Bringing America Back to a Foundation of Faith and Family Values

This article is based on Pastor Adrian Rogers' message, The Sad Case of Vanishing Values.

What happens when biblical values vanish?

In those days…everyone did what was right in his own eyes (Judges 17:6).

That is precisely the condition in the United States of America today.

We have lost the balance between societal rights and individual freedoms. There are daily confrontations with almost everyone in authority: women against patriarchy, feminists against femininity, gays against “homophobics,” children against parents, mothers against matrimony, fathers against child support, churchgoers against the Church.

Our young are deprived of the emotional comfort and moral nurturing of the traditional family.

Media and entertainment honor everything that Christians ethics abhor: violence, infidelity, drugs, drinking; they despise everything the Christian faith embraces: religion, marriage, respect for authority.

Instead of a culture of common good, we have a culture of constant complaint. Everyone is a victim.

Gone are the habits that America once admired: industriousness, thrift, self-discipline, commitment. What would the founding fathers think of us?

We are forgetting our Christian heritage. We are forgetting God. We need to bring back the glory to America—the glory of being a Christian nation.

What happened so long ago in Israel, recorded in the Book of Judges, gives inspiration and information for today. Because in that day, as in this day, every man did what was right in his own eyes.

Judges 17 is an example of a nation that had lost its moral compass.

Decline in Family Values

It starts with families who have no foundation. Case in point is Judges 17.

A man named Micah—whose name means “who is like Jehovah”—takes eleven hundred shekels of silver from his mother. She does not know who has done it, so she pronounces a curse on the thief. This frightens Micah and he brings the money back—not out of conviction, but out of fear.

But rather than scolding Micah, his mother blesses him! (See Judges 17:2.) She is so glad to have the money back that she dedicates it to the Lord. “Well,” you think, “that sounds pretty good.” But here is how she decided to do it:

Thus he returned the silver to his mother. Then his mother took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to the silversmith, and he made it into a carved image and a molded image; and they were in the house of Micah. The man Micah had a shrine, and made an ephod and household idols; and he consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest (Judges 17:4-5).

This is unmitigated moral confusion.

These people think they are serving God! Here is a family coveting, stealing, cursing and blessing, dishonoring parents, committing idolatry—and deciding for themselves how they want to worship God.

This is the American predicament today, too. It is not that we do not have religion in America; we are up to our ears in religion. But it is not Bible truth. Husbands, wives, children, authority, responsibility, morals…we have been “liberated” from these things. Yet it turns out that these traditional family values are what hold society together.

Weak Pastors and Religious Relativism

Now there was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah; he was a Levite, and was staying there….Micah said to him, “Dwell with me, and be a father and a priest to me, and I will give you ten shekels of silver per year, a suit of clothes, and your sustenance.” So the Levite went in (Judges 17:4,10).

The Levites? The priestly tribe. They were to assist the Aaronic line of priests, teach the law, lead in praise.

So here’s a preacher—out of a job, looking for a place to stay. (See Judges 17:8-9.) A should-be man of God agreeing, for money, to be the personal priest of an idolater and thief. He is not a man of God. He is a hireling.

And what does Jesus say about a hireling?

But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep (John 10:12-13).

What is wrong in America today? Hirelings. Ministers who have not been called of God.

The issue is not the money, in itself; pastors indeed ought to be paid. (Read 1 Timothy 5:17-18.) What is the difference? A hireling is committed to the one who pays his salary. A shepherd is committed to Christ. No one has hired him to be a Christian. He works for Jesus.

Being a hireling, this Levite priest told the people what they wanted to hear.

The tribe of Dan wanted to do something very wrong. God was not at all in it. But the tribe went to this priest.

So they said to him, “Please inquire of God, that we may know whether the journey on which we go will be prosperous.” And the priest said to them, “Go in peace. The presence of the LORD be with you on your way” (Judges 18:5-6).

Peace, peace; go on in your wicked ways. It’s fine.

Not much in American life could not be radically and quickly changed if we had a generation of preachers who would stand in the pulpit and, without fear or favor, preach the Word of God with the anointing of the Holy Spirit of God on them.

Society without Christian Ethics

What had happened was that the people from Dan said, “We don’t like what we have.” God gave them an inheritance, but they were unable to claim their possession because of their own indolence, cowardice, and unbelief. So they became dissatisfied—and covetous. They came against the town of Laish and plundered it.

America is filled with people who want what belongs to somebody else, and think they have the right to take it.

This is because we have lost Christian ethics. “If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat” (2 Thessalonians 3:10b). When you so lose your values that half of the nation gets the idea that it does not have to work because somebody else will work for them, and the other half thinks it does no good to work because somebody else gets what they work for, then everybody is out of work except the government.

And what motivates our government? Greed, materialism and selfishness. False ministers and politicians saying abortion is all right, and condoning governmental greed. The complete absence of faith values.

And what was the start of all this?

In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes (Judges 17:6).

Christian Revival Begins with Restoring Faith and Family Values

What should Christians do about this? If the problem is vanishing values, what is our due response?

Foundational Family Values

A family begins with a husband and a wife.

Your relationship with God comes first, before all else. Your second highest priority is your marriage.

When you commit to another in marriage, you both should leave your mother and father and unite with each other—physically, psychologically, and spiritually.

Faith and Parenting

The Church is a family of friends and a friend to the family. Christians as a body should treasure family values. Fathers, mothers, begin to build your home on the Word of God—or else you are building on sand and the storms will sweep your work away.

What constitutes a moral upbringing? Christian family values. These are how you will raise godly children so they can then independent followers of Christ.

Pastor Adrian Rogers said, “Your job (as a parent) is to work yourself out of a job. Parents are successful when children no longer need them. But you don’t work yourself out of a relationship.”

Submission to Christian Leadership

You need to be under the ministry of a God-called, God-appointed and God-anointed man, in a congregation of believers where the Word of God is preached without fear or favor.

You need a moral authority. God has provided it in His Word, and He has appointed pastors as under-shepherds to teach and lead us.

The Power of Prayer

Pray for America.

Speak up, and understand that they will not like you when you do. Do not be intimidated or bullied. You have a right to speak up; the founding fathers fought for that very religious freedom. What’s more, as a Christian, you have a responsibility before God to speak up and spread the Gospel.

List of Scriptures Referenced in This Article

Judges 17:1-10, 18:5-6; John 10:12-13; 1 Timothy 5:17-18; 2 Thessalonians 3:10

More Bible Verses About Restoring Faith

And the LORD spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they would not listen. Therefore the LORD brought upon them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze fetters, and carried him off to Babylon. Now when he was in affliction, he implored the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed to Him; and He received his entreaty, heard his supplication, and brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God (2 Chronicles 33:10-13).

And I said: “I pray, LORD God of heaven, O great and awesome God, You who keep Your covenant and mercy with those who love You and observe Your commandments, please let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, that You may hear the prayer of Your servant which I pray before You now, day and night, for the children of Israel Your servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against You. Both my father’s house and I have sinned (Nehemiah 1:5-6).

These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands: “I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary. Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent” (Revelation 2:1b-5).