Blessings to you today, my friends.

Today’s Kindle deals including some highly-regarded historical books, among them Philbrick’s excellent Mayflower.
(Yesterday on the blog: I Want Him Back (But Not The Old Me Back))
Not Like Any Other Book
Mitch Chase helpfully reminds us that the Bible is not like any other book. “The Bible is not like any other book, so it must not be interpreted just like any other book. There are Christian convictions—or assumptions—about Scripture which uphold not only the task of biblical theology but also the importance of studying Scripture at all.”
Our Dads Are All Dying. So What Are We Learning From It?
Stephen realizes he has reached the stage of life in which everyone’s dads are dying. He wonders what they are learning from it all.
A Dust-up among the Historians
Kevin DeYoung: “To many outsiders, the field of history probably looks like a straightforward endeavor. Historians teach us about the people, the events, and the ideas of the past. Sounds simple, but once you start studying the past, you realize there is no one agreed upon way to do history. In the last several years, this perennial difficulty has become especially pronounced within the guild of evangelical historians, ‘evangelicals’ broadly understood.”
What is typology? How can we use it responsibly in Bible study?
Sinclair Ferguson discusses biblical typology in this brief but clarifying video.
A Forgotten Fact about the Earliest Christian Movement
Michael Kruger considers a forgotten fact about the earliest Christian movement—that they were people who traveled extensively. This matters!
In Praise of a Godly Layman, Gary Riegel, upon His Death
I sometimes think almost nothing is more helpful than to read about the lives of “ordinary” Christian believers who served the Lord faithfully in their time.
Flashback: All Will Be Well
He knows our anxiety, he knows our weakness, he knows our frailty. And so he has gone before us. He has made the journey and returned to assure us that all will be well and to tell us that we need do no more than follow in his footsteps.

God’s will is always your sanctification. —Kevin DeYoung

Some time ago I read an advice column that responded to a woman who had become disillusioned with her husband and enamored with someone else. And as I read it I thought to myself, “I’m pretty sure that’s exactly how Satan would counsel if he was asked.” That got me thinking about how Satan might function as a marriage counselor and also how he might function as a parenting expert. To that end…

If Satan wrote a book on parenting, he would insist that children are primarily a lifestyle choice, a kind of accessory to life some people may choose and others may reject according to their own desires. He would insist that there is no intrinsic good in having children and that God doesn’t much care whether married couples choose to have them or not. He would want them to shrug off as quaint or antiquated the passages in Scripture that say things like “children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward” (Psalm 127:3) or the Creation Mandate that says, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28). “It doesn’t matter what God wants,” he would say. “What matters is what you want.”
If Satan wrote a book on parenting, he would want people who have children to feel superior to those who want to but cannot. He would want those who are unable to have children to feel that God must somehow be opposed to them or be punishing them and want them to believe that they are missing out on something essential to the good and God-honoring life. He would want such people to feel miserable while others held them as objects of pity or divine disfavor.
If Satan wrote a book on parenting, he would want people to regard children as mostly a bother, as a choice that tends to hamper happiness as much as it enhances or amplifies it. He would want parents to think more of the financial cost, the cost to a free and affluent lifestyle, or the cost to vocational progress. He would want couples to dread children even more than they desire them.
If Satan wrote a book on parenting, he would want parents who don’t regard children as a bother to regard them as the whole point and purpose of life, to treat them like little gods. He would want parents to form their entire identity around their children and to be held idolatrously captive to them.
If Satan wrote a book on parenting, he would be sure to tell his readers that the world’s population is a problem, and that the earth is suffering because of the number of human beings who inhabit it. Therefore, humanity ought to do its best to suppress the birthrate, and to have smaller families rather than larger ones. He would want people to hesitate to have children at all and to feel a sense of guilt and remorse should they choose to have them. “The most responsible people choose not to procreate,” he would say. “You need to think about this faltering planet.”
If Satan wrote a book on parenting, he would want parents to believe that there is no great benefit to raising children in the context of a family, much less a traditional family made up of one man married to one woman, covenantally bound together for life. He would insist that children can be equally conceived and birthed in any number of ways, to any combination of people, for any given reason.
If Satan wrote a book on parenting, he would want parents to think that a genetic link between parents and their children is so important that they should not even consider adopting children. He would want them to regard biological children as intrinsically superior to adopted children. He would love to hear people express that adoption is too dangerous, too uncertain, and too disruptive to even consider.
If Satan wrote a book on parenting, he would want parents to believe that their children’s defiance is simple, sinless, and inconsequential. He would want parents to tacitly believe that children are born in a state of innocence rather than sinfulness and that parents should express no great concern when their children defy them, rebel against them, and act out against them. After all, “kids will be kids.”
If Satan wrote a book on parenting, he would want parents to believe it is best to refrain from disciplining their children. Though the Bible may say “Discipline your son, and he will give you rest; he will give delight to your heart,” (Proverbs 29:17) Satan would insist that children have no need of consistent discipline. To the contrary, he would insist that consistent discipline will hurt them, harm them, or possibly even destroy them. He would insist that any discipline, and especially physical discipline, is tantamount to abuse.
If Satan wrote a book on parenting, he would want you to believe that if you do choose to discipline your children, it is best to flex some muscle and lay a good beating on them. He would want you to think that they respond best to the fear of your fury. He would want you to set aside self-control in your discipline and to hit them hard, to hit them frequently, and to hit them without mercy. He would not want you to consider the contradiction that you shouldn’t discipline them, but when you do, you should discipline them abusively.
If Satan wrote a book on parenting, he would want you to raise them in strict accordance with law rather than gospel, with strict rules rather than free grace. He would want parents to physically discipline them, then abandon them in their pain and misery, wondering how they can once again earn their parents’ favor. He would never want the consequences of their sin to lead to a discussion of the gift of God’s forgiving grace through Christ.
If Satan wrote a book on parenting, he would want people to believe that it is the task of children to teach their parents more than it is the task of parents to teach their children. He has ably presented in a host of modern shows and movies that children, by virtue of their youthful innocence and their greater ability to understand the modern world, have wisdom their parents lack. Parents, after all, are jaded by their many years and their antiquated experiences. They should humbly listen to their children and be taught by them rather than the opposite.
If Satan wrote a book on parenting, he would want parents to know that they should prioritize their children ahead of their marriage. He would want parents to prefer their children to one another, to orient their lives around their children instead of around their marriage. Ideally, he would pit a husband against his wife and a wife against her husband in the raising of the children and in all their activities.
If Satan wrote a book on parenting, he would want parents to believe that children must be kept constantly busy, and that they thrive best when they are enrolled in every extracurricular course and play on every team. He would want all of this activity to dominate the family’s time and attention. He would insist it’s best if the family reaches the end of the week and collapses with exhaustion because of all they have done.
If Satan wrote a book on parenting, he would want parents to prioritize participation in sports and activities ahead of participation in the local church. The church should take second or third place in their list of priorities. “There is time for that later in life; at this stage it is best to immerse them in activities and experiences. And if you’re worn out and need a day of rest, rest at home on Sunday.”
If Satan wrote a book on parenting, he would want people to believe children are sexual creatures who need to have their sexuality awoken at a very early age. They should see many things, have many experiences, and consider many options and alternatives. He would love and laud a term like “gender assigned at birth.” “Let them see all kinds of expressions of gender and sexuality, let them ask who they are and how they would like to express themselves. Let them do this at the youngest age possible.”
If Satan wrote a book on parenting, he would prescribe that parents give their children early and unfettered access to electronic devices and social media platforms. “Let them use TikTok. Let them browse Instagram. Let them spend their days on Reddit. No harm will come.”
If Satan wrote a book on parenting, he would want people to believe that children belong to society as much as to parents and that the government ought to have more of a say in their raising than their own parents. He would want society to regard family as a hindrance or even a danger to a child’s freedom of self-expression. “Let them be who and what they want at school and be certain you never tell the parents.”
If Satan wrote a book on parenting, he would want parents to be a little embarrassed about their faith in Jesus Christ, to think it’s best if parents don’t really raise their children in “the discipline and instruction of the Lord,” but instead help them keep their options open. “Don’t emphasize family devotions or you may just turn them off the faith; don’t read them the Bible before bed or they will think you’re a zealot; don’t insist they participate in the life of the church or they’ll someday turn against it all.”
Come to think about it, as I look at the world around me, I can’t help but wonder if Satan actually has written a book on parenting because it seems so many are obeying his instructions and following his advice…

I may not be going too far out on a limb when I suggest that you have probably not heard the name Anna Laetitia Barbauld. For various reasons she has been largely forgotten by history, and this despite achieving a significant level of fame in the eighteenth century. Though at one time she was a source of inspiration to well-known poets like Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth, they later scorned and besmirched her. By the end of her life, her fame had diminished and her reputation declined.
Still, she left behind some wonderful poems including this sweet celebration of friendship. I trust that as you read it you will have the name of a friend come to your mind—a friend of whom you can say, “How blest the sacred tie that binds / In union sweet according minds!”

How blest the sacred tie that bindsIn union sweet according minds!How swift the heavenly course they run,Whose hearts, whose faith, whose hopes are one!To each, the soul of each how dear,What jealous love, what holy fear!How doth the generous flame withinRefine from earth and cleanse from sin!Their streaming tears together flowFor human guilt and mortal woe;Their ardent prayers together rise,Like mingling flames in sacrifice.Together both they seek the placeWhere God reveals his awful face;How high, how strong, their raptures swell,There’s none but kindred souls can tell.Nor shall the glowing flame expireWhen nature droops her sickening fire;Then shall they meet in realms above,A heaven of joy—because of love.