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The Secret Key

As you continue to become more radicalized, I am more and more horrified that I, at one time, regarded you as an authority whose intellectual honesty could be relied upon. I’m disappointed; I had a great deal of respect for you. Regards,

Christiana

Christiana, let me share with you my secret approach to radicalization during these, our demented times. Just pick any mainstream position, adopt it, and then refuse to move with the times. Presto. You will be a radical, if not a hater, within a decade.

A “Yeah But” Agreement

Reading “The High Price of Forgetting God” I find there is much to agree with. However, you seem to skate over the very real difference between the Israelite theocracy (a unique religio-political entity) and what is demanded of other countries such as our own. God demands that we maintain basic principles of justice and righteousness lest we be overthrown. He does not expect us to be a Christian nation per se, if that were even possible. There are only three divinely authorized theocracies according to the Scriptures: Eden, Ancient Israel, and the future New Jerusalem. All other nations and civilizations technically allow for secular space – even if the vast majority of citizens are Christians. And it is only with the greatest hermeneutical care that we can apply Israelite theocratic law to our nation. Those are my thoughts. Thank you for your ministry.

Ray

Ray, I think we probably agree in practice more than you might think. And I agree with you on the need for great hermeneutical care. But this technical “secular space” . . . who is Lord there?

A Justice Question

I have read many of your books over the years and have enjoyed and benefited from them all. This week I started two more: Black and Tan and A Justice Primer.

On the former, all I can say is, “You racist pig!”

On the latter, I must tell you that I downloaded it yesterday evening in hopes that it would help me sift through some very difficult issues. I have read about half of it so far and unfortunately I think I have highlighted 90% of what I have read. It will be a little difficult trying to go back and find the really important points. On the plus side, it has proved very helpful thus far. Truly I have viewed it with great thankfulness to the Lord.

Perhaps you and Mr. Booth will address my question further along in the book but I want to ask about a particular scenario. Imagine that a crime is committed and it is well established by biblical principles (accountable witnesses, following rules of evidence, etc.) that the person accused is actually guilty.

1) Would it be right or wrong, given the fact that the person’s guilt is well-established in one instance, to then “go fishing” for other potential instances of wrong doing committed by this same person? Something like…receive an accusation on the testimony of zero witnesses?

2) If the answer to question 1 is yes, would this second investigation (fishing expedition) be held to the same standards or to lower standards? In other words, would this second investigation have to stand on its own merits independent of the guilt found in the first investigation or is the second investigation allowed to be a bit shoddy “since he was guilty in the other case.”

I think I know what your answers will be, but I still would really like to hear your answer.

William

William, as long as the suspect is not being detained on the basis of your mere suspicion, but rather on the basis of the crime where you have the evidence, I would say “investigate away.” But I would also want the standards of evidence to remain at the same high level.

That Election Web Site

I waited with interest for the evidence of fraud that you had teased in your responses to Tuesday’s letters. So when you provided a link to everylegalvote.com, I immediately clicked through to see what the site had to say. And the site you sent me to had zero transparency about funding, did not explain in any way how they arrived at such an exact number of fraudulent votes, or how they arrived at their numbers at all for that matter, did not explain how it was that there was widespread fraud on the Democratic side and zero fraud on the Republican. The first piece of evidence was a screenshot of Jeff Harshman, random Facebook user, commenting on Facebook that he had voted 29 times for Biden. I guess Facebook allowed that through their censors? No link, no attempt to verify the claim in any way, no attempt to find what the 29 districts were, what the battleground states were. Nothing, not even a link to the profile. The lack of any transparency is astounding. They obviously spent little or no time vetting their evidence.

I have benefited so much from your writings over the past few years. I remember reading your comments in Confessions of a Food Catholic about the our willingness to accept things on scant evidence, and about those goofy ads on the talk radio program you appeared on. This is the sort of website that would be advertised in those ad breaks. You sharing this as if it’s the vetting house for all the incontrovertible evidence of fraud damaged your credibility with people like me.

Martin

Martin, I know and trust the people involved in that project. But please make a distinction between crowd-sourced anecdotal reports, on the one hand, and what you would be willing to put in front of a judge, on the other. I don’t believe that every story listed on that web page is necessarily court worthy. But I do think we should be able to compare notes without being censored by Big Tech.

Angel Question

First, a word of thanks for what you do. Second, a few questions. I’v recently realized that a section of theology I have vastly understudied is angels and demons. Any recommended starting points? I’m especially interested in any works that explore the ideas that the “gods” of pagan religions were really demons.

Thanks,

Addison

Addison

Addison, I would want to add a few “be careful” qualifiers, but a good place to start would be Michael Heiser’s books.

Some Merch Complaints and Laments

Will there be and No Quarter November Store Items? ie: Mugs, Caps, hoodies, stickers? Or are there any left from last year? I missed getting some and was waiting all year to buy some on this 2020 go around. Thanks and please let me know.

Edward

Edward, very sorry for the ball drop. I will inquire.

I thought I should write on behalf of all of us who are concerned with the direction NQN is heading in this year. It really is quite disappointing to see.

I refer, of course, to this: “Since a bunch of you probably have all my books on Kindle from the last two years of giveaways, we thought it was time for something new.”

All of your books?

I think not. Only lots.

I mean, we don’t have Ploductivity, or Food Catholic, or Father Hunger. And you will insist on writing new ones all the time…

There I was hoping that my Kindle would implode under the weight of all the wrong-think. But I prefer to buy in uncancellable hard copies, so I guess it’ll have to wait.

Kind regards,

James

James, we are very apologetic about the delay on this, but we might be able to make it up to you, maybe even by tomorrow.

Hello Pastor Wilson and the people at Canon Press!

I have a Question/Suggestion regarding NQN:

“Since a bunch of you probably have all my books on Kindle from the last two years of giveaways, we thought it was time for something new”

I’ve been looking forward to NQN for a while this year, and since I am one who is newer to these parts, I was hoping there would be Kindle give-aways again this year, since I wasn’t here last year or the year prior. I’m sure I’m not alone. So I think it’s safe to say there are a fair number of us who wouldn’t complain if you re-gave out the same Kindle books that you have given out in last two years, as well. You know, as a consolation prize for those of us late to the party . . .

I realize you don’t owe us anything, and I enjoy the no-qualifications-blog-posts month all on its own, without Kindle giveaways. But I also figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask.

Thanks for your consideration!

Alex

Alex, thanks. Let me check with the powers that be.

Is there any chance that this book will be sold as an ebook or for Kindle?

I live in Germany and the shipping is more expensive than the book itself. And the first six chapters are phenomenally written.

Jurij

Jurij, yes, it will be available on Kindle at some point. Before that it will be available on Audible, and the whole book will be published here on the blog.

Apologies

I would like repent of a comment I posted a few weeks back attached to this post (A Second Round on John Piper, Me, and the Cool Shame Election). In that comment I implied that Mr Piper might be intimidated by the “alpha” male characteristics of Mr. Trump. While I do believe that there are men out that that this is true of, I believe that to speak of Mr. Piper in this was was wrong due to my lack of knowing Mr. Piper well enough to make such comments. Without such knowledge the comment was likely gossip and possibly slander, both of which are sinful and not proper for a Christian man to do. Given that I submitted the comments via the Mablog message board, I am thus submitting this in same measure and I hope that any and all that might have read my comments will also receive this retraction and statement of repentance.

Thank you.

BJ

BJ, thanks for this.

Women’s Ministry

I’m writing in response to your article, “Women’s ministries as pestilence”.

My husband and myself are former CREC attendees (he was a member, I was not). I understand and share the same point of view on women in ministry. However, even with my understanding of the CREC, and as a Christian woman, I still struggled to understand what you meant by women’s ministries. A woman that I don’t know, but who must attend one of your churches, kindly clarified the difference between women ministering and women’s ministries on Facebook, which I thought was important, especially because the woman who posted the article (with the intention of “rocking the boat”) did not provide clarity or context to those that responded to her initial post.

I’m just trying to understand. Who is your intended audience for No Quarter November? And what is your intention in sharing your thoughts using this form of writing? If it’s for those in the CREC that are familiar with you and your theology and how you share your views, that makes a lot of sense to me. However, folks from your churches post these articles with the intention of “Rocking the boat” (as this one woman wrote in her initial post). While it does stimulate discussion (which seems to be one of the purposes of this form of writing), its very apparent that when (Some of) your congregants post these articles without providing the context they benefit from as members of your congregation, the discussions result in more UNfruitful discussion than fruitFUL discussion.

As a Christian woman, I am having a difficult time understanding the point in Christians engaging people in difficult discussions (Especially on social media) with the intention of rocking the boat. As an observer, this is leading to far more conflict than discussion. I’m curious as to your perspective on this.

Thank you,

Jessica

Jessica, yes, the intention is to rock the boat — but only if the boat needs to be rocked. Women ministering is glorious, but for the reasons I outlined in my piece, women’s ministries have turned into something else again.

Since, presumably, qualifications are permitted in the letters, how does women ministering to other women practically work in ways that avoid the rats nest of women’s’ ministries?

Sam

Sam, two things occur to me. First, is that the women’s ministry be directly accountable to the elders, i.e. under male leadership. And second, that the focus be outward facing.

Thank you for this. I laughed out loud when I read the title, and read bits of the post out loud to my 18 year old son as I went through it. I haven’t noticed the pestilential angle at our own church, but it’s something that has occurred to me when considering some Christian books and blogs authored by women. I was asked to speak at a local women’s conference and said No without really knowing why I was disinclined, and later realized this was a big part of it.

SK

SK, yes. I believe more than a few women are in your position.

Some Glock Vindication

Just backing the accuracy of your story up, brother. Here’s to the haters out there . . .

Blessings,

KDB

KDB, why thanks!

There is hope for redemption in regards to the Glock safety controversy, here: I would just go with ignorance of the character though.

Duane

Duane, thanks to you also.

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-BJ-
-BJ-
3 years ago

The BJ in this edition of Letters is not me, the BJ who oftentimes spends too much time in the comments section. I only mention this, because I did not slander John Piper, nor do I apologize for my non-slandering habits.

Corey Reynolds
Corey Reynolds
3 years ago
Reply to  -BJ-

Well, no one has ever seen you two in a room together, so…

-BJ-
-BJ-
3 years ago
Reply to  Corey Reynolds

Corey,

Lol. I guess you’ll have to take it on blind faith.

Bot
Bot
3 years ago
Reply to  Corey Reynolds

👍👍👍👍👍

Zeph
Zeph
3 years ago

I agree that the elders need to be in oversight to women who are ministering, just as they are the men who do ministry outreach.. In practical ways, how should counseling be done and how should counseling NOT be done?

Beth More
Beth More
3 years ago
Reply to  Zeph

Well I don’t know about the rest of you but I’m deeply concerned with Jane’s deafening silence on this issue. Time to step up, girl!

Ken B
Ken B
3 years ago
Reply to  Beth More

Maybe she’s gone home …

Adad
Adad
3 years ago
Reply to  Beth More

Prov. 9

7 Whoever corrects a mocker invites insults;
whoever rebukes the wicked incurs abuse.
8 Do not rebuke mockers or they will hate you;
rebuke the wise and they will love you.

I expect that Jane may be reading a book at Wisdom’s table, or exchanging cat memes with Jill. ; – )

Troll tripe can always be had, if one happens to be in the mood.

Jill Smith
Jill Smith
3 years ago
Reply to  Adad

Very beautiful and inspiring cat memes! And I myself have nothing useful to say about women’s ministry except that every one I have been involved in has required a lot of cooking Lenten soup in the church kitchen and doing tidy darns on the altar linens. I don’t think that’s the kind of ministry Doug has in mind.

Beth More
Beth More
3 years ago
Reply to  Adad

Wisdom’s table is bare without you, Dear!

John C
John C
3 years ago

Christiana,
I read the first 7 words of your comment and this came to mind: “Nope. Same dependable ol’ Doug speaking truth to the current circumstance.”

Tom K
Tom K
3 years ago

“You will be a radical, if not a hater, within a decade.”

It also works in reverse, too.

If during the #MeToo movement, you had suggested that accusations of rape should be treated like any other accusation and that innocence should be assumed until the evidence was shown to the contrary, you would be labeled a “misogynist bigot” and banned from Twitter.

“What’s the matter with you? Don’t you believe all women?”

Then Joe Biden ran for office, the #MeToo movement was cancelled, and Tara Reade was informed that she should shut her mouth.

Amanda Wells
Amanda Wells
3 years ago

Does anyone know if this GIF is real?

Ross Leavitt
Ross Leavitt
3 years ago
Reply to  Amanda Wells

Fret not, it is 100% CGI. And the more you watch it, the more clear that becomes.

kyriosity
kyriosity
3 years ago
Reply to  Ross Leavitt

Oh, that’s good to know. It stresses me out every time I see it, and I always see it too small and fuzzy to really tell! 😆

Jane
Jane
3 years ago
Reply to  Ross Leavitt

That is a great relief.

Chris Carter
3 years ago

I came for the GIF.

Bot
Bot
3 years ago

👎