December Letters Come in December—Nothing Can Be Done

Excuse me? Did you just equate the faithful supplanter bride Esther with those who were given a certificate of divorce? In case I’m reading the story wrong didn’t the King put away the unfaithful Vashti, his first wife, because of her rebellion? Didn’t God serve His unfaithful bride from Sinai a certificate of divorce? I’ve never seen you miss the mark as much as you have on this one. It makes me sad. I love you and your work, and wish you all the best.

Benjamin

RE: Esther/Haman
[Insert mic drop meme of choice here]
Happy Early Purim to you too, Doug. Keep hitting them out of the park for the Lord Jesus. At the risk of sounding like one of your enemies, never stop being you. God Bless.
Touche.

JP

Would you consider your understanding of general equity theonomy as applying presuppositional apologetics to the civil sphere? Presuppositionalists argue for no epistemological neutrality. As you’ve argued, politics is downstream from culture, and culture downstream from worship/religion. Every political structure therefore is incapable of having worldview neutral first principles. It’s based on certain worldviews. When I first read you articulate thenomy, my mind immediately thought of presuppositionalism.
I’m grateful for your ministry!

Rafi

I’ve always found it odd that one as postmillennial as yourself seems to have so little qualms about those from “all over tarnation” leaving their home churches to come join the Moscow crowd. While you aren’t necessarily actively inviting folks to do this, you certainly don’t dissuade them from doing so. Certainly it isn’t a sin, but doesn’t that show an ecclesiastical disloyalty that isn’t healthy long term for the Church Catholic? Isn’t postmillennialism all about the gospel’s spread? Isn’t it by its very nature partially about location and tending to one’s local church?
Are you concerned at all with the centralization of Moscow’s influence? I can easily see Moscow becoming the “Rome” of the CREC, the center of its greatest influence and power, with the Wilson family’s words carrying more ecclesiastical weight than other ministers and families in the CREC. In fact, I would argue that this is already the case from what I have observed. While you certainly have many industries there like Canon Press and Canon + that make it more prone to this, where are the safeguards against the centralization of authority? I’m PCA and while we might be older, I would argue we have no such central location of influence.

K

How did you handle Santa?

AH

I’m enjoying watching the “hair on fire” response to the various people Trump has nominated for positions, but I don’t think that an ability to drive the progressives nuts is sufficient reason to support their nominations. In Hegseth’s case, his lack of administrative experience in such a role is concerning, but I’m ok with taking a gamble on someone. I am also willing to treat him as innocent of all the charges made against him (sexual assault and now drunkenness). What he hasn’t disputed is that he engaged in an adulterous liaison and considers himself a Casanova of sorts. Inexperience plus moral ambiguity is a concern for me. If he is a member of a CREC church, has he since repented of these things? Is he following a “never apologize” playbook as a tactic? Would a refusal to support him be a “blood in the water” opportunity for other nominees to be attacked? Just trying to get a read on this situation.

Nathan

In your recent post, 7 Opportunities in the Trump Reprieve, did you mean Rehoboam rather than Jeroboam? 
Here is what you wrote:
“But when young people fill themselves up with self-flattery and vain conceits, instead of with Scripture, they become puffed up and bloated, and they think they know far more than they do. They become Jeroboam’s young bucks, the ones who lost him most of his kingdom (1 Kings 12:10). The Word tells us not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to (Rom 12:3), and the only path into this sort of wisdom and self-knowledge is to be steeped in the Scriptures.“
Here is how 1 Kings 12 reads in context:
“And king Rehoboam consulted with the old men, that stood before Solomon his father while he yet lived, and said, How do ye advise that I may answer this people?  And they spake unto him, saying, If thou wilt be a servant unto this people this day, and wilt serve them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be thy servants for ever. But he forsook the counsel of the old men, which they had given him, and consulted with the young men that were grown up with him, and which stood before him” (1 Kings 12:6-8)
His young and restless reformers cost him most of the kingdom.
God bless, brother.
Grateful for you and all you;ve done, are doing, and have yet to do.

Todd

I had emailed you a few months ago, deliberating on whether you were just a propagandized boomer, or a coward. Now that more time has passed, I believe it is a mix of both, but the former doesn’t negate the sin of the latter.
I was an avid reader, and a buyer of your books for many years. I falsely believed you were a brave man, willing to say the hard truths. I no longer believe that. I now think you create a public persona of being a mischievous imp, calling out homosexuals and the absurdity of the gender lies, and other such soft targets.
But you won’t say a thing about the ethnic cleansing and slaughter of children going on in Gaza. Either you are compromised (I don’t believe this), a boomer who is unable to let go of WWII fables, or a coward.
How do you reconcile being a minister and not standing up for these innocent people? Have you not seen the videos of children being killed, men and women being raped, and buildings and civilizations being destroyed? I looked at your tweets, and you are constantly labeling anyone that dares tell the truth about Jewish power, either a Nazi, a racist, or an anti-Semite. All words created by Jews for useful idiots like yourself to use, in order to shut down conversation, slander people, and quell the cognitive dissonance fizzing inside your own mind.
To be silent while evil is being carried out is to be complicit in that evil. Why are you silent? You write puffed up articles to massage your own ego and create silly little things like NQN, when in reality, you aren’t being the brave, irreverent hero you’ve concocted in your own mind; you’re afraid or unwilling to say the truth. There is nothing different between you and the woke left; they also use slander against people that oppose them. You are no different. I dare you to call some of these brave men racists, Nazis and anti-Semites to their faces. Why don’t you go and call Jake Shields one of these ridiculous names to his face? No Doug, you won’t, because you are a coward.
I will pray that you come to your senses and repent and do the right thing.
“If anyone sins because they do not speak up when they hear a public charge to testify regarding something they have seen or learned about, they will be held responsible” (Leviticus 5:1).

Servant of the Lord

Re “7 Opportunities in the Trump reprieve,” the 1st, worship, and specifically music—I’m for inclusive psalmody: include all of each as units, without excluding other music; love God, love God’s lyrics; I’d rather tell James Ward (CCM) Psalm 119 is a singable lyric than tell the Holy Ghost that it is not (and I have); I’ve sung thru The Book of Psalms for Singing dozens of times—but some music reformers reject beauties. The old Trinity hymnal has a tune I like a lot for “See the Conqueror mounts in triumph;” the new one, and Cantus, replace it, without leaving it as an option, with a piece of (bleep). I agree with John Frame about “Shine Jesus Shine” rather than with you. BoPfS has lots of tunes I find replacements for, but it also introduced me to tunes new to me that I like better than what I’ve heard from the new Cantus Psalter (63A, 92AB, 119AMN, 51B . . .) Psalms, yes; serious music, yes; but jackbooted pride in your musical taste is obnoxious sin.
Continued . . .
My former epistle may’ve had too serrated an edge (“piece of (bleep)”), but David’s wife Michal accused him of not worshiping as a serious Christian. (Did Jehoshaphat have dancers?) As Dr Fauci is a medical expert but I cannot trust him even about medicine, similarly (without the lies) I cannot trust musical experts about music; when they impose their taste, they come across as bullies, not experts, unless they carefully lead their flocks up to their (experts’) heights. Psalms, yes; Cantus, yes—it has a sound—but Cantus sound and musical reformation are not the same thing. Heaven features distinct tribes; doubt distinct styles of music? I Corinthians allows “every man has a psalm;” to keep decency and order, maybe schedule it in advance in a big church with a roll rather than take requests live, but allow for choices pastor and music leader (music servant??) would not make. (“The offhand taste of a genius is offhand taste”—Robert Caro in “The Master Builder.”)
I stated this, didn’t explicitly ask, but you’re welcome to respond at your discretion.

Andrew

I recall hearing you talking about a book you read about administrative law on your Plodcast, but I don’t remember if you said how we as Christians should approach compliance with inane legal requirements. Through several different situations in our life I’ve begun to think more about how heavy the government’s hand has gotten . . . and like the slowly boiling frog in the pot it has largely gone unnoticed . . . kind of. When and how do you think we should be OK with disobeying these laws? Here’s a few examples to make sure we’re on the same page in terms of the gravity of the laws I’m talking about. We couldn’t get a certificate of occupancy for our house without addressing the fact our front porch was higher than 30 inches off the ground yet didn’t have a railing (it was actually 29 inches in an effort to avoid this issue thank you very much). My kids can’t kill squirrels with their BB guns on our land in the summer without being in violation of the state’s game laws. And if they find an arrowhead, they violate federal law if they pick it up. I can’t find a shower head that gives me more than 2 gallons per minute. Thinking I should make my own or just remove it altogether. I need to pull a permit if I want a concrete floor in the woodshed I need to build. Or I could just build it and no one will ever be the wiser. I can go on. Is there a principle you have when thinking about this? In some cases, you can’t get around it, and you have to move forward, like the porch issue, so you really don’t have a choice. In other cases, you can get away with breaking the law (who doesn’t like fried squirrel in June?) but is that morally acceptable in God’s sight? And there is the risk/reward part. Is it really that big of a deal to just comply? But hey, that kind of thinking is what got us here in the first place to some extent. I want to think rightly about this and also raise children that know how to think about it too, and I always appreciate your clarity on the principles. God bless you.

Justin

What would have happened short- and long-term if the Confederate States of America had won the Civil War? Say, for sake of argument, that Lincoln loses the 1864 election and the next president decides to end the conflict.
Would there ever have been reconciliation? Would the Allies have won WWI? WWII?

Caleb

What opportunities? What reprieve?
Doug, sometimes I’m genuinely puzzled at what you think you are seeing. Under the Biden administration were any Christians distracted away from doing the things you say we’ll now have the opportunity to do? Maybe some were, and in exhorting those Christians the word you are looking for is “repent.” Plenty of Christians were happily doing those things all along, whoever occupies the Oval Office having zero impact on their opportunity.
The only plausible exception might be Make Money, and even there the opportunity has hardly been lacking. Whether anyone in this fat land, and if so who, ends up with more money with Trump in the White House remains to be seen, but surely of all the “opportunities” you list, that one is the least important.
Now, reprieve from what, exactly? Our window of opportunity to do the things we ought to do is not two to four years, it is long as we breathe in this world, no human authority withstanding. A government can make it safer or riskier, relatively easy or a painful struggle, and maybe something like that is what you have in mind? You didn’t really say.

John

I enjoy seeing your “Songs I Like” section in the Muster. I’m wondering if there are any Christian artists you like, and is there any contemporary worship music you like at all? What are your thoughts on Contemporary Christian Music in general? Thanks.

Joe

About 3 years ago a friend introduced me to you through “Reforming Marriage”, and it began a transformation in my thinking and beliefs about not only what marriage should be, but also extending to adopting postmillennialism and a general equity theonomy as I listened to more of your work and engaged the Scriptures. Others were also instrumental in my transition from a normie Baptist to a Westminsterian CREC’er, but over the past 3 years, I have shared much of your content with family, friends, and previous church leadership, whether overtly using your media or through discussing things you espouse.
I was very disappointed when I listened to the Abigail segment with you and your children as it resonated all too close to home in my own marriage. During the past 3 years, my wife has been subtly going behind my back, and, at times, overtly hostile toward my face as I have tried to explain all of the things I have been going through and my vision for our family. She has taken me before the elders at our previous church, who, unsurprisingly, sided with her, but without any accountability toward her for not wanting to follow my leadership in our home. Now, much could be said of feckless elders, but it seems that there is a lack of godly, discerning elders in the church at large (just look at what happened in COVID across evangelicalism). In a healthy church with solid leadership, I have much more confidence that a situation like that would be handled with more wisdom and biblical application, but those churches are not the majority these days.
Although my wife hasn’t mentioned Abigail, she has given me the same Abigail treatment you are prescribing to wives who believe they are married to Nabals, primarily because I was listening to you and your ilk. The irony is painful.
While I have several counterpoints to the Abigail topic, I will reduce it to this one. Essentially, it makes the wife the arbiter of wisdom and folly in a situation when she disagrees with her husband’s decisions. It functionally strips a husband of his headship and authority, which you have spilled much ink over in opposing. The story of Abigail is of a wife undermining her husband to save her own neck (and assumingly her family’s) in the name of a husband’s foolishness (not even in regards to a sinful action). I fail to see how it is prescriptive in our day and age when the preponderance of female sins are related to rejecting male headship and authority.
Over the past 3 years, I have attempted to patiently avoid forcing my wife’s hand, explaining at length my position on a whole host of topics, and have met with elders and other counselors at her behest to try to work through this situation. I’m not asking for a solution, but I wanted to write to express my disappointment at how much of your previous work has been undermined by sloppily handling this topic.
Far too many women today think they are being Abigails, when in fact they are neglecting to be Sarahs (whom they are actually commended to follow). I still appreciate your content and all the good that you and your family have done and are continuing to do.
Thanks for your willingness to listen,

Ben

Thank you for recommending Edgington’s “The Abusive Wife” in your post on Abigail. I had never heard of the book, and ordered it immediately. I have read much material on what psychologists call “malignant Narcissism,” but would prefer a Christian perspective. I hope to give it to my elders to read, too.
Although female abuse was not the main point of your article, I appreciate you raising it as an issue. I suffered beneath the malicious tyranny of a controlling wife for years. When I finally informed my church and “brought things to a head”, the church did not consistently handle it well. My wife slandered me and lied constantly, making me out to be the bad guy, such that the elders were repeatedly fooled.
In the end, after much confusion in the church, her true character was revealed, howsoever well she tried to hide it. She would not repent, so, as you say, she promptly left me (to live with another man whilst still married to me) and “took the longhouse with her.” The church excommunicated her, justly so.
The reason I waited so many years to tell the church (actually, I had tried to tell our previous church some things, but the pastor blamed me and my wife was never held accountable—this made me keep things to myself a long while) must in part be ascribed to my ignorance of abusive control tactics. I was ashamed, and confused, as my wife incessantly accused and denigrated me, projecting all her sins onto me, and gaslighted me so much I came to believe I was the problem in the marriage. But once I understood what she was doing to me, I stopped giving into her threats, blackmail and other manipulative techniques; her tactics stopped working, so she left.
I pray books like these will alert the church to what seems an increasingly prevalent problem, that elders will know how to respond and minister to the abused.

MB

Couple of Q’s
1) Have you read Phil Kayser’s position on child communion? Thoughts?
2) When sharing the doctrines of grace with a family member, this person respectfully disagrees, but it always comes down to a very real close example. The example is my aunt. Essentially my family member will say something like: “So God predestined your aunt to have a terrible life full of sin, divorce, apostate daughters, etc. and predestined me to marry a Christian, have a Christian family, etc? How was any choice involved there? Where is the fairness, if God is going to judge us based on our thoughts and actions how is that fair or just on His part?”
Thanks.

Ben

I am a young man about two years out from being able to pursue a young woman in marriage. That said, I do have a particular woman in mind, and I have a good relationship with her. I have read some of your writings on marriage (Get the Girl, Future Men, and various articles of yours, but not yet Her Hand in Marriage), and in Get the Girl, you said something along the lines of going on a date is like playing with counters, not real money. My question is this: How do I, not yet being able to pursue this young woman in marriage, interact with her? In a sense, I’m not using the counters that are used in a dating context, I’m using placeholders that replace those dating counters. To rephrase my question, how do I use that second set of counters? Thank you for your time, I appreciate it very much.

N

I recently read a chapter on peace, written by a highly regarded author in reformed evangelicalism. I won’t mention the author’s name to keep the emphasis on the topic rather then the writer. In the chapter he references 1 Peter 5, about casting your care on God because he cares for you. He mentions in our fight for peace, we often have thoughts like, “If God loved me, he would deliver me from this after I’ve asked and prayed.” He goes on to say we often then start kicking ourselves, knowing this isn’t how a Christian should talk. He links the next part of 1 Peter 5, regarding the devil being a lion to this. He asserts, these thoughts are actually from the devil, slandering God to us. He goes on to say there are plenty of occasions were we should rebuke our own hearts but this is not one. We should see this as an opportunity to “resist the devil” and have him flee. I would see how this kind of looks like “blame it on the devil” and can be a slippery slope. What are your thoughts? Do you tend to agree with the author on this specific application for peace? If so, can you think of any other areas of the Christian life were we are “fighting on the wrong front”?
Thanks,

John

A letter recently asked for recommendations on books which push back against 2-source/Markean priority and advocate for Matthean priority. I suggest that the more important question is the date of the earliest Gospel (which is naturally Matthew), as the biggest problem of the 2-source/Markean priority theory is the assertion that the disciples didn’t bother to publish anything for decades, except for non-extant proto-Gospels, and that the Gospel authors (whomever they were!) did a clumsy job of composing their own publications, when they finally got around to it.
Here are a couple favorites:
Daniel Moore, A Trustworthy Gospel: Arguments for an Early Date for Matthew’s Gospel, 2024.
David Alan Black, Why Four Gospels?: The Historical Origins of the Gospels, 2nd ed., 2010.
John Wenham, Redating Matthew, Mark & Luke: A Fresh Assault on the Synoptic Problem, 1992.
I list a variety of older books supporting Matthean priority on my web site: https://atrustworthygospel.com/historical-champions/.

Dan