The Lost Fundamentals of America<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
 
 
          In recent weeks Senator John McCain has selected Gov. Sarah Palin, from <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Alaska to be his running mate in the race for the Presidency and Vice Presidency of the United States. Since that announcement there has been an abundance of opinion and commentary on the validity of Mrs. Palin's ability to lead and even the questioning of her responsibility to her family.
          I agree with Dr. James Dobson and Tony Perkins, that the selection of Mrs. Palin is a great choice in light of her fierce dedication to the issues that are at the heart of Christian conservatives like myself and I would like to preface this article by saying I am thankful to God for Sarah Palin and her dedication to our Lord and to the issues I hold dear. However, with that being said I will now turn to examining the grave danger I see on the horizon of America's future   
          For over 40 years the United States has shifted from a pro-family society into an ever increasingly pro-self society while displaying a skeleton of "family." We have attempted redefined what it means to be a family and are even now seeking to rid ourselves of the need for a man and a woman to constitute a family. The radical feminist movement has caused great havoc in our nation indoctrinating our women both young and old with the unbiblical ideology of gender neutrality and encouraging outright rebellion against God's design for men and women. This philosophy has even crept into Christianity in the form "Christian Feminism". Even so I am happy to report a change of heart in many women today. Although there are millions still charging forward in the paths forged by the old feminists, many young Christian women are reading their Bibles with a desire to follow God's command and design for their lives. They are receiving sound teaching from their pastors and I am thankful to God for this. It is a sign that even in the midst of grotesque wickedness; God's Holy Spirit is still working in the hearts of His children.
          However, I believe the advancement of the feminist ideas is due in part to the willingness of many of today's pastors to accept and even peddle the liberal theology of gender neutrality in all areas of life. They have abandoned the clear teaching of Scripture concerning biblical manhood and womanhood and by doing so have set their flocks on a course of destruction. God didn't give his inerrant words for us so we could forgo them in an attempt to blend in with the culture. The preaching of the Bible is to impact our society and many today are abandoning the Bible as the pressures of society mount. They refuse to stand on God's word as infallible and unchanging stating that we must "embrace the culture and be more relevant." While relevancy is fine and even should be desired that doesn't mean the undershepherds of Christ's church are to throw the Great Shepherd's words to the pigs and formulate their own heretical views based various winds of man-centered doctrine that floats about today. If there is to be any hope for our nation the Church must stand up and proclaim the truth of the Bible. We must abandon and speak out against the man-centered, soul destroying gospel, which is in reality no gospel at all, yet is being spewed from so many pulpits today. When we fail to preach the authentic Gospel of Jesus Christ then we will surely fail to also preach God's holy design for the humanity that He has made. We must pray for revival to start in our churches beginning in the hearts of our lukewarm pastors. As a fellow pastor it is my heart not to tickle the ears of my listeners with well crafted philosophy but instead I long to be faithful to the instructions of Christ as we find them clearly taught in His word. The ambiguity that so many want to read into the Bible is merely their wicked hearts showing their true condition because Scripture tells us that if we are truly saved then we will surely know spiritual wisdom (I Cor. 2) Praise God there are many who are faithful to God's word, but they are few when compared to the defunct multitudes of man pleasers posing as pastors.
          I will not, however, place all the blame on radical movements and disobedient pastors because God has given every man and woman the capacity to discern for themselves what is right and wrong via his Holy word. The downward spiral of our nation today is caused not by one or two issues but rather a melting pot of priorities that are fundamentally out of order. I will list a few and elaborate a little on each while believing that this list contains only few ingredients that are creating the poison consumed by our culture:
Men have readily abdicated their place of leadership in the home and in society.
 
For years, many men have abandoned their God-given responsibilities. They have failed to lead in their homes both physically and spiritually often leaving the Spiritual nutrition to the mothers. This is not something new but has been the result of generations of men failing to teach their sons how to be Godly men in their homes and in the culture. Adultery and abandonment have become an epidemic. The families that consist of a father, mother and their children are a rare sight in today's world.  The children are the one who suffer the greatest harm because they take the view of their home life and equate it with what the future will likely hold for them. We must challenge and encourage men to repent of their sinful rebellion against God and their families. We must call them to faithful dedication to God's word and to teaching their children right from wrong by example. Our children are crying out for fathers to show them the love and attention they need. We need to teach our sons what real manhood looks like. Character is lacking in so many children today. Simple traits such as honesty, integrity, work ethic, and loyalty are missing in the lives of so many. Morals have become a taboo word in this society of "everything goes" and "liberty to everyone". And thus we have a culture of TV tray families that have no communication and are void of any intimacy. Men need to stand up lead. Time is of the essence. So much of our culture especially the liberal media simply mocks men to scorn but we must rise up and refuse to bow down to the lies of the Enemy. If we desire God's Spirit to send revival to our land men must take their rightful place as leaders of their families and leaders in our nation.
 
Our women must reject the spirit of Jezebel that permeates our culture
 
In the garden of Eden Adam failed to dutifully protect Eve, when the hour of temptation came upon her. As we have previously discussed many men have forsaken their roles of provider and protector of their families and have left their wives open to attack from the enemy. When the feminist movements came rushing through where were the husbands faithfully pointing to the Bible as the standard for how men and women are to relate to one another? This isn't a sexist statement. God has so beautifully created man and woman in His own image and in doing so he designed certain roles for each of them to fulfill so they would complement one another and show forth His glory to the world.
As a husbands and fathers we must continuously combat the temptations of the world that threaten to destroy our wives and our daughters. The world reeks with the spirit of Jezebel dangling the carrots of immorality and rebellion before our women. Modesty has been cast aside in this culture and this must be stopped.  It is our responsibility to instill in our children the reality of their worth that comes from God not from their willingness to become drunk with the sex-driven culture around them. Mothers must resist the temptations to simply be liked by their daughters and must insist on teaching them what Godly womanhood is all about. They must study the Scriptures together with their daughters and show by example how a woman should submit to and respect her husband out obedience and love for the commands of her God. Moms need to model modesty before their daughters. So many mothers today dress as skimpy, if not more than, their teenage daughters and what possibly could that be teaching them other that "it is ok to be loose". There is nothing at all wrong with loving style. My wife is a cosmetologist and is by far one of the most stylish people I know. But she has a saying she stick by whether doing hair, putting on make up, or selecting clothes, "Modest is Hottest".
Finally, moms must instill in their children the knowledge that children are a gift from God. They must hold to the reality that life begins at conception and that even when we make a sin and as a result find ourselves pregnant that life has intrinsic value and God has allowed that life to be formed for His plans and purposes. Abortion is a fallacy that has not only murdered +Forty million babies but has also deeply damages so many women's lives. Let us pray for and encourage our wives and mothers to step out of the clutches of the wicked world around them and set a new standard for womanhood, one that is based upon holiness and righteousness according to God's Word.
 
"Family" in name only!
 
Our families have been torn apart by stressed out parents and exasperated children. Our society has demanded a culture where two incomes are required to even put food on the table. Instead of rising up against this reality families have bought into the lies that if both parents would work we could have nicer cars and bigger homes and more "toys" and in return our children would love us more for the "wonderful" lives that we have provided for them. Instead we have sown marriages that are wrecked by discord and strife, each partner giving so much of themselves to the labors outside the home that neither is able to devote themselves to the real needs inside it. The motivation for more, more, more has stretched our families to the breaking point and so many are failing as a result. Even the world around us notices this stress as the recommend "family game nights" and "dinner around the table." They are novel ideas but certainly not new ones and should never have been rejected in the first place.  The selfish hedonism that is so rampant today shows the sickness of our society because it doesn't work. Families aren't strengthened through bigger and better. They are strengthened through faithfulness to God's design. Through meaningful conversation and times spent together learning the great truths of life. Unfortunately this is not the model that most parents are following. In fact the fathers and mothers of the fifties, sixties, seventies, eighties, nineties and even today have failed and are failing to teach their children what biblical manhood and womanhood look like and therefore, we have a huge gender identity crisis like the world has never seen. There is rampant homosexuality, and most of our children are being raised and nurtured in a daycare for eight hours a day. All this is for the SUV or the extra square feet of living space that isn't used because of the bustle of life. The problem is our families are fundamentally broken. Women are being forced to push away their God given desires for children by limiting their pregnancies or resisting children altogether in order to fulfill selfish desires. This is disobedient to God's command to multiply and an additional result is the loss of Christian children in our society because we are "choosing to minimize our families" Children are seen as nuisances and objects that require only eighteen years of minimal attention before we can "get our lives back," all the while leaving them to the wolves of the world. Women who desire to nurture and take care of their newborns are forced to leave them with strangers while they work 40 hours a week to pay for their "nannies." This isn't the design God had in mind when He set in motion His creation of the family. I am not opposed in any way to a woman helping her family by working where she can. As I said my wife is a cosmetologist but works a schedule where she is able to spend the majority of the time with our two and a half year old. When we learned of her pregnancy immediately we sought to put a plan into action that would bring her home fulltime so she could properly take care of our precious gift that God has entrusted to us to be stewards of. It has taken a lot of hard work and has required some great sacrifices but what isn't worth sacrificing when you have the assurance of obedience to God's word.
Please allow me to state that I am in no way criticizing the many women who must work in order to keep their families afloat. As stated before, our culture and the price of goods demand higher incomes and this often means both parents must work. However, at the end of the day we see that again our system is fundamentally broken and we will suffer the consequences in both our homes and in our culture. We have yet to see the products of the "daycare" raised culture. I love our families and I long to see God move mightily in them but as a minister of the Gospel I must be faithful to proclaim what God has said to His people. I pray you can hear my heart in this article that I long so deeply for God's design to be heralded and obeyed. God has not commanded anything in order to some how stifle our joy and happiness. We find this true even today because our over stressed homes are void of joy and happiness.
As if that weren't enough divorce and unwed pregnancies have caused even more of a breakdown in the family structure of America and so many of our children are being forced to grow up in single parent homes and worse are being told by the culture around them to get over their hunger to have both father and mother in the home. As a youth pastor, I see this all the time. There are so many children broken and hurting, not knowing where to turn or what to believe about themselves, God, their future, etc… all this because of disobedience to God's design for manhood and womanhood.
Finally our culture, including many in the church, mock families who do desire to follow the Biblical model of the roles of men and women in the workplace and at home. I have known a few families who have been faithful in their dedication to raise their families as God designed and no, they don't have the new cars and the fancy boat, but they do have love for one another and for their God. Let's praise and encourage them not tear them down. Let us join together in lifting our families before our Father in heaven and pleading with Him for grace and help in obeying His word.
In the arena of athletics the fundamentals are the keys to any success. This too is true of all areas of life. God has been so faithful to lay out his "fundamentals" for life and godliness in the pages of His Glorious Word. May we join together in seeking His face for our men, women, and children because not until God does a work in their hearts will a work be done in the heart of America.
The life or death of America resides in the obedience or disobedience of the Bible as we see in the following passage:
If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land…  II Chronicles 7:14
Thank you for spending time to read this article. I pray that it will be edifying to the body of Christ. I write not with anger toward any person but with anger at the lies and deception of Satan that has been so ruthlessly perpetrated upon our society. It has been my desire to speak the truth in love and to that end I hope I have been successful.
 
Your Brother in Christ,
 
Christopher Johnson