Quotes from Douglas Wilson

Paul sarcastically notes that the Corinthians are so wise, and this wisdom of theirs is the basis for them "suffering fools gladly." He says that they will tolerate and put up with men who exploit them—but are in effect intolerant of true shepherds. As the people of God, we are being abused by the leadership of the modern evangelical movement—by this I mean the men standing behind the cash registers—and we cravenly submit. We know the taste of boot polish.

This is where we get the absurd rule that one must never, ever, end a sentence with a preposition. As Winston Churchill put it, "That's the sort of nonsense up with which we shall not put.

One time G.K. Chesterton, the rolypologist, was patted on the stomach by his adversary, George Bernard Shaw, a beanpole of an infidel, and was asked what they were going to name the baby. Chesterton replied immediately that if it was a boy, John, if a girl, then Mary. But if it turned out to only be gas, they were going to name it George Bernard Shaw.

All this said, fussy grammarians need friends too, and so you may seek out and encourage them. Drop them a little note, telling them that they are your very favorite fussy grammarian, out with whom you like to hang. And if anybody winced there at my use of a plural pronoun for an indefinite singular, then may I suggest counseling?

Without the new birth, all the doctrinal and liturgical work in the world is just the reorganization of dead materials, instead of what it is described in the Bible as being, which is the organization and discipleship of living materials.

As we bring up our children, we should descend to their level in one sense (humility) in order to lead them to our level (maturity).

Control of the future is actually a (vain) attempt to control people, with the future as our instrument.

we have somehow assumed that the interests of speed, or some other function of athletic performance, somehow set aside the requirements of propriety and modesty. In the ancient world, athletes competed naked, and in the modern world, in some events, they might as well be.

One of the central problems with bringing up children in our day is the constant temptation to underestimate their capacities. We teach them profane and irreverent little ditties, not psalms and hymns. We give them moralistic little stories, not biblical doctrine and ethics. We expect them to act as though they have no brains or souls until they have graduated from college. We aim at nothing, and we hit it every time.

As Mark Twain supposedly said, a classic is a book that nobody wants to read but everybody wants to have read.

was there because I was a Wilson. My family membership was never more secure than when I was sitting there, disciplined.

A wise man who loves the peaches at home does not want to shake any other trees.

Had he ever told Cindi about that junior high crush? Probably. What did it matter? There had been three other crushes, probably that same year. That's what junior high is for.

Christ has been seated at God's right hand. This seating indicates four things: He is waiting for his enemies to be made his footstool (vv. 12–13); he has sanctified a certain class of people forever (vv. 10, 14); he has established the New Covenant (vv. 16–17); and he has annihilated sin offerings (v. 18).

God's grace is a tsunami that will carry us all away, and deposit us in places we would not have anticipated—and all of them good.

Every blessing a Christian ever receives is from a pierced hand.

And He is love, which means He overflows in sacrificial ways. But His sacrifices are not throwaways, but always come back to Him thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold. Love is fruitful, and in imitation of Him we begin to learn that the more we give, the more we have.

The Bible teaches us that lovemaking is to be honoured among Christians; to honour something means to esteem it highly. Those Christians who have reacted to public immorality by retreating into blue-nosed prudishness in their own bedrooms are very much part of the problem

When David went out to face Goliath, he was not looking for a dialogue partner.

The world is a very different place from what it was two thousand years ago, much of it for the better, but we are still taking the lives of inconvenient infants. The work that Jesus came to do, that of throwing down all the idols, is not yet complete.

Preachers of the gospel must also be students of the culture they are sent to. A minister must be a student of the Word, but he must also be a student of men. He must study them—not just men generally, but the men of his own era, the men to whom he is charged to bring the gospel.

Of course, marriage in one sense changes who you are in certain ways, but it also simply amplifies what you are. Many people think that when they got married, they turned into selfish people. What actually happened is they plugged the guitar into the amp and turned it up to eleven, and the selfish tune they had been playing the whole time suddenly became audible.

There were many who needed to grab on, and a small number who needed to hold on. In that kind of situation, where you have a basic identity shared with those who are far away from God, the charge is to repent. We might describe this as vicarious repentance

The Disease Within The root of every rebellion (in every culture) must always be identified as pride, and the lust for autonomy. But this central sin manifests itself in different ways in different times, using different methods, concepts, and techniques.