“Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger,

but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”

Ephesians 6:4

Think with me for a moment.  How would history have been different, if key individuals had experienced an engaging, loving, kind, good, honorable, and godly father who invested positively in the lives of their children, and who were faithfully married to their mother “till death did them part.”  What if major players who shaped history would have had a genuine God-fearing father that was exemplary in his belief and practice.  Think of the devastating effects certain atheistic individual philosophies and radical ideologies have made on humanity in the last three hundred years.  Think how many people have been influenced for evil by their godless lives – mainly because of their lack of a good earthly father who they then associated with, and caused them to reject, their good Heavenly Father.  Think how many millions of people have died from evil worldviews being lived out.  History bears evidence that over 100 million people have died under atheism as a worldview.  Today 80% of those in prison are fatherless.  Think what would be different if that was not so.  Sin bears consequences sometimes for generations.  Jeremiah 32:18,19 says, “(God) shows loving-kindness to thousands, but repays the iniquity of fathers into the bosom of their children… giving to everyone according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds.”

             When we look back through history on the movers and shakers who exerted a major influence on society for generations, either for good or evil, I am amazed how important the relationship of one’s father has played on what children ultimately become.  Even secular opinions on the effects of fatherhood are evident looking back on either the mass chaos or bright spots in world history.  Even though many of these individuals listed below were unbelieving atheists, others looking back at their destructive lives and what possibly might have been the cause of their demise (next to a sinful heart) could obviously see it was related to their bad relationship with their own fathers. 

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