Lights in the World - PH45-02

Advanced Bible Doctrine - Philippians 2:14-15

Therefore, I want you to understand that whatever you think about this is between you and the Lord. Just don't try to tell me what to say or not to say. You just listen, and then you dismiss me for whatever you think it's worth. I don't know that any of you will. I know that all of you are sitting here with bated breath, waiting to hear my golden words. But I also know the old sin nature, and I know the nature of this topic, so I'm just cluing you in beforehand. If you don't like what you hear, I hope you blame God for it, because He's the one that said it. You know that I wouldn't say it if it was up to me.

Divine Institutions

Family

Consequently, there is a great deal of doctrine given in the Word of God concerning the human family. A lot is said to husbands and fathers; a lot is said to wives and mothers; and, a great deal is said to children. All the various elements in the family are dealt with in considerable detail in the Word of God.

The Fifth Commandment

The Jews, in this particular moral absolute, were promised a long lifespan for such subjection to parental authority. Ephesians 6:1 tells us the reason for honoring your parents is because it is right. It is in the nature of human parent / child relationships by God's order and arrangement. It's the right thing to do. Freedom in a society is actually preserved by the family setup. For this reason, Satan is mounting his attacks against the family unit. As never before, the family concept is under attack. Communal living is being dignified and portrayed as an advancement over the old restrictive community of the family. Satan promotes that sort of thing in order to enslave people.

For this reason, communistic and socialistic systems are always centered on breaking up the family unit. It wants to separate fathers from mothers. In some places like China (as once in Russia), it is carried to such extreme that mothers live in one barracks; fathers live in another barracks; and, children are someplace else, taken care of by the state. The whole idea is increasingly to remove children from the influence of parents, and to remove parents from a union with one another in terms of a family unit. This is demonic; it is satanic; and, it is not without purpose.

The biblical model of the family, of course, is that the Bible presents the family as a unit functioning on the basis of God's viewpoint. This means that a family operates according to Bible doctrine principles. I don't care what you think is reasonable; what you think is acceptable to most people; or, what you think is logical for a family arrangement, God has a way for family relationships, and He has spelled it out. He says, "This is the way it works." You can go ahead and beat your head against a brick wall and come up with some other arrangement; or, you may say, "I don't like the role assigned to me by the Bible within the family unit. So I'm going to try kicking against it." I guarantee you that is a futile effort, and it will result in your personal misery and ultimate self-destruction.

The family has divinely-appointed lines of authority flowing down from God. Here is where the bugaboo comes. We start with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit--the Triune God. This God is surrounded by authority. It is the authority of omnipotence. It is the sovereign ultimate authority of God. In His arrangement, God made a man. Before I say that, let me point out that the world is full of men and women. Here is this mass pool of men, and a mass pool of women.

In God's arrangement, there is one woman that God has designed to come over to this man. Men are not to look at women as a pool from which they may find a life partner. That is the kiss of death. Always look at the opposite sex (if you're not married) as containing one person that God has for you. Never forget that Almighty God created for every man, a particular woman--and not just any woman will do. You can get along in a marriage relationship with any woman in the world, even if she is totally opposite from you. God's grace will carry you through any kind of a situation.

However, God's plan for you is something else. So what God did was to take some of his authority, and He surrounded this man with authority. A man has had authority delegated to him. This authority, as we pointed out, consists of being the head of the home. He is the Supreme Court in the family. He is the final decision-maker. Whatever information flows to him from his wife; from his children; from his neighbors; from his church; or, from his society, ultimately within the family there comes a time when the decision has to be made on this and this and this, and he makes it. If everybody agrees with him, that's beautiful. If everybody disagrees with him, he still makes it.

It's like President Lincoln who, on one occasion, was having a meeting with his cabinet. They were voting on something. Everybody in the cabinet went around and they all said, "No." Then it came his turn to vote. He said, "I vote yes. The ayes win."

That's the situation in the family. Some families say, "Let's take a vote. Little Sammy, what do you say?" Sammy is 2 years old, so he has a hard time pronouncing, "Yes." He's good at "No," but "Yes" is more difficult. So they go around and vote. Well, that's okay if you want to do that, but ultimately, it's daddy who makes the final decision. This is because God has given him that authority. Hate it as you will, and hate me as you will for saying it. It is God who caused the trouble--not me.

God brings along the right woman for this man, and he puts this woman in a position under this man. This man takes some of his authority, and he delegates it to this woman. This woman, in many respects of life, is his representative. She is his partner in life, but there is an order of authority in that partnership.

Into this life, this right man with his right woman, there come children. Children from the age of one to 19 don't have any authority at all. They have certain privileges that their parents allow them to have. That's all they have. This is biblical. This is divine. You cannot live any other way than this. Maybe nobody told you this someplace along the line earlier, and you're finding it out now at a certain stage in life. Maybe your kids are grown, and they buck authority--then it's too bad. But understand that this is the way it works, and you cannot get away from this.

So if you're a man, and you don't want to carry responsibility in a home and you don't want to carry the load of having to have the scowls and the disapproval of members of your family when you counter their wishes, then just don't get married. Don't impose yourself on a girl. If you're a woman, and you don't want to accept the authority of a man who makes the final decision, even when you don't like the decision (I mean that you make it in grace--not in shooting splinters out and making his life a misery), then just don't get married. I didn't say that. That's God's point of view. It's quite obvious that that's the only way that God intends human relationships within the family to work.

This line of authority gives the children a chance to grow up into responsible human beings instead of animals. When a man does not carry his responsibility delegated to him by God, his kids become animals. When a wife does not subject herself to the authority of her husband, her children see that, and they will not subject themselves to the authority of their father. If you want to tear your children to shreds, you just start badmouthing your husband, mothers. You just start badmouthing the father in front of the kids. You just let the kids know what you think of him; what you disapprove of; and, what you don't like in him. You will have sealed something in their minds that you will have cause to be reaping the bitter fruit of in the years ahead.

It's a dangerous game not to understand how God arranged life. It is pathetic that most parents have never explained this to their children. Most parents have not explained to their sons what their role is going to be, and most parents have not explained to their daughters what their role is going to be. Your sons and daughters should say, "Well, that's how God has arranged it. That's the way the game works. I can't fight that." That's right. You can't fight that. You need to make sure that they understand this, or that they say, "I'm going to stay out of marriage." That's exactly what you better do. But if you're in it, then you're in it for keeps.

That's why the Word of God quotes God on one occasion as saying, "I hate divorce." When God hates something, you better believe that He's going to bring judgment and misery upon those who violate what He hates. One of the things He hates is a disruption of this order. It's all delegated authority down the line.

So the father has his role, and the mother and the children have their role. The parents are to determine the education; the religion; and, the discipline of their children. The state is not to determine this. When the father isn't around, the mother has full authority over those children. When these children are talking back to their mother, they are talking back to their father. When father appears on the scene, it is mother's duty to let him know what these children have done.

The father is the king, but the mother is the prime minister. That's the arrangement. You don't talk insolently to the prime minister without getting into trouble with the king. You may think you can get away with that because the prime minister is usually big-hearted, and a lot easier to abuse than the king. But there's many a mother who has a confession of sin to make to the Father because she does not report to the king what the subjects were doing. You will smooth out a lot of life for yourself, mothers, if you'll understand this arrangement, and take your role as prime minister with dignity and with seriousness.

Do whatever you have to. Go home and make yourself a purple robe that you can drape over your shoulders, and a nice golden sash that just swings back and forth as you walk. So when you appear on the scene, they're going to know the prime minister is here. You can make a crown for your husband, and crown him.

The Christian family is God's method for rearing each generation so as to protect us against Satan. Satan is out to destroy the family unit, because the family unit neutralizes his efforts within the human race. That's why this is a divine institution. It's very critical. For this reason, Satan is mounting an attack against parents and the authority that they have over their children. I said a moment ago, that it is up to you to decide the education of your children. It is up to you to decide the discipline of your children. It is up to you to decide all of the spiritual outlook of your children.

Every now and then, there are some ignorant parents that says, "Well, I don't want to force my views on my child. I'm not going to teach him anything religious. When he is grown, I'm going to let him pick his own." He'll pick it all right. You've already taught him what to pick.

Christian Education

An attorney in Garland has sent all those of us who are in Christian schools a letter this week. This is a report on an organization which has been formed called the Texas Organization of Christian Schools. His reason for writing this letter, he says, is this: "The Texas legislature has the power to close Christian schools and private schools. There are people in the legislature and in education that want to close all non-public schools and who are working to that end. We cannot wait until they succeed to start to defend our rights."

The reason for that remark is that there has been introduced in the Texas legislature a bill to bring Christian schools under the Department of Welfare in order to enable the Department of Welfare to tell Christian schools whom they may employ as teachers, and whom they may not, just as the public schools now are dictated to by the state Board of Education as to who qualifies to teach and who does not. The Department of Welfare would be able to dictate to Christian schools and private schools the curriculum they must follow, and the nature of the studies that they must have.

On the accompanying sheet, Mr. Lipscomb says, "As of February the 11th, 1975, the only bill of concern to churches actually introduced into the legislature (that is, the Texas legislature) is HB 565. This bill will place church nurseries; nursery schools; and, kindergartens under the Department of Public Welfare. It places in the Department of Public Welfare the authority to make its own rules and regulations to administer the bill. It will have power to regulate health, safety, and welfare, and to regulate supervisors and to require their ideas of education. This bill could be used to eliminate church day care and should be opposed. There has been some effort to introduce a bill that would require state accreditation; control curriculum; and, license teachers. But such a bill has not been introduced at this time."

So what Mr. Lipscomb is saying is that the movement is afoot; it is gaining power; it is gaining force; and, it is gaining momentum, and that if Christians don't wake up and do something about that, we may wake up one day ourselves and discover that we don't have the right to run a Christian school here at the corner of Sixth and Nursery without the interference of the state. For a lot of people, it would serve them right, I must admit. They force us as administrators of Christian schools to be trying to collect bills that are due the school so that we can pay our teachers their minimal salaries so that we can stay in business. Christians stand around and watch us while we struggle to keep our buses running; while we struggle to fill in for one another when we have teachers who are out sick; and, while we struggle to promote public advertising and to enroll children in school. Like the Pharisees, they smugly look upon us while we lie there wounded, and they gather up their robes about them and pass on the other side. I know what it is to be bruised; what it is to be ignored; what it is to be challenged; and, what it is to be threatened. But none of us knows the way some of our brethren in other parts of the country (outside the Bible Belt) are learning.

I received this week a religious publication called The Projector. It comes out of Florida. The front page article is entitled "Pastor and Principal Jailed in Indiana." I want to read to you this case in Indiana which is probably going to go to the Supreme Court, and which is going to have a very determinative effect upon the Christian school movement in this country. People who are in the know are now alarmed at where our society is going.

As you know, we already have a system which has been installed for the control of our society. It is just unbelievable and was unheard of just a few years ago. You are now aware of the fact that almost every item you buy in the grocery store has on it a computer mark so that your buying and selling in time will be controlled. Every one of you are aware of the fact that now it is possible to put a mark on a person by a laser beam in order to identify him for the purpose of buying and selling. I read to you at prayer meeting the remark of Henry Spock, who is one of the leading lights in the organization of the European Common Market. He said, "We do not want another committee. We have too many already. What we want is a man of sufficient stature to hold the allegiance of all people and to lift us out of the economic morass into which we are sinking. Send us a man, and whether he be God or devil, we will receive him."

I indicated to you that when the Common Market representative was asked concerning the computer that has been set up in Brussels which is three stories high, and which is being programmed to lay out a plan for bringing a world back out of an experience of chaos, such as the rapture will create, for example, and the controls that he spelled out that would be required, and the identification of people, and their buying and selling. He was asked, "What if they don't want to do it? What if they object to it? And his reply was, "We would have to use force to make him conform to requirements."

That, folks, is the world in which we are living. And you may be certain that when the forces of evil have finally taken over, and the believers have been neutralized, and individual personal freedom has been completely boxed out for us, you may be sure that the opponents will have no hesitancy to force upon you every hellish notion that they come up with.

Here's what's happening in Indiana: This is written by Roger Vokeland, the pastor: "I was walking from the Porter County jail to the courthouse with the sheriff on one side and an ABC newsman on the other. TV cameramen were running in front of us with their cameras rolling. The charges against me were two counts of criminal libel and conspiracy to commit a felony. The headmaster of our academy, Eugene Yingling, was a couple of paces behind me. He was arrested on charges of aggravated assault and battery, and conspiracy to commit a felony. As I entered the building, I saw a large group of my congregation. What a source of strength they were to me. When I saw my little 3-year-old, Jeff, as I walked by, I smiled to him and tried to assure him that everything would be OK. But he began to cry: 'Daddy, when are the policemen going to let you come home? Mommy said the policemen are good, but some don't have Jesus in their hearts. Why won't they let you come home?' I had always taught him that the policemen were good, and that they were to help you, so I could not answer his questions.

"I could not answer his questions because as I write, there are three visible sets of bars between freedom and myself. I have had hours, even days, to think about why I was arrested and hustled away in the night to the bewilderment of my family. And the only answer I can give is that I believe the Bible and practice its teachings in my life. I believe Proverbs 19:18: 'Chasten your son while there is hope, and let not your soul spare for his crying.' Proverbs 22:15: 'Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction will drive it far from him.' I've taught my people that we can rely on Proverbs 20:6: 'Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it,' just as much as John 3:16.

"Mr. Yingling and I were incarcerated because I believed and preached the right of a parent to raise his child under God without government intervention. Our first brush with our corrupt local political machine came in September of this year. A recently widowed mother, a member of our church, wanted her 16-year-old son to attend Fairhaven Christian Academy. The boy refused to go. Rather than obey her, the boy chose to leave home. At this point, the mother thought surely the police department would use their authority to tell the boy to return home and obey his mother. However, to her surprise, in September, both the Portage Police Department and the Porter County Welfare Department came to the aid of the boy, declaring in the presence of his mother and pastor that he was an adult, and his mother could not force him to do anything he did not want to do. He was told his rights superseded those of his mother.

"Throughout the entire conversation, Sergeant Lloyd and Mrs. Phoebe Leeds of the Welfare Department, belittled and ridiculed the mother and me. Apparently I was not the run of the mill man of the cloth they were used to, and my bigotry concerning the Bible baffled them. The last straw came at the close of the meeting when the mother was told, "If we do let Kenny come home, you are not going to bring up the subject of Fairhaven church or God again.

"I felt it was high time the public knew of the private shenanigans of a government agency they were forced to support with their tax money. Therefore, I paid for space in the newspaper and printed exactly what happened in that meeting. Our church printed up fliers with the same information, and everyone interested could pass them out wherever allowed. I appeared on two different radio talk shows, each three hours long, in which time the telephone lines were jammed with calls supporting our views. At this time we received word from the welfare department that we either shut up, or they would sue us. Not willing to kowtow to their political pressure, I placed another ad in the paper reaffirming what I previously said. Knowing that public opinion, so far, had been on our side, they decided to pursue the matter under cover.

"Sergeant Lloyd and other policemen began a nightly harassment of parents who had children in our school, pressuring them to transfer them to another school. They were desperate, searching for anything they could find with which to attack the academy. Although many refused to answer their questions, they did find a few disgruntled parents who disagreed with the standards of our school. These were those who did not want chapel to be required of students; did not want us to be against rock music; or, they did not like it when their angel required a paddling. With very little fact and mainly outright lies presented about our school, the grand jury, headed by our county prosecutor Robert Vornholt returned indictments against Mr. Eugene Yingling, headmaster of our school, and me.

"The criminal libel charges stem from my truthful but shocking newspaper articles. The conspiracy to commit a felony charges, and aggravated assault and battery charges were because of three swats with our paddle on an unruly preschool student. As we were booked into jail, as they took our ties, belts, watches, even our gospel tracks from us, I thought about Mrs. Leeds' statement (the welfare department representative) that she would get to our paddlings in the academy. As a patrolman frisked me and ordered us to pick up a mattress and blanket, I remembered my lawyers warning that the judge was extremely angry about my persistence in this case, and that maybe I should back off.

"I am in jail because I have fought for the right of a widowed mother to raise her child under God as opposed to a child advocate telling her what she could or could not do. I am charged with criminal libel for exposing the truth about federally-funded policemen harassing dozens of the families of our church and school. My meals now consists of dry rolls of sandwiches and water because I dared speak out on the radio and in the newspaper about child advocates putting up signs in our local high schools, and having assemblies completely undermining the parent's authority.

"As a preacher of the gospel, I sit in a jail cell where the prisoners have used the washbasin as a toilet because I wrote our school's student handbook and compiled the rules of the school which paddle students when necessary. I am accused of conspiring to commit a felony and aggravated assault and battery on a child who I have never seen in my life. Mr. Yingling has also been booked and fingerprinted as a criminal because he has lovingly applied Proverbs 13:20: 'He that spares his rod hates his son, but he that loves him chastens him diligently.' In the same way, he would discipline his own children.

"As I settled down in cell, I had complete peace with God. I thought of the apostle Peter's words in his first book: "And who is he that will harm you if you be followers of that which is good? But if you suffer for righteousness sake, happy are you. Be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled. Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing happened to you, but rejoice in as much as you are partakers of Christ's suffering. That when His glory shall be revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on his behalf.'

"How I praised God at that time for the honor to stand for him in this way. There was no fear or regret in my heart, but tears ran down my cheeks as I thought of my beloved country. My thoughts were interrupted, though, in the early morning hours, and my heart jumped as I heard clear and crisp, 'God bless America. Land that I love.' I climbed the bars to see out the window, but could not. I knew who it was, though. The sheriff told me that my congregation had come. 'Dozens and dozens of cars,' he said, 'they just keep coming.' Never was I so moved."

That's the end of the article. Then the editor added a note: "Mr. Yingling and Pastor Vokeland were released after their bond was reduced to $6,000. A restriction attached to the bonds stated that they could not appear on national TV which wanted to publicize this battle in conjunction with the West Virginia book controversy. (That is the controversy dealing with the obscenities in schoolbooks that the West Virginia parents blew the whistle on, and which are under consideration for adoption in the state of Texas.) Within three days, a group of various preachers led by Dr. Jack Hiles raised $40,000 for the Men's Freedom Fund. It is thought that when a decision is reached on the federal level, it will either be a victory or defeat for Christian schools across the nation. There has been no decision on the separation of church and state of this type in recent history. Attorneys recommended to pastor Vokeland by evangelist Lester Roloff are optimistic, and Kenneth (the boy involved with the widowed mother) has been reunited with his mother in Corpus Christi, Texas."

Mr. Roloff, as you know, has run a school for delinquent children down at Corpus Christi and other places. He was brought under federal indictment when the State Department sought to impose upon him restrictions concerning the spiritual education he was giving the children in his home. It was all completely funded without federal funds, but this was because he wasn't using the intelligent trained psychologists who know how to solve human problems. Instead, he was giving them Bible answers. He went to the Supreme Court, and he won. I have no doubt myself that what is taking place in the Texas state legislature is an attempt to get back at old Lester for having pulled that off, and having put the State Department of Education on its nose.

You thought I was reading about something taking place in Russia, didn't you. That's Indiana. Many of you think fondly back upon Indiana, USA. "Gary, Indiana is my home, my home." That's right close to where it's all taking place, folks. A department (an agency) of the government could be telling you what to do with your children. Take care, lest you think it is so far distant, for it is no more the case.

Well, the Word of God tells us that a father is God's final authority in the home. The mother shares a common authority with him. The father trains the children; provides for the necessities of life; and, clears all decisions. He exercises this authority with dignity and without abuse.

Mothers

Don't give me the remark that I've heard sometimes when some women say, "Yes, I turned my husband over to the Lord, but the Lord didn't change anything." That might be a clue to you that your husband is right, and that God was telling you what he decided was this thing to do. When your view of God is so weak and puny that you think His omnipotence is merely a theological word, you're going to be trying to help Him to straighten out your husband. But if you respect what God is, you may be sure that He will not tolerate abuse of His authority.

Bearing children is the basis for respect toward a mother by her children. Conception is an act of God. When a mother conceives a child, it is because God selected her among all women to bear this particular child. Don't ever forget that. Conception is never accidental. Conception is always an act of God. That's the problem that abortionists have--that conception is not an accident of nature. The Bible is very clear that it is an act of deliberate decision on the part of God (Psalm 127:3, Ruth 4:13).

The Word of God in 1 Timothy 5:14 tells us that the mother manages the household for the care of the family. While husbands might be, and should be, gracious enough to assist when assistance is needed in this respect, it is not their fundamental province. There is a certain problem in seeing a father performing a mother's duty in the home. This causes great disruption for the children who do not get clear-cut visions of what is male and what is female. But of course, you understand that in our society, the unisex concept is exactly the thing which is being promoted. Thus there is being promoted the idea that men should be doing women's work. There is the idea being promoted that there is no such thing as women's work. Well, again, I prefaced my remarks earlier so that you will continue loving me in the full fashion that you now do, because I didn't make up these things. I'm simply reporting to what the Bible says.

Of course, you may be the kind of a person who says, "Oh, well, that's okay. If the Bible says it, then I don't have to worry about it." A lot of people just dismiss it that way. They don't even discuss what the Bible says. It's no authority. Or you're going to cover your tracks by looking at me and saying, "You're an incompetent, and you're misrepresenting what the Word of God is saying. I know that the Bible would never say a thing like that." Well, you read it for yourself. 1 Timothy 5:14 makes it very clear that a mother's role is in the home, and that this is what God has structured her for mentally; emotionally; physically; and, socially: "I will, therefore, that the younger women marry; bear children; rule the house; and, give notification to the adversary to speak reproachfully," the apostle Paul said.

The mother is to help her husband. Right from the beginning, Adam received a woman to be his help meet. Adam did not receive a woman to be his competitor in the garden. Adam and Eve did not play competition tennis in the garden. They played other things in the garden, but they did not play athletic competition. If you don't understand that, I hope you will get that straight now. They weren't seeing who could jump over the highest hurdles. Nor were they competing for authority. The woman was not to be her husband's trainer. She was not to be his master. She was not (you're going to hate this) to be his co-chairman. She did not own 50% of its stock, and he owned 50% of the stock. That's a favorite humanistic viewpoint.

However, certain new evangelical Christian mentality types have come up with another one. They have to admit that that's true. So they say, "No, it's not 50%. This is the way it is in marriage. The husband has 100% of the stock, and the wife has 100% of the stock." That's just dumb. Anybody can see that you need to go back to school and do your arithmetic over again. This is another way of saying the same thing. You're saying the same thing over again: that a woman does not have to be in subjection to her husband. We are tooling up for an advanced marriage course in the near future. We will get into these passages in 1 Corinthians 7 and in the book of 1 Peter where it is laid out very clearly. If you don't like what you're hearing now, I'm just skimming the surface. I suggest you don't even show up for the series, because you might get so enlightened that you'll look at yourself and you'll begin to figure out why you're having some of the problems you're having in your life.

No, the Word of God says a woman is not to be a man's competitor; his trainer; his master; or, his co-chairman. If you want to read a beautiful picture of a woman, see Proverbs 31:10-28. Read it and reread it. Help your daughter to read it and reread it. Help your daughter to memorize it in a good translation. It will stand her in good stead in teaching her what her role is as a woman, and ultimately a wife and mother.

The mother's subjection to the Supreme Court authority of the husband will affect the obedience of the children. She goes with her husband's decisions. There is nothing so loathsome like a woman who says, "Okay, you've made the decision." Then she sneaks and operates and maneuvers to try to get around him. You're not getting away with anything, girls. I can guarantee you, because God does not work that way. The mother is not her husband's slave. Did you get that? Nor is she his pretty parasite. But she is a competent, trusted, and needed associate. She is part of a team, indeed.

Obviously, that was the trouble with Adam. Adam immediately noticed that something was wrong in the garden, and God knew it. When Adam woke up to it, then God came in and solved the problem. God made the one woman. It was easy for Adam to decide who his right woman was. At that point in history, the pool and the right women were synonymous. They were identical. But right now you have to look at the pool not as filled with possibilities, but as the place where you are going to find the only possibility that is significant for you.

The mother exercises the father's authority in such a way that the children, in turn, will honor both parents. This is a woman's at-ease position. This is not wrong. This is not bad. This is not male pig chauvinism. This is not anything of the emotional words that are invented to try to discredit what the Word of God says. Again, I remind you that it is the Word of God that has said this. All of this is leading up to the significance of this commandment which is to honor your parents.

We have begun with the parents. Now we're going to get to the critical feature, which is the children themselves. There is a great deal to be said about this because it is your duty, as a parent, to see to it that your children are taught to obey this commandment. Your children are taught to obey this moral absolute. They cannot do it by themselves. Everything in them by nature wants to dishonor their parents.

So beginning next time, we will start with the children, and go into some things that you need to know if you don't already know them from a biblical frame of reference. The Christian family is God's ideal. During the angelic conflict, Satan is out to destroy it. We have to learn it. We have to understand it so that we can preserve this institution because it is our only hope--whatever may come; bomb or no bomb; dictatorship or no dictatorship; or, depression or no depression. All of them are very realistic possibilities. This is why God put together the family concept. It carries you through the worst of things.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1973

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