Acknowledge your children all need to be converted (Eph. 2:3), but do not do this with unequal weights and measures. If you apply impossible standards to your children, you are causing them to stumble. Beware of millstones as you bring them to Christ (Matt. 18:6).
Douglas Wilson
Millstones
“and shall His people withhold an amen?”
Shall the Lord Jesus promise to take a millstone and tie it around the necks of the photographers and graphic designers for National Geographic, and throw the lot of them into the sea (Matt. 18:6), and shall His people withhold an amen? The secular state hates childhood. How many children have you dismembered so far? When you are willing to cut off their heads in the womb, and to sell off their parts, then it would seem that cutting off their genitals for the sake of your ideological kinks would be child’s play. Do we hate you? How could we not? Do we love you? We are offering you the death of Jesus Christ, which makes it possible for you and your vile condition to be separated. Do we love you? Of course we love you? Here is Jesus Christ — come to Him. Come now, before the night falls. It won’t be the kind of night that you can dance away.
Douglas Wilson
“we do not want a millstone tied around our stiff necks. . . We do not want to be thrown into the depth of the sea.”
The commandment to honor parents is the first one with a generational promise, and which the apostle Paul points to (Eph. 6:2–3). But it is not the first commandment with a generational rider. The Second Word says this — that those who bow down to images are guilty of “iniquity,” and that their hatred of God will be visited to three and four generations (Ex. 20:5). In our worship of the Lord, we delight to include our children together with us in our worship, and this includes bringing them to the Table. But it is not enough to just include your children. What are you including them in? We do not bring them into a worship service with graven or painted images in it because we do not want a millstone tied around our stiff necks (Matt. 18:6). We do not want to be thrown into the depth of the sea. We want to present ourselves to the Lord at the last day, together with the children He has given us.
Douglas Wilson
“Such a man is held responsible in a striking way”
‘Then said he unto the disciples, “It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come! It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones. Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him’ (Luke 17:1–3).
Scandals will come, the Lord says. Nevertheless, the one who brings them is held responsible, and cannot appeal to the ‘way things are,’ or to his own valiant efforts to fulfill the Lord’s prophecy. Such a man is held responsible in a striking way. If he scandalizes ‘one of these little ones,’ it would be better for him to have a millstone tied around his neck and be thrown into the sea. In other words, what is actually going to happen to him is going to be a whole lot worse than that.
Douglas Wilson
“Jesus pronounced a solemn warning against anyone who would stumble the little ones, and this is a warning that ought to be heeded in our circles far more thoughtfully and submissively that it is.”
Whenever these two things are found together — strong Calvinism and pietistic conversion — children are regularly mangled by the covenant people of God instead of nurtured by them. Jesus pronounced a solemn warning against anyone who would stumble the little ones, and this is a warning that ought to be heeded in our circles far more thoughtfully and submissively that it is.
Douglas Wilson
Better off dead
“And whoever receives one such child in my name receives me; but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” Matthew 18:5–6
“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble, it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea.” Mark 9:42
“He said to His disciples, It is inevitable that stumbling blocks come, but woe to him through whom they come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea, than that he would cause one of these little ones to stumble.” Luke 17:1–2
“one of the most dire warnings in the Bible”
‘Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come! It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones’ (Luke 17:1–2). . . .
In the passage from Luke, Jesus warns against stumbling or offending little ones. He attaches one of the most dire warnings in the Bible to this caution (v. 2). Jesus said a lot of things about children that are routinely ignored today, just as the first disciples tended to ignore them.
Douglas Wilson
@NatalieGfield #millstone
Powerful men who profess Christ & then protect predators belong where Jesus said: in the bottom of the ocean, millstones around their necks.
— Natalie Greenfield (@NatalieGfield) April 9, 2016
Doug Wilson, the Defender of Boogie Men, puts on a conference on sexuality. His arrogance knows no boundaries. https://t.co/TaOdjmKEXH
— Natalie Greenfield (@NatalieGfield) April 9, 2016