Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 20
November 7, 1968
NUMBER 40, PAGE 4,5b

Without Parents: Without God

Editorial

Dear Mrs._________, I am sorry for the trouble I have caused you. Please forgive me when I used the bad words a week before all this happened. I have been praying to God that every thing will be better sence we moved away to _________,___ .

I have no ida when I go to court,. I have been trying to get a hold of Mr.________(my lawyer)

for a month but I can't Mrs.________ I have spent 4 days in the ________Hosptail & 82 days in this jail. My heart is gone. I relized the trouble I have caused so please forgive me. I have found out that I can get 20 years for this or the chair.

I saw my mother and dad onec cense I have been here they love me but they don't have time to come and see me. My dad works 7 days a week morning to night. I heard that you had a heart attace i am sorry to here it but thank the Lord you are still here.

This letter is not a get free letter or a sympathy letter just a frineds letter.

plese wright.

Yours truly,

__________

Yes, the letter is real. It is from a real boy, a few months past his 17th birthday. It was written to a friend of mine, a friend who is the mother of a -I0-year-old girl who had been criminally assaulted by this neighbor boy.

What had happened? What had gone wrong with the boy? Is not the letter self-explanatory in a sense? He has no parents — at least none who fill the place God has given parents. He is the product of a broken home (as the great majority of wayward children are); was rarely, if ever, taken to church; and lived in an environment that was, at best, in no way conducive to right conduct.

Does it not seem that parents have gone mad? Or worse, they have turned into animals: the kind that give birth to their young and then leave them to fend for themselves. And then they must reap what they have sown, for it is written: Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth unto his own flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth unto the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap eternal life". (Gal. 6:7-8). And how can the things of the Spirit be reaped unless they are sown?

Parents, that child is the most precious blessing you have on this earth; "Lo, children are a heritage of Jehovah" (Psalm 127:3). The molding and shaping of that eternal soul is one of the greatest and most challenging tasks there is, and it is a full-time job. "And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but nurture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lord" (Eph. 6:4). Parents, if you have young children, what you are doing now will largely determine whether or not they will ever write a letter like the one you read and where they will spend eternity. "Sending your child to Sunday School" is not enough. It never was enough. The example of a Christian father, a Christian mother is absolutely indispensable if a child in this modern age is to combat successfully the multitude of evil influences which our society has spawned.

This being true, it behooves every parent to search diligently into his own life, his own understanding of an obedience to God's word. A mere nominal Christianity is about as impotent as no Christianity at all; it serves only to confuse the child as it placates and pacifies the parent. The bankruptcy of twentieth century denominationalism has never been more apparent than in its failure to give meaning and dynamic to the youth of our day. And it does this, of course, through the home. When parents take their religion for granted, following the course of least resistance, living only a "token" sort of Christianity, they find themselves impotent and ineffective in giving guidance and direction to the children with which God has blessed them.

The gospel of Christ is simple and direct; it is not too, difficult to understand nor too uncertain and vague to be obeyed. it sets forth one God; one gospel; one standard of right and wrong; one true church; and one certain and inescapable day of final judgment. "Remember also thy Creator in the days of thy youth," is the inspired instruction of Solomon. But unless parents give the teaching, the example, the guidance into that path of righteousness, all too often the Creator is NOT remembered in the days of youth, and tragedy and eternal ruin are the result.

-Jefferson David Tant