Encouraging Family Reformation

The biblical institutions of church and family in America are in need of reformation. Some say that we are in the period of greatest apostasy in 500 years. Less than one-half of one percent of adults ages 18 to 23 years have a biblical worldview. Only one-third of Christian parents say their religious faith is one of the most important influences on their parenting and only 27% of Protestant parents are very familiar with what the Bible has to say about parenting. It is clear that many Christian parents are no longer discipling their children in the faith. The result---SBC’s Council on Family Life reported that roughly 88 percent of evangelical children are leaving the church shortly after they graduate from high school. The problem is not only with the church and its program-oriented, marketing-driven growth philosophy, but also with parents, who have abdicated their role and responsibility in teaching, discipling, and nurturing their children in multigenerational faithfulness. The result is that the secular post-Christian culture has claimed the children and youth of America. When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do? (Psalm 11:3). We are encouraged by the fact that God is sovereign, Jesus Christ is Lord and His kingdom is forever. As we believe God's covenantal promise, our opportunity is great in working toward reformation of the family, the church, and the nations.

This blog links to a wide variety of writings on biblical issues regarding the family, biblical roles and relationships in the family, the church, education, and biblical worldview including ethics, apologetics, history, politics, and culture. The blog was created to encourage biblical family reformation through development of a clear family vision of multigenerational faithfulness. Our duties as parents include sharing the gospel with our children, discipling them in the faith (Deut 6:7), raising them in the fear, nuture, and admonition of the Lord (Prov 9:10; Eph 6:4), cultivating in them a biblical worldview (2 Cor 10:5), and providing them with the necessary tools to recognize and engage an increasingly humanistic, post-Christian culture while glorifying God.

June 28, 2009

The Right Use Of The Lord's Day

by Stuart Olyott, the Pastoral Director of the Evangelical Movement of Wales.

Unconverted people do not have much interest in the right use of the Lords day and countless Christians are confused about it. This confusion will not go away until we all take on board eleven important facts.WHAT ARE THE FACTS?

1. When the Bible says 'Sabbath', it does not mean 'Saturday'. 'Sabbath' is not the name of a day of the week. The word is used to describe a sort of day, a day of rest from work. Although Old Testament years were 365 days long, every year began with a Sabbath day (Lev. 23:4-1 6). Certain other fixed dates could never be Sabbaths (Exod. 12:1-28, Lev. 23:15). To make sure that this happened, the calendar had to be adjusted regularly. We know from history that this was done by adding within the year extra Sabbaths which ran consecutively. To identify 'Sabbath' with 'Saturday' is thus an error. It is only since the definitive Jewish calendar adjustment of AD 359 that Jewish Sabbaths have always fallen on the day we now call 'Saturday'.

2. The Sabbath is not a Jewish institution. God instituted it at creation (Gen. 2:1-3). It is his gift to mankind (Mark 2:27).

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