Father Knows Best

by George F Spall

Among the many other precious things which have come to our modern society from the ancient cultures in which the nation of Israel was nurtured, none has been more profitable and productive of good than the parent-child relationship.

It began very early in Israel's national development for we read in Genesis 18:17-19, "And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in Him? For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him."

Abraham's family, like most others, divided to multiply. His son Ishmael fathered twelve more children, and his son Isaac, two --  Esau and Jacob. Those two sired yet more. Most of them are still with us, for Esau's descendants are in Jordan and Arabia, and Jacob's are scattered over the earth as well as in Israel.

They were still a close-knit family group when famine drove Jacob and his family into Egypt, and there, adversity kept them together and preserved their identity. When they eventually left Egypt, they were still a great family, even on a national scale.

To preserve the family concept, God gave to them, through Moses their leader, His Ten Commandments. Engraved with the finger of God, not on tablets of soft clay, baked in the sun or kiln, but on tablets of stone, were enshrined the Ten Words that have held those twelve tribes together. One of them reads: "Honour thy father and mother that thy days may be long in the land that the Lord thy God giveth thee."

The family relationship that Abraham preserved was now under a commandment that held both a penalty and a reward. It was the first one that ever did have both attached to it. God issued those commands because He had determined what was good for His family.

Last year was ushered in with loud-sounding trumpets that blared: "1979 is the year of the child. Let us liberate the children."

The phrase, "Kiddie Lib" was born. Dressed in the attractive garments of sentiment against a backdrop of gaunt tortured faces of starving babies and children in chains, we have been urged to liberate them: to allow them to enjoy their rights, to stop our discrimination.

We are now accustomed to the syllabic language of modern reporters who pepper their sentences with capital letters to save a line or two of newsprint which we learn to accept as part of our mental diet. Let us scan a paragraph or two, relevant to this subject.

The U.N. declared 1975 to be I.W.Y. (International Women's Year). Then, in 1976, the U.N. named 1979 to be the I.Y.C. (International Year of the Child) with the U.N.I.C.I.E.F. as the agency to implement it. At a recent W.I.Z.O. (Women's International Zionist Organization) luncheon, we were told of the World Conference for Women, held in Mexico City. It was at that conference that the Women's International Democratic Federation (W.I.D.F.) proposed that there be an International Women's Year.

There is a Journal published in East Berlin called THE WOMEN OF THE WHOLE WORLD. It is the organ of the Women's International Democratic Federation. How these people love to declare themselves to "International" and clothe themselves in the garb of "One Worlders" as if we had given them our authority so to do!

That magazine, that dares to speak for all the women of the world, tells us that it was the W.I.D.F. which is run by the same people who sponsored the I.W.Y. and the I.Y.C., who introduced these organizations to the United Nations.

Who are these people who can go so easily through the portals of the U.N. and have such influence on the world's leaders? And what are their aims?

During the International Women's Year, they were advocating "reproductive freedom" which being translated is, abortion, and sexual preference, which is a euphemism for homosexuality.

Last year they were doing their best to liberate children. They moved into the field of education to abolish what they called "sexism" in schools and to work towards "restructuring the existing institutions" so all children can be "liberated". Their literature came from socialist countries -- Poland, East Germany, and Czechoslovakia, which were taken over by military conquest and are still not free.

From what then have these people themselves been liberated and from what do they hope to liberate our children? They tell us themselves.

1. From old-fashioned Family Life-Style. From the kind of parental guidance and control that God found so commendable in Abraham. "We recommend that the laws of dealing with the rights of parents be re-examined and changed where they infringe on the rights of children. Those rights include freedom from punishment, complete sexual freedom, freedom to vote, freedom to handle their own money. Put the children into the care of 'trained teachers' from the age of two or three who will guide them into complete freedom and teach them to do their own thing. We must help them get rid of guilt feelings."
2. Freedom from old-fashioned morality based on the idea that there is a Supreme Being. Teach them Humanism and that the current standards of the community should govern our behaviour, not out-dated spiritual values. Teach that abortion is not immoral, that sexuality standards are our own and not the province of priests. Euthanasia and the right to suicide are a matter for the individual. Marriage can be replaced by voluntary association if desired.
3. Children must be liberated from Patriotism, Nationalism and Militarism. World Peace must have higher priority.
4. The Organizers of the I.Y.C. were in support of the "Declaration and Programme for Action on Establishment of a New International Economic Order" which means, restructuring the present society to suit their own ends!

All of this is unashamed Humanism which is in direct opposition to the "God the Father knows best" principle which applied in the Garden of Eden. It was this "Determinism by the God of Creation" which Satan induced Adam and Eve to discard. His suggestion to them that "they would be as gods knowing good and evil" was the idea that they would know what was best for themselves. They would be able to decide their own destiny and life-style.

They made that decision and it was a rejection of their loving God's plan for them. They would not allow God to determine their life-style. They would decide that themselves as humans. So Humanism was born and continues. It can be condensed into "We do not need you, God. No God for me!"

There has been a spiritual battle ever since, and like all conflicts, it is bound to reach a catastrophic conclusion eventually. King David foresaw this when he wrote the Second Psalm. "The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying; Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us."

King David anticipated a confrontation. It is worthwhile to study that Psalm and notice that God intends to retake the throne and re-establish Himself through the Anointed, the Messiah, on Mount Zion.

We believe it will be a physical confrontation, in fact, an expression of the mind and purpose of the Human Race which has for so long been building up to it through its rejection of the Laws of Israel's God. Fists fly because ill feeling erupts. The spirit is hostile first before the fists are thrown.

In a garden of olive trees bathed in the soft light of the paschal moon, the Messiah resisted the temptation to do His own will, and instead, accepted the Father's. The Garden of Gethsemane witnessed the struggle which was so intense that He sweated blood. This struggle was brought about by the very possibility of death which threatened to overcome Him right there -- " My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death ..." (Mark 14:34). "Father knows best", He said, and so yielded His obedience and life. He had held that attitude all His life. His rejection of Humanism with its "I'll do my own thing" was total. But it won Heaven!

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