Letters That Hit the Spot

I have a question regarding the pride flags. Would you support a business that displayed pride flags? It seems every coffee shop, restaurant, and locally owned boutique has the pride flag on display. How should Christians interact with local businesses?

Kara

I’ve been reading and watching you for the last several years now and I have to say that your “Power, Escape, Dominion” post was perhaps the best, most penetrating analysis of anything you’ve presented to date. Well done and keep it up. Would that Christians across the U.S. and the West understand and heed the wisdom, insight, and knowledge embodied therein.

I have a quibble, however, which is also not a quibble, concerning your (dare I say it) condescending comments about natural law (“endearingly”? Really?). It’s a quibble because my criticism and your comments do not detract from the overall truth and thrust of your argument, but it also is not a quibble, but something more serious, because your comments reveal a foundational blind spot in your philosophy, which will have detrimental knock-on effects for your proposals for turning the culture toward God. I know it is foundational because I’ve heard/read similar misunderstandings in your presentations in the past. And all reasoning based upon false premises leads not only to invalid argument but, ultimately, failure in the practical realm of action.

Before you criticize or dismiss natural law again, you should engage in a more searching understanding of what natural law is. You write: “What is this ‘nature’ you speak of? Is it created nature, as we read in Genesis, or is it the Big Bang nature that we read about everywhere else?” This betrays your misunderstanding. It is the wrong kind of question. I just “happened” to be reading John Finnis’s “Natural Law and Natural Rights” this morning and here’s a quote to get at what I mean:

“Thus, it is simply not true that any form of a natural-law theory of morals entails the belief that propositions about man’s duties and obligations can be inferred from propositions about his nature. Nor is it true that for Aquinas good and evil are concepts analysed and fixed in metaphysics before they are applied in morals. On the contrary, Aquinas asserts as plainly as possible that the first principles of natural law, which specify the basic forms of good and evil and which can be adequately grasped by anyone of the age of reason (and not just by metaphysicians), are per se nota (self-evident) and indemonstrable. They are not inferred from speculative principles. They are not inferred from facts. They are not inferred from metaphysical propositions about human nature, or about the nature of good and evil, or about the function of a human being; nor are they inferred from a teleological conception of nature or any other conception of nature. They are underived (though not innate). Principles of right and wrong, too, are derived from these first, pre-moral principles of practical reasonableness, and not from any facts, whether metaphysical or otherwise. When discerning what is good, to be pursued (prosequendum), intelligence is operating in a different way, yielding a different logic, from when it is discerning what is the case (historically, scientifically, or metaphysically); but there is no good reason for asserting that the latter operations of intelligence are more rational than the former. . . . In other words, for Aquinas the way to discover what is morally right (virtue) and wrong (vice) is to ask, not what is in accordance with human nature, but what is reasonable. And this quest will eventually bring one back to the underived first principles of practical reasonableness—principles which make no reference at all to human nature, but only to human good.”

And that also helps explain how C.S. Lewis was operating in The Abolition of Man, whose argument did not depend on the presupposition of the truth of Christianity or the existence of God. The Abolition of Man is an exercise in moral reasoning built upon the premise that the natural law (the Tao) is. Without the natural law, the Abolition of Man makes no sense, is in fact a complete mess and incoherent. To reject natural law is to cut C.S. Lewis off at the knees—and not just Abolition of Man but almost all of his writings.

I know that is not something you, or any right-thinking Christian, would ever want to do.

Lee

I am courting a godly woman who loves Jesus, has serious potential to be a Proverbs 31 type of wife and mother, and I am really attracted to her and we get along really, really well. Bad news is that she goes to a modern non-denom church with a squishy non-repentance gospel and women “pastors.” She won’t leave this church I don’t believe, saying that she believes God “called” her there. I want to join a PCA church. Can a husband and wife go to separate churches? Am I setting myself up for marital catastrophe? Any brief thoughts would help. Blessings!

Johnny

What would you say are the biggest weaknesses of the Christian community in Moscow?

Erik

What are the sexual bounds within the context of marriage? Are anal and oral sex permissible biblically?

Thanks,

Anon

Your ministry, as well as that of your entire family, has been instrumental in the learning and growth of my wife and I over these last couple of years. It is an everyday occasion to share something new and helpful that we learned from either a Wilson, Jankovic, or Merkle. I don’t know how many more things in our marriage, parenting, or walk with Christ we would be fumbling around about without all of the help.

I write to ask for more help. Maybe a book or content already published you could point me to if not new content to create. Here is my question: How do I faithfully admonish my wife? We have been married nearly 5 years and I have noticed a pattern in my leadership of what I have presumed to be encouragement but is actually working the opposite. I had thought that this would provide the support needed when dealing with the problems of interpersonal relationships, homemaking, and childrearing. I have come to see that I have failed to admonish her to rise to the occasion that the Lord has placed her in. When I thought by doing all the laundry and working at home more to help with the kids would be a support to her, it has become a crutch, or possibly more a crux.

How would you advise that I begin to admonish my wife in her duties as a wife, mother, and child of God generally and specifically as a young seminarian, married to a pastor, and raising 2 toddlers and Lord willing a few more.

In Christ,

David

My favorite Bible story is Joseph’s, and it has always grieved me that his line seems to fizzle out of the story in favor of Judah’s (nothing against Judah, of course). So my ears perked up exceedingly at that section of “The Anvil and the Hammers” where you point out that Jesus was descended from Ahab, king of Israel, and Israel is often called Ephraim, and Ephraim was one of Joseph’s sons. Off I scurried to dig into that. Alas! Ahab is Omri’s son, and nowhere does Scripture tell us Omri’s tribe. And we do know that not all of the northern kings were Ephraimites (Baasha, for instance, was from the tribe of Issachar). So while the likelihood is high that Ephraimite blood ran through Omri’s line simply because he was from that part of town, I couldn’t find any solid evidence of it. Would love to hear more if you had some that didn’t make it into the sermon. In the meantime, I’ll console myself with the clearer evidence that the spirit of Joseph’s story is strong in the gospel genealogies: What Ahab, Jezebel, Athaliah, and the rest of those rotters meant for evil, God meant for good in bringing the Messiah out of their lineage.

Kyriosity

A question popped into my mind recently. I know that you accept people into membership at your church who differ with you on the issue of infant baptism. Would you be willing to accept someone who believes in baptismal regeneration? Would it be a straight yes or no? Or would it be “maybe” depending on the particulars? Why or why not?

Thanks,

Curious in Wisconsin

The Image of God and Life Between the Sexes

You have stated: “Our sexual ethic is positive.” If someone were to say, “It is just as good to remain single as it is to be married,” would this be a form of moral relativity? Or is this merely cowardice? Or is marriage an optional lifestyle choice?

Justin

I consider myself a reformed baptist, and have a very hard time putting down anything I read/listen to from you, the rest of the Moscow guys, and Canon + in general. I’m also the father of two beautiful boys, one a toddler, the other not even crawling yet.

My question is this: how do I handle my toddler when he throws a tantrum? The “wisdom of the age” seems to be ignore them until they calm down, but this doesn’t seem to comport to the idea of shepherding the child’s heart. And since I don’t expect a full treatise on the subject just from my silly question, do you have recommendations of books (yours or from elsewhere) that would address this more fully, from a biblical/exegetical/theological perspective?

Thank you again for your work and ministry!

Brandon

My husband and I are members of Cornerstone Reformed Church in Carbondale, Illinois. Carbondale is very similar to Moscow and that it is a university town run by leftists. My husband is running for mayor and the election is April 4. I would like to ask your church to be in prayer for this election. Carbondale has also become the abortion headquarters of the Midwest. A year ago there were no abortion services offered in our city, and now there are multiple clinics open with more planned to open.

We are greatly in need of prayer that the Christians in our town and those who care about the pro life position would show up for the election on April 4. I was also wondering if there was anyone who would be willing to donate to our campaign, since we are down to the last week of campaigning and need enough money to send out the mailer to hit mailboxes just before the election.

Erica

I wanted to ask if you have changed your previous take on the resurrection of saints in Matthew 27:52. In your recent blog on Jenga and Hyper Preterism, your take was that many saints were raised, but that it couldn’t be all because at Pentecost, Peter explained that David was still in his tomb. This all seems clear to me.

But I recently used the scripture index on this site to see what you had said about the same verse earlier, and it seems like (and I find this clear and reasonable too) your take was that this paired with Paul’s, statement of Christ leading the captives from captivity into paradise with Him. And that before the ascension those saints rose before ascending with Christ to paradise (Paradise being where Jesus is). This would seem to imply (doesn’t have to, I suppose) that all the saints would rise to go with Him. But if that were the case then David would have left His tomb.

I am aware that the writings on the blog are not likely to be the sum total of every reflection you had on the verse, but wanted to see if there was a change in your interpretation, or if you maintain both takes are not necessarily in conflict.

Thank you for the

Jacob

In “Theological Jenga & Full Preterism” you say this: Now it makes no sense to say that the firstfruits rose from the grave in this particular way, but then to have the harvest show up in a completely different way. As my friend Jared Longshore put it, “If the firstfruit rose in manner A, will the lump rise in manner B? If the root in manner A, will the branch in manner B?”

I’ve always been taught my resurrection body will be me, but just a perfected version of me without spot or blemish. However, Christ’s resurrection body still bore the scars from his crucifixion. Based on your logic here, should I expect the scar above my right eye from hitting myself in the head with the racquetball racket will be present in my resurrection body?

If not, then there is not a one-to-one correlation between Christ’s first fruits resurrection body and ours. Obviously, this doesn’t negate the whole shooting match on bodily resurrection by any means but is an interesting data point to consider when we talk about the similarities and differences between Christ’s resurrection and ours.

Doug

I have been trying to think through the term “age” in the New Testament. I’m a partial preterist, but there is a lot of disagreement in that camp, as you know, over this issue. Is it at all possible that the term “age,” because it means period of time, could refer to either a Jewish age, Christian age, or a future epoch that begins post-Second Coming? In other words, is it proper to slap a systematic definition on the term and force it to refer to one particular period of time (such as the Jewish age) every time it appears? And if that is impossible and the phrase “age to come” refers only to the current Christian age, could texts saying “in the age to come eternal life” simply mean that it’s in this current age that the Lord Jesus appears in His Second Coming to raise the dead and give eternal life?

Austin

In Power, Escape, Dominion, I was tracking your argument until ” . . . and we cannot have Genesis without Christian nationalism.” Please expound because it seems to read that God’s word is dependent upon Christian nations which I presume is not what you intended. Thank you.

Christian

I’m sorry I am not referencing a specific post. I was hoping to hear your thoughts about education and whether or not to pursue a college degree. I’m a 33-year old male, unmarried (though I’m putting forth my best effort to remedy that), who works in the oil refining industry. Recently I decided to go back to school since I have never been able to attain a college degree. I enrolled online in a local community college to finish my Gen-Eds and hope to transfer to a 4-year institution studying English. I had hoped that studying English would help me in serving as a lay-person at my church. God has blessed me with a few young men whom I am able to meet with regularly and serve as they learn to navigate college and careers while growing in the faith.

I’m halfway through the semester now and I haven’t learned a thing. I understand that this sounds like hyperbole but it is the truth. So far most of my assignments have been about systemic racism, police racism, healthcare racism, and racist racism. I’ve done my best to thoughtfully interact with the class and have had a few opportunities to present either the gospel or gospel answers to worldly concerns. Despite my best effort to be winsome but explicitly Christian, I have received no interaction from the class when discussing topics. I even asked our communications teacher directly in our class chat channel what all these assignments about racism have to do with a communications class to which he provided no response.

All this said to say I’m having trouble discerning whether college is a worthwhile pursuit. Is finishing what I started good enough reason to use my time in this way? Will things get better after I make it through the associates degree and transition into a 4-year degree? I thought when I started pursuing an English degree that the worst I would deal with was filtering through critical analysis while reading Shakespeare or Thoreau. However now I’m just wishing the teacher would reference any author from more than 30 years ago.

I understand that God has used and does use the faithful not necessarily the educated to accomplish His purposes. Is education worth it if it is getting in the way of serving, fellowshiping, and reading challenging authors? Do I need to strive to just find the time and plod my way through without dropping any of these obligations?

Yours in Christ,

Tim

Letters Keep the Gears Turning,

The Short Answer While there may be Bacon Trees in the resurrection, you must be wary of other porcine shrubbery. I’ve heard tales of men seeking the fabled Bacon Tree only to stumble upon foes lying in wait. It was a Ham Bush!

AD

I have found your favouring of the Psalms to be encouraging. I have a complete set of the Sons of Korah’s albums of psalms, I am writing to encourage you to have a wee listen. They are based in Australia. A single refrain in one of the tracks goes something like as follows, “break their teeth, break their teeth, break their teeth . . .” I sing along most days.

Donna

On Man Rampant Season 1 episode 1 (I know I am way behind), what books (outside the Bible) should I read about empathy vs sympathy?

Also you referenced a Girard, who spoke about Job. What is the author’s name and what books do you recommend?

Jon