If the Sky is Falling, Let Us Sweep Up the Pieces

Justice Roberts just sided with the liberals to strike down a Louisiana abortion restriction. Justice Gorsuch sided with the liberals to pave the way for churches and charities to be sued for firing an employee for transitioning. So there’s a Bush and Trump appointee, who both have failed in the eyes of faithful Christians. Remind me why you are planning to support Trump in 2020 again? He’s doing no better for faithful Christians than any other Republican has in the past. All elected Republicans I see in D.C. have utterly failed their Christian base.

Also, can you give me some reason for hope for the future of this country. I see nothing but the inevitability of God’s judgment, which this country well deserves for a multitude of reasons.

Roger

Dear Doug, my husband and I totally agree with everything you have said here (as well as everything else you have said). But we are left wondering, what do we actually DO? Both as individuals as well as a church body?

Melody

I’m new to your site and like what I see. Not sure if you have the time to answer questions such as mine, but I’m wondering which of your articles, podcasts, blog posts, etc. you’d most recommend to college students to help shape their perspective and navigate the time that we are in presently, a la George Floyd/BLM, etc.?

Thanks,

Kelly

That America Is Gone Now

Mr. Wilson.

I don’t normally side step the chain of command- but I find in this instance that it may be required.

You have troops on the ground here in Boise. We know and love the Commander’s intent, and are seeking to join a general like yourself who loves and sees it also.

Bottom line under fire –

Our city has been captured by the enemy, and was captured some time ago under the noses of its leaders. You can literally see the flags rising up everywhere in the city. Rainbow colors glowing and all. That, and the fire.

It’s getting hotter and hotter in our small enclaves in Meridian and Nampa. The attempt was to regroup and capture the smallest cities. Win them for Christ, and eventually like leaven in the loaf, win the city back.

My family and I have joined this fight and are willing to die to the last man for it. We are IN.

But we want to know what gives? Respectfully, there seems to be others in your circle of command (CREC) who are stuck in the nineties when the plan was unfolding in real-time. They have a real opportunity here in Meridian, one of the best cities IN THE COUNTRY to live and a raise a family–but the church itself is floundering with a handful of attendees who act as if they have never heard of Christ Church or anyone within its circle.

We are stuck in this no man’s land where our church is sputtering a few woke coughs here and there, and those in command are utterly convinced that the Commander is going to lose massively until the end. I’m not convinced that this is a winning war strategy. I believe they call themselves the amillennialists.

On the other hand, we see the black flag hanging over Moscow, and we desperately want to join your ranks. The rub is that we are first-generation Christians, and both families live in the area. We love them, but they don’t quite see the same strategic goals. In fact, sometimes they run when they hear the gunfire.

That being said — we love what we see happening in Moscow. There are very, very limited jobs that I could take in the area — and the housing market is virtually the same with far, far less options.

Sir, I want to fight, but we are unsure of the best path forward. Especially in this New America. We could use your advice.

Respectfully,

A 2nd Lt. lost in the woods

Two comments/questions:

(1) Is there any chance that this is a large scale Helter Skelter tactic? From what I understand, Manson and his murderettes were attempting to provoke a race war by perpetrating acts and leaving behind evidence meant to lead public opinion a particular direction. In their case, as I understand, they believed this race war would be won by the whites and eradicate the world of blacks. It was driven by racial animosity. It feels as though someone really wants whites and blacks to be at tension with one another and is going to great lengths to provoke that response. Is this part of the Marxist approach to take over?

(2) How would you advise a lay leader in a church to speak out on matters such as you articulate in this post when their convictions align with yours, but would overstep the conviction leadership at the local level? In one sense, the lay leader represents the church, but in another, they don’t want to speak on behalf or take a stance which might appear to be made on behalf of the church. Any advice/wisdom? Asking for a friend.

Todd

Re: Black Lies Matter. Thank you so much for this article, it articulates my anger with the current hypocrisy and madness so well. I’ve lost all human hope in things getting better but that gives me divine hope that God will do what it is very clear we cannot.

Ben

When I stumbled upon “That America is Gone Now,” I’d come to your blog to ask you for advice in coping with my perceived loss of the America my parents were born into. I know or think I know enough now to realize that the wind was planted before my grandpa was born and we’re just now getting around to having our hats blown off by the whirlwind, but I grieve the fact that my parents and their parents were born into a functional society, whereas I might not have been born into such a society, and my children have certainly not been. I don’t want my imagination to be dominated by this loss, but when I think of my kids in the future I feel dreadful afraid over the predatory sort of culture they inhabit, to the point where I’m already mourning the loss of these most precious children. I know this kind of quailing is not what they need from me. Teach me!

Jeff

RE: That America Is Gone Now

“One of the principles of war is pursuit, and you can be assured that our enemies will not neglect that principle.”

Can’t you test this hypothesis by looking at Western Europe, which at least according to conventional wisdom, is on the same path as us but a few decades ahead? And if so, aren’t the results kinda mixed? In many respects secular humanism has become the hegemonic worldview, e.g. education systems. But you also don’t see a thorough totalitarian effort to wipe out religion in minority groups like faithful Christians. Perhaps because, once their numbers and influence shrink to the point of irrelevance, believers no longer appear to be a threat/adversary, & the “pursuit” loses its momentum.

Kyle

Re: That America Is Gone Now

Well Pastor, it has been a good last 5 years of reading this blog, and I think your catechizing of the regular non-seminarized folk like me is finally doing its trick. I’m with you, let’s change out the guard. The one big problem with this is, I literally have no idea who the new guard members could be, and I say this (as I do in many of my letters) not to puff you up — that would be very bad, you worm — but in all sincerity I do not know who to look to. Though I have some ideas, on average its tough to keep track of who bent the knee to Baal in what blog post. I have a few suggestions for you and others in the ministry with you on how you might formulate something together.

I think one thing that gave birth to this squishy and oh-so-precious current Guard of thought-thinkers is the reality that good evangelicals hate and flee from cult leaders. We all try to forget masculine protection and actual offensive strategy should be a thing because every macho man we championed in the past turned out to be a King Saul. Maybe it goes without saying, but we need serious leaders who have the moral authority of a thundering Puritan and aren’t afraid to tell us exactly why our weak non-responses are sinful to this evil culture, and how to build a godly one. But at the same time those leaders are going to have to consistently tell us to become strong like them and challenge them as well, not worship them. And we’re all such weak and simple-minded sheep, most of us without any significant formation and character guidance from our own fathers, that we’re liable to make it all about how tough and cool Doug and the bois are. Not about worshiping the triune God. How can we set up a new guard that knows what’s going on, gives strong rebuke and good direction for how to fight against it, and doesn’t become the next evangelical version of Trump or what have you, a great strong leader who the people treat as an idolatrous bandwagon? Perhaps the key is rebuking individual cowardice, and drawing specific battle lines for the regular folk to fight in themselves. Then it becomes a shared war, and great strategic thinkers are admirable but just planners for the fight we all take up together.

Another thought I had is what is the real logjam here from the regular folk engaging in the war to build and preserve a society where the Gospel can flourish? And I think Kevin DeYoung gets the equation half-right when he says it’s the children. But it really is only half. The catechization concept I think is just a bit too ideological for many of the saints. I think we need to get very specific, kind of down to almost daily “rules” (ahhh the legalism!!!) of how to engage your wife and children. Things like, hug your wife every day, pray with her every day. Spend time with your kids. Do not put them in the hands of evildoers to teach them to love Satan and that sin is good. It is WRONG to put your kids in the hands of this government. It is also not enough to merely remove them from school. Interact with them every day. Pray with them every day. Praise them every day. Read the Word in small doses often. Play catch with your sons. Have tea parties with your daughters. NOTHING is more important than that you are around them and modeling these things to them. Do not idolize who they become, be a messenger from God not a builder of your own personal legacy. You get the idea. Not saying all these are fully thought-through and bulletproof. But I think it will take very practical concepts in this vein to wake up the average TV-and-work-is-my-whole-life Christian Dad.

The thing about logjams, seems to me, is you don’t get through them with more sophisticated versions of force, or even trying to muster more force than you actually can in one go, then being frustrated when you don’t at first break through. You bring the only battering ram you have, and you keep hitting that puppy over and over, till it finally breaks. Once parents, fathers in particular, realize God hates their complacency towards their children, with a capital H (only a fiat God is capable of accomplishing — but He does so in the preaching of the Word of truth), I really do foresee an actual mobilization of the evangelical masses to seek out a new Guard. And us adopting a whole new lifestyle, to treasure and encourage and invest in their most precious gift and highest calling. I think anyone in your position continually hammering at this every chance is the calling of the hour, and really could be a lead-up to Gospel revival and an army of warriors willing to fight. If Kevin DeYoung is right but strategically a mess, what do you say to the average enlisted footsoldier who just learned to shoot straight a week ago and now finds himself on the front lines with a lot of sandbags and barbed wire in his path? What is a strategy he can understand, shouted over the radio and the sound of gunfire everywhere?

Patrick

I have a soft spot in my heart for your family and appreciate you and your families’ writings. Nancy’s book, “Praise Her in the Gates” was very formative for me as a young wife and mother. About your last post, “America is Gone Now:”

“Christians are therefore gradualists and reformers, and the pattern toward which we are working is revealed to us in Scripture. Revolutionaries are immediatists and revolutionaries, and the pattern toward which they are working comes out of their fevered imaginations.”

It does not appear you leave room for Christians to be revolutionists. I know you’ve spoken favorably for the American Revolution and I think I remember you hinting at a similar response to abortion (yup, too lazy to go back and find it), should circumstances warrant it. Is that an inconsistency or am I missing something? If being an “immediatist” is pagan behavior, and Christians are to be “gradualists,” is there ever a time where we need to cut ties, bulldoze, start afresh, etc.?

Thanks!

Daphne

“That America is Gone Now.”

Pastor Doug,

I am starting to get very afraid. I see the mouth of the totalitarian tunnel approach as we careen toward it on our train of independence. Technology would make a totalitarian regime inescapable. I am worried for my children. I know they will try to take them away from me, and what power do I have to prevent it? When is Idaho seceding? Or in other words, how can this be stopped?

A Concerned Parent

On America is Gone and Principles for the Great Relocation: All I can say is keep it up brother. May we have many more merciful ministers that preach Jesus and the Gospel as the solution to these woes.

May God’s Kingdom come, but in the meantime, perhaps our family will soon relocate from our once beloved, now “Freyed” Minneapolis to Idaho or someplace of equal opportunity.

Mark

I’m a new Christian (baptized this February) trying to better understand the biblical parameters on gender and teaching in the church. I watched your “Ask Doug” video “Beth Moore & Mother’s Day Preaching” and read the transcript of your sermon “The Glory of Modesty,” but I’m still trying to gauge how well I’ve understood exactly what 1 Tim. 2:11-12 means, particularly in certain “boundary” cases. I’m pretty sure I got the point, but I just ran into a disagreement with my father on this, and I want to confirm I’m not being too strict: my father thinks what your daughter Rachel does (in “Philosophy Detox” and other Canon videos) is authoritative teaching in the same sense as what Jo Vitale does in videos like this: . (I’m not expecting you to watch the whole thing; the first 30-60 seconds should be enough.) He thinks both cases are fine, but it seems to me there’s a huge difference between “Philosophy Detox” and Dr. Vitale’s lectures — at least I have a very different (uneasy) visceral reaction to Dr. Vitale standing at the front of a church, addressing what seems to be a mixed congregation. It appears RZIM allows their female speakers to do this sort of thing frequently. Here’s another example (a very short, edited clip): . Their CEO, Sarah Zacharias Davis, introduces herself in her website Q&A like this: “The first time I realized you could be female and also be a preacher was when my parents took me to hear Becky Pippert. I was about 6 years old and have not forgotten that.” They also have a former female pastor on their staff — and the ratio of women to men on their speaking staff is quite high. When I started watching Ravi Zacharias on YouTube, I was initially eager to share clips of him with my non-Christian friends, but now I’m a bit wary of RZIM’s work in general. Do you think I’m overreacting? Am I misapplying 1 Tim. 2:11-12? In the preface to “Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood,” the authors write, “Egalitarianism must always lead to an eventual denial of the gospel. […Paul’s] exhortation [in 1 Timothy 2 is] to hold fast the Word and deal decisively with those who undermine it.” Can a ministry be trusted to carry on the Great Commission, teaching the nations to observe all that Jesus has commanded us, if in that very process they consistently disobey the clear and simple teaching of 1 Tim. 2:11-12 (if that is in fact what they’re doing)? (Also, I notice Zacharias isn’t in your reading log. Have you intentionally kept a distance from his work? On Google I’ve only found one instance where you refer to him, anecdotally.) Also, here’s Jo Vitale’s quick take on women in the church, and here’s one from Ravi Zacharias himself. Thank you for everything you’ve done for the church! God bless you!

André