Quotes from Douglas Wilson

The prophet Daniel offered a great prayer of confession (Dan. 9:4) even though there was no evidence that he had done any of the things he was confessing. This is because we are not just distinct individuals. He was an Israelite and Israel had sinned.

But believing in the separation of church and state (as we do) does not mean that we believe in the separation of righteousness and state. We do not believe in the separation of morality and state, or the separation of God and state. To believe in the separation of God and state is tantamount to desiring a godless state. And to desire that is to declare war on all humanity.

True independence of mind exists where there can be disagreement without demonizing the one you differ with. And this cannot be done unless you let Scripture instruct you on how to distinguish things that are of first importance and things that are of much lesser importance.

She wasn't really going to church anywhere, but she remained a contemporary evangelical to the back teeth. She had lost her faith while still managing to hang on to all the platitudes.

And so in Christmas, we turn to the principalities and powers (those that are left), conduct our celebrations, and all God's people say, "Take that.

One of the staples of discussion about basic aesthetic principles is that art has to exist for its own self and cannot be prostituted to advance any particular cause or point of view. Perfect nonsense, of course, but that doesn't keep it from being repeated ad nauseam.

Paul is arguing that the nature of the tree has not been changed by the transition from the Levitical administration to the New Covenant. The Root is still Christ. The tree is still Israel—not the nation of Israel, but rather the person of Israel, the Lord Jesus. Christ is our Israel, and Christ is our only Israel. If we abide in Him permanently, we will bear fruit that remains. If we do not abide in Him permanently, we will be removed and burned.

There is a difference between a lump-in-the-throat kind of blessing, and edification. A preacher who plays the emotional violin can make you feel good for a time, but at the end, what do you have? Nothing. As the ancient rhetoricians would have put it, nothing dries more quickly than a tear. An edifying preacher or teacher gives you a brick, and, when you get home, you know exactly where in the wall to put it. As a result, the structure goes up.

It is not whether certain values will be propagated by art, but rather which values will be propagated.

This is why so much of the discussion about "modernity" and "postmodernity" is just pretentious. What we call Enlightenment modernity was just the period when our public authorities fell into unbelief. Postmodernity is when they discovered that unbelief is a slippery place, and they fell into it deeper.

One of the temptations Christian men face is the temptation of thinking that all the obligations attending fatherhood are wrapped up in the simple task of "breadwinning". But there is a trap. Providing the money a household needs instead of providing yourself is a problem. The biblical approach is that of giving provision as a representation of yourself, and the difference between the two approaches is profound.

Jesus literally sang as He was preparing to go to the cross. So, the sacrifices that you will make for your children should be something you can sing over. If there is not a song in it, it is not a biblical sacrifice.

God requires His people to bring up their covenant children in an environment dominated by the Word of God.

The magistrate must wear Christ's livery, and not the other way around.

Uncertainty was part of the appeal. That was just one problem with ministering to the youth of today?—?riding the wave of cool and contemporary youth ministry was like surfing the big ones, and with one false move, there you were with sand in your trunks.

Neglect of this truth is pervasive in the modern church. One of the most difficult things for modern men to understand is how they are responsible for their wives. Men come into a marriage pastoral counseling session with the assumption that "She has her problems," and "I have mine," and the counselor is here to help us split the difference. But the husband is responsible for all the problems. This is the case for no other reason than that he is the husband.

In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function

Wealth is not the locus of the sin, but the presence of the wealth is the locus of the temptation.

We are not only tempted by wealth, we are tempted to blame wealth.

if we do not tell our stories faithfully, they will gradually change over time until they become quite unrecognizable. With a story like this—one that has in the minds of many supplanted the story of the Christ child—we have to remember that St. Nicholas probably would have slugged somebody over it.

If you do not discipline your children effectively, you hate them.

Such laws, such foolish resistance, can cause short-term grief. Think again of Herod and the little boys he slaughtered. But think also about how ineffectual it was. Did he stop the morning star from rising? Did he stop the day from coming? In the same way, we must know that the message of Christmas is not that we have to persuade anybody of anything. The message is far more good news declaration than it is argumentation.

One of the things that modern Christians have a hard time doing right is loyalty.

We cannot make the raw material of idolatry go away. God created it, and He is not going to uncreate it for our personal convenience. Rather, God has to give us a heart that is capable of being rightly related to Him in the presence of things that seem to beckon us to be wrongly related to Him.