A New Restoration Movement: Restoring the Christian Family
I fear that many people who read these words will never realize the real need. To many, the idea of “reclaiming the family” is simply a nice catchy slogan that reads well on the cover of a Christian magazine. But it’s not really something the average Christian needs to worry about—right? Reclaiming the family is for those who have delinquents or serious problems in the home. After all, “we attend church ever Sunday morning and our children are kind to others. Surely, we are alright.” And yet, these are precisely the individuals who I hope will re-evaluate their entire paradigm.
There is a need to restore the family.
Let me begin by asking one simple question. If you knew that the activities your family was involved in would eventually lead them away from God would you change your life? I suspect most people would indicate that they would change. But when it really comes down to making those changes in our lives (when the rubber hits the road), we find ourselves making excuses and often justifying our behavior. After all, we may already be “comfortable” and changing things could involve too much energy.
In order to really reclaim our families the first thing we must do is: (1) acknowledge they need to be reclaimed. We must admit that our family has been influenced by the world more than we have influenced the world. Husbands and wives need to sit down and discuss openly the need to make changes. Then, and only then, can we begin the process of reclaiming our family.
In addition to acknowledging the need, we must also (2) honestly evaluate what we are allowing into our lives. Yes, certain shows may be funny, but are they wholesome and can we thank God for them (Col. 3:17)? This step will be the hardest for most individuals—as oftentimes we get into daily ruts and we don’t even see the danger that the world is leading us into. Evaluate your jobs, your children’s schools, your television habits, your children’s friends, your hobbies, etc. Anything that is not going to help your family get to heaven should be seriously questioned and eliminated if possible.
After you have acknowledged and identified the problem, then (3) you must act. Begin by communicating to children (old and young alike), that nothing is more important than getting to heaven, and as such, you are going to make some changes. When they see you changing your life they will be more likely to follow in your footsteps, and carry those sentiments into their own families.
If you stop at this step you will feel good about having made some serious steps towards reclaiming your family—but one final step remains. In order to insure success, (4) families must replace old bad habits with new good ones. Time that used to be spent in front of mindless television shows can be used to study the Bible together, learn new hobbies, exercising together, or just sitting down sharing your thoughts and feelings across a dinner table. Take some time to learn how to reconnect with one another, and teach your children how to recognize anti-God influences.
For twelve years we send our most precious gifts, our offspring, off to be indoctrinated in secular humanism and atheistic ideology—and our tax dollars are paying for this propaganda. (In many cases we are literally paying to have our children led away from Christ!) Those twelve years are followed by four years of undergraduate study in which their faith is questioned and tried in various classrooms. And for the life of us, we cannot figure out why so many young Christians are abandoning their faith. Many Christians have not fully recognized that our children are the ultimate prize. Activists in our country have waged war on Christianity, and they are quietly enlisting our own children against us. By shaping their thoughts and molding their value system for twelve years, secular humanists and evolutionists have fashioned their minds to reject the concept of a God. Instead, they return home to us embracing a philosophy of: “eat, drink, and be merry, and always look out for number one!”
When Adolf Hitler was laying the foundation for his New World Order—the Nazi Party—he commented, “Let me control the textbooks and I will control the state. The state will take youth and give to youth its own education and its own upbringing.” Hitler knew that the youth were the key to his dominance and the future. During a speech he delivered on November 6, 1939, Hitler affirmed: “When an opponent declares, ‘I will not come over to your side,’ I calmly say, ‘Your child belongs to us already…What are you? You will pass on. Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time they will know nothing else but this new community.’”
Hitler knew that youth held the ability to reshape the cultural and philosophical framework of a nation. Hitler’s words sound extremely similar to Abraham Lincoln’s, who once noted: “The philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation will be the philosophy of the government in the next.
Why do we find the world in the state it is today? Tim LaHaye, in his book, The Battle for the Mind, suggested: “Our present society is in a state of moral decay, not because the majority of Americans love degeneracy, but because the influence of humanism has been greater on our culture than the influence of the church” (1980, p. 189). The time has come to reverse that trend! Christ said:
Ye are the salt of the earth:… Ye are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a lamp, and put it under a bushel, but on a stand; and it shineth unto all that are in the house. even so let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven (Matthew 5:13-16).
God’s people are to uphold that which is right, and oppose that which is wrong. In so doing, we set an example for all around us. We must oppose atheism/humanism because its teachings are contrary to the teachings of God’s Word. We must come to understand, and help others to understand, the folly of human “wisdom” such as is found in society’s current philosophies.
For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and discernment of the discerning will I bring to naught. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of the world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For seeing that in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom knew not God, it was God’s good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching to save them that believe (I Corinthians 1:19-21).
Human wisdom leads away from God if not founded on, guarded by, and subject to biblical revelation. Human wisdom is at war with God (Romans 8:7), and is foolishness as far as God is concerned (I Corinthians 3:19-20).
The Joseph Challenge
Let me encourage every family who reads this article to consider taking the Joseph challenge. Joseph was 17 years old when we are introduced to him in Genesis 37. Within just a short period of time he was sold into slavery by his brothers—into a land where he didn’t even know the language. He was placed into Potiphar’s house and seduced on numerous occasions by Potiphar’s wife. He was falsely accused of sexual misconduct and thrown in jail. And yet, through all of this he remains faithful to God. Let me encourage you to raise your children (and/or grandchildren) to be strong enough in the world that they too can withstand such trials by the tender age of 17. Use those first seventeen years to instill goodness, purity, and reverence toward Almighty God.
In Ezekiel 22 we find one of the most troubling passages in all of God’s Word. In reviewing the actions of Jerusalem, Ezekiel records that Jerusalem had violated most, if not all of the Ten Commandments. The vast army of Nebuchadnezzar was poised around the city, about to begin a two-year siege that would bring utter destruction to the city. In those days, the common practice to fortify a city was to build a giant wall. Enemies wanting to overthrow the city were then forced to concentrate their efforts on breaching a hole in one portion of the wall. But often, men of the city would step into the gap and fight to protect their homeland. They were willing to “stand in the gap.” At the end of chapter 22 we learn that this is not the case with Jerusalem. God said: “‘I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one. Therefore I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath; and I have recompensed their deeds on their heads,’ says the Lord God.” No one was willing to stand in the gap. Parents and grandparents, we must stand in the gap and fight for the souls of our children! Unrighteousness still abounds. The laws and commands of God are still being violated. Have you heard the battle cry? Will you reclaim your family and stand in the gap on their behalf?