Fewer Letters Than Normal But We Think It Is a Computer Glitch and Not the FBI

“…wrapped in the mantle of a prevenient surrender…” I will be adding this to my personal inventory. It is one of the best short phrases that most aptly describes the thin oily sheen of nice that covers the quivering livers of Modern E as they give away the store.

Gray

Wailing for Tammuz at Wheaton

I’m a Wheaton alum from ages ago. I’ve heard you and others lament the school’s demise as the leadership there has wandered and pandered along after secular culture. I sensed what was coming 20 years ago when my son, attending as a freshman, told me he’d had to sit through chapel message given by a Catholic priest (he transferred out).

So, I just had to watch the video link you provided. I didn’t make it past an hour, since everything said sounded like everything else out there in the secular world. I must conclude their journey to irrelevance is accelerating: as an actual believer, why would you go there? And as a secular kid, why bother? It’s just like any other school. What made Wheaton stand out in ages past is being squandered by cowards afraid to stand up to the madness. I pray for their repentance, but am not hopeful since it looks like the wolves have taken over.

Thanks for your courage! Your content is a huge blessing to many of us.

Mark

In the Wheaton post, you mention the “slavery issue”. Could you direct me to your discussion of this. Thanks,

Steve

You agree that there is a “trajectory” for ultimately eliminating slavery by means of the regenerating influence of the Gospel is there in the Bible, correct?

Would you please elaborate in some more detail and specific examples on what you are saying with this paragraph? . . .

“So what am I going on about? Keen says, and actually says it out loud, that when it comes to those nasty old black and white proof texts, slave owners were able to prove their point, and Q.E.D. In order to refute the slave owners and their pesky verses, the enlightened ones had to put on their secret decoder rings, and then drape the scarf of mysteries-solved over their heads, and then to examine the trajectories and contours of God’s redemptive purposes, generally considered, looked at in a dim light, and all while squinting. If you were to do all these things, you could see the faint smoke of God’s liberating intent wafting off the epistles, the plain teaching of which we were all so eager to ignore.”

i.e. . . . and . . . e.g. . . . What are the (dishonest) methods that the “traditionalist evangelicals” use(d) to get rid of the slavery texts they don’t like?

Thank you!

Robert

God bless and good morning Doug! I’ve been listening to the CrossPolitic guys for about a year and discovered your podcasts in the last 9 months or so. I’ve found your words to usually be edifying and helpful. I don’t always agree with what you say but I have consistently considered your counsel to be wise and worth seeking out even if I disagreed. So when episode 233 of The Plodcast came out, the one about Anti-Semitism, I was excited.

You see, I am what some people would call an Anti-Semite. I wouldn’t call myself such. I don’t hate anybody for their genetics or their beliefs. I don’t hate anybody at all. I call myself anti-degenerate because I am for what God is for and I am against what God is against, but I would define “against” in meaning that I love what God has blessed me with and I have the God-given responsibility to protect it, not that I hate those who seek to tear the goodness of God down. But people have called me anti-Semitic because I’m generally against the crap put out by the mainstream media and I think that there’s something fishy with outlawing the questioning of a particular bit of history when the Official Narrative (TM) says that despite starvation, Germans were so hate-ridden as to devote infrastructure to the systematic murder of enemy combatants (actual and potential) in work camps with DDT in rooms sealed with wooden doors and vented with fake chimneys and incinerate the bodies with crematoriums more efficient than what we have today with ashes and mass graves that we never did find, all somehow not documented by General Patton or any other heroes of the day. But enough about cash cows.

The point being, I’m racist in that I can point out that 13% of the population commits 52% of violent crime while still having black friends or that 2% of the population makes up 40% of billionaires and something like 98% of ownership of the media as well as also being over-represented in positions of power in not just America’s, but several countries’ positions of power. I’m so racist that I believe God can call anyone out of any sin and save them, even the folks who want my sons to cut off their penises, who want my daughter to whore herself out, but not with white folks since she’s half white.

Oh yeah, I’m so racist that I’m white and my wife is Hispanic. I’m so anti-Semitic that I find the phrase “eat the rich” to be actually anti-Semitic. Yet here I am. Having hopefully established my love of my savior Jesus Christ, as well as my lack of racism despite the labels often thrown at me, let’s move on.

I mean this with all due respect, which in my eyes is quite a bit, but you didn’t go that route and straw-manned people you don’t understand. Literally none of us are anti-Semitic for envy’s sake. I’m “anti-Semitic” because I want to see God honored in my community, protect my family from evil, and I think the narrative of 1940s Germany is fishy. That’s it.

I was excited for this episode because I’ve been hoping for you or Jeff Durbin or the Cultish guys or really any Reformed folk with wisdom, wit, and love to finally address the Talmud and Jewish Supremacist beliefs. I don’t know if I should link videos here or not considering you seem like a guy who would want to go to the source. Being that Talmudic Jews are, y’know, Jewish and not Christian, of course they wouldn’t have great things to say about Jesus, so it’s not surprising that our King is mentioned boiling in a pot of feces in Hell, but saying things like it’s okay to rape a 2 year old Gentile girl, that goyim (that’s us) are animal spirits in human bodies to serve Jews who are the only actual mankind, that it’s okay to lie to, cheat, or kill goyim . . . that all seems like a bit much. And this is all mainstream Judaic beliefs for all of history labeled A.D.

I hope you reconsider and do a deeper dive on this than you did this time. I think that what you could glean from such a thing would be beneficial to all who hear it. Even if you don’t, it would be very much appreciated to at least not be maligned by someone who doesn’t know why I believe what I believe.

With much love and respect, some sadness, and a little trepidation, I wish you the best and thank you for your time, not just in reading my letter, but for the work you do.

Theonomic Postmillenial Reformed Baptist bro

I am intrigued with your teaching. I ‘returned’ to Christianity back in 2008/9 when I started going to Calvary Chapel and a sort of related church near my home in Dana Point, California. We were pre-millennial (as you know). I find your positive outlook vastly more interesting than any I’ve been exposed to in the past. Your application of Scripture also seems quite logical and well-reasoned and I want to lean more.

What can you point me to in the way of books, papers, anything that would help me to learn more about post-millennialism and your logical, reasoned approach to understanding and applying Scripture?

I’d love to visit Moscow and your church and perhaps someday we will.

Regards,

Steffan

I’m the vein of your understanding of biblical economics (books by David Bahnsen, etc), I’m curious to know your thoughts on Chuck Bentley’s (Crown Financial) book on how the invisible hand of a free market provides and apologetic for the universe’s maker and sustainer:

Economic Evidence for God? Uncovering the Invisible Hand That Guides the Economy

I would be curious if at some point this was a book that was reviewed on a podcast episode.

Thanks!

Tanner

In looking briefly at the story of Abraham Piper and how he was excommunicated at age 19. How is it that John Piper was not forced to step down based on 1 Timothy 3:5. Is there a point in time where a child of an elder can “walk away” or be “excommunicated” and he can still continue to minister? Am I drawing to hard of a line on a possible grey area issue?

Thanks,

Josh

I have been seeing a lot of people write you off as a racist/pro-confederate apologist and they often site some overly used quotes from, “Southern Slavery as it was”. However, I personally find it disingenuous to quote from a book/monograph that is just so gosh darn hard to find. I know these people, and I know they have not paid the $100+ to purchase and interact with your book and sources honestly and Christianly. Therefore, I was wondering if there could be a way I could attain this book, and even if that’s a pdf. I just do not feel it to be right to use one of the pdfs which do not seem like the full book and also which do not come from the people which it rightly belongs to. Eager to hear from you soon, and also looking forward to hear more of your thoughts on slavery, social justice, and racism either through that book or through your many winsome and Molotov-like articles which seem to only reign on liberals gay (not homosexual l, but fruitless) parades. Grace and peace be to you!

Ashton

Canon+ A missionary friend of my was looking into Canon+ and asked me why I paid money for it (in other words wondering if it was worth it to get himself). I told him the many things I had found valuable in it and how I was excited that new content was constantly coming out. Since that conversation a couple weeks ago there has been just an overwhelming amount of exciting content out on the platform. I was stoked about Ken Gentry’s lectures but they were quickly lost on the homepage from all the other new things coming down the pike.

If asked the same question again I would simply answer “why wouldn’t you?”

Anyway I say all this to give a hearty well done and keep up the good work to you and all the hard working folks over at Canon Press. I honestly don’t miss Youtube or social media (which I disposed of last year).

Shea

Thanks for answering my question on charitable judgment. I understand the illustration you gave and how you view Paul’s letter to Ephesus and his teaching there on election (for example) as similar to a talk you’d give at a marriage conference—but you’re not an apostle (shock). How can Paul be a minister of the new covenant, and be sure about what he’s saying for the people he’s writing to and yet be proclaiming mere possibilities to the church. 1 Corinthians 2:9,10,12,13 seem clear that there was objective revelation that the visible church of Corinth knew that was for them, from God, through Paul.. and then Paul says “we have the mind of Christ” at the end of the chapter. How can Paul be an apostle of maybes and not objective truth that he knows is true for those whom he speaks to because it’s his job to preach truth to the visible church of God? Rant over . . . I’d feel privileged if you rebutted me.

Jonty

Thank you for diving into the topics between young men and women and how Christian young men and women should deal with their relationship issues within the current corrupt and evil culture climate.

However, there are a few other topics/questions that I would like to ask/bring up, as I think these are important questions that we should address for our Christian young men and women:

(1) How should Christian young men and women prepare themselves spiritually before they are ready for marriage? It’s not just to become the ones that they think others would like to marry, but according to the Word of God, what kind of men and women should they become for marriage?

(Side questions: in the past, young women ages 13 and older were generally ready for marriage. Today’s 13 years old girls are not ready for anything. Even many 20 years old girls are still not ready for anything. How can we prepare our girls to become the young women they need to be?)

(2) For young men facing temptations of youthful lust, marriage is usually not a immediate solution (due to age, maturity and other issues). So how would you help a young Christian men (or older boys) deal with the constant bombardment of soft porn/porn and other such things try to destroy them through sexual sins? And shouldn’t Christian young men have a healthy take on sex before entering into marriage? If they are encumbered by masturbation or use of porn, that would taint and hinder a healthy marriage (sexually).

Appreciate any resources to books, articles, sermons or any things that address these issues. Thank you.

God bless

Richard

Here’s a question in the spirit of your recent dating advice posts…

I’m 24, and I’ve been dating a girl from my church for around 4 months now. This is the first romantic relationship I’ve been in. While her dad isn’t really into the whole courtship thing, we’ve been emotionally and physically responsible through this whole process.

Here’s the problem: while this girl is beautiful, feminine, submissive, forgiving, and godly in many other ways, I’m having second thoughts. This is mostly because it feels next to impossible to have any deep, two-sided conversations about the Bible, theology, culture, etc. She also seems to struggle with reading more than a chapter or two of the Bible a week—and even that only by listening to it. In fact, she doesn’t seem to read much of anything besides the occasional short devotional and her school textbooks. I, on the other hand, was devouring Jonathan Edwards and outlining Philippians on my own time when I was in high school.

Based on the rest of her life, and on her expressed desire to grow in this area, I think this difficulty is caused more by a massive personality difference than by a lack commitment to Christ. She faithfully attends church and midweek prayer meeting, and occasionally listens to sermons on her own time. But it still bothers me that she doesn’t directly engage with the Scripture. I also know that, as the man, I’m called to love and sanctify a woman like Christ does. While I (and my pastors) truly believe I could marry and lead this girl in good conscience, and I sort of feel like it would be the Christ-like thing to do, I long for a deeper connection over the Word of God and a deeper sense of shared purpose and direction with the woman I marry.

Almost everyone I talk to seems to think I should just marry her, and that an inability to get over this is my problem. I am attracted to her, and I do care about her. There also aren’t a ton of eligible godly ladies in my area in the first place. But I really, really want to lead a deeply Word-centered home, and I can’t help but wonder whether that will ever be possible with this girl.

So my question is this: how can I tell whether my gut instinct to break up is coming from a spirit of selfishness and discontentment, or from wisdom and true incompatibility? I just want to honor Christ with this decision, but I really don’t know what that would look like.

Thanks.

John

I’m more or less a “Baptist” who enjoys reading/listening/learning from your “content” . . . I’ve been meaning to tell you this for a few weeks, but you made “sort of” an offhand comment about Christ’s work on the cross in a letter response on Federal Headship(?) regarding husbands and wives (as I recall) . . . but the comment was something like: “On the cross Jesus took responsibility for our sins” . . . that idea/concept/word “responsibility” . . . Jesus taking “responsibility” for my sins . . . (responsibility for the guilt/penalty my sins deserve(right?)) . . . somehow really resonated/resonates with me in clear way I had never known before in thinking about Christ’s substitutionary death/sacrifice for my sins . . . just wanted to let you know and say thank you.

Robert

Was Rome acting as the the covenant head of all the nations of the earth when they crucified Jesus Christ? And just legal restitution would therefore be the life of every the nation of the earth.

Eric