NXR Podcast - BONUS - A Primer On Christian Government | Patriarchy - Part 3 of 6
Aired: 2022-05-04
Duration: 44:49


=== Biblical Patriarchy and Home Governance (10:13) ===

[00:00:00]  Hey guys, real quick before we get started, I have a small request.
[00:00:03]  If you've been blessed by our content and you like this show, would you take just a brief moment and leave us a five star review?
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[00:00:17]  Thanks.
[00:00:18]  Hi, and welcome to another bonus episode of Theology Applied.
[00:00:21]  Once again, I am joined by Toby Sumter.
[00:00:24]  We are going over his catechism, 50 question catechism on the governments.
[00:00:29]  It deals with The government of the self, the government of the home, the government of the church, and the government of the state.
[00:00:36]  In this episode, we are dealing with the government of the home.
[00:00:40]  We are dealing with biblical patriarchy.
[00:00:43]  We're dealing with the rights and responsibilities of men as fathers and husbands in the sphere of the family.
[00:00:52]  Applying God's word to every aspect of life.
[00:00:56]  This is Theology Applied.
[00:01:03]  All right, let's go to the next one.
[00:01:04]  So, this is about family.
[00:01:05]  All right, so now we're talking about the home.
[00:01:08]  All right, you go ahead, verse.
[00:01:11]  It's not the Bible.
[00:01:12]  It's close.
[00:01:13]  Question 13.
[00:01:15]  Please.
[00:01:16]  What is the sphere and assignment given by God to family government?
[00:01:20]  God has assigned the dominion mandate to families as well, with the particular tasks of providing for the basic nurture, health, welfare, and education of individuals in the household.
[00:01:33]  14. Who are the magistrates of the family?
[00:01:37]  Answer.
[00:01:38]  Ordinarily, God gives husbands and fathers primary authority and responsibility for the provision and protection of their household.
[00:01:46]  Every wife and mother is the vice magistrate of the home, assisting her husband, bearing and training up their children, and ruling her home in wisdom and beauty.
[00:01:57]  15. What does the provision of health and welfare entail?
[00:02:02]  The health and welfare of a household entail the basic, ongoing, material, and spiritual provisions of love.
[00:02:08]  Care, friendship, intimacy, food, clothing, and shelter, as well as the responsibility to provide for medical expenses, disabilities, retirement, and inheritance.
[00:02:19]  16. What does Christian education entail?
[00:02:23]  Answer Parents are required by God to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord Jesus.
[00:02:30]  This is a task of teaching children to love God with all that they are in every area of life all day long, but it is also the broader task of handing Down the skills, loyalties, and spiritual and material inheritance necessary for the household to successfully replicate itself over generations under the blessing of God.
[00:02:54]  17. What sanctions has God given to the government of the family?
[00:02:59]  God has given parents the authority to discipline children in the love of Christ, both in positive encouragement and with the use of the rod of correction.
[00:03:08]  Ultimately, if a child persists in rebellion and unbelief, Christian parents have the responsibility to disinherit him.
[00:03:15]  18. What is the duty of all people with regard to the government of the family?
[00:03:21]  Answer It is the duty of all people to honor their father and mother that their lives may be long in the land.
[00:03:27]  All people are also required to honor the marriage bed and consider it and the blessing of children among the highest gifts given by God to men and the basic building block of human society.
[00:03:41]  All right.
[00:03:41]  This is a great section.
[00:03:42]  I'm just going to lead out on this one because some of this just excites me.
[00:03:46]  Okay.
[00:03:46]  So, number.
[00:03:47]  Let's see, where is it?
[00:03:49]  Number 13, I believe.
[00:03:53]  No, number 15.
[00:03:54]  So, question 15 What does the provision of health and welfare entail?
[00:03:58]  So, I definitely want us to talk about this one because basically, what you're saying is when it comes to provision of health and welfare, right?
[00:04:06]  Physical provision, food, clothing, shelter, these kinds of things, and health.
[00:04:10]  I like that you included that.
[00:04:13]  Health, medicine, these kinds of things.
[00:04:15]  What you're getting at is you're saying that belongs to fathers, familial fathers.
[00:04:20]  That belongs to the home.
[00:04:21]  It's going to be executed in many cases by the mother, but those decisions ultimately fall on fathers.
[00:04:28]  It is not the state's job to provide welfare.
[00:04:30]  I think of 1 Timothy 5, so we can go there with that.
[00:04:32]  But then also, I like, let's see, obviously, we can talk about the distinct Christian education and how Christians cannot utilize public schools.
[00:04:43]  But there was one other one that I want us to look at.
[00:04:48]  Yeah, well, let's just go with the welfare one for a second.
[00:04:50]  So, with that, I always think of 1 Timothy 5.
[00:04:52]  So, what do you hear people say all the time?
[00:04:53]  You hear people say, you know, that, yeah, well, yeah, the state, I think it's good that they're doing welfare.
[00:04:59]  Because that's, all right, so here's the false dichotomy, right?
[00:05:02]  Pro life.
[00:05:03]  What does it really mean to be pro life?
[00:05:04]  You know, and so.
[00:05:05]  Yeah, on one hand, you've got the Republican Party and they're pro life, whatever that means.
[00:05:10]  And I'm not, the Republican Party is filled with problems.
[00:05:13]  However, we got to be careful, I think, sometimes because we're so aware of these things.
[00:05:16]  And I think sometimes you get so far down the road that you're speaking to someone who's just brand new to politics and brand new to these things.
[00:05:23]  And so I always want to remind my listeners the Republican Party and their platform is not synonymous with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ nor the law of God.
[00:05:33]  However, I don't want to do the Timothy Keller third way thing.
[00:05:36]  You've got Democrats and you've got Republicans.
[00:05:39]  And you have Christ.
[00:05:41]  Because that implies that there's an equal distance from both political parties to Christ.
[00:05:48]  And there's not.
[00:05:49]  One is way worse than the other.
[00:05:52]  And just so we're abundantly clear, that's Democrats.
[00:05:54]  It's way, worse.
[00:05:56]  It is the party of transgender, it's the party of abortion, it's the party of murder, it's the party way worse.
[00:06:01]  That said, on the pro life issue, it's like, well, you know, but Republicans, they care about life in the womb, but Democrats, they care about, you know, once you're out of the womb.
[00:06:09]  And immediately, what's being implied there is they're pro life in the sense of welfare.
[00:06:13]  But the question is, what is the jurisdiction?
[00:06:16]  That's why we're doing this whole thing.
[00:06:17]  That's why you wrote this whole thing.
[00:06:18]  Whose job is it to protect life?
[00:06:21]  And what we would say is welfare doesn't belong to the state.
[00:06:25]  But then a bunch of Christians come in and they say, okay, well, maybe it's not the state's job to feed and clothe people, it's the church.
[00:06:30]  And I would say, no.
[00:06:34]  Biblically speaking, out of the three spheres of the home, the church, and the state, it first falls on the family.
[00:06:40]  It's first the family.
[00:06:41]  So when Paul writes to Timothy, 1 Timothy 5, he's given a list for widows and all.
[00:06:46]  The first criteria that he's trying to ascertain, not before she goes on the state welfare program, but before she goes on the roster of the church welfare program, but first he's trying to ascertain does she have sons?
[00:06:57]  And Paul, this is crazy.
[00:06:58]  Paul is even like, does this woman have a daughter?
[00:07:02]  Even a daughter that could work in that society that would be pretty tough.
[00:07:05]  In that culture, typically, you know, sons, men would provide.
[00:07:09]  But maybe there's a rare instance where she could have a grown daughter who could provide for her needs.
[00:07:14]  So, does she have sons?
[00:07:14]  Does she have family?
[00:07:15]  Can this burden first fall on family?
[00:07:18]  And then, also, what Paul's doing is he's like, kind of like two categories.
[00:07:21]  The way I say it is, is she truly the poor?
[00:07:23]  And is she the helpless poor?
[00:07:25]  And is she the faithful poor?
[00:07:26]  Right?
[00:07:29]  Because Paul has something to say to those who are poor when it's their fault.
[00:07:35]  If a man is not willing to work, let him not eat.
[00:07:38]  Right?
[00:07:38]  So, first we have to ascertain, is she the helpless poor?
[00:07:41]  And so, Paul says, is she over the age of 65?
[00:07:44]  Right?
[00:07:45]  Like, how old is she?
[00:07:46]  Does she have family members?
[00:07:48]  This and so forth.
[00:07:49]  He's trying to decide does she really need help?
[00:07:52]  Is she poor and helplessly poor?
[00:07:55]  But then next, you would think, all right, that would be enough.
[00:07:58]  She's a widow.
[00:07:58]  She's 65.
[00:07:59]  She's got no sons, no daughters, no nothing.
[00:08:02]  Goodness gracious, write her a benevolence check.
[00:08:05]  But then Paul goes beyond even that.
[00:08:07]  And he says, okay, all right, so we've ascertained now that she's the helpless poor.
[00:08:10]  Is she the faithful poor?
[00:08:11]  Did she wash the feet of the saints?
[00:08:13]  Right?
[00:08:13]  And what we've done as a church is, in the name of evangelism, the church gives the bulk of its resources to the pagans, hoping that they'll come and visit our church service at the neglect of the faithful.
[00:08:26]  When Jesus says, by this all men will know, your love, that you are my disciples, your love for the world.
[00:08:32]  No, your love for one another.
[00:08:33]  Or, like with the church, you know, in the book of Acts, the church in Jerusalem, it says that they brought everything before the feet of the apostles and they shared as they distributed it as they had need so that there was no lack among them.
[00:08:47]  So they eradicated poverty in the city of Jerusalem.
[00:08:50]  Nope, in the church in Jerusalem.
[00:08:53]  There were still poor people in the city, but not in the church.
[00:08:56]  Josephus, even one of his quotes was, He said it's a very peculiar thing that a person could become rich virtually overnight simply by joining the ranks of the Christians.
[00:09:05]  But what we do today is we say, oh, you don't have to join the ranks of the Christians.
[00:09:09]  We'll make you rich at the expense of the Christians.
[00:09:12]  And so my point is, Paul gives all this criteria.
[00:09:15]  Are you actually poor?
[00:09:16]  Are you helplessly poor?
[00:09:18]  Then next, are you faithfully poor?
[00:09:20]  Because he says in Galatians 6, do good to all.
[00:09:24]  As often as you have opportunity, do good to all, but especially, that is, prioritize the household of faith.
[00:09:29]  Christ is infinite.
[00:09:30]  The church is infinite.
[00:09:31]  Is not the church is finite and our resources are finite, so we have to prioritize.
[00:09:36]  So, are they actually in need?
[00:09:38]  And then, are they actually faithful?
[00:09:41]  Are they deserving it?
[00:09:42]  And so, my point is when Paul talks about the poor meeting the welfare needs, material needs, he first looks at fathers, the home, sons, even daughters.
[00:09:52]  Can a daughter pick up a paper route before school, you know, on her bicycle if need be?
[00:09:58]  And let's take advantage of every single avenue.
[00:10:02]  At within the sphere of the home, before we burden the church, the second thing that we look at if the home can't do it and they're faithful and they're in the church, then they get help from the church.

=== Rights, Responsibilities, and Provision (10:16) ===

[00:10:13]  And then what they don't ever, ever get help from is the state because anytime the state helps, it hurts.
[00:10:20]  If you want a job done poorly, have the state do it.
[00:10:24]  And so, so, so, my point is it's a all the way back to my first point it's a false dichotomy.
[00:10:28]  Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals, right?
[00:10:30]  Um, they both care about life and they care about life equally.
[00:10:33]  One cares about life in the womb, and then one cares about life outside the womb.
[00:10:36]  But the question is.
[00:10:37]  No, no, no, no.
[00:10:38]  What is the state's job defined by God's standard?
[00:10:43]  And the job is that the state carries the sword to punish murderers, to dissuade, disenchant murderers by executing justice.
[00:10:57]  But the state does not provide food and clothing for the hungry.
[00:11:03]  It's not their job.
[00:11:05]  When you get, yeah, I think you're absolutely right.
[00:11:09]  You get that claim.
[00:11:10]  I know we've all heard it that, you know, yeah, the Democrats are the party that's, you know, pro life.
[00:11:16]  Maybe, yeah, maybe they've got this blind spot about abortion, but since they believe in social services and welfare programs and everything is a government program, essentially, that's somehow really pro life after birth or whatever.
[00:11:31]  First of all, I would, you know, we should never trust somebody who thinks it's fine to just chop up a little baby in its mother's womb.
[00:11:38]  Like, whatever they're doing after that, they should not be trusted with anything.
[00:11:42]  Amen.
[00:11:43]  But nevertheless, even if you say, okay, fine, you claim to be pro life after birth, show us what you've done over the last 70 years.
[00:11:53]  Well, what have they done since the 1940s when welfare was established and Social Security was established?
[00:11:59]  Well, they've successfully destroyed many families, especially black families, especially minority families.
[00:12:06]  They've successfully murdered them by abortion.
[00:12:08]  And the ones that made it through, the percentage of incarcerations is astronomical.
[00:12:15]  The percentage of suicide rates, drug addictions, and so forth is astronomical.
[00:12:21]  And so, as you say, yeah, anything you give to the government, they destroy.
[00:12:26]  And that's the thing is, part of the point of all this is when God assigns things to people, he does it because he knows what they're for.
[00:12:34]  Yes.
[00:12:35]  It's not arbitrary.
[00:12:36]  It's not random.
[00:12:37]  It's not him just flipping coins and saying, well, I guess I'll give this to men, I'll give this to women, I'll give this to husbands and wives, and this to the state and this to the church.
[00:12:44]  You know, it could have gone any way.
[00:12:46]  You know, while we're, you know, giving some helpful pointers to our brother Tim Keller, I would say the same thing about.
[00:12:57]  Men and women and the role of husband and wife.
[00:12:59]  I think he's got one essay somewhere that he says basically, you know, well, they're complete equals, but you have to have a tiebreaker.
[00:13:06]  And that's what he thinks leadership amounts to is a tiebreaking.
[00:13:08]  And I would just say, I'm sorry, brother, but you massively misunderstand what God has done in creating men and women.
[00:13:16]  The role of husband and wife is not random and arbitrary and capricious.
[00:13:20]  It's not God saying, well, it could have been either one, but we got to have a tiebreaker.
[00:13:23]  So I guess, you know, I'll give it to the man.
[00:13:26]  No.
[00:13:26]  We were made for different things.
[00:13:28]  We have different glories.
[00:13:30]  Our roles stem from our nature, our design.
[00:13:32]  Exactly.
[00:13:33]  It's not just male and female roles, he assigned them.
[00:13:36]  It's male and female natures, he designed them.
[00:13:38]  Exactly.
[00:13:40]  And your point is exactly right.
[00:13:42]  What did God give the state?
[00:13:43]  He gave the state a sword.
[00:13:45]  That's right.
[00:13:45]  Which means that whatever the state does, it will always be Edward Scissorhands.
[00:13:51]  I like that.
[00:13:52]  That's good.
[00:13:52]  Right?
[00:13:54]  That's what it has.
[00:13:55]  That's what God's made it for.
[00:13:56]  Its nature, as you say, is.
[00:13:59]  A sword.
[00:14:01]  Or, if you prefer, read the book of Daniel.
[00:14:04]  What do the empires of man describe?
[00:14:07]  They're beasts.
[00:14:09]  They're monsters.
[00:14:10]  They have horns and teeth.
[00:14:14]  That's what they are.
[00:14:15]  That's what they do.
[00:14:16]  That's what they do.
[00:14:17]  And so, what are beasts, monsters, and swords good for?
[00:14:21]  They're good for destroying bad guys.
[00:14:23]  That's right, but not raising children and protecting the innocent.
[00:14:27]  And they are not good for raising children.
[00:14:29]  They are not good for providing health care, welfare.
[00:14:32]  Or any of these other things.
[00:14:32]  This is so helpful.
[00:14:33]  And so just apply the same principle.
[00:14:35]  I've never heard it put like this.
[00:14:36]  This is so good because you just apply the same principle, but now on the reverse.
[00:14:39]  What are mothers good for?
[00:14:41]  They actually are good for raising children, but they're not good for sentencing criminals, right?
[00:14:46]  Because they're going to nurture them right back out onto the street, you know, like and be soft on crime.
[00:14:51]  And so, in the name of empathy, so, you know, so you have women doing what women do, but outside of their lane in a sphere that they're not.
[00:15:00]  So, because you, In the name of feminism, right?
[00:15:03]  So, so many problems, but just picking one at a time.
[00:15:06]  In the name of feminism, because women aren't actually having children now, they want to do something.
[00:15:10]  So, instead of doing the thing that God made them to do and the thing that they would love to do if they would just trust the Lord and do it, they're taking God's design that would be great with children.
[00:15:21]  But then they're applying it to the workplace, they're applying it to politics, they're applying it to legislation, this and that, and it goes horribly wrong.
[00:15:31]  So, they, so, You know, and then that so you got the government doing the job of mothers raising kids and slashing them to pieces, literally in the womb.
[00:15:40]  Right.
[00:15:41]  Right.
[00:15:41]  And then you've got mothers doing the job of officials, governing officials, sitting on courts, you know, and letting pedophiles off the hook.
[00:15:52]  Makes sense.
[00:15:53]  Of course.
[00:15:53]  Of course that would happen.
[00:15:54]  Yes, exactly.
[00:15:56]  And the same thing has happened in the church as the church has been feminized.
[00:16:01]  Rather than the church being the militant, led by men, godly men, in a militant gospel ministry, in preaching the word, administering the sacraments, and disciplining.
[00:16:15]  Those who are not in submission to Christ, we have done the same thing there.
[00:16:21]  And we have a nanny state.
[00:16:24]  And in many parts of the evangelical church, we have a nanny church that is all about soft empathy.
[00:16:34]  And it does not understand how to wield the sword of the word and handle the keys of the kingdom.
[00:16:42]  Yep.
[00:16:43]  Amen.
[00:16:44]  So, what does the provision of health and welfare entail?
[00:16:47]  This is number 15.
[00:16:48]  The health and welfare of a house entail the basic ongoing material and spiritual provisions of love, care, friendship, intimacy, food, clothing, and shelter, as well as the responsibility to provide for medical expenses, disabilities, retirement, and inheritance.
[00:17:05]  And so you're saying welfare, provision, physical and spiritual.
[00:17:11]  Who does that fall in?
[00:17:12]  And in that, so that would be food, to be shelter, to be clothing, all the things you list.
[00:17:15]  And it would also be education.
[00:17:16]  The only reason you didn't list it here is because you gave it its own question, you know, because it's that important.
[00:17:20]  But so that includes education, all these things.
[00:17:23]  Is it the state's job?
[00:17:24]  So we're talking about provision.
[00:17:26]  If we boil welfare down just real simple, provision.
[00:17:29]  So whose job is provision?
[00:17:31]  Provision of education.
[00:17:33]  The state is doing it, but it's not their job.
[00:17:36]  And so they do it poorly.
[00:17:37]  You know, provision of food and clothing.
[00:17:40]  The welfare state is doing it, but it's not their job.
[00:17:42]  It falls on the home, which means ultimately it falls on the captain of the ship, of that particular ship, the home ship, which is the father.
[00:17:49]  And in that, you included medicine.
[00:17:52]  That doesn't mean that every father is going to be a doctor.
[00:17:55]  But we can outsource, right?
[00:17:57]  So, you guys, I believe you send your children, you guys are big fans of homeschooling, Christian parents homeschooling, but you send your children to a classical Christian school.
[00:18:06]  Right.
[00:18:06]  So, a father can outsource, but he is intimately involved in knowing what his children are being taught and just making that decision.
[00:18:15]  So, even if he outsources, and so likewise, a father can outsource medicine.
[00:18:18]  So, he can go and shop around and talk to doctors, just like he would go and talk to teachers.
[00:18:24]  He can go and talk to doctors, do some of his research, but then trust the professional.
[00:18:29]  But there's a difference, though.
[00:18:30]  The point is that the state isn't sending the doctor into his home with a needle against his will.
[00:18:38]  He's leaving his home with his child and interrogating the doctor and making the decision himself.
[00:18:44]  Right.
[00:18:45]  The question is who is responsible?
[00:18:47]  Who is responsible?
[00:18:48]  Who has the responsibility?
[00:18:50]  Who is the one who will answer to God for these things?
[00:18:54]  And responsibilities and rights are always two peas in a pod, it's a package deal.
[00:18:58]  So you never have God assigning responsibility.
[00:19:00]  But not giving that same party that's responsible the same corresponding rights to carry out that responsibility.
[00:19:07]  So the church has a responsibility, many responses, but one is to guard the purity of its gospel witness by guarding the purity of the church, exercising church discipline as necessary, excommunication, barring from the Lord's table, all these kinds of things, protecting the pure.
[00:19:21]  I always tell our church if our church goes liberal, it will not just be my fault and it will be uniquely my fault, but it will not be exclusively my fault.
[00:19:31]  It will be your fault.
[00:19:33]  And the reason why is because that is a responsibility that's not just assigned to the officers of the church, although it is uniquely assigned to them, but it is assigned to the membership of the church.
[00:19:42]  But here's the deal I can't tell people, you have the responsibility of cleaning my house, but then I don't give them the keys to get inside.
[00:19:49]  So it's, you know, police officers protect and serve that's the responsibility.
[00:19:53]  Gun and badge that's the tools to carry it out.
[00:19:55]  And so to the church, and I would argue the membership of the church and the priesthood of all believers is given not just the responsibility to protect her purity, but the keys of the kingdom.
[00:20:06]  For binding and loosing, tell it to the church.
[00:20:09]  And some of this is my Baptist polity coming out.
[00:20:12]  But the point is, rights and responsibilities always come as a package deal.
[00:20:17]  And so, if the dad is responsible for the physical well being of his wife and children, then he has to have the rights, the power, the authority to make the decision, to make the call.

=== Why the Church Failed Families (15:47) ===

[00:20:29]  One of the things I'm working on, it's in the works, and I'm hoping maybe to get it up here in the next couple of weeks, but I am actually.
[00:20:37]  Putting scripture references in all these answers.
[00:20:40]  That'd be great.
[00:20:42]  It's in the works.
[00:20:43]  It's getting close to done.
[00:20:45]  But sometimes people say, well, what's the scripture text for this?
[00:20:50]  You've mentioned 1 Timothy 5, which is one of the key ones.
[00:20:53]  But the other one that's actually really significant is Ephesians 5 and 6.
[00:20:59]  Husbands are required to love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her.
[00:21:05]  And then Paul says in Ephesians 5 there, for no man ever hated his own body.
[00:21:09]  Mm hmm.
[00:21:09]  But nourishes and cherishes it just as Christ does the church.
[00:21:16]  And I think frequently in the church, we again massively over spiritualize that.
[00:21:20]  It includes spiritual nurture, it includes spiritual cherishing, obviously includes that.
[00:21:27]  Washing our wives with the water of the word absolutely includes that.
[00:21:30]  But notice what Paul says.
[00:21:31]  He says it's like loving your own body.
[00:21:34]  No man ever hated his own flesh.
[00:21:36]  Well, so that, you know, how do you love your own flesh?
[00:21:39]  How do you take care of your own flesh?
[00:21:40]  Well, you feed it, you clothe it.
[00:21:43]  When it's cold out in Idaho, you have the heat on and you have a roof over your head.
[00:21:47]  You make sure that transportation is provided for.
[00:21:50]  You give it medicine when it's sick.
[00:21:53]  So we should not over spiritualize those things.
[00:21:55]  We should recognize that, and literally, actually, the words for nourish and cherish mean to feed and keep warm.
[00:22:04]  That's literally what those words mean.
[00:22:06]  Feed, nourish, give food, spiritual and material.
[00:22:13]  Is right to expect you to make sure that there is food in the fridge, there's food in the cupboards.
[00:22:20]  And keeping her warm means you got to pay the heating bill, you got to make sure she has a jacket, you got to make sure that she's got a roof over her head.
[00:22:28]  And then the same word for nourish is actually used again in 6 4.
[00:22:34]  Fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
[00:22:39]  That word for bring them up is actually nourish them up, feed them.
[00:22:44]  With the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
[00:22:46]  Feed them with the culture and counsel of the Lord.
[00:22:50]  And so, feeding your children is part of that duty as well.
[00:22:54]  But all of this is entailed in that how does Christ love us?
[00:22:58]  He doesn't just give us salvation in our souls, but He clothes us and feeds us like He does the lilies of the field and the birds of the air.
[00:23:07]  So, we're not to worry about those things like the pagans do.
[00:23:11]  But nevertheless, we are to work and see that those things are provided for and trust the Lord to provide for those practical.
[00:23:18]  Necessities.
[00:23:20]  So those are the assignments given.
[00:23:22]  And that means that, as you note, that assignment comes with the corresponding authority and responsibility to fulfill those assignments.
[00:23:30]  Amen.
[00:23:31]  And if we want to see the government back in its own, the government of the state back in its own lane, fathers and husbands in particular have to recognize that this responsibility has been given uniquely to them by Jesus.
[00:23:43]  Right.
[00:23:43]  And real quick, I want to add to that with the state, so you can say it belongs to fathers, physical provision belongs to fathers, not the state.
[00:23:50]  So get out of the lane of welfare state.
[00:23:53]  But also with the church, we could say spiritual provision.
[00:23:56]  Has been given to fathers, so quit sending your kids to children's church.
[00:24:02]  You know, so like in the same way that don't expect the state to feed your kids physically with the church, there now I know it's not a perfect one to one ratio because I know that you, you know, there would be some exceptions because the church officers in the church with ecclesiastical authority, we are administering God's grace through the ordinary means of grace to the whole church.
[00:24:27]  But my point is.
[00:24:29]  But as we administer the grace of God to children, it is those children under their fathers, alongside their fathers.
[00:24:39]  It's not in a basement, in a back room, separate, severed from the family.
[00:24:46]  And so I think fathers, the family, first it's self rule, like we talked about in our last segment.
[00:24:54]  But then this family one, I really think we always talk about how the church has failed.
[00:24:58]  The church has failed.
[00:24:59]  I think the out of three institutions of the home, the church, and the state, the one that has failed.
[00:25:03]  Um, you know, maybe not most severely, not the worst failure, but the first failure, I really think, in many ways, is the family, and that's why the church is bloated and the state is super bloated.
[00:25:16]  Um, because you know, we say, Oh, look at the failure of the church.
[00:25:19]  Well, the church wasn't supposed to be doing all these things, the church is overloaded with needs right now because fathers in the home failed, and the state was all too happy to pick that up.
[00:25:30]  And we blame the church and say, Look, the state's doing it because the church wouldn't do it.
[00:25:33]  Well, okay, but let's just look at your checkbook for a second.
[00:25:37]  How much did you pay California Christian in state taxes?
[00:25:40]  And how much did you give to the church?
[00:25:43]  Right?
[00:25:44]  Like, what was the church supposed to do?
[00:25:46]  Right?
[00:25:46]  Just, we don't have, unlike the government, we can't, we don't have a printing press where we can print money and make it out of thin air.
[00:25:52]  So, that's not to say there's no corruption in the church, but the church has failed because the church isn't able to pick these things up.
[00:26:00]  The state is able because the state, the church is persuasion, it's a sword of the spirit.
[00:26:04]  Whereas the state, it's a literal sword.
[00:26:06]  It's not persuasion, it's coercion.
[00:26:09]  So the state can always pick up the slack from any of these other institutions through coercion by saying, give us more money.
[00:26:16]  And then, oh, now we're in the business of welfare.
[00:26:19]  Now we're in the business of education.
[00:26:20]  Now we're in the business where the church can't do that.
[00:26:23]  We can't.
[00:26:24]  So we say, oh, the state does this because the church failed that.
[00:26:27]  And I would say, no, no, no.
[00:26:29]  The family failed.
[00:26:30]  And then one of these two institutions was going to pick up the slack of the family failing.
[00:26:36]  And the state, Was more able to pick up that slack than the church by nature of carrying a sword around.
[00:26:44]  Everything the state does, it does at gunpoint.
[00:26:46]  Taxes, meaning that at the end of the road, if you don't do what the state says, eventually you end up at the point of a gun.
[00:26:53]  Yeah.
[00:26:54]  I think there's, yeah, you're absolutely right.
[00:26:55]  I think we have seen in the past, in history, the church way overbloated.
[00:27:00]  Roman Catholic Church in the Middle Ages got there, claimed authority over all of life in an absolutely tyrannical way.
[00:27:08]  And so, part of you know, you see the reformers, they're called the magisterial reformers because central to the Reformation was actually calling magistrates to stand up against the church, the Roman Catholic Church, calling princes and saying, You have real authority from God, you need to take back your authority from the Pope.
[00:27:28]  Yeah.
[00:27:30]  And then, and actually, in part, they also were, it was a massive reformation of the family.
[00:27:34]  There was, you know, these huge monastery breaks and nunnery, you know, convent breaks where, you know, these, Men and women were being broken out of monasteries and convents to get married and have families.
[00:27:45]  And that was central to the Reformation, reestablishing the authority of the family over these areas.
[00:27:53]  I would say that this you said earlier, which is I agree with the idea that there's a Venn diagram of sorts and there's overlap here.
[00:28:00]  And so I do think the church does have the authority to teach.
[00:28:04]  In Ephesians, Paul addresses children.
[00:28:07]  He doesn't just say, Fathers, tell your kids this.
[00:28:11]  But as you note, He's assuming the kids are there in the assembly standing next to their fathers and addresses wives who are standing right there next to their husbands.
[00:28:20]  But I think you're absolutely right.
[00:28:23]  If you teach what scripture says, which is that's the primary tool given to the church is to teach.
[00:28:28]  We are to teach and to proclaim.
[00:28:30]  We are to declare.
[00:28:32]  And we have things to declare to men, to women, to husbands, to wives, to children, to parents, to masters and slaves, the whole thing.
[00:28:41]  But when you declare those things, what you're declaring.
[00:28:44]  Overwhelmingly, though, is husbands and fathers you have responsibility for all these things.
[00:28:50]  You stand in the place of Christ in your family and therefore take up this responsibility.
[00:28:55]  And in that sense, I think you're absolutely right.
[00:28:57]  We've had a massive failure on the part of fathers and husbands in saying, No, I think we've been lazy and I think we've been cowards.
[00:29:05]  And rather than saying, No, God made me for this, God made me strong for this, I'm to work hard and lay my life down as a husband, as a father.
[00:29:15]  In my labors, in order to provide and protect for these practical necessities and for their spiritual well being, so that we will live in a free land.
[00:29:26]  That freedom is directly tied to fathers and husbands saying, No, this is my responsibility.
[00:29:33]  I will do it because Jesus has given me this command.
[00:29:38]  Amen.
[00:29:39]  Last brief question, but I think we've got to hit it in terms of, okay, fathers have the responsibility to physically provide, spiritually provide.
[00:29:47]  It's love, it's care, it's friendship, it's intimacy, it's food, it's clothing, it's shelter.
[00:29:51]  And then it's also the medical piece, you know, paying for medical expenses and all these kinds of things.
[00:29:57]  And the father has the responsibility and therefore he has the corresponding rights.
[00:30:01]  He gets to make the call with all these kinds of things.
[00:30:03]  And then there's the education piece.
[00:30:05]  But one last little piece that's in there that you talk about handing down of skills and loyalties and then setting our children and future generations up for successfully replicating the family.
[00:30:20]  Uh, business and continuing to build wealth, and with that, we had the word inheritance.
[00:30:26]  Um, I don't know of any generation other than boomers, uh, that would not be ashamed that would have the audacity and gall to have a bumper sticker on the back of their car that says, Spending my grandkids' inheritance as a badge of pride.
[00:30:43]  Do you know?
[00:30:44]  I feel like so.
[00:30:45]  I've been reading on past American generations, and I'm not trying to be so.
[00:30:50]  This is hard, right?
[00:30:50]  So, I So, honor your father and mother, Joel.
[00:30:55]  And so, in my particular father and mother, I haven't done some of these things.
[00:31:00]  But there is a broader sense, a general application of that command of honoring your father and mother.
[00:31:05]  I think one of the things that's really hard for you and I, our generation, is honoring our father and mother, which we are commanded to do.
[00:31:14]  And there is a sense like Noah's two sons, not the one who is cursed, but the two walking in backwards to cover up their father's nakedness.
[00:31:22]  There's a sense of honoring our father.
[00:31:26]  But there is also this sense of, as a minister preaching God's law and gospel, the boomer generation is historically the worst generation in American history.
[00:31:39]  In 250 years, every institution was conceded under their watch.
[00:31:45]  Roe versus Wade, their watch.
[00:31:47]  Easy divorce, their watch.
[00:31:52]  Public schools, you know, and then with that, it's not only we handed our children to the wolves, and they had the benefit, right?
[00:32:03]  They had the benefit of in the 60s having the sexual revolution and protesting the war and all these kind of things and speaking truth to power.
[00:32:10]  And then, you know, five to 10 years later, Walking back into those same institutions and a robust economy, making their millions and then retiring, but then leaving those institutions crumbled.
[00:32:24]  We are the first generation, I think millennials are the first generation in American history since its founding that, on average, will make less than its parents.
[00:32:34]  Every generation made more, made more, made more.
[00:32:37]  Only since the boomers do we have a generation set up for failure.
[00:32:43]  And so, my point is throwing to the wolves in terms of abortion.
[00:32:47]  Easy divorce, eroding of the family unit, all these kind of things.
[00:32:51]  And the cherry on top is, and I'm also going to spend their inheritance.
[00:32:55]  I'm not even going to give them an inheritance.
[00:32:57]  I ruined the world.
[00:32:58]  I ruined the world that they have to live in.
[00:33:01]  I really did.
[00:33:02]  Boomers did that.
[00:33:04]  And we won't even give them an inheritance to live in this world that we wrecked on our way out.
[00:33:10]  Obviously, I'm not a fan.
[00:33:13]  So, what do you think about that?
[00:33:15]  Why is that?
[00:33:16]  Why?
[00:33:17]  Yeah.
[00:33:18]  Well, the first thing I would say is I think there's a good bit of truth to what you're saying.
[00:33:23]  I would also say, though, I don't think it started with the boomers.
[00:33:26]  Okay.
[00:33:26]  Help me.
[00:33:28]  I think we were giving the farm away several generations before that.
[00:33:37]  And you can always, as a historian, sort of keep pulling and you pull the next thing and the generation before that.
[00:33:43]  I mean, and it kind of goes back to Adam.
[00:33:47]  Things tend to go back to Adam.
[00:33:49]  Yeah.
[00:33:49]  This is Adam's fault.
[00:33:51]  But I think, even just in this country, I think, even though I believe that chattel slavery was a wicked evil in this land, I do think that far more was at stake in the Civil War and the war between the states.
[00:34:08]  I think we lost something very significant in that war.
[00:34:16]  I think you start seeing the crumbling of Christian notions of Christendom.
[00:34:24]  Of delegated powers and authorities of a truly sort of Republican small r form of government where there are lesser magistrates, where states and counties and cities have authority.
[00:34:38]  I think that was starting to be lost after the Civil War.
[00:34:41]  I think the women's suffrage movement was a direct attack on the authority of the family.
[00:34:51]  And maybe that's a rabbit trail we don't need to go down, but I would recommend reading.
[00:34:56]  R.L. Dabney on that at the turn of the century.
[00:34:59]  He said that.
[00:35:01]  He said, if we do this, we are saying nationally by giving women the vote, we're saying that families are not a unit.
[00:35:12]  Yeah.
[00:35:13]  Husbands and wives are not one flesh.
[00:35:15]  And therefore, politically, we are already blowing up the family.
[00:35:19]  You're right.
[00:35:21]  And that happened at the turn of the century, many decades before the boomers were on the scene.
[00:35:27]  We had rulings in the early part of the 20th century.
[00:35:32]  In the 1920s and the 1930s, which said that we just did a recent interview with a guy named Jeff Schaefer, who's a former ADF attorney, spent 15, 20 years with them, is now heading up the new Institute of Law and Policy at New St. Andrews College.
[00:35:55]  And he just traced for us a number of Supreme Court rulings in the early 19 teens and 1920s and 1930s, where the Supreme Court was.
[00:36:04]  Systematically dismantling the natural God given authority of the family.
[00:36:10]  That was happening a generation or more before the boomers were on the scene.
[00:36:15]  I think you're right.

=== The Cancer of Dismantled Authority (02:47) ===

[00:36:17]  I think because of the boomer generation, I think because of the boom in population and wealth and industry, the cancer that had begun in the early part of the 20th century and had been left unchecked, I think it metastasized under the boomer generation.
[00:36:36]  Okay.
[00:36:36]  But I think we already had cancer, and I think we failed.
[00:36:39]  I think the boomer generation failed to do the chemo that was necessary.
[00:36:44]  But I think we see the same thing, and all the mainline denominations went liberal before the boomers.
[00:36:50]  They were going liberal before the boomers.
[00:36:51]  They were denying the resurrection of Jesus, the virgin birth, the inspiration of scripture, the reality of miracles, the necessity of regeneration.
[00:37:00]  That all happened in the 1920s and 1930s and 1940s.
[00:37:03]  And then, as the boomer generation came on and the sexual revolution happened, yeah, we started ordaining the women and homosexuals and condoning it.
[00:37:12]  But the groundwork had already been laid, is what you said.
[00:37:16]  Exactly.
[00:37:17]  So I think you're right to say something big and explosive happened under the boomer generation, and that's unfortunate and sad.
[00:37:24]  I think the seeds were laid much before that, and it all bore fruit under the boomer generation.
[00:37:34]  I think you're absolutely right, though.
[00:37:35]  I think we are sitting in the ruins of that, and the bumper sticker that says, this is my grandkids' inheritance, or I'm spending my kids' inheritance.
[00:37:46]  Is absolutely shameful.
[00:37:48]  It's an abomination.
[00:37:51]  And I think, you know, what it ought to, you know, the fine print underneath ought to say I'm also ensuring that my kids and grandkids will be enslaved.
[00:38:00]  Yep.
[00:38:02]  That's what they're doing.
[00:38:03]  And to the extent that they're doing it with any kind of intentionality or knowledge, what they need to know is by not leaving inheritance to your children's children, by not seeking their blessing for those that come after you, you are saying, I want to make sure that they.
[00:38:20]  Um, they are slaved, they're enslaved.
[00:38:23]  I want to make sure that they do not uh succeed as much as they could.
[00:38:27]  I want to make sure that they do not take as much dominion as they could, that's right, and have as much cultural impact as they could, which is all sad and wicked.
[00:38:37]  Um, at the same time, I would say, um, there's absolutely no room in all of that for self pity.
[00:38:45]  Um, the last thing in the world we need as millennials or whatever victims, no victims, right?
[00:38:51]  You take what you get, you don't throw a fit, so sin.
[00:38:55]  On that generation not giving more.
[00:38:58]  But then, okay, but then, like David said, the lines have fallen for me in pleasant places.

=== Inheritance in Christ Without Self-Pity (04:56) ===

[00:39:04]  So, whether you're the king like David, right?
[00:39:06]  Because sometimes I'm like, easy for you to say, David, you were the king.
[00:39:09]  I mean, there's some big lines, you know.
[00:39:11]  But it's one thing to salute the sovereignty of God as an attribute.
[00:39:16]  But we know that we're really trusting and celebrating the sovereignty of God as an attribute when we are content with what he sovereignly provides, with his sovereign providence, not just his sovereign character, but his sovereign providence.
[00:39:27]  And so, yeah, you take what you take.
[00:39:29]  What you get, and you don't throw a fit, and you make the most of it, and you trust in the God who, I mean, because we're talking about the God of miracles.
[00:39:38]  So we're talking about the God who takes a few loaves and fishes and multiplies them to feed 5,000.
[00:39:43]  And so we serve the God who raises the dead.
[00:39:48]  And so on this particular topic, what I would urge people to do now is regardless of what you inherited or will inherit nothing or anything at all, recognize that the inheritance that you have in Christ is mind blowing and you didn't deserve it.
[00:40:03]  Yeah.
[00:40:04]  So the gospel drives gospel generosity and it drives the healing of families.
[00:40:09]  The end of Malachi says that God is coming to turn the hearts of fathers to the children and the hearts of children to the fathers.
[00:40:16]  And if you're in a situation where you say, wow, yeah, I need healing there, well, this is what the gospel is for.
[00:40:23]  And what I would say is start by honoring your father and mother.
[00:40:27]  Even if they haven't been faithful in honoring and thinking about their children and grandchildren, what does the gospel do?
[00:40:33]  The gospel is for that.
[00:40:34]  The gospel loves enemies.
[00:40:39]  It gives what isn't deserved.
[00:40:41]  That's gospel grace.
[00:40:42]  And honor your father and mother doesn't just mean send them Father's Day cards and Mother's Day cards.
[00:40:46]  Jesus says explicitly that what it means is providing for them.
[00:40:51]  And so we ought to be immediately thinking okay, how can I provide for my parents and my grandparents?
[00:40:57]  One of the ways in which I think the curse of the failure of the family has been manifest in the last couple of years is how many thousands.
[00:41:07]  Of our grandparents and parents were in nursing homes when COVID hit.
[00:41:12]  And then through the bungling and machinations of governors and civil magistrates who confined our parents and grandparents to those nursing homes, often infected with COVID, the most vulnerable population we now know statistically.
[00:41:27]  I mean, why is it that the mass mortality rate has primarily been centered in nursing homes?
[00:41:34]  Well, because we put our parents and our grandparents there.
[00:41:38]  And we gave the authority of caring for them to civil magistrates.
[00:41:44]  Yeah, who killed them.
[00:41:46]  And we cannot be surprised, we cannot be shocked that so many of them died.
[00:41:52]  And I have it in my own family.
[00:41:55]  And that's to our shame.
[00:41:58]  That doesn't mean that there's never a place for assistance, for caring for parents, but the authority and the responsibility needs to remain with the family.
[00:42:07]  And there should never be a situation where you can't see your mom or your dad or your grandma or your grandpa.
[00:42:13]  And there should never be a situation where you could not bring them home if you thought that was the best thing for them.
[00:42:19]  And the default position ought to be that as your parents and grandparents age, you would want them in your home.
[00:42:25]  You would want to care for them as long as you possibly can.
[00:42:29]  Jesus says that is the fulfillment of the fifth commandment.
[00:42:33]  That's right.
[00:42:34]  And Jesus indicts any kind of religious tradition of men.
[00:42:40]  That would encourage to give to the church, to give to the temple at the expense of providing for your parents.
[00:42:45]  And that's all the.
[00:42:46]  Go ahead.
[00:42:47]  Or Social Security.
[00:42:48]  Yeah.
[00:42:49]  Yeah.
[00:42:50]  That's no excuse.
[00:42:50]  You can't say, well, I paid into Social Security, my parents are getting the check.
[00:42:54]  Right.
[00:42:54]  And then that goes.
[00:42:55]  That's the kind of thing Jesus is talking about.
[00:42:56]  You're right.
[00:42:57]  And that goes right back to, again, 1 Timothy 5, where, you know, like if this widow has children, it falls on them.
[00:43:05]  And explicitly what Paul says is children should learn to give some return to their parents, for this is good and pleasing in the sight of God.
[00:43:11]  That's right.
[00:43:12]  Which is precisely part of the reason why my wife and I moved our family, uprooted, left the church that I was pastoring in California, moved to Texas, because my wife's parents are here and my parents are here.
[00:43:24]  And now we're within about a.
[00:43:28]  10 to 15 minute drive with both sets of grandparents.
[00:43:32]  And our children are seeing grandma and grandpa on both sides once or twice a week.
[00:43:39]  And our kids are having the time of their lives.
[00:43:43]  And our grandparents are elated.
[00:43:45]  And now we're here.
[00:43:46]  So as they age, we can help them.
[00:43:49]  You know, in California, we were living in a shoebox and we would, you know, could pack them in, but now we're in Texas.
[00:43:54]  And so we actually live in a, you know, we're in a first world country now.
[00:43:58]  We have a home, an actual home, those kind of things.
[00:44:00]  And everything's bigger in Texas.

=== Caring for Aging Grandparents (00:47) ===

[00:44:01]  That's right.
[00:44:03]  And so we're better positioned to care, like what you're saying, for our parents.
[00:44:07]  So, all right.
[00:44:07]  Well, let's, I think that's super helpful.
[00:44:11]  And Toby, I know you have other things to do for the kingdom of God besides talk to me.
[00:44:15]  So, we got through half of it.
[00:44:17]  So, do you think maybe two, three weeks from now, you would have time to, and we could just do one more session and finish it?
[00:44:22]  Yeah, let's do that.
[00:44:23]  That would be awesome, Joel.
[00:44:24]  I'd love to.
[00:44:25]  Cool.
[00:44:25]  I'll email you a couple of prospective dates and we'll make it happen.
[00:44:29]  I appreciate it.
[00:44:30]  Wonderful.
[00:44:31]  Thank you.
[00:44:31]  Yep.
[00:44:32]  All right.
[00:44:32]  Thanks so much for listening.
[00:44:34]  But, real quick, Before you go, do us a small favor, take a moment, and leave us a five star review if you enjoyed the show.
[00:44:41]  This is undoubtedly the best way that you can help us get this biblically faithful content to as many people as possible.
[00:44:48]  Thanks so much.