Are Fathers Necessary?

I guess we know that we are living in perilous times. I think we have been lulled to sleep, and we are not really aware of we're living in historic times. These are critical, crucial times. I hope you're keeping up with the news, and especially the situation that now exists with the so-called memorandium of peace that is being touted by the president and vice president as a great victory, whereas even the senator from Texas, Ted Cruz, who is a big Trump supporter, is talking about how disastrous the so-called agreement is.

So you need to really be watching, you need to be reading the book of Daniel and other places in Scripture. That's just free of charge. I'm giving you that admonition. That's not the sermon at all. The title of the sermon today is, Are Fathers Necessary? Just before Father's Day in 2010, the secular humanist-owned Atlantic Monthly, Atlantic Monthly is a monthly magazine and very high profile among the elite, asked a very hateful question.

They asked, and the title of the article was, Are Fathers Necessary? So we ask you today on the eve of Father's Day, Are Fathers Necessary? Historically, Western society and culture have developed with Christian assumptions and values. We assume that marriage would be between man and woman. And one of the most important assumptions was that every human being is made in the image of God. And so we are here as a result of divine creation. We are not a product of evolution. We are hereby divine creation.

It was also assumed that God had ordained the family structure, which should be deeply honored and respected through the ages. And we know that God is the author of marriage. Let's look at Scripture and see that for sure. In Genesis 2 and verse 20, we'll begin. This Scripture has been read, of course, many, many times, but we'll read it. There's nothing like a repetition to get something firmly planted in our minds.

In Genesis 2 and verse 20, Adam gave names to all the cattle, to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a help-meet for him. And the Lord caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slipped and he took one of his ribs and closed up his flesh. Instead, there are... So here's the first recorded surgery in history. I suppose he used some kind of anesthesia so that Adam did not suffer during the surgery.

And a rib was taken, which the Lord God took from man. He made a woman. He brought her to the man. And Adam said, This is now a bone of my bones. Flesh of my flesh shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. So she is a woman. Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother and it shall cleave unto his wife. Cleave, stick to her like glue and they shall be one flesh. And then, of course, they sinned.

You heard about that in the sermon in recent times. They tried to cover their sin. There are three main responses to sin, to blame, to justify, and to try to cover it. Blame, justify, and cover. The three main responses to sin. And, of course, Adam did all three. For the past 100-plus years, Christian values have been under constant attack by evolutionists, feminists, homosexuals, under the guise of enlightenment, equal rights, and freedom. And, of course, the press has joined right in back in the 1950s. And before that, before the 1950s, I remember reading Dagwood and Blundie in the comic section of the Laurel Leader Call.

It was the daily newspaper that was delivered by the mailman every day to our mailbox. We lived out in the country, but my mother and dad, for some reason, even though we were poorer than the church mouse, we had a radio when I was two or three years old, and we subscribed to the newspaper, and I kept up with the news. Dagwood Bumstead, emphasis on the bum, was the blundering buffoon, and Blundie was the calm, collected wife who solved all the family's problems.

Now, LGBTQ, along with several other letters that I can't keep up with, they are in charge, and they are calling the shots they are ruling the day. But in reality, all of this is just a mask for the plot that Satan is carrying out to destroy the family.

Destroy the family, and you destroy the foundation of Western culture and society. It seems that the Eastern world is not so much involved in this, but of course, Hollywood has made its rounds across the whole world, and the American way of life is apparent in China, Japan, India, and any country want a name in the Orient in the Eastern Bloc as well.

So the LGBTQ people are ruling the roost today, and as I said, it is a mass to cover up the plot to destroy the family. Our women, especially, have been conditioned to see the traditional feminine role of mother-wife as oppressive. Now, thankfully, in the Church, we have not gone there, but so many in society have, and women are in charge of many of things.

In the scripture today, Isaiah talks about this, and Isaiah chapter 3, as for my people, women rule over them, and children are their oppressors. Basically, men have gone along with the plot. They have abdicated their God-ordained role as head of the household, so we could ask the question, once again, are fathers necessary? Now, some of our awakening, we have a few people, few voices that are speaking out, both in the political arena and the media arena, speaking out against what is happening to the nation, to the culture, and we are indeed in critical, crucial times, and the end is very short.

I've been using that term, critical, crucial times, way back in Ambassador College years ago, starting in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, and all the way up to the present day, and it's getting more critical, as we shall see at the end every day.

Okay, do we remember the God-ordained structure for government in all phases, really, and especially in the church of God? Let's go to 1 Corinthians 11, and we'll review that right quickly.

In 1 Corinthians 11, the latter part, I was taken up with how to keep the Passover, but the first part, Paul admonishes us to follow him as he follows Christ, and that is his admonition throughout his epistles. Now, praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the ordinances that I declared, that I delivered unto you. But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God.

So he gives it in reverse order, but in God's governmental structure, it is a hierarchical structure in which God is first, and then Christ, then the husband, then the wife, then the children. And then he begins to talk about how people should behave considering the structure of the family.

Destruction of the family has always been an occult objective. The occult has to do with the supernatural and black magic and doing things in a magical kind of unnatural way.

These objectives are inspired by Satan the devil, and Satan went after Eve in the Garden of Eden right off. And so Eve was deceived, Adam was not, but Adam went along with it knowing better.

And of course, he used the three excuses of blame, justify, and hide, and they were trying to hide from God. There's an admonition in Isaiah says to hide not from your own flesh. God sees everything so as very foolish to try to hide anything from God. So why is the occult objective so important to Satan? Why does fatherhood matter so much? Why does Satan help? Hate? Why does Satan hate fatherhood so much? Because the God-ordaining and ordained family structure parallels what God is doing in the spiritual realm and bringing sons and daughters to glory in the family of God. And it begins with calling, conviction, and so on, which we'll probably say more about later. The plan and purpose of God is built on the understanding of who God is, what God is, and what is his purpose. The plan, the purpose, and the providence of God. Who is God? What is God? What is his purpose? And the corollary to that is that of man. Who is man? What is man? What is his purpose? Human's kind's purpose. Human kind's purpose is to be born in the family of God, which you've heard a thousand times. No matter what Satan does, he will never destroy the family of God. It may be a very little flock, as we'll read a scripture which says it a little later.

It may be a little flock, but it will be the family of God. It'll be those who are loyal to the great Father God. God is our Father. He is our Creator. He wants to share his being with humans and bring them into his family. Satan wants to destroy the God-ordained structure that parallels what God is doing spiritually in bringing sons and daughters to glory in his family.

The so-called psychologists, sociologists, intellectuals, journalists can say anything they want about fatherhood, but don't you dare whisper a critical word about homosexuals. Don't criticize the progressives. Don't criticize the liberal left. You can't believe what is going on in this nation at the present time. You have this person who's running for the Senate in Maine, in which every Democrat says that some have even gone so far as to say on the view that I'm going to hold my nose and vote for him because we are so desperate to get the Democrats into power in the Senate. We believe we're going to get the House and the Senate.

So all of these people, the sociologists, the psychologists, the intellectuals, the journalists, they can say whatever they want to you, but the family is going to stand.

So-called scientific studies are being conducted to try to prove that children being reared by homosexual couples are better adjusted. They do better academically, they say.

They're happier to the fact that these propaganda lies are published in leading magazines and underscores Satan's agenda. So in today's world, anything goes. And the great commandment is, thou shalt be tolerant of everything. And the commandment by the progressives is, thou shalt not be intolerant of anything because everything goes. But no matter how hard they try to subvert fatherhood, even children who were born from anonymous sperm donors—I read recently in one sperm bank, there was a guy who was the father of 260-something, I believe it was, children.

Now these children who are, who have been fathered through in vitro fertilization, don't know who their fathers are, but many of them are desperately seeking who their fathers really are.

Apparently, their mother's lesbian partners do not fulfill the role of father in their lives.

So they're trying to seek, who is my father? Who is biologically responsible for me being alive here on planet Earth?

I'm gonna get these pages separated if it's come whatever. Well, I guess I won't. Okay, actually research shows that children who have been reared in single-parent homes are better off with their fathers than with their mothers. Imagine that. The children that are raised in a single-parent home are better off with father than with the mother. The destruction of gender and the family is part of the process of changing Christian assumptions to satanic ones. Generally, Christian assumptions are based on what is natural and healthy. Satanic assumptions are designed to define what is normal and natural.

Now, the animal kingdom, so-called, doesn't have a problem with this. It's still male and female throughout. They don't take the New York Times. They are not able to read what the headlines might blast out. Let's notice what the apostle Paul writes about this in first—not first, but in Romans 1—the first chapter of Romans—Romans 1 will begin in verse 18. Romans 1, verse 18, in which Paul summarizes the culture of the day in such graphic terms. In Romans 1, verse 18, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. The real translation is, who holds back the truth in unrighteousness. A lot of people—I think there are some, maybe even in the Church of God, who hold back the truth because they want to fit into whatever the acceptable, politically correct agenda is for whatever organization they belong to.

Because that which may be known of God is manifest, and them for God has shown unto them.

All we have to do is—we'll read in just a moment—is look at nature itself, which I've already referred to in the animal kingdom. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even the eternal power and godhead, so that they are without excuse. There's no excuse for what is going on in the world today, because people who have common sense know better. And because of wanting to retain power, of wanting to go along with the crowd, and wanting all the things that this world has to offer, people are willing to sell their very lives and eternal being to be accepted. Because that which they knew when they knew God, they glorified him not as God. Neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

And professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. Oh yes, they tout themselves as being the intellectuals, the enlightened ones, the progressive ones, the ones who are really going to lead an enlightened humankind and lead them into the promised land. And there have been many such who profess to be such leaders, and we all know where they are today. We have many who have sprung up today, and they are espousing doctrines and teachings and promises that cannot be fulfilled through their socialistic political agenda, and change the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made unto corruptible man, and into birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. And really, man, through the evolution, if you believe in evolution, when he gets down to it, they believe that man is just another animal at the height and at the top of the phylum chain. Wherefore, God has also gave them unto uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, to dishonor their bodies between themselves. He gets more graphic a little later, who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshiped and served the creation more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

For this cause God gave them up to vile affections for even their women to change the natural use into that which is against nature. Yes, nature even teaches us what is right and what is wrong. And as I said, since the animal kingdom cannot read the New York Times or other publications or watch television and movies or the entertainment of the day and the media of the day, they are not subject to the brainwashing that is going on in the nation.

And for that matter, those who are brainwashed and are in that camp are happy they are there.

And likewise also the men leaving the natural use of the warm woman burned in their lusts, one toward another, men with men, working that which is unseemly and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was fitting. So it's no wonder that they want to destroy the Bible and the Word of God. What if in the near future or sometime in the future the Bible is declared hate literature because it points out that which is graphically true in our world today. I won't read the rest of the chapter.

The so-called progressive secularists want to rob 98 percent of the population, the heterosexuals, of the meaning and independence to arrive from their family role. Thus, they can re-engineer us to serve them. It's about power. It's about control. Satanism wants to prove that man is merely an animal and can be slaughtered without pains of conscience. What goes on in warfare is unbelievable.

We read about what happened just yesterday with Israel attacking, once again, Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Some 20 to 40 people were killed. What about them? What about those people? The media is constantly attacking institutions like family and degrading us using sex and obscenity and trying to capture us through the evils of this world. Let's try a little exercise. What if we ask the questions in reverse and ask questions like, are white people necessary?

Are black people necessary? Are women necessary? Are writers necessary? Is Atlantic Monthly magazine necessary? Is the author of the Atlantic Monthly article necessary?

Well, you could answer those questions. It is not so funny and witty if you change the nouns around and you see it is not so funny when you're not in the limelight.

So with that backward drop, when you think of your Heavenly Father, what thoughts run through your mind? And once again, the title is, are fathers necessary? When you think of your earthly father or your husband, what do you think of? To some degree, we may be led to think of our Heavenly Father as we have thought of our earthly father. You know that your physical father beget you to physical life, but did you discern from him that he loved you, that he had your best interest at heart and taught you how to live your life? Now with my father, my father at best had a third grade education. On the other hand, my mother was the valedictorian of her class and received a small scholarship to the local junior college but never completed it after her books were stolen and they were poor as a church mouse as well, even though they had many of the things that you would think of. They had a telephone, they had a radio, they had a newspaper, and so on.

But we know that fatherhood is under attack from all quarters and regardless of the educational level, a lot of people know what is right and what is wrong. And as I said many times already that even the animal kingdom knows. The father, your father in heaven, knows everything about you and he loves you so much. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Now a lot of fathers have forsaken their families and taken off and a lot of fathers might as well have taken off because they have not really cared for their families. But let's read a verse of assurance in the Bible. In Hebrews 13 5, Hebrews 13 5 we find a verse that is so reassuring, so encouraging.

Let your conduct be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have, for he has said, he has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

So that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper and I will not fear what man shall do with me.

Yes, you have been called to stand in the gap, to stand in the hedgerow, to make up the hedgerow, to protect your family, to protect culture, to protect that which is right, to protect that which is of the scripture. We have rapidly approaching the fall festival season, the return of Christ, the first resurrection, the binding of Satan, the ruling reign of the saints over the earth.

God and the Father is the one who will deliver us through Christ and his Spirit.

Let me repeat that. God the Father will deliver us through Christ and his Spirit. There is a mutual relationship between the Father and the Son, of course. The Father works through the Son.

The Son is the agent. He was the agent of creation, and he is the agent who has paid the price for us to be reconciled to the Father. Sometimes we tend to forget the role of our heavenly Father.

The Father places all things under Christ and the saints. The Father will give us the Kingdom.

The Father will give us the Kingdom. Look at Luke 12 and verse 32. I referred to this scripture earlier if you caught it. It is the Father who gives us the Kingdom. It is the Father who uses the term, little flock. Well, Christ uses the term, but the Father is the one who advocates. In Luke 12 and verse 32, fear not little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. Are fathers necessary? Is the heavenly Father necessary? We really need to consider the role of the Father. Here are some of the works of the Father.

The Father, through Christ, created the universe. The Father, with Christ playing some role, begets us. The Father is the source of the Holy Spirit. John 15.26 says that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father. We have read Hebrews 13.5, the Father will never leave us nor forsake us, neither will Christ. The Father who is the one who resurrects us. Christ may play a role, but look at 1 Corinthians 8 and verse 11. Who raised Jesus from the dead?

Who raised Jesus from the dead? Jesus was dead in the grave three days and three nights.

And as it says in Acts 2, we're in Romans 8 now, verse 11, but in Acts 2 it says that the Father raised Jesus from the dead. In 1 Corinthians, I mean, I want Romans 8-11. In Romans 8-11, but if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken or make alive your mortal bodies, as it says in 1 Corinthians 15, this mortal must put on immortality, so he will quicken or make alive your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwells in you.

You have the Holy Spirit. You have the essence of God, as I talked about on Pentecost, dwelling in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh, but if we live after the flesh, we shall die. But if we through the Spirit do mortify, crucify, put to death the deeds of the body, we shall live, or you shall live. The Father is the one then who raises us from the dead. Christ plays some role in it.

Christ is, or the Father, is the source of revelation, like Revelation 1.1, the revelation of God, which he gave to Christ.

And Christ gave it to an angel, and an angel gave it to John.

Jesus Christ, let's look at John 1428. And once again, we're going to John 1428.

Once again, I ask the question, are fathers necessary? In John 14 and verse 28.

John 14 verse 28.

You have heard how I said unto you, I go away and come again unto you. Of course, he said in one place, if I know not, if I don't go away, the comforter will not come unto you. But if I go away, the comforter will come. Of course, he sent the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. If you love me, you would rejoice because I said I go unto my Father.

My Father is greater than I. Now, I gave a sermon not all that long ago, maybe within two years in which I said, and I asked the question, how could Jesus say in John 17, the only true God? You see, after Jesus Christ gave up His glory, took on the form of a man, He was the forerunner of our salvation. He took on the form of man. He became the Son of God through the resurrection from the dead. Therefore, He's not ashamed to call us brethren.

So, even though He is God and sits at the right hand of the Father, He is the Son of God by resurrection from the dead, a spiritual Son. Before then, He was the begotten Son. We are begotten sons of God and will be as long as we are in the flesh and in the grave. But upon resurrection, we are born sons of God, born of the Spirit. So, He says, the Father is greater than I. In biblical, in Hebrew, and also in biblical Greek, Father is used in various senses.

What are the senses that are used for the Father? He is the begetter. He begets us with His Spirit, as we've already mentioned. So, He is the progenitor of an individual. The Father is in the physical realm. The Father is the genderer, the progenitor of an individual.

The Father is the head of a family, a tribe.

A father can be a father of a nation in the symbolic sense. The Father is the protector as the head of the household. It is a term of respect. It is to be highly, highly respected.

The Hebrew word, off, is a mimetic, which means imitative word. The Hebrew word, off, a baby starts off, cooing, as they say, using off. A baby starts off cooing, as they say, using off. Vah, vah, vah, vah, vah, vah, become da, da, da, da. The first mimetic sounds.

The Hebrew word for father is off.

The first word of a child is off, as I said. Listen to what the University of California psychologist Nicholas Christian Fiepfel says. He found that infants tend to resemble their fathers at birth. Infants tend to resemble their fathers at birth. In a test, he conducted participants pick the correct mom of an infant from the photographs 30 percent of the time, but pick the correct father 50 percent of the time. One hypothesis is that nature encourages paternal investment. By having the infant resemble the father, eventually, however, thankfully, the father infant resemblance is outgrown. God is love, and from love flows all things. Love is the most important characteristic of God and is the chief characteristic of God. We go now to 1 John chapter 5. I'm sorry, chapter 4. 1 John chapter 4 and verse 8. 1 John chapter 4, verse 8, He that loves not knows not God, for God is love, outgoing concern for others.

And this was manifested the love of God toward us because God sent his only begotten son.

Remember John 3 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes on him should have everlasting life.

Sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him.

That we lived through him because he was resurrected from the dead. I will not turn to Romans 5 at this moment, but because Christ lives, we live. Herein is love not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be a propitiation for our sins, so he died in our stead. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man has seen God at any time.

If we love one another, God dwells in us, and his love is perfected in us.

Then it's repeated in verse 16 that God is love, and we have known and believed the love that God had to us. God is love, and he that dwells in love dwells in God and God in him.

God is our creator. He is our father. In the physical sense, he created us by creating Adam and Eve, and he said in motion, the chain of command whereby mankind can be begotten and born in the family of God.

God is our creator. He is our father. Now, I want to turn to scriptures that just say that plainly in Isaiah 63 and verse 16. Isaiah 63 verse 16. Isaiah 63 verse 16.

In Isaiah 63 verse 16. Doubtless you art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not.

The Orthodox Israel community is still looking for the Messiah.

Isaiah, you, O Lord, art our father, our Redeemer. Your name is from everlasting.

So we see that very clearly from scripture that God is our father.

Now we go to chapter 64, and it is somewhat repeated in chapter 64.

In chapter 64 and verse 8, but now, O Lord, you art our father. We are the clay, and you are potter, and we all are the work of your hand. Are fathers necessary?

In one sense, we're all children of God through physical creation. As I said, God created the first humans, Adam and Eve, and gave them the right for procreation to create other human beings, potential sons and daughters of God.

But there is a great difference between the physical begettle and the spiritual begettle and birth. I want us now to turn to John, the Gospel of John, chapter 1. The Gospel of John, chapter 1, and we'll begin in verse 10. The Gospel of John, chapter 1, verse 10.

And John 1 and verse 10.

He was in the world, and the world was made by him. It was through Christ, he was the agent. Christ was the agent of creation. And the world knew him not.

He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

And they still reject Jesus Christ, and many do. But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God. Now this is the sons of God in the spiritual sense, even to them that believe on his name, which were born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, that's physical birth, nor the will of man, but of God, that's spiritual birth. And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

In our prayers, we pray our Father who art in heaven.

So the difference between physical birth and spiritual birth is the great gulf that exists between the physio-chemical existence and eternal life. There is no deeper, closer, respectful relationship that can exist than that of Father-Son, Father-Daughter, or Mother-Son or Daughter. Let's turn to Romans 8, 15. Romans 8 and verse 15. Romans 8 and verse 15.

In Romans 8 and verse 15, we read that special relationship, for you have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the Spirit, and that word is huio-thesia, it means sonship. You have received the Spirit of sonship.

We have, even have, I know in one of the organization people who argue that it's adoption.

It is sonship. If I have the essence of God dwelling in me, just like you have the essence of your Father through His sperm dwelling in you, you cannot be anything but a human being.

So you cannot be anything but a spiritual, begotten Son of God. So we cry, Abba, Father, Father, because we have received the Spirit of huio-thesia. Huios is the word for son, and thesia is God's ship or sonship. The Spirit of sonship, where we whereby we cry, Abba, Father. God and Christ are unconditional givers of themselves initially. Notice I said initially, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. That is unconditional initially.

Now we look at Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. We begin in verse 6. Romans 5 verse 6. For when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man someone even dare to die. But God commanded His love toward us that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So that initially God does everything. Much more now being justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if we were enemies, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled. We shall be saved by His life. Now a lot of people quote Galatians 2 verse 20 here in this case, where it says, I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live yet not I but Christ, who loved me and gave Himself for me and say such things as Christ is living His life all over again in me. No, Christ is not living His life all over again in you. You're living your life by Christ, faith in Christ, and you must obey just as He obeyed His Father's command. So initially He calls you unconditionally and reconciling gives you the same a Savior, but then you must repent and obey from that point on. I'm crucified with Christ. Crucified means you crucify the flesh. Baptism pictures you going under the watery grave of baptizing, of baptism, and surrendering to God.

You raise the newness of life. From that point on, you're to keep the old man crucified or under the water. So God loved us because He first loved us. We ought to love Him because God loved us initially, unconditionally, gave us a perpetuation for sin. But after we were called and received the heavenly gift, now some say once saved, always saved. But that is not true either because let's go to Hebrews 6. Hebrews 6, and we'll begin in verse 6. Hebrews 6, in verse 6, Hebrews 6, if they shall fall away to renew them again under repentance, seeing they crucified themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame. So it's impossible, verse 4, for it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted the true heavenly gift and were partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good gift of God and the powers of the Word to come. If they fall away to renew them again, it's not possible.

So we see a world in which people are running to and fro, ringing their hands, wondering what to do about the behavior that is now terrifying the whole world. Much of the confusion, unrest, lawlessness, fear, and terror stem from the fact that fathers are not fulfilling their roles. Today, the terrorists are not just found in Al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, Taliban, or any other terrorist group. There are Mexican drug cartels, but of our family members. And the parents are shocked when they say, well, your son just shot so-and-so. Almost every week we hear some father or mother killing their young children. So I doubt that much of the fear and trouble that you see in today's world is because they were not properly fathered from the cradle to the grave. Actually, from the womb to the tomb, fathers are necessary.

The innocent bundles of joy that know nothing of our language, our culture, our religion, our values, our customs, our interpersonal relations. The infant is totally ignorant about communism, fascism, democracy, civil liberties, respect, decency, honesty, conventions, customs, manners.

But the barbarian must be tamed if civilization is to survive. Our news is now dominated by barbarianism. We have lost it. Not only are the barbarians at the gate, but the barbarians are inside. They're in the households. They're in the culture. They're in the family. They are everywhere. And so we, as fathers, as families called of God, we must stand in the gap. One comedian noted recently that most crimes of violence occur in the family. Then he said, so don't lock your doors. You may have to escape in a hurry. The world desperately needs men who will exercise true fatherhood and manhood. As we have seen through the example of God the Father, a physical father's leadership role is first and foremost, along with his spiritual role, you have to have both. So let's look at God the Father as our role model and begin fulfilling one of the most needed and important roles of being a father in the image of our heavenly fathers.

Yes, fathers are necessary.