A Case for Generational Optimism 

Our world is at – or maybe past – a crisis point. Adults and children alike are abiding by a morality of their own making. As the book of Judges puts it, “Everyone did what was right in their own eyes.” (Judges 17:6) In the West, we are living in a post-Christian culture, one rapidly returning to paganism. Some of the “tribes” left in the West have markings and carryovers of their Christian heritage passed down by their forefathers. 

But that is only because their fathers outlasted the rot longer than the others. Those Christian heritage markings are superficial at best and may soon finish their decay into the compost pile with the rest of the Christian West. The Christian heritage established and preserved by our ancestors at great cost is now a house of cards suspended in mid-air in the middle of a typhoon. It is there only until the next inevitable gust of wind comes. 

So what are we to do? Should we stop bringing children into this awful place as many propose? Should we hunker down and wait until everything crashes and burns so that another generation might bear the curse of our choices and rebuild from the ashes? The answer is an emphatic no. Where are we to lay the blame? Are we to look at the current generation so that we might place all the blame for the state of things at their feet and all the guilt on their shoulders for them to bear? The answer again is, no. The blame goes back generations. Certainly, the founders of the West had their faults, but they held their belief in the divine Creator, moral Lawgiver, and Judge of the earth to be a foundational principle for setting up society.

Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the greatness and the genius of America. – Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

In answering what we can do, we must first ask what went wrong.

Heritage Squandered

Generations got complacent and, much like the circle of history has proven, we began to interpret our blessings as rights. We forgot that blessing follows obedience and cursing follows disobedience, as is the nature of the world and God’s covenant with man. We ignored the God of all blessings as we coasted on the coattails of mercy. But we’ve reached the end of the coattails and are now hanging on for dear life saying, “I don’t get it. Everything was fine until a few moments ago.”

But everything is not fine, and it hasn’t been fine for a while. We had illusions of function because the full effect of our heritage hadn’t yet worn off. Somewhere along the line, a father didn’t portray with his life the importance of godly living to his son, but he still took him to church on Sundays, said grace before meals, and occasionally took the Bible off the shelf. That son grew up and only took his son to church on holidays and had Sunday lunches at grandma’s house. Some biblical principles of morality were passed down but no real faith. His son, now grown, is expected to maintain the same principles that his family has held for generations, but no foundation is laid for those principles and morals to stand upon. So when he has a son, he has no standard or authority by which he should raise his son. All values have become subjective, and the legacy of faith is driven into the dirt. Four generations in and the faithful heritage has been squandered.

Back to Basics

But this is an entry on optimism, not a downer message about a culture tossed to the wind like chaff on a threshing floor. Yes, times do indeed look grim. Homosexuality is celebrated twelve months out of the year. Democrats celebrate killing babies with jubilee. “Climate activists” shackle us with their “twelve years left to live” crisis rhetoric. To add insult to injury, much of self-proclaimed Christianity is either asleep in the back seat or is driving the car – a car complete with a “coexist” bumper sticker. 

How are we supposed to win? We play the long game. We go back to basics. We have children and raise them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. 

Gays are not having children. So, if we wait long enough and are faithful with our generations, we will outlast them. We will possess the gates of our enemies. 

Let’s start at the beginning. The very first command to Adam and Eve in the garden was to “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and subdue it.” That was their mission on earth. Would they have succeeded in this mission if they had had children and filled the earth with human beings? No. That’s not the whole of the command. By that reasoning, we would have succeeded in the mission of man, as the earth is pretty much full. The whole command is to fill the earth and subdue it (take dominion of it). Specifically, to subdue it in the name of Yahweh. Adam failed and he plunged all of his generations into sin and misery. 

If you read the early Genesis account of the creation, command, and the fall, you will recognize some interesting parallels between the dominion mandate (“be fruitful and multiply”), and the later curses that God would place on Adam and Eve in their disobedience. Eve is told that childbearing would now be difficult and painful in the effort to be fruitful and multiply. Adam is told that in his effort to subdue the earth, it would no longer go easy, but instead would come with much toil. The ground would fight against him with weeds and thorns. Nowhere in the account is the dominion mandate rescinded, but the curse affects every aspect of the mandate, making it more difficult. The good news comes in another curse. God promised that one would come who would “crush the head” of the snake and take the dominion of the earth away from him, giving it to the rightful King, who is Christ.

The Dominion Mandate: Still in Effect

Let’s just consider the reality that this dominion mandate is still in function. How should we fulfill it? First, have kids. Second, subdue the earth. How are these two aspects of the command linked? Raise your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord so that they might go out and do the same. 

This raises a thought regarding a passage in Exodus that always confused me. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. (Ex. 20:12) This has troubled me in the past because we tend to be very much individualistic when it comes to faith. How will honoring my parents help me live to a ripe old age? After all, there have been many who have fit the bill and still died young. So what can this mean? It may be better understood if we consider it to be that “their generations may possess the land for a long time.” Why? Because blessing follows covenant obedience. Ephesians 6:1-4 quotes this section of scripture and links the honoring of parents to the obedience of parents and in such there is an assumption about what is being obeyed. Deuteronomy 5:32-33 and 6:6-7 are interesting cross-references in this case: You shall be careful therefore to do as the LORD your God has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left… You shall walk in all the way that the LORD your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess. (Dt. 5:32-33) This verse also promises long life in that land contingent upon the obedience of God’s covenant people similar to Exodus 20:12. Deuteronomy 6:6-7 goes on to say, And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. So the question is, is blessing linked simply with obeying parents? I would argue, no, because I believe all these verses have an assumption behind them that, in the covenant community the parents are faithfully passing on the Word of God to the next generation. They are teaching them diligently at all times and places so that, when they are old they will “not depart” (Prov. 22:6). The question is, do we believe the promises of God or are we just going to punch our own ticket so we can get there and let our children fend for themselves?

Fulfilling the Dominion Mandate Optimistically

Christian parents in the West in recent times have failed to pass the word of God on to their children. We have catchy phrases like, “I don’t want to force my faith on my kids,” “I want their faith to be their own” or “I can’t force my kids to be Christians.” No, you can’t, but you can make it much harder for them not to be. We are called as Christian parents to pass down our faith to our children. It is not transferable but it certainly is trainable. I believe in the sovereign electing purpose of God, and I know that he has placed each one of my children in my household for a reason. I believe that reason is that he has chosen my children from before the foundations of the world to be elect saints and he has sovereignly foreordained the means to that end by placing them under my care. I must therefore be faithful in training them daily with the Word of God so that they should not easily forget it. My home should be saturated in God’s word. That is what faithfulness in passing on the faith would look like. 

Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. (Ps 127:4-5) To work out this analogy practically, if my children are arrows and they are being sent out into the world, then it is my job to make sure they are fit to fly. The shafts must not be bent or twisted, the fletches must be properly aligned and the tip must be sharp so that when it hits its target it penetrates. I cannot send out arrows with missing components and I definitely can’t send them out with a practice tip on. These arrows must be deadly for their intended targets. 

Consider this: A godly man marries and has five children. He teaches them the word of God day and night, and when they are old they do not depart from it. They each marry and have five children. They teach them the word of God when they sit in the house when they walk by the way, and when they are old they do not depart from it. They each marry and have five kids, they teach them the word of God diligently and when they are old they do not depart from it. By this time the man could potentially see out to the third-generation 155 persons as his heritage. That’s 155 arrows being sent out into a hostile world, and that’s only one set of parents. Consider that that last generation goes and has five children and raises them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and when they are old they do not depart from it. We now have 780 children from one faithful man’s lineage only shortly after his death. Translate that out to the 5th and 6th generations and that one man’s legacy has potentially transformed the world. Consider if this were done on a wide scale across Christendom. The impacts are unimaginable. This is why we must parent with the word of God. We must parent with the goal in mind and we must do so optimistically. 

God designed and implemented the dominion mandate. We must simply obey Him.