Letters in the Waning Years of April

Great article, and a great analogy. Thank you for the clear analysis.
I read the WSJ article that started (or at least occurred near the beginning of) all this and had much the same reaction. And because I still appreciate Goldberg and get his weekly Friday column (though it requires more and more discernment by the week), I read his response last week.
I’ll admit, though, that I found the portion discussing VPOTUS’s Twitter/X comments to be far more interesting than the Rufo/Gramsci conversation. Laying all my cards out here, J.D.’s comments really illustrated why I’m swiftly cooling on him, and questioning his wisdom for office and leadership (in a Proverbs sense). Yes, he is better than Biden (a riposte I get anytime I voice a criticism to one of my friends!), but I care about the spiritual health of my side in a specific and detailed way that isn’t warranted (yet) for my enemies. He seems to drink deeply of the vaguely ethno-centric, “my-ancestors-got-off-the-boat-first-so-I’m-right” kind of arguments that, frankly, make my soul worry about the souls of my political compatriots. Time spent on Twitter doesn’t improve that concern.
Do you have any thoughts on that portion of Goldberg’s article?
P.S. Just finished Keep Your Kids and American Milk and Honey. I thank the Lord for your ministry–what excellent books.

Samuel

Re: both sides using the same tactics in the Rufo / Goldberg discussion, I’m reminded that everything I need to know I learned from Star Trek. See “Savage Curtain,” Season 3, Episode 22.

Greg

“But Lindsay’s atheism means that he is much closer to Marxism than any of the other folks he is worried about.”
In a very recent interview, James Lindsay has said he has repented of his atheism, seeing it for the Marxism it is, and now is agnostic—and also while he doesn’t know about the metaphysical, he is deeply convicted of the anthropological and psychological truth of the Bible and the human condition.
He is close, pray for him!

Ian

“Those who are in favor of smaller government are, when this is translated, in favor of a smaller capacity for coercion. Those who are in favor of bigger government are in favor of increased opportunities for coercion.” The fact that you quoted this favorably is rich, considering that you are an advocate of “Christian” government coercion. You hypocrite.

Marc

This question is not directly related to your blog, I hope that is ok.
I am a dad of a 19-month-old, another baby due in June, and hopefully some more in the future. I live in Jacksonville, Florida. My wife and I are most likely planning on homeschooling and most certainly will be structuring our children’s education in line with what you have described in “Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning” and elsewhere.
My question is, as I/we seek to assemble curriculum to utilize in educating our children, is there anywhere that I could find a comprehensive (or near comprehensive) list of the books that Logos School uses, or that you would generally recommend for K-12 education? I have found that there is a lot of information on the Canon Press website, but I’m wondering if there is a 1-stop shop for this kind of thing.
Thanks,

Brandon

I have two questions for you about the issue of abortion. I had an abortion when I was young and foolish in high school, but because it’s such a grievous sin, it really set a hell-bound trajectory for my life. I ended up having more than one until the day in 1992 I met the LORD, and to my great surprise and wonder he forgave me of much, and I have loved him very much ever since.
That was over thirty years ago and since then I’ve dabbled in and out of pro-life ministry and work. I ran for office in 2022 to help stop abortion legislatively, but that was not what the Lord wanted for me. We have two teenagers at home and home was where I was and am needed. So, I’m not considering a full-time job outside the home; just how to do anti-abortion activism that doesn’t take me for too long out of the home.
You’ve said something like this in the past about abortion: “in America, we allow the chopping up of babies and the selling of their body parts and this is all done in a country filled with millions of Christians.” My question for you is, why in the world do you think more Christians aren’t speaking out against abortion? Ever since being born again it has struck me that it seems to always be Roman Catholics that have been boldly fighting abortion, but with Protestants—crickets! Why is that? Is it because many Christians have themselves had abortions? Is it because they’re (ignorantly) pro-choice?
A second question is—what would you recommend a mom of two teens and who’s still very much involved in “working in the home” do for “pro-life activism?” I love to write, I love reading, and oddly enough I enjoy public speaking. How to use that for the Kingdom? My husband suggests I simply write and have the Church as my audience. I think that’s good advice, and I bet you’d agree.
If you are so inclined, I would love it if you’d address this kind of thing on your blog or somewhere public.
Respectfully,

Marla

I hope you’re doing well. Recently, my husband and I have begun researching into the world of the harrowing of hell. We are curious as to your thoughts, did this occur on Holy Saturday? Or, did this occur immediately after Jesus died, and then on Saturday, He was in heaven with the saints?

O.N.

I’ve been pondering the subject of baptism a lot recently. Coming from a Baptist background, I had passively imbibed the understanding that baptism is simply an expression of the new believer’s faith in Christ. Hence children cannot be baptized, and the like.
As I read your book, “Mother Kirk,” I was introduced to the idea that while baptism can express a new believer’s faith in Christ (as with an adult), it also, and perhaps primarily, is an expression of God’s promise in Christ to the new member of God’s covenant people. Naturally, such a baptism must be administered (if at all possible) by a minister who has the authority to administer such a baptism, within the context of a local church to which the recipient of baptism is now enjoined. I’ve read the CREC statements on member churches agreeing to affirm the baptism of a new church member whose baptism was received in a different context. Very helpful stuff. And though I can’t seem to find it anywhere, I think I remember that you at one point (perhaps in “Mother Kirk”?) mentioned that a CREC would potentially accept the baptism of one who received it in the Roman Catholic Church, meaning that re-baptism would not be required of them. No real qualms there.
Given my Baptist (or Bapticostal; what a fun word!) background, I wonder what the CREC position on baptism would be in this scenario. Let’s say the Revival Circus sweeps through town, offering a dazzling show of lights, fog machines, sensual music, and theater-level emotive and sensational preaching. Maybe some faux miracles are thrown in for good effect. And let us say further that at the close of this, several young and impressionable women decide to get baptized by the traveling preacher in the fountain outside the courthouse. After the circus leaves town and the dust and adrenaline settles, one of these newly baptized youths decides to make good on her baptism and seeks to join a local church, one that just so happens to be CREC. Given that the baptism was 1) administered by someone with no biblically recognized ministerial authority, and 2) done completely removed from any local church authority or involvement, would the CREC position maintain that she be “re-baptized,” denying that an initial baptism even took place for the aforementioned reasons?
Many thanks, and God bless,

Will

First, I want to say for your testimony of faith and your diligence to hold fast to the Gospel. My family and I have really enjoyed the Canon+ app. The resources have been a great source of encouragement from the audiobooks, podcasts, sermons, and the old school cartoons for the children. I have personally enjoyed your many books on parenting and being a godly husband. They are extremely practical and sound in biblical wisdom.
One thing that I have noticed in our current culture of evangelicalism is that it seems that most books and materials are geared towards the pastor or those in ministry. As you have so well stated in your books, it seems like if you’re a serious Christian then that is an automatic entrance into being in pastoral ministry. There doesn’t seem like there is much written for the regular laymen who are laboring away seeking to be faithful to Christ and His Church in the mundane. I work in a roughneck environment where there is much coarse joking and a wannabe bravado of manliness. Some requests that I have of you is how a Christian is to faithfully plod among the pagans in the workplace day in and day out? What does it look like to preach the gospel in the workplace? What should be a man’s perspective when he wakes up to do it all over again? What does that look like from a biblical perspective? How do I maintain my joy in the Lord through the next 30 years of mundane work?
I could probably ask more questions, but I won’t belabor the point. If you do read this, I appreciate your willingness, and my hope and prayer is that a resource would come from it. I think it is much needed.
Thanks brother,

JW

I have recently come across your material and your blog, as well as purchased two of your books (Case for Classical Christian Education and Recovering the Lost Tools for Learning). I teach 7th and 8th grade social studies at a public middle school in Kansas. I was wonder, have you seen success of a classical approach developing in a public institution or am I spinning wheels in the mud trying to work through this? I am just begun my voyage into this field so I have a long ways to go.
I thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,

Brett

I am writing to request parenting advice about a younger son who is affectionate and personable, but untidy and unfocused.
His siblings are irritated with him which makes me feel like I need to come to his defense. I draw the line at disobedience due to forgetfulness and discipline him for that, but it hasn’t cured him so far. I also fear he will grow up without fire or initiative, but it seems to me the exact way to ensure that bad outcome is to discipline him too strictly. I see a natural affability in him that seems to get depressed or frustrated when I am in a more strict mode.
What should I do?

Douglas

I am an unmarried twenty-something who wants to be married. I am currently in a relationship with a woman. I love God, love children and love families. But I believe part of the reason I am still unmarried is that I have no problem choosing my love, but then I don’t want to love my choice.
Inevitably, a few months into any relationship that I strike up, I will suddenly convince myself that I should no longer be pursuing the woman whom I had fallen so hard for months before. I can enter the relationship lovestruck and then suddenly do a 180 degree turn in my own heart. At that point, I begin to feel trapped, alone and ashamed of my fickleness, yet an unwillingness to take the jump to marriage and a complete lack of desire to pursue her anymore. I am stuck in this trap of a longing for marriage and children with a hatred of the loneliness of singleness, but the inability/unwillingness to commit to one woman.
I hate that about myself. I know it’s a sin but I don’t know how to mortify it. I don’t know what to do.
Also running through my mind is that there are a few things about my girlfriend that I don’t love, certain characteristics that I don’t find honorable. I don’t know if that is me in my sinful, fickle heart latching onto one of her sins (no surprises that she has flaws, she is human after all) because I’m just looking for an out or if they are legitimate concerns. I know that if she placed the same scrutiny on me that she could find plenty to criticize.
I apologize for the long explanation, but this is all leading up to two questions: 1) how do I mortify the sin of fear of commitment (or my inability to love my choice) and 2) how do I tell the difference between legitimate concerns about a potential wife’s character and me just looking for a reason to break off the relationship?
Thank you for all you do.

Anon

If a Christian creed is incorporated into our founding documents, and if you have to affirm that creed to hold public office, how would you respond to the argument that lots of bad will result from incentivizing nominal Christianity as a pathway to political power?

Matt

I have a question about a tricky situation and how to handle it in light of 1 Corinthians 5:9-13. I understand the text to teach that there is no problem with associating with unbelievers who live ungodly lives, but that we are not to associate with someone who professes to be a Christian but is living in unrepentant sin.
There is another guy who started coming to my church several months ago. Long story short, he made it clear that he was living with his girlfriend (who was also attending the church with him) even though they weren’t married. They both professed to be Christians but did not seem to see anything wrong with living together before they were married. I wasn’t very close to him, but since no one else had confronted him about his sin, I began praying for wisdom about how to do so. However, before I every had the conversation with him, he talked to some of the elders of the church who made it clear that he could not be a member so long as he was living with his girlfriend outside of marriage. As a result, they both stopped attending the church.
Fast forward a few months, and I have heard that they recently got married. However, it doesn’t seem as though this was an act of repentance but just something that they had planned for a while and they do not seem to regret living together before they were married. Another guy from my church who I know to be a solid believer was also recently married and proposed the idea of the three of us meeting together regularly as newly married guys. Technically, he is married now and so is not living in unrepentant fornication anymore, but this was not due to repenting of his previous fornication.
Since he has not repented, should I still not associate with him until he does? Given that he is now married, what would repentance look like at this point?
looking forward to hearing your wisdom,

Will

I hope you are well and that the Lord is blessing you today! I wanted to share with you a project that I’ve embarked on to help encourage believers especially on eschatological matters. I’ve created a website titled “An Eschatology of Hope” to centralize as much web content as possible on Postmillennialism. The resources are taken from multiple online avenues especially YouTube. My goal is to grow this website to contain further content including hymns, articles, books and sermons to make this website a one-stop shop for all your postmillennial needs. It is still a work in progress. There is still much I’d like to add to the site, but I feel I can only achieve the level of content that I intend to add is with the help of others. I’d like to ask those sharp postmillennialists to share any free content that they may have found and that is not currently on the website. Would you be kind enough to share this website with others?
Your brother in Christ,

Shawn

Our church recently had an unmarried lady pray uncovered before the pastor’s sermon. I am conflicted about bringing it up. I don’t want to come off as nitpicking, but I do believe this is in direct disobedience to the plain reading of Scripture. How do you suggest I bring it up or should I bring it up at all?

Kenneth

My wife and I recently transitioned from a non denominational church back to my childhood Southern Baptist church. This decision came on the backend of some counseling I received from a Mr. Ken Trotter (he’s from your neck of the woods). The move [was] needed mostly because of our transition into Reformed theology. A couple things I’ve been pondering:
Why is it, that the Reformed community, seems to have such a solid grasp on “family religion” (as Voddie calls it), while other denominations seem to fall so short. Your content specifically on the family has been used to alter our lives completely. I don’t hear much elsewhere in comparison.
I am continuing in reading/listening daily, but I’m having a hard time fully embracing certain theological topics. One being covenantal theology. Its not that I don’t want to believe, its just that I also don’t want to “force” an understanding rather than “receive” it. Were you ever in this position with embracing Reformed theology (and sub topics)?
Thank you brother,

John

This is one of a few letters I’ve written to you, a couple of which you have been gracious enough to include in your weekly Letters posting.
I’m writing in regard to the young man who wrote about feeling like a failure in comparison to others. Personally speaking, I should also feel that way, as at my advanced age (78) I should have a better resume. I became a Peace Corps volunteer in the late 60s and associated with people from a wide range of backgrounds. I have kept up with some of them and found that many have become doctors, lawyers, engineers, PHDs, etc. while the best I did was become a journeyman mason and a high school teacher. Not what one might call a “high class” person in view of the accomplishments of my peers.
But because Christ drew me up from a bad situation in my youth (I was 33) and put me on a good path, I can look back at the past and see how he has guided my steps. I was never ambitious, I never planned a move from one job to another, except perhaps when I retired, yet I can see how he has placed me in one good place after another, such that now I have a secure retirement situation. I could say more, but that would be “gilding the lily.”
That young man needs to believe that the LORD guides his EVERY step. He may not see this until he is an old man, as I am today.

Jack

Thank you Pastor Doug for all you do. It continues to be such a blessing. I’m in the middle of a complicated situation I’d appreciate your wisdom on.
I have one sister, who is in a same-sex relationship, and has been for many years. Recently, my father died, leaving the family home to us both in the inheritance. My sister has asked if I would be willing to sell my half so that she and her partner could live there.
At a gut level, I don’t like the idea, but I’m not sure I can fully articulate why. I think it’s partly because I have many happy memories of the home, and would prefer to keep them that way. It’s partly because if they moved into “the family home,” it feels as if it legitimizes their relationship in some way. And it’s partly I think because my dad was a Christian man who did not approve of their relationship, and indeed for a long time had a terribly difficult relationship with my sister. (Not all of that was her fault, but still.)
My wife and I love my sister and her partner, and take every opportunity to show hospitality, and witness to them, while being clear that we could not (for example) attend any kind of ceremony that would imply our celebration of their relationship. We also have two little girls (both being educated in a classical Christian school), and we’re mindful of not normalizing my sister’s lifestyle in their eyes.
I’m not sure how to proceed. I would prefer it if my sister didn’t “buy me out” but I’m not sure how best to communicate that, or even whether my qualms are reasonable. Do you have any advice?

Clym

You review of the book My Dear Hemlock should have included a big warning label. “HUSBANDS DO NOT ORDER THIS BOOK FOR YOUR WIFE!” I’m really in the doghouse now.

Ken

“My understanding is that all of the tithes added together came to ten percent. But someone like Rushdoony, for example, taught that they were distinct, and because one of them came every third year, the total would be around 23.3%.”
Very interesting coincidence that 23% is the sales tax number that the FairTax economists came up with as the number necessary to replace all forms of taxation with a single streamlined tax.

Ian

I had written to you before about addiction. I have also read your book on marijuana, which was very interesting. I’m concerned with ways and means of overcoming such problems in some kind of systematic way. You mentioned that Christians with those problems need support in I assume some kind of Christian counseling way. As I myself struggle with alcohol and marijuana usage and have a history of bad mental health I did once phone a Christian psychologist looking for help. I shared my salvation testimony with that person and later in the conversation was basically told I wasn’t saved. That hurt me deeply of course, but I realised that the shoe was actually on the other foot and this “psychologist” was probably not saved. I won’t go much into the psychology debate but I had therapy when I was younger and I know quite a lot about that whole unGodly system. It’s surprising how blatantly anti-Biblical the whole thing actually is. Alas, I take 2 medications for my condition as well. I don’t know what kind of chemical soup effect this is all having on my body but I want out badly from the addictions and I have tried everything and I can’t seem to stop. It’s hard to know also what the extent of demonic activity is involved at the same time. Certainly there is some of that. I have wanted to read the Bible regularly because I understand that it helps sanctification, and yet I find it very difficult to physically pick up a Bible and just read. I have no problems reading all kinds of other Christian literature. And all the same I love the Bible to a great degree. It’s confusing. I’m basically like a hermit too, and I fear going out because every time I do people act weirdly in different ways. So here’s something—I admit that I do suffer from paranoia due to weed, but at the same time I am being harassed by people (or the demons inside of them). I don’t know how to break out of this whole mess. I do know that if I could stop drinking I could sort something out with my life. But that’s the catch: I can’t seem to stop it. I don’t believe in the psychological theory that past trauma’s have to be brought up and released. It’s been 30 years of analysis, thinking, and no change. I have no friends, little money, no future plans and no way of knowing what I could do even if I could. And of course I have prayed endlessly to God to help me and He hasn’t done anything. I was saved 11 years ago (in a quite spectacular way, I may add). I really think that if I knew how to beat this drinking thing I would become the richest person in the world. Why do some people become addicts? It’s not always past trauma. It’s not an “allergy” like A.A. says. And I really don’t want to end up like Christopher Hitchens. (When YouTube first came out I watched all his debates and I agreed with him on a lot of things. It’s funny what a difference salvation makes.) Pot=fear/lack of motivation. Alcohol = depression and anxiety (and a beer belly). How to solve?

David

Well Pastor Doug, you’re not crazy—at least, not about this.
I just finished reading your Westminster Systematics book. Outstanding work, especially Chapter I. From what I can see, you’re clearly arguing for the Confessional Text position—and I have to say, you’ve won me over. I’m now proudly toting my KJV, archaic pronouns and all.
It seems like nearly every modern systematic theology or commentary on the Confession has taken a generous sip from the post-Enlightenment punch bowl when it comes to textual criticism. So I went back to the old breed—The Westminster Confession: A Commentary by A.A. Hodge—and sure enough, he stood right where you do. Now we know who’s really “Confessional.” Who would’ve thought?
God bless you, Pastor Doug. Keep swinging that textual two-edged sword.

Mike

I listened to The Neglected Qualification a couple years ago, but I would like a few specific clarifications, if possible. If a preacher were to develop a porn problem, would he be immediately disqualified, or does it depend on the extent, duration, etc., of the sin? Is restoration to the ministry possible, or is the disqualification permanent? What about a case where there is marital strife, such that the church is aware and has been asked to pray for restoration, even if there hasn’t been any public infidelity in the marriage? Would this be more of a temporary stepping down, and not necessarily a permanent disqualification (depending on the outcome, of course)? I wish I was asking about hypothetical scenarios. Thanks for taking the time to consider my question!
Thanks,

Tim