess an area large enough that all women could enter it but many miss the mark due to the effects of sin. Natural effects from Adam’s fall like the weak eyes of Leah or the effects of age or the consequences of choices like laziness or gluttony. The difference in beauty within that bullseye would then be subjective to the current or future husband who should aim to make his wife the center of the bullseye.
Just as Christ has made His bride more beautiful than all other peoples by His love for her that removed the effects of sin and centered upon her, a husband set his wife or at least her highest potential unmarred by the consequences of sin as the center of the bullseye, the most beautiful among all other women.
Would you agree with that or ought a husband acknowledging that other women are more physically beautiful than his wife?

Stephen

Thank you for bringing up the issue of Josh Howerton. I’ve seen much of the uproar from Gregoire and really wanted someone to push back on her characterization. I’ve watched her for years and she has gone from a fairly decent biblical view of sex to completely falling off the deep end. And, when she criticizes Howerton for not being an expert on sex, is she claiming she is? Her expertise comes from starting a blog and writing a few books. Hardly the qualifications of an “expert.”
It shouldn’t come as a surprise from a woman who keeps her husband well submitted to her (if you read anything on her blog from him), but it’s scary to see what, as you say, an outsider can cause within a church.
Before seeing the outcry, I didn’t know anything about Howerton and, if he’s like most megachurch pastors, I likely don’t agree with his theology. But, the issue, as you rightly point out, is the church allowing itself to be influenced by outsiders, especially those online. Have a backbone as a church and don’t let society dictate to you.
Oh, and one other thing about Gregoire . . . her daughter’s even worse.

Kevin

I was reading Wokescolds Circling Over Dallas, and for reasons I will hopefully make clear without stumbling to my point, it brought to mind something I’ve been meaning to ask you for a while now. I will openly admit up front, that since around or shortly after the start of the COVID fiasco, I have not been attending a local church service frequently. That’s probably putting it too lightly, I frankly have barely stepped foot in a church on a Sunday outside of a few holiday services attended with in-laws before family gatherings. This was not entirely to blame on COVID, although it certainly didn’t help. To simplify a long story, I was awakened to Christ in a local church during an Easter service in 2017. I was baptized less than a year later in March of 2018. I quickly became involved in said church, serving on the greeting team with regular frequency. That church then went through what I would classify as a messy breakup; essentially the lead pastor was forced out because from what I could understand, most of the staff had large issues with the way his wife ran the show. He was then replaced by a younger woman as the executive pastor and a token lead teaching pastor position thrown to another younger man that was on staff. My family happened to have made friends with both of these people and their families, and then there was another breakup where the teaching pastor was fired because of some leadership disagreements.
So my first church experience as a now new Christian, within a few short years, involved a lot of messiness and subsequent awkwardness attending this church and still being friends with a pastor fired from this church. And then throw in the COVID fiasco, and the caving to pressure and shutting down services, masking, distancing, etc. I quickly became disillusioned, and I gave up altogether.
I have a wife and two girls, and I know that being involved in a local church is something we must be doing, and I should be leading that charge as head of our household. But every church we’ve gone to feels like the same thing, which your Wokescolds article made me think of: preaching that is basically a motivational speech or a “TED talk” with a few Bible verses sprinkled in. Making sure they get some humor in, to keep everyone entertained. They’re all an inch deep and a mile wide, tiptoeing around on eggshells making sure they don’t upset the rainbow people or the COVIDians, etc. There is nothing really of substance anywhere. We have now moved our kids to a classical Christian Academy, and I feel much more connected to that than any church I’ve been around. But I know that is not a substitute.
What is the right play here? Do I just suck it up, and attend somewhere with weak preaching and a weak Gospel for the sake of my wife and kids? I have no problem feeding myself with the abundant resources that are available now to help grow my faith, but I know that Sunday worship portion is a critical piece that I don’t want to be ignoring. I searched the CREC website for churches, but there is nothing within 250 miles of me (Fargo, ND).
I apologize for the length of this question, and as always I appreciate your content.
Thank you,

Mark

I am grateful for how God has used Christ Church and its ministries to help build up and edify the body of Christ. My family has profited in many ways.
A friend recently sent me the Crosspolitic show with Pastor Wilson and Jared Moore from the SBC regarding homosexuality and desire. I had a couple thoughts and questions I wanted to share, and I would of course welcome any further thoughts and/or correction you might offer.
In James 1:14, what comes first: the desire or the temptation? The desire is the source of the temptation. The experience of temptation is a red light on the dashboard of our souls. It is saying, “Danger! There is something you have assigned too much value to, and you are on the precipice of being drug away to it.” Each person has different desires. Different things say, “Vain glory!” to different people. This leads to the further progression of sin spoken of in verse 15.
Ex: At a stop light I see a red Ferrari. The wrong thought would be: I want it, I assign too much worth to it, I think I deserve it, and that could lead me to following the car and stealing it. All theoretical, of course, for the sake of the point I’m trying to articulate.
The right thought would be: Praise God that other person has that car, and I hope they are worshiping God with their money . . . Enjoy!
But Neutral desires cannot give birth to sinful desires/actions. If they could we would be in major trouble.
Have you heard people say, “You are innocent at the first look, it is the second look that is sinful”? Well, like begets like. Why did they take the second look? Innocent looks don’t beget sinful looks.
If one experiences what the world calls temptation, then one is already guilty. That person is already being dragged away by sinful desires. We need God at the first impulse.
Another aspect is that test/trial or temptation can be translated from the same Greek word. Trials and tests come at us, whereas temptations come from within us. If temptations originated outside of us, we’d always be a victim of circumstances, and repentance wouldn’t be as forthcoming. That is how indwelling sin tries to get autonomy from God. It blames others/circumstances.
1 Corinthians 10:13 should be “test/trial”, not “temptation”.
Hebrews 4:15 should also be “tested”. Christ was “tested”, not “tempted”. The tests in the wilderness came at Him and found nothing sinful within to lure (tempt) Him. Christ did not experience “temptation” in a James 1:14 sense, for He did not have any evil desires to tempt Him. Christ was not tempted with homosexuality.
The example of the married man lusting after the beautiful is not a good example, because heterosexual desire can be redeemed. The unmarried man can marry a woman he finds desirable. The married man can become free to marry (your example of his wife dying in a car accident). But a homosexual desire is always wrong and against God and His natural order.
I tried hard to be concise, but it is still long. Thank you for taking the time. I am grateful for your fight for truth.
Respectfully,

Jessi

“You have shown a picture of the American flag flying underneath the Christian flag. Don’t you think that many would find that disrespectful? Isn’t that unnecessarily provocative? Yes, but many of the people who would claim to find that disrespectful have no trouble at all when people on the left burn the American flag, or pee on it.”
Or, I might add, wave the Ukraine flag on the floor of Congress, while American flags drape the coffins of service members . . .

Guymon

In your Fire on the Mountain series, you said that it is wrong for us to say things that are “technically true.” But what if I don’t want to give certain information? What if my wife is ill and doesn’t need to know certain things that would stress her out in her situation, like a broken roof. Would it be wrong to say something technically true and change the topic so she doesn’t probe, and then I tell her if required after I have fixed the roof.
Not every pretense is a lie. “And they approached the village where they were going, and He [Jesus] acted as though He were going farther” (Luke 24:28).
If I’m using words that are precise and intended to obfuscate, not to harm, but to withhold information that I don’t want to share, would that be wrong? Is it my responsibility how the hearer processes my words that are technically true?
Thanks,

J

I’ve appreciated your ministry from afar for going on three decades—though I somehow missed you during my time on the Palouse (I graduated from Wazzu in 1998). I’m the founder/director of Abort73. If that name is not familiar to you, I hope you’ll check it out. But I’m actually writing about a different website: PlannedAbortion.net. I published it last week. If any pastor in the nation could appreciate its vision, I suspect that would be you. At the very least, I want to make you aware of it. If you think it worthy of a podcast mention, I’d be much obliged.

Michael

The Westminster Confession (24:5,6) outlines two permissible reasons for divorce: adultery and desertion. Paul seems to imply in 1 Corinthians 7:15 that the deserter must be an unbeliever. Wanye Grudem and others have argued that restricting legitimate divorces to just those two reasons is more narrow than Paul intended. He uses the phrase “in such cases” in 1 Corinthians 7 to justify his exegesis (https://www.waynegrudem.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Grounds-for-divorce-paper.08.docx). He is specifically wanting to carve out exceptions for abuse and presumedly abandonment by a backslidden believer. I’m curious what your take is on this approach and how would you defend your view?

Wondering Mind