Seven Threats of Our Time

The Attack that is Confronting the Biblical Family.
And I’m saying, "Biblical Family" rather than the attack upon the family because the word "family" today have been so distorted and so changed and twisted that we’re talking about the attack on the Biblical Family.

[But] of all the social institutions designed by God, I suppose none is under greater attack than the [biblical] family. This shouldn’t surprise us, for destroying relationships is the ultimate scheme of Satan and it is here we find the most intimate. Indeed, it seems that the entirety of the world, the flesh and the enemy are today aligned against the biblical family. And the family 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, we must go back to the “beginning”, as Jesus put it:

Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?” “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at 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'? Matthew 19:3-5

Jesus was responding to an insincere question that was intended to trap Him, but it was a question about marriage, so He took them back to the creation of male and female to answer it. And, it is in that creation narrative that God reveals His purpose for creating them this way. Adam was to “be united to his wife” becoming “one flesh”. Malachi reiterates this purpose:

Did he not make them [husband and wife] one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. Malachi 2:15

What is drawn from these passages is radical in our culture today, maybe even fighting words, for it not only angers the culture around us, but angers even some Christians.

The reason God made “male” and “female” was for the purpose of bringing them together into a divine unity, a “oneness” that brings our thoughts to the unity within the Triune God. And it was this unity of the male and female that would bring forth godly fruit. We certainly are not animals, but we see the same purpose of God for them as well: after creating the animals male and female, He charged them to be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth. This is the same language given to Adam and Eve after they were created. And it is here that we find the fundamental purpose for God creating us male and female, rather than some androgynous being. Any understanding of human sexuality outside of this context leads to serious error. In contrast, today we believe that one’s sexuality stands on its own and becomes, in large part, the essence of my identity. This is the same message heard in Helen Reddy’s famous song:

I am strong! I am invincible! I am woman!

Reddy’s view is one that has become [all pervasive] throughout our culture today. It has severed human sexuality completely from the context and the design of the family. The prevailing view is that the individual and their sexuality is a private, personal and fundamental aspect of their identity and it has nothing to do with marriage or family.

The biblical worldview has no place for this notion. Nowhere does the Scripture lead us to think that your human sexuality is the essence of your identity.

And when we disconnect human sexuality from its divine context, we then begin to think we can redefine not only marriage and family, but also human sexuality. [So], Miley Cyrus can declare that she is “pansexual”, believing she can be male or female or anything in between, anytime she chooses. Men and women, now even little boys and girls, can declare themselves something other than their biological sexuality. We can make up our own personal pronouns and, in the most [appalling] example, get our dads and moms put in jail if they don’t address us as such. Why? Because we selfishly declare our sexuality to be “the essence of who I am!” This sexual disconnect also degrades sex and cause[s] it to descend into nothing more than a commercial product or a casual hook-up and nothing more. I can bend it, mold it, use it, exploit it… all for my own pleasure and purposes.

Anything, therefore, that attacks human sexuality, is ultimately an attack upon the family.

When Marx and Engels declared “Abolish the family!” their worldview reflected the heart of Satan’s strategy to destroy relationships because that attacks the very heart of the nature of God. This includes the destruction of every other social institution because they also carry the relational design of God. But the family is the headwaters for them all. It is the biblical family that produces children with a biblical work ethic. It produces the hard workers and ethical employees and business owners that make ethical products. It is the biblical family that produces a righteous citizenry and statesmen who lead with integrity. It is the biblical family that produces a moral society and all that it stands for.

So, destroy the biblical family, and you destroy its culture.

When the Black Lives Matter website went up and its leaders announced they were “well trained Marxists”, it wasn’t surprising to see “abolish the family” in a prominent place. Although it has since been taken down for public relations reasons, it remains this worldview’s fundamental objective.

Yet, one may argue that they don’t really have to do anything except sit back and watch, because we are destroying the family ourselves.

And talk about some of the things that we see happening around our culture today.

Hollywood has made having a baby without a husband fashionable. The majority of babies born in our culture are now born to single women.

There is a dissatisfaction that is sown in terms of the roles that God has designed for the family and the husband, the wife and the children.

Movies and television, music and media, all present sex outside marriage as the preferred norm. Today, the traditional family is almost always presented in a negative light or not presented at all.

And so, marriage is becoming [unfavorable] and we see that in a great way, as we find the young people increasingly turning away from the notion of being married. They’re not turning away from the notion of having sex, but they’re turning away from the notion of following the Biblical design associated with human sexuality and coming together as one and being a family.

Now when I wrote the article several months ago [November 2021], "The Attack on the Biblical Family", I made a point about

We talked about this last time, which we need to mention again, that

And then these last two, what has happened back when we were looking at threat number three: The Loss of the Noble Male and the Loss of the Virtuous female And the Rise of Malevolent compassion. We talked about feminism as an "ism" that arose in a culture that wanted to destroy the notion of "absolute truth." And the male, the Noble Male, who is led by truth and wisdom and righteousness and secondarily by grace and compassion. The female is led [primarily] by grace and compassion, but those are all bridled by truth and wisdom and righteousness. When you remove truth and wisdom and righteousness, the female then is led by a compassion that is no longer bridled by wisdom, no longer bridled by truth and that has become the malevolent compassion. That is now the number one ethic in our culture. Virtually all of our policies, everybody appeals to compassion, but it’s not a true compassion. It’s not one that leads to fruitfulness and righteousness. It is a compassion that is malevolent at its heart and so

And so, men are scrambling and you will see, if you take note of this, you will see this, just watch some of our Statesmen as they present things, it is there, they’re stumbling over each other to show themselves to be the most compassionate with this new bill. And I will say that with, I think, [there is] a proper concern for the notion of compassion, because God is compassionate, it is an attribute of God. I’m not denigrating the notion of compassion. What I’m denigrating is this twisting of compassion into that which is unbridled by truth and righteousness and wisdom and it becomes malevolent.

And so, [all of that] has led us, because it separated the notion of sex away from the Biblical Family. And it became the fundamental aspect of who I am. We’ll talk about that in a minute, and that brings us to

So, let’s look at these two together and I’m going to offer three observations here regarding these two.

We see this, I mean, this is the tip of everything we see happening, [it’s] the tip of the spear, the transgenderism, homosexuality, pansexuality, that Miley Cyrus, who declares that she can be anything she wants, on the whole continuum of male to female or anything in between, tossing out the notion of male and female. It’s now personal, it’s all about me. And making up my own pronoun is kind of like the icing on the cake. If you want to look at it, you know, from a twisted perspective. And I’m even thinking that we have some Canadian friends, The father in Canada who was arrested because he refused to call his daughter by her male personal pronoun. This is an egregious thing that is happening in our culture. It all comes back again to this attack upon human sexuality, [this] attack upon God’s design for human sexuality in the design, therefore, of the family.

So this perspective is everywhere and we see it everywhere and it severs human sexuality from the context and the design of the family, the Biblical worldview. A Biblical worldview has no place for this notion. There is no where in scripture where we’re allowed to think that our sexuality is the essence of our identity. No where. No where will you find it. It is anti-Biblical. It is anti-social. It goes against God’s design and, therefore, goes against what is good for our culture,

See the Biblical Family still brings blessings, all of our studies show this, even today in the midst of all of this, all of the positive social indicators in our culture are related to a strong family life. That’s emotional wellness, psychological wellness, social health. Intact families provide the primary discriminator as to whether someone will be in poverty or out.

It’s one of those, it’s one of those, "duh" things. If you come from an intact healthy family, odds are very low that you will end up in poverty. If you come from a dysfunctional family, a broken family, a family as we see everywhere, unwed mothers, kids being raised by a mom or a grandma or so forth, their rate of poverty is almost like a given to them. And not only that, but gang members rarely come from intact families. And it’s estimated that 80% of all crime is gang related. So think for a minute, imagine a culture that is filled, again, with intact families. With children who are raised with a loving mom and dad, raised with an understanding of who they are. Raised with an understanding [of] what is right and what is wrong. Raised with an understanding of their responsibility to their neighbors around them. The responsibility of a citizen. The responsibility of a good hard worker that is ethical. The responsibility within the church. All of these things.

Think about what a culture would be like if that were the case.

Ok, so now, I want to give us kind of a self-examination on the body of Christ and a little bit of a critique, and I say this with all of the loving concern that I can for the body of Christ. My call from the very beginning in the Lord was to do everything I can to get the body of Christ healthy and vibrant. And that means that we have to look into the mirror sometimes. And sometimes looking into the mirror reveals things that aren’t good. If you look into a mirror and find that, as we found we had a family reunion not long ago and people looked in the mirror and found out they had a tick embedded on them. It’s an ugly thing. You don’t like that, but it’s better to find it than to let it go. So here we go:

When it comes to the Biblical Family, our preaching seldom reinforces this institution. Our teaching seldom encourages the Biblical family. Our congregants are spoken to as individuals. And our congregants are seldom, if ever, addressed as family. And the church does not present a Biblical vision for the family. That’s why I put the Proverb up in the beginning, "without a vision, the people perish" And I will be bold enough to say to you that without a vision the Biblical Family perishes. And that is what we do not have and that’s what we’re trying to lay forward in the Engagement Project is a Biblical vision for the family. It’s based upon the Lord’s command that we are to love our neighbor. That is a family command. That is a mandate for the family. Families are people who live next door to each other. It is "the Royal law" as James calls it. Paul puts it this way, "the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command, 'Love your neighbor as yourself'." Galatians 5:14

And if you think about the vision of a family…​ A dad and a mom who are laying that vision before their children. That they prayed together as a family for Mrs. Smith, a, bitter old widow who lives across the street that nobody likes. And to hear your children praying for Mrs. Smith.

"Oh God, please let Mrs. Smit say yes
to our invitation to dinner.
Nobody loves Mrs. Smith, God."

And then for your family, together, this common ministry and mission that you have together. I believe is what will bring the family together, what will bolster the family having that kind of vision together and understanding that the primary work of the Kingdom has been entrusted to the common Christian family. That is a vision that must be caught. It’s a vision that must be played out or I have a little hope for our culture.

However, dear remnant, do not become hopeless. Stand strong in the midst of all of this. Stand strong in the midst of all of these threats that we see. Stay true to God’s word in His design and His purposes. Be Noble males and be virtuous females. And raise up your young men and young women to be Noble males and virtuous females. Concentrate on building and nurturing your family with a fierce determination because the attacks of the enemy here are ever present and relentless. And not to go off on too much here, but I’m telling you, we have got to put a barrier between our children and the world and that [primarily] means you’ve got to put a barrier between them and that open door that the smartphone represents.

Okay, [so] lead your families in the common ministry of engaging your neighbors, loving your neighbors around you.

Don’t be fooled. This attack is ubiquitous. It is like an evil smoke that silently slips under our doors, penetrating everything, everywhere.

Yet, the clear blessing of God’s design remains. Nearly all of what we would call “positive” social indicators are related to a strong family life, from emotional wellness to psychological wellness to social health. Intact families provide the primary discriminator to keep someone out of poverty. Gang members rarely come from intact families, yet it is estimated that 80% of all crime is gang-related.

What would our society look like if we were a culture of intact families living in the blessing of little poverty and little crime? I grew up in such a place. It was extremely abnormal to find a broken or dysfunctional family. No one locked their doors. No one was afraid to walk the roads or streets at night. And yet, as though we have some sort of suicidal wish, all of the major players in our culture today are working to destroy the family, from the media to the State to the subtle worldview messages that permeate our marketing world, like the Progressive Insurance ads that seek to drive a wedge between children and parents.

I am reminded of the warning God gave to Israel when they were brought into a land flowing with milk and honey. Assembled before two mountains, they were given the choice of either blessings or curses, depending upon whether or not they would choose to follow God.

It certainly seems as if we are pressed today with the same choice, for nothing but curses await us along the road we are traveling.

How do we live in a culture like this, dear Remnant? Stand strong and do not lose hope. Stay true to God’s Word. Be the Virtuous Female or the Noble Male. Concentrate on building and nurturing your family with a fierce determination, for the attacks of the enemy here are ever-present and relentless.

Article:

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