Letters in the Dregs of March

Thank you, Pastor. I have had niggling questions about that piece of epic poetry as well. Would that you had begun with the Council of the Heavens, in which Satan took part. Maybe a follow-up?
But yes, that does make sense…a lot of sense, and places many of my questions to rest.t

Andy

After reading your recent take on Job I remembered this video on YouTube which is a beautiful exposition of Job . . . the gospel pure and simple in the oldest book of the ible. Job declares his own righteousness (which he was in human terms) for most of the book then God had something to say about it. Then, and only then, does Job realize how vile and wretched he really is and “repents” (But now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, And repent in dust and ashes.” (Jb. 42:2-6, NKJV) This removes all the mystery surrounding the book of Job.

Rob

On Job’s position being in error by the end: “. . . for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has” (42:7). I don’t see how to reconcile this with Job speaking of God what is wrong (that God has wronged him).
It seems to me that God does answer Job’s question. Job asks, ‘How can I be destroyed when I have done no wrong?’ and God says, ‘I am God, that’s how,’ which is an answer, even if it’s not what Job wanted (it also conforms to Job’s understanding of who can demand answers of God in 9-10).
I also disagree on Elihu (he seems to me a worse iteration of the three friends- thus he is not reconciled to Job in the end), but that’s for another day, when I get back around to him in my current study of Job. In other words: wait for the book (I hope).

Colson

Re. your summary of Job, great stuff! Could you further boil down the arguments of the three friends? I mean, identify whether each has a particular point he’s driving at. Another research question: Satan seems to believe that human will is corrupt but free in the sense of being undetermined but he also believes in divine sovereignty. What are we to make of that?

Rob

Regarding your posts on the Sola Scriptura debate: I am a Protestant with Catholics in my family. Whenever the topic of Sola Scriptura comes up, the answer is always some variation of the biblical canon being a product of church tradition/church councils. Therefore, by virtue of accepting a canon at all, we Protestants are affirming the Councils as an authority at least on par with Bible.
How can I respond?
Thanks,

Bill

First, I apologize if this isn’t the correct contact page. It was the only one I could find…
I finished reading “Is Sola Scriptura Enough” and understood it was a debate between Douglas Wilson and Joe Heschmeyer. Is there an audio version of the entire debate that I can listen to?
Thank you.
Warm regards,

LouAnn

Reacting to the post on Protestant/Catholic dynamics, I’d appreciate a targeted piece addressed to people currently in the CREC or similar denominations, who take the next step into Lutheranism, and perhaps the step after that into Catholicism—the next car on your train of thought, at least to me.
Based on my observations of people who have come and gone in my CREC church, I don’t think this is a hypothetical reality, at all. I’ve watched several families leave for Lutheranism. I believe one of those families, after that, took the next step into Catholicism. What causes this? People get on the “traditional” or “liturgical” or “traditional liturgical” trains and then start changing confessional trains, and all of a sudden they are on a train they really shouldn’t be on? People who are obsessing about form details to the point where the rocket changes trajectory from the substance target just a little, and then they get up in the atmosphere and find they are off?
I know my pastor is addressing it on a pastoral level, but I would be really grateful for some guidance on that from you. I will say that I respect the opinions of my Lutheran brothers, and I further acknowledge that I have brothers in the Catholic church too. I imagine this might cause a little splash, but since when did that deter you?

Anonymous

I am deeply immersed in the tech space that is shaping AI advancement and have actively (yet carefully) applied AI tools to personal Bible study. Your article is highly prescient and, frankly, I think you don’t know the half of it from where you sit.
I’m regularly reminded and convicted by the lyrics in Simon and Garfunkel’s “Sound of Silence” dating back to 1966: “And the people bowed and prayed to the neon gods they made.” How true that was, and is, and will be to come.
Thanks so much for this timely exhortation.

Robert

Following your often-used line of thought that “if somebody thinks something is a right, it then must be free,” are you implying that the second amendment supports are similarly declaring guns should be free and provided to them by the government? You have made this case in regards to health care, commies and widgets etc…
Thanks for any clarification.

James

Our church has started allowing women to read Scripture and then lead in prayer on Sunday morning during public worship services.
Is there an exegetically defensible way to interpret 1 Timothy 2 and 1 Corinthians 14 in such a way as to permit women to participate in this way?
Additionally, if so, how does this affect other passages that teach about gender roles in the local church and family (e.g., Eph 5, 1Tim. 3)?
Is this a reason to leave the church?
It’s contradicting what my wife and I are endeavoring to teach my 12 year-old daughter about male headship in the home and local church.
Thank you!

Brian

I’m a Christian woman going through a divorce. My husband had identified as a Christian and has since left the church, refused to live with me in our marital home and has been exposed for living a double life and is in an adulterous relationship he refuses to repent of. Given the circumstances I have filed for divorce. I am deeply concerned for my children. 1 Corinthians 7:14 states (NKJV)
For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband; otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.
How does my soon-to-be-divorced state affect how I parent and raise my children in light of this passage. I so long and wish things were different for my children’s sake but I could not make him live with me or be genuinely reconciled to me. He also desires to have shared custody of our children so the time with the children is to be divided nearly evenly. Our children are under age five. I am permitted to continue homeschooling the children. I need clarity to know how 1 Corinthians 7:14 impacts how I parent my children as a Christian divorced mother. I also consider that my husband left the church before his double life was exposed. I believe he did this to evade church discipline. How do I help my children navigate honoring their father while under his authority while he has not explicitly declared himself to no longer be a Christian but says he does not know if he is one. I’m thinking of how we as Christians are not to associate with so- called Christians . . . yet they must as his children under his authority when they are with him. I appreciate any advice and cherish any prayers lifted up for me and my children. Thank you.

Anonymous Sister in Christ

Behold, an article by me about the role of sacrifice in Mary Renault’s The King Must Die!
I think this is good Easter reading.

Jennifer

First, I want to thank you for the investment of time and care that you give to these questions. I didn’t realize just how many of these letters get submitted and answered each month, and you had answered a previous question of mine that I found helpful and encouraging. So again, thank you.
My question this time around has to do with counsel I’ve received that I’m just having trouble making sense of. My approach here is simply to invite further advice so I can better judge the advice I’ve been given. So here it is: I’ve often been told by a dear brother that—in my pursuit of women and of marriage—I should try to just be friends with them. The problem that I’m having trouble squaring away is the real-world question, “yeah, but how far can that really go (i.e. Is it realistic), and to what extent is that well-advised or just inviting hurt (i.e. is it wise or naïve)?” More particularly, there is a long distance relationship overseas that I had once been in for over half a year, and which ended well. Recently, I’ve been desiring to pursue that again. I had reached out to this girl, and she had asked me my thoughts on it and seems unsure of what to do.
Now, at this point, I’ve received two seemingly conflicting bits of counsel from differing parties. The first would be to be clear and intent with wanting to pursue a relationship with her, or move on. The second would be to just talk as friends, which is the counsel I’m questioning. The problem is that, though I want to be friends with this girl, I don’t want to “just” be friends, and so it seems strange to me to approach it that way and beat around the bush. Yet again, I’ve been told that’s how one should approach women, because that is what they are more inclined to. Is that just a product of immaturity in our day, or am I being too gung-ho about it in my own inclinations as a man? I suppose my main concerns are twofold: 1) I don’t want to invite unwanted hurt and exasperation, and 2) I want to know for sure if I’m thinking about this in a biblical way, or if I’m just being a rash and impatient young man, which is entirely possible.
Lastly, one general question that may help to inform all my personal questions: To what extent can a man and woman, both believers, and both in like station (similar age and compatible, and either one or both being attracted to each other) be friends? What should that look like, and what should it not look like?
Thanks again for all you do, brother.

JS

Re: all this recent talk of war
I’m trying to understand something specific in your recent writing on the war and political leadership.
When evaluating a war, do you believe Christians are obligated to make an explicit biblical judgment about its justice, rather than primarily discussing its political effects?
I ask because your recent commentary reads less like a direct biblical evaluation and more like a way of guiding readers toward a conclusion without stating it outright—particularly by focusing on political impact rather than whether the actions themselves are just.
Given that this involves life and death, it’s difficult to see how that kind of framing would be consistent with the level of moral clarity your broader framework seems to require. If the sanctity of life is something we claim to uphold, it’s hard to see why that concern would not apply just as directly here—just as the legality of abortion doesn’t settle its morality.
So I’m trying to understand whether you are affirming that obligation to make explicit biblical judgments here, because your writing appears to avoid doing so.

James

I am writing to get your advice on how to best reach out to a friend. I remember you have classes self-identified agnostics in the past as three types of agnostics, and my friend falls into the “I don’t know, you don’t know, nobody can know,” category. He claims to have been a Christian for 32 years, and is (for whatever reason) ostensibly convinced that he simply does not believe the claims of the Bible. He seems to have imbibed skepticism, and has come to the point of being admittedly someone who holds to truth being subjective. He knows the Bible well enough, and claims to have been a believer for most of his life. I know this is a scant summary at best, but do you have any advice on what might be a good way to focus a conversation on the reality of Jesus’ claims?
Thank you so much-

Eric

Northern European Catholicism will strengthen Christian nationalism.
As I pondered your dislike of excessive sentimentality in religion I realized I had the same view. There are broad distinctions between the Northern European Catholicism of JRR Tolkien, GK Chesterton, and Cardinal Newman and the Catholicism (heavily influenced by Marxist Liberation Theology) of Latin America and that of Southern Europe.
I believe the ordinariate for former Anglicans and Lutherans established by the German pope Benedict 16th may be a bridge for you. In the end much of the conflict between Catholics and Protestants isn’t just theological but cultural. Of practicing Christians in Northern Europe, especially the UK, Germany, and Holland half are Catholic and half are Protestant.
I believe they have more in common with each other in terms of valuing order, intellectual reasoning, and discipline than Catholics and Protestants from Southern Europe and Latin America who (overall) culturally are more sentimentalist and place less emphasis on order, intellectual reasoning, and discipline.
Regards

Vince

I watched your YouTube Video here, and was wondering; at what point is an actual insurrection (not the J6 kind) justified, if not the right thing to do? Does such a point exist, and if so, where is it precisely? I recently became a father (our first-born is 3 months old right now), and so I have naturally been thinking long and hard about the nation I will be leaving not only to him, but to his children and grandchildren after him. I feel like it might even be sin to leave such a collapsed nation as his inheritance without at least trying to save it. After all, did not our founding fathers rebel over much smaller injustices, and were they not right in doing so? I’m not asking this so that next week I appear on the news and can say “Doug Wilson told me so!” I understand that the people’s crusade, for example, was a massive mistake, and I myself am in no position to overthrow the government and establish a new and better one. But I am asking for “blue collar” advice, if you will, one that has handles I can grab. At what point is it the moral obligation of lesser magistrates, and even individual heads of households, to explicitly rebel against a tyrannical government which seems to pose an existential threat to the continuation of our nation as such?
Thank you for your ministry,

Frustrated Patriot

My most recent Easter-themed Christianbook.com catalog arrived before your essay was published.
I was unable to send a picture, but here’s the catalog description:
TALKING JESUS PLUSH DOLL
This huggable Jesus doll recites cherished Scriptures: John 3:16, Mark 12:30, and Mark 12:31. Batteries required. 10”. 3+
HG4223119 Retail $24.99 $19.99

Carole

How have you handled young men (teens and twenties) in your congregation who struggle to be diligent, and what have you advised them to do to combat slothfulness? Assuming that at some level they recognize that such habits are in fact quite bad, and are quite shameful (1 Tim. 5:8, Prov. 6:6-11).
God Bless,

Mike

Reply to Douglas Wilson’s “Thinking Biblically About Immigration” (Sep. 14, 2023)
Dear Pastor Wilson:
The internet is a strange place. Materials posted there echo for a long time. Just two weeks ago I read your “Thinking Biblically About Immigration.” I’ve been thinking and praying about it since then.
I am the son of an Orthodox Presbyterian minister and have served as a ruling elder in a PCA congregation for over 30 years. As such, I think naturally in terms of Kuyper’s concept of spheres of sovereignty, which is at the heart of your distinction between the duties of a private person versus the duties of a magistrate. I am not a government official, so I will pass by your depiction of the duties of the State with just the brief comment that while the first duty of the state may be the prevention of chaos, it is not the only duty of government officials.
The power of your essay lies in a masterful analogy: even if I, as head of a family, were caring for 3 foster children, that doesn’t mean that it would be reasonable for the government to send me an additional 28, let alone allow additional “squatters” to demand support from my family. Powerful rhetoric! But instead of asking what I would do if 33 kids were added to my family, I focused on the original 3. Your topic is immigrants, not foster children. So I ask myself: “Am I as head of a family already taking care of 3 immigrants (or immigrant families)? No. Perhaps 2 or even 1? Still no. The actual number is zero. The same number as my local congregation is supporting.
I realize that you may be thinking of our taxes as supporting immigrants, but that hardly matches the self-congratulatory description of “a family that was taking care of three foster children, and suppose further that this couple was really gifted in how they would care for the children entrusted to them. Say they were good at it.” And I wonder if you favor using tax revenues to support immigrants.
This past Sunday I was out of town and worshiped with my childhood congregation. There I greeted Bill, now 92, who has attended worship services faithfully for 60 years—most of my lifespan. My parents, hardly well off financially, sponsored Bill and his family for U. S. citizenship in the aftermath of the 1956 invasion of Hungary by the Soviet Union. I am embarrassed not to have followed their example.
American evangelicals are reacting to the influx of refugees with self-serving panic, calling them all “criminals” and favoring draconian measures to deport virtually all of them. In doing so, we are missing an opportunity to display to what Francis Schaeffer called “the watching world” what it means to love our neighbors. We might start by modeling ourselves after Job, who could claim that “the sojourner has not lodged in the street; I have opened my doors to the traveler.” (31:32) And he didn’t have the privilege of knowing that the Savior God would provide for him would be a political refugee in Egypt.
I’m not expecting a personal reply. But I would ask you to consider, humbly before God, how many refugees your family or your congregation has offered to support for U. S. citizenship. Three or more, or zero?

Ted

I really enjoyed your post on A.I. “AI-dolatry Monday, March 23, 2026.” Particularly the part where you point out that Grok is more than willing to be a placeholder for God but has no concept of heresy in the place holder-ing. One of the main ways I see the church’s A.I. use going, is through the gradual and functional replacement of what the Holy Spirit does, with features of what A.I. can do. Specifically now, with it’s ability to translate multiple languages at once. Sermonshots, for example, a Christian A.I. Startup, is offering live translation and captioning via A.I. just in time for Easter. Waiting till Pentecost was a bit too on the nose I suppose.
I would love to hear your thoughts on the gift of tongues and technologically enabled translation like this. When and How does the idol get put in its proper place, here? Or if you’re game. I would love to do a video call with you again.
We spoke during the lockdowns about church and tech, and how it falls short as well.
Here’s our interview https://youtu.be/ZqSLWl1PAss
Blessings from Edmonton.

Mike

When God punishes a people, he usually does it by giving them exactly what they want. AI is exactly that. Show me a modern Christian, and I’ll show you a carcass in front of a television. Vapid, unmoving, a sluggard turning on his recliner. Might quote a meme here and there if they’re feeling saucy. If they’re feeling REALLY saucy, maybe they’ll just go ahead and buy a different brand of beer for a while to show ’em who’s boss.
Show me a leftist, on the other hand, and I’ll show you a passionate missionary, artist, protester, and someone who is willing to have a second job and side hustle in order to be a teacher (i.e., a publicly funded missionary directed at children). They are completely devoted to their god and you can see that in everything they do.
We have a ton of idols to repent of, but convenience is the elephant in the room. Thanksgiving for modern conveniences is good, but that’s not what we have here. God is going to give us that Convenience in a bigger form than we can swallow because it’s a much bigger sin than anyone is willing to admit.

H

I want to thank you for your service to the Kingdom. My family has greatly benefited from your writings and thoughts over the years.
I have a more personal question dealing with regret for circumstances that I am mostly responsible for. Here is a bit of the backstory. I was nominated for the diaconate at our local Reformed Baptist church about 7 years ago which I accepted. After 5 years I became angry and embittered over certain practices and after seeking resolution but not finding any, I resigned from the position. I have been repenting of my bitterness and anger for the past 2 years which has been fruitful. Many thanks for publishing your father’s material on this sinful attitude and patterns, it has been very helpful.
My question is two fold:
If a deacon resigns due to personal sinfulness, but you saw repentance, would you be inclined to bring him back into that servant role?
How would you counsel that person who recognizes his sin and has that regret and grief?
My line of thinking of late has been that faithlessness in these circumstances has placed me in a shadow ban from any future service (Luke 16:10). That the consequences of this sin is no opportunity to be of service in that capacity again, regardless of desire. There is very little to no interaction from those whom I’ve offended on the church’s board. I know that I should find satisfaction in Christ and continue to serve where I’m able but these things are consuming my mind. I am probably far too self consumed to think clearly. My wife and I discussed removing ourselves from the situation but also don’t think that is the responsible thing to do as our family is very integrated. Many thanks for any wisdom you could impart.

Drew

In your book Fidelity, you mentioned one of the things for men to learn was to value discipline and suffering. Could you give examples as to what you meant by discipline?

Ichigo

One of the most important things I think I have learned from you (or at least trying to learn) is that as a man, I am responsible for all the problems and failures in my household even if they are not my fault. That has been a difficult one to swallow, but I am convinced of it now. I think my prayer life has improved because of it for sure. I’m wondering if you might be able to offer some practical advice on a situation I am in. I make pretty decent money and so finances aren’t really an issue for us but, it has been difficult for my wife to purchase various things that we need even when she has the money to spend it. I think there are multiple reasons for this. One of them is that her upbringing was highly impacted by a “missionary” mentality. Her grandparents were very poor and were extremely frugal and that really impacted the way her dad raised her. So there is that. But there is also the fact that the days are so full with things like homeschooling and running a house that there never seems to be enough time to go shopping for clothes or household goods. For many years I just blamed my wife when the kids didn’t have the proper clothes or shoes because I always just viewed that as her responsibility. And then I resorted to just buying the stuff myself and that didn’t end well either… as you can imagine. Anyways, I know we are far away and there are other factors involved too but any advice you can give generally on a practical level would be most appreciated. Any books you recommend?
Sincerely,

FF