Author Last Name	North	Keywords	family, theology
Book Title	Baptized Patriarchalism	Pages	77
Subtitle	The Cult of The Family	Hard/Soft Bound Versions	0930464710

Subject (Series)	Cult of the Family	View Cover	Book Cover
Year of Publication	1995	PDF Filesize in Bytes	2.9 MB
Price of Paper Format	$6.95	Print friendly version	This Book in PDF
Edition	1st

Long Description	The Assault On The Christian Family... In The Name Of The Christian Family! It seems impossible that anyone could attack the Christian family by promoting it, but this is being done today. This strategy is insidious. In the name of strengthening the family, its supposed defenders are removing its most important foundation. The autonomous family is no match for the state. From the earliest days of the church until now, that state has undermined families by offering them subsidies of many kinds. In our day, "free" education is the bait for one hook. So is compulsory Social Security: let the government support your parents and then you. There are the two most sacred political cows in the United States, and most of the industrial world. But this economic undermining of the family is only the first step. The other corrosive force comes from within the camp of the faithful: a new theology of the family, which is in fact the old theology of the family: Cannan's. This view asserts that the family possesses greater authority than the church of Jesus Christ. It argues that the family, not the institutional church, is designed by God to be the central institution in Christian society. But what did Jesus say about the autonomous family? Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man a variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. (Matthew 10:34-36) Without the support of the institutional church, the family is a weak reed. The Christian family always succumbs to the state whenever it is not in close convental alliance with the institutional church. The state grows ever-larger whenever Christian families do not pay their tithes to the local church. In our day, we have seen the results of the erosion of outside support for the family: the march in statism, with middle-class Christians bringing up the rear but funding the lion's share of its costs. As the church has lost the allegiance of Christians, the state has replaced it. It is time to strengthen the family by de-funding the state and funding the local church. But there are those within the camp who deny this, who claim that the church is secondary in the war against statism, that the patriarchal family is central. It is time for Christians to reject the theology of the patriarchal family, root and branch. This book shows why.
Inside Flap
Catalog Description	Only the Church extends into eternity (Rev. 21:22). The family does not (Matt. 22:30). This is why Christianity teaches that the Church is the central institution in history, not the family. Jesus said, "I will build my church" (Matt. 16:18), not "I will build my family." Historically, it has been the family, not the State, that has most often served as covenant-breaking man's alternative idol to the Church. Jesus' warning in this regard (Matt. 10:35) should be taken seriously. This short book shows that conservatism's modern cult of the family puts too much pressure on the family, increasing the likelihood of a loss of faith and social breakdown. The Christian family needs the support of the Church if it is to withstand the power and temptation of the State. Any successful attempt to substitute the family's authority for the Church's authority will backfire against the family.