January 15,1998
Dear Br. Martin:
Several nights ago, our area of the state received over three inches of rain according to the unofficial barrel- left-out-in-the-rain-all-night gage. Because we live at a high elevation, apparently most the rain washed down hill to inundate Elizabethton, causing several deaths and destroying over 75 homes and severely damaging many others. While most of my information is word of mouth, the January thunderstorms did a lot of damage in the area. Fortunately we live at a higher elevation so that it would take another Noah’s flood to wash us off our mountain perch although the Landlord told me the basement, of our apartment building, was leading water through the cinder block foundation wall that supports our second floor apartment.
It is conceivable for the wall to collapse under enough volume
of water. I have seen water spurting through the cracks of a cinder
block root cellar to a distance of two to three feet when the
ground was saturated, so we may not be as safe as I suppose.
Disasters seem to be accumulating rapidly on all sides and in
divergent locations.
I was speaking to a long time resident of the area last week who
told me that the weather is milder then it was thirty or forty
or fifty years ago. Less snow and warmer temperatures mean major
climatic changes in the North East corner of Tennessee.
Two weeks ago, we received at least five inches of snow, then
three days later it melted under 70 degree day time temperatures.
This is one reason why I like Tennessee, compared to Michigan,
its winters are short and mild, although Michigan has had a warmer
winter season then usual.
My heart goes out to those unfortunate people who either lost
their lives in the floods or their houses. I know something of
flood related tragedies and the rapidity and ferocity with which
water, under pressure, can kill and destroy. Its power, when viewed
up close, is tremendous and frightening.
We understand who is the author of floods, destruction, and death.
Satan delights in killing and destroying because it wounds the
heart of infinite love. When people are suddenly and unexpectedly
propelled into eternity unprepared, his Satanic majesty is pleased
for thus he can deprive Christ of another subject of His kingdom.
We little realize the protection Christ affords us and the depth
of the cruelty Satan harbors in his heart. But for ten righteous
souls in Sodom, Christ would have spared the wicked city. But
for Paul in the boat on his way to Roam, the lives of the solders
and passengers would have been destroyed in the Mediterranean
storm.
A large part of the world hates or despises Christians, but, as
you know, if it weren’t for the Christians in the world,
Satan would be permitted full control of the elements. Within
an astonishingly short time, all life would be extinguished in
a global holocaust. But the world continues, and his fury is held
in check because God’s children are yet in the world.
But it wasn’t death and disasters I wanted to talk to you
about. I understand your wife is expecting her first child. What
a privilege it is to be parents, to love and care for a small,
helpless baby, to mold its temperament, personality and disposition
after that of Christ. To nurture its development, and directs
its mind to the Lord of the universe.
Almost everywhere we look, we see spiritually and morally deformed
children, shaped in the likeness of Satan. While the Holy Spirit
may be able to reclaim some of these misguided souls, far better
they never strayed in the first place.
As a new father, you have a wonderful opportunity to provide a
secure nest for your wife and son or daughter. Feather it well,
that your family may flourish in the security and protection their
father affords. It is not the responsibility of the mother to
provide for the home, its security, its love and comfort, for
she has the full time privilege and responsibility of taking care
of the family.
While listening to the national news today, I learned that President
Clinton is proposing additional governmental funds to pay for
day care for children so that both parents can work. This is a
travesty and terribly destructive to the very children he is ostensibly
providing for. When turning children over to the care of another,
that child is deprived of the tender love and compassion of the
mother who best understands its needs and peculiar temperament.
It is so vital that the mother remain with the children throughout
its growing years, that, if President Clinton were truly interested
in the welfare of children and mother, which, of course, he isn’t,
he would propose a ban on working mothers and an abolition of
day care centers.
It just isn’t true that both parents MUST work in order to
provide a home for the family. Women have been caught up in the
siren song of emancipation from family responsibilities to such
an alarming extent that they can abandon their children to the
care of another without a worry or thought for the welfare of
the infant. Better another raise her child, then that the mother
sacrifice worldly advantage. God regards this as idolatry or self
worship. All such efforts to leave the child to the care of another
is based on selfishness, self-seeking, self-pleasure, or coldhearted
indifference.
It is the husband’s responsibility to provide for the family
and the wife’s responsibility to live with in the means he
provides. Thus the burden is upon the man to conduct his affairs
in such a wise manner that his wife may not legitimately resort
to the excuse of not enough money as a justification for leaving
the home.
If he fulfills his role wisely and prudently, and the wife learns
to economize, they shall have sufficient capital to fund the family
business.
But in nine cases out of ten, the wife is unwilling to economize,
demanding the supposed pleasures of life. Often this is disguised
as a heavy tax burden on families when the real motive is a selfish
desire for freedom from domestic cares. I believe this is also
the fundamental reason why parents kill their children through
abortion, to free themselves from the irksome obligations imposed
upon them by the arrival of offspring.
Irresponsibility is the poisonous effluvium we inhale every day.
Just as Abraham was susceptible to Sarah’s suggestion that
he take another wife because of the prevalence of polygamy, so
mothers are poisoned by the prevailing idolatry. One has only
to note the consequences of Abraham’s rash decision in the
Israeli/Arab disputes of today to see the baleful effects of surrendering
to the prevailing corruption of the day.
As with Eve eating the forbidden fruit, it would be well for modern
Eve’s to withdraw the hand from the plough, thus placing
the burden upon the husband to cultivate the field. It is well
know that husbands whose wives DO NOT work, earn far more then
those husbands whose wives work. As it was expressed to me several
months ago by a man whose wife worked full time, “why should
I bust my but when my wife is working?”
This is a legitimate question. If a man’s wife is working,
what incentive does he have to work harder? Thus, a working woman
deprives her husband of the incentive to earn the income and the
tremendous rewards that accrue to him when he sees his family
happy and prosperous. These benefits are not realized by the two
earner family. In this situation, it is the wife who is the real
looser for she is deprived of the enjoyment of watching her child
grow and development and of a successful and happy husband. What
a trap Satan has devised to destroy families, all in the name
of self-seeking.
We live in a liberal, permissive environment. Allurements are
everywhere to abandon ourselves to hedonism, which is the true
definition of self-absorption.
Your child deserves a full time mother who is supported by a caring
father. A man who allows his wife to work, is not a competent
husband. He builds and maintains the next, protects it from predators,
so the wife is free to devote her full time and attention to her
babies.
May the Lord bless you, my dear Brother, with wisdom, discernment,
and tact to lead your family in the right direction. Your brother
in Christ.
Allen A. Benson