BUILDING FAMILIES

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Families don’t grow by themselves; they need dedication, commitment and self-sacrifice. Mary Eberstadt is an American researcher and writer. In conversation with John Anderson, Mary said:

“Politicians should look at every possible experiment to make it easier to get married, easier to have families, and easier to have families of size… One of the most frustrating things in the United States, for which we have very good laws, is obscenity, and yet there are no prosecutions for the creators of pornography. We need to go after this, it’s a proven contributor to romantic trouble, to marital breakup, and it is often cited in divorce cases. American parents seem to be waking up to the problem of what is being taught in American public schools, this is all to the good. The privileging of motherhood would be a great thing to bring back. Hungary is experimenting with some very interesting ideas. For example, women with four or more children do not have to pay income tax for the rest of their lives.“

While We Were Sleeping, here in Australia, there has been near silence on the family; the cry has always been about the rights of the individual or a minority. (The Family First Party under Lyle Shelton being an invaluable exception). Society seems to have accepted that shattered families are simply our daily reality, one in three marriages ending in divorce, quoted Warwick Marsh.

However, there is encouragement. Stephen Turley, in his study of demography (the study of changes in the number of births, deaths, and marriages, etc, in a particular area over a specified period of time), quotes from Eric Kaufmann’s 2002 study of American demographic trends, which suggested ‘religious fundamentalists are on course to take over the world.’ (Self-identified non-religious women only had 1.5 children per couple, compared with conservative evangelical women who had 2.5 children, replacement fertility being defined as 2.1 children).

Consequently, the socialist left, supporters of homosexuality, gender transition, abortion, euthanasia and the fear of climate change are having fewer babies than replacement and will breed out, while conservative evangelicals who trust in God are going forth and multiplying! (Genesis 1:28)

The Rights of the Child

Katy Faust is the founder and president of the children’s rights organisation Them Before Us, a global non-profit. In 2021, together with Stacey Manning, they published Them Before Us: Why We Need a Global Children’s Rights Movement.

The same-sex marriage agenda got these ladies involved, as they were angry that the so-called rights of adults were being recognised, while immense harm was being inflicted on the children, who became pawns to be traded in the marketplace of feelings. It is ironic that one of the hallmarks of the progressives has been their stand for the rights of minorities, yet they have set back children’s rights by decades.

Dying to Self

For me, the biggest take-home from this chapter on family is the principle of dying to self for the flourishing of family.

Often, as followers of Jesus, we don’t ‘present your bodies a living sacrifice’ (Romans 12:1) as Jesus clearly did when He died for our sins. Only when we die can Jesus shine through us. The apostle Paul acknowledged, in the last days, ‘men will be lovers of themselves’ (2 Timothy 3:2), so true. Marriage is the ultimate death of two that one might live; the Scripture says that ‘the two shall become one flesh’ (Mark 10:8).

For half a century, I have treasured this anonymous depiction of dying to self — it always catches me out:

  1. When you are forgotten, or neglected, or purposely set at naught, and you don’t sting and hurt with the insult or the oversight, but your heart is happy, being counted worthy to suffer for Christ… That is dying to self.
  2. When your good is evil spoken of, when your wishes are crossed, your advice disregarded, your opinions ridiculed, and you refuse to let anger rise in your heart or even defend yourself, but take it all in patient loving silence… That is dying to self.
  3. When you lovingly and patiently bear any disorder, any irregularity, any unpunctuality, or any annoyance; when you can stand face to face with waste, folly, extravagance, spiritual insensibility…and endure it as Jesus endured it… That is dying to self.
  4. When you are content with any food, any offering, any raiment, any climate, any society, any solitude, and interruption by the will of God… That is dying to self.
  5. When you never care to refer to yourself in conversation, or to record your own good works, or itch after commendation, when you can truly love to be unknown… That is dying to self.
  6. When you can see your brother prosper and have his needs met and can honestly rejoice with him in spirit and feel no envy nor question God, while your own needs are far greater and in desperate circumstances… That is dying to self.
  7. When you can receive correction and reproof from one of less stature than yourself, and can humbly submit inwardly as well as outwardly, finding no rebellion or resentment rising up within your heart… That is dying to self.

I pray that our families might be filled with joy as their dominant characteristic. Fathers, what about Proverbs 5:18 (MSG): “Your spring water is for you and you only, not to be passed around among strangers. Bless your fresh-flowing fountain! Enjoy the wife you married as a young man! Lovely as an angel, beautiful as a rose — don’t ever quit taking delight in her body. Never take her love for granted! Why would you trade enduring intimacies for cheap thrills with a prostitute? for dalliance with a promiscuous stranger?“

From this committed bedrock to our marriages, let’s build strong families, giving our children a secure, lasting and firm foundation for the adventure of their lifetime.

FAMILY – GOD’S MASTERPIECE

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The number of married households in America has fallen from 71% in 1971 to 47% in 2022? When mothers and fathers cannot take their place in God’s order, and children lack the example of a working father, society sets young people up for a life of government dependence and wasted potential. This is the big challenge facing the new Trump-led government, a godless generation.

America’s retreat from work serves as an indictment of the US welfare system. After the Left purposefully throttled President Donald Trump’s red-hot economy in the name of COVID-19, Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion spending spree gave workers collecting unemployment a $300 weekly bonus. That surplus gave approximately one in four workers more money than they could earn by working. One study showed that policy alone depressed employment by approximately 14%.

The report also shows the problems presented by counterproductive economic interventionist policies that destroy jobs and opportunity. Politicians promote tax hikes that raise prices, massive spending that fuels inflation, and subsidies for unpopular products such as electric vehicles — all of which distort the market — for short-term political gain. For example, a minimum wage, when raised too high, prices out the poorest and neediest from the job market. The CBO estimated a proposed minimum wage hike would give workers an average of $50 a week — and throw 1.3 million people out of the workforce, reducing GDP by $9 billion.

During the last four years of the Biden-Harris administration, all net job growth has gone to immigrants. Between 2019 and late 2023, 2.9 million immigrants took U.S. jobs, while 183,000 American citizens left the workforce. Mass immigration—illegal and legal—reduces wages, making a welfare check seem far more inviting than 40 hours of toil. 

Churches alone stand in the position to address the underlying issues that keep sidelined Americans out of the workforce — addiction, depression, lack of motivation, family commitments, lack of child care, etc. — and to elevate even seemingly mundane work to its true spiritual significance.

THE TRADITIONAL FAMILY IS THE BASIC UNIT OF SOCIETY

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The family is the basic unit of God’s plan for His world. He designed it to be a strong foundation for society and for each individual. When the family functions according to God’s design, it is a powerful force for good in the world.

As the original and basic cell of society, the family is the natural organic source of all societies. The liberal secularists’ assumption that the individual is the basic unit of society, is an assumption that is impossible to demonstrate.

Marriage being opened up to combinations of people other than one man and one woman marks the death knell of the nation. No society has ever endured far beyond the demeaning of the marriage institution.

Traditional marriages produce children, who extend the nation’s existence, ideals, goals, and wealth for another generation. Traditional families are healthier, more stable, and more productive than other kinds of families, resulting in a net gain for society.

God ultimately owns children, but he entrusts them to parents to discipline and disciple them, for him. That means the government/the state does not own our children.

“Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.” Psalm 127:3

Our enemy, Satan, knows that parents are the first and strongest barrier to provide protection for children against predation and grooming. He knows that God gave children parents to protect them from evil and danger, so he tries to separate children from their parents, isolating them and making them vulnerable to his lies. It’s all part of the spiritual battle raging around us.

Satan has the family in his crosshairs as he ramps up his attack. But God has already given us the answer to this spiritual attack, and it’s found in Deuteronomy 6 and Ephesians 6.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” Deuteronomy 6:5–9

“Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” Ephesians 6:4

The answer to the attack on the family and the intense LGBTQ, pro-abortion, CRT, etc., indoctrination directed toward children is parents—fathers in particular—teaching their children the Word of the Lord, day in and day out, in all situations.

If you are a father, are you the kind of father who is intentional about bringing your children up in the instruction of the Lord? The kind of father who spends time with his children so he has opportunity to talk about the Lord when he sits, walks, and rises with his children? You have the responsibility before the Lord to be that kind of dad—you cannot leave it solely to your wife or to your church. You stand responsible before God as the head of your family.

KNOW YOUR ENEMY: SATAN PERVERTS WHAT GOD HAS ORDAINED

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The devil takes whatever God has ordained and perverts it so that it is totally corrupted from what was first intended. He perverts

  • Marriage—corrupting this from the true marriage of one man and woman to two men or two women or other perversions.
  • Sexuality—corrupting the created rightful place for sex within marriage for one man and one woman to whatever is right in one’s own eyes.
  • Gender—corrupting this from the created two genders, male and female, to however one wants to define gender.
  • Dominion—corrupting man’s created dominion over the creation to the creation having dominion over man, as seen in the modern climate-change religion.
  • Rainbow—corrupting this from the meaning of the rainbow given by God after the flood to instead be associated with the anti-biblical LGBTQ worldview and other perversions. The ultimate perversion is in the USA where June is celebrated as PRIDE month.
  • Church – churches and church leaders have adopted the devil’s perversion of the rainbow and support the sinful lifestyles of those who reject true marriage as God-created (one man and one woman) and reject God’s created genders for humans (only two: male and female). 

Jesus told us in the Olivet Discourse what the end times will be like before He returns to restore righteousness. His laws and commandments will be rejected, and lawlessness will abound. The USA now celebrates that they are proud of their sin. They are already under God’s judgement and it will only escalate.

“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away, betray and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.” Matthew 24:9-12

A GOOD REASON TO MARRY

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The decline of marriage over the last several decades is causing the decline in happiness or at least most of it. As Sam Peltzman, lead researcher behind the University of Chicago paper told The Atlantic in statistical hyperbole: “The only happy people for 50 years have been married people.”

After all, marriage is God’s design for man, woman, and family.

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” Genesis 2:24

Olga Khazan, who wrote the Atlantic piece and has been cohabiting with her partner for 15 years, says these stats also struck her as counterintuitive. However, she then admits that “this is a fairly consistent finding dating back decades in social-science research: Married people are happier. Period.” 

Of course, happiness isn’t the sole or even the best reason to get married. Many things in life carry deep meaning and significance that don’t necessarily make us happy. A life lived only for happiness is a futile “chasing after the wind.” Enduring suffering, overcoming trials and tragedy, or sacrificing time, energy, or even our lives for others are all richly worthwhile pursuits that yield rewards in eternity. Certainly, loving someone and raising godly children is worth it, even if it’s not always fun.  

And we should note, that “happiness” is a malleable word. When survey participants say being married or having children made them “happy,” they may often mean that these permanent connections give them lasting joy, something more profound than fleeting happiness, which surveys seldom quantify.     

Still, these consistently stark results are unmistakable. They should challenge the entire way of thinking in sitcoms, movies, and editorials. Marriage is one of the chief sources of well-being and satisfaction in life. The fact that marriage rates have declined so dramatically over the last 50 years has had real, population-wide consequences. 

Because the reasons people are not marrying at the same rates are so complex, different solutions will be required to raise the marriage rate. According to Wilcox and Bass, one of the most important reasons is the fact that, for many Americans who are living together and may already have children, getting married incurs a tax “penalty.” The federal government needs to, in their words, stop “making marriage a bad financial bet for lower-income families.”  

That would be a good start. Ultimately, however, our bad laws are reinforced by a low view of marriage that has infected hearts and minds via entertainment, media, culture, and individual choices. We have a worldview problem, which has led to a conflict between the values and priorities of millions of people and the way they were actually created to live.  

Marriage is part of God’s plan for humanity and for His creation. No other human institution forges such lasting and consequential bonds. So, it should surprise no one — least of all Christians — that our nation’s 50-year experiment with alternatives to marriage has left huge numbers of people deeply unhappy. Repent and get back into a relationship with your Heavenly Father through the sacrifice Jesus made our your behalf.

 ” Jesus said to him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.“ John 14:6

PUTIN ON RELIGION AND FAMILY

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Putin claims West trying to destroy the family institution by normalizing gay marriage, ‘pedophilia’

Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a stark warning over what he called religious attacks from Western culture Tuesday as he suspended a landmark nuclear arms treaty and threatened to move forward with nuclear tests.

In his address, Putin leveled sharp criticism at Western values and said the U.S. and other Western nations were using “information attacks” to target youth, distort “historical truth,” and “attack our culture, the Russian Orthodox Church and other traditional religious institutions in our country.”

Putin appeared to suggest the advancement of same-sex marriage and other rights for LGBT-identified people are aimed at destroying the institution of the family and promoting pedophilia. Putin at least got this right.

“Look at what they’re doing with their own people,” he said. “It is all about the destruction of the family, of cultural and national identity, perversion and abuse of children, including pedophilia, all of which are declared normal in their life.”

As an illustration, Putin claimed priests are being forced to “bless same-sex marriages.”

After asserting that “people can live however they want” and that Russia has “never intruded into people’s private life,” Putin cited the definition of marriage found in the scriptures.

“Look at the holy Scripture and the main books of other world religions. They say it all, including that family is the union of a man and a woman, but these sacred texts are now being questioned,” Putin said.

Putin also cited a report stating the Anglican Church is considering the idea of a gender-neutral God, an apparent reference to a vote earlier this month by the Church of England to officially endorse plans for priests to offer prayers of blessing for same-sex couples.

“What can we say? God forgive them,” he said. “They don’t know what they’re doing.”

This is proof that God can use anybody to declare His truths. Just as God used leaders in the past such as Nebuchadnezzar and Darius the Mede he is using the most unlikely leader Vladimir Putin to declare the truth of what is really transpiring in the West.

AMERICAS CIVILISATION DECAY ACCELERATES

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What does civilizational decay look like? On Wednesday afternoon, Americans received a major warning sign that their Republic is teetering on the brink. It came in the unlikely form of a Senate cloture vote — a rather obscure parliamentary procedure that sets up the final passage of a bill in the Senate. But it wasn’t just any cloture vote, and it’s not just any bill under consideration.

I’m talking about the so-called Respect for Marriage Act, it is anything but that if you accept marriage as defined by God, and it just moved one step closer to President Biden’s desk, where it will certainly be signed into law. It passed cloture by a vote of 62-37, as 12 Republican senators joined Senate Democrats to throw “people of faith under the bus” — and possibly into prison.

Whether you realize it or not, marriage is one the best indicators of the health and stability of a nation. Just like buildings societies demand a stable foundation. Without one, they will crumble and crash, leaving a wreckage of human suffering and misery in the ruins.

No matter how hard progressives try to deny it, marriage is the irreplaceable foundation for stable societies. Not just any “marriage” but one man joining with one woman in a permanent, monogamous, committed union and dedicated to caring for any offspring such a union may produce.

Patrick Brown, at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, put it clearly. He explains that:

“But the institution of marriage itself — in law, custom, and tradition — is intimately bound up with the act of creating and raising children. Marriage, at its core, is the social institution most fundamentally oriented towards procreation. It is God’s way, (he said societies way) of harnessing, binding, and supporting the relationship that creates a new life, and it gives the child produced from that union (and his or her parents) the best chance at a stable life.”

Why is marriage the bedrock of society? Because it is how humanity endures throughout the ages, just as God intended for it to be. Jesus, Himself reminds us of the inescapable gravity of marriage.

“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’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.” Matthew 19:4-6

Now, Jesus is addressing divorce here, but the principle, which is that God-defined marriage is between one man and one woman for life, applies to the proposed redefinition of marriage that is now sailing through the United States Congress with the so-called “Respect for Marriage Act.” They are trying to separate “what God has joined together.”

If we start unraveling this thread, there is no telling where the stopping point may be. Well, we actually do have a stark and dark preview: “sex change” operations on teenagers at top hospitals around the country, “kid-friendly” drag shows in your small town, and the rise of the acceptance of pedophilia. When you cut the brakes on God’s design for human sexuality and flourishing you can soon expect to fly off the cliff and crash into hell.

Lest I conclude on such a dark note, join me in remembering that just as human history began with a marriage so too it ends with a marriage. The arc of redemption stretches from Genesis 2:21-25, the marriage of Adam and Eve, to Revelation 19:6-9, the “marriage supper of the Lamb,” that is, of Christ and the Church. The Senate, the Democrats, and worthless Republicans may prevail against the definition of marriage and our religious liberty here in America, but God has guaranteed that the gates of Hell will not prevail against His church (Matthew 16:18)

However, the Bible reveals it will take Jesus’ return to this earth to restore sanity to the world. First, Jesus comes in the clouds to take His Saints to heaven, and then He pours out His wrath upon an unrepentant world with the Trumpet and Bowl judgements. The severity of God’s judgement is fierce. Below, I reveal what the Bible tells us about the first two trumpet judgements. The judgements escalate in intensity.

We need to warn our unbelieving family members and friends of what they are facing if they do not repent of their rebellion against God and His commandments. Show them how to ask God for His saving grace provided by Jesus. It is only by dying to self and becoming a new creature in Jesus Christ with the Holy Spirit indwelling their spirit can they avoid God’s coming judgement.

The Seven Trumpets
“Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them. The first angel blew his trumpet, and there followed hail and fire, mixed with blood, and these were thrown upon the earth. And a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up. The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain, burning with fire, was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. A third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.“ Revelation 8:6-9

The above is a much-abbreviated version of the original article published at the Standing for Freedom Center. The last three paras. are mine.

The author William Wolfe served as a senior official in the Trump administration, both as a deputy assistant secretary of defense at the Pentagon and a director of legislative affairs at the State Department. Prior to his service in the administration, Wolfe worked for Heritage Action for America, and as a congressional staffer for three different members of Congress, including the former Rep. Dave Brat. He has a B.A. in history from Covenant College and is finishing his Master of Divinity at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

FINNISH CHRISTIAN LEADERS NOT GUILTY OF HATE CRIME

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Dr. Päivi Räsänen, a medical doctor and member of parliament, and Rev. Dr. Juhana Pohjola, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland who were put on trial for teaching what the Bible says about homosexuality were cleared of all charges. I have posted previously about this case and am delighted to be able to report a positive outcome. This is a big win for religious freedom.

The district court in Helsinki has announced its verdict in the trial.  All charges were dismissed. The unanimous, 28-page decision, stated that “it is not for the district court to interpret biblical concepts.”  Furthermore, the defendants had sought to “defend the concept of family and marriage between a man and a woman.” Though some people might find that offensive,  “there must be an overriding social reason for interfering with and restricting freedom of expression.”

“I am so grateful the court recognized the threat to free speech and ruled in our favour. I feel a weight has been lifted off my shoulders after being acquitted. Although I am grateful for having had this chance to stand up for freedom of speech, I hope that this ruling will help prevent others from having to go through the same ordeal,” said Päivi Räsänen after her victory.

HUNGARY KEEPS GOD’S COMMANDMENTS

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The Ninth Amendment to the Fundamental Law of Hungary, the country’s equivalent of a constitution, was passed in Parliament last week by a margin of 134-45. The amendment, which was backed by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, will amend Section L paragraph (1) of the Fundamental Law to read:

“Hungary protects the institution of marriage as the association between a man and a woman and the family as the basis for the survival of a nation. The foundation of the family is marriage and the parent-child relationship. The mother is a woman, the father is a man.”

“The main rule is that only married couples can adopt a child, that is, a man and woman who are married,” said Justice Minister Judit Varga, Reuters reported.

Varga, who sent the amendment to Parliament last month, said it will also work to provide “all children with an education based on the values of the Christian culture of Hungary and guarantees the undisturbed development of the child according to their gender at birth,” Hungary Today noted. 

“The Fundamental Law of Hungary is a living framework that expresses the will of the nation, the form in which we want to live,” Varga wrote in the justification section of the bill. “However, the ‘modern’ set of ideas that make all traditional values, including the two sexes, relative is a growing concern.”

“The constant threat to the natural laws of the forms and content of human communities, to the concepts arising from the order of Creation that harmonize with them and ensure the survival of communities, and, in some cases, the attempt to formulate them with a content contrary to the original raises doubts as to whether the interests, rights and well-being of future generations can be protected along the lines of the values of the Fundamental Law,” Varga added.

The passage of the Ninth Amendment comes less than a year after Parliament voted in favor of a measure that defines gender as “biological sex based on primary sex characteristics and chromosomes.” Like the measure-preserving the traditional definition of sex, the Ninth Amendment faced strong pushback from LGBT advocacy groups.

Note the response from Amnesty Hungary

“This is a dark day for Hungary’s LGBTQ community and a dark day for human rights,” said David Vig, director of Amnesty Hungary. “These discriminatory, homophobic and transphobic new laws — rushed through under the cover of the coronavirus pandemic — are just the latest attack on LGBTQ people by Hungarian authorities.”

CHRISTIANS: YOUR WORLD VIEW IS EVIL AND BIGOTED

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In the USA they, as a society (Supreme Court), have now said as a matter of law that to hold beliefs about marriage and gender and human sexuality that are consistent with the Bible is discrimination, that it’s hateful and bigoted.

Now, society might give some of those hateful religious people an exception because their Constitution and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act tell them that they have to do that. But, when you think about the political and cultural trajectory of the USA, how long do you suppose that the religious liberty exception is going to last when everybody thinks that this is a bigoted and evil view?

We should not be surprised, Jesus told us beforehand.

Jesus told His disciples “and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake.” Matthew 10:22a but also “But the one who endures to the end will be saved. Matthew 10:22b

Thankfully, there are many prophecies warning us of escalating tribulation in the seven years preceding His Second Coming. World events indicate we are approaching that last seven years but IMO we are not there yet.