Geoffrey Botkin discusses in this audio message how he personally applies the sufficiency of Scripture his family. He shares that unfortunately, there is no formula to help you hang on to your children. Salvation is something that only God can bring about. And yet, that doesn't mean that we don't teach our children the right foundations. This sermon addresses the question of how we lay these foundations.

Proverbs 24:3-4 (NKJV) - "Through wisdom a house is built,And by understanding it is established;By knowledge the rooms are filledWith all precious and pleasant riches."

This is now my distinct privilege to introduce to you an exemplary young man, an honoring son and a professional composer, Benjamin Botkin, to introduce to you his father. I'd really like to warmly thank you all very much for coming to hear a man speak who I appreciate and love very dearly. The Bakken family has really... Isn't it amazing to be at a conference like this where 2500 people come out to revel in, to understand, try to appreciate more the sufficiency, the perfection and the completion of the Word of God. That's something that's really been a blessing to our family.

As a young man, there have been many men and actually it's interesting to me, there are a lot of men here who have had very specific influences in my lives in many ways. It's just you have the whole gambit here, but one man above all who has really shown and personified a love for the law of God and just an intense appreciation for it more than anyone else I have ever known is Jeffrey Botkin. So without any further ado, would you please welcome who I believe is the most godly and wise man alive today, Mr. Jeffrey Botkin. Well thank you Benjamin.

It's always humbling to have one's children rise up and bless a father and bless a mother. I'd like all you mothers out there to know that my children regularly rise up and bless their mother. And they credit their mother with so much of what they have, and rightly so. And all you young people out there, I want you to shine as examples to your parents. You have no idea how encouraging it is to them when you do that for them and for Christ when you rise up and bless them in gratitude.

Today we'll be talking about some of the attitudes that make it possible for Scripture to be applied in the home. What Scott Brown wanted me to do today is to see if I would give you some of the so-called secrets of what we do in the Botkin home. And I just need to make very clear that anything that we do is no secret. It's found in Scripture. It is available to everyone.

And there is no formula that I could ever give any of you to help you hang on to your children. As Benjamin mentioned, you know, it's the... And I always wonder, growing up, do my children see this? Do they see that I really do fear God and fear His law and respect His law and want to build it into my life? Because without that, almost anything that I would teach them almost would be a formula.

Do this, walk this way, steer away from that, don't go in this direction. But once they see from a father and from a mother the love of scripture that they can begin to equate to their own life, then it's a different story. And you know, let me just say something to you all. I'm so very proud of all you who've come here to learn from the men who are speaking. And I'm referring to these great keynote speakers here who are church leaders, elders, pastors, shepherds, who've sacrificed their lives to try to do something that no one else has done, well, very few are doing in this country.

And they're getting criticism for it. And what I appreciate about them is that they understand that they are not teaching any special formula to churchgoers and church members about how to be good Christians, how to be good Christian families, perfect Christian families that will always hang on to their children. There is no formula for that. Now, one thing let me mention, I'd like all of you to be aware of, is a film that my children produced this last year called Home School Dropouts. It talks about an attitude that is rife in the homeschooling community all around the country.

That so many families think that they've arrived when they get their family together, pull them together, Pull them out of the public school system, pull them out of youth group, pull them out of the Sunday schools, and try to begin to raise them in the ways that they've been hearing about from tapes and at conferences and maybe even from a family integrated church. But Unless we have the right foundations settled in the way that we teach the truth, there will be dropouts. We'll lose children. And in the homeschooling movement today, there is an unprecedented dissatisfaction with the lifestyle that many of us have given our children. They're not entirely happy with it.

Many of them are ashamed of it around their friends and are making plans at this point to leave. You heard Ken Ham last night talk about the number of church-going young people who are way gone, already gone, because their hearts are not with their families. And even if we get everything right in our family-integrated churches, if the heart's not there, there will be no lasting fruit, the fruit that you want, the fruit that I want. And We are administering at this point a very fragile transition period. My family is fragile.

My stalwart sons that I love, who stand with their father, my daughters who stand very lovingly with their father, are fragile people. And you know, ladies and gentlemen, when I get alone with God and bow my heart before him and confess my sins to him, The great weaknesses that come to my mind as I seek the Lord are the weaknesses that I have as a father, and the shortcomings that I have, and the sins that I have that I must turn from, And all the undone things that I want to do with my children that I have not yet done. Things that I have neglected to do. And it's only by the grace of God that I have the hearts of my children today. For today.

And I need to continue to hold them and cherish them very carefully. Now as I begin this message, my children have asked me if I would make a quick announcement about a course that I'll be starting. Many people have requested this from me, an online mentoring course. It'll begin the very first Saturday of the new year and go for nine weeks, one hour every Saturday morning. You can find out about it on the slide here.

You can pull up this slide. If you go to western conservatory.com slash smm, Saturday morning mentoring. You can get the details on that if you'd like to be there. I'll be spending an hour every Saturday morning with anyone from around the world who wants to join in. There are men from New Zealand who want to be a part of this.

And many men here who've requested this will be there and you can have online interaction. Let me move quickly to the subject of our lecture today. Applying scripture in the home. And I begin by asking the painful question, what happened to the American family? You know, the family that has been so embattled today, we're losing it.

It's lonely, it's confused, it's chaotic, it's mammon-centered, it's entertainment-dependent, and it's so weak it's unable to define itself or even defend itself. And this breaks my heart. I was talking to Kevin Swanson just before this program, and he was relating to me the demographic proof that if things don't turn around all across the West, the very family will be dying. Nations will be dying because the fathers have not been doing their duty in the family. So what has happened to the American family?

Fathers ceased applying Scripture and entrusting Scripture to their families, and the family lost its cultural authority. We'll see today that the family is given by God a very special authority from God himself over culture. And if Families don't live the way they're supposed to live. They lose all that authority. And then the family's just beaten around and defined by any of its enemies.

And we are living at a time when the enemies are breathing fire at the family. Breathing fire at the father. And they're coming in for the kill. The final cultural surrender. And usually, when this happens, the cultural surrender will go from the family into the church, and then the church will surrender, and then you really do lose the entire culture.

So why do most American Christian families fail to apply Scripture? There are two main reasons. They may value conventional ideas about scripture and read scripture at home. And I saw a painting of a family doing it in Holland. After centuries of tradition, going back to the great reformation, dads read scripture at home at the end of the meal.

And their family's still doing it. But in this particular picture, the dad was doing it without interest. The children were listless. It had just become an empty convention. They may have ideas about domestic life that they try to pursue.

But most families are blind to Scripture's power and relevance to the family. And for these reasons, humanistic traditions of men separate scripture from the family. Separated. They've redefined the family. They said that it may have been a historical entity, but we know everything is evolving into the future, including society, including culture, as well as physical organisms.

And the family is a myth from the past that needs to be left in the past. So the humanistic traditions of man separate Scripture from the family, and the Bible becomes merely pietistic literature unrelated to that so-called mythical mission of the family that was once there. And so the application of Scripture becomes an unnecessary custom, Completely unnecessary. That's how men treat it. All across America and even in the Bible Belt.

It's unnecessary to really apply it. The second big reason is that the humanistic traditions of the evangelical church separate Scripture from the family. They separate it. They teach that it has to do with the sacred, that there's a clergy, secular laity distinction, that men, they don't only need to apply Scripture in the context of the church, and the professionals will do that. And so the men don't really need to do that in their homes.

And so thus, the application of Scripture becomes an unnecessary custom because of what the church has been doing to us. And so men, this is what has killed the American family. The humanistic traditions of men, and we've been taken captive by them. When Scripture commands us not to be taken captive by philosophy and empty deceptions, according to the elementary principles of the world, and according to the traditions of men rather than according to Christ, we're guilty and we need to confess it and admit it. Mr.

Phillips told you that quote by Calvin last night. He says, if we ever fail and get off track from applying Scripture, we'll be in a labyrinth and we won't be able to find ourselves out of it. It's a paraphrase. And we're in that labyrinth today. The family has been killed.

Jesus said in Matthew 4, 4, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by Every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Man is a creature made by God. He's finite. He's derivative. He only gets any of his information, his identity, from what God says in the revealed Word of God.

That's it. And then once he gets that from God, he begins to obey it. And so by revelation and obedience he lives. Man doesn't live by bread and by breathing air. Man lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God because when we see it and we grab it, we understand, and then we obey, and because of the covenant promises of God, then we're blessed with life, long Life, joyful life, family life.

And we can only get that life, not from a conference, not from a formula, but from obeying what we see and what we know. And this is what I've tried to teach my children. You have to read it. Since they've been very small, read Scripture. Have your devotions in the morning.

Open the Bible. But it's not just to read because Daddy said read for X number of minutes every day. The message is you open the Bible and find something to obey. And when they begin to have that attitude as they approach Scripture in life, that's how they begin to look at the Word of God. This is the command and the marching orders that I receive from God Almighty.

What do I obey today? What do I find today? There was a time in the lives of my oldest sons when I said, keep reading until you find something to obey. And so they would look and search Scripture to see what is there to obey, and it might be in Psalm. Rejoice in the Lord always.

Dad, is that a command? Yes, that's a command. Will you obey it? There are commands everywhere. And those who look at Scripture and obedience find the covenantal promises of God being revealed to them and made real to them.

There can be no life without revelation and obedience. This is the way God designed the universe. There's no life without it. Jesus Christ sustains the obedient who make his word the only rule of faith and practice. You've heard that phrase from many of the speakers.

The only rule of Faith and practice is scripture. There can be no Christian civilization without the scripturally obedient family institution. And that's why we're losing civilization. We haven't learned to read the Bible to obey it. We don't have the life-giving power and the authority that comes to the family because we haven't been obeying and applying Scripture in the home.

And when we don't have that, we lose our culture, we lose our civilization because the family is so central to that. Our Creator designed society to be family-centered. Society, family-centered. He designed the family to stand at the center of history. History past and history future.

And we're here in the middle to honor the past and to prepare our children for the future. And when we begin to see that too, our children get a picture of what obedience really looks like. This is God's design. This is where we find ourselves in history. And so, how should Scripture be applied in the family?

And I, in the next few minutes, want to give you two primary verses that have been real and energizing to me as a father, to help my children, and to help disciple my wife, to help try to be an example to others. And so we have to apply it as the primary imperative, Absolutely the primary imperative. And as I apply Scripture, this is really how I'm worshiping God. And it's not just Sunday, it's every day of the week. Applying Scripture, reading it to obey it, applying it, serving Jesus Christ, the word of God, by the way that I obey it.

That is worship. It should be applied as a stewardship of vast custodial powers. That's what God has given the family. Vast custodial powers. As the discharge of the sacred duty of the dominion mission.

Guarding the most mature responsibility given to man. Establishing a family. And not just any family, a multi-generational family. We've got a problem with maturity in our culture. Men are rebelling against it, moving against it, running away from it.

And they're encouraged to do that. The biggest responsibility given to man, and our sons need to know this and our daughters need to know this. Vody talked a lot about it. I won't go into it in great detail here. Prepare your children for marriage.

They can start a family. The Lord can bring from two people new souls, eternal souls, the most mature responsibility given to man, establishing a multi-generational family. Proverbs 13 says, who so despises the word shall be destroyed or be in debt to it. But he that feareth the commandment will be honored. And so even though men all around us in America don't know Scripture and don't know these important things, they will be in debt to the Word, and they'll be destroyed because they're not seeing the commandment.

Now, lest you think that, you know, my education to my sons and to my daughters has just been, Here are the commandments, all six or seven hundred of them that I found in Scripture, obey these and this is our curriculum. That's not our curriculum at home. I want them to see every command, have the attitude to obey it, understand it, and know how to obey it, because it says that you'll be rewarded if you are. Everyone will be in debt and will be destroyed by the promises of the Word of God if they don't obey Scripture. So my sons know this too.

It's not just an option. My sons must obey the Word of God. There's no option. They must obey the commandment. Now, I teach my sons this verse too.

The commandment has never been with the Lord God Almighty about simply keeping a list. Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or with 10, 000s of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression of the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? The prophet's saying here, I have told you what's important. Yes, the sacrifices are important, but that's not the end.

The commandment does not end in that. He goes on to say, he has showed thee, O man, what is good and what does the Lord require of thee but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. And fathers, we need to be men of the law. We need to know the law and teach the law. We need to talk about the commandments.

But if we don't have this, we will not be good fathers. If we will not understand the importance of justice, to do justly in everything that we say in the home. The way we spank our children, the way we speak to our children, the way we speak about what's going on outside the home, the way that we speak about our friends. If we don't understand justice and do it always, It doesn't matter how many of the other commandments we think we're keeping. We don't have the right heart in our home.

Our children will see hypocrisy and error. If we don't love mercy, and in Scripture mercy goes with the word covenant Often, love mercy and covenant, love mercy and covenant. We've got to love mercy and show our children how we love mercy. And we have to walk humbly with our God. And this is what the Lord has showed us.

He requires it of us that we have this kind of heart as fathers in the home. Abraham was a good example of this. When God says about him, Genesis 18 verse 19, I know him that he will command his children and his household after him. Meaning after the way of his ways, the way that he lives and the way that he thinks, his attitudes. He'll command his children in that manner.

And they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he has spoken about him. Included in that one verse really is quite a summary of the way of the Lord. Dominion, the doctrine of dominion, family discipleship, faith in God, fidelity to God's law, a practical knowledge of God's mind and judgment, practical knowledge of it. Abraham knew that, and he would command his children in that regard. The will to fight for what is right.

Patriarchal duty. Multi-generational responsibility. Cultural fruitfulness. Ever mindful of the covenantal faithfulness of God. What God has promised.

It's all in that one verse. Ten important doctrines of family discipleship in that one verse. And here's a great way for American Christians to begin. At the very beginning of the New Testament, and many of the children of Israel shall he, John the Baptist, return to the Lord their God. He'll go before him in the spirit and power of Elias to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children.

Now there's something going on with the Holy Spirit in this country right now and hearts of fathers are being turned to children. We're seeing it. How many of us look at the very next part of this verse? And I believe the Holy Spirit today is turning many of you men to this next part of the verse. The disobedient to the wisdom of the just.

To make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Your children prepared for the Lord. The disobedient, that's me, to the wisdom, something I don't have, of the just. God's standards of the law and righteousness and wisdom, That's what I want. That's what I want.

That's what you want. So how can American fathers become prepared for profitable service to their Heavenly Father as the leaders of their homes? Men, here's the second verse I want to give you. The first one is that one in Micah. You've got to have the right heart.

Love, mercy. Do justice. Walk humbly with your God. Here is a commandment that I have followed in my life in the Botkin home In training my children and teaching my children, I'd like you to pay close attention to this. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.

Is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." This is what I want for my children down here at the bottom. I want my children to be men and women of God. I want them to be perfect. That means complete.

In Colossians chapter 1 it says, to this end also I labor, striving according to his power, which mightily works within me. It says, we proclaim him, admonishing every man, including our children, teaching every man, including our children, that we may present every man complete in Christ. That's my job as a Christian. That's my job as a Christian dad. I want my children to be thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

And the more we study Scripture, we find out what those are, what they look like, what the good works are that have been created at the foundation of the world beforehand that we should walk in them. This is the way of the Lord, that we be zealous for good works. Not just that we know what they are, but that we be zealous like Jesus Christ was about the business of his Father. I told my wife last night as we were going to bed, said, honey, one of your sons came to me tonight and told me one of the most wonderful things I've heard. He said, Dad, I've been learning from the Lord that one thing that I need to have is a discipline in my life.

He actually gave me a list of five that he's been discerning from scripture that he needs to have as more of a discipline in his life. He said, Dad, one is that I need to learn to love the things you love more. This is what was true of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was zealous about his Father's business. And so I was explaining to my dear wife, I mean, these are the moments that we live for.

I'm very thankful for what the Lord is doing, but you remember what I said. We hold in trust something that's very fragile, and we could lose it at any time. And dads and mothers, we need to be protecting our children very carefully. We live in a very decadent world. When we came back from New Zealand to the United States, my children, who'd been gone for seven years, realized just how decadent and dark the United States was, and it was offensive to them.

We landed in Los Angeles, and they were offended by the culture and they were shocked by the culture. Now we've been here for a few years and it's easy like slipping into a hot tub to get comfortable in it. Those of you who've lived here all your lives, let me tell you, you are living in a treacherous, deadly, toxic nation. And it's deadly to your children. How do we train our children to be zealous for good works?

Well, this verse teaches us that Scripture is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness. So, I see this as a dad. I'm reading this. This is what becomes my curriculum for training my children. Doctrine, reproof, correction, training in righteousness.

This is what I've tried to do in applying Scripture in the Botkin household, is to give my children these four things. Now let's look at them very quickly. How do I teach doctrine in the home? I start with orthodoxy. We're living...

Many of you live in the Bible Belt. The Bible Belt has forgotten orthodoxy. They've forgotten the five solas. Sola fide, sola scriptura, sola gratia, sola Christus, and sola Dei gloria. We need to teach our children what those mean.

What does it really mean, sola scriptura, when we're trying to apply the sufficiency of Scripture and only Scripture to everything we do in our lives. I so love it when my children, they're modeling this to others. There was a young man who was debating with one of my sons just the other day. And He was getting frustrated, talking to my son David. David, you're so legally minded.

And I thought, praise God, he's legally minded. Because he's taking his thoughts back to the law of God and applying the law of God, Sola Scriptura, to the debate of the day. And every day there's a debate. Something comes up. And I love to see the minds of my children wrap their minds around, how do you apply Scripture to these complex topics that we're faced with today?

Can you do that? All the speakers are agreed here. Yes, you can apply Scripture to everything. From economics to agriculture to missionary activity to the reform of it. Foreign policy, military policy.

Scripture speaks to it and we can find the answers. I love to see my children trying to do it. The movie Twilight, what does Scripture say about it? Romance novels, What does Scripture say? And how do we, what do we decorate our bedrooms with?

Scripture has something to say about that. Can our children find out the answer? There was a young man in our home the other day and he asked his father, dad, I understand that cussing and swearing is really wrong, but I want to find the exact scriptural reason how I can argue why it's wrong. This is a mature young man. This is how our children need to be thinking.

Not just say, oh, we're Christians, we wear our hair a certain way, our dress is a certain way, we don't cuss, we don't do these other things on the list. We have no understanding why, We just know that that's the uniform. And we wear it because we're on that team. Ra ra ra, go team. That's not the Christian mind who can go to Scripture and defend, make a defense of the faith in every area.

And our children need to be able to do this. So I start with orthodoxy. Then I teach sovereignty and dominion that go together. The doctrine of sovereignty and dominion, it's not a scary thing. Sovereignty is not a scary thing.

Dominion is not a frightening attitude. Then I go to theonomy and law and the doctrines of freedom. Where did freedom come from? Theonomy is also not a scary. It simply means the law of God.

Like Mr. Phillips said, in the ways that we look at the law of God, do we have the same heart as David? Oh, how I love thy law. It's my meditation all the day. My eyes stream… shed streams of water because they do not Keep thy law.

Open my eyes that I may receive understanding and be able to keep thy law. Theonomy is nothing more than just studying the law and being able to apply it. Finding the law of God, which gives us life. It's revelation, and we obey it, and the Lord gives us life covenantally. Gives us life.

Jurisdictional analysis, I mean that is really important. Conversation came up with some young men the other day, what, you know, hey, you know, our daddies have taught us how to clean weapons, take responsibility, go hunting. What do we do about abortionists? You need jurisdictional analysis to know what happens to abortionists. Can rogue outlaws and vigilantes just go around and take them out?

Or is there a jurisdictional analysis that tells who and why and when? Any man deserves to be justly executed when and how and by whom and under what conditions and under what justice. How do we do justly? And there are answers in scriptures for that. Jurisdictional analysis.

I cannot go into your home, fathers, and fix your family. I'm not the dad. You're the dad. You have the jurisdiction there. When my son marries and goes to another family, can I teach the grandchildren?

Or is there a jurisdictional separation there? They might want to bring me over, bring them over to my house and say, Grandfather, please teach these grandchildren about the law of God and I'll teach the law of God. There is a jurisdiction there. My son would be asking me to do that. Antithesis in the battles of our day, the most important thing I think I ever taught my sons is that, sons, we live on a battleground and not the American playground.

And the antithesis is there. I loved what Paul Washer said the other day. He comes home from the mission field preaching. They curse at him and swear at him and hit him. And he says, honey, give me a hug.

What a hard day. And she says, well, honey, that's only what they're supposed to do. That's all they can do is swear at you and hit you and fight against you. Because there's an antithesis. All of you who are trying to establish family-integrated churches, you are going against all of man's traditions to do that.

There's an antithesis. You'll be fought back, criticized, beat down. Can you stand it? If we train our children that they can expect it, yes! That's what happens.

The enemies of God will always criticize the righteous. What are the main battles of our day? There's some things that need to be fought right now. There are some things that can be put off for five years. There are some things that my children will be facing 15 and 20 years from now, and I need to be preparing them for those battles.

Presuppositional apologetics is simply a way to argue the things that are important to us. Do we do it on the terms of men, or do we do it on the terms of scripture? And I have to figure that out myself and then teach my children. And the doctrine of patriarchy, and I've got to spend just a little bit of time on this. This is one doctrine that we must have if dads will rise up and do what they need to do to apply Scripture in the home.

And this doctrine is being attacked not only by the hard left and the Marxist and the neo-Marxists and the feminists, it's being attacked by Christians now, and seminaries who don't understand it and want to tear it down. A patriarch is simply, if you look at the Greek, it's the foundation of father's leading. That's what the word means, patria archae, father rule, and the foundation of long-term father rule. That's the essence of what the word means. The shortest definition is this one.

A patriarch has influential children, a dynasty that lasts a long time, through his attitude toward God's commandments. It's very important that we understand this. We see this definition played out in Psalm 112. Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord and that delighteth greatly in his commandment. That's his attitude toward the commandments.

His seed will be mighty on the earth. He has influential children. The generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches shall be in his house, and his righteousness endureth forever. He has long-term influence.

This happens to be the righteous patriarch. But you know, you need to realize, and I need to realize, that every culture is a patriarchal culture, and every home is a patriarchal home. Everyone. Every man in his home is a patriarch. Is he diligent?

Is he negligent? Is he righteous? Is he unrighteous? Is he a tyrant? Or is he merciful?

Many of you have heard the story about Jonathan Edwards and his line of descendants that was tracked by the government of Massachusetts several generations after he lived. They tracked another man, Max Jukes, who gave rise to a whole dynasty of criminals and prostitutes. Both men were patriarchs. One was a righteous man and one was a God-hater. One married a Godly girl and one married a Godless girl.

And the state of Massachusetts did a study on both of them, mainly to find out how much money the dynasty of Max Jukes had been costing the state of Massachusetts. And it was a lot. I think it was over three million dollars. And that was a lot of money at that time. We're talking about colonial America and forward.

Every man is a patriarch, leading others either into the riches of God's gracious plan with God's design or into the surrender of responsibility and the denial of duty and the rejection of maturity. That's our problem today. Men rejecting maturity. And so men, as you begin to apply scripture in your homes, you will be. You will become mature.

And this is an important theological point. Think of this. Adam was created fully mature. God expected him to act mature. Our enemies say that man has actually come up from the primordial soup.

He's a stimulus response mechanism. And so as he came into humanoid form, of course we can see some of the institutions that followed him. You know, he pulled together little families, and he was a tyrannical leader, And he was a bit of a patriarch. And we have to understand him as a brute animal and a very primitive organism. That's not how we understand man or man's mind.

He was created mature. That's who we are. And if we don't revolt against maturity, we can rise up and assume all the duties and responsibilities that God has given us. Some are in advanced revolt against God. And all over the world this is happening.

And Kevin Swanson is right. We're losing not just families, but we're losing entire nations. We're losing an entire Western civilization. Now one Bible teacher wrote just recently, And I need to move very quickly here. He said, patriarchy has become a disease of epic proportions.

I bring this up men, because this will be one of the big issues of next year, 2010, the next year after that. And you need to be prepared for it. When people say you can't listen to these kinds of lectures about patriarchy, there's something toxic about it. Patriarchy is a disease of epic proportions. No, that's not true.

It's a biblical doctrine and we simply need to recover it and do it properly and do it rightly, exercise it rightly. I need to mention just for a minute that our great enemies in the beginning of the 20th century wanted to destroy the bourgeois patriarchal family. That's what the neo-Marxists set out to do. And they knew that they couldn't destroy Christianity until they destroyed the patriarch. And that's one reason it's had so much bad press.

That's why it hurts my heart when I see Christian leaders who have bought into the neo-Marxist ideology and they're parroting the doctrines of them. Erich Fromm, one of their leaders, said that the character traits of traditionalists, especially patriarchs, must be criminalized. And that's why there's talk in the courts about doing that. And that's why some attorneys will say, if they want to make somebody look really bad in court, for example, in a home school case or a divorce case, they'll say, you know, that man over there went to a lecture at the SOS conference where Mr. Botkin was talking about patriarchy.

And that therefore makes him one of those very dangerous people. And they'll continue to use the word as a pejorative. I'm warning you about this. We must stand fast on the doctrines that need to be recovered and put back into the family. And especially this one, if we mean to lead our families carefully and well.

Wilhelm Reich believed the key to destroying the family was by destroying the father's authority. And this is his quote, to dethrone the patriarchal power in man. Wilhelm Reich was one of the Frankfurt School radicals. But we remember today, and I'm planting a flag in the ground that says the world is patriarchal, the creation is patriarchal by design. God identifies himself as masculine.

He's created an order, a chain of command. We need to understand it and embrace it. And it's good for us to do that. I'm moving very quickly through here. Sometimes when we see families falling apart, and they may be homeschooled families, They may be families in family integrated churches.

And they say the real problem is that whole patriarchal mess. And the mother begins to lead. And people say, you know what would be better if it was matriarchal? Let me just say, the problems in homes like this are not as a result of patriarchy or matriarchy. It's a result of infantile patriarchy or deformed patriarchy.

There's no such thing as a matriarchal home. There's no such thing. Really, it's just a contradiction of terms. The mother may be bossing everybody around, including the husband. But the situation we have there is failed patriarchy.

It's not matriarchy. It's a failed patriarchy. And I'd like you all to understand that. I call it infantile patriarchy. Here's a letter from a woman to her pastor.

In frustration, because she's feeling the need to try to rise up and be more of a leader in the home. She knows that's wrong, but she's frustrated because of the cowardice of her husband. She said, I'm sick and tired of living with a sissy, a wimp, and a coward. You know, he's afraid of me. I'm sick and tired of living in a world of passive men.

And her real purpose for writing to the pastor was to ask him. I mean, the pastor knew her husband quite well. She wasn't writing to be mean or cruel to the husband. Her concern was for the multigenerational legacy of their family and what would happen to the sons. She said, will our sons grow up to be passive?

Will they be cowards? She did not want them to grow up to be cowards and to be infantile patriarchs. All cowards will be held responsible for cowardice by God. And you all know the story of Adam. It was Adam's sin in not protecting his wife from the threat that we suffer for today.

In Adam all die, even though it was Eve who was the one who took the fruit and ate it. In Adam we all die. When Eli sinned against his family and he wouldn't correct his sons and he said his ministry was more important, God judged his family with one of the most terrifying curses in Scripture. He took patriarchy away from that family. He said, every single one of the men in your family will die in the flower of his youth.

He will not grow to maturity. He just simply removed a patriarchal legacy from that family as a punishment for the cowardice of Eli. So we can lead a stray man, or we can shamefully shrink back and let others make our decisions for us. But we are still leading, leading the way by our actions. We're still the patriarchs, even if we're cowards, and even if we're silent, we're still the patriarch.

But history will remember us as failed, infantile Men. What are some of the ways men are leading badly? They're giving over the discipleship of their children to others. They're yielding to their wives in ungodly ways out of fear, like Abraham did when he took Hagar into his arms to conceive a child. They're failing to disciple their wives.

But mostly, it's that first one, giving over the discipleship of their children to others. I was talking to Dr. Sproul today. He said, when people come to him and say, what happened to our family? We thought our children were right with us, and we lost them.

We'd been doing everything right. We'd homeschooled. He said, well, did they enjoy youth group? They said, oh, yeah, they really, really enjoyed youth group. And he was able to point them to the fact that that might have been the beginning of the end for the children.

Because the loyalties were divided. They were being discipled by their peers, and they slipped away. And the parents didn't see it coming. Remember that every spiritual problem in the home is not a result of patriarchy, but of infantile patriarchy, the absence of real patriarchy. Real quick list, ladies and gentlemen, because I've opened this count of worms, I need to close it.

Patriarchy is not a brotherhood of men with long beards. And on the internet, It's not that funny. There are places and that's what they say they are. We're patriarchs because we look this way, we act this way. Patriarch is not a license to be a tyrant.

The authority of fathers is limited by the law of God. Men are under Christ. Women need to see them submitting to their head in that way. Patriarchy is not religious legalism. It's not exotic justification for polygamy.

There are other websites out there right now that say that. Hey, didn't the old patriarchs have a lot of wives? Why can't we? That's not biblical patriarchy. It's not a silly fad of wild and irresponsible forest masculism, beating drums and pounding one's chest.

And there's a new Christian literature of that going around now that's very dangerous. It does not endorse the subjugation of women under the oppression of men. It does not sanction the right of fathers to brutalize or dominate their children. And fathers, let me just bring to your mind Colossians 3.21, provoke not your children to anger lest they lose heart. If we fail to give the instruction that our children need and say, son, I really want you to be responsible, but we fail to show them and give them responsibility, they can lose heart.

If we say, daughters, I really want you to get married to good men, but we do not take time to show them how to be spiritually lovely, we're exasperating them. Patriarchy does not teach the inferiority of women to men. It does not entertain the notion that women are excluded from Christian ministry. It does not suggest that the Father is not the sole mediator between child and Jesus Christ. Every child, young and old, is responsible to seek God and obey God faithfully.

I have to say that because some people say and accuse us that that's what we're teaching by patriarchy. It is not. It does not maintain that the mind of a woman is inferior to that of a man. It does not maintain that women should be poorly educated. It does not imply that all sons live under a father's roof indefinitely or until marriage.

It does not cloister children away from interaction with the world or to make hermits of fathers. The caricature of patriarchy must be carefully replaced with a real article, men. This is what I'm begging of you today. It will take mature, loving Christian gentlemen to do this. We need to rise up and act like gentlemen.

Men who love to do justly, finding the law of God and following it. To love mercy and to humbly walk with their God. And so here, let me give you the Jeffrey Botkin definition of a good patriarch. One who governs those under his biblical jurisdiction by the fear of God, by sacred trust, and in the character of Christ. And in the character of Christ.

We have to do it in the character of Christ. This is something I'm desperate to learn about. A biblical patriarch is a man of integrity who represents God, his kingdom, and his will to those given to his charge. Training, instructing, guarding, guiding, and equipping them. See how this is hard work.

Being a parent is hard. Training, instructing, guarding, guiding, equipping them. To be responsible and fruitful in their calling. Their calling of dominion and discipleship. Seeking first the kingdom of God.

Lawfully expanding the Kingdom through the Church, family, and state, and successfully transferring this vision to the next generation. That's a big job. That's a hard job. But if we are applying scripture in our families, we will accomplish this, because this is what scripture steers us to do. So remember, every home is a patriarchal home.

Every culture is patriarchal. It's an inescapable reality of God's order and design of his creation. Now, let me move on quickly. When you are ruling your home well, You love mercy, you love justice, you're walking humbly with your God. There's not a big power struggle.

Say my will is this. You don't have to rule with an iron fist. The will in question will always be the will of God in a family like that. And so when we pray with our children, thy kingdom come and thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. We work together as a family to know and perform his will.

And that's, I think, why my children are willing to listen to their death. They know that my interest is not some manufactured will of my own because I subordinate that to Christ in everything. We love the Great Commission and we talk about that a lot. So we've learned that Scripture is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, training, and righteousness. And I just, let me say just real quickly, with reproof, we've got to reprove deeds of darkness and sin in our children.

We have to admonish them. Scripture teaches us that we are filled with all knowledge and able to admonish one another and correct and confront one another when we need to. It's profitable for correction. And what that means, we not only need to correct our children to get them back onto the right path when they stray, as they see the way that we do that with them, they can see that we can begin to do that with entire cultures, that we can correct the community, We can correct the nation. So it begins with, you know, even the way that we spank our children and give discipline to them.

It can begin to give them wisdom unto salvation. And then it can give them wisdom to the reformation of entire cultures. Jeremiah says, thou shalt not say to them, this is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord their God, nor receiveth correction. Truth is perished and is cut off from their mouth. And when I tell my children, This is the state of the United States of America.

It needs correction. How do we correct it as reformers? And they can begin to see that, how that works. And so in training them to do that, I tell my children what is the cultural legacy that they've inherited, What did they see when they flew back into Los Angeles? Cowardness.

They see the fear of man. They see debt as a way of life. Baroness in families. Adolescence, perpetual adolescence in the state of the man. How do we fix that, sons?

How can you be leaders and not followers in that regard? How can we preserve marriage that's been perverted by our culture? What will we do about that? What do we do about the problem of the rejection of children, the destruction of the family economy, segregated lives in compliance with every wish of the state that comes down the road. The churches are helping with that, unfortunately, the general churches.

The rise of the youth culture, Children, how do we respond to that? Where did it come from? What does it look like? Are you part of it or will you change it and correct it? Will you correct it with the music that's listened to, the films that are looked at?

How will you correct it? We talk about all these things in our family often. The divorce culture, how do we fix that? What are the roots of it? This real spiritual roots.

And then for training and righteousness, ladies and gentlemen. I try to give my children scriptural literacy, that they understand scripture, those doctrines that I told you, historical literacy that they need to know where they stand in history, moral character and holiness, gratitude, manners, and real holiness and what it looks like. Family life and multi-generational vision. We have a 200 year plan and that's helped them. And as a young dad I didn't quite know how to teach this to my children about Family life and multi-generational vision.

But the 200-year plan has helped us a lot. Civil society and its scriptural foundations, what is it? What's legal? Is government legal? According to biblical law, Yes it is.

It's lawful to have government. But how big? My sons are trying to get that sorted out by studying Scripture. Law and its scriptural foundations. Liberty, not libertinism.

But what does real liberty look like? Free market science and its scriptural foundations. We talk about these things in the home and the development of their creative energy to try to fix it. And finally, the dynamics of dominion. I can't go into that.

But dominion is simply bringing God's word to bear on every aspect of society as the Great Commission commands us. That's it. And so if we apply the words of Christ the King, our children will take great delight in being raised as royalty. They have a king. And so as we apply the Word of God, they begin to see that they are royalty.

To rule justly and wisely in the gates. I want my children to rise up and be able to stand in the gates and not be ashamed. But first, they're subjects of the King of Kings. They're priests to minister compassionately and mercifully. They're officers in Christ's army to fight with initiative, their shepherds to care for God's people well, as teachers to teach a comprehensive gospel, not a little watered down one, but a comprehensive one.

As gentlemen and gentle women in a coarse culture, as stewards of Christendom, as future husbands and fathers or their helpers, and as grateful patriarchs to continue the multigenerational process of kingdom growth so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord your God to keep all his statutes and all his commandments. Ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank you and I pray God's blessing on you that this will be true for you, that you and your son, your grandson, might fear the Lord your God to keep all His statutes and His commandments. Amen. Of the Church and the Family to the Word of God. And for more information about the National Center for Family Integrated Churches, where you can search our online network to find family integrated churches in your area, log on to our website, ncfic.org.

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