Covenanter Witness Vol. 86 - Rparchives.org

Age Takes TheBowby Vickie McKissick *THINK YOUNG!!ACT YOUNG!!(Disguise your age if you Ye over 30.)In a culture as our American society, youth takesthe bow. Let them, for instance, be admitted as rulers insociety and good taste; even, let them rule on churchboards. Old age we shun as an unfortunate fate, a dis-ease.Advertising seeks to perpetuate youth; it appeals to oursearch for the Fountain of Youth. Old age is connectedwith senility and the idiom of the "generation gap." Yetprecisely the generation gap that youth complains of maybe directly related to the denial of family togetherness togrand- and great grandparents. Yes, we put them away innursing homes, so to rid ourselves of the aging.Where does this aspiring to the younger set andignoring of the aged lead us? Not too long ago on atelevision program, the master of ceremonies was talkingto young schoolchildren, asking each in turn what heconsidered the best age to be. When he came to one littlegirl and asked, 'And what age would you like to be?", sheanswered, "A baby." The surprised master of ceremoniesasked, "Why?" "Because then people do everything foryou." This is the modern dream, and even little childrenhave caught it: to be an unfrustrated modern baby in atotally permissive world that even deifies youth!A neighbor of an internationally famous filmdirector, currently in America, reported that it was not thenude sun-bathing or strolling which surprised her at thisbeach colony. The surprise was in other areas. The totallynude young mistress of the film director sun-bathes with apacifier in her mouth.(2)So we see that in society today, the fifth commandmenthas made a complete turn-about in terms ofpractical application. No longer do children honor andrespect their elders, but elders negate their own age andlook "up" to their children. At least the builders of Babelsaid, "Go to, let us build us a city and a tower" (Gen. 11:4),the City of Man. The builders of the modern Babel areworking instead to build the City of the Baby, theKingdom of the Child. They are working to create a socialorder which will serve as a grand pacifier for all our selfmadebabies.(3)Yet this City of the Baby, a permissive society, lacksthe capacity to overcome problems, because it retreatsinto liquor, narcotics, sexual immorality, and a criminal* Miss Vickie McKissick, a senior in Wichita StateUniversity, is a member of the Park City R. P. Church,Wichita. Kansas.8and revolutionary rage whenever frustrated. In such asociety, the traditional family declines, and individualslose the distinction between rightful submission andauthority. For without the family, individuals lose theirprimary training ground for mature, meaningful humanrelationships guided by just authority and mutual respect.Without such a base, our communities and nations andeven the whole of mankind suffer. Also, without thefamily based upon a firm bond in marriage, individualsproceeding from such a relationship are surely not goingto live long upon the land which is given by our Lord. Ithas been experimentally proven that absence of tender,personal, intimate mother love causes abnormal childdevelopment. It has also been affirmed that absence oftrue father love causes abnormal adolescent development.So what else but a long, fruitful life would followifchildren were nurtured and admonished in the fear of theLord! It is not only a sound psychological truth, but thespiritual lifeblood of our race.So we see the Christian principle in the fifth commandmentto be submission on the part of children totheir parents. Ironically, they learn this principle primarilyby the example set by their parents and other adults. Forwhat else do children do in most homes but try to imitatetheir parents — in speech, dress, walk, and behaviorlPaul's exhortation to Titus in chapter 2 is to speakbefittingly on this sound doctrine:Older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible,sound in faith, in love, in perseverance. Older womenlikewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not maliciousgossips, nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good,that they may encourage the young women to love theirhusbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure,workers at home, kind, being subject to their ownhusbands, that the word of God may not be dishonored.Likewise urge the young men to be sensible.—Titus 2:2-6, New American StandardSo to youth, the fifth commandment means that weare to revere and obey our elders, and thus learn fromthem discipline and wisdom in our life in Christ. Naturallythis also puts a great responsibility upon our parents andolder persons in our Christian communities. By no meansis old age good in itself. But old age seasoned by the graceof God is a blessing to every church or community ofbelievers in which the young people aspire to lead godlylives.• • •Footnoted material comes from Chalcedon Reports, no. 67February 1, 1970, by R. J. Rushdooney.COVENANTERWITNESS