“All societies are theocratic, with the only thing distinguishing them being the nature and attributes of the reigning theos.”
Not That Daughter Either
“We can all acknowledge that a father spitting in his daughter’s face is not something that we would call a great moment in child-rearing. This is obviously a family with some serious dysfunction going on. Nobody reading this should want to be that dad. So don’t be that dad. Not ever. But here is the point. Suppose I had gone a different route and said something like “Whatever you do, don’t be that daughter, man. Whatever she did, it must have been pretty bad.” Enlightened moderns everywhere would be aghast. They would be aghast for a reason, and that reason is the thing I want to point to. The striking thing here is that, even in such a grim scenario, all the social pressure in ancient Israel was applied to the daughter, and not to the father. She was the one who bore the shame” ‘If this happened, should she not be ashamed for seven days?’ This default assumption seems almost inconceivable to us. We tend to wonder, ‘Why was the father not arrested and charged?’”
Keep Your Kids, p. 72
True Eye of Faith
“When you look around your home at a little sea of toddlers, you should look forward to the time when you’re sitting around a table with your grown children and their grown children, telling stories and laughing together. You are at one end of the table, and your wife is at the other end, and you’re talking about how God has used your family. That is the joy that is set before you. That is what you have your eye on as you trust God’s promises. Don’t look at the chaos and get sucked down into it as though it determines everything. It doesn’t determine anything.”
Keep Your Kids, p. 66
Already Accomplished
“I propose that as a nation we formally confess together that Jesus actually did rise from the dead. If you protest that this would kill the great secular experiment that is America, I would reply that the great secular experiment that is America appears to have already gone out behind the barn and shot itself already.”
Thin and Thick
“Mere Christendom needs to be thin when it comes to the differences between Lutherans and Methodists, Presbyterians and Baptists, and so on. But it needs to manage to do this without thinning out the contents of the Apostles’ Creed. It needs to be thick there.”
Agony in the Middle
“When Christ went to the cross, there was love in the assignment of the mission, there was love in the execution of the mission, and there was love in the application of the mission; Father, Son, and Spirit. It began with love, and it will end with love. But never forget, there was agony in the middle. And that agony in the middle was not something other than love; it was love all the way through. And God determined to do it this way before all worlds . . . In the midst of everything, love is often no fun at all. The Lord Jesus did not go to the cross on an emotional high. And that is the love beyond which we cannot imagine anything greater. That is what we are to imitate.”
Keep Your Kids, p. 65
Chimpanzees on Meth
“That refusal to accommodate your feelings is what brings your feelings around. This is how your feelings become disciplined and learn to be obedient. Too many parents treat their emotions the same way that treat out-of-control kids. You know the kind: yard apes, curtain climbers. The only time parents can enjoy them is when they are exhausted and sound asleep.”
Keep Your Kids, p. 61
Thick Religion
“Salvation for nations is religious, and it needs to be religiously thick. We cannot be saved by a thin religion. We cannot be saved by a religion the theological definitions of which will not stand up under five minutes of questioning. Etiolated faithy-words have no saving power. Why would they?”
And I Mean Drastic Mistake
“The reason Christians still own the public square is because Jesus rose from the dead in it. I know that the militant secularists despise this truth, but truth it is, and they should have thought of those objections before they crucified Him there. And they somehow think they can do something about that foundational and drastic mistake of theirs (1 Cor. 2:6-8) by dragging real believers out there and doing the same thing to them. Go right ahead. This is how Christ conquered the West the first time, and this is how He will do it again. Supplementing the blood of Abel will do nothing to silence the cries.”
The Nature of Foundations
“You should build your household the same way you would build a house. Go into the basement and look at the concrete walls. They’re cold, hard and straight. They don’t fool around. They are Calvinistic and covenantal. There’s no affection, no warmth. It’s just concrete. But precisely because there’s no warmth down there, precisely because the lines are straight, precisely because the concrete is cold and hard, it becomes possible to have warmth elsewhere. So go upstairs and look at the living room. Pillows, curtains, soft carpet, pictures on the wall. It’s truly pleasant, a place where you can sit on rainy Saturday afternoons to read. But the only reason anything is pleasant here is because of the concrete in the basement. If you mess with that order, you’re going to get chaos. Roll up the carpet, gather up the cushions, throw on the sofa, and try to build a stud wall on that. All you’ll get is a big, wobbly pile.”
Keep Your Kids, pp. 60-61