Doug Wilson Says If You Make ‘Venomous’ Comments About Me and ‘Don’t Repent’ ‘You Are Lost Forever’

“You need to repent of all the venomous comments you made over the last week, directed at us, and there were quite a few of them. If you don’t repent, you are lost forever. Revilers will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”¹ — Doug Wilson

BACKGROUND: In a 2021 article,² several women³ accused Doug of fostering a patriarchal church culture that enables abuse, strictly controls women, and covers up sexual abuse allegations through in-house counseling, rather than reporting to the appropriate authorities. The quote above is from Doug’s response to those who made negative comments about him on social media after the article was released.

OPINION: Doug states that commenting online about him in a “venomous” way and then failing to repent is enough to send someone to hell. That is a serious claim. It is not merely a rebuke for sinful speech. It is a declaration about eternal destiny. Such a claim distorts the gospel by confusing justification with sanctification—collapsing the ongoing repentance of a believer into the grounds of salvation itself. This subtle shift replaces grace with performance and makes the failure to repent of a single sin a condition for retaining salvation. I believe this misinterpretation of Scripture goes back to Doug’s misunderstanding of the gospel (read more about this here). He so emphasizes human works that he confuses their order—at times treating them as the cause of salvation rather than its fruit.⁴ But the Bible tells us that we are saved, not by our works, but by the completed work of Christ (Titus 3:5; Hebrews 7:27). We are justified by faith, meaning we “have been clothed by the imputation, or transfer, of the righteousness of Christ.”⁵ In Christ, our past, present, and future sins are forgiven, even if we fail to repent of every sin after believing in Christ: “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross” (Colossians 2:13–14, ESV).

Doug tries to back up his claim by citing Scripture: “Revilers will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” And it’s true, the Bible does say: “Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). But in context, Paul is describing habitual patterns of life that reveal unregenerate hearts—not isolated sins committed by believers. David Prior writes, “Paul is not talking about isolated acts of unrighteousness, but about a whole way of life pursued persistently by those who thus indicate that they would be aliens in the kingdom of truth and light.”⁶ And while Doug mentions the next verse, he seems to misunderstand it: “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:11, ESV). Paul’s point here is not sinless perfection but transformation by grace. We are all sinners, and when we are forgiven of our sins, it doesn’t mean we no longer sin. A thief may steal again—a reviler may revile again. But the basis of our standing before God is Christ’s finished work, not the completeness of our confession.

The contrast with how Jesus responded to those who spoke against him is stark. Jesus taught, “everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven” (Luke 12:10). He then embodied that teaching on the cross when He prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Even when Jesus warned that calling someone “You fool!” makes one deserving of hell (Matthew 5:22), he spoke to expose the sin in every heart, not to pronounce a final verdict on his critics. Jesus extended forgiveness. Wilson declares that unless his critics repent of reviling him, they “are lost forever.”⁷ He calls this “the gospel of free grace,”⁸ but a “gospel” whose demand is that readers repent of speaking against a particular pastor is not a proclamation of the true gospel of salvation in Christ that is received by faith alone.

My prayer is that Doug would turn from preaching a works-based salvation to preaching the true gospel of Jesus. The gospel calls us to imitate our Savior, not because it is the basis of our salvation, but because we have been saved and indwelled by the Holy Spirit by grace through faith alone. Then, and only then are we enabled to properly imitate our Lord in the strength he provides: “When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:23, ESV).