The Biblical Family

By Dr John McElhaney

Today the picture people have in their mind of a family is so distorted that it does not in any way resemble the family that God designed in his word. The roles of the husband and wife have dissolved beyond recognition. The definition of marriage has become something that our ancestors would not even recognize. The roles of the men and women in the church have completely disappeared without even considering what God has said. We must return to the biblical definition of marriage and teach this younger generation what God's intention is for the family. We must also teach our children the proper roles they are to hold in the marriage. There are so many things today that are attacking the model family that we as believers must be vigilant, refusing to remain quiet about the issues of the family today. We must let our voices resound as we defend biblical marriage as taught in the word of God. There are many things that this book deals with relating to family issues. Things like rearing Godly children, Family fun time, fractured families, how to deal with abuse, when children leave the home, and much more. You will not go wrong buying this book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dr John McElhaney
• Release date: Jun 11, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463092675

Dr John McElhaney

Dr John McElhaney Graduated sums cum laude with a Th.D. He has pastored churches in Tennessee and Florida for almost fifty years. He has been Married to Margaret Leffew for forty seven years and they have three children, eight grandchildren and two great grandchildren. His passion is writing, preaching and teaching the sacred scriptures. He is available for speaking engagements by appointment. You may contact him by E-mail at [e-mail] , by phone at 423-836-7231 his mailing address is 1104 Christianburg Lane Sweetwater, TN. 37874

Book preview

The Biblical Family

God Designed the Family

Dr. John McElhaney

Copyright © 2019 by John McElhaney

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Published by John McElhaney

All scripture references are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Imprint: Independently published

I dedicate this book to the Mt. Bethel Missionary Baptist Church Family in Sweetwater, TN. The blessings I have received from being a part of this Church are beyond expression.

Contents

Preface

Chapter I: God’s Design for the Marriage

Chapter II: Proper roles of husband and wife in the family

Chapter III Proper roles of husband and wife in the church

Chapter IV Role of Children in the home

Chapter V Family fun time

Chapter VI Things that are destructive to the family

Chapter VII Influence of world’s philosophy on the family

Chapter VIII Rearing godly children in this age

Chapter IX When children grow up and leave home

Chapter X Importance of the family tree

Chapter XI Fractured families

Chapter XII At the end of the road

Conclusion: how to deal with death

Preface

When I endeavor to write on this subject, I feel like I am certainly not one who should be writing about family. Even though I have been married to the same woman for close to fifty years, have three children, eight grandchildren and two great grandchildren still I see so much failure in my attempt at leading my family in a way that is pleasing to God.

I then look around and see how fractured the family has become in this day and my heart greaves for the younger generation who do not have a clue as to what a real family is.

I know there are no perfect families and never have been, because we live in a fallen world. When we look in the scriptures, we see men, that God used mightily, but they had great family problems.

David had real family issues that caused him real problems in his kingdom. He committed adultery, one of his sons raped his daughter, then another son had that son put to death. Then the son that had his brother put to death tried to take David’s throne, but was also killed.

David was a weak father who never disciplined his children like he should. After his committing adultery with a married woman and having her husband killed, God told him that the sword would never depart from his door all the days of his life.

There was also Abraham who had real family issues, he lied about his wife calling her his sister, he had a child by his wife’s servant among other things, but when it came to the ultimate test Abraham passed with flying colors.

Even Noah, after the flood got drunk and made a mess of things that had long lasting effects. All families have problems because they are made up of fallen people.

We are a product of what we observed growing up in the family we were reared in. We view things through the filters that cover our eyes based on how we were raised. But the problem is that we filter out the things that were bad in our upbringing, because they were not looked on as bad then.

What must we do if we are going to have a family that pleases God, and how do we keep from bringing in the baggage that we picked up in our own upbringing? The only possible way to do that is to open your mind to believe only what God says regardless of what your parents taught you or what ever you may have picked up from observation that they may not have sat you down and told you directly, you still have it in your mind from what you saw in them as you were being reared.

We must be willing to cast aside anything we received as we were growing up that is not biblical and accept everything that is biblical as we fill our mind with the scriptures. There is no substitute for truth. You can ignore truth, you can deny truth, you can replace truth in your mind with a lie, but you can’t destroy truth, and truth will always have the last say, because Jesus said my word is truth, and it will not pass until all be fulfilled.

You hear people say all time, well that may be what you say or believe but I have always believed this, my daddy and grandpa believed it this way so I will just keep believing this because I feel comfortable about it. That is closed minded ignorance that has corrupted this family and will corrupt this next generation that comes from this family. I do not care what your daddy, momma, grandma, or great grandpa said, if it is wrong it is wrong and no amount of wanting it to be right is going to make it right.

Remember, there are no perfect families, there are those who have different issues than others, and there are those who see your issues but cannot see their own because theirs are different from yours. Pray for each other, we never know what others are going through. We all have problems that others don’t know about, and when you look at someone that looks and acts like everything is all right, it could be just a front to keep people from knowing how much they are hurting over some family member that has lost their way and is living in deep sin.

It should be our desire to walk in a way that is pleasing to the Lord, and we should strive and press forward to the goal that is set before us, realizing that we will never reach it in this life, but we should desire too.

I hope as you read this book it will motivate you to examine yourself, your family, and your walk with the Lord to see first of all if you are in the faith or not, then if your family is all saved, then I hope you will say as Joshua said, As for me and my house we will serve the Lord. Live every day in the presence of the Lord. Attend church regularly, give your tithes and offerings to the church to support it, then rest in the Lord, he will lead you and your family safely through.

Chapter I

God’s Design for Marriage

Marriage is an institution of God not government. The first institution God established was marriage. For us to get the biblical account we must go to the book of Genesis and see what God designed marriage to be. We have no right to try to change marriage or redefine marriage to fit with what the world wants marriage to be. God’s word must rule regardless of what anyone else thinks.

When God created the earth and all things on the earth, he then created man. He did not create man and then create a place for him. But he had everything in place for man before he ever formed him out of the dirt of the earth, breathed life into him and he became a living soul.

The very next thing that God did was create a woman for man, to walk beside him, be his helpmate, together they would bear children and populate the earth. Man could not produce children without the woman and the woman could not produce children without the man, it takes both, because God’s design is perfect. Look at Genesis 1:26-28

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

In these verses God is telling us that he created man (humanity) in his image, after his likeness, because he is talking about both man and woman here. God did not create humankind as he did the animals or any other creature. But man was made unique. Man was formed from the ground by the hand of God, designed to be in the image and likeness of God, which means that he was able to think, rationalize, feel with emotions, design things, build things, able to use his mind to produce things beneficial to