If one was to rank the most controversial doctrines of the Bible in order, from most to least, certainly within the top ten would be the doctrine of the family. Specifically the roles and relationships husbands, wives and children have together. This doctrine causes great protest among a wide spectrum of people, Christian and non-Christian alike.

The basic concept universally accepted within the Church up until the last 40 years is this: That God has ordained one man to marry one woman and that those two individuals should be inseparable until death. Further, the offspring of that marriage, their children, should obey their parents and be disciplined by their parents as a means to ensure that end. The chief of all responsibilities given to those parents by the Creator Himself, in regards to their children, is that instead of giving their children a plethora of options and viewpoints from which to choose, they are to give strict and implicit instructions to those children regarding the ways and worship of the Lord. In the family, the husband and father is the head of the home, leading and guiding the family unit as he is led by Christ. The wife and mother, equal in value and dignity with her husband, submits herself to his authority as instructed by the Apostles of the Lord and ultimately by the Lord Himself. These parameters are given to us by the Lord to ensure the stability and unity of the family which are both vitally fundamental to the development of children and ultimately of culture.

What a mouthful.

That paragraph might be the most common sense thing you have ever read. It may seem to you to be the most plain and reasonable thing on earth. After all, six thousand years of universal and unanimous human experience has certainly shown that this is the overwhelming understanding of the heathen and elect alike and clearly is “just the way it ought to be”.

Or, you might be ready to pull your hair out at the thought that people still to this day actually prescribe to such a chauvinistic, patriarchal, backwards and obviously oppressive way of life. This is clearly the mindset that leads to abuse, inequity and a real form of slavery in your mind and this is a cause of great offense in your heart.

So, before I weigh in and give the Biblical defense of this assertion, what are your initial thoughts? Sound off...I'd love to hear what all the dozens and dozens of my readers have to say.