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"...The church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth."
I Timothy 3:15
Tragic Trends of Our Day III:
The Destruction of the Family
E. L. Bynum
From The Plains Baptist Challenger, April 2013
"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." (Genesis 2:24)
God ordained marriage and brought the first man and woman together. That is God's plan and it cannot be changed or altered. It is the only kind of marriage that He has ever endorsed. For 4,000 years of biblical history, it is the only kind of marriage that is even mentioned in the Bible. Men may try to change it by marrying men, but that is never taught or even spoken of in the Bible. Of course the sins for Sodom are referred to but they are never called a marriage. It is called a sin and abomination, but never a marriage.
Every thinking Christian ought to be able to see that we are facing a terrific family crisis in this country. Marriages are breaking up, and children are being displaced and emotionally scarred for life. God is largely being left out of the home and families are raising their children in virtual heathenism. The Bible and good books have been replaced by the television set. Children are being turned over to the State to educate and teach them sex education. Godliness and morality are left out of the curriculum, and we are seeing the results in socialist ideas and lawlessness as the children are taken down the road to ruin, and the result is almost a total lack of morality.
Statistics reveal that children being brought up in church are abandoning the faith in their late teens or early adulthood. They leave the church and practice what they have been taught in schools and by Hollywood. Thank God this is not 100% true, but unfortunately it is true in the majority of cases. Only children raised in a Godly home have any chance of being salvaged.
A Godly home does not mean a home that practices a little religion, but a home where God is supreme. If you look around you next Sunday, you will in many cases find yourself surrounded by older people. Where will we find the leaders for the churches of tomorrow if this continues at the same pace? Many of the churches will disappear and the doors will be closed, or be taken over by corrupt churches that no longer preach the truth. I recently heard of an Independent Baptist Church in another state, where I preached two revivals, that has been turned into a cowboy church.
Children that have been home schooled, or sent to a good Christian school, have a much better chance of surviving the onslaught of ungodliness in our society. Even such children must be raised in a godly Bible-teaching home, and be kept in a Bible-teaching church. The times are desperate, but God's people are not desperate. They seem to sit at ease in Zion, while our civilization is being sucked down a vortex of liberalism and ungodliness, Our Constitution and Bill of Rights cannot survive in such a country, as one of our founders said in so many other words. Socialism has almost taken over our nation, and there goes our freedom and liberty, unless we turn back to God and righteousness.
Our government is pushing our country down the road to ruin. Our nation is paying women and teenage girls to have babies out of wedlock. The more babies a woman can have out of wedlock, the more money she can get from the government. These children are being raised without a father in the house, and they are left without God and without hope. These children turn to crime and immorality, and all paid for by the taxpayers.
Where We Have Failed as a Nation
"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." (Proverbs 22:6) A whole generation has been raised, not according to the Bible, but carelessly. Even Christians have been guilty of thinking that if they take their Children to Sunday School and Church once or twice a week, that their children will turn out all right. Most of them take their children to church somewhat irregularly, thinking that will be enough.
Parents need to hear what God said about Abraham, "For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him." (Genesis 18:19) No wonder God says, "Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham." (Galatians 3:7) What a great heritage Abraham left in Isaac and all the children of God by faith in Christ.
Deuteronomy six specifically commands that the children should be taught the word of God, particularly in the home. "And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." (Deuteronomy 6:6-7) Of course, people are too busy with the things of the world to do this, and the result is the train wreck of our civilization.
“And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." (Ephesians 6:4) Fathers today have turned over the teaching of their children to the mothers, the schools, the movies, to television, to video games and you name it, and the result is that families are in shambles in America. It is not what God intended for families, and God is not going to bless man-made substitutes. In fact God's Word teaches us that God will not tolerate such behavior.
Now we are seeing the results of ignoring God's Word in the crime and immorality. Every month we publish in our “News & Views” column the disasters overtaking our nation. Some poor souls think I like to gossip and spread bad news. Nothing could be further from the truth, but I am trying to wake up people. I wish the sad news did not need to be told, and everything was hunky-dory. We need to heed the message of warning that flowed from the mouth of Isaiah. "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins." (Isaiah 58:1)
Consider the Awful Results
Did you know that more than 3 in 10 children grow up in broken homes and children from broken homes account for:
• 70% of those in juvenile detention
• 57% of all prison inmates
• 63% of teen suicides
• 71% of teen pregnancies
• 90% of homeless juveniles and runaways
• 71% of high school dropouts
• 75% of all drug users
• 85% of behavioral disorders
Dear readers, can you not see the awful results of the current trend of family life in America. I fully know there are many children that are being brought up in a one parent home, and that parent may be doing their best, but God did not mean for children to be raised in that manner. A two parent home with married a father and mother is the God ordained way of raising children.
There are cultural, legal, and legislative attacks on the family structure, and in many cases they are succeeding. There are radical groups who want to redefine the family, and make it something that never was intended by God. Homosexuals, lesbians and transgenders are well entrenched in government and schools, and are intent upon changing the family structure. They have their two mommies and/or two daddies represented in books and teaching, in order to confuse children about their sexual identity.
Marriage could be radically changed in 2013. The Supreme Court will likely rule on key same-sex "marriage" cases in 2013. Earlier this month, the High Court agreed to review a case against the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), a federal law that defines "marriage" as being between one man and one woman. Thirty-one states have passed constitutional amendments banning same-sex "marriage" while protecting traditional marriage. Nine states and Washington, D.C., have legalized same-sex "marriage," three of them on Election Day 2012.
If same sex marriages are legalized, there can be no safeguards against polygamy or incestuous marriages, and that will be coming down the pike. Now there is a Methodist Church in North Carolina that is going to decline to marry anyone until same-sex weddings are made legal. Poor old John Wesley would spin over in his grave if he knew this.
Now there is a lawsuit in progress that would change our national motto, "In God we Trust" which is printed on our money. We had better trust in God, for we sure can't trust the government. Our nation as a whole long ago ceased from trusting in God, but I still believe it should remain printed on our money.
The Only Solution Is to Turn Back to God
The only remedy for this nation and our churches is to turn to God. There is no other hope, and there is no other help. We have offended God and His wrath is being kindled against out land. We have slain 55 million precious babies since Roe vs. Wade. Atheists in the main places of leadership are educating our children.
The filth of Hollywood is festering in the minds of children and adults. The drug dealers are poisoning the minds of our youth, and deluding them into thinking they need a "high," when what they need is God and truth. The liquor stores, and the bars and the clubs are poisoning the minds of people of all ages. You cannot go to a grocery store or a drug store without being faced with isles and shelves loaded with alcoholic drinks. How are we going to survive when the devil has opened the floodgate with the sewage of filth that is being accepted by our society?
Only God is the answer, and we see few who are seeking Him.
"Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." (Isaiah 55:6-7)
"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." (2 Chronicles 7:14)
Although these two scriptures are not addressed specifically to us today, I still believe that God will honor his Word, and send untold blessings.