By Shafer Parker

I want to do two things in this blog: (1) I want to discuss Doug Wilson’s view of what Christians must do to save the world, and (2) I want to finally explain who Gashmu is, and why he figures so prominently in the title of Wilson’s book—Gashmu Saith It: How to Build Christian Communities that Save the World.

But before I do any of that, I must tell you about something else. Faith Beyond Belief has been attacked two weeks in a row for building a couple of blogs on Wilson and his work. I knew he was controversial before I started blogging through his book, but the last two weeks have revealed that for some Wilson is not merely controversial; to a few he appears dangerous enough to evoke slander and hate. We were told, for instance, that “no serious Christian should be platforming Doug Wilson.” And in other messages he was called “predatory,” “perverted,” and an apologist for slavery, rape, and pedophilia (this is a summary, not a quote, but those are the words our correspondents used). Finally, he supposedly “adheres to Federal Vision theology.”

I hope it comforts you to know that none of this is true. In fact, if any of what these people have said were at all true, I would apologise for ever bringing up his name. So let me explain, in brief, what I believe is going on. First, in my view Wilson is a 21st-century hero of the faith, much in the same vein as the heroes listed in Hebrews 11. If you recall, the writer sums up his list—including Abraham, Moses, Gideon, and David—by mentioning unnamed “others,” who, for their faithfulness in serving Christ “suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—of whom the world was not worthy” (Heb. 11:36-38). Obviously, Wilson has neither been stoned nor sawn in two, but he has been mistreated in several of the ways mentioned above. If you want the truth about why Wilson has been accused of sexual sins, you can read a lengthy explanation here, and you can find out about his connection to “Federal Vision” theology here.

I’ll close this section with two observations—a couple of questions, really. If Wilson explained as far back as 2015 why some have falsely accused him of supporting paedophiles, then what spirit inspires people nearly a decade later to continue accusing him of this horrible sin? My second question is much the same. As you can see from the second link, Wilson publicly apologised for his involvement with Federal Vision theology in 2017, yet his detractors continue to accuse him of supporting that position. Again, why? The answer seems obvious to me. Anyone who effectively calls Christians out of their cultural entrapment and back to a vigorous defence of biblical truth, will find he is more hated by fringe Christians than by complete worldlings. And that’s all I want to say about that.

Now, back to Gashmu, chapter 2. Wilson entitles the chapter “Alternative City Walls,” and by that he means that it is the church’s duty to build an alternative culture, a counterculture to that offered by the world. The Christian is to see this alternative as the city of God, of course, but also as a kind of spiritual fortress from which Christians can go out to battle for the souls of men. And one of the key ingredients in the spiritual mortar that holds such a building together is an “unrelenting antipathy to the ways of the world.”

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But here, Wilson avers, he will be too easily misunderstood. Why? Because the church is not “reasonable.” That is, it must behave like Christ, not the world, and that means a combination of love, forgiveness, and rock-ribbed stringency regarding right and wrong, that worldly thinking can never understand. We really must learn to love our enemies and do good to those who hate us; we must bless those who curse us and pray for those who treat us with despite (Luke 6:26-28). And when we are persecuted, we must check ourselves to be certain that “it really is for the sake of Christ and not because we are being what theologians like to call punk-Christians” (I Pet. 4:15). Be sure, Wilson says, that when a controversy starts, “it wasn’t [your] surly face that started [it].”

At this point Wilson indulges in the plain speech that inspires the kind of hatred I’ve addressed above. After noting that the “enmity” between those who belong to Satan and those who belong to Christ goes all the way back to the Garden (Gen. 3:15), he warns that the lack of enmity against modern Christians may indicate a lack of meaningful loyalty to Christ. “This enmity between the ‘two seeds’ cannot be erased,” he says, “and attempts to erase it are actually attempts to go over to the other side” (James 4:4). “You cannot strive for Christ-likeness in this dark world without bringing down on your head something of what came down on Christ’s head,” he says.

There’s so much more in this chapter, and you really do need to read Gashmu for yourself, but I’ll close with a couple of biblical examples supplied by the author. First, Wilson notes that “when David went out to face Goliath, he was not looking for a dialogue partner.” Instead, he promised that God-hating giant that he would “smite” him, take his head off, and feed him and the rest of the Philistines to the “fowls of the air and the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel” (I Sam. 17:46). Second, Wilson brings up Nehemiah, who repeatedly refused to leave off the work of rebuilding Jerusalem’s walls to meet with, and treat with, the enemies of God’s people.

After Nehemiah’s fifth refusal, Sanballat, the chief enemy, sent the following note: “It is reported among the heathen, and Gashmu saith it, that thou and the Jews think to rebel: for which cause thou buildest the wall, that thou mayest be their king, according to these words (Neh. 6:3–6). At this point Wilson is scathing: “You really should give up preaching. And blogging. And publishing. And declaring. And challenging. And prophetically denouncing,” he writes. “And why? Gashmu saith it. And who is Gashmu? We are not sure exactly, but it distresses us that he is displeased.”

God forgive us, I say, for the many times we’ve all trembled at the critical glances of our 21st-century Gashmus. These people are nobodies, as far as the kingdom is concerned. Yet we are concerned to make them happy with us, or, at the very least, not unhappy with us. How, then, can we be the spiritual brick and mortar that constitutes the fortress wall that distinguishes God’s kingdom from the kingdoms of this world? God forgive us for avoiding the scandal of the cross in our efforts to ingratiate ourselves with those who hate our Lord! We don’t have to do much of that before it becomes apparent that we hate Him too.

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