Biblical Fatherhood in the Modern Age

by Pastor Rick Thompson

I believe that biblical manhood is under assault today. I believe we are in the midst of a spiritual battle in our culture, and the frontlines of that cultural battle are in the arena of gender ideology, and specifically, what I believe is the alarming decline of a compelling manhood vision.

We live in a relativistic age in what Carl Trueman in his landmark book, “The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self,” calls the “age of expressive individualism,” in which identity is found less from transcendent biblical values or absolute truth, and more from subjective feelings and sexual impulses. The result is confusion, despair and lack of a strong identity outside of self.

Especially masculine identity.

When we dig into the most profound and deep-seated problems that are impacting our culture, many can be boiled down to one thing: confused and frustrated men. Men not acting like men. Men who have no vision of biblical manhood. Men who have lost their way.

A growing number of young men are facing psychological and emotional crises that have resulted in a number of alarming statistics (Source: CDC):

·      Young men account for 75 percent of all suicides.
·      Young men are three times more likely to experience addiction and account for 81 percent of drug overdose deaths.
·      For the first time in history, over 50 percent of marriage-age men are not married.
·      Forty percent of births in the U.S. are to unmarried moms (up from 20 percent in 1990).
·      Sixty-five percent of young adult men admit to viewing porn regularly.
·      Over 50 percent of marriages end in divorce in the U.S.
·      Eighty-one percent of all violent crime is committed by young men.

On this week of Father’s Day, I want to make a point that should ring true for all of us:

Manhood identity matters and biblical masculinity makes a difference. Biblical manhood makes an enormous difference in children, the family, the church and society. Conversely, when men lose their way and have no vision for biblical manhood, society suffers. I believe we need a strong revival and even a reformation of the glorious and beautiful vision of biblical manhood.

I frame this as a spiritual issue for one simple reason: Jesus framed it that way. In Matthew 12, Jesus taught a salient lesson about the tactics of the enemy, and how he destroys the home. This is what Jesus said:

Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can plunder his house (Matthew 12:29).

Jesus teaches that the way to destroy a home is to tie up the strong man.

What I am saying to all of us is that in homes and communities all across our country, men are being bound up. The issue is spiritual in nature, and it is having a tremendous societal impact.   

The very idea of manhood is going through an enormous sea change in our cultural consciousness. Men are bound up in a focus on self, and the popular idea that pleasing self is the highest good.

They are bound up in all kinds of addictions that keep them from realizing their full potential as productive men and husbands and fathers. Boys are not catching a vision of biblical manhood, and the problem is perpetuating into future generations.

The enemy has a very powerful weapon in this battle.

He doesn’t have to destroy the church.

He doesn’t have to burn down the cities or start a war.

He doesn’t have to start riots or influence elections.

The enemy doesn’t have to make a big splash if he wants to ultimately destroy the church and society.  

All he has to do, very subversively and effectively, is to bind up the strong man within the home. If he can tie up fathers and destroy the vision of biblical manhood, destruction of families will follow. Destroyed families lead to the destruction of communities, churches and ultimately, all of society.

This strategy is devastatingly effective. Consider these alarming statistics from the National Fatherhood Initiative:

Fatherless homes account for the following:

·      63% of teen suicides
·      90% of teen runaways
·      71% of high school dropouts
·      75% of teenagers in drug treatment
·      85% of prison inmates

Over the past several months I have talked to several schoolteachers who are quitting their jobs out of frustration. Increasingly, America’s school children are out of control. They don’t know how to respect adults. They don’t know how to follow rules. They don’t know how to sit and learn. The control of a school room in modern America is becoming increasingly impossible. The frustrations of our schoolteachers are like a canary in a coal mine—they are warning us that our society is coming apart at the seams—the seams that were once held together by the American family unit. They are seams that are becoming increasingly frayed and dysfunctional. Listen to these words from the University of Texas Child and Family Research Center:

Involved fatherhood is linked to better outcomes on nearly every measure of child wellbeing, from cognitive development and educational achievement to self-esteem and pro-social behavior. Children who grow up with involved fathers are 39 percent more likely to earn mostly As in school, 45 percent less likely to repeat a grade, 60 percent less likely to be suspended or expelled from school, twice as likely to go to college and find stable employment after high school and 75 percent less likely to have a teen birth. (University of Texas Child and Family Research)

What is the answer? The answer is a reformation of the family and that begins with biblical manhood. The answer is a renewed and fresh vision of what it means to be a godly man. The problem is a spiritual one, and therefore, the answer is spiritual in nature as well. What does biblical manhood look like?

Robert Lewis spent many years writing about the meaning of biblical manhood. He offers four key characteristics found in scripture that define that vision:

1.     A godly man leads courageously.
2.     A godly man rejects passivity.
3.     A godly man accepts responsibility.
4.     A godly man seeks God’s reward.

I believe the time is coming, and may even be sooner than we think, that a kind of spiritual renewal will come to our communities. And that revival will result in a reformation of biblical manhood and a grand vision for fatherhood. It needs to happen. If it doesn’t, there will be many darker days ahead.

In the final prophecy of the Old Testament that pointed to the coming of Christ and the emergence of a new spiritual kingdom, Malachi wrote these prophetic words. They are words that ring true in modern times:

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse (Malachi 4:16).

Author Bio
Pastor Rick has served as Senior Pastor at Council Road Baptist Church for 19 years. He and his wife, Teri, have two adult children, a daughter-in-law, a soon-to-be son-in-law and two grandsons.