Lack of biblical truth
A HOUSE DIVIDED…falls. We have either heard this, seen or experienced it. The most visible one that is at work today is the deep division in our country. It has become vicious. Well-funded factions are trying to undermine and destroy the 242 years of constitutional government. It seems to have gotten so personal. This mindset starts seeping down into our institutions, creating suspicion and lack of confidence in the pillars of our nation. I’m 80 and never have I seen such hostility and mistrust.
The basic issue or root cause is the lack of biblical truth spewing out in our society. It is my belief; there is no such thing as half-truth. It’s either truth or it isn’t. And when a nation, its people and leaders start operating on simply their opinion, with no foundation of ‘truth’, we see what results. Division, anger, evil, vicious behavior! Today, with unbridled social media, all one has to do is put some story online, true or false, and people run with it because it is what they ‘believe’ or ‘don’t believe’ without researching facts.
Which brings me to the family, the very fiber of our nation and culture. What we see today as never before in our nation’s history is the breakdown of biblically-based marriages, founded on God’s truth. At best it is hard enough for two genders from possibly entirely different backgrounds to live in peace and as one, as designed by God. But when you remove any semblance of foundational truth at the core of the marriage, it simply becomes each person’s opinion, and everything becomes relative.
Broken family
The family as a whole in America is broken, inside and outside the church. A triangular three-legged stool can function, but remove one, and it collapses. Father, mother and child; three, but as one, is a clear reflection of the Triune God (Father, Son, Spirit). Some of the very first words God records for us in Genesis says this. Right from the start! “Let Us make man (mankind) in Our image, according to Our likeness” (Gen. 1.26a NKJV). Do you see the Us, the Our? Three, yet One!
Now let’s see what God does next. ‘So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth”’ (vss. 27,28 NKJV).
God has never reversed this order for us while here on earth. It is critical to the family structure. The success of our marriages; thus our families are based solely on this pronouncement. That is the very glue that should bond us into one mind, one heart, one spirit. Remove this foundational truth and replace it with some manmade structure and it is doomed to failure. We see so much evidence of that in our society today.
The most amazing and significant act that God did was to make two from one. He didn’t reach down and make a woman from a separate handful of dust, but He took the female out of the first male. Equal, from one body. “Adam called her Woman, because she was taken out of Man” (my translation-vs. 2.23). His plan is for each man and woman who wish to be married to do it in this manner. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (vss. 2.24 NKJV). So, this is how God gets the two he created to now become ‘one’, reflecting His original image.
3 powerful enemies
There are three powerful enemies, especially for the Believer. Our fallen flesh, the world and its attractions and godless wisdom, and Satan! God knew that in order for us to fulfill His purpose for us—well—the united family in Christ was the strongest deterrent against these enemies. Hard as we try, we cannot improve on the original design. So, dads, if you want to bring glory to God in your marriage and family, it is an imperative that you stop, take inventory, repair the stool, and move forward together, guided by truth in Scripture. There are ways to move forward without this recipe, but it won’t be done well, and it will not reflect His design.
We at Abiding Fathers sincerely believe that the Lord, in the power of His Spirit, has begun a movement of dads who are serious about God’s plan and design for the family. We stand ready to help these dads in whatever way possible to succeed. It starts in the word and on your knees, early and daily. Nothing else works! And who knows, soon we may see the effects, even in Washington D.C. Wouldn’t that be great?
