For far too long, the Christian church in virtually all of its communions has usurped the God-given role of the family as the locus for spiritual growth. Society, likewise, has undermined the role of the family as the locus for education and sociological development. The church has considered the family structure as inadequate to impart not only the theology but most certainly the sacramental elements of Christian faith. Society in its rush toward a humanist secularism has felt that the family is especially inadequate to impart the values that only its government-controlled educational system and its political propagandists can inculcate.

The result of these ecclesiastical and governmental attitudes is the disintegration of the very fabric of the church and of society. The once strong cord of family in the western world is fraying and unraveling. Church leaders wonder with increasing alarm why the pews are emptying and their once-secure incomes are dwindling. The blind politicians and their media spin doctors wonder in angst why children kill children in public schools and gang-related street violence, and they blame the guns and knives. Ecclesiastical authorities think the answer is in more church programs that further keep family members separated. Societal leaders know the answer is simply throwing more and more money at the problems.

Both church leaders and politicians fall over the obvious facts that a normal blind person could feel with a walking stick: the traditional family unit has been disparaged and deprecated to such a degree that for all intents and purposes it has come to be seen as worthless. Because of the emphasis on self gratification, nearly sixty percent of marriages end in divorce, making a large percentage of families “single parent.” The concept of family has also been extended to include same sex relationships. Whatever happened to the nuclear family? It went up in a mushroom cloud!

The role of fatherhood has been totally emasculated. The church has exalted a clergy as the spiritual leaders and has identified as “God’s work” only that which is done by ministers. From a biblical perspective, every father is ordained of God to be the spiritual leader of his family; therefore, the environment most conducive to spiritual growth is that which is led by a godly father. Every father should assume the Hebraic responsibility to teach his own children the Word of God and a means of livelihood. The biblical perspective views all work an act of worship (the Hebrew word abodah means both work and worship); therefore all men and women should recognize that they are doing God’s work when they are providing for themselves and their families.

Western society has so emphasized the god of instant self-gratification that the only difference between men and boys is the price of their toys. Time and money that should be spent in educating children in both spiritual and secular understanding is spent in the mad rush for pleasure. As the apostle predicted, men are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. And the reason for this condition is the fact that they have been stripped of their God-given role as priests in their homes and given a substitute gladiator wardrobe.
Women also have been caught up in the self-gratification web in an unending quest for achieving society’s definition of beauty and personal fulfillment. Many have abandoned their innate role of nurturer and have left their children to fend for themselves in an ever-increasing “home-alone” environment. Societal self-actualization models have pitted them either in a tangled web co-dependency of spouse abuse or in single-parent environments. The biblical ideal of being an equal power in a partnership, using her own God-given nature as a balance for her husband’s different but God-given nature, has been lost to modern woman. Women have been robbed of their biblical role in the family.

The answer to the problems of the church and of society is in the Bible. The Hebrew Scriptures (which are commonly called the Old Testament) place the emphasis where it belongs: on the family. The church was not first, nor was society first. The family was first. Family, therefore, is the fundamental building block of both the church and society. Without rock solid families, both churches and societies will crumble into rubble to be blown into oblivion by the winds of time.

The family, not the church, and certainly not society, is the locus for spiritual and societal development. The church must come to be viewed as merely extended family, not some politico-ecclesiastical structure. Society must come to be seen as the extended family of man, not a mishmash of faceless, nameless individuals all rushing madly about looking for fame and fortune at the expense of “who cares.”
What are we to do with the scrambled eggs of today’s church and society? We can only try to make the best of difficult situations in the real while we strive for the ideal. We can only seek to heal brokenness. At the same time, we must resolve to teach the coming generation the biblical values that the church and society have abandoned. The enemy is not guns and knives: it is the hatred and murder in the heart of man. The enemy is not woman pitted against man and vice versa: it is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. The enemy is not disintegration in the church and in society: it is the subtlety of the evil one who has beguiled both the church and society by taking the focus off central issues and placing it on the peripheral.

Whenever we discover that things are not working, the proper place to turn is to the “Owners Manual.” In this case, our Owner and Manufacturer has given us a detailed manual with which we can fine tune ourselves. It is the Bible, and when viewed and interpreted with Hebrew eyes (with a Hebraic understanding), it will maintain us in fine working order.

Dr. John D. Garr is the founder and president of Restoration Foundation.