An Abundance of Lotsa Letters

On your article “Male Chauvinism as Feminism in Full Bloom”, one thing that occurred to me regarding women being more easily deceived than men is that as men have become more feminized, they have also become more easy to deceive. First witness: our national leaders.

Mark

I appreciate your posts, and I wanted to point out what looks like an inaccuracy in one of them. In the “Male Chauvinism as Feminism in Full Bloom” post, you write about Feminism: “It has been a con on behalf of irresponsible males, by irresponsible males, and for irresponsible males.”

This doesn’t look correct to me. Feminism has our society in an iron grip, and yet our systems are mostly anti-male. If Feminism was made by irresponsible males, for irresponsible males, why is it the case that:

Men are depicted as the only sex that abuses the other,

Family courts overwhelmingly favor women in custody cases,

There are many more scholarships and opportunities for women than men,

(so on and so forth)?

The irresponsible men that designed these systems are morons or masochists. About the only thing feminism has done for the irresponsible man is let him sleep around with fewer consequences.

If you have further thoughts, I’d love to hear them.

Joel

Wow! This is “No Quarter November” worthy. You nailed it!! I especially liked Phyllis’s quote.

Audrey

It is not Rowling’s money. Many people with money have been cancelled. She owns Harry Potter. Anything she writes regarding the Wizarding World is going to sell and the Liberals know it. Back when she wrote the series, there were times that she held the first three spots on the NY Times bestseller list. No one could crack it. The industry referred to the list as Being Pottered. Cancel Culture supporters know that taking Rowling on will get them pottered.

Zeph

I appreciate your diligence and integrity for the sake is the King. In your advice to Dawson, you’ve said a few times in relation to a man speaking to his wife that, “There is such a thing as oversharing, and so don’t do it,” (the most recent example).

I’d like to see the biblical chapter and verse from which you take this instruction. It goes against what I understand becoming “one” to mean. If by this you mean we men are not to look to our wives to validate us, our manhood, or or leadership in the home, or serve as the balm for our boyish insecurities, amen. But a clearer definition of “oversharing” and a clear biblical anchor for the concept would be helpful.

Carey

So, is Dawson your actual nephew? Is this an actual correspondence. Keep us in suspense no longer.

Casey

Re: Book of the Month (April 2022)

After being interested in looking into the Textus Receptus position that you hold, I was delighted that you posted The Lord Gave the Word as the book of the month for this month. You noted that this was a good introduction to learn about the position, so I quickly read through the short book and enjoyed it. What further books/resources would you recommend to someone who is wrestling with with the idea that the Word of God is best preserved in the TR?

Thanks for your time,

Levi

I have gradually been persuaded by you and others that the Majority text is the true text of Scripture. But I still find the KJV an incredibly difficult text to read in comparison to my well-worn ESV. Is there no modern English equivalent of the KJV to rival the readability of the ESV or NIV whilst staying faithful to the underlying text? And if there isn’t such a candidate available to the church today, can anything be done by the growing Canon+ establishment to address this problem? How wonderful would it be to have a copyright-free, church-based, modern language revision of the majority text? It’s been 400 years. Surely . . . Or perhaps i just need to start teaching my kids words like aforehand, broid, chambering, graff, scrip et al.

Martin

Thank you for your book review of “The Lord Gave the Word” by Malcolm Watts. This book also had a profound impact on my study of this issue. I noticed that you supplied a link to purchase the book on Amazon, which charges $0.99 for the Kindle edition, and astronomical prices for a hard copy. Yet this book is available for free at the TBS store. Here’s the link.

Joshua

What an encouragement your blog has been. All praise to our great God for calling you to Himself and for equipping you with a mind and will fit to lead others in the same direction.

I have prayed, sought council from my pastor and trusted friends and scoured the Internet for help in an area but have come up short. If you have time, I would greatly appreciate any input you can offer.

This concerns forced masking. From the get-go of this clown show I have felt strongly that the people should have the option to choose whether or not to mask in public. And in the two plus years this has been going on, I have been able to live out that conviction albeit with some hardship. However, it is getting increasingly difficult to get the medical attention I often need because the healthcare facility I use is cracking down. It seems it is a nationwide response in the Western medicine healthcare industry to force mask wearing. Everyone who enters the facility must wear a mask. No exceptions. I’ve spoken with some of those responsible for making and enforcing this decision and asked for an exemption. They have requested I present something in writing to the board. However, I don’t feel like I have a water tight argument. Specifically, I’m praying about seeking a religious exemption or accommodation. My conscience is saying there’s something amiss with forced masking but I’m coming up short with biblical reasons to make such a conclusion.

Would you be willing to share any thoughts? Have you a biblical reason to deny a mask at a healthcare facility? Or a biblical reason to resist forced masking?

Thank you in advance for any help you can offer.

Thad

So where would someone go to have a baby? I’m racking my hurt brain to figure what to do. I don’t put up with lies! I hate them. I don’t want to wear a mask while giving birth or while being put under for another cesarean. Where are the truth loving doctors and nurses? Have they started that alternative hospital yet? Thank you for your conviction Pastor Wilson. It is so hard to find

Carla

Maybe I missed it, but who do you think fills the role of the old NR? Where can we find the joyful warrior spirit in a similar format? Thanks for all your work!

Matthew

I appreciate you taking up this topic. However, I wish you hadn’t just dismissed their views as being rooted in envy. I have also discussed this issue with believers who have antisemitic views. Based on my interactions with these believers, I don’t see the root issue is envy. It appears their issue is wanting to have a scape goat for evils they see in society. They hate the degradation of our culture and while looking for a cause it is easy to find a Jewish person advancing the filth. When you interact with their arguments they tend to point to a lot of correlative statistics. There is a way to debate their claims but it takes more effort than framing it as envy

JSM

I just finished re-reading the Ransom (aka Space) Trilogy by Lewis. One thing that struck me this time through was that Lewis refers to the angelic beings as “Eldil” whereas God is referred to as “Maleldil”. Now, unlike Ransom, I am no philologist, but the Latin prefix “mal” is commonly interpreted as meaning “bad” or “ill.” Malady, malediction, malice, etc.

I suppose that the apparent use of the Latin malus in the prefix of the name may be but a coincidence and that the name could very well be based on Anglo-Saxon, Hebrew, or even derived from his own lingual devisings (Old Solar)? However, to the layman, this seems an odd choice.

Do you happen to have any theories on the matter?

Thanks!

Miles

I would be really glad to have your perspective on my situation. You referenced it somewhat it an Ask Doug video (Differing Views on Baptism in a Relationship), but you only talked about prior to marriage. My husband and I were both Baptists when we married, but in the last year, he has become a paedobaptist. My views have not changed and since I have studied this issue a lot I do not see them changing . . . like ever. As he is my children’s father and the spiritual head of our family I do not feel I should stand in the way of him baptizing them, although I don’t believe I can in good conscience participate. The situation is made more complex because he desires to be a pastor (he started his seminary training 4 years ago when he was still a Baptist). I should also mention that he was also a Calvinist (as I was) when we got married and now he’s Armininan (we are currently in an ACNA church). The past year since he’s changed his mind on these two rather important issues (left our Baptist church, etc.) has been difficult to say the least. I have strong convictions on both of these issues and I have done my best to support and submit where I can, but I do not feel I can really support him being a pastor… I guess I just don’t see how that would work or be healthy for our family or the church. But am I making too big a deal out of this? In summary, I guess my main question is: Would you ordain someone whose wife strongly disagreed with him on these two issues?

Thanks in advance for your reply, while I don’t agree with you on some issues I respect your ministry and thoughts.

Amelia

I am a relatively new Christian and am hoping you could offer me some advice on how to deal with a sensitive topic? My husband takes adderall and klonopin every day (prescribed by a dr.) and its been this way for over two years. What started it was two years ago when our infant son died hours after being born and on top of that he works in a funeral home with grieving families. I have brought up a couple times that I’d like him to stop but he gets defensive. He has a history of substance abuse but since becoming a Christian a couple years ago he no longer drinks or smokes. I am not sure if its my place to keep asking him to get off these substances, i know he is more than likely dependent after two years of daily use. I am not comfortable with this anymore and am seeking any advice on how or if i should bring this up. Thank you so much for your ministry.

Nicole

I am hoping to be of biblical encouragement to a friend who recently finished 6 months in prison for possession of child pornography. He is, as you would expect, broken, seeking Christ, and ripe for any encouragement he can get. I am giving him a Bible with a copy of the Bible Reading Challenge. What other reading material would you suggest?

Cindy

I have come to a place in my life where I’m eating the fruit of “doing what is wise in my own eyes.” My failure to walk with God & seek his counsel & wise men has resulted in me marrying someone who is the sort you talk about in Disorderly Wives. Ultimately, my wife has rejected God, for the lies of post-modern self-authenticity which is devastating. I feel the weight of this, recognizing my own shortcomings, disobedient to Christ and failing as a man & as a leader in so many ways. I understand my path forward is to live in communion with God in through prayer and obedience. As a husband & father in this place, I feel heavy, especially burdened when I think of our children. What advice and/or passages would you put forth for someone who has found themselves in this place? Thank you for your teaching

Andrew

Lorraine asked in a letter last week about the woman’s role before the fall. I’ve been thinking about biblical womanhood, that’s actually a part of why I have found myself regularly looking at your blog posts. I’m not sure what you think about Mike Winger, but he’s recently started a fairly in-depth study on women’s roles, and this video specifically addresses the first few chapters in Genesis and I found it enlightening. He compares arguments between both egalitarian and complementarian thinkers and how their assumptions and beliefs line up with Scripture. He goes through those first chapters in Genesis and adding up what we have recorded there does seem to be a difference in role even before the fall. I don’t think he has all the answers (especially not this early in the series), but he has helped me to see that I am coming at the question with some assumptions and fears. I’ve seen male “leadership” to be something that hurts and destroys, and I’ve seen men put in positions when the only qualification they seemed to have was that they were men. It can be tempting to toss babies out with bath water, I’ve done my fair share of that. But I think (especially in conversations like this when the stakes feel so high) I think it is important to remember that God is good, so if he’s said a thing it is good, then it is good; and also that humans often are not good, and their evil can corrupt even blessings that God has given.

N

What are thoughts on married couples who choose not to have children, at least as of now, and are seeking to church plant? A friend’s pastor is in such a situation. They (the pastor and his wife) are mid-30s, and for no particular reason so far as I know, are choosing to postpone having children, ostensibly because they want to give their time to planting this church. assuming no other factors involved in their choosing to not have kids, something strikes me as odd about this other situation. Not sinful or wrong perhaps, but maybe not right either. Do you think that this is a good approach, for them to focus on church planting to the exclusion of child rearing? My thoughts were somewhere along the lines of . . .“Marriage is given to us for children and families, and church planting is an optional calling”; or “Can a couple really be good stewards of a church if they are choosing to not be stewards of a family?” (of course, I emphasize choosing because some couples may desire children but not have them). What are your thoughts? Am I overthinking this? Would it be good, theologically, for a couple to see their marriage to he used for ministry rather than the creation of a family?

And also, my own church is currently being planted by a couple with 6 young children, so it is possible to do both!

NS

You have been gracious and responded to my questions in the past and I want to say thank you. One of those questions was related to whether it is sinful to attend a gay mirage ceremony in silent acquiescence. As you indicated, we should not attend, “full stop.” However, we should seek ways to maintain relationship with those trapped in this lifestyle which seems to be the Christ-like thing to do. Tragically, my church is capitulating related to the question of the propriety/sinfulness of attending these proceedings-even as its former leader said it was wrong. As things progress downhill, the question is now, is it sinful to attend one of these proceedings while actively engaged in the celebration by clapping when the two males or two females kiss each other, smile, cheer, shake their hands, hug each of them, and give a card with money. I am at a church that is doctrinally conservative but moderate in its application in the Minneapolis MN area. You have sat on the platform of this church more than once. When I asked two of my Elders on whether the preceding scenario applied to “giving approval” from Romans 1:32 they said they, “did not know.” I struggle with believing that they do know but they refuse to answer for the sake of unity. For the life of me I can’t understand how “giving approval” from Romans 1:32 is not most perfectly suited to that scenario? My question appeared to be interpreted as, “I am stirring the pot.” “Accept the official church position that it is a conscience issue or move on.” You said in the past that we need to find a hill that we are prepared to die on even if we have difficulty finding others in agreement. Thank you for being at least one other fellow believer that encourages me.

Doug

I’m a pastor in a rural context with an interest in starting a school. I’ve read through many of your resources, but a nagging question remains: is adopting an age-segregated model (1st grade, 2nd grade, etc.) a capitulation to the evolutionary philosophy that undergirds the current government education enterprise?

The Trivium (as I understand it) reflects the natural development of image bearers *broadly* (elementary, junior high, high school), leaving flexibility for differences in individuals within each of these stages. My concern with a model fixated on grades is that it will invariably flatten out the otherwise diverse giftings within a body of students. I’m not only thinking of differences between individual students, but also differences within each individual student (some students excel in one subject matter and not another).

To borrow a quote: “[Graded schools] are constructed upon the assumption that a group of minds can be marshaled and controlled in growth in exactly the same manner that a military officer marshals and directs the bodily movements of a company of soldiers. In solid, unbreakable phalanx the class is supposed to move through all the grades, keeping in locked step. This locked step is set by the ‘average’ pupil—an algebraic myth born of inanimate figures and an addled pedagogy. The class system does injury to the rapid and quick-thinking pupils, because these must shackle their stride to keep pace with the mythical average. [But] the class system does a greater injury to the large number who make slower progress than the rate of the mythical average pupil . . . They are foredoomed to failure before they begin . . . Could any system be more stupid in its assumptions, more impossible in its conditions, and more juggernautic in its operation?” (Frederick Burk).

Grateful for any counsel you can provide.

Your Brother,

Korey

You said (paraphrasing) in an article that your view on “covenantal election” is that it is a charitable yet not necessarily true statement to address the visible Ephesian church as all chosen before the foundation of the world. Most of them probably are you said, but not all. Pointed question coming up—how does this fit with Paul in Corinthians saying that charity “rejoiceth in the truth”?

Jonty

God bless you and your wisdom. I wanted to reach out because I was listening to “A Grateful Parting from National Review” in where you mentioned that you went to a bookstore in downtown Ann Arbor in high school, which is actually where I was born and raised. I am not sure if you have been back to Ann Arbor but I must say it has been chugging along to the left like a run away train that is nearing the end of the train tracks. It has been challenging to defend the faith and level headedness here but by the grace of God alone I have been able to share the gospel with people here and at the University of Michigan where I go to school. Now I had a question, I was wondering how to go about spreading the gospel to a generation/ area that is so far gone in false thought that Christ just seems backwards to them?

Pavel