A Husband and Father's Special Responsibility
For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. .... Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word and to present her to Himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. Ephesians 5:23,25-27

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Ephesians 6:4

When Family Worship Led By the Husband/Father Disappeared In America

In America, during the 1700's and early 1800's the chief hobby of men was to study theology. Praying was a manly thing to do. Training children to be godly was considered one of the chief responsibilities of men.

In the early days, what we now term religious education was primarily a function of the home. Fathers were expected to train their children in a knowledge of the scriptures and also of the doctrines of faith as set forth particularly in the various catechisms, that often included 100's of Scripture. It was the pastor's responsibility to see that this duty was not neglected.

Prior to the industrial revolution, fathers taught their children; especially their sons how to farm or how to do a trade. The sons would hear their fathers teaching on scripture in the morning and at night. Then they would see their fathers live what they preach during the day. The children were either home schooled by Mom with help from Dad or they were sent to a school house where scripture was the main part of learning. Everything taught in school backed up what the father was teaching at home.

Fathers started to rely on Sunday School and the public school to teach their children the foundations of the Christian faith. By 1847, the author J.W. Alexander, had detected a decline in the practice of Christian men leading their families in worship. In a century, family worship would be only a distant memory among Christians.

In the early 1800's it was taught by Dad's to their son's that they should never be alone with a women unless it was their mother or sister. Fathers told their son's to never put yourself into a compromising situation because you have a nature inside of you that lusts and this sinful nature will do anything to get what it wants.

In the later 1800's, Darwin's theory of evolution started to take hold. The biblical ideas of men being sinful was removed and replaced with the idea that man just needed to be educated. The belief started that man's natural goodness would lead him to do the right thing. Self reliance replaced trust in God. The industrial revolution also brought about men chasing after money rather than just providing for their family's daily needs.

We all know that things got much worse as Prayer and the Ten Commandments were taken out of public schools in the early 1960's. During this time we saw rise to the Playboy Philosophy and all manner of decadence started to be accepted. Proverbs 22:28 was discarded. "Do not move the ancient boundary which your father's set." That boundary continues to be moved today with the talk of homosexual marriage. Something the founding fathers could never have imagined.

It is time for the heart's of the father's to turn back to their children and their duty of teaching them the foundation's of the Christian faith. Pray that God will raise up men that remember their duty to lead.