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    by Mike McHugh

The Family's Sure Defense
Date Posted: July 27, 2006

In early June, 2006, the United States Senate rejected a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution that was designed to protect the institution of marriage by defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman. This legislative proposal was put forth by politicians who were seeking to raise a standard against the growing efforts of those that are intent on redefining marriage to include "same sex" partners. The mere fact that such a bill was even deemed necessary, reveals the extent of the current crisis and further clarifies just how intent the forces of darkness are in trying to undermine the God-ordained institution of marriage.

As a Christian home school dad, I have watched the intensity of the attack upon the foundation of the family in the U.S. and abroad increase significantly in recent years and have sought the Lord’s wisdom as to how to respond. As usual, the Lord reminded me to take direction and comfort from His Word. While I believe that I do have a duty as a citizen to support political or legislative efforts designed to protect the family, the Word of God makes it clear that the Lord Himself will ultimately defend the covenant of marriage. The family unit comprised of one man and one woman is, after all, His creation and an institution that is central to His plan for the human race.

How easy it is to forget that the pages of human history record the fact that the institution of biblical marriage has been under serious attack by various forces on numerous occasions over the centuries. In recent decades, several communist countries such as the Soviet Union and East Germany, had elaborate and aggressive programs in place to try to eliminate the family and replace it with a state-run communal system operated by social engineers. Needless to say, these programs did not survive the test of time and, come to think of it, neither did these countries! No matter how men act upon their foolish schemes to undermine God’s rule, the fact remains that the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. The Lord alone is God and it is hard for men to kick against the pricks. As the passage in Ecclesiastes 3:14 states "I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him."

It was the famous nineteenth-century author Jacob Abbott, who wrote the following concerning God’s preservation of the family:

"God has grouped men in families, having laid the foundation of this institution so deep in the very constitution of man that there has been no nation, no age, scarcely even a single savage tribe, that has not been drawn to the result which He intended. For thousands of years, this institution has been assailed by every power that could shake it by violence from without, or undermine it by treachery from within. Lust and passion have risen in rebellion against it. Atheism has again and again advanced to the attack, but the Christian family unit stands unmoved. It has been indebted to no human power for its defense. It has needed no defense. The family stands on the firm, sure, and enduring foundation that God has made for it. Wars, famine, pestilence, and revolutions have swept over the face of society carrying confusion, terror, and distress to social structures. Time has undermined and destroyed everything that it could touch, and all human institutions have thus been altered or destroyed in the lapse of ages. But the family lives on; it stands firm and unshaken. It survives every shock, and rises again unharmed after every tempest that blows over the social sky. God created marriage to bless His creatures and to advance His purposes in the earth, and He has laid its foundations too deep and strong to be removed."

When it comes to defending Christian marriage, home school parents would do well to remember that the best way to defend biblical marriage is for them to diligently keep their own marriage vows. One of the primary reasons that the institution of Christian marriage is under attack today, is that professing Christians on a massive scale have failed to honor the injunction "What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder." It is, after all, with well-doing that we silence the foolishness of worldly men. Those home school parents who are serious about defending the covenant of marriage must, therefore, take a hard look within their own household to ensure that their family is part of the solution and not part of the problem.

It is my prayer that God would be pleased to grant my family, and many other Christian home educators, a powerful testimony before a watching world of what a true marriage can produce for good. In the end, it will be the testimony of faithful covenant families that God will use to preserve the institution of the family. Those who fear the Lord, therefore, should not worry about the future of the family for our confidence is not in princes or in the U.S. Senate. Our sure and abiding hope is in the sovereign works of Almighty God who will arise at the proper hour to set the foundations that He has laid back in their place.

Copyright 2006 Michael J. McHugh

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Biography Information:
This column is written by the staff at Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights, Illinois. As a pioneer in the homeschool movement, Christian Liberty ministries has been operating a full service, K-12 home school program for over thirty years and a Christian textbook ministry (Christian Liberty Press), since 1985. The mission of Christian Liberty is to provide parents with quality, affordable educational products and services that will enable them to teach their children in the home and to train their children to serve Christ in every area of life. A more extensive explanation of the CLASS home school program can be obtained at www.homeschools.org.
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