Category: Family

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Christianity Today on Children

Leslie fields has written a marvelous piece in defense of large families though she admits: ” I am not a proselytizer for large families…” I am not so sure how that is possible, nevertheless this is a fantastic article. Here are a few sample quotes:

When large families make it to the movies and television screen, in shows like Yours, Mine, and Ours, Cheaper by the Dozen, and the Brady Bunch, children fare better. But comedy, it seems, is all that can be expected of a pack of kids. Chaos generally rules, with Disneyesque household destruction following in the wake of an errant animal or child, a riotous bedlam that miraculously concludes with everybody fed and dressed and out of the door each day looking nearly normal.

What happens in larger families? Children are more tolerant. They learn that they are part of a whole much larger than themselves and that the common good usually takes precedence over their particular desires.

So why do we have children at all? So much is against the whole enterprise. Children cost too much hmoney. They cost too much of ourselves. Children undo us. They show us how much and how little we’re made of. They come, it often seems, only to break our hearts. And we let them. We invite it all. We admit perfect strangers through our doors and decide before we even know who they are to love them wildly, without condition, for as long as we live.

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Intelligent Design in Public Schools?

The media has been replete with news on the Intelligent Design debate. This time however, the issues have taken a more serious nature. Intelligent Design advocates believe they can make a strong enough case for allowing certain features of design to be taught in Public Schools alongside the untouchable theory of evolution. Though I have much sympathy for the Intelligent Design Movement, I have maintained for the last three years that to attempt to implement a theistic world view into a system that is overwhelmingly pagan is an exercise in futility. Though not a popular view, my proposal as well as a growing consensus of evangelicals and confessional Christians (Presbyterians) is that children are entitled to a thoroughly Christian education.

The Chalcedon Foundation has recently published a small but telling approach to the Intelligent Design Controversy. I wholeheartedly support their commitment on this area. Here is the section from their discussion.

For Chalcedon, Intelligent Design (ID) is moot because we believe a Christian child should not participate in the humanistic institution of public education. Parents and churches must work together to raise godly children that can discount the theory of evolution as scientifically and philosophically untenable.

My prayer is that Christian parents will respond to the Dover case as a further confirmation that their child’s education is their responsibility, not that of the state. Groups like the Discovery Institute could be of great benefit to Christian parents by creating resources to be used by homeschoolers and Christian academies. Let the Christian community work to create alternatives.

The future prosperity of the Kingdom of God is not contingent upon public schools teaching ID. After all, were Judge Jones to rule in favor of ID would Christian families begin sending their children BACK to public schools?

The Christian world view is a system and must be taught as such. Prayer in school to the god of your choice, or science classes that grant equal time for ID as well as evolution, are not solutions. In fact, they are hindrances. Uninformed Christian parents may leave their children in the public school system simply because of 60 seconds of silent prayer to the “marvelous upstairs person.”

They will not be taught that the Triune God created the world by His powerful Word in the space of six days and declared all, very good. They will not be instructed in the application of God’s law to every area of life and thought. Even worse, they will grasp the ungodly concept of neutrality — that 2+2=4 even if God doesn’t exist.

They will lose sight of the centrality of the church and the family; and will likely send their future children to the same godless institution. Education is the responsibility of parents. And parents do not control the public school system. The state controls education; and in doing so, they control the future. Let’s take that power back. Let’s use what’s left of our liberties and resign from this system. Millions of Christians have already done so. Millions more should. Choose ye this day whom you will serve, God or the state?

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Questions for Heads of Household

As I have noted before, covenant headship (or federal headship) defines the glory of the family. A lost head causes a dismembered and chaotic body. The same is applied to the covenant family. Redeemer Presbyterian has a challenging set of questions for the head of the household that has and continues to challenge me. Gentleman, true covenant succession begins by faithful headship. Take a deep breath and be ready to be challenged.

Would the people who know me best say that I am a “slave of righteousness” (Rom 6:18)? That I seek God’s kingdom and righteousness (Matt 6:33) and am zealous for the good works He has redeemed me to do (Titus 2:14)? Am I more aware of my sin and God’s grace in Christ both for forgiveness and walking in obedience? Am I growing in my passion and love for God? (Deut. 6:4; Matt 22:37-38) Are there things in my life (use of time, money, etc) that are inconsistent with such a passion and love? Continue…

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Economic Chaos?

FINANCIAL TERRORISM
by Dan Denning

Contrary to what you see in the press, though, the average Frenchman or woman is not that different from you, except, perhaps, at the dinner table. The French take their food seriously. A cup of coffee or a three hour dinner is not just about the quality of the food or the wine. Eating is a social experience in France. What’s more, serving food is a serious profession for which men and women go to school in France
Click to continue

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The Constitution Party on the Family

Strong families are the essential building blocks of a strong, moral and just community. But America’s families today are under constant attack by federally funded programs that are dangerous and unconstitutional. Government schools are drugging and “dumbing-down” our children making them dependent and compliant.

The Constitution Party encourages faithful fathers and mothers to train their children to love God and serve others according to their own conscience and without the interference of unConstitutional federal programs
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A Brief Response to a friend concerning Christian Liberty and Evangelism

You wrote:

You did not respond to my conjecture that you are referring merely to the abuse of something as an excuse for avoiding it. If someone was falsely assured, it is the preacher who is in condemnation as a teacher (James 3:1).

First, you have now and before misquoted the statement. It goes as follows: “The abuse of something is not an argument against its proper use.” By the way, I am not the originator of that quote. It was written by someone (perhaps Luther) who certainly understood the extremes taken by some in order to avoid certain freedoms that we have in Christ.
Let me give you an example as to how that quote plays well with certain situations. One clear example is the often pulpit cry that drinking is associated with pagans therefore, as Christians we should not drink. This concept was also coincidentally an essential message of Charles Finney and other revivalists of the early 19th century. In this case, I plug in that quote immediately and say that since the Scriptures many times endorses or even demands the people of God to drink, then for the sake of Scriptures, drink (Psalm 104:15; Ecclesiastes 9:7). The abuse of some is not an argument against its proper use. In the case you used, I suggest that the quote cannot be used in that context. It contradicts its purpose. In other words, the abuse of something that is found in the Scriptures is not an argument against its proper use. However, I do not believe whether it be the invitational system, raising hands, walking down the aisle, or any of these Finneistic novelties in American evangelicalism are Scriptural, but rather are used to lead many to a false profession of faith and furthermore to guilt-bound “christianity.”

You went on to say:

Oh yeah, and my Dad was saved in an ice cream shop by a man who used the simple gospel via the four spiritual laws. Even though I have a pastor at my local body, he has been my pastor for almost 23 years. Indeed the four spiritual laws are the Truth and the gospel is simple, but it’s not merely an action one can claim to have taken, and we agree.

To this I would simply reply that I am not in any position to judge anyone’s conversion experience. The Four Spiritual Laws from my perspective do not contain an accurate representation of the gospel (though I am convinced it has been used for good, after all there are Scriptural quotations in them). It misleads the Christian to think wrongly of the concept of the Lordship of Christ by confusing categories of Christian experience (the false idea of “carnal Christianity is one o them). Thus, my contention is that this approach completely distorts Paul’s meaning in I Corinthians 3.

Finally, just a few corrections in order to help further dialogue. You mentioned a few strongly Reformed categories and distinctive such as Family Worship and Home Education. I deeply admire your parents for a strong emphasis on family and education. As I have come to know you and your family, it is evident that all of you have a strong passion for our Lord. However, family and education devoid of Reformed confessions and a strongly covenantal view of family denies the Reformed faith. As you may know Mennonites, the Amish, and others, also have a strong view of courting, family and so on; but yet they clearly deny the Reformed perspective on God’s sovereignty and Covenant Theology.
I hope this helps our future interaction…
Your brother in Christ.