Seven Threats of Our Time

Well, welcome everybody and thank you for joining us…​ for what I think quite frankly is probably the greatest threat to our culture. If you have been along with us you will know that the series is based on a series of articles I wrote that I entitled: "The Perfect Storm." Taking [that] from the movie and the journalists who wrote about the great storm that occurred off the Atlantic coast a number of years ago, in which a number of fisherman perished. It was when all of those storm-fronts came together [at] the right time or the wrong time depending on how you want to say that.

And so I believe that there are seven threats that are converging upon Western culture in particular on our culture here. And again, you may see more than that or you may see other threats that you think should have been mentioned. These are the seven that I felt led to lay before us. And if you’ve walked along together with us, we walked through the first six:

So, let’s begin with this proclamation, so to speak, that in God’s design, and I would say, in the design of [the] human social order and God’s design, the family carries the deepest and most intimate of Human Relationships in all creation. Now we talked about this in the Engagement Project, for those of you who have gone through that or have been involved in that at all. And that the ultimate scheme, Satan’s ultimate scheme is to destroy relationships. So we spend a long time in [the] Engagement Project talking about that and why it is so. But this is his ultimate scheme to destroy relationships. Well, if in God’s design the family carries the deepest and most intimate of Human Relationships in all creation, which I believe it does and I don’t think there’s much of an argument about that and I’m talking about the relationship we have with God. I’m talking about the human relationships that we find here. Then it should not surprise us that this institution of God is under its greatest attack, I believe, in the history of man. So the Biblical Family then is at the heart of a culture. In fact, it is the heart of a culture. And if you can destroy the Biblical Family, then you can destroy the culture. So, this attack upon the Biblical Family is important for us to look at, to understand the immensity of that attack and the depth of that attack. In order to do that then, it’s important for us to go back to the very beginning when God created the family, when He created everything. And so, we’re going back to the garden.

And we do so in good company because, if you recall, when Jesus was asked a question [in Matthew 19:3-5], remember they were trying to trap Him, to test Him, when Jesus was asked the question: "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any (DT: and every) reason?" Then Jesus responded by taking them back to the garden. "Haven’t you read?" He replied, "that in the beginning the Creator made them male and female and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and the two will become one flesh.'" He took them back to the beginning [to] the fundamental reason for which God made them male and female. He said, "For this reason, therefore, a man will leave his father and mother, uniting with his wife to become one flesh" and then we read in

And so here we have a glimpse into His design of the family, the purpose for male and female. God making them male and female, that they would become united, they would become one and that one would produce a Godly offspring.

So, if we look then at what God did in the garden in the creative process. He created all creatures and He created the entire universe. I believe to be creative agents, [another way of saying that is to become "fruitful" agents]. Even the sun declares the glory of God. Why? Because it produces fruit. And all of these are in relationships. So, the buck and the doe produce fawns. The flowers and the bees and all of the intricate pieces and parts that make up the systems associated with not only the plants and animals and human beings, but all creation. Everything is bound up in some sort of a relationship with another diverse piece and part, all for the purpose of doing something higher than just [what] the individual pieces [can do].

And so, this brings us back to the very nature and the very character of God. And I want you to consider the family here, the Biblical Family as God created it and look at the relationship and the image and the work of God as He created the family in light of His own character, that God is one.

We looked at this last time, but it’s good to refresh ourself with it again. God is one, yet He is socially complex. He is a Triune (three-in-one) God of distinct persons and yet they come together into a Oneness there. He is a relational God and He made the family to be a relational institution where we have unity and diversity. The most diverse aspect of humanity [is] the male and female. And God brought them together in a unity and a oneness that was to bring glory to Him.

And we talked last time about the modus operandi [of God.]
It’s important to look at it again because that modus operandi of God that we see in all of His creative work is: He created His creatures, He equipped them and He empowered them and He sent them, He charged them to be fruitful. We see those words spoken directly to Adam and Eve. We see them spoken again after the flood. We see them spoken several times in the scripture and throughout scripture. We see this notion of fruitfulness as being the blessing of God and the fruitfulness as it comes from God’s creatures when they are obeying Him. Of course, man is the only creature that disobeys God, but they are fruitful and they bring glory to God. The scripture also talks about when people are not obeying God when they’re not following Him. They become unfruitful. This is the modus operandi of God. Why? Because it is the fruit that brings God glory as Jesus said, "By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit."

Well, what we know is that Satan is opposed to God and he hates God’s nature, hates His character and His attributes. And so, this whole modus operandi and everything that God is and everything that God has created to reflect His glory, Satan hates and wants to destroy all of that. He wants to destroy the design of God in these institutions and he wants to destroy the purpose of God in these institutions, which I would submit to you is to bring forth fruit.

And so, for those of you who’ve been through The Truth Project, we looked at God’s design for social order and I find six of these social institutions that God has created. Yea seven, the Triune God being the seventh. And I put the family here at the center of all of this because quite frankly, I’m convinced that it is the family, the Biblical Family, which is the headwaters for all of God’s social institutions. And I would submit to you that every one of these institutions, if it walks according to the blueprint that God made for it, Its purpose is to bring forth fruit or its purpose is to foster fruit in others. And the family is the headwaters for all of those institutions.

So let’s look, for example, at how the family is the headwaters for the sphere of Labor. The family produces children who have a Biblical work ethic. The family produces children who are trustworthy workers. It produces those who are ethical employees. It produces ethical owners who make ethical products, by ethical means.

And for the State, the family produces righteous citizenry and it produces righteous Statesmen who lead with wisdom and righteousness. It is the fundamental heart of the community. It’s Ground Zero. I believe for the command "to love your neighbor," the family produces godly offspring who walk rightly before God.

And the same is true for the church. Where do the people come from, that godly offspring, as part of the church? [The family] produces righteous worshipers and righteous leaders.

So the family, and I know that there are, you know, this is not the totality of all the things that happen in each of those social institution, but I want us to get a sense of how critical the family is for the health of all of culture because if you destroy the Biblical family or distort it or twist it or undermine it or suppress it, then what happens is we are under greater risk to find that the sphere of Labor is filled with children who have a poor work ethic, or lazy and unethical workers or no workers at all, for example.

My goodness, everybody’s trying to get people to work. People don’t want to work anymore.

I just [got] a pet peeve, one of my delights is to be able to read the paper early in the morning. Well, we don’t get the paper early in the morning. In fact, the last several days we haven’t even gotten a paper. But now our paper, the Gazette Telegraph here in Colorado Springs is suffering from the same problem that we see happened this weekend and the Fourth of July weekend, [that was the July 4th, 2022 airline troubles with thousands of flight delays & cancellations], with we don’t have enough pilots. We don’t have enough people. We’re suffering from that. This sphere of Labor suffers from that and all culture then suffers.

We don’t have ethical employees anymore. We have unethical employees. We have unethical owners who make unethical products by unethical means.

Look at the State.
When we are not producing a righteous citizenry, then we end up with an unrighteous citizenry that are violent. We saw that as well in the horrible event in Highland Park, Illinois, [also on July 4th, 2022]. Selfish, self-centered wanting to be given everything. Apathetic as a citizen. Not active as a citizen, but apathetic as a citizen. Dependent upon the State. Or unrighteous Statesmen who do not rule with righteousness or wisdom. And we don’t have families who are engaged with their neighbors, loving their neighbor. And we have communities that are at war with each other. There [are] no godly offspring if the Biblical family is destroyed.

I know that godly offspring, you could say that, you know, people can come to Christ. But I’m talking about the fundamental purpose of the family here in raising up godly children. The church then increasingly is not populated with that godly offspring. We end up becoming more consumer worshipers or non-worshipers. And there is a plague upon the Christian church today as we read story after story of leaders who are unrighteous.

Well, if you destroy the family you can destroy all of culture. And, of course, the most active worldview that we see in our culture today, the worldview of Marx and Engels, pitting people against each other. In the Communist Manifesto, they were very open about it. [They said:] "We openly declare that our ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions."

Well, how do you do that? And that is why Marxism has been known famously for the statement: "abolish the family." And as we mentioned earlier that is permeating our culture. The Black Lives Matter website openly declaring themselves to be followers of Marxism had on their website, initially, "abolish the family." Why? Because that is [their] worldview, that’s what they’re after, that’s what they pursue. You abolish the family that you can begin to abolish each of these institutions.

So, we’re going to break here and tonight we will look at this seventh threat,

The Attack Upon the Biblical Family. And talk about some of the things that we see happening around…​

We are not to be a people without hope. There are things that we can do. God has a plan and that plan is the family. So, come back tonight to get the "rest of the story."

We are extending the invitation now to anyone who is subject to it. Come, while we stand and sing.

https://www.deltackett.com/resources/37759/7-threats-in-our-times-7-the-attack-upon-the-biblical-family