“In recent years, no matter where I travel in different parts of the world to meet with government officials and religious leaders alike when I ask them what the number one problem is in their society, I routinely get the same answer:
the condition of the family. I hear this in the Caribbean, in South America, in the United States, in Israel—everywhere I go. The deterioration of the family is a universal problem.
It should come as no surprise to us that the institution of the family is under such attack from the enemy.
Destruction of the family will lead to the breakdown of civilization. ” Says Myles Munroe.
The family is the first and most basic unit of human society. Families are the building blocks with which every society and culture is constructed.
In essence, the family is the prototype of society. A prototype is the first of its kind and demonstrates the basic characteristics of all the “models” that follow.
In other words, the condition of the society reflects the condition of the family.
Just as a building is only as strong as the materials used to construct it, so any society is only as strong as its families.
God invented the family right at the very beginning, and it is still His ideal institution for establishing human society.
Therefore, the cure for all of the social, psychological, emotional, spiritual, and civic problems that we face in our communities lies in rediscovering, restoring, and rebuilding the family.
The condition of the society reflects the condition of the family.
Everything that exists has a purpose.
As Creator, God had a specific purpose in mind for everything He made.
This is as true for the family as for anything else.
Humanity’s first family was established when God made Eve from a portion of Adam’s side and presented her to him (see Gen. 2:21-24).
The Book of Genesis is specific regarding God’s purpose for the family:
“So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.
Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground— (Gen. 1:27-28 emphasis added).
God’s desire was to fill the earth with human beings made in His image, and the family was the avenue He chose for accomplishing it.
Another clue to God’s purpose for the family is found in the Book of Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament. The people of God were upset because He seemed to no longer answer their prayers.
Malachi explained why: Another thing you do: You flood the Lord’s altar with tears.
You weep and wail because He no longer pays attention to your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. You ask, “Why?” It is because the Lord is acting as the witness between you and
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the wife of your youth, because you have broken faith with her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant.
Has not the Lord made them one? In flesh and spirit they are His. And why one? Because He was seeking godly offspring.
So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth (Malachi 2:13-15 emphasis added) Children are dear to God’s heart.
The growth and perpetuation of human society both depend on children.
From the beginning God established a firm foundation upon which to build society. Stage one was the creation of man—male and female.
Stage two was marriage, a spiritual union in which two individual humans are fused into one and that is consummated physically through the act of sexual intercourse.
Marriage leads naturally to stage three—a family unit consisting of a father, a mother, and one or more children.
This is the traditional definition of the word family.
Although single-parent households and unmarried individuals living alone certainly qualify as families in
a broader sense,
the traditional understanding is more significant when we are talking about perpetuating human society and “filling the earth” with people.
A husband and wife together build a marriage.
Marriage establishes a family. Children are born, grow to maturity, and establish their own families.
Multiplication of families creates communities; multiplication of communities gives rise to societies; and multiplication of societies results in nations.
If there is any command of God that mankind has faithfully obeyed, it is the command to “be fruitful and increase in number.”
We humans have followed that instruction so diligently that in the twenty-first century the global population has reached the danger point, and millions live with the daily threat of malnutrition and starvation.
In the face of this crisis, now more than ever before, conscientious people of God have a responsibility to give careful consideration to the need for deliberate family planning.
