Letters for Times That Try Men’s Souls

Is the Constitution as Dead as that Parrot?
This spring, I had the privilege of attending a course offered by Patriot Academy called Biblical Citizenship. It is free and my father and I watched it with a group of our neighbors. Our Constitution, as the Founding Fathers knew it, has been dead since at least the Woodrow Wilson era. I highly recommend the course for anyone interested in learning how the Founding Fathers really thought. It introduced me to the writings of Revered John Wise, whose writings on church governance influenced the Declaration of Independence. I read his Vindication of the Government of New England Churches and found it highly edifying.
Long story short, if you sign up to be a Constitution Coach (which is free), you can watch the 8-video lecture series. Here is the link:

Ariel

You have answered this question before in a few places, but I cannot seem to remember where. What news outlets/sources do you use for current events and news updates? Thank you!

Colten

Thank you so much for this blog and for all the great content that y’all put out of Moscow! I really do appreciate it so much. Last year you did a post on ChatGPT and it was really helpful to me. This article was just released last week. Didn’t know if you were aware of it. I think that it is an extensive and thoughtful handling of the topic of having a Christian Perspective towards AI. Full disclosure: my husband wrote it. :)

Annie

Sir, in the absurdities of our current culture, I wonder about when & how Christians either should, or should not, “answer the fools according to their folly.”
For instance, when I consider an employee in a company where it is encouraged to identify your preferred pronouns (in email signatures, lapel labels, door signs, etc.) . . .
Should a Christian answer the fools according to their folly, and go on record to state, “My preferred pronoun is ‘his majesty,’ ‘his holiness,'” “mjxcugjqiirt”, or the like . . . to demonstrate the absurdity by answering according to their folly . . .?
Or should a Christian refrain from even dignifying the nonsense in any way whatsoever, refraining from any participation in such ungodly nonsense, so as to NOT answer the fools according to their folly?

Daniel

You’ve recently mentioned John Piper’s latest book and the criticism he’s faced. You wrote:“I am closer to Piper than to his critics, although I do think there is a category mistake going on.”
Could you further share your thoughts on this whole thing? Where is Piper wrong?
There are quite a few in the “Reformed” world, especially in Escondido, who claim that Piper’s views on Justification are identical to Rome’s. If I recall, this article actually restarted the whole confusion and not the book.

John

Thank you, Pastor Wilson, for your reply. I should have clarified, there is very little physical work. She may be over 100, but she does not need any assistance apart from her meals and making sure supplies are readily available and the house is clean. What I am struggling with is her very subtle emotional sabotage. I love her, but I have not liked her as a person since my teens; and now I’m beginning to hate her and I don’t want that to happen.
Thank you for the counseling link. I’m looking forward to contacting them soon. God bless.

GRD

I wondered whether your Session might hold its June meeting in Eagle, ID, at the Old State Saloon in honor of its recognition of Heterosexual Awesomeness Month. You could wear matching t-shirts emblazoned with Proverbs 16:18. (It would be even more fun to purchase them from Amazon.) For the devotion, consider something like “Genesis and Guinness” or “Haggai and Rye”. It is a bit of a drive, so probably requires an overnight stay.
As always,

John

Why wasn’t there consternation in the early church over the baptism of women? If circumcision is Old Covenant sign, and baptism is New, why wasn’t there a council to decide to include women?
This appears to be an argument from silence similar to the paedo argument from silence “If Jewish Christians suddenly had to cut out their kids, we would have heard about it.”
My husband—a godly man and a godly father—is firmly credo, and I joyfully submit in this even as I appeal to the Lord to change his mind. He asked me this question, as well as asking the elders at our CREC church, but no one has answered in a way that scratches his particular itch. He asked me to ask you . . . so here it is.

JS

I have a quick question for a well-read man like yourself. I’m in the very early stages of writing a book on anxiety and more specifically the biblical antidote to it. One angle I’m thinking of tackling it is from that of our bodies and how our bodies relate to the anxiety we may feel.
I recently purchased Wonderfully Made: A Protestant Theology of the Body by John Kleinig and am wondering if you have any book recommendations in a similar vein?—either related to anxiety specifically or on gaining a better theological understanding of our bodies in general.
Any help is appreciated. Thank you.

Caleb

I am a little late to this conversation, sorry. I heard you on Christ Over All podcast and you mentioned something like the failure of the Gospel-Centered movement. Can you point me to either some of your blogs on that or some other articles, or better yet some books on this? I have heard this from the boys in Ogden too and am curious. Thank you in advance.

Jon

Not about any post in particular, but just a general question: I’m in my late 30’s, a husband to a beautiful wife, a father of two, and I have a desire to be in the ministry. Canon plus, and much of your work, has helped me to identify areas in my life where I did not meet the qualifications for elder, and I’m seeking to repent and bring honor to Christ in those areas. But without having to go into debt for thousands of dollars to go to seminary, are there ways I could, for lack of a better term, autodidact my way into the necessary education? Thank you again for your ministry.

B

What would you say to a Christian who says, “People should not get married unless they are ready to have a baby”?
Thank you, Pastor.

C

Thank you for taking the time to answer my previous questions. I have a follow up question. When you say you believe the overwhelming majority of people will be saved, do you think even the majority of people on earth now will be saved? Or did you mean, since we are in the early church, as time goes on and the church grows on the earth, eventually the amount of people who are saved will far surpass the people who are not saved?
I am asking because I’ve been listening to Dr. James Jordan on Canon+ and he mentioned in “Reading the Bible for the First Time Again” the difference between the sin of intentional transgression of God’s law and the sin that comes from being deceived (sin of Adam, sin of Eve). Also, this article from the Theopolis Institute further convinced me that the Lord is more merciful than I ever imagined and that maybe the Lord does forgive those who don’t know what they are doing?? Is what I am saying heretical?!?! Any help is very much appreciated!

Caroline

In your 5/28/2024 Letters Edited in the UK, you stated that you believe “the world, meaning the overwhelming majority of human beings, will be saved.” How does this jive with the common Reformed refrain that salvation is through faith in Jesus alone (and the many supporting Bible versus such as Eph. 2:8-9 and Gal. 2:16)? In our current context, the overwhelming majority of human beings on the earth certainly do not even pretend to have this saving faith. Through what mechanism will they be saved? Regards,

DKH

I am getting ready to start seminary soon and was just wondering if you have any advice for a new seminarian. It has been 5 years since I graduated with my bachelor’s.
I finished my second read through of Ploductivity and it was helpful but just curious if you have any specific advice for this time of life.
I will be attending RES online. I am married, 2 daughters, my wife stays home, I work full time, and serve as a deacon at my church alongside preaching and teaching youth every week.
Thanks

Sam

Thoughts on Andrew Wilson’s “Remaking the World: How 1776 Created the Post-Christian West” ?

Kyle

Recently revisiting all available media re: the credo/paedobaptism debate, I appreciate James White’s disposition and rigor, though I believe him to be ultimately incorrect.
Trying to tackle this from an alternate perspective—what do you understand as the credobaptist stakes in this debate? I mean really. If baptism isn’t salvific ex operato (which no orthodox position holds), is this not an inside fight which ought to compel fellow covenant members toward a similar position as Bayly’s Evangel presbytery?
Cheers.

Joe

Your post today on Time Prices should be reposted every Thanksgiving, every Earth Day, and every time someone uses the word “overpopulation” in conversation. It’s downright cheery stuff, Doug. Downright happy clappy, if i may be so bold.

Nathan

Re: Time Prices I always found the analogy of human output to a light bulb very interesting and useful.
A decent cyclist can put out 100 Watts
In my home right now—9 – 100 Watt bulbs are lit up.
The furnace is on—converting 400 Watts of natural gas into heat into heat.
My wife is boiling the kettle to make some tea = 1200 Watts
The AC is keeping the house cool = 1000 Watts.
If all this power came from cyclists—I would need 35 decent cyclists.
Or more servants than many kings had.

Murk

Time Prices was a very provocative post, thank you. There is a crushing poverty in this “wealthy” generation of college students to whom I am called to be a mentor and a light. I put “wealthy” in scare quotes, because their wealth reminds me of Christ’s warning to the Laodicean church. I pondered a bit how your analysis fits into that relativization of wealth. Given that many of our current students have lost both confidence and interest in the impoverished experiences of what has been offered to them as Christianity, fishing for these people has meant that a lot of the work of a professor like myself is finding attractive lures that will entice a nibble. With respect to time, there is a lot of work to do in one direction, and with respect to technology there is a lot of work to do in another. These students largely have no concept of anything like a Sabbath practice that opens up ways of experiencing time as a gift to receive as a member of a community. While they are hungry for lives of meaning and purpose, they have no idea how to proceed in constructing such a life, and when they realize the kind of intention and effort and yes, time, that such an enterprise involves, they easily talk themselves out of participation. Too much of an imposition, too much effort, there’s got to be an easier way. They also have no moral framework by which to discern when using technology to “save time” is unwise or unethical vs. when it is a gift which allows other deeply beneficial blessings, both material and spiritual, to be received. Your post only went so far to providing help for those of us fishing for people in these waters. A follow up post with some ideas for engaging these challenges would be appreciated, if any such tools come to mind.
Thanks,

Michelle

On Time Prices:
Having not read Gilder’s book or Pooley’s, I am limited as to what I can say here. Context is key, and an entire book or two is much more context than a blog post. Having lived my adult life dealing with economic relationships, I am not so limited as to what I think about this.
I think, on the surface, this blog post and some of the quotations sets up a nice straw man. Perhaps it doesn’t, but that’s what I think . . . at least for now. I have no debate with comparing a modern LED bulb with its lumens and longevity against 700 tallow candles and the amount of work I have to do to acquire a light bulb vs what a peasant serf must work to get his lifetime supply of lighting. But that’s altogether too easy.
The general argument might not be the same if we compare my “time price” to acquire light vs my selfsame “time price” 30 years ago. I made less money back then, but the light bulb (as I recall) only cost $1 for a four-pack. The bulbs have increased in cost by a factor of 5—even for incandescent bulbs . . . to keep the apples together with the other apples—but my gross income has not increased by that same factor.
It’s also a bit of a straw man, IMO, to focus mostly on technology. As you pointed out, there was no amount of love or money that would have bought our poor serf a dose of penicillin in the 1300s. Or an iPhone, or an F250. But he could have bought bread. But that’s all still too easy. What about the price of bread in 1980? Less than $1, if I recall correctly. This too had quintupled, but not my salary.
Even using my salary tricky. I am in an executive position, and not everyone of my age is. Some are millionaires, while others are blue-collar factory workers. So, in the end, there really is a level of subjective reality to this. Bread, gasoline, utilities, rent, light bulbs . . . everything has quintupled (or more!) in our lifetime, but our purchasing power has not kept pace. And for those who are making $40k a year (yes, a king’s ransom in the 1300s), they have seen themselves become poorer over time. Compared to what is exactly the right question. Compared to the medieval age, stop complaining. Compared to your neighbors, stop complaining. But compared to 50 years ago in America . . . this is a valid complaint.
If there’s any envy, it’s envy of yesteryear. We all want 50-cent gasoline and $1 four-packs of light bulbs. Then our $40k salary would actually feel like the king’s ransom we’re told it is. And our wives wouldn’t have to work to supplement that income, just like she didn’t have to back in the ’80s.
But . . . context is key. Perhaps all of this is well covered in both Gilder’s and Pooley’s books. Perhaps I should read them to gain a fuller picture of the argument for Time Pricing. But in my lifetime, it really does seem like we have had to work longer hours to maintain par.

Andy

I am thoroughly supportive of the Christian Nationalist movement and theonomic principles, but my question regards an apparent discrepancy between the overtly national focus of this movement and our simultaneous stance on the original purpose of the Constitution as an establishment of a federation of sovereign states, and with that, the rectitude of the Southern argument for the constitutionality of secession during the War Between the States. I’ve heard you say before, “I don’t want globalism, and I don’t want tribalism, so I want nationalism,” implying, if I understand correctly, (and judging by the cover picture on Stephen Wolfe’s 𝘊𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘊𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘕𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘮) the “nation” of the United States. But I’ve also heard you say in discussions about the Constitutional Convention that the anti-federalists were afraid that ratifying the Constitution would suggest that we would be creating a “nation,” to which the federalists responded by assuring them that we were specifically 𝘯𝘰𝘵 doing such a thing, but simply covenanting together in a mutually beneficial federation of sovereign states.
I understand that the CN movement encompasses all parts of civic government, submitting everything—local, state, and federal government—to the Lordship of Christ. But I do not think we’ve been clear on whether we are campaigning for one big Christian nation or 50 sovereign Christian mini-nations. We seem to be accepting the modern, centralized, Union conception of the Constitution.
I feel like we need to have a clear stance on this question: Do we want a “the United States 𝘪𝘴,” or do we want to go back to “the United States 𝘢𝘳𝘦?” Every time I hear one of our guys mention the United States, it’s usually followed by 𝘪𝘴…

David

Do you have a study Bible you’d recommend? Thanks.

Nathan

I want to say again that I appreciate your ministry and am grateful for the clarity you give on a various range of topics. My email here is for seeking clarity concerning your view of the covenant.
Concerning your response to Kevin DeYoung in regards to FV you stated—in your first agreement—that you “[are] not mono-covenantal.”
At the start of chapter 7 in “Reformed” Is Not Enough there is this definition that you give for your view of the covenant.
“Christians tend to understand covenantal history in one of two ways. Either God has made one basic covenant with men throughout history, or He has made more than one—possibly many. As well shall see Scripture teaches that there is only one covenantal history which we may call the covenant of grace. In the New Testament, we see the (final) scriptural name for this covenant is the New Covenant.”
It appears that you are saying two things here. How do you reconcile the two statements? Were you previously mono-covenantal and now are not?
Gratitude,

Joshua

Merriam-Webster.com defines sexualism and sexualist, respectively, as, “an emphasis upon sex or sexuality as a major concern” and “one who explains phenomena by sexuality.”
Consistent with your encouragement to define the terms, I suggest that going forward we refer to so called LGBTQ persons and their supporters as sexualists and adherents to sexualism. This avoids conceding to them their desired minority status and properly identifies their behavior and those of their heterosexual supporters as expressions of a chosen ideology which can be overcome by Jesus’s gospel.
Godspeed!

Christian

In the small Banner of Truth book ‘The Christian Sabbath’, it states, “If we shop, buy gasoline, frequent restaurants, watch athletic events, we are hiring people to serve us, wait on us, or entertain us, and thereby robbing them of the potential of Sabbath rest.” Do you think this is a valid train of thought that we ought to consider in Sabbath observance?

Chris

“Ambition and Plowing in Hope”
This was helpful. I discussed in my theology class that the modern church sees “ambition” much way the medieval catholic church viewed “lust.” Just as the latter associated all desire for a mate with lust, so today the evangelical church views all ambition as greed. The occasionally right (but unholy) Ayn Rand gave us a decent litmus test. “A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not the desire to beat others.” And a righteous man must be a creative man.

Luke

In your post on Ambition I’m surprised you didn’t mention 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you, so that you will behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need.
The kind of reshaping of Greco Roman society that would be required in order to allow someone who worked with their own hands to live a quiet life apart from the desperate political struggles of the urban jungles, would not be realized for the nobility until the mid 1600’s and was only briefly seen for the actual working class during the 1870-1930’s in the US. This is the greatest ambition in the history of the world, requiring achievements in abundance and safety of the community that would have been almost almost unimaginable to Paul’s initial audience.
Having read American Milk and Honey, I thought that’s where you were going. And since you didn’t go there, I thought I would commend the idea to you.
This is the greatest ambition in the history of the world and I would contend that the American experiment is really nothing more than a proof of concept. We still need to get the minimum viable product built and shown that it can be scaled.
We have faith and hope that it can be of course, but there is a very specific glory that we are aiming for.
I would love to hear your take on this.

Gregory

Re: “Envy, Malice, Bitterness & the Moscow Mood…” Pastor, was there not a less crude and crass phrase you could have used rather than “get laid” in making an otherwise relevant point? I daresay Mrs. Wilson and even Dr. Ransom may have raised an eyebrow or three upon reading that.

Zenas

God has blessed me and edified me richly through your ministry and through your counsel to me through this blog. I once again ask your counsel on a matter.
My wife and I have been married for just over a year now. Due to our circumstances and a gap of time between jobs and starting school, we are living with my in-laws for a short period of time. We are thankful for the blessing of family at this time. However, my father-in-law is a man with a short temper. This has never been directed at me and, since we were married has not been directed at my wife, it is not uncommon to hear him from anywhere in the house yelling and cussing at a game on TV, projects, etc. Most often, it is manifested towards my mother-in-law in escalating quickly to raising of the voice and exasperated tone when she misunderstands him or when communication is otherwise unclear. I find his behavior to quite often be in violation of Colossians 3:19, and as far as I have seen he is not at all remorseful of his harshness. My wife and her mother generally seem to attribute this behavior to depression, anxiety, and related problems, with which he has legitimately struggled. As such, my wife has expressed a desire that I not speak with him so as to not exacerbate those issues. However, sitting by while this behavior is not addressed biblically with a call to repentance does not sit well with me. How would you advise that I deal with this situation in a way that shows respect for my father-in-law?
Thank you for your commitment to God’s Word.

Anonymous

In discussing biblical marriage, I have heard you say that in order to have a real marriage, there must be both a public exchange of vows and a sexual consummation of the marriage. Regarding the sexual consummation, is it important for the bride and groom to prioritize consummating the marriage immediately or should they just let it happen whenever it happens even if that is a few days after the wedding ceremony? My understanding is that in biblical times, after a wedding ceremony, the bride and groom would immediately go to consummate the marriage and the bloody bed sheet might even be brought out as proof of the woman’s virginity. In contrast to this, in talking to some of the older married men at my church, I have heard some of them say that the bride and groom should not expect to have sex on their wedding night at all because they will be tired from the wedding, with some of them even saying that the bride and groom should agree ahead of time that they won’t have sex on the wedding night. Is it a reasonable biblical expectation to expect to consummate the marriage on the wedding night or is that an unreasonable expectation, as some of these men seemed to suggest to me?
Thanks for taking the time to read this!

Will

I noticed that you read 25 books or so in January of 2023. My question is simple. How in the world did you do this? Do you sleep or eat?
Please instruct me. I would like to be so diligent.
Kindly and with thankfulness,

Will