“And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.” Malachi 4:6
Warning The Book of Malachi begins with a blessing and ends with this warning of a curse. Repentance and Faith in Christ will be seen in the restoration of family relationships. Certainly that was my experience. Restoration Shamefully, I clashed with my Father frequently. I argued over many issues. However, my conversion to Christ brought conviction of sin. The first sin I repented of was lack of gratitude. The second, disrespect for my parents, particularly seen in my argumentative relationship to my Father. Regeneration led to a radical transformation of my relationship with my parents. In time this led to both my parents turning to Christ. Although, in my Father’s case, it took eight long years. By God's grace my Father experienced the life transformation that comes with repentance and Faith in Christ. God turned my heart to truly love, honour and respect my Father and God graciously turned my Father’s heart to me. Before he died on Christmas Eve, 1986, I heard my Father say, for the first time in my life: “Son, I am proud of you.”
As Goes the Home So Goes the Nation
Much of the world today is under a severe curse. The Old Testament ends with the warning of a curse. Families are the basic building block of civilisation. As goes the home, so goes the nation. “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honour your father and mother,’ which is the first commandment with promise: ‘that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.’ And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.’” Ephesians 6:1-4 Hollywood’s Most Despised Villain Considering how foundational fathers are to Christian civilisation, it should not surprise us that fathers have been singled out for ridicule and vicious attack. How many Hollywood films vilify and demonize fathers. Geoffrey Botkin produced an important presentation on: “Hollywood’s Most Despised Villain”: the Father. Paternalism is No Longer a Positive Word Patriarchy is hated. Paternalism is now a swear word to the liberal left. Fatherly used to be a most positive term, but not anymore. Hate Men Robin Morgan, editor of MS magazine wrote: “I feel that being man hating is an honourable and viable political act.”
Destroy the Family
Linda Gordon wrote: “Families must be destroyed and people must find better ways of living together. The breakup of families is an objectively revolutionary process.” Attack Marriage and Promote Witchcraft The Organisation of Women in America declared: “Marriage constitutes slavery. We must concentrate on attacking this institution. Freedom for women cannot be won without the abolition of marriage. It is important for us to encourage women to leave their husbands and not to live with men. All of history must be rewritten in terms of oppression of women. We must go back to ancient female religions like witchcraft.” “Kill Them!” Margaret Sanger, the Founder of Planned Parenthood declared that the best thing you can do with a baby boy is “kill it!” Unnecessary Radical feminists declare: “A man’s role is uncertain, undefined and unnecessary.” “Maleness is an accidental, recessive mutation. It is abnormal. It bodes no good for the human race.” “Putting a man on the moon was a good start. We should put all the men on the moon and then turn off the oxygen!” Useless Gloria Steinem declared: “Women need a man like a fish needs a bicycle!”
Rejected and Despised
There was a time that “Father Knows Best” was a popular TV programme. That was a very long time ago. Now most films portray fathers as knowing nothing at all. Even the dog in Beethoven is more intelligent and perceptive than the Dad! Catastrophic Social Consequences Yet social scientists have proven that this long war against fathers has actually produced catastrophic social consequences. The vast majority of prison inmates come from fatherless homes. Children brought up in broken homes, with abusive or absent fathers, or born out of wedlock and raised by single mothers, are much more at risk of failure at school, involvement in drugs and drunkenness, depression, sexual promiscuity, gender confusion, gangs, crime and violence. Financial Incentives to Single Parent Homes The social engineering disaster of government programmes subsidising sin and funding unwed mothers, has led to social disintegration. Whatever a government subsidises, you have more of. By the socialist state usurping the role of fathers, paying young girls for falling pregnant out of wedlock, we now have many millions of single parent homes with all the juvenile delinquency that goes along with that. Children brought up in single parent homes are more at risk for every criminal behaviour and on average they live shorter lives, four years less on average than those raised in intact families with both parents at home. While some exemplary mothers have succeeded in raising children on their own, the odds are heavily against them. Dr. Ben Carson, who was raised in a single-parent home, says that the best thing you can do for anyone on Welfare is: “Get them off it!”
Redefining Marriage and Removing Fathers
Socialism seeks to usurp God and refashion society by redefining marriage and removing Fathers from the equation. Hostility to the Fatherhood of God is behind the continual attack on fathers by the secular humanist media and by socialist governments. The Disaster of Dads Deserting Duty Tragically many men have given up and drifted away from their God-given duties and responsibilities. Social studies confirm that the more involved a father is in the life of his children, the more successful that child is, in every area of life. The longer they also will live. Personal relationships of duty and parental responsibility are the bedrock of civilisation. Turning the Children Against the Fathers Karl Marx declared that to make a country communist, one needs to turn the children against their fathers! The denigration of dads has wreaked havoc on families and society. The war against masculinity in the West, since the 1960’s, has resulted in a catastrophic decline of marriages, plummeting birth rates and more singles than ever before. Feminism’s War Against Femininity Ti-Grace Atkinson: “Feminism is the theory. Lesbianism is the practise.” “Women must become disgusted with every aspect of femininity.” “You must become a lesbian to be fully feminist!” Charlotte Gilman: “Housewives are parasites with the aspirations of a guinea pig.” Kate Lombardi: “Mother’s Day is sexist.” Vivian Gornick: “Being a housewife is an illegitimate profession!” Louis Farrakhan: “All white men go to hell!” “Termites! Insects to be exterminated!” Multi-Generational Vision God is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We are to think multi-generationally. We must leave a legacy for our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. We need to leave them with a better standard, a better purpose, a better vision, a better mission, a better work ethic and a better world. The Fatherhood of God You have one Father in Heaven. Our Lord Jesus Christ taught: When we pray, we are to say: “Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be Your Name. Your Kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven...” Matthew 6:9-10. In the Apostles Creed, we declare: “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of Heaven and earth…”
I Dared to Call Him Father
One of the great biographies of a convert from Islam is: “I Dared to Call Him Father.” Begum Bilquis Sheikh was a Pakistani woman who wrote of her conversion to Christ in the classic book: I Dared to Call Him Father, published in 1978. This best-selling autobiography has remained one of the most popular Muslim to Christianity conversion books of the 20th century, translated into numerous languages. As she explained, there are 99 names for God in the Quran, but Father is not one of them. Indeed, it is unique to Christianity that God is revealed as a loving Father who teaches, disciples, provides for and protects us. A Father’s Duty Fathers are called to love, teach, disciple, provide for and protect their wives and children. In 1 Timothy 5:8, we read: “But if anyone does not provide for his own and especially for those of his household, he has denied the Faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” Parenthood is the Best School of Discipleship Reformer Martin Luther taught that parenthood is the true school of discipleship and there is no love so unselfish and sacrificial as that of a parent. Professor Luther also taught that no man can remain single without sin. A man who refuses to marry is as if he had shed innocent blood, taught Luther. Abortion Kills Future Descendants The abortion holocaust has not only killed millions of babies, but many more of their potential descendants. War Against God The war against men, masculinity and fathers is only part of a broader war against the family, against Christian civilisation and ultimately it is a war against God.
War Against Fathers, Families and the Future
Feminism and pornography are part of the war against men, fathers, families, the Faith and the future. Fathers are foundational to civilisation. It is faithful husbands and fathers who are the producers, providers and protectors who pay the bills and the bonds, providing the backbone of any economy and society. By discouraging lifelong marriage partnerships, all of society is unravelled. Civilisation is not built by wild geese, bachelors riding off into the sunset, leaving a trail of broken relationships in their wake. Anchoring men into loving marriage partnerships, committed to raising the next generation in stable households, is what makes stable communities and productive economies work. Distraction from Duty and Destiny However, as communist revolutionary Karl Marx declared: “To make a country communist, you need to turn the children against their fathers!” By seducing men and distracting them with pornography, rejecting them through feminism, replacing them with socialism, women have less respect and protection than ever before. Children are denied the security and stability an intact family can produce. Hostile Schooling Against Masculinity The modern secular humanist schooling system is also a war against masculinity. The entire system is rigged and it does not take boys long to realise that the whole system is biased against masculinity. Many respond in frustration and rebellion, dropping out and turning to video games, drugs, drink and gangs. Violent and Volatile Consider how much safer, cleaner and better the world was under Christian leadership and a Protestant Work Ethic. Secular humanism, situation ethics, radical feminism, pornography, abortion, the LGBTQ gender politics, Affirmative Action and other social engineering, has made all of life less safe, less stable and more violent and volatile.
Revolutionary Goals are Cloaked by Distractions and Disinformation
The issue is never the real issue. The real issue is the revolution! Marxist revolutionaries use many ploys, but whether they are turning the classes against one another, or employers vs. employees, young vs. old, men vs. women, black vs. white, gay vs. straight, these issue are never the real issue. The real issue is Marxist revolution. Once Marxists gain control, everyone suffers. The pretexts they use may differ from revolution to revolution, but their goals remain the same: Destruction of the family, destruction of the economy, destruction of the culture, creating poor and hungry masses who are easy to control and subjugate. Hope for Those Who Are Faithful “But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him and His righteousness to children’s children, to such as keep His covenant and to those who remember His commandments to do them.” Psalm 103:17-18. When God established his Covenant with Abraham, he said: “And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant… you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations.” Genesis 17:7-9 A Father’s Priority The Bible tells us that God seeks “Godly offspring…” Malachi 2:15. A Fathers priority is to bring up his children “in the training and instruction of the Lord.” Ephesians 6:4. We are to: “train a child in the way he should go…” Proverbs 22:6 Education for Transformation We are to: “… telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and His strength and His wonderful works that He has done… that the generation to come might know them, the children who would be born, that they may arise and declare them to their children, that they may set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep His Commandments; and may not be… a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set its heart aright and whose spirit was not faithful to God.” Psalm 78:4-8 We Are Called to Be Faithful “Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His Commandments.” Deuteronomy 7:9 Dr. Peter Hammond Livingstone Fellowship P.O. Box 74 Newlands 7725 Cape Town South Africa Tel: 021-689-4480 Email: [email protected] www.livingstonefellowship.co.za www.frontlinemissionsa.org
1 Comment
Ronel Smit
6/22/2022 03:35:51 pm
I was saddened, but blessed, by the reading of this well-researched and beautifully written article. My dad was such a gentleman - he would read a chapter from the Bible to us every night; he lived a brave, humble life, touching so many young lives as a revered school teacher.
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