Save America Ministries

Guest (Male): This is Viewpoint with attorney and author Chuck Crismier. Viewpoint is a one-hour talk show confronting the issues of America's heart and home. And now with today's edition of Viewpoint, here is Chuck Crismier.

Chuck Crismier: Rome was the world's first superpower. The first superpower of the world. The rise of Rome from mythically simple beginnings to dominion over the whole Mediterranean world and beyond was seen by Romans themselves as divinely ordained, believe it or not. Romans prided themselves with piety, fidelity, and above all, virtue, meaning courage, ability, strength, and excellence, which made their empire possible so long as the citizens retained them, those virtues as well.

Rome was the heir of ancient civilizations of the Middle East and Mediterranean, observing and propagating their cultures while adding its own distinctive elements to make a civilization that was unique. When Rome finally fell, it not only left great architectural and engineering feats, but also the very body of Roman law, the Catholic Church, and the idea of a universal empire. That made Rome an unrivaled cultural as well as political superpower. So what happened?

How did Rome fall? What were the ingredients? Today on Viewpoint, we're going to see one of the most important ingredients that nobody wants to talk about. Very seldom is this talked about, but we're going to talk about it here on Viewpoint because it has tremendous significance for us. America, believe it or not, we have a Roman capital. We have Roman laws, basically. We use Roman numerals, Roman digits. In fact, basically in many respects, we are the late-day Romans.

We are part of the extended Roman Empire, believe it or not. So here we are, just getting ready to celebrate the 250th anniversary of at least the political birth of the country with the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Where do we stand with regard to ancient Rome? That would be something that would seem to be worthy for our conversation here. So today, we go to Rome first, and then we come back to the United States of America, and then we go to our own homes.

It's going to be a bit of a journey here, but I hope you'll stay tuned because there is so much for us to understand from our program here today. This conversation is always with ever-increasing conviction, talk that transforms, and I hope today will be no exception. I suppose that many of you listeners to this program may have subscribed to The Epoch Times. In the February 25 to March 3rd edition of The Epoch Times was a tremendous article worthy for all Americans, indeed Christian Americans, to read.

It was in their Life and Tradition section called "Crucial Lessons from Ancient Rome." They said the collapse of the family and family structures in late Rome left the society vulnerable for collapse. So we're going to take a look at that on the program here today. Conversation is always with ever-increasing conviction, hopefully talk that transforms here today on Viewpoint. Very, very pertinent, friends. They say that the only thing we learn from history is we don't learn from history, and those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

So the question that I would have for us here today is, are we willing to learn from history or are we doomed to repeat what happened with ancient Rome? Well, here's the story. Historians never tire of analyzing the fall of Rome. There were many causes, but an often neglected one is the corruption of the Roman family. Now, I want to give credit to Walker Larson, who penned this particular account for The Epoch Times in their Life and Tradition section. Extremely worth reading. But I'm going to share it with you here, giving full credit, not trying to adopt it for my own purposes, but rather to read it for what it's worth, and then we'll have a conversation about it.

There were many causes, but an often neglected one is the corruption of the Roman family and the related population collapse that occurred in the centuries before the empire's fall. Rome's original greatness depended in part on its commitment to family. A classic Roman virtue extolled in the quintessential Roman poem, the Aeneid, was pietas or piety. And that term referred to deep devotion to one's family and particularly one's parents, and also to the gods of the country, and to the country. Early Romans valued marriage, fidelity, and honor and looked down on self-indulgence.

Their successes must be attributed at least partially to these virtues. Rome's decline occurred in parallel with its abandonment of these values. As Jerome Carcopino wrote in Daily Life in Ancient Rome, divorces were rare in the time of the Roman Republic. But they happened constantly in the later stages of the empire. An epidemic of divorces undermined the stability of the Roman family and tore apart the fabric of society. The households of Rome were perpetually being disrupted, continually dissolving to recrystallize and dissolve again till age and death finally overtook them.

The Roman poet, Marcus Valerius Martialis, said divorces and remarriages were so frequent that marriage had little meaning, becoming practically a form of legal adultery, what some Christians here have called serial adultery. The separations occurred on the frailest of pretexts. Because marriage meant so little, many opted for concubinage instead. In AD 101 to 300, by the way, that's the period immediately following Jesus Christ and His apostles, bachelors were more admired than husbands and fathers. The historian Christopher Dawson wrote conditions of life both in the Greek city-state and the Roman Empire favored the man without a family.

Today, they favor the woman without a family and without a man in the United States. Late marriages and small families became the rule. And men satisfied their sexual instincts by homosexuality or by relations with slaves and prostitutes. Interesting, isn't it? Men weren't the only ones running from responsibility, either. Many Roman women avoided motherhood simply out of fear of losing their looks. When couples did marry, they usually had few, if any, children. Many Roman marriages at the end of the first and the beginning of the second century were childless. Sounds like US today, doesn't it? And we will continue after this break.

Guest (Male): Once upon a time, children could pray and read their Bibles in school. Divorces were practically unknown, as was child abuse. In our once-great America, virginity and chastity were popular virtues, and homosexuality was an abomination. So what happened in just one generation? Hi, I'm Chuck Crismier, and I urge you to join me daily on Viewpoint, where we discuss the most challenging issues touching our hearts and home. Could America's moral slide relate to the Fourth Commandment? Listen to Viewpoint on this radio station or anytime at saveus.org.

Chuck Crismier: For those just tuning in, we began by introducing the Roman Empire and the condition of the family as it was honored and perceived, marriage and the family, in early Roman society. Then, after the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire took over, things began to change. Power, corruption, wealth, and so on. And the family began to disintegrate. We've been sharing those facts in the first part of the program, and now we continue on. Many Roman marriages at the end of the first and the beginning of the second century were childless. Roman couples made use of contraception and abortions.

And if those failed, they didn't hesitate to kill their infants by abandoning them and exposing them to the elements. The natural consequences of all this were, of course, low birth rates and then population decline. The trend became alarming enough that the Emperor Augustus, remember Caesar Augustus, tried to provide incentives for couples to have more children, but it was too late to reverse the problem. As Romans chose not to reproduce, the population of Rome inevitably began to shrink. By about AD 501, which is about the time when the Roman Catholic Church took over for the Roman Empire and took over all of the various accouterments of ancient Rome and its Roman Empire and put a religious label on them, which became part of the Roman Curia and all of the operations of the Roman Catholic Church as we know it.

So that was about AD 501. Rome's population had gone from a healthy 1 million to a mere 30,000. Population collapse signals catastrophe for civilization in the long run. For the Romans, it meant a smaller tax base, fewer people to engage in economic productivity, and fewer recruits for the heavily beset Roman military. A fellow by the name of Dawson attributed Rome's overall decline largely to low birth rates and the collapse of marriage. This aversion to marriage and the deliberate restriction of the family by the practice of infanticide and abortion was undoubtedly, he said, the main cause of the decline of ancient Greece as Polybius pointed out in the second century BC.

And the same factors were equally powerful in the society of the Roman Empire, where the citizen class even in the provinces was extraordinarily sterile and was recruited not by natural increase but by the constant introduction of alien elements. Thus, the ancient world lost its roots alike in the family. Rome's internal weakness, beginning with the weaknesses of its families, made it susceptible to eventual invasions. It takes just a little reflection to reveal the parallels between our current situation and the situation of the Romans in late antiquity. We share many traits with the Romans, an emphasis on sexual freedom outside marriage, a tendency toward late marriages, a penchant for divorce, disdain for large families, and an inclination to use contraception and abortion.

All this has placed us in the same situation of staring down a population collapse. So Rome's story should be a cautionary tale. The stability and success of society begins with the stability and success of its families, which form its most basic unit. A society that has lost its love of children and abandoned its understanding of the sacredness of marriage has become, in a sense, suicidal. Its days are numbered. Monogamous and indissoluble marriage has been the foundation of European society and has conditioned the whole development of our civilization, wrote Dawson. We neglect this societal cornerstone at our peril. Tremendous article, insights with tremendous relevance, application for our time. Don't you think?

And so, as we continue on today, we go back and just think out loud concerning what's happened in the past 50, 60 years. Going back to the sexual revolution in the 1960s and an overall rebellion against authority, there was also rebellion against parents and even not only parents but against God himself. So the rebellion against Father God began to apply to fathers in our society. So as Father God was gradually despised and ruled out because of the rebellion in the society against authority, God was rebelled against. Then men gradually were mocked and women began to take dominion and authority in the country just as they did in Rome.

And in addition to that, children were no longer valued. What we valued was freedom. Freedom from responsibility. Freedom from order. We wanted to do what we wanted to do and I'll have it my way. As Frank Sinatra said, I'll do it my way. And so that's what we've done. And we've had a much lower production of children. In fact, in America, we have a higher birth rate than most of Europe, which were our progenitors. And their birth rate in Europe, which were the earlier manifestations of the Roman Empire, are not maintaining sufficient to keep their populations and their countries going. In fact, their countries are self-destructing because of insufficient birth rates.

In America, we are just barely hovering at a birth rate approximating what it might take to keep the society going. It's dropped dramatically. We're just like ancient Rome. In fact, this has become a problem throughout the world now, especially the Western world. So we are intentionally weakening ourselves in a practical way so that we cannot continue to exist over a period of time. You become so weak that you cannot carry on anymore. You can't resist the inroads of those forces that would come in, as they did in Rome with all of the insults coming from the Goths, the Visigoths, and the Ostrogoths and all of those came in and began to tear into Roman society.

The same is happening in America. It's happening rapidly. And our families are weakened. Our structures within the families are weakened. Our respect for parents is almost non-existent these days because our respect for God, the fear of the Lord, the absence of the fear of the Lord is being manifested in the lack of the fear of parental authority in our country. Rebellion against parents. The Bible warns about that. Did you know that? In fact, one of the Ten Commandments is "Children obey your parents in the Lord." It's the first commandment with promise. And the Bible says that those children who do not respect and honor their parents should be stoned.

Now, I'm not suggesting that we do that right now, but that's exactly what God prescribed because He knew how important the authority of parents in the home would be for the continuity of the people of Israel, the Hebrew people coming out of Egypt. So that's where we are today. And it's an amazing situation. The divorce rates since 1968 have been so severe that there has been an actual rebellion against the very concept of marriage. And so cohabitation now has become the premiere manifestation of the so-called family in America. It's just true. That's the way it is. It doesn't take a spiritual analysis to determine that.

The secular analysts are telling us the same story. So here we are, corrupted like ancient Rome, and it's continuing and we're seeing the ramifications of it. So the question then is, okay, what do we do? How do we respond? So I'm going to share with you in the balance of the program today some practical things that you and I can do as followers of Jesus Christ. In fact, you don't even have to be a Christian to do most of these things. It's true because they're so basic, so simple. And so I hope you'll stay tuned because what we're going to be talking about here is so practical, so meaningful, so applicational, so right on for where we are today.

And I dare say that this may very well catch hold in your mind, in your heart, in your family, and with your leadership. Notice, with your leadership in the family, it may actually make a difference in the ongoing life of our country on the near edge of the second coming of Jesus Christ. So, again, I want to take you to another fascinating article. This one came actually in The Epoch Times again. It's pretty amazing some of the things that they bring out there in that newspaper. I don't believe with their Falun Gong focuses there, but the rest of it is usually pretty good, very practical. So this article is called "The Daily Parenting Habit That Changes Everything." I agree with it wholeheartedly.

So, again, I'm going to share with you, giving credit to Walker Larson, who wrote this article as well as the one that we just talked about. What's the world's most valuable resource? What would you say? Everybody's talking about gold and silver and protecting against inflation and protecting against this and protecting against that. But what would be the most valuable resource we have? Well, I'm thinking of a song. "Time, oh good, good time, where have you gone?" Time. Time together, talking, thinking, thanking, and tenderly touching. That's the heart of all relationship. So the world's most valuable resource isn't cash or gold or silver.

It's not real estate. Time is our most valuable resource because it's the most limited, and once lost, it's gone forever. It's the resource by which we acquire all other resources, which makes it the most powerful resource of all. So without time, we can't experience or enjoy anything else in life. Time is the very medium of life itself. So one of the things that I learned as a child, growing up in my parents' home every evening around the dinner table, after dinner we would share Bible verses from a little plastic container called "Bread of Life." It looked like a loaf of bread and there were little cards in there. On one side was a Bible verse and on the other side was a quotation from a Christian leader.

And so here is one of the most memorable quotations that has continued to hover over my life and guided me all of these years. "Only one life, 'twill soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last." Now that's a statement about time. Only one life. You see, you and I only have one life. We are not like cats. We don't have nine lives. We only have one life, you see. And it may be composed of 70 years. It may be composed of 80 years, maybe a little bit more with health and medical care that have developed over these years. But it might not be that much, and you don't know how much time you have.

None of us knows exactly how much time we have. So the Psalmist David said, "Lord, teach me to know my days, my time. Help me to understand and act properly with regard to the time that I have." So today we're talking particularly about the relative purpose of time and our families. If we're to see any meaningful change in our families, it has to begin with time. So it's the habit that changes everything. We'll be right back.

Guest (Male): There is so much more about Chuck Crismier and Save America Ministries on our website, saveus.org. For example, under the marriage section, God has marriage on His mind. Chuck has some great resources to strengthen your marriage. First off, a fact sheet on the state of the marital union, a fact sheet on the state of ministry, marriage, and morals, saveus.org. Marriage, divorce, and remarriage. What does the Bible really teach about this? Find all of this at saveus.org. Also, a letter to pastors, the Hosea Project, saveus.org, and many more resources to strengthen your marriage. It's all on Chuck's website, saveus.org. Again, you can listen to Chuck's Viewpoint broadcasts live and archived. Save America Ministry's website at saveus.org.

Chuck Crismier: I used to tell my legal secretary that if she would only add another two or three hours to my day, to my working time, that I would up her salary, her hourly rate significantly. The problem is she was never able to do it. And the reason she wasn't able to do it is because she has no control over time and neither do you. At least how much time we have. So the question isn't how much time do we have, the question is how I'm going to use the time that I do have. And so we're applying that now to our families. The daily parenting habit that changes everything. So we could say, well, I'll make it a habit later, what I do with my time. No, you won't. You have to start today.

So today is the first day of the rest of your life. Not tomorrow, today. In fact, if you read the Scriptures, you'll find over and over again, the Scripture says today, harden not your heart. Today, today, today. Not tomorrow. We don't live in a mañana life, always tomorrow. It's today. So our priorities are what we do. Everything else is just talk. We show what we really care about by how we spend our most precious resource, which is time. So today, if my family was really one of the top priorities of my life, then I ought to commit time to them before anything else. Otherwise, everything else is just talk. Wish fulfillment.

Time is the framework upon which all other family success hangs. It takes time to talk about our troubles, time to discipline consistently, time to convey that you matter to me. It takes time and much repetition to teach character and morals. There are no shortcuts. If you skimp on time, you shortchange everything else. And I began to realize that when our first child was born. And so I began to realize I've got to do something about this. Now I'm a busy lawyer, I have cases, people depending upon me. I'm also gaining a certain reputation in the community not only as a businessman but as a lawyer, but also as a Christian leader.

And so I'm speaking here, there, and other places. I'm on several boards. Now those things may be ever so important, but I had to realize they're not more important than my family. I can't allow those things, service out there, to take away my dedication to the most important thing that God has put in my care. I'm a trustee of my family and the time. And so when I would get home, my wife would always wait, if I had to be a little bit late, maybe couldn't get there until 6:30 or 7:00 at night for dinner. That's what we would do. And we got, we were there as a family, always spending time as a family.

We didn't have a television to watch. We didn't have cell phones to deal with. We just talked. We talked. And then after that, I would take the first time that I had available, which was immediately following, not to deal with watching television, not to deal with this, that, or the other, but to spend time with my girls before they went to bed. Those were the most important times that we had. Then whatever else I needed to do, I would do after that. I had to make choices and those were the choices that were made, always giving the time first to the family. They desired my presence. God desires our presence, too. Did you know that?

As a father, He desires our presence. And we should desire His presence. Moses did. Moses said, "Unless Your presence goes with me, I can't even do what You asked me to do." Our kids are saying the same thing. "Unless your presence is with me." But the problem is we don't give our presence to our kids. We think that sitting down in front of the television with our kids around us is giving presence to our kids. It's not. It's a pretense. It's a substitute, a cheap substitute. I know this may not sound, you may not be real happy about hearing this, but we need to hear it because if we don't, we're going to collapse just like Rome did, and we are collapsing.

Even in God's house, there's a reason why pastors' families aren't doing too well. There's a reason why 70% of pastors' wives claim that their marriages are not very good, they're not fulfilling. Why? Because father is not fathering and he's not husbanding. He's not present. He's so busy with everybody else that he's not doing the number one thing that God called him to do, to be a father and to be a husband. How are you going to love your wife as Christ loved the church if you're not present enough to do so? If you're not focused enough to do so?

How are you going to love your kids? As Jesus' disciples said, "Don't bother with the kids, let's get on with the adults." And Jesus said, "No, no, no." It's the children. Of such is the kingdom of heaven. In fact, He said, unless you become like a little child, you can't even see the kingdom of heaven. So what kids need most of all is their parents' presence. Presence proves love, provides guidance, and provides memories. Wow. Children need to experience such presence as the normal and dependable context of their day-to-day existence. You see, if we don't value the children, we don't value what God has called us to do.

Now many will say, "Well, you know, I take my kids to this and I take my kids to that." God didn't tell you to do that. There's no place in the Scripture that God tells you to take your kids to the soccer game or the baseball game or the dance studio or whatever it is. He said, "I want you to teach them. I want you to talk of Me when you all lie down, when you rise up, when you walk by the way." In other words, your presence is continually there. So it's not that there's anything particularly evil about a baseball game or a soccer game or music lessons and so on. It's we lose the focus of the time and how we're spending it.

So the more time parents spend with children, the higher their children's well-being is going to be. So a bit of focused parent-child time every day seems to be a parenting secret weapon. It makes all aspects of parenting easier and contributes to the child's well-being, which after all is what every parent desires. It isn't glamorous, it's not revolutionary, it's simple and fulfilling God's simple calling for every one of us. It's the most important thing on my to-do list, always was and still is today. Top priority. So prove it by committing time to it. It will pay off immensely in the long run.

It's an investment. Invest your time wisely with your kids and then also husbands with your wives, wives with your husbands. Otherwise, you'll be crying like that old song, "Time, oh good, good time, where have you gone?" Now that leads to the second important thing that I want to share with you here in response to how do we avoid what happened to ancient Rome. How do we avoid what's happening even now in America? Well, we're forsaking our fathers. We're forsaking our fathers. There's a war against masculinity, agreed. There has been. Secular leaders, writers, and so on have been acknowledging it now the last several years. The war against fathers. The rise of the feminine to war against the masculine.

And therefore, there has been an increasing focus on Mother Earth as opposed to Father God. The whole climate issue, when you boil it down, is about the elevation of Mother Earth over Father God and His authority. I'm just putting it in very simple terms. It doesn't mean that we shouldn't take care of the earth, we're supposed to be stewards of the earth that God put in our hands. But it's about God. It's not about the earth. It's about God. He's the Creator. And earth is not our mother. God is our father. However, in rejecting Father God, we've also been rejecting our fathers in the households.

It used to be said, a very common phrase here in America, that father's law is father's word is law in the household. Well, father's word was law in the household of faith, too. Not anymore. Our fathers hardly even talk about faith anymore. They don't even read the Bible. Very few men even read the Bible today. So how are they going to fulfill their responsibility toward their kids, toward their family, toward their spouse? You can't do it. You're playing a world of let's pretend. You say, "Well, I listened to something on some tape or I listened to something on the radio." No, that's not enough.

That's okay, it's not enough. God says we're to study His word. We're to meditate on it day and night. And when we do, we're obeying the Father and we're increasing our ability to be fathers in our families. We'll be right back to talk about this in just a moment.

Guest (Male): Have you ever considered what the early church was like? Many people are developing a heart longing for a greater fulfillment in our practices as Christians. A recent study showed 53,000 people a week are leaving the back door of America's churches in frustration. What is going on? Why has there not been even a 1% gain among followers of Christ in the last 25 years? Could it be that God is seeking to restore first-century Christianity for the 21st century? Jesus said, "I'll build My church." Is Christ by His Spirit stirring to prepare the church for the 21st century? The early church prayed together and broke bread from house to house. They were family, and it was said by all who observed, behold how they love one another. Incredible, but the same can be found right now. Go to saveus.org and click Cell Church. We can revive first-century Christianity for the 21st century. It's about people, not programs. It's about a body, not a building. That's saveus.org. Click Cell Church.

Chuck Crismier: Fatherhood is at the foundation of all success in the country. It's at the foundation. And so when you read the Scriptures, if you do, you will find how important fathers are to God. In fact, so important that He despises, hates fatherlessness. Literally hates it. Why? Because He knows how critically important it is for kids, for families, and for the society as a whole. He hates fatherlessness. So where are we right now in that regard? Well, 40% of all children in America do not live in a home with their father. 40%. In the black community, 68% plus of all black children do not live in a home with their father.

Did we need to go further than that to explain and understand what's happened? Yeah, there's no authority. So all authority is assumed by women. Now there's nothing wrong with women, but they're not men. God ordained the husband, the father to be the ultimate authority in the home. Not mothers, not wives, but fathers. And in the absence of fathers, mothers will do the best that they can, but they're not fathers. And so the family languishes. Whether you want to agree with it or not is not the point. God says so, and you're not God. So you can join with American culture and pretend that it doesn't matter that your children are fine whether or not there's a father in the home, whether or not, you can pretend that, but you're lying to yourself.

And you're lying to your children, and you're defining their destiny in one way or another. A friend of mine, James Langway, who wrote a book called The Family Bible Revolution, said by not accepting our rank of headship, that is as fathers unto the Lord, we are beheading our families. I couldn't think of a more apt statement. Let me reread it again. He said by not accepting our rank of headship as fathers unto the Lord, we are beheading our families. Cutting off the head of our families. So this whole time thing doesn't begin with moms, it begins with dads. And it begins with what dads do with their time.

What they do with their time with regard to their kids. If their time is just spent in, "Take me out to the ball game and buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack. I don't care if I ever get back for its root, root, root for the home team," or whatever, you see, that's not what God calls fathers to do. There's nothing wrong with that. My dad took me to a couple of baseball games growing up. I remember one of them where a foul ball hit me in the cheek and I suffered tremendous injury from that for a very long period of time. Very memorable. But I don't hold that against my dad. He was trying to do something very nice for his son.

But that wasn't the essence of fathering. It was just one thing that he did. A father has, is the foundation, seeks to bless and provide for his family, but he's also committed to protect his family and to spend time with his kids. Not just throw the baseball, but in a more practical way. For instance, I had three daughters. But when I had grandsons, and they many of them several of them were living in our home while my daughter and her husband were living with us for a time, so we began to speak into their lives. Well, one of the things that I did was help to train them in working in the yard, doing various things in the yard, and training them in a work ethic. Then change your want-tos.

"You don't want to do what I ask you to do in studying My word? Then change your want-tos." So over time, they change their want-tos. And not only that, but they learned a work ethic. They also learned how to do many different things so that ultimately they were able to make money doing it to accomplish certain things that they wanted to do. But inserted in all of that was repeated references back to the authority, the Kingdom of God, and how things worked from God's viewpoint. So they were discipled by spending time with them to do things other than what seemed like spiritual things, but they really were.

It takes time. But because dads are not taking that time, our land is getting darker and darker. You know, we used to sing a song. They called it America's hymn. "Our fathers' God to thee, author of liberty." Notice, our fathers' God to thee, author of liberty, to thee we sing. "Long may our land be bright with freedom's holy light, protect us by thy might, great God our King." Okay, so our bright land is becoming darker and darker. Why? Because men, fathers are not fulfilling their responsibility, even professing Christian fathers. So fathers are disappearing from households all across America. Can you believe that that headline occurred in the Washington Times?

That's right. Fathers disappearing across America. And that was 15 years ago. Among the children of divorce, half have never visited their father's home in a typical year. 40% of them don't see their father. So divorce is right at the problem, and you see we talked first about what happened in Rome. They began to disrespect marriage, began to divorce willy-nilly. And then they began to justify cohabitation and concubinage. And then they decided it's more about sex and pleasure than it is about producing children, so they didn't produce children either. That's what's happened in America. So 65 million children that otherwise would have normally been born since 1973 were not born in America. 65 million.

So let's take a quick look. I brought out my good cell phone here that was turned off and I'm going to turn it on to the calculator. And let's find out, there are approximately, let me see, 65 million. Okay, and divide that, current population, divide that by 368 million people. That's the current population of America. Whoops. Well, I was going to get the figure here, but time is running out and I missed my calculation. So we'll have to talk about that another time. But you can do it on your own. Divide 65 million by 368 million and see what percentage of America's population is missing.

And that will tell you why our taxes are so high. That will tell you why we have to get more and more people into our army in order to protect those that are left, because we're missing 65 million kids that were supposed to be part of America's economy. Beginning to get the picture there? Okay. So according to the CDC, Department of Justice, and so on, and the Census Bureau, the 30% of America's children who live apart from their fathers because of divorce account for 63% of teen suicides, 70% of juvenile incarcerations, 71% of high school dropouts, 75% of children in drug abuse centers, 86% of rapists, 85% of youths in prison, 85% of children with behavioral disorders, 90% of homeless and runaway kids, 90% of children living in poverty, and 100% of gang members, all because of 30% of America's children who live apart from their fathers.

So we actually have moved from hope to horror. So if we would again capture a vision for what I would like to call prophetic fatherhood, in other words, see the purpose of fatherhood, not just to produce kids, but to produce a godly seed. That's what God is after. So time is very short. And what we have to do, we have to do quickly. So today is the first day of the rest of your life, if you're listening, whether you're a father or a grandfather, it doesn't matter. We have to catch the vision. And if you don't have the vision, ask God to give it to you. He will. Time is very short. And what we do, we have to do quickly.

As our hearts change, our homes will change, and hope is going to emerge from the seeming hopeless darkness that is enveloping our country. So, as God inspired in the book of Hebrews, today if you will hear His voice, don't harden your heart. As earthly fathers can and should be sons over our own homes, so Christ is a son over His own house. If our hearts are truly turned to the same direction as Christ's in obedience to the Father, we also will be able to hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. You see how this works? We have to change our want-tos. The eyes of the Lord are running to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong on the behalf of them, fathers whose heart is perfect toward Him.

Fathers, grandfathers, and the family. If we want to know what we can do to make a difference, you're just hearing it today. Moms and dads, time. Devoted not just to doing stuff, but to carry on the Kingdom vision with your children. Ask the Lord how to do it. Now, for dads, I wrote a book called Hearts of the Fathers: Leaving a Legacy that Lasts. Leaving a Legacy that Lasts. This book was written specifically for the purpose of helping fathers, professing Christian fathers to become the men that they say they want to be. How to make a difference, how to leave a godly legacy. It's written in such a way that it touches the life of every single man, whatever sphere you're from, whether you're blue-collar, white-collar, or no collar. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter, because it deals with every aspect of fathering and fathers' lives and helps us to catch a vision. And it will bless you. It will bless your family.

It's a $23 book. Yours for $15 on our website, saveus.org. Saveus.org. Hearts of the Fathers: Leaving a Legacy that Lasts. Here is a gorgeous hard-cover book. What a gift for fathers. Father's Day coming up here in June. What a tremendous gift for fathers. I can't think of a better gift for fathers. Forget the fishing pole, this will enable him to become the man God wants him to be. And then he can go fishing afterward. It's on our website. Hearts of the Fathers: Leaving a Legacy that Lasts on the website saveus.org. Call us 1-800-SAVE-USA. Write to us at Save America Ministries at $6 for postage and handling. Friends, let's not let any further time pass. Today is the first day of the rest of your life. Time is everything.

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Viewpoint with Chuck Crismier. Viewpoint is supported by the faithful gifts of our listeners. Let me urge you to become a partner with Chuck as a voice to the church, declaring vision for the nation. Join us again next time on Viewpoint, as we confront the issues of America's heart and home.