WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Fact of Life: The Building Blocks- A Series on the Nuclear Family Part 1

Episode Date: January 30, 2024

Is the nuclear family a modern concept? Are there really trends of a strong family unit as far back as biblical times? Join Chloe Noller and Mattingly Watson as they begin a multi-episode deep dive into the roots of the nuclear family.

Hey Chloe. What is the basic building block for a biblical society? You know what? That's the nuclear family. So let's talk about that. Hey, all and welcome. That was stupid. Hey all. Hey, welcome back. Welcome back, Fact of Life fan. We are so excited to be back in the studio recording Factorive Life episodes for you all. It's been a while. It's actually been a really long time since we've done this. We have so much good stuff in store for you. Yeah, we are so excited to be back. We have some great next episodes planned. We are going to be doing a series on the nuclear family.

And, yeah, I'm so excited for this one. We're really going to dig deep, you know, get into the history like we always like to do. That's right. That's right. Just so you know, we're down to 22-minute segments now. I've decided that it'd be more manageable for our school schedules and everything we have on our plates that we're, that we're struggling. So, but I think this is going to be good. It allows us to dive deeply into subjects quickly, and I think it'll be good for you guys too. So we're excited

about that. Yeah, exactly. It's going to be getting into some more specific parts of the subject and get some more concise representations of them. But that's right. Start us off though, Maddie Grace. Tell us about the nuclear family. Exactly. You know, we were looking at this topic, looking at topics we wanted to do starting back after our hiatus. We wanted to do something that you know, applies to all of us, whether we realize it or not, something that is plugging us, something that society is trying to tell us is not necessary. But when you really look at it and you take off the blinders that are ignorance, then you realize that the nuclear family is essential for a productive and biblical society. That's right. I mean,

literally the roots of the family are in the Garden of Eighty. Eden. This is where God proclaimed the different roles of men and women and established marriage. He gave Adam as a helper the woman. And the two were to be wed. He said that in Genesis, Jesus, whoa, in Genesis God says it is not good. What? It am. Oh, that's a good point. I forgot about that. So I don't accidentally leave anything. No, but it's only 22 minutes. I'm not going to like, I will not catch it. I mean, I will catch it. Yeah, I will not, not catch it. In Genesis, God tells, wow, sorry.

God speaks in Genesis 218, he says, it is not good that the man should be alone. So after bringing every animal to him to be named and judged, the result is there was not a helper fit for him. That is Genesis 220. And so God creates the woman from one of his ribs And in Genesis 224, this is the family order here that God proclaims, therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife. And they shall become one flesh.

That's Genesis 24 again. So at the very basic level here, the family is established in the Garden of Eden as God's perfect plan for humanity. Yeah. And what I have found really cool is, you know, if you go to Mark 10 versus 6. through nine. God references back to what Chloe just read for us here. And he, he elaborates on it. And this is actually, you know, Jesus speaking in this moment, but he says, from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife. And they, Twain, shall be one fat. Twain. Different version. I don't know. Sorry. It's actually Jesus speaking here and he says, From the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife.

And they shall be one flesh. So then they are no more twain but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together. Let not man put asunder. I think it's really awesome. You know, you see a lot of this in the Bible. The parallels are overflowing from the Bible. But I absolutely love this because, you know, we can read Genesis and we see quite obviously that God laid this out.

He made Eve for Adam. But then in Mark, Jesus has come and he's bringing it back. He's referencing it again. He references the beginning of creation when he made male and female and just so clearly states. I mean, there's no doubt about it. He so clearly states that they were created for one another. You know, a man leaves his father and mother. There's one nuclear family and goes and creates a new one with his wife.

And isn't that interesting that he says leave the mother and father? Like even in establishing marriage, he already is saying like when you have children, they will like your sons will leave you to marry and you will leave the mother and father and the husband and wife will become one flesh. I just, I love that he already says that in that quote. Yes, exactly. And one thing I found absolutely incredible looking into this. And I don't know why my brain had never thought through this before. It was probably obvious, but is looking into even just the name nuclear family. This comes because the model of a nuclear family is supposed to be the family as a nucleus, you know, which is like the center of the atom.

And I was reading an article on a website called Growing Faith. But they said the nucleus needs an atom. So it's not just the fact of, oh, like, I think we had caught up on, oh, there needs to be a father and a mother and kids and all that. And that is very important. But we also need to recognize that there is a purpose, too. And, you know, in this biblical society, one where we're glorifying God and following his commands, that Adam that, you know, we're working with, You know, it could be the church, our community. But the point is, it's not just an idle entity.

The nuclear family is not an idle entity, but it instead is a strong force for change in the world to reflect the light of Christ. It's right. And I think it's really interesting, too, as I was kind of digging into this, in Desiringingod.org, there's a great article about the family. And in a section, he's talking about the author here, what is his name? Stephen Wedgworth The author here The author here Stephen Wedgworth says

that you know well Stephen Wedgworth in an article on desiring godorg is talking about the family and you know he mentions that you know this original pair of course was created for the purpose and God says

be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it have dominion over every living thing that moves on the earth. It's Genesis 1.28. So he's referencing here, as the language of Genesis 5, 1 through 3 also makes clear the male and the female who were made in the likeness of God make children after their own image and likeness. Then he goes on to say something he's referencing a book called the Christian Family.

And he says, this is by Herman Bavnik. He says, the two and oneness of husband and wife expands with a child into three in oneness. Father, mother, and child are all one soul and one flesh, expanding and unfolding the one image of God, united within threefold diversity and diverse with harmonic unity. I just thought this was a really interesting take. You know, God is three persons. He's the father, son, and the Holy Spirit. But as we are made in the image of God, there are so many ways, so many ways. And we discover them all the time, but that we reflect God because we are made in his image. There are aspects of us like that they are our desire to create our reason, our ability

to communicate. These are all things that are a result of being made in the image of God. But this family also uniquely represents the Trinity of God. And it's just really beautiful. Like there's the mother and the father and they have a child. And you know, you can't just like equivocate that to the Trinity and be like, oh yeah, it's a perfect example because the Trinity is not like a mother, father, and son at all. But it is really, it's really interesting and it's unique that you can kind of see that Trinitarian theology, even within the basic structure of the family. Even if, you know, you can't equivocate a family structure to the Trinity itself, but that's another way in which we're reflecting this, this truth about God. Exactly. It's so, so interesting to me.

you know, looking back, we obviously God created E for Adam because he realized that Adam couldn't do it on his own. And I think a lot of times our society will tell us like, oh, whatever way like you think is best, like that is your family, whether it's two women as the parents or it's, I don't know, some couples even have three parents these days. or, you know, couples choosing to, like, couples choosing for the parents to split for arbitrary reasons. Obviously, there are some valid reasons, but for, you know, arbitrary reasons, splitting up the family, that kind of thing. But even looking at 1st Corinthians 7, I mean, God really offers two options here. he's talking about how, you know, women, a wife and her husband should leave their families and come to one another. And he also talks about the fact that, you know, some people are better off leading single lives, but for, you know, for the glory of God. But his two options are either, A, get married, create a family, serve the Lord, or remain single, serve the Lord.

And that's it. There's not any of these other options here. And what I found really interesting is looking at a lot of modern day articles now. I was reading one earlier from a site called Medium. And the title of the article was abolish the family, build our communities, why the nuclear family is unsustainable and how to destroy it. And part of the argument here was that the nuclear family, family only came around. It was like the 13th century or like the 1800s. It was something in the last few thousand years. And a lot of this argument was based on Marxism, which, oh, no, it's just so

interesting, but go you. But that, I think that just, I looked at it. Have you read the Bible? like even if you're not a Christian there's still like you can still read the Bible and very much so see that these teachings and like this solid family was even if I didn't have the word nuclear

like you still see you just like study and see that this was around literally in like the BC years yeah I mean I mean the family like we've said is back in Genesis it's established in Genesis and And so it's just ridiculously ignorant to say that the family is unsustainable. Like it goes back to the very beginning of time.

And I just think that it's also interesting. I've been seeing videos recently of, you know, women that are like, I saw one specifically. She's like 29 and she's like, I just want to like point out that I'm 29 and I don't have any kids and I'm married. And I just got to like go to a Beyonce concert last night and got home at like 1 a.m. and I didn't have to get like a babysitter for the kids. And I got home and I just like slept until 10 a.m. And I saw like this video about making like the specific food that I wanted to make. So I was like, I'll make it today because I can live my own life and do whatever I want because I don't have any kids and I'm not married.

And I was like, how sad to live a life like that. And I think also the point that she's if she's making this video, she's trying to prove to us that she's fine. I don't think you truly are. Like we all desire this community and inside of us. but you just see from human desire right it is it is it is god created us to be in community with each other he said it's not good that adam is alone and and not to say that there are people who aren't called to lead a single life that's absolutely true god uses many people in different callings for all different reasons but even from a non-biblical perspective if you just look like psychologically like psychologically

the experts will tell you that being like a part of a community and being engaged in this way like stimulates us and makes us happier and all that kind of thing. Right. I mean, yeah, even if you are single, like you're obviously a part of a community. Yeah, exactly. Or you're ministering to people. But I just thought it was great that you brought up that point. It's like there's two options here. You get married and have a family and serve God or you're single and serve God. Like there's no, there's no other option. But I just, I really do think that, you know, at the foundation of this all, you know, it is the parents. And so I think we need to start there and really just take a look here. marriage. And obviously, might agree, and I cannot be claimed to be experts on this because we are

both not married. But just simply from some biblical ideas and concepts from, you know, of biblical femininity and masculinity. I just think it's really beautiful when you see God's design for marriage and you see how God's design for each human being plays into that. You know, men and women, we've talked about this a lot before us. especially on the women's side, but men and women are created uniquely with different roles, different jobs, different gifts that he's given us. And that makes the family stronger. Like, it makes the couple stronger. It makes society stronger when we both live to our full potential and our differences, but we complement one another in those differences as well. And so whereas a man is

called to lead the family and to provide for his family and to lead the family, women are called to come alongside and support and also like take care of the family and and and and be that helper for the husband. Um, men are, you know, in Ephesians, men are called to, uh, sacrifice themselves as Christ sacrifice themselves for sacrifice himself for the church. Um, kind of emulate that in a sacrificial way to his wife and, you know, wives are supposed to submit to their authority just like God or Jesus submitted to the authority of God. So, you know, that there's just these basic concepts in in the Bible that I think are really beautiful when you just take a deeper look and just see how God is, you know, especially crafted and formulated all of us to live this way.

Yeah. And he just, he talks about family and marriage so much in the Bible. I mean, Matthew 19, he says, for this reason, for this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife. And the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate. It says that multiple times in the Bible, but therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate. That's exactly what is happening nowadays. People are trying to separate it. And, you know, just as Chloe was talking about how God has given men and women, husbands and wives

these specific roles to make a harmonious and cohesive marriage for him, you know, that's, I think that is such a large part of why people nowadays. have a problem with the nuclear family, with this traditional structural family that has been around for thousands and thousands and thousands of years. I mean, there's a reason that husband, wife, children has been the family unit since the beginning. Like God made it that way. It is his structure. Exactly. And now people are trying to separate it just like we were warned in the Bible. And what's crazy to me is like the article I mentioned. earlier and, you know, a lot of other articles as well and people, they'll tell you that this idea

of the nuclear family just came around last hundred years or maybe it came around in the 50s or they'll make some claim like that. And it's just so hard for me to take the rest of their argument seriously when they so obviously don't know what they're talking about. Because even if you, even, you know, even if you're so far, you don't believe in Christ or you don't believe in the Bible, whatever it may be. If you look at the Bible and its other documents historically, like, it's from a historical perspective. Like, it was there. Whether you agree with whether you're Christian or not, it was there. And it's always been proven to be the best option for society. Exactly. Just recently in my history of American founding class with Dr. Berzer, we just talked about

the Puritans because, you know, this is kind of the foundation of American society. But, It's just really beautiful society here. Obviously, Puritans were not perfect, and they had a lot of issues with their society. But there were a lot of really beautiful things as well. But their family, like the community structure was families. Like, if you were not married, like, they just, they like, they were really suspicious of you. They were like, why are you not married and have children? You know, and like, obviously the Puritans could be seen as very legalistic and in a lot of ways they were.

I think by the time Jonathan Edwards comes along, there's just this really beautiful idea of society. But, I mean, you just see these couples that, these couples and these huge families. I mean, nine, 10, 11 children each, which is quite incredible. I mean, they're living on very primitive, primitive circumstances, you know, in the wilderness, you know, in a new world where there's not like a ton of, like a ton of knowledge about what land they're living on. It's all new. but the family structure was so important to the Puritans and their entire society was built off of it and they cared for one another. I mean, the family was like the welfare society and they were the ones that took care of the poor and the families were the ones that took care of those that were single.

If you were single and like you didn't get married, they would like have you would be adopted into some other family to like help them. And I just thought that was so beautiful. Like they really, you know, saw this ideal and really structured their communities off of it. Yeah, yeah, I just think it's really beautiful. I think one thing, you just like close to looking at all these examples over time. For some reason, one that popped into my head was the Ingalls family from Little House on the Prairie. Love Little House on the Prairie. I mean, just like reading that whole series too coming like at a different point in time.

they that family went through so many things but they're they stuck together as a family and that is what got them through it and they think maybe a lot of times people think of the nuclear family nowadays too i don't know if they just have the wrong impression of it or anything like that but there's i don't know it's just i guess you don't have to be living on a farm with no technology and be not allowed to like i think there's a very like legalistic view of it when really that's not the truth at all. Right. I mean, everyone's called to different things and different gifts and stuff. I think when it comes down to it, this like, you know, we are discussing in the education movement, those are our past three episodes we did on education,

which we're definitely go check them out if you haven't yet. But what it comes down to is people who don't realize what they're arguing for or don't fully understand the context or the history or the intent, all of these things, it's really just like a layer of ignorance that they don't know is there. Yeah. I think it's important to note that, you know, we live in a sinful world and families are continually marred by sinful actions of both the mother and the father of the children. And so we just kind of wanted to lay this foundation here for the series upcoming here. We talked a little bit about marriage. We've talked a little about the history of where the family is established. We see that in Genesis 1 and 2.

But we just kind of wanted to set the scene here a little bit. We're going to be talking about the attacks on the family. We're going to be talking about some of the historical examples of the family. And go back to, you know, why the family is under attack right now. And what we can do to be continually supporting a society that loves the Lord, you know, and is serving God no matter what through the family structure. But thank you guys so much for listening. listening. We are so excited to be getting back into recording for you all. We're super excited about

this upcoming series. I hope that this kind of what's your appetite a little bit for what's coming up. And we're so excited and thankful. Yes, absolutely. Thank you guys so much for listening. As always, my name is, wait, can we, yeah. Wait, I'll just reason it. Yes, thank you guys so much for tuning in. We're so excited to give you these next couple of series and lead into these modern problems. So as always, my name is Chloe Nuller and I'm Mattingly Watson. And this is fact of life. Oh, is it we are or this is? No, it is. This is. I was strong. As always, my name is Chloe Nuller. And I'm Maddingly Watson. And this is fact of life.