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Entailing as it does such a magnitude of responsibility from God, it is amazing to me looking back over membership in churches since 1977 that so little instructional importance was attached to parenting and fathering in particular. New member orientations if any, instead, focused on introducing church leaders, beliefs, responsibilities, programs, activities and service opportunities. Intensive training and equipping if any, offered in depth Bible study topics and in a few churches, deep theological education. All of this was done in the quickest possible time frame lest the relative few participants became even fewer!1 This has been devastating to Christian men and their families.
Fathering like God is not natural to sinful mortal men as I have painfully discovered in my own journey during these latter days. Sadly today, it is not widely seen enough either to be emulated or purposely taught among professed Christians and their churches as I opened this post lamenting. Being a father with all it involves as God the Father exemplifies in His Word and intends for human fathers to imitate is a life skill that is supposed to be intentionally passed on by them to their sons through precept and example as I write in The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics.2 However, with so many sons without their fathers doing this on purpose, fallen human models of fathering prevail.
Fallen human models of fathering run the gambit of sin driven conduct. These models are learned from having watched one’s own father (with the family or not) or someone else’s; taking in as well, those portrayed in all forms of media and the streets.3 The fallen human models include, but are not limited to the absent, willfully neglectful, verbally and physically abusive, self-centered, grumpy, harsh, stern, intimidating, controlling, overly disciplinary (which is where I was as I write about in my book), not disciplinary enough or at all, spoiler, pushover, briber, pleaser etc. Though no fallen father is nor can be perfect before God, those that do better father more like Him.
Such fathers may have had not only good instruction, but examples from their own fathers. As maturing Christians, they may have also come to appreciate that childrearing is a sacred and fearful responsibility from God one needs His help with and why in His infinite wisdom He confined procreation to a man and woman committed to each other in holy marriage as the best arrangement for it. However they came to it, these men consider the business of fathering an important and serious undertaking. They understand initiating the existence of a new human being is only the beginning of an incredible experience that must be purposely planned for, embraced and carried out.
Indeed, this is the example of God the Father in the Bible. From eternity He purposely planned and prepared for the creation of man (Genesis 1:1-26, 2:4-6). Then, He embraced and carried out initiating man’s existence from the dust (Genesis 2:7). After this, He led, taught His will, provided for and gave environmental protection first to Adam and then, his wife taken out of him (Genesis 2:8-25). At the end of God the Father’s creative work, Scripture summarizes it, His marching orders and instruction to the first man and woman as well as presents His appraisal of the momentous occasion (Genesis 1:27-31). Nothing about the foregoing is done haphazardly or at a distance.
Furthermore, when the first couple sinned, God the Father brought His promised consequence and then some, while also clearly demonstrating His continuing love for them (Genesis 3). He purposely displays and teaches His model of Fathering throughout all of the rest of Scripture so that certainly, we that profess to know Him are without excuse for our ignorance. Yet, four years into being a Christian and church attendance, I entered into marriage and a blended family ignorant. For nearly another ten years I struggled to walk out God's Fathering learned from the Bible with no church instruction until finally, my then, pastor, began a purposeful teaching on the family out of Scripture.4
At the same time, my pastor introduced us men to the Promise Keepers men’s movement. Heightened in interest by my need, as a Christian radio announcer and avid listener, I also started paying attention to the instructive counsel about what a father is and does coming from national programs such as Focus On The Family and those produced locally out of Dallas, TX. Slowly, with my own intentional Bible study on the issues of manhood, marriage and family, the veil of ignorance began to lift; change and growth in my fathering through the help and power of the Holy Spirit to overcome sin and sinful flesh fed character flaws, attitudes and behavior that continues to this day!5
Even so, though well intended and better than no man and fatherhood church instruction at all in the early 1990s, the growing popular teaching clearly was not fully biblical as I was learning since for example, while God’s order of mankind electing men as leaders was acknowledged, it was not being practiced in the many of churches of American Christianity.6 Biblically conservative churches of every hue that will be true to “the whole counsel of God” must repent as I did from departure from it in any teaching of man and fatherhood and their example; dereliction to intentionally present it as the apostle Paul modeled (Acts 20:25-27; Ephesians 6:4, NKJV).7 Worse off than I was in ignorance, 21st century males coming to Christ absolutely need this instruction in a confused culture now, hostile to it!
1 Though I write here primarily of churches I did not also serve as pastor, in full transparency I acknowledge coming up short of and not doing more to reach the instructional
mark I write about when I was a pastor.
2 The book is published by Open Door Communication Ministries, Inc. and available in print or digital formats at major internet booksellers. You can also purchase a print
copy along with its companion, The Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study for in-person or virtual use in the Strong Man Store.
3 Physically, emotionally, mentally or spiritually present or absent, biological fathers teach our sons and daughters whether we purposely intend to or not. Writing in my book
and other places, it is the standing and force of authority God has given to and designed men with that is the source and cause of this. Read especially my June 21, 2015
part one post, Mama’s boys, under the category, Black History.
4 Very importantly, with church instruction also came a sense of accountability, empathy and group support.
5 Without making excuses for myself or any professed Christian not an active rebel (writing the following only to clarify the biblically taught reality of the marathon journey we
are on), Christians are not fully formed at new spiritual birth anymore than a physically newborn human being. Christian fathers as redeemed sinners develop and grow over
time (some slower than others) into this role as all of our other roles through the often painful process of uncovering and being convicted by God about sinful thinking, atti-
tudes and conduct in putting “off the old” and putting “on the new man,” (Ephesians 4:17-32, NKJV). We struggle with sin aroused by the Law within and righteousness and
must have our minds renewed putting on the new man as a conscious and deliberate decision every moment to walk in the Spirit our Helper (John 14:15-18; Romans 7:12-
8:13; Galatians 5:16-25).
6 See the three-part post beginning January 8, 2017, In God’s Revival Men Are Restored, under the category, The Cause.
7 Read the September 20, 2020 post, What Will It Profit A Man?, under the category, The Cause.
In watching the destructive collapse of Western civilization under the weight of rebellion against God and His Word, one of the saddest spectacles is the marginalization of men and their absolutely essential role as fathers in the family. Yes, throughout the centuries many mothers have had to step up in the absence of their husband/fathers and done well under the adverse circumstances. However, in what is to be this short-lived day of the woman and overt rebellion against the God designed family of a man, his wife and children endorsed even by many compromising churches, men as fathers are being purposely devalued leading to the destruction of the family as we have known it for millennia. The Lord led me to blog about this and to encourage aspiring strong men of God fathers in 2013. I post it again now as the rebellion continues unabated.
Originally Posted June 16, 2013
Happy Father’s Day to all of the fathers reading this blog! By God’s design only human males can be fathers. As a critical partner with their wives in the preservation and expansion of mortal humanity (without conception and births, death would soon overtake and destroy mankind from the face of the earth), men as fathers are indispensable. But the indispensability of men as fathers goes well beyond biology to family and societal order, stability, direction and spiritual condition. In God the Father’s image, men are designed to lead their families as husbands and fathers. If they lead well, the family and families that make up a nation goes well.
However, if the men lead poorly, then the family and families that make up a nation suffers. The latter case is the present reality in our nation and many other Western nations that have independently decided fathers are only absolutely needed for the biological creation of children and are quite worthless otherwise. I offer a number of statistics in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics that show how our nation is being devastated by a redefining of what a man, woman and family is contrary to what God in His Word declares they are. Social engineers and legal authorities know about this devastation but most insist on trying to fix the problems of re-definition within the context of the rebellion that is causing it!
In their redefinition of a man, for example, men are being demanded to financially support the children they create (those that are not destroyed through State sanctioned abortion, that is), but leave the rearing to the State and mothers--isn’t that taxation without representation all over again? The result is that irresponsibility by men is being encouraged by the State which has for the sake of an anti-Christian secular worldview, inserted itself into the fathering role and responsibility. Thus, our problem in America in major part is not that married men are leading poorly as much as it is absent and irresponsible men are not leading at all thanks to the State--though as the Lord has led, I teach all men lead by their example whether they intend to or not.
Also, in the moral and spiritual climate of rebellion against God, His Son, Jesus Christ and Word, many well off feminists do not even care for the financial support of baby’s daddy since they purchase his sperm from a bank in total detachment. So deep is the anti-male authority influence of feminists on our 21st century culture (including the biblical worldview that fathers are the head of their daughters until marriage), in its many acts of creative license with the birth narrative of Christ, the 2006 film, The Nativity, written by Mark Rich and directed by Catherine Hardwicke has teenage Mary initially angrily questioning her father’s will for her to marry Joseph. This feminist attitudinal insertion is completely opposite of the New Testament Mary who finds favor with God expressly for the humility and submission she no doubt displays prior to and after hearing God’s will from the angel (Luke 1:26-38)!
Tragically, relieved of their duty from nearly all quarters many men are living large in a sinful male’s utopian world of irresponsibility that is destroying children, the fatherless, families and our nation in the process. God in His Word teaches why the role of fathers is so important. As God the Father showed with Adam in the beginning, a father gives visionary leadership to his children (Genesis 1:26-28). Where there is no such vision in a family or a nation from the father or leader respectively, they throw off restraint, chaos ensues and they perish--think high rates of child sexual exploitation, teen promiscuity, sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy, drug and alcohol abuse, delinquency, school dropouts, gang violence and deaths, suicide etc. (Proverbs 29:18).
God as a Father to Adam not only initiated his existence, but led, taught, provided for and protected him in Eden (Genesis 2:7-25). While children with godly fathers in the home may still rebel because of sin, men are to do with their children as God did with Adam so they have a leader to look up to, instruction with discipline, certain provision and security. When Adam sinned, God the Father pitied him and did not treat his sin with the instant death it deserved, but killed an animal shedding its blood instead and used its skin to cover his fallen creature against the day in love when He would provide an eternal atonement (Genesis 3:17-19, 21, 5:1-5; Psalm 103:13-14; John 3:16). So, men are needed to be firm yet merciful and gracious authorities to their children.
To the child with a natural father (or mother) that has forsaken him, God offers Himself a Father (Psalm 27:10, 68:5). As His tangible love, Christian men are to be mentors and spiritual fathers to the fatherless who allow it. In the day of rebellion as we now have, God sends forth His prophet to call men and their children to reconciliation to avoid his curse on top of all of the destructive natural consequences already doing their work (Malachi 4:5-6). Are we listening in the churches since our assemblies are suffering all of the same devastation as the world due to straying from God’s Word and the priority of teaching men their roles and responsibilities?
To the faithful godly fathers doing it God’s way with a made up mind, stay the course. Do not yield to the fathering instructions and ways of this condemned world system taught even in compromising churches. God’s example and instruction in His Word as well as your very real daily experience with Him as your heavenly Father are perfect. If you remain faithful the Father of fathers will bless and mightily reward your faithfulness here and now and with immortal glory in the Day of Christ. Such is the joyful hope and expectation of every aspiring strong man of God father!
As I concluded in an October 2020 post, it is only fitting that females embracing worldly feminism taught by demons in these “latter times” as foretold should be part of the multi-faceted rebellion against God and His Anointed, the Lord Jesus Christ (Psalm 2:1-3; Acts 4:23-28; 1 Timothy 4:1, NKJV).1 Indeed, the rebellion against God in all of its forms is a manifest sign of the world now, being fully in its latter times just before His return as He has led me to assert in many posts from Bible prophecy.2 Worldly feminists in their rebellion against God and His Anointed are focused on undoing His purposeful and perfect design of the order, roles and responsibilities of mankind.
In rebelling against God’s assignment of male authority through the husband-father in His design of family order particularly, feminists seek to overthrow it and re-structure the family after their own design. In their design rooted in their rebel vision of equality, there are impossibly two family heads, no head and an equal sharing of authority or the acceptance of females just as capable to lead--a reality in many homes by deliberate male default to avoid drama or acquiescence in spiritual ignorance and/or weakness. Not only has this rebel vision of family authority impacted marriages, but it has left the children confused especially about their very important relationship with their fathers.
While in His design as the Lord has led me to write in other places, fathers teach the whole family His Word generally and their sons specifically about biblical manhood,3 they also have important teaching as well as leading, providing and protecting responsibilities to their not of age and single daughters at home. Full disclosure here for me in that much of what I am about to write I have learned after my daughters in a blended family became adults. I wish I had exercised the knowledge I did have more wisely in their youth with that which I have gained since. And of course, back then, I completely underestimated the extent to which feminism would consistently undercut my efforts.4
Worldly feminism has purposely set daughters against their fathers as in no other time in the history of mankind! In the short span of the mid-1960s until now, many females urged through feminism to resist male authority have also been rebelling against their father’s God assigned family headship over them up to the time of marriage (Genesis 2:24; Matthew 19:3-6). Godly fathers exercised authority over and taught daughters to value themselves and their bodies by staying virgins until given to husbands with their permission (Genesis 24:10-51; 1 Corinthians 7:34-38). They also provided for and protected them from lust driven, sex seeking males like me as an unsaved teenager.
The value of a female virgin was such that male family members would kill a man that soiled their sister who as today, were often traumatized (Genesis 34; 2 Samuel 13:1-33). God’s laws to Israel also reflected the female virgin’s value (Exodus 22:16-17). In my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, writing about the absence of women as lifelong celibates in the Bible the Lord leads me to present the sad case of Jephthah’s daughter who as a virgin, mourned not that she would die because of her father’s wrongheaded vow, but having kept herself pure, the fact she would not ever know marriage and family (Judges 11:29-40).5 Fathers and daughters valued their purity.6
However, the Women’s Liberation (from God’s order and morality) Movement born of worldly feminism and followed closely by the Sexual Revolution enabled through birth control and abortions changed everything! I am a living witness to and participant in these historical events which seemed like a boon to us males everywhere at the time, but as in so much of what feels good for the moment, the consequential aftermath has not been pleasant at all.7 Fathers that understood something of God’s ancient will for them were thrown aback. Suddenly, professed Christian females who had understood their value as virgins and intended to remain so until marriage were greatly challenged.
Still, in the midst of a world where our daughters are urged to scorn and rebel against us from every quarter, aspiring strong man of God fathers must stand firm in the fact God’s will, way and Word concerning His order, our roles and responsibilities are right! Start as young as you can teaching all your children to understand the realm of your home is different from the world outside because you have chosen to follow Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Let them know you would like to have them choose to follow Him also, but until then, your home is built on the values and life outlook you have from a biblical worldview that is non-negotiable (Joshua 24:14-15). Be consistent while also being relationally available and providing alternative activities when needed that are “fun.”
Make sure you affirm the value of your daughters as persons of worth and dignity. This does not mean pandering after them as even some Christian father-daughter gurus seem to suggest, but imitate God the perfect Father (Genesis 16; Numbers 12).8 Knowing His will for females to marry and bear children, encourage them to pursue an education and a line of work by which they can sustain themselves on their own until then. Otherwise, if they choose to stay home under your authority to further their education and/or work while waiting for God to bring His man to them, give them adult space, but with the understanding you and all house rules must be honored; a circumspect lifestyle maintained. In all this you work with God to build daughters into excellent wives (Proverbs 31:28-29).
1 See the October 11, 2020 post, The Great Woman Of God’s Character, under the category, The Cause.
2 Read the April 8, 2018 post, The Second Adam Rules And Judges, under the category, Bible Prophecy, along with the three-part post beginning April 18, 2021, Daughters Of This Age, under the category, God’s Creatures as examples.
3 See the June 13, 2021 post, The Heart Of A Son, under the category, Instruction and on July 11, 2021, A Father And Mother On Purpose, under the category, God’s Crea- tures.
4 No matter what my daughters that lived with me watched in the media or where they went--school, church, friend’s homes etc., what their father taught them at home from a biblical worldview such as I knew was challenged by the rebel views of feminism among others of this world! I know I am not alone in my experience and this is the reason, no doubt, the Lord in part has me writing this post to encourage and help a struggling Christian father; his daughter if she will give heed. For as aspiring strong men of God in the image of Christ we are not to just throw up our hands in exasperation caving into the way the world works in rebellion. But this too, is part of fighting “the good fight of faith,” (1 Timothy 6:11-16, NKJV)!
5 The book is available at your favorite internet book seller and in the Strong Man Store. The prospect of lifelong celibacy and sexual purity are are also discussed in The Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study available through the same outlets.
6 I will say it again here. Sons are also to be taught to value their virginity until marriage. Sinful men have historically allowed a wicked double standard I acknowledge and condemn in Christ.
7 Casual and no fault sex has led to unprecedented promiscuity, millions of out of wed-lock births and abortions (used as birth control after the fact when either unprotected intercourse or other forms of pregnancy prevention measures failed), unmarried couples living together in large numbers, inconsequential adultery, increased date and stranger rapes, an out of control porn industry with related addiction, sex trafficking, sexual abuse and perversion, widespread and incurable sexually transmitted diseases as well as a long trail of broken and ruined lives.
8 God never compromises righteousness while also being gracious and merciful. Having then, given the warning about pandering after daughters leading inevitably to a father compromising God’s standards of righteousness for the sake of being loving and accepting, I defer to the counsel of more qualified men such as Dr. James Dobson, Dr. Kevin Leman and Dr. Willie Richardson among other faithful Christians as experts to help. Under no circumstances do I encourage following the advice of anyone about raising daughters that is accommodating to the rebel values of feminism as though it will perpetually stand as the defining global norm. Truly, even “Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord” near at hand, the Lord is sending the prophet Elijah to restore fathers and children in Israel as well as the willing beyond (Mala- chi 4, NKJV)!
Even though men from Adam are fallen in sin and our understanding of things divine in origin non-existent or horribly distorted without God’s help, there is in every man’s heart an accurate residue of understanding about what our Creator wants from us as sons of this age and eternally. The natural love a mortal son has for his father is as close an approximation to what God the Father desires from His sons as is possible to see in action on earth by sinners. Only Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, has come and perfectly modeled for us the fullest possible display of a Son’s love for His Father. Every aspiring strong man of God in the image of Christ seeks to be a son like Him!1
Father-son love is historical and biblical. From Adam mortal fathers have been desirous to beget sons to mirror their own image, raise up in their likeness and carry these on as a perpetual legacy of their existence on earth (Genesis 5:3-32). Not jealous of this in ancient times as feminists are today, godly women especially fully supported the yearning in the heart of men and their husbands to have a son after their own image and likeness and hoped in their love to bear them at least one among many children (Genesis 21:1-7, 29:31-35; 1 Samuel 1:1-11; Psalm 127:3-5). Such has been the norm amidst most ethnicities and cultures across the earth until this 21st century.
Fathers lavished love and attention upon their sons in the pride of accomplishment and joy of their manifest representation of themselves. They also took serious the challenge of purposely instructing them with knowledge and tangible skills to equip them for manhood. Again, from ancient times and across ethnicities and cultures, men have devised various rituals that enable their sons to demonstrate their readiness to pass from boy to manhood. Meanwhile, with love for and devoted hearts to their fathers, typical sons have been eager to do their father’s will and well please them; living to hear (as I did) their father’s affirming commendation in whatever fashion it might be offered.
Usually also, in humility a son’s love for his father included the highest esteem; consciously and unconsciously looking up to his father as an example to be emulated. In similitude, this natural heart of love a son has for his earthly father is what God the Father sought from His first son, Adam, who in perfect heart “is a type of Him who was to come,” (Romans 5:14, NKJV). But as I wrote in last week’s post, Adam did not do His will and displeased God his Father after He had initiated his existence, led, taught, provided for, gave protection, responsible tasks, a mate and affirmation to him (Genesis 2:7-25, 3:6-11).2 His sin drove a wedge of separation between Adam and God the Father.
Tragically, while our sons now, with sinful natures maintain a natural desire for their father’s up close, personal love, instruction, affirmation and awe-inspiring example, fewer in these latter times are getting it due to the separation, willful neglect and irresponsibility of out of wedlock births (which is where I failed my own son as an unsaved teenage father and later, a growing Christian still ignorant about biblical man and fatherhood)3 and divorce. Too, pride born of sin causes many sons to rebel against and reject their father’s instruction and example whether as part of intact nuclear families or not. Finally, confusion about family composition, roles, assignments and order is not helping.
The heart of a Son in relation to His Father was perfectly demonstrated by Jesus Christ who from the beginning served as Adam’s original role model and is for every one of his sons of this age that have followed. Indeed, for after He had come into the world the Lord Jesus first showed His love and devotion for His Father in Scripture as a Boy when He was found at the Temple dialoging with the leaders there and exclaimed to Mary and Joseph looking for Him: ‘“Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about my Father’s business,’” (Luke 2:41-50, NKJV)? In His love and esteem, He set about to do the will of, please and honor His Father; doing so without sin to the suffering of death (John 6:38, 8:25-29, 48-49, 10:17-18, 14:28-31; Hebrews 4:14-15, 5:7-8)!
God the Father “loves the Son” and taught Him everything He needed to know and do in His ministry (John 3:35, 5:19-23, NKJV). The Father also repeatedly affirmed His Son. Three occasions in the Gospels before, during and near the end of His ministry to Israel serve as examples (Mark 1:9-11, 9:1-7; John 11:38-44). As He leads me to write in The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics,4 God seeks to relate to authentically born again Christian men as sons the same way He relates to His only begotten since He is our Father too (John 16:23-28, 20:17)! In Christ’s image we are to be humble in heart as sons; loving, esteeming and imitating the Father as He wills--in faith and obedience (John 14:15-24; Ephesians 5:1-7; Philippians 2:5-8; Hebrews 11:6, 12:1-11; 1 Peter 1:3-9, 13-21).
1 Read the three-part post beginning January 29, 2017, Jesus, Son Of Man, under the category, The Cause.
2 See the June 6, 2021 post, Sons Of This Age, under the category, God’s Creatures.
3 See the September 20, 2020 post, What Will It Profit A Man?, under the category, The Cause.
4 The book is published by Open Door Communication Ministries, Inc. and available in print or digital formats at major internet booksellers. You
can also purchase a print copy along with its companion, The Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study for in-person or virtual use in the
Strong Man Store.
The rebellion of our nation’s secular atheists and many professed Christians considering themselves progressives against “the most basic of biblical instruction” on gender and family as I wrote in last week’s Independence Day post,1 is a manifest sign of their being completely removed from common sense, objective reality as well as God! In His perfect design, human gender from the beginning until now, has been unmistakably obvious and inextricably intertwined with the family. Unwilling to repent, God is giving rebels against Him over to their way with judgments that intensify in severity; leading finally to the day and full outpour of His “wrath” upon them (Romans 1:18-32, NKJV).
The Lord Jesus Christ affirms God’s gender and family design answering His inquisitors on divorce declaring, “But from the beginning of creation, God ‘made them male and female.’” “For this reason ‘a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh;’ so then they are no longer two, but one flesh,” (Genesis 1:27, 2:21-25, 5:1-2; Mark 10:6-8, NKJV). God made male and female humans distinctive in their bodies and tied to their procreative as well as family roles, responsibilities and order. Clearly, in God’s design anatomy was intended to be a very obvious indicator of human gender and has been from creation as Christ shows.
The only place in God’s design of human existence He allows for any determination of gender is in the seed of the male where depending on the chromosome when it enters the female egg, the resulting new human being will be either male or female. Otherwise, God alone in sovereignty and power determines the anatomical end of mankind in accord with His will and purposes (Genesis 2:7, 15:1-6, 18:1-15, 21:1-7; Isaiah 7:10-14; Luke 1:5-38). Thus, all that is being done today to allow even little children to pick their own gender different from their anatomy at conception or to invent gender designations of any kind is evil and rebellion in the sight of the Lord and according to His Word!
Whether rebels of the world accept God’s will, way and Word or not is on them; professed Christians supposedly having come out of the world are to accept and be faithful to these as they are written in the Holy Bible. This being the case, we understand and must teach the Lord’s will and purposes concerning gender and the family within our families and churches. To wit: a male is so anatomically to become a husband and father; a female, a wife and mother. For after He created them, God commanded the first couple in their marital oneness, “Be fruitful and multiply” and repeated this to Noah and his three sons after the flood of his day (Genesis 1:28, 9:1, NKJV).
Furthermore, with the father in the family taking the lead, Christian parents together teach God’s whole will, way and Word to their children (Genesis 18:16-19; Deuteronomy 6:4-9, 11:18-21; Psalm 78:1-8; Proverbs 1:8-19; Ephesians 6:4). As Genesis 18:16-19 and Psalm 78:1-8 cited in the foregoing assert, fathers too, have the responsibility from God to teach the family’s spiritual heritage.2 Children may grow up to reject what they were taught, but that is on them (Ezekiel 18). A Christian father is to proclaim the Gospel and teach God’s way of salvation to his children!3 Both parents also specifically teach on gender roles, responsibilities and God’s order by precept and example.4
The Christian father teaches and equips his sons for biblical manhood; his wife, their daughters for womanhood (Proverbs 5, 6:20-7:27; Jeremiah 9:20-21; Titus 2:3-5). Biblical manhood encompasses every aspect of aspiring to be a strong man of God in the image of Christ in eternal roles as sons, disciples and servants with heart and character as well as mortal sons to parents, future husbands and fathers. Likewise, biblical womanhood involves developing in the same eternal roles, while being equipped by their mothers to be godly daughters, future wives and mothers for this mortal life as aspiring great women of God in the image of Christ.5 Being too much like right, rebels captive to Satan and his world system hate and angrily oppose what I have just written.
It clearly counters what they want as their way in a secular atheist worldview where they falsely believe themselves to have “evolved” beyond the eternally righteous will, way and Word of God because of technological advance and sophistication. Not unlike whining babies and spoiled children wanting their selfish way, they press to have their way in overthrowing the ancient foundations of gender and family regardless of the fact it is confusing and destroying individuals, families and our nation. Ours is now, among the growing number of nations openly defying and rebelling against God who will keep rebuking them with escalating judgments6 until He meets and crushes their anger at Him with His own (Psalms 2:1-5, 11, 96; Isaiah 45:22-24; Revelation 11:15-19, 14:17-16:21)!
1 See Independence Day 2021 posted on July 4th under the category, Biblical Worldview.
2 Fathers have this responsibility not from society or the culture, but God even in times of manifest rebellion, hostility and persecution; the reality of which as a cost and cause
to suffer for He calls us to with His provision that should also be taught to our children (Luke 9:23-26, 14:25-35; 2 Timothy 3:12). Read my June 15, 2014 repost, Father-
hood In A Time Of Rebellion, under the category, God’s Creatures.
3 See the June 22, 2014 post, Rebel Children Of Godly Fathers, under the category, Instruction
4 This is as I write about in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, published by Open Door Communication Ministries, Inc. and available in print or digital formats
at major internet booksellers. You can also purchase a print copy along with its companion, The Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study for in-person or virtual use in the
5 The Lord led me to expand on what I wrote originally in The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics about the great woman of God through writing the recently released Great
Woman Of God Women’s Group Study as a resource help to parents and teachers in teaching females a biblical worldview of womanhood. It is available at major internet
book selling outlets and the Strong Man Store.
6 Plainly as Scripture affirms, God’s intent even with the most severe judgments upon the nations of humanity in these latter days is not to destroy them--yet--as He has done
in history, but with longsuffering grace and mercy seeks their repentance (Genesis 6:5-17; 2 Peter 3:1-9). See the July 5, 2020 post the Lord gave me, Decision At The
Crossroads, under the category, Call To Repent.
Of the greatest sins manifested among many church leaders today is the arrogance to believe that they can somehow improve upon and expedite God’s program for making and teaching disciples of Jesus Christ! Though ancient now, the methods Christ and His apostles empowered by the Holy Spirit used to make disciples (preaching the Gospel) and teach them to obey God’s whole Word were effective (Mark 1:9-20, 3:13-19, 4:10-12, 33-34, 8:27-38; John 20:19-23; Acts 2:1-16, 36-47). Even so, 100% of the people who heard their preaching and teaching did not accept it (John 6:60-71; Acts 4:1-4). Our problem is we want that 100% even if it means doing stuff in the flesh to get them!
The Lord’s approach and example to teaching men as disciples was Self-denying, labor intensive and time consuming. But these are the inescapable realities of spiritual fathering our Lord embraced as well as called, equipped and charged His disciples turned apostles to also do. Church pastors are imperative in the work (John 21:15-17)! Having been a pastor and mentor of boys and men I fully understand the demands especially of time spiritual fathering make on one’s life. However, this is why a pastor equips those he spiritually fathers to do as he does. If he is too busy to do what the Lord has commanded as his priority, then he is too busy! As the Lord leads me to point out in this edited 2013 Commentary, men are being hurt because of disobedience to His commands.
Originally Published September 2013
While our Ministry celebrates every brave incarcerated man that steps out before our Strong Man Of God Rally assemblies to publically pray to receive Christ or rededicate to Him, it saddens me personally to see the great numbers that rededicate. Most of these rededications are men that were Christians before their incarceration for a second or third time. It is certainly true Christians that commit crimes must take personal responsibility for their actions. However, after talking to many of these men it becomes clear that they are not getting the one on one mentoring of a “spiritual father” needed to deepen their walk with Christ in the churches they are members of as I did not early on.1
To be sure, the failure to make committed followers of Christ is a wide spread problem in the churches. Spiritual infancy dominates today in a Western church culture that is more concerned with the numbers than whether members are maturing in Christ. This lack of emphasis on the slow process of making disciples as our Lord commanded is hurting men the most since they are God’s chosen leaders in the home and churches. Many sit and the relative few that serve largely do so as babes in Christ with no intentional plan to disciple them. Once a month meetings and the annual golf tournament are not enough to turn baby Christian men into fiery, maturing disciples of Christ!
As I write in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, teaching his family is a responsibility God assigns every man.2 As the head of the house, a man teaches his wife and children. As a father, he teaches all of the children, but with a special duty to mentor and guide his sons into manhood; his wife, their daughters into womanhood. Beyond their families, aspiring strong men of God in the image of Christ imitate Him in taking newborn Christian men under their wing to spiritually father them into maturity. We know this process is slow because our Lord spent more than three years of intensive time with His twelve disciples, then the rest of the lives of those who became faithful apostles (Matthew 4:18-22; John 14:18, 16:12-15).
In the Lord’s “Great Commission,” He commands His disciples to make, baptize and teach new disciples from all of the nations (Matthew 28:19-20). As it concerns teaching, veteran disciples are to teach the new “to observe all things that” Christ had commanded them (vs. 20, NKJV). Teaching what Christ “the Author and Finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2, NKJV) commanded entails more than just important doctrines, but also all of the thinking, attitudes and behaviors of Christ-likeness we are also to possess in pleasing God the Father as He did (Philippians 2:5). To this end, the apostle Paul also instructed his spiritual sons to teach and pass on what they had learned to men who would do the same with other men also (2 Timothy 2:1-2; Titus 1:1-9, 2:1-5).
To their shame, not only do many pastors and churches not encourage spiritual fathering or mothering in their ranks today, but too many have no formal discipleship instruction at all much less for newborn Christians in the pews who need the “pure milk of the Word” not the philosophical musings of men (1 Peter 2:1-3, NKJV).3 And for the churches that pride themselves on offering lofty sectarian seminary level courses such as Systematic Theology as sufficient to fulfill Christ’s command to teach especially babes, repent! You are causing them to gag and choke in confusion on what is not even biblically organic, but sinful humanly processed and genetically altered meat (1 Corinthians 3:1-2; 2 Timothy 2:14-16, 3:14-17).
Shame too on you guilty pastors that look down on my work in the prisons as though it were inconsequential when Christ your Judge is recording for Judgment Day how many of the Christians I find there that are members of your churches (Romans 14:10-13; 2 Corinthians 5:9-11)! We salute all of our fellow workers in the prisons filling in what lacks in the churches. To the pastors that need help setting up a discipleship plan for new believers or want to know more about teaching biblical manhood to and spiritually fathering men contact this Ministry.4 The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
1 Read Part 1 of the August 21, 2016 post, Christianity The Religion Of Men, under the category, instruction. I lament the early lack of spiritual fathering that potentially
could have saved me from many painful failures and shortened the inordinate length of my infancy in Christ in the opening of this post and also that of the October 2,
2016 post, Gifted With A Prophet’s Heart, under the category, Call To Repent.
2 The book is available at all major internet booksellers, by order at your favorite brick and mortar bookstore or in the Strong Man Store.
3 See the September 25, 2016 post, A Leadership Caused Failure and Pastors As Developing Christian Men posted on December 17, 2017 both under the category,
Call To Repent.
4 Get contact information for Strong Man Ministries and learn about for example, the Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study as an important help in making disciples of
men and teaching them biblical manhood on our Web Site.
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