Letters That Were Plainly Sent by Somebody

What is your view concerning the day of creation on which angels were made? Do you think that when Adam and Eve fell into sin, that all of the back story with Lucifer falling with a third of the angels occurred less than a week before?
Also I have a friend who really likes reading John Walton and thinks that the “substrate” of the earth was evil and chaos (darkness was over the face of the deep) and that God placed man on the Earth as a priest with a function of bringing order to it (cultural mandate). This doesn’t seem right to me as God seems to say his creation was good (with the exception of man being alone). What do you think?

Joshua

I have recently enjoyed your book, “Angels in the Architecture.” I love the idea of recovering the medieval idea of beauty, of slow changes, and investing in creating a rich culture for future Christians. I want to pour out my life into future generations and leave them with an inheritance that they can treasure.
Speaking of the future, I was recently troubled by 1 Corinthians 3:13. I cannot figure out how any of my works would be anything but stubble. I am woefully inadequate. Even when I obey God, there is always some nasty ulterior goblin lurking in the background. My question is, how does one ensure that one is using gold, silver, and precious stones?

Ariel

I’m a young Brazilian Christian and I’ve been following you for a short time. Knowing that you are an authority on the subject, “family scares,” please, what advice would you give to a young person who is suffering the separation of their parents? Thanks in advance!

Ramon

On Tin Foil Hats: With all the assaults on the church, do you think Satan has any kind of strategy that would be a devastating head shot?

Steve

“Of all the passions, the passion for the Inner Ring is most skillful in making a man who is not yet a very bad man do very bad things.”
C.S. Lewis delivered that famous line in 1944 at Magdalen College. I do believe that we’re seeing this play out with those in Big Eva. The point being that there are some good men who’ve done bad things because of this desire for the inner ring. Unfortunately, these Big Eva types have harmed others and themselves in the process. Now if my memory serves me right, Carlo Cipolla wrote in The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity that a stupid person is someone whose actions harm others at no benefit to himself and possibly to his detriment.
Therefore, when I budget for stupidity, I find myself also taking into consideration C.S. Lewis’ warning about the corrupting desire to be in the inner ring. This part sobers me because some of these Big Eva types may be either good men doing bad things, or good men who are now bad ones. Of course, it’s also possible that these Big Eva types have gone out from us because they were not of us, in order to show that they weren’t of us. I know that I can’t discern the heart motives of these Big Eva folks, so Lewis’ point about the desire to be in the inner ring gives me a good check in my spirit. Therefore, I can pray for them to turn back to our Savior before it’s too late, and for God to thwart their stupid /foolish actions in the interim.

Matthew

I watched the Chris Gordon interview and read your subsequent admonition to your peeps . . . As someone who has never in my life typed a letter in a YouTube comment box, I wanted to add my drop in the bucket of gratitude for your work and your not being deterred from the consistent waves of people “concerned about you.”
I am one of the throngs whose family has greatly and joyfully benefited from your writings and am not running around setting my hair on fire.

Chris

Let’s imagine you went to a three-hour long talk with a chap named Obadiah. Obadiah thinks he’s cool and well-read, but he’s actually just obnoxious and annoying. He exudes a lot of feminine energy, and the TLDR of his entire point in the three-hour talk can be summed as, “You didn’t write books the way I would have.” Now please bear with me here in this purely fictional story; I’m getting to my question. Throughout the interview, Obadiah acted like he was the big dawg, and even though he said he wasn’t trying to “do a Doug-takedown,” that’s all he was after. Again, please just imagine such a scenario.
Now I understand why we must be gracious with everyone, including people like Obadiah. We own nothing good that wasn’t given to us by our gracious Father, so we have nothing to boast about. I also understand why we must be joyful, cheerful, and patient. God is sovereign over every atom, and he’s preparing a table for us in the midst of our enemies. So, be humble, be joyful. So far so good.
But here’s my question. Shouldn’t Obadiah be rebuked for his attitude? At least privately? Sure, he was brave in having someone as controversial and reviled as you on his show. But for someone in your position, and I must underscore the phrase “someone in your position,” because I would be disqualified from rebuking him, for I would get annoyed if I were in your place, which means I’m not spiritual enough, but for someone in your position (spiritual, older, wiser, way more proof-of-work to show), shouldn’t you rebuke him? Are you saying there are no grounds for rebuke, in this fictional story? Or are you saying something along the lines of, the interview is not the right time or place for rebuke? Or are you saying that he’s not under your care, so you don’t have the responsibility to rebuke him? If I had to guess, I would say that the last point is the answer: you would rebuke Obadiah privately if he was part of your church; but otherwise be gracious and laugh off insults.Of course, there’s no big sin Obadiah is involved in; this is just attitude correction.
I’m also trying to imagine, if I were Obadiah, from my vantage point now, I would really want someone to stop me in my tracks and wake me up with stern words and more if necessary. For sure, I would love and respect pastor Wilson if he didn’t rebuke me at all. But I imagine (and I could be wrong) that if I were to wake up from my error, then I would like Pastor Wilson more and be more grateful to him if he did in fact rebuke me. So here’s my second question, am I wrong here? Would it not be spiritually better for me if someone called me out on my attitude?

John

Escondido:
I’m impelled to state that your manner in debate and general interaction is shown once more to be impeccable.
This was 2+ hours of a man posing as some kind of Christian leader, making a perpetual victim empathy plea, and displaying lack of understanding re: Reformed history, present cultural circumstances . . . really any topic with which he attempted to answer or interact. Summarized well in the running YouTube commentary segments, where a viewer stated “[he] needs to stop blaming others for [his] own lack of comprehension.” And disingenuousness, I add without apology.
Of all the pure dribble, there was a single minor yet important point to which concession should be made—some of your boys need to get to the gym.
God’s hand on your work.

JB

I’m not writing in response to a particular post, I just wanted to see your view on a situation I have, and could use some advice. I’m a 16-year-old, raised in a truly Christian family in Bible-belt northern Alabama. My parents sacrificed to put my siblings and me through a good Christian school, and I was converted/became serious about my faith around 3 years ago, and have gradually become pretty thoroughly Reformed via you and other influences.
All that being said, unfortunately we (my parents and I, my two siblings are on their own with families) attend an evangelical non-denominational church. This church has a pretty large presence in the community, and has many members over a few campuses. Overall, I’m discontent in the church because of its dispensationalism, Arminianism, Pentecostalism, and general blahness that comes with megachurches like this. However, recently it seems more and more the preaching has become worldly, and the Bible no longer seems to be central to the church. Before, I could suffer under those other things, especially since I do think that the people in the church have a true heart for God; I don’t think the church is just a cynical money-making business like so many other massive churches. I’ve brought up the fact that the preaching is not robust and is worldly to my parents and that we ought to seek out another church, but they think that I just have a difference in style preference. It also doesn’t help that they know that I disagree with other aspects of the church.
This is basically my question—should I continue to press this issue with my parents? or just stay quiet until I am 18 and they allow me to choose my own church? I want to respect and honor them, but is it honoring them to not push against us attending a misguided church? It causes a rift every time I bring it up, and I don’t want to cause division among my family. Furthermore, I believe that the people there truly love Christ, and are just misguided and have fallen into some degree of worldliness. There are some good churches in the area, including a CREC church that I would like to visit, and if not that, then there is a God-honoring PCA church that runs my school, and I personally know many of the pastors and elders because I’ve been at the school for so long.
Anyways, sorry for so wordy a letter, and I understand that you can’t have a perfect view because of your distance from the situation, but I would really appreciate any advice you can give. Also, I deeply appreciate your work in advancing the Kingdom, and praise God that he has given us you and other men to proclaim His Word.
Thanks,

David

I am a health-care worker who has watched many, in and out of the hospital, face end-of-life issues and processes—some with faithful strength, dignity, and grace, and others with hopeless misery and despair. Many are blind-sided by medical and ethical decisions they don’t understand and need to make quickly, under a great deal of stress.
As believers who want to honor the Lord, let us prepare ourselves with wisdom and knowledge before the crisis comes. To that end, I would love to recommend a book to you and your readers, Between Life and Death—A Gospel-Centered Guide to End-of-Life Care, by Kathleen Butler. (Last time I checked, only $13 on Amazon.) The author is a Christian and a trauma/critical-care surgeon who walks through life-support measures for the lay reader. She explains different organ-supporting measures (CPR, ventilation/intubation, artificial feeding, dialysis, etc) and what they look like in different contexts, and walks through the differences between Hospice and palliative care, vs assisted suicide.
She is guided by four principles:
Sanctity of mortal life
God’s authority over life and death
Mercy and compassion
Hope in Christ.
She is a strong advocate for Advance Care Planning (Advanced Directive, health-care proxy, etc) without telling the readers what specific decisions they should make. I have been reading through this with my own parents, and wish I could put it in everyone’s hands.

Julie

Regarding election integrity, or lack thereof, I am sympathetic but not quite there with you and have a few questions:
1) when does savvy politics stop and interference/election meddling stop? For example, I also am dubious of mail in voting, but wasn’t it savvy of the Dems to encourage it and foolish of the Reps to discourage it? Just one example, but could perhaps apply to things like media and universities—haven’t they just done a much better job of influencing those institutions? I do agree the lawfare stuff with Trump crosses the line and is ugly banana republic stuff.
2) I notice some set themselves up for believing some form of election meddling has happened in this way “we all know Kamala could never beat Trump, so if she wins, there must have been cheating.” I agree Kamala is dislikable, but so is Trump, and this kind of thinking seems to assume most people think like you or I do. Isn’t this logic questionable?

CU

A few years ago I asked for your thoughts on professing Christians voting for pro-abortion politicians, if they should be barred from the Table of the Lord. I understand, and agree basically with your response, which was something like There’s times when we must vote strategically in order to get different results from that which are handed to us, by a Left-leaning “Republican” party, when we need a stark contrast with the Democrat option being foisted upon us.
So now I’m asking more specifically—in the case of specifically President, and not merely some local yokel, but the person in the (at least perceived) power seat —someone like Obama, or Biden, and now that the wheels have come off the wagon, Kamala Harris, and her deranged running mate Tim Walz. If someone professing the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, with clear conscience, and glee on their faces vote for such people, and perhaps even proudly sport a “Nancy Pelosi” bumper sticker on his/her car—should this person be barred from the Table for their support of these wicked people and the blasphemous “rights” they stand for?
Thanks for your time and consideration.

SK

I recently had a very difficult conversation with my husband. I realized something was wrong and making him feel down, and I asked him the cause. After a while, to my surprise, I learned he is struggling with some spiritual doubt and some depression. I will not go into the details of this for the sake of his privacy, so the most I will say is that he is feeling a lack of joy and God’s presence because of various hardships. The question I am asking is for me, as his wife. We have only been married for a little over two months, so learning how to be a good wife is something I am working on. When we had this conversation, my first gut reaction was to fix his problems. I wanted to tell him what I think he should do to feel better; to assure him of all the ways that God has answered his prayers and he just hasn’t seen; to tell him how to change his perspective to fix everything. At the same time, I was feeling a flood of emotions and doubts myself. We just got married . . . why is he unhappy? What am I doing wrong as a wife? How do I make him not feel like a failure as a husband? I encouraged him to seek spiritual help outside of our marriage, is that all I should do? Should I be sympathetic? Should I encourage him to simply just “get out of his head”? How do I encourage my husband and lift him up as his wife when he is struggling so emotionally? How do I do this in a submissive and respectful way? He is my spiritual head, I know. So how do I respectfully help him out of this, or should I at all?
I would really appreciate some advice on this.

Emma

A recent conversation with my wife reminded me of a post you made some time ago. To the best of my Googling, that post is probably “Lack of Communication is Key”, in which you seem to indicate—as many men intuit—that a man sharing his emotions and baring all his thoughts is simply not something that manliness lends itself to, nor is it helpful for the relationship. (You use statements such as “[Women] are good at extending sympathy to those in need of it. But they are not attracted to it” and “He is not interested in spilling out or spelling out his emotional resume” and “Lack of communication is key.” I know this has to do immediately with courting, but men and women remain men and women even after courting.
My question has to do with an argument my wife made about me not sharing my feelings (I didn’t know I was having any): “I’m supposed to give you sex because you want it, so shouldn’t you be open about your feelings because that’s what I want?” The biblical equivalent to a woman giving her body to her husband is, per 1 Corinthians, the husband giving his body to his wife. But what is the best response to this “You’re not giving me what I want” argument aside from “Technically, the reciprocal is just more sex”?

Brandon

How would you approach participating in a sports event on a Sunday (Morning)? Not as a regular occurrence, perhaps once or twice a year. Does it matter if one was able to attend an evening worship service that same day? Or no go all the way round?

Reagan

I have a follow-up thought on your answer to Mike’s question from August 6th (title, “Be Prepared). Mike’s question is one that I have asked several people at many different times. I think your answer is very good, but please humor me here. I think the Biblical sentiment that you summarized as “don’t start something you can’t finish” should be fleshed out more.
In Exodus 2 when Moses killed the Egyptian, could you say he started something he could not finish? We know in hindsight that God ultimately delivered Israel through Moses, but Moses did not know this would happen at the time. He had no illusions of being bullet-proof. If we are to take Moses’ example, the only consulting he did was to make sure nobody saw him (“when he saw there was no man . . . ” Exodus 2:12).
I take your point about not doing something hastily (albeit righteously) at the expense of losing a larger war, but what if someone could do it and say . . . not get caught?
PS: Blink twice if you’re in danger.

John

Some have advised for aspiring ministers to find a dead theologian or pastor that they want to emulate, and read everything they have written. If you were to speak to your younger self, and you had the time to do it, what dead Reformed theologian/pastor would you choose now for yourself to have read? Why?

Joshua

I have now watched enough of the debate with Chris Gordon to realise that he was the friend who took issue with the line you got from Schaeffer, namely “If there is no God, then the state is god.” Apparently, also, he reckons that Tucker’s audience would have been as confused about its meaning as he was.
I find that unlikely. If I said “If lemons were blue, lemonade would be blue as well”, it would strike me as rather obtuse if someone replied “That makes no sense. Are you saying lemonade could be blue? Lemons are in fact yellow, and so is lemonade.”
Now, of course, we can imagine a world with blue lemons, while any good presuppositionalist knows that, ultimately, no-one can truly imagine a world without God. But still, some say it’s easy if you try, and they do try. That’s why the line works.
It’s also why adding nuance about whose minds are acknowledging what seems to obscure the meaning rather than to clarify. The minimum requirement to follow Schaeffer’s conditional is the ability to entertain a counterfactual. And the point of the counterfactual is to expose one of the consequences of actually trying to embrace it.
On a different note, I would like to thank you especially for Canon+. I would also like to repeat a request I’ve seen here before, on behalf of my husband, which is for content on fathers and raising daughters. May God continue to bless your work!

Laurette

NottheBee.com reported a story about Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, in a video posted on X, stating that the Party will use the 14th Amendment Section 3 to disqualify Trump by labeling him an insurrectionist due to January 6 and possibly kick the election to Congress. This would be an excellent opportunity for Trump supporters to take the bait and give our Communist Party an excuse for martial law. Will you be writing on the Solidarity movement in Poland you have mentioned previously? If not, where can one read about it? The past four years have demonstrated that the majority of churchmen in pews are wholly committed to following Christ to the extent that it maximizes their comfort and secures their “get out of Hell free” card. For those of us who are trying to be faithful, many are at a loss of what to do. Like Lewis’s St. Anne’s community, are we to be faithful in the mundane and wait for God’s salvation or do something more? Correct me if I’m wrong, but providence appeared to be the sole source of resolving the conflict in That Hideous Strength. Thank you.

Brent

I’m a young man with strong opinions and an occasional lack of sensitivity to other’s feelings. I’m trying to figure out how to obey the Biblical commands to speak the truth and to rebuke falsehoods, as well as the commands to be gentle and kind. This task is especially difficult because people’s feelings (my feelings of being absolutely right and other people’s feelings of me being unkind) are not perfectly reliable. I understand that there is not a one-size-fits-all approach to this, and that the solution is ultimately discernment. Nonetheless, I would still appreciate your advice, particularly if you could provide me with any good rules of thumb.

Nathanael

I want to thank you for your blog, for Canon+, and for the many other resources by which my family has been blessed. I am a pastor and seminary student and have only recently been interacting more with the ideas of Christian Nationalism. Something you said on your recent Blog and Mablog episode on the Sword being made Righteous sparked a question for me, or at least something that I need clarified. It may be that I’m just not understanding. You were critiquing Carl Truman’s foreword to Bannerman’s classic by pointing out how the British used their warships to emancipate slaves in the 1800’s and that this was “imposing Christianity.” My question is: was that Christianity being imposed? I agree that that was righteous or Christian standards being imposed by the power of the sword, but was that actual Christianity being imposed? It seems to me, unless I”m mistaken, that real, authentic Christianity only begins with belief in Christ and repentance. So, while Christian standards can be imposed, Christianity cannot. It may have been the case that many slaves were released, some slavers felt bad, but perhaps none bowed the knee to Christ. In that case, then no real Christianity actually took place. If you don’t have the time to respond, I understand. I see from your resources that you must be a very busy man. I’m thankful for you and your family . . . I became Reformed in one of your dad’s Christian coffee shops in Gunnison, CO and will be forever thankful.

Clayton

“Churches are Christian; it is hard to see how a nation might qualify as such.”—
Carl Trueman
“The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect. The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.” (Psalm 33:10-12)

Melody

I recently had a debate with some friends, on whether or not other religions should be allowed building permits to set up their own temples. Now all of us are Christian Nationalists, I myself am still working out what that means, but they at least know what they believe in that regard. We were walking through Washington D.C. and walked by some sort of Buddhist Temple or Shrine near the embassies of our various allies, and they decried its existence. They tried to justify it by saying that the founding fathers would never have allowed some sort of pagan shrine to be set up and would never grant building permits to Muslims, Buddhists, or anything like that, that they only have the freedom to worship. Their reasoning is that the only reason that Christians get to have their own buildings and such is because we’re right. Duh. They tend reason that way about a lot of things.
While I believe that certain religious practices should not be legal (like child sacrifice or honor killings), I believe that it’s OK for the pagans to set up their own buildings and shrines to worship. I’m not a hyper pluralist, and still want to evangelize them, but I feel as if it is unfair, unconstitutional, and unrighteous to deny our pagan neighbors the same rights we have. What do you have to say about all that? Does that fit with Christian Nationalism, and more importantly, the Christian Life?

Kenneth