A Charge to My Son

My Charge to My Son at His Wedding

This is the charge we gave our son at his wedding in 2002. It is still as true now as it was then. This will inspire you with hope. It inspires me when I re-read it now. Call it a creative piece, call it prophetic, or just enjoy the proes.

December 7, Year of Our Lord 2002

Dear Daniel,

 Here, on the cusp of a new life, I can give you only a little. What has been done we cannot change, and the details of the future remain unknown.

 Your mother and I reared you, and your sisters, to be warriors for the faith. In your case, being the last of the three, and our only son, we worked to impress upon you, with greater diligence than the others, the sense of battle for the kingdom in which all Christians are called to engage. Some of our realizations of the nature of the struggle came about late, and thus you benefited from our transformed understanding, more than your siblings. Any lacking or fault should be considered ours.

 We are not prophets. But, never the less, we are to be people like the men of Issachar who, “understood the times and knew what to do.” Christendom has been under steady attack and retreat within the larger culture for over one hundred fifty years. Even while the gospel has been broadly proclaimed, the influence of the church has been diminished.

 Your mother and I have wrestled with the often vexing conundrums as to how to live in this culture. How do we rear up soldiers, Titans for Christ, in an age that never thinks in these categories?

 We grew up in a world that was overshadowed by what was called the “cold war.” It was an era when western civilization stood, with some trembling, against the militancy of the Soviet bloc. With all of its imperfections, the languishing Christian America was still a land of considerable moral distinction, and a place of hope. The communist east, however, appeared invincible in our eyes. The communists controlled vast lands and armies. They had shown no mercy to their enemies. Their atheistic ascendancy in the east seemed complete. Yet, within, their empire had decayed. The moldering inner core was invisible behind the outer show of might. They had rejected God’s law and its standards of right. Eventually there was nothing left to uphold the humanist system. It disappeared in a few short months.

 The Jewish nation, and Jerusalemin particular, suffered from a similar blindness twenty centuries ago. In sixty-two AD, Jerusalemwas a wealthy city. There was no outward sign that its destruction was so very close. It had an extended history as the center of God’s activity in the earth. The Scriptures were written through its prophets. It stood at the crossroads of the near east. At the same time, the prophecies of its rejected Messiah seemed outrageous. He had proclaimed that “…all these things shall come upon this generation” speaking of the near judgments of God. The people had long stopped living in obedience to their Lord.

 The Jewish Christians of the time, having been warned by Jesus, abandoned the majestic city, as “wars and rumors of wars” came to their ears. There is no record of any Christian having remained in that city. It was an odd time. The majority of the nation was confident that Jerusalem was invincible. They scorned those who believed Christ and lived in fear of their God. The destruction of their culture was unthinkable.

 And yet, just eight years later Jerusalem was gone. Its inhabitants had all been killed or enslaved. The end of the Jewish era had come. It was never to return. God’s judgments had been effected. A new nation, the church (“a royal priesthood a holy nation”), had been raised up to take its place. There was nothing left of Jerusalem but blowing dust and fire charred stones. What a difference eight years had made.

 In our day the culture seems to be absolutely given over to what Saint Augustine called “The city of man.” Humanists control most of the media, Hollywood, the universities, and have a death grip on the schools. They have implemented despotic taxation and used it to support a vast infrastructure of welfare and cronyism. God’s law has been cast out and man’s law reigns supreme. Their prisons overflow, while injustice is the mark of the hour.Liberty is still sung about but no one can tell us what it means.

 It is into this culture that we are sending you to be what we have called a “warrior for Christ.” None of this is new to you now. You have studied, with us, the formidable lines of the enemies of the church and her Savior. God’s calling on your life is sure.

 By entering into this marriage you have gained a partner of true worth, who will be a helpmeet in every joy and conflict along the way. We are confident that this is to be a blessed, covenantal, union. We have noted the consistency of moral character and the pursuit of wisdom that has marked both of your lives. Given this honorable beginning, you will advance in your way toward fruitful and victorious lives in Christ. You are destined to become kingdom builders. The God you serve will bless your “going in and your going out.” Nothing can separate you from the love of Christ.

 I believe the humanist strongholds of our day will fall, perhaps as suddenly, as those of which I mentioned. The sands in their hourglass are quickly emptying. Their socialistic edifice will be crushed under its own weight of financial impossibility and avarice. Their will to power will founder on the shoals of their system’s own internal madness. We will call it providence; they will call it bad luck.

 You and your children will dwell in a world crying for liberty and leadership. It is into this vacuum of knowledge and wisdom that your family will be called to enter.

 This sword is an exact replica of the sword William Wallace used, to such great effect, at the Battle of Sterling Bridge. It is a reminder that the battle for liberty is worth fighting, and that it is winnable under the banner of Christ. At 2 Corinthians 10:4, the Apostle Paul firmly stated, “for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.” You and your family, as all Christians, are to be about the business of wrecking the fortresses of God’s foes. God’s word and Spirit are the swords first swung by the soldiers of the cross. May you learn to wield them well, and may you and your wife earn great reward in your obedience to the Lord of battle.

 Your mother and I love both of you very much. Someday, the struggles of this life will be done, and our duties fully given to the next generation. On that day we will join together at the wedding feast of the Lamb, and rejoice over the victory of His kingdom.

 May Your Wedding And Your Lives Together Be Blessed,

 Don and Chris Schanzenbach