FATHER'S DAY "AFTER THOUGHTS"

I realize that since this is the July/August issue of the Trumpeter, you are being bombarded with reminders about the wonderful country our forefathers envisioned, and actually secured for us - At least into the beginning of the third millennium. Many of the ideas of our God fearing founders are under attack in our day, and every one of them is very important and worth fighting for. My purpose is to express some after thoughts about our 2008 national celebration of "Father's Day". I will leave it to you to make the analogy with the near total rejection of our "National Fathers" and the very idea of fatherhood. Unlike past generations in America, there are nearly as many "Anti-Father" activists as those who are sincere in their giving of honor to fathers and forefathers.

Technically Father's Day like the fourth of July Independence Day celebration is not a religious holiday, it is a secular day.  But "Fatherhood" is not only religious, it is a spiritual function, ordained of God, and required by every man that brings forth a child. In our day the message that is going out to so much of society is that fathers are simply not needed. And far too many men are willing to father children with no intention of raising them, or even to support them. God is not pleased.  Once Reproduction has taken place, there is at least a fourfold role that a father should follow. But first I will remind you concerning the attack upon Fatherhood:

The Waning Influence of Fathers: Time Magazinefor June 28, 1993 speaking about Father's Day interests said:
"Well into the 18th century, childrearing manuals in America were generally addressed to fathers, not mothers. But as the industrialization began to separate home and work, fathers could not be in both places at once. Family life in the 19th century was defined by what historians call the feminization of the domestic sphere and the marginalization of the father as a parent."

That 15  year old article makes some other sobering points. From 1970 to the time of the magazine article quoted above, "Rising divorce rates and out-of-wedlock births mean that more than 40% of all children born between 1970 and 1983 are likely to spend much of their childhood living in single parent homes." Of course, in 2008 the statistics are much more disturbing. Note also the well known fact that: "Studies of young criminals have found that more than 70% of all juveniles in state reform institutions come from fatherless homes. Children from broken families are nearly twice as likely as those in two-parent families to drop out of high school." and we continue on the downward spiral of ignoring the Creator of both mankind and marriage.

Adding to the destruction of the traditional understanding of the family is the world wide acceptance of homosexuality, to the widespread acceptance of unwed motherhood (often accomplished by deliberate choice of the couple) to radical feminism, and not least of all, to the attempt by various governmental authorities to erase God and Christianity from the public consciousness.

Sadly, even within so called Christian Publishing Companies, there is a strong effort to make the Bible "gender neutral", to removeall the references to God as Father. Such a work is Today's New International Version currently gaining ground in some Churches. God the Father becomes our divine parent instead of our heavenly Father. But it is not an accident that God has revealed Himself to us as Father. God  wants to be known as Father that He may instruct His children what a father should be. To believe that God would deny the truth of who He is to accommodate the thinking of a culture is to accuse God of  compromise.  And to assign the reason that God is known as Father to the mistaken assumptions of the biblical writers is to deny the inspiration of the Scriptures.  God intentionally revealed Himself as Father because He is Father. Fatherhood reveals something of God's nature and character, something He wants us to understand. Now the fourfold role of fatherhood.

1. First, the role of a father is to be properly related to God  And to teach his offspring this role.
This is the primary function of the father. If this fails, the family fails.
Protection from "deviation" is paramount.
And this means we cannot tolerate Idols

2. Second, the role of a father is to be properly related to his Family And to teach his offspring this role.
This included the "transfer and maintaining of godly traditions".
And this mean we cannot tolerate Heathenism

3. Third, the role of the father is to be properly related to his Church. And to teach his offspring this role.
This means Association with a Bible believing Church through which God deals with families.
And this means we cannot tolerate Heresy
           
4. Fourth, the role of the father is to be properly related to his Neighbor. And to teach his offspring this role.
This role follows after loving God completely and that will unlock life in the Kingdom of God.
And this means No Selfishness

Our Father who art in heaven, we thank you for our forefathers that establish this land
 and for our own fathers who are fathers indeed, dwelling upon the earth.

Pastor Hayden