May Letters May Come

Book of the Month/May 2024
I received a copy of “Knowledge of the Holy” from your father back in the 1970’s. He would bring a box of them to meetings. I think he got them from the publisher for free to give away because they were defective. His requirement was that if we took one, we had to promise to read it. I’ve always been thankful your dad recommended it. It’s one of the books I’ve read more than once over the years and is how I discovered Tozer.

Allison

Tim Bayly, Paedocommunion, Sacramentalism
Pastor Doug, I know you and Tim have long been friends and have recommended each other’s works. I’ve read, listened to, and been blessed by quite a lot from both of you (and your respective disciples). No doubt you’re aware Tim has really ramped up his warnings about what he calls Moscow’s sacramentalism and schismaticism. I couldn’t find much that you’ve written about sacramentalism since clear back in the big FV years, though maybe you use different words.
I’m not with you on paedocommunion, though I’ve yet to see such danger as Tim sees. I’ve always found you to be reasonable, humble, charitable, and the like, so I hope you will hear Tim’s warnings and deal with them, even if you believe you’ve done so before.
These issues affect me in ways I won’t go into here. The church can ill afford a sharp split between the ministries of Wilson and Bayly, or worse, to lose either church(es) to dangerous error. For example, does paedocommunion lead to forgetting the new birth and making space for a dead cultural Christianity generations down the line? For our sake and yours, would you please revisit Tim’s concerns?

J

You should be very proud of your grandson. I lived next to Columbia for two years. My favorite neighborhood in NYC and it’s been slowly dissolved by a kind of progressivism that’s increasingly erratic and, at times, violent. What Rory and Charles did took no small amount of courage. Good to see real masculinity on display in the midst of insanity.
You should be proud of your son as well for raising a man like Rory. Cheers!

Nick

Thank you Rory for standing where the rest of us are unable to stand, though we would like to.

Melody

I’m a bit confused about some of the Rory situation. In the “count the cost” passage in Luke 14, Jesus says, ” Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?” Proverbs 24:6 says “For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war: and in multitude of counsellors there is safety.” And elsewhere we’re told to be “wise as serpents, and innocent of doves.” We also have cases of men taking unbelievable risks and seemingly being praised for it (Jonathan and his armor bearer, David vs Goliath, Elijah, etc.). Yet I hear little from our side talking about the wisdom of confronting a mob, as in “was this a good idea at all?” And, to go a bit further, if it was wise to confront a mob, why it was acceptable then to back down when the police weren’t coming or because it’s getting dangerous. In your video on YouTube entitled, “When Do You Stand Against the Mob?” it seemed like there was less about “when” and more about “of course you should, here’s how you be ready to do it.”
I think I understand being willing to face what God puts in front of you, but in this case it seems like Rory sought it out. He’s off campus, goes on campus, and confronts a mob. Are we actually telling our sons that every mob near them needs to be confronted? I kind of get that vibe from Nate. Where is wisdom in this? We don’t want wussy sons, but neither do I want my sons to plunge into any and every bad situation irrespective of the factors. And when is it taking a passing dog by the ears? When is it facing what God puts in front of you and when is it being an impetuous and/or pugnacious person readily seeking fights (even those that aren’t your own)? How do you distinguish between “well, that was stupid but thankfully it worked out” from “God gave you that battle and you handled it faithfully.”
Thanks.

Jake

I am writing you not concerning a blog post but your Book “Ride, Sally, Ride” which I recently finished and thoroughly enjoyed. It was an amazingly relevant book to our time, but most of all, the story was just great. Thank you.

Jordan

I’m not really sure what post this would address, however it hits on a theme that you have been standing against and have taken a lot of heat for. My friend has gone fully down the “Jews are bad” rabbit hole. Before falling headlong, he would claim that he was a believer of Jesus Christ. Little by little, like tiny steps, we have now reached the point where he denies the perspicuity of Scripture and uses verses like Matt 19:28 to know “which tribe are you in lol”. His distrust and disdain for the Jews have led him closer and closer to apostasy. This breaks my heart. I am writing to you to let you know that I have witnessed firsthand what this antisemitism leads to. He is the one who introduced me to Reformed Theology and men like James White, John MacArthur and RC Sproul. I was wondering what your advice would be to break these walls. I am praying, because as John Bunyan says, ““You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed.” I need guidance in regard as to what to do now I have prayed and continue in it.

Zach

I am replying to Joe, who sent a letter to the editor asking about an “authentic staunchly reformed church body in Switzerland.“ My husband and I live near Zurich and are members of a wonderful reformed church (and you do have to be careful—many churches here called Reformed are anything but) that was planted a few years ago by All Saints Presbyterian Church in Newcastle (allsaintspres.org.uk), a member of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in England and Wales (epcew.org.uk).
Our pastor is a good expositor, not afraid to preach about difficult topics, and intent on applying God‘s Word to our daily lives. We are a small congregation, but we have many English speakers, and our worship service is almost always translated simultaneously from German to English and can be heard with headphones during the service, in case the language might be a concern. Our church‘s website is zuerichpres.ch (in German only; but our leaders speak English and would be glad to respond to inquiries) and we would love to welcome Joe if he decides to visit! Sincerely,

Michelle

How would you recommend one approaches reading Geoffrey of Monmouth’s “The History of the Kings of Britain?” I did a search on your blog and you’ve alluded that you are not in agreement with the modernist take that many of these stories are legends. I’d appreciate your thoughts.

Mallory

You have written extensively on marriage and male/female roles in relationships, so I would value your thoughts on these questions.
What do you think of the tradition in western societies for the bride’s father/family to organise and pay for the wedding?
It seems to me that this is almost like the bride purchasing a groom, rather than the other way around. Doesn’t the scripture say that “a certain man made a marriage for his SON”?
So many problems seem to arise during wedding preparations because the bride and her mother sit conspiring in a corner, and then two days before the wedding spring some purple bow tie on the groom, and kindly let him know that they’ve invited his crazy Uncle Bob after all, because they think it would be a “nice gesture.”
It seems like this bossing the groom around is setting a terrible precedent for marriage.
Also, is it chauvinistic of me to think that weddings these days are far too feminine? They seem to look more and more like a 12-year-old girl’s dream bedroom every time I attend one. Lots of pink. Several butterflies. Everyone cries. The bride’s father apologetically, smilingly gives away his daughter with a voice that sounds prepubescent. Too much fairy-tale Cinderella stuff and not enough… I dunno, motorbikes, or something.
Sincerely,

Dow

How should an older teenage son live with/address/submit to a father with anger issues? I have been raised to obey the standard but have trouble loving it because of his frequent outbursts of rage when I fail. What can I do as a son to be better? God bless you and all you do.

Peter

Recommendation for a Doug response video: `5 Bible Passages That Caused Me To Lose My Faith` (650k views)
I only watched a bit of it but I saw that she doesn’t like the Calvinism passages. Would love to see you respond to this.

Tony

Re Book of the Month—I wouldn’t press it as a book of the month, but I’m enjoying “Bibi” by Netanyahu more than I expected; not just the stories, but insights into how things work. (Bibi had it harder than Reagan and Thatcher; the US started right, Britain got into socialism, but Israel’s founding fathers were socialists). It also mentions (and you may have awhile back?) a “hilarious” book called Social Science as Sorcery, which sounds interesting.
Re Q’s Letter, does “don’t receive an accusation against an elder except by two or three witnesses” mean “totally blow off every such accusation?” If he said/she said, and one of them is flat out lying and only they two know which, each is accusing the other—one of misconduct, the other of equally serious false witness. Not enough evidence to convict and punish either, but maybe enough to call for more careful conduct and for space between them?
So Q claims to know of wicked conduct by leaders in a CREC church, and that “many know them to be wicked men…know them to be dangerous.” Prove it–to the wicked men? To presbytery? (CREC website could do better at specifying presbyteries, I think). To leaders at the nearest other CREC church? Form a group of the concerned, write specific charges and evidence (compare the US declaration of independence), and then proceed to one of the above, trying to be solving the problem (and what would be a solution?) and not just gossiping? Are there enough concerned people to form a separate church?

Andrew

I am serving as a trustee on the board of a secular college. As various issues will certainly arise before our board regarding hate speech, pronoun usage, and other alphabet people issues, how would you suggest handling these issues considering your suggestions in Mere Christendom or in the position of living in the Negative World? I’m not afraid to stand for biblical truth but also I think about your comment on MTP where you respond that same sex couples could live peacefully in the community but you would not go as far as ordaining their marriage. Thanks,

Art

My wife and I have learned a great deal from your various series on parenting. We’re having a problem with our eldest daughter (just shy of 5yo) when it comes to discipline and I’m hoping you might be able to provide some direction/insight. 
We’re not super experienced with children, so not sure if this is normal, but when it comes time for the spanking, she thrashes, wails, screams, and gets so out of control it takes two of us to hold her down (so as not to harm her with excessive force) just to administer the spanking. It’s typically three firm swats with a wooden spoon. We try to talk with her beforehand and pray with her after and I think the force of the spanking is reasonable, but her berzerker behavior has led me to hand out more warnings than I think is right. I believe this is a failure on my part and I want to correct it, but I need some practical help/advice because I don’t know what to do.
Many thanks for your time and God bless

Joe

Thank you for your encouragement to read the Bible, respect and submit to my husband, and also teach my children in Lord. This message is not related to a particular blog post, I just have a very important question I would love you to help hash out and explain sometime, the sooner the better. If you happen to be able to plod along on a document such as this, which relates to the significance of the Torah and how it applies to believers of Jesus and his atoning work in the cross I would really appreciate your opinion.
Gratefully,

Sarah

The video/post I’m reaching out about is the Tucker Carlson interview. I’ve followed your blog for a while, but something that piqued my interest was your comment about Sabbath dinner you do with your family & community. I would like to start doing something like that here in Newnan, Ga. All I am reaching out for is to see if you could share how you format the evenings, resources you use, etc. Thanks for your time and what you do!

Caleb

You’ve been kind to advise me on tangles in the past and I am at it again! It recently came out in a church meeting that the elders of our church would like the congregants of our church to “give a heads up” to them before showing hospitality on a larger scale to members of the church or within our community. It was explained that we are representatives of our church and need to be under the discretion of the elders in this area—to be sure we are representing it well. (I think this was the jist of it.) An example of what would need approval would be a monthly ladies/children gathering just to get to know one another in a more personal way, hosting a BBQ for the church some Saturday, hosting a psalm sing or, say, as your daughter has mentioned in her podcast—meeting at a park and just offering hotdogs to whoever may show up. To be clear—no Bible studies or theological teachings are happening at said gatherings. This seems out of the purview of the elders, a bit tyrannical and in fact, it actually discourages me from wanting to extend hospitality (something which I am always actively trying to do.) Is this overreach on the part of our elders? Or am I stubbornly bucking against something valuable that I just don’t understand? If this is a requirement but not a godly one, is this something that we as congregants ought to submit to (knowing that submitting when you disagree is where the rubber meets the road) or does this fall in the realm of “you ought not to submit to ungodly principles.” Please advise! (And if you have a published series on the responsibilities of elders you can point me to, I’d appreciate it.)

BB

I have been married for coming on 8 years. My wife and I have a 5 year old son born to us. In addition to that, we have two foster children in our care. One who is coming up on 2 years old and the other an infant. I have been listening to your book “Heaven Misplaced” on Audible. During my seminary training I came to the conclusion that covenant theology made the most sense. I have greatly appreciated what you present in this book. I tend to agree that the church, myself included certainly at times, has minimized the power of the resurrection. Christ died and is raised. The Gospel is the power of God to reach a lost world. Abraham believed the gospel. All to which was challenging and to which I agree. It was thought provoking enough to prayerfully consider where I have not believed the gospel such that it is shown in how I live. The one question I have where I was more tentative and was hoping you could address is the aspect of social and civic justice. As I mentioned my wife and I do foster care. The children we are caring for were directly exposed to methamphetamines one was life threatening. I ask curiously, not critically. In the book the language was akin to justice being “satanic.” Would allowing children to remain in such situations be the expectation? This meaning they were removed by child welfare and law enforcement because their situation was deemed unsafe and hazardous to their safety and well being. But societally, because of the resurrection, is this something we leave unaddressed and stay out of? I was unclear what you were suggesting concerning social and civic justice. Is there a place to say that subjecting children to substances is wrong and something that we should not allow in our society? Again, there is so much in your book to which I agree. I was just unclear on your point in that particular section and was hoping to get clarification on your thoughts concerning social and civil justice and if and how that works in light of the resurrection.
Thank you for your time and your ministry.
In Christ,

Ty

I wanted to reach out to you and thank you for your consistency and fidelity to Scripture. I had known of your name for many years, but recently came across a video of you discussing eschatology while studying for my upcoming class on the book of Revelation. After that, I continued to watch some of your videos on eschatology and then heard of your recent interview with Tucker Carlson. After listening to all of these, I appreciated how your view of Scripture was not only theologically on point and logically well thought out, but also how positive you are about the future. You gave voice to the belief I have held to for years about how being a Christian is not, as you said, “us on the roof of Saigon waiting for evac,” but rather a call to be involved in our communities and to not only preach a gospel that saves us in eternity but live a gospel that can show the world Who Christ is and make the world better. I hope one day that I will get to meet you in person, but until then—thank you for what you do and I will pray for you and your church in the days ahead! In the Service of Christ,

Braxton

Let me begin by saying that I loved Mere Christendom. The arguments in it are concise and clear. How should churches be discipling their people in these matters? It seems if we’re going to have a Christian nation, we’ll need to convince all of our people that that’s a good goal. Should churches have Sunday School classes on it? Should I teach my youth? Should it become our nursery curriculum? Should we teach on it in Children’s Church?
(Of course that’s a joke I’m quite sure you have a deep and abiding hatred for Children’s Church)

Chaz