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Three Bulwarks of Truth in the Family-model Church.
There are three bulwarks of truth that protect the Family Model from error and abuse.
1. Parental Love.
Protecting the family from external threats.
The parents, both mother and father, are the shepherds of their family; lovingly nurturing and protecting their children as they grow to maturity.
Diligently teach your children to obey God's laws; talk of them when you rise in the morning, as you go about your day, and before you go to bed at night.
(Deuteronomy 6:7)
My son, hear your father's instruction and forsake not your mother's teaching,
(Proverbs 1:8)
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings; but you were not willing!
(Matthew 23:37)
There are few things more protective than a loving parent protecting her family!
Let a man meet a she-bear robbed of her cubs rather than a fool in his folly.
(Proverbs 17:12)
Parental love maintains the unity of the family in all circumstances.
Love is patient and kind.
Love does not envy or boast.
It is neither arrogant nor rude.
It does not insist on its own way.
It is neither irritable nor resentful.
It does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends.
(1 Corinthians 13:4-8)
Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.
(1 Peter 4:8)
2. Independence.
Protecting the family from the errors and apostasy of older generations.
A man will leave his father and mother and unite with his wife and they will become a new family.
(Genesis 2.24)
Every new generation of parents has a God-given responsibility to be an authentic example of God’s love and to teach their children to obey God’s divine law through their example.
He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments; and that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God.
(Psalms 78:5-8)
Every generation, every new family, is a fresh wineskin for the new wine of the Holy Spirit’s instruction.
No one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins and both the wine and wineskins will be destroyed. New wine is for fresh wineskins.
(Mark 2:22)
Every new generation must heed Joshua’s challenge,
Choose this day whom you will serve; whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
(Joshua 24:15)
3. Death.
Protecting the family from the oppressive influence of domineering generations.
While most parents can expect to see their grandchildren, few will be lucky enough to see their great-grandchildren and almost none will meet their great-great-grandchildren.
The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.
(Psalms 90:10)
While God’s love is unlimited, the influence of a domineering, apostate generation lasts no more than three or four generations before death removes them.
I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
(Exodus 20:5-6)
Death eventually sets the family free from the oppressive influence of a domineering generation; not so in a human organisation where oppressive 'traditions' can persist for millennia! (more about this in the next Bible study)
The Example of Joash and Gideon.
In Judges 6, we find a wonderful demonstration of the first two bulwarks in the relationship between Gideon and his father, Joash.
The angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon when he was about thirty years old and said,
The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valour.
(Judges 6:12)
And then, in 6:14, the Lord commissions Gideon to save Israel,
Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; have I not sent you?
(Judges 6:14)
While the Lord calls Gideon'a mighty man of valour', we discover that his father, Joash, is an apostate; possibly the leader of the Baal cult in Ophrah with the altar of Baal on his own property.
That night the Lord appeared to Gideon and said to him,
Take your father's bulls and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it.
(Judges 6:25)
Here we see the independence of each generation; Gideon rejecting his father’s apostasy and choosing to serve the Lord.
Now, when the men of Ophrah discover that Gideon has demolished the alter of Baal and cut down the Asherah grove, they want to kill Gideon.
But in Joash, we find the protection of a loving parent; Joash stands at his gate and replies;
Will you contend for Baal? Will you save him? Whoever contends for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because his altar has been broken down.
(Judges 6:31)
While Gideon’s actions may well have been a wake-up call to Joash, causing him to repent of his apostasy, we find the loving father standing shoulder to shoulder with his son against the men of the town.
Next Bible study.
In the next Bible study, we will consider the competing model, the synagogue, and how this model was adopted by Christianity; spawning what the risen Christ called ‘synagogues of Satan’ in His letter ‘to the angel of the church in Philadelphia’;
Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan (who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie), I will make them come and bow down before your feet and they will learn that I have loved you.
(Revelation 3:9)
You will find out how very different the Synagogue Model is to the Family Model.
