day no. 17,462: importing the third world doesn't result in a first class world

"Suppose we gathered up 3 million Pakistanis and deposited them in the counties surrounding Lincoln, NE. We are no longer dealing with anything so simple as 'extra Nebraskans,' but are rather dealing with a new region in our country, a new kind of region, an area that might be called New Pakistan. And you cannot import the Third World without becoming the Third World." — Douglas Wilson, The American Ethnicity

How much sugar can you put in salt cellar before it is no longer a salt cellar. A little sugar won't be noticed. A little bit more will begin to affect the flavor. Any more and you no longer have sugary salt, you have something else. Something that is neither salt nor sugar. It isn't salty and it isn't sweet.

"Compassion does not scale. Let me say that again. There is a point where compassion does not scale, and pretending that it does simply creates counterfeit compassion." — Douglas Wilson, The American Ethnicity

Someone once famously asked, "What can you do with salt that has lost its saltiness?" It is not good for preserving anything, it is not good for flavoring anything, and if you try to throw it on the manure pile, you ruin the poop. 

Anything that cannot go on forever, won't. If you oversaturate an accent, it becomes the dominant tone. When you flood a land, you turn it into a lake. It changes the landscape. You cannot import third tier values without adopting third tier values. You cannot maintain a first class society if you tolerate too many third world priorities. You cannot build a world anyone wants to go to on third world principles and you cannot keep a world others clamor to get into by letting too many of them in.

day no. 17,461: all religions are not equal, just ask any religion

"One of the downsides of our failure to recognize that secularism functions as a religion is that as a consequence we fail to recognize that secularism as a system gives birth to certain values that are in fact religious values. One such value would be the urge to flatten, the impulse that we call egalitarianism. This is the idea that we must make everything equal. This is a fruit that is consistent with the nature of this tree. But there are other values that are not native to secularism, but which they like to use in times of transition, claiming them as their own. An example of this would be the value of religious liberty. This is a fruit that is not consistent with the basic nature of secularism . . . it is an orange tied onto an apple tree." — Douglas Wilson, Religious Liberty Is a Religious Value

Secularism is a religion and egalitarianism is a religious value. It is a not a Christian value and it does not spring forth from the living waters of the Lord. Religious liberty is a Christian value. Religious liberty is not religious egalitarianism where all religions are considered equal. That is not possible. All religions do not consider all religions equal so any attempt to flatten them all into a uniform shape is to rob all of them of their edges. The idea that all men are created equal is a Christian value. It acknowledges that all image bearers bear the image of God. This does not mean that all are of the same value. Some are taller, some are shorter, some are smarter, some are dumber, some are darker, some are lighter, some are men, and some are women. A tall, blonde, white women does not bear the image of God more than a short, brown-haired black man. They are both equally image bearers, but they have different values. Democracy is the secularist idea that everyone's opinions are equal which only goes to show how stupid some people's opinions can be.

"The president of Turkey, Erdogan, once said that democracy was like a street car. You ride it until you get where you want to go, and then you get off." — Douglas Wilson, Religious Liberty Is a Religious Value

Democracy is an idea that caters to the lowest common denominator. It promotes the crude to the middle class and graduates the gross to higher education. In short, it is a tool the power hungry use to give credibility to the lower classes of human kind in order to gain their votes. And once they have the power, they remove the ability to vote it away.

day no. 17,460: optimillenialism vs. pessimillenialism

"For wise men, one of the rewards of work is to see the work actually accomplished, to see the mission completed. The telos of lawn mowing, one of the great ones, is the satisfaction of seeing the lawn actually mowed. A man’s duty is a man’s duty, regardless, but if the duty is pointless, or seems pointless with regard to the teleology of it, then it might not be long before a man could start to feel like Sisyphus, rolling the rock up the hill again." — Douglas Wilson, How Post-Mill Figures into It

The Great Commission is not a run out the clock kind of offense. It is not the case that the lead is now so insurmountable as a result of Christ's victory that we have nothing to do but take a knee. Rest assured, the victory is secured and the lead is insurmountable, but our plays are still loaded with meaning. The defense is still coming after you and looking not only to stop your forward progress, but to take you out of the game altogether if possible. In addition, they are looking to get the ball back and score points.

In this regard, we could learn from the demons. They know the fight is fixed and yet they are fighting with all of their might. They know their time is short, but they are willing to play the long game for as long as God gives them. They know that their labors are futile and yet they are working hard. We know that our labors aren't in vain and yet we act like they optional. We do not get after what we know will work while our enemies are vigilant in what they know to be vain.

1 Corinthians 9:10

Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope.

The Great Commission is not a suicide mission and the world is not God's Vietnam. We win down here because God wins everywhere. And He has given us a taste of the glory in the meantime. We get to enjoy the meal He is commanding us to prepare. We reap from the fields i which He has called us to sow as we wait for the final harvest.

"If you aim at losing, you are very likely to achieve your goal." — Douglas Wilson, How Post-Mill Figures into It

Those who live their lives with a "it's all going to burn in the end" mentality do not devote themselves to building projects that outlast them. Why would you give your life to build part of a cathedral you will never worship in and will likely be destroyed by God before it is finished? Those who aim at losing hit their target. But God has not called us to lose, He has called us to conquer. True, in Christ we are more than conquerors, but we are not less.

"An eschatology that teaches 'we lose down here' is an eschatology that may have had something to do with why we are, you know, losing down here? We are right on schedule, apparently." — Douglas Wilson, How Post-Mill Figures into It

If you preach and teach with a pessimistic approach, you cannot be shocked when you get disappointing results. Of course we are losing down here, you weren't trying to win. But we cannot blame our failures on God. The "we lose down here" crowd often takes comfort in what they believe to be God's promise of our defeat. They assuage their cowardice by calling for the curtains. There is a faithful way to say, "Come soon, Lord Jesus!" and a fearful way to say, "Come soon, Lord Jesus!"

We cannot blame God for our failure. We cannot blame the state of the world on His actions in order to take the blame away from our lack of activity.

"We should do what we were told to do, and let God sort out the doctrine." — Douglas Wilson, How Post-Mill Figures into It

If God said, "Go, disciple the nations," who are we to disagree. And who are we to say, "Why disciple nations that are just going to burn anyways?" We cannot use God's sovereignty as an excuse to disobey a direct order from Him. Even if the premise was true and the world was damned to darkness despite our efforts, the command to disciple the nations would still exist. In that scenario, the faithful response would still be to baptize the world because that is what God said to do. And if that is the case for faithful dispensationals, how much more so should it be for faithful postmillennials? We have the same command to disciple the nations, but we believe that it is going to work.

"If you will allow me to zoom out, let me borrow a couple of terms from the late Gary North, and those terms are optimillenialist and pessimillenialist. These terms do not refer to the time after the Second Coming because all Christians are optimistic in that final sense. I am talking about historical optimism and historical pessimism. Out of the three positions—post mill, amill and premill—the postmills are required to be optimillenialists. It is part of the package. But amills and premills are allowed to be." — Douglas Wilson, How Post-Mill Figures into It

Whatever your eschatology, you should be optimistic about the plan of God. Whatever the book of Revelation means, its author ended on an optimistic note, "Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus." (Rev 22:20)

"I am convinced that America is in the condition we are in today because we have bought into grim eschatologies that discourage, pacify, and enervate the faithful. We really need to be done with that." — Douglas Wilson, How Post-Mill Figures into It

Pessimism lacks faith. It advertises itself as faithful to the dire predictions of God, but it fails to put any stock in the hopeful promises of God. Much of what we call the doom and gloom of the New Testament can be explained by a partial preterist, postmillennial framework. Things were dire for those whose hope still resided in whole or in part in Jerusalem. Jesus had promises its destruction was near. So near, in fact, that the generation to whom he spoke its demise would still be alive to see the fall of temple. And its fall was terrible, as bad as predicted. The promises of God are powerful. When they promise destruction, they destroy in terrible ways, but when they promise advancement, they do so in awesome ways as well.

day no. 17,459: unstoppable surrender and unflappable faith

“Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring but still intending to do our Enemy’s will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.” — C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

Obedience for obedience's sake is the most dangerous weapon we can lob at our enemies. The man who will not be disloyal to his God is a man they cannot control. He does not have any handles they can pull or any buttons they can push. He has surrendered all of those to Christ. And just like Jesus, he conquers.

1 John 5:4

For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

That is an unstoppable surrender. That is a faith that is unflappable.

day no. 17,458: pomo power, pomo problems

“When the pomos taught us that all truth claims were disguised power grabs, they were telling us more about their purposes than they were actually intending to.” — Douglas Wilson, Concise and to the Point

The postmodernists are not opposed to power in principle, they are opposed to others have power. They are not interested in smashing the patriarchy, they are interested in being the fathers. When they complain about dad, they are not complaining about dads in general, they are complaining about being the children. If their political maneuvers are a sign of their intentions, and they are, they do not want to eliminate power structures as much as they want to occupy them.

Money is evil, so give it all to us.

Guns are dangerous, so we should be the only ones who have them.

Water is a luxury, best to let us manage it.

Land is power grab, better let us distribute it.

Borders are a bad, let us patrol them.

Etc...

day no. 17,457: nonconsentual assertions

"Because I believe that rule by men is actually inevitable, this means that the longhouse is actually ruled by men—wicked men, behind the scenes, but men nevertheless." — Douglas Wilson, As a Gentleman Walks By the Longhouse, Whistling

The rule of men is inescapable. Man is the head, not the tail; and even if he lowers himself to the position of tail, he is the tail that wags the dog. He cannot not lead. Even in his submission, he is leading. Even in his surrender, he is steering. 

Patriarchy is nonconsentual, it just is. 

God does not need your permission to implement His designs and He does not need to explain Himself to you.

day no. 17,456: matriarchy is emasculinity

"In an open patriarchy, those who ought to be in the dominant position are. In a matriarchy, constant energy must be devoted to keeping everything in that unnatural position because the natural order is so deeply embedded in us that the world keeps wanting to right itself." — Douglas Wilson, As a Gentleman Walks By the Longhouse, Whistling

Patriarchy is woven in to the world by God's design. When you try to keep it down, it is like trying to keep a beach ball under water. It can be done, but not without a constant force being applied to it. And all that force has to come from somewhere and takes force away from efforts that could be put toward going somewhere. A boat that is sinking must constantly be pitching water. It is survival mode. But that same boat cannot spend any energy on rowing where it wants go. Instead, it is tossed back and forth by the wind and the waves while it focuses its efforts on not sinking.

"What is called matriarchy is simply moral anarchy, in which the mother alone remains fixed because all the fathers are fugitive and irresponsible." — G. K. Chesterton

Matriarchy is the result of lazy men. Instead of doing the hard work of leading, they do the hard work of trying to prop women up. As mentioned before, this still requires a good deal of effort, but it doesn't take the kind of effort leading requires. Lazy men would rather lay on top of the beach ball than paddle a boat somewhere.

"In a patriarchy, the dominance of men is a natural part of the creation order. In a matriarchy, the dominance of women is artificial and contrived, and needs to be enforced by men behind the scenes." — Douglas Wilson, As a Gentleman Walks By the Longhouse, Whistling

Matriarchies are not controlled by women, they are maintained by weak men.

"Because our culture has bought into the feminist lie, the result has been the creation of what has come to be known as the longhouse. We are in the longhouse now—when society has become officially matriarchal and all the public social ethics are feminine-coded. There is a pronounced hostility to individual excellence, which is seen as arrogance, risk, which is seen as recklessness, masculinity, which is seen as toxic, and hierarchy, which is seen as oppressive and exploitative. In contrast, the longhouse is communal, obsessed with safety, and eager to enforce conformity." — Douglas Wilson, As a Gentleman Walks By the Longhouse, Whistling

Where women are leading, men are conceding. And this, according to Christ, is a curse.

Isaiah 3:12

As for my people,

children are their oppressors,

and women rule over them.

O my people,

they which lead thee cause thee to err,

and destroy the way of thy paths.

The widespread and increasing presence of estrogen in leadership roles is a clear sign of God's curse on a nation.

Beware the woes of womenion. Where women are the dominion, men have forfeited their mission. Matriarchy is emasculinity.