Letters in the Light of All That Has Transpired

In light of Matthew 5:32 and Luke 16:18, would I be correct in assuming that it is never a good idea to marry someone who has been divorced? I realize this is a bit off the topic of your great article, but thank you for your time and input. God bless you!

JT

Re: Marriage, Miscegenation & More
Considering the moral/covenantal reasons for the ban on marriage to the Canaanites et al (reinforced by the anachronistic mention of the peoples in Ezra 9:1 and frequent reference to “abominations” throughout the chapter), I think it’s fair to say that the only interracial marriage prohibited by Scripture is the one between a person of the old race in Adam and a person of the new race in Christ (1 Cor. 7:39).

Jace

I’ve enjoyed your content for a few years. My son is going to be turning 13 soon. I want to give him a special study Bible that he could use going into his adult years. Kind of a special “Sword” as he’s becoming a man. I was wondering if there was a study Bible that you recommend.

Andrew

I stumbled upon Interesting Times Podcast with Ross Douthat through this blog and your interview with him. And since then I have listened to virtually all of his episodes. He seems to strike a tone and idea that comes up over and over with his guest. I’m paraphrasing but, “most everybody can agree that immigration policies, especially under Biden were a catastrophe, but the seemingly lack of compassion and at times outright joy in how the right has approached the crack down on immigration is out of step with many core Christian tenets.” From my vantage this actually seems like a pretty widely held belief but not obvious online (although I’m not on Twitter or anything else like that, mostly relying on good old fashioned conversations.) Classifying all immigrants as rapist and violent law breakers is so obviously false. But if you want to step up efforts to remove these individuals from our midst, go for it. But having grown up in the US and having a perspective for how blessed we are with opportunity and not being able to sympathize (notice I didn’t use the work empathize :) ) with the plight of millions of people just doesn’t seem right. I guess I’m just yearning for somebody like you with a platform to come out and say, “this sucks, this is hard, my heart breaks for them,” without having to finish that sentence with but the law is the law man.

Jimmy

How would you respond to the following argument: If would be lawful for a city to become a “sanctuary city” as a place of safety, based on biblical truth, for the unborn against the government (perhaps by outlawing the ability of women living in the city to receive by mail any kind of birth control, and then government officials came to the streets to deliver them to houses and so the city residents started blocking their paths in the streets, etc.), then it can also be lawful for a city to become a sanctuary city as a place of safety for illegals, based on biblical truth, against the government. This is not to say Minneapolis and other such cities are grounding their morality in biblical truth. But imagine if a Christian were in charge there, and the Christian magistrate felt convinced that it was the Christian duty of that city to guard against the government exercising what seemed to be cruel or unlawful search and seizure, or the magistrate felt convinced the government was in direct violation of biblical law to refuse to welcome the alien, similar to how a magistrate felt convinced it was unlawful for the government to support any sort of abortion.
Thanks for your consideration.

Nick

I have learned much from looking at the libraries of others when I am in their house. Sadly, a library is not the same as a completed book list. I have greatly enjoyed researching titles from your booklist each year, and have learned much as well. I have found puritans, reformers, and many of your own books that I wouldn’t have otherwise found. So first, thank you for posting this list! Second, when can we get your list from 2025?? I will wait because I must. Thanks so much for all you do. Keep it up.
P.S. Additionally, it would be AMAZING to get a list of your top recommendations of all time from your list. Of course Lewis, Tolkien and others would be there, but as YOU look back on your 40 years of reading, which books stood the test of time, and will continue to impact readers for years to come?

Drew

Thank you for your great efforts to spread your insight of CCE to as many people as possible. My husband and I are two of those who have benefited from your ideas very much.
We are a small group who are trying to start a classical Christian school in UK. We would like to launch a magazine to spread the idea of CCE. We find your books ‘The Case of Classical Christian Education’ and ‘Repairing the Ruins’ and other books are very precious messages to share with Christians in UK.
Would you please grant us permission to use some of your writings?
Looking forward to your reply. May the Lord bless your labors abundantly.
With kind Christian regards,

Yaxian

Prompted by your post from it on church membership I have been reading Mines of Difficulty. It has been edifying to me, thank you for writing it.
How would you balance the need to submit to leaders in the church with the need to be careful who you allow to have spiritual influence in your life? How would you differentiate between allowing leaders to help you refine the inner man and protect oneself from controlling and manipulative men?
I have had to leave churches; I believe I was right in doing so. I have rejected my parents imposition of Bill Gothard’s teaching/ATI, left a PCA church due to its new pastor’s manipulative false gospel of wokeness, and now left another PCA church due to the spiritual arrogance of its leadership. As a parting gift the elders are disciplining me and saying they must “treat me as an unbeliever.” Leaving a church seems like the ultimate act of defiance of its leadership and I feel guilty for doing so.
Some ungodly leaders in the church broadcast warning signs; others hide their true character. In this latter case it seems like the only way to determine if these men are godly is to get close to them, and this is accomplished largely through church membership. Am I correct in this? Honestly, I am really reluctant to engage with church membership again and place myself in a situation where I may repeat these experiences.
Thank you.

Michael

I hope all is well in this decidedly non-snowy winter. Thank you for your response regarding the post-Civil War consensus a few weeks ago, I found that very helpful! I had read Black and Tan a couple of months ago, so I found your response reassuring. Moving forward, I’ve been piecing some other puzzles together since I first asked that. Perhaps you could also answer this question: it seems to me that, post the Civil War, most Americans believe that, to enact change, it must involve the government. As Kuyperian-esque Reformed Christians, we know that laws can catechize people. We also know that sometimes the most lasting & meaningful change comes from the ground up. There’s a nice tug and pull, a healthy balance. Should we, necessarily, have abolished slavery at the federal level? Or, should we have incrementally abolished it? Does how we abolished slavery play into, even, race relations today?
Also, is this necessarily the way that we ought to handle things in the future? This might play into the smash mouth incrementalism versus abolitionism debate regarding abortion. I hate to make things all messy and muddly, but it seems that that is our culture’s MO at the moment.
So many questions, but sometimes one answer can create multiple different question paths. Grateful for you and praying for you!

ON

With the recent “protest” that happened in the Minnesota church I was wondering if you could speak to what the appropriate action by pastors and congregants should be if that kind of thing happens again. We have a safety team in our church and I imagine if something like that happened during one of our services that those people would have been physically removed from the building. Of course in situations like that you don’t always know what could happen. People might be armed and have intent to do violence. With having young children in the congregation there are responsibilities for parents to protect their children as well. Would you advocate for physical violence in any capacity if a church service is being taken over like that? What would you have done in that situation? Thanks for all you do!
Sincerely,

Josh

This morning I listened to your latest podcast about Russell Moore’s recent article about Romans 13. I was a student at Southern Seminary when Moore was the Dean of Theology and taught Christian ethics. His ethics class was actually one of the more engaging classes I had there. I’ve since watched his career and wondered who this new Dr. Moore is. It’s been strange. Listening to your podcast, I was reminded of the final exam we took, dealing with immigration and Romans 13. I don’t remember my response, and I don’t exactly remember what Dr. Moore said either, but I thought you’d be interested in the ethical question that was posed. It would be something if you might ask him to answer his own ethics question, as well as ask him if his answer has changed in the last 15 years. I’m guessing there are some former students who might remember his response from back then. The ethics question is still posted at this link:

Lonnie

I heard you stepped into pastoral ministry without seminary and built your theological foundation through dedicated self-study and tons of reading. I’m getting married in four months and, as someone who already enjoys reading, I’m eager to start studying theology more seriously (and how it intersects with education, politics, economics, culture, etc.). Since you’ve been through that season, I’d love any quick pointers: What books would you suggest as strong starting points, especially a first systematic theology? Confessions or catechisms to read early on? What’s a helpful order or approach for someone beginning intentionally? And from your experience, any big dos and don’ts, habits that kept it fruitful, pitfalls to avoid, or ways to make it life-giving rather than overwhelming with life ahead?
I’m someone who can read anytime and anywhere, I read on the train, at the bus stop, on the underground, and even during lunch.
Thanks so much, and blessings on your ministry!

ANK

You have pointed out that the left hates white people and whiteness because of how Christian “white people” and “whiteness” are. I don’t disagree, and I want to suggest an additional angle. I think what the left hates, more than anything else, is natural and normal hierarchy—because natural and normal hierarchy is divine appointment. When one looks at everything recognizably left wing, what is hardest to miss is the seething, reeking hatred of obvious distinction of really superior and really inferior. We whites are not superior because of our skin color or our genes. But it is obviously true that white people are currently at the top of the totem pole of civilization. We are in that position because of a combination of fortunate circumstances and choices with fortunate outcomes (all of which is grace), although Asians may eclipse us in 50 years or less and Jews would probably already eclipse us if they were more numerous. I don’t think it’s just that we remind them of God; I think it’s that our prosperity reminds them that they are NOT God (and that God gets to prosper whomever He wills).

Daniel

“If an elder in the church is called to be hospitable (1 Tim. 3:2), and he is, does it follow that he needs to invite all the residents of all the homeless shelters in his city to come over for dinner that night, and to do so without telling his wife?” AND to go to his neighbors’ houses to force them at gunpoint to empty their pantries to prepare the menu?

Kyriosity

I was just looking over [a Christian nationalist] website in it’s section called “The Jewish Question” and I see two problems in their thinking.
#1 They don’t go far enough in their pattern recognition. They don’t include the positive effects that the Jewish community has contributed in other areas as you mention in your book, American Milk and Honey. Any intellectual endeavor, whether good or bad, you will find the Jewish community over-represented. When you exclude certain data points in your pattern recognition, you end up with skewed conclusions.
#2 The whole “Jewish Question” section is infused with Gnostic thinking. There are many evil things where Jews are disproportionately involved. That is hard to argue against. The question is: Why is their Jewish ethnicity to be blamed for that involvement rather than some other variable? How would one conduct the investigation to find out? And on the positive side, how would I go about proving that Jews were disproportionately represented in the Austrian school of economics BECAUSE of their Jewishness? How does one go about investigating the central factors in a person’s makeup to determine why they’re doing something evil? That investigation needs to be done before we lay these evils at the feet of an entire ethnicity. Has it been done? I have my doubts. If it hasn’t been done, then this is simple Gnosticism. “I just know they did these evil things because they are Jews. I just know, you know. When you have a special handle on the truth, you don’t have to deal in mundane things like evidence, right?”
I think they should change the name of the section to “The High IQ/High Performance Question” instead of “The Jewish Question.” High IQ/High Performance individuals in rebellion against God will rebel in spectacular ways that us normal IQ rebels could not even begin to achieve. I say it’s their intelligence/high performance to blame, not their Jewishness that’s to blame. How would Andrew Torba and Stone Choir go about proving me wrong?

Kelly

I’m interacting with a fellow brother in Christ who takes the position that nations are a result of the Fall, and are therefore not a part of God’s created order or gracious provision for our good. He further argues that “ethnos” does not refer to nation-states in Scripture. In short, Christian Nationalism, in his view is heretical and syncretistic.
I’ve been reading through some of what you wrote on your blog about this, so I get the argument that, in the words of Bob Dylan, “You’re gonna have to serve somebody.” But we are still hung up on whether nation states are a part of God’s good design or something that the people of God should move past.
Any thoughts on that questions would be much appreciated.

Joe

I ’bout spit coffee all over my desk . . .
ICE this, COVID that, consistency here, logic there . . . if you don’t want to enforce America’s borders . . .
“Greenland it is, then!”
LOL!! The fool digs a pit, but in the end he falls into it.

Andy

“He repents of his ungodly marriage—to God, to his wife, and to his ex-wife. But he does not compound the sin by leaving his second wife, not at all.”
Doug, what does this look like? I imagine the following exchange . . .
“Gee honey, we’ve been married for a few years now, and I love you dearly, but I want you know I’ve recently come to repentance, and now I believe that we never should have married, and I have remorse for us getting married, but now that we are married, I want to stay married till death do us part, just know that I will always view you as the person I should have never married.”
For some reason I don’t see that working out too well . . .

DJ

I’m using a chronological reading plan through the scriptures; as timing would have it I’m in the Gospels now and your post has made it clear to me that the author of my plan seems to think Mark was correct in his chronology and Matthew/Luke received their historical education from a public school. Can you recommend a chronological reading of the Scriptures, or perhaps just the gospels, that corresponds better to a high view of Scripture? Thanks!

Ben

I’m writing here because I’m looking for the “reasonable” take on Charlie Kirk’s assassination and I can’t find it anywhere. It seems the world has divided into two camps: a) you accept the story the government has presented without question or b) you fully succumb to the beetle people.
I like your wit here in discussing Candace. If I were to give a witless take on Candace (wait, why does witless not mean the absence of wit) it would be that Candace is creating a type of slowly unfolding true crime drama. It needs to unfold slowly so the audience will keep coming back over a period of months. It needs to be a little (or a lot) unhinged to keep it entertaining. She’s VERY good at what she does. But there’s another key ingredient to this story line’s success. There are a lot of people that refuse to accept the government’s version of events. They’re looking for answers.
I’m going to give a partial list of points in the government’s story that don’t add up:
Charlie’s wounds seem to be inconsistent with a .30-06
The whole story of assembling/disassembling the rifle, hiding it in his pants, etc. seems implausible
Tyler’s text messages that seem to have the diction of someone like you (or someone who would use the word diction) rather than a 22 year old furry.
The actions of some TPUSA staff immediately following the shooting are . . . inexplicable (jumping over the table, gabbing the memory card out of the camera, passing it to someone else in a matter of seconds; or calmly walking away while talking to someone on the phone who you clearly dialed before the sound of the shot reached your ears and then your father lies, from the pulpit, about who you called)
For each of these points the government (or TPUSA) could clear things up by giving us more information. Instead of giving us more information they’ve went on the offensive against anyone who would ask these questions.
I kept this list short. I could certainly add more points. The body of issues that have been presented fall on a spectrum from reasonable to beetle people. I think all of these are max reasonable. There are more that are still very reasonable. But to keep going with the list is to make the slow trip to Crazytown, which is the trip Candace took over the last 3 months.
And that’s why I bristle at your article. It’s a fine article, but it exists in this bi-polar world where one pole is unreasonably receptive to the official narrative and the other pole is unreasonably receptive to beetle people. Bring the wit. But this is a time when we also need reasonable people to drop the wit and speak frankly about this subject. If you don’t it’s just going to push more people along the spectrum all the way to Crazytown. Because people that have considered the issues above and then read your article are likely to think that you’re using the wit to avoid discussing those very obvious problems with the official narrative and it gives them a little nudge toward Candace.

Ryan

How does the MOSSAD paedophile blackmail ring fit in with your evangerkical Zionist Jew-worshiping cult? By the way, traitor, the airwaves are free .You were blaming the crew of the USS Liberty for monitoring radio traffic. Helicopter gun ships were waiting to machine gun the survivors of the Liberty. Their bodies were meant to wash up on the coast of Egypt to trigger a war . Zionism is treason. Creep.

Frank

Is there a biblical age for weaning? I have heard 3 before, but not associated with a specific verse. World averages range from 2-7 but does the Bible speak to it? If it does what is the age?

OQ

I recently read your book, “Her Hand in Marriage” and was grateful. I had already put into practice that the young man who desired to pursue my daughter must first meet with me. Dennis Rainey’s book “Interviewing Your Daughter’s Date” put in place years earlier. I modified the questions in the back of your book to interview a young man last month.
Cut to chase—A 22-year-old young man asked to court my daughter (almost 21). We met over video for 3 hours, because the campus (Grove City College) where they both attend is 300 miles away, making in-person difficult. He graduates in May with a biology degree and $128k debt. Other than that financial burden on the horizon, he is a fine young man who leads well and walks with the Lord. He has a good reputation on campus. I’ve advised them both to pump the brakes and not enter into a committed relationship until he “launches” into the world and demonstrates he can provide for himself first.
I know you can’t possibly advise “do this”, but any guidance or principles would be appreciated. I’m applying Proverbs 11:14; 15:22 by contacting you. Also, my wife asked me to and I trust her.
My sincere thanks,

Keith