Rules for Reformers Quotes

“Secular conservatism is like trying to use your pocket handkerchief to slow you down after the main chute has failed. This is why individual heart transformation, not legislation, is fundamental to national reformation. The person and work of Jesus is not optional.”
― Douglas Wilson, Rules for Reformers

“Secular conservatism is like trying to use your pocket handkerchief to slow you down after the main chute has failed. This”
― Douglas Wilson, Rules for Reformers

“The reformation of the church must occur so that there is a reformation of our subculture, and then our subculture will affect the larger polis. Expecting our faith to affect the larger polis when it has not yet changed the average shelf at the local Christian book store is expecting something that is not going to happen. With the weird exception of baseball, where the ball is handled entirely by the defense, you can’t score points until you have the ball. And reformers will not have the ball until they have a culture.”
― Douglas Wilson, Rules for Reformers

“Reformers must remember always that religion shapes culture, and culture trumps politics.”
― Douglas Wilson, Rules for Reformers

“The point of a true education is to, by the grace of God, learn how to refuse to let the soul get old.”
― Douglas Wilson, Rules for Reformers

“We tend to assume that if the existing authorities tell us to do anything short of swearing an oath to worship Satan, then we have to do it. This does not exhibit a mature theology of resistance.”
― Douglas Wilson, Rules for Reformers

“Conservative activists who are surprised or indignant at the gross lopsidedness of the whole system are being foolish because they are expecting the devil to be a gentleman. They are expecting him to fight clean, and to avoid every form of fighting dirty. What makes us think he might do that?”
― Douglas Wilson, Rules for Reformers

“All hope is lost? Good. That means the conditions for a black swan revival are improving by the day. The stone-cold deader we get, the more God is hastening the day. Nothing is dying but what has needed to die for a long time.”
― Douglas Wilson, Rules for Reformers

“The reformation of the church must occur so that there is a reformation of our subculture, and then our subculture will affect the larger polis. Expecting our faith to affect the larger polis when it has not yet changed the average shelf at the local Christian book store is expecting something that is not going to happen.”
― Douglas Wilson, Rules for Reformers

“Henry Van Til once noted that culture is religion externalized. Cultus (worship) lies at the heart of every culture. And the reason our culture has forgotten God is because our worship services did that first.”
― Douglas Wilson, Rules for Reformers

“So here is the foundational principle: Jesus is Lord and Caesar is not. Everything else in all political economy is a footnote to that profound and glorious reality. And we don’t need to pray in order to make that true. It was true before any of us were born. But we should pray that God gives us the vision to see and believe that. Why should we believe that? Well, we are called believers, after all.”
― Douglas Wilson, Rules for Reformers

“There are two kinds of non-conformity, and only one of them wears hipster glasses. The kind that does wear them is a very popular form of pretending to be out of the mainstream, in order to be the envy of it, and the other is a radical form of unpopularity, calculated to get you slandered and viciously attacked, on the way to changing the direction of the mainstream. One kind of non-conformity requires courage, while the other kind requires nothing more than vanity and a five dollar cup of fair trade coffee.”
― Douglas Wilson, Rules for Reformers

“Offensive Takeaway Point: We should look for a way to stop responding to initiatives of the adversary and start behaving in such a way that they have to figure out how to respond to us. Take the initiative.”
― Douglas Wilson, Rules for Reformers

“Fortunately, given the state of criticism these days, lots of people miss—especially the feminists, who usually throw like a girl.”
― Douglas Wilson, Rules for Reformers

“And I looked, and rose up, and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses” (Neh. 4:14).”
― Douglas Wilson, Rules for Reformers