By Michael Armstrong
Children, for as long as this world is destined to continue, are the future. Many of the major problems and conflicts we face today have been perpetuated by parents and how they choose to train their children. There is a clear responsibility of parent to child that is nearly universal, it transcends culture and is observable even in the instinctual behaviors of animals. Is it merely coincidence? Is it just one of the many happy accidents of evolution? Or is it illustrative of some of the most fundamental concepts God is trying to communicate to mankind?
Few things are as helpless as a human child. Most mammals give birth to more fully developed young, able to withstand the weather, and many are even able to walk immediately. Our children have been compared to marsupials in that they require an extended period of development after birth, before they are able to function like an adult of the same species.
The creation is a major proof of the Creator. Science has attempted to relegate God to the realm of superstition by showcasing similarities throughout nature. Organizing and ordering based on complexity, they assume some scheme of successive development. Who hasn’t seen the monkey to man illustration? While much of society has embraced the idea of a godless world, the advancement of science has presented as many problems as answers for their pet theory.
The fossil record has not substantiated any theory of the gradual development of species. Modern microbiology has shown us an unimaginable intricacy amongst the microscopic systems that sustain us. But if we hope for any unbiased consensus to appear from these partisan practitioners, surely we hope in vain. What we see as evidence of the common Creator of all life they explain away as natural selection. Obviously, explaining life in a manner free from moral strictures is going to appeal to a great many who find themselves on the wrong side of morality.
But life, in all its variety, illustrates a great deal about God and His plan for us. The magnitude of the reality of life is staggering! There is more to learn and observe than any person could attain to in a single lifetime. Even the accumulated knowledge of all mankind falls far short, yet our intellect far surpasses that of the rest of creation. How much greater, then, is God’s understanding?
Isaiah 59:8-9 says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
The responsibility of parent to child is one thing the Bible makes abundantly clear. Deuteronomy 6:4-7 reads, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.” Children are malleable, impressionable. The example of a parent is one of the most formative in life.
Solomon wrote, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6). If society is slipping away from God, where does the correction need to be made? Can we rely on television, the Internet, or public education to teach our children right from wrong? The traditional family is becoming less and less common, but its benefit to the development of children is well documented. Time and again the “fatherless” are mentioned for special concern in scripture.
“Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,” reads Ephesians 6:1-4. If children were raised according to the commandments of God this world would be a very different place.
But what are they being taught? Children are constsantly learning. It is claimed that a child’s brain produces more than a million neural connections per second between birth and age three. Further, it is said that in adolescence the unused connections are pruned away, strengthening the others, and making the brain more efficient. This “restructuring” is used to explain why teenagers rely more heavily on a part of the brain associated with emotion, impulse, and aggression, as the reasoning portion of the brain is “under construction” so to speak.
There are consequences to the way children are raised. Their minds can be twisted in ways that will profoundly affect future generations. A terrible example that largely escaped public notice occurred in Great Britain recently. 25 year old Umar Haque was found guilty on March 2nd. He was employed as an administrator at a private Islamic school in east London and, despite lacking any teaching qualifications, instructed a class on Islamic studies.
His crime? He was attempting to create an “army of children to assist with multiple terrorist attacks throughout London.” He forced children between the ages of 11 and 14 to watch violent propaganda videos including beheadings. They reenacted various terrorist attacks and role-played attacking police officers. He taught them to fight, made them do push-ups, and tried to psychologically prepare them for martyrdom.
Many of the problems faced by the world are not new, they are perpetuated by our instruction of future generations. Radical Islam is attempting to turn children into jihadists. What are we teaching our children? To be confused about their gender? To reject God and worship nature? To be petulant and self-interested? It certainly isn’t the Truth and the Laws of God, at least not for the majority of the population.
How well do these inspired words of Paul describe the plight of mankind today? “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
“Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
“Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
“And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
“Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
“Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
“For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
“And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
“Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
“Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
“Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
“Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.” (Romans 1:20-32).
Are we ignorant of what the end of such things will be? Or as Paul said, do we not like to retain God in our knowledge? From the very beginning God has provided an example for us, shown us the path to life. Consider the history provided by the Bible. At what point has He not made clear what He expects from us? In the garden? Before the flood? At the Exodus He went ahead and wrote it all down for us. In Israel as a Theocracy? During the Kingdom period?
How many prophets were despised, and worse? How about in captivity? All through these ages the law of God was preserved. What about the life and example of Jesus Christ? What was the first book ever printed? What about today, is there any shortage of information available to those who seek it? Time and again we have failed, not God. Our sufferings are much more tragic in that many of them are avoidable.
God is characterized as our Father. Romans Chapter 8 features such statements as “the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:” (Verse 16).
Verse 23 says we are “waiting for adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” Jesus Christ is described as the firstborn among many brethren. It is not a coincidence that God has inspired these relationships to be described in familial terms. It is meant to convey the love and concern that typifies the bond between parents and children, and amongst siblings. Moreover it shows us that God is literally reproducing after His own kind!
Our potential is not to become some sort of Heavenly house-pet, but a very member of the family of God! Our responsibility is to the children, our own as well those who may not get the care and instruction that is so beneficial to them. Children must be trained in the way that is right, to keep the light of the truth burning while we are in this world.If that doesn’t happen, if this duty goes unperformed, then the future will be very dark indeed.
