Journal: Journal of Discipleship and Family Ministry
Volume: JDFM 01:2 (Spring 2011)
Article: Editorial: Fatherhood as Cosmic Combat
Author: Timothy Paul Jones

JFM 1:2 (Spring 2011) p. 4

Editorial:
Fatherhood as Cosmic Combat

Timothy Paul Jones

Timothy Paul Jones (Ph.D., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is Associate Professor of Discipleship and Family Ministry at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary where he coordinates family ministry programs and edits The Journal of Family Ministry. Previously, he served sixteen years as a pastor, youth minister, and children’s minister. A recipient of the Baker Book House Award for Theological Studies, the NAPCE Scholastic Recognition Award, and the 2010 Retailers’ Choice Award for his book Christian History Made Easy, Timothy has authored or contributed to twenty books. Timothy lives in St. Matthews with his wife Rayann and daughters Hannah and Skylar. He enjoys hiking, playing games with his family, and drinking French-pressed coffee. The Jones family is involved in children’s ministry at the east campus of Sojourn Community Church.

Cosmic combat occurs every Friday morning at a coffee shop a few blocks from my home. If you happen to be ordering your mocha latte during this episode of intergalactic warfare, you might not even notice. Neither arms nor armor can be seen at the epicenter of this celestial struggle. No light-sabers are visible, and no voices are raised. At the nexus of the battle, there is only a man of not-quite-average height in one chair, a bubbly and beautiful middle-school girl in another, and a Bible and a couple of ceramic mugs on the table between them.

Do not let such mundane appearances misguide you: This is cosmic combat. When I as a father sit at that table with my daughter, building on a week of family devotions and mother-daughter discussions, I am at war. This is not war with my daughter; it is war for my child’s soul.

Even as I train Hannah to take up her cross and root her identity in Jesus Christ, the surrounding culture calls her to celebrate immaturity, to smirk at sin, and to center her passions on pleasures that will slip away. This is war because the same serpentine dragon in that celestial conflict that John glimpsed on Patmos who longed to consume the fruit of Mary’s womb also wants to devour my children (Rev 12:1-9). His weapons in this conflict are neither the priests of Molech nor the soldiers of Herod ( Jer 32:35-36; Matt 2:16). The Enemy’s weapons in my child’s life are slickly-promoted celebrities and commercials that subtly but surely corrode her soul. What we wrestle against in this battle is not “flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (You must have a subscription and be logged in to read the entire article.
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