Christian Family, Free Online Correspondence Course Introduction

Every course should have an objective, and much more so with what Calvin School offers. Thus this Course is offered with much expectation, the Chief Objectives of  which include: 

1. To give young, single adults words of instruction to prepare them for the future. Many can be spared much sorrow if they are instructed early in life. I have written words intended to draw the heart of the parents to the children, and the heart of the children to their parents. 

2. To show both young and older couples alike the blessedness of exclusive love in marriage. 

3. To emphasize that marriage and sex are of God, and therefore pure. Children are God’s gifts to be received with joy and thankfulness. 

4. To highlight the duty of parents to train the children in godliness. The parents’ spiritual care extends to grown children whose reverence for parents is not altered by age. 

5. To establish that the marriage covenant includes God in addition to the couple, and therefore lies beyond man’s authority to modify. 

A battle is on against marriage as a covenant under God’s law, and for redefining it as a modifiable contract under man’s law. There is, and will always be, a need to set forth in the clearest possible words the teaching of Christ on marriage and family. 

Two Important Reference Points: Conflicting viewpoints abound concerning almost all matters of holy living. Marriage is no exception. When such is the case one is often tempted to think in terms of relative right and relative wrong, saying “it depends” or “it is just your view”, implying that there are no absolutes about the case in point. Many feel that such thinking indicates broadmindedness and education. We all agree that there are absolutes in the physical universe God created. How can there be none in the moral universe inside our hearts? If God is sovereign in our hearts, there indeed are moral absolutes for us to live by. 

Where do we go to discover the absolutes? We go to God and His Word. We may use the following two reference points: 

I. The Words of the Scripture: Very rare, if any, would be a moral issue for which the Bible fails to give clear guidance. Such guidance is given either as precepts or as principles. Precept is based on principle. 

II. The Silence of the Scripture: The Bible speaks of “inventors of new forms of evil” (Rom.1:30, The Amplified Bible). All sins are not mentioned in the Bible, but all precepts and principles necessary for godly living are laid down. Living in the end times, we should expect an increase of new forms of evil invented by men. A precept or principle not given to us in God’s Word, and whose purity is doubtful, calls for careful examination in the light of the Scriptures related to the matter. It could well be that it is a new form of evil invented by men. In such matters, what the Scripture has not permitted by its words may in fact be condemned by its silence. 

These principles are set forth here because we will have use for their application in the following pages. 

We acknowledge that there are differences of opinion among Christians. This, far from daunting us, should only challenge us to love God and love the truth with firm resolve. We may safely trust the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth needed to do the will of God. 

With the above things in mind, let us move on the the lesson-proper