B e fo re a n d
By M. R. Di Director of tht Grand Rapids
'‘And. the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I w ill make him an help meet for him.” —Genesis 2:18 “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fow l of the air, and over every living thing that mov- eth upon the earth.” —Genesis 1:27-28 The nearest thing to heaven on this earth is the Christian family and the home where husband and wife, par ents and children, live in love and peace together for the Lord and for each other. The nearest thing to hell on earth is an ungodly home, broken by sin and iniquity, where parents quarrel, bicker and separate, and chil dren are abandoned to the Devil and all the forces of wickedness. In the wisdom of God the family is the smallest complete unit of society upon the earth. As goes the family, so goes the nation, and civilization and the world. No nation has ever risen higher morally, mentally, spir itually, than the average of the fam ilies of which that nation was consti tuted. All efforts, therefore, at im proving moral and spiritual standards in the world, combating crirqe, infi delity, and violence*, must begin with the home and with the family/ Attack- ing these problems anywhere else, anywhere farther down the line, can only be symptomatic and temporary, only restraining, but never resulting in a cure. The cure lies a,t the very base, the home, for the root is the family, the unit of all society. Social efforts, stricter laws, community pro grams, civic endeavors, unless they begin at the home and are attacked from the spiritual angle, will only result in temporary improvement but in no permanent cure. Until the homes of America, and that means first, of all the parents of America,
return to the faith of their fathers and back to the rLord Jesus Christ, this nation must continue to deterior ate morally and spiritually, until at last we go the way of the nations of history without exception, which have forgotten God. The First Family When God created man, He created him in His own image. Just what this image consisted of has been debated theologically for centuries and for millenniums. However, we believe that this image included at least His tripártate being. God is a Trinity, consisting of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and yet being only one God. When man was created, he too was a trinity in unity — one man, three parts, body, soul, and spirit. Moreover, the Godhead is the heavenly pattern of the family relationship here upon the earth. In this Godhead we have represented a Father in this divine family, and then a Son, and then, thirdly, a Holy Spirit. Man must be patterned after this image individual ly and as a family, and so God created the human family, consisting of one father, one mother, and many chil dren. Soon after man was created, God said unto him: “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.” — Genesis 2:18 And so He created Mother Eve, but even this does not yet constitute a family. There must be children to complete this image of the family of God, and so God gave to them the very first command in all history, to Adam and Eve, to reproduce and to replenish the earth, when He said, “ Be fruitful, and multiply, and re plenish the earth.” —Genesis 1-27 From that time until now it has been God’s program for man to seek a wife, and these two to become one and desire to raise a family for the glory of God. If sin had not entered, this family life would have been the picture of heaven here upon the earth,
but sad to say, sin did enter, and the home became, in too many instances, the picture of very hell upon the earth, instead of the picture of heaven. The Christian Home In these messages, we want to study the ideal Christian home, as given to us in the Word of God. To the un saved, of course, we have but little to say, except this: No home can be a really happy home without being a Christian home, and a Christian home is one where Christ is owned and hon- ored, His Word is studied and revered, and His will is obeyed. If America is ever to be saved from moral destruc- tion and spiritual ruin, it will not come by the passing of resolutions and the setting up of commissions and committees treating only the symp toms, but only as we realize that a return to the Bible standard of Chris tian homes and morality is the only solution. The Christian home, finally, becomes the only hope for the nation, armies and more complete defences or any other method the government may institute, but comes right down to the root of spiritual revival within the hearts of God’s people, and with in the Christian home. The Unequal Yoke We must, therefore, begin at the very beginning. The first thing of importance is the choice of a mate among those who seek to establish a home. When a man and a woman are married, a new unit is added to so- ciety which will have an indelible impression upon all of society. But when they are married, the die is cast, and there can be no going back with out disobeying God and inviting His sore displeasure and the judgment of the Almighty. The choice of a life mate for a believer, therefore, is of the gravest concern, not only to his own happiness, but the welfare of his community, his church, and his na tion as well. It should never be under taken without much prayer and wait ing upon God, and a thorough search of the Word of God concerning this
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T H E K IN G 'S B U SIN E SS
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