Ever heard this quote?
“Permit me to issue and control the money
of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws!”
One
might also say, “Permit me to own and control the education
of the children of a nation, and I care not the religion of their parents.”
Secularists
have taken this approach to their desire to dominate society, and it’s worked
quite well for them.
In some quarters of Christendom, it has
become acceptable to agree with the notion that Christianity will advance “by
default” as long as there are strong Christian marriages and families with lots
of children. The idea is that pagans and secularists are not having babies as
they abort them, reject marriage or just simply are too self absorbed to care
about raising families. Therefore we can simply out-breed them!
Well statistically 90% of Christians
send their children to public schools. Of those 90% of children in public
schools, 90% of those test as having adopted secularism. Schools that claim to
be “Christian” but do not consciously teach a Christian worldview don’t fare
much better. Even generic homeschooling is only marginally better (though
this is because it seems the non-Christian forms of homeschooling weren’t
filtered out in the study).
So
who ends up winning when Christians have tons of kids and send them off to be
trained in a secular worldview? Where they are taught over and over to
set aside the word of God in the pursuit of knowledge. The answer is obvious.
And these statistics only confirm what we already know to be true from
scripture. Generally speaking, training in Godliness produces Godliness.
Training in ungodliness produces ungodliness.
The
advance of Christendom takes more than just having a bunch of kids within
strong marriages. How many children Christians have matters little to
the advancement of Christendom if they are either sent off to government
schools for indoctrination or if they are not part of a community which
constitutes a rival social order to that of Satan’s kingdom. In the former
case, families are simply raising children which are by and large being
immediately siphoned off for Satan’s kingdom or in the latter case, because
there is no alternative social order to join, siphoned off within 2 or 3
generations. We’ve seen this cycle over and over and it’s no accident that
Christendom is marginalized in society.
This is why we must remember that demographics, while important are
not the key. Faithful obedience and discipleship is. We do not win or lose “by
default” through demographics.
The
hyper focus on demographics can sometimes be an over-reaction from the other
ditch which is when Christians think that having large families is irrelevant
to the success of the Great Commission. This
misguided mindset also regards the dominion mandate as having ended, or if it
continues, it is totally irrelevant to multiplying in physical offspring.
Either this or they misconstrue scripture as teaching that the ideal for all
times is for everyone to remain single and childless. There is also a mindset
compromised by creeping secularism that regards large families as inherently
irresponsible. These ditches also needs to be addressed but that’s another
article!
So in conclusion, though it isn’t
everyone’s calling to get married and raise a family, it IS crucial that
Christians who are called go forth and build strong Christian families based on
strong marriages rooted in Christ. But these families must make disciples of
their children and of the world. They must form Christian communities with a
Christian social order. Faithful obedience is the key to the advancement of
Christendom. Victory
doesn’t come by default.