We should tell our kids the TRUTH.
Natasha Crain’s latest post at Christian Mom Thoughts is a good one. I’ll let her set up the issue:
We attended that church for three years before we realized something wasn’t quite right. It was Easter Sunday when the pastor informed us, “It doesn’t really matter if Jesus rose from the dead or not. What matters is that he lives on in our hearts and we can now make the world a better place.”
We didn’t know the term for it at the time, but we had been attending a “progressive” Christian church. I knew the pastor was preaching something unbiblical, but I couldn’t have begun to articulate why—even though I had grown up in a Christian home and had spent hundreds of hours in church.
It’s sad to me in retrospect that the question of why it mattered that Jesus was raised from the dead was not completely clear in my mind by that point. But I think it’s a good example of how explicitly we need to connect the dots for kids. We can’t assume they will automatically deduce why the resurrection matters just because they learn the resurrection happened.
So why does it matter?
Read the rest of her excellent post here.
There are several reasons a real, bodily resurrection matters.
1. All of Christianity rests on Jesus and his death as the sole atonement for our sin.
[1Co 15:17 CSB] 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.
[emphasis mine]
2. The MAJORITY of kids walk away from the faith. Why?
In almost every case it was because they have never been given ANY factual basis for belief.
They’re being talked out of their faith. Why? Because they’ve never been talked INTO it. – Frank Turek
More from Frank on the Youth Exodus Problem…
We can lay the blame for much of this on ourselves — that is, on the church. While there are notable exceptions, most American churches over-emphasize emotion and ignore the biblical commands to develop the mind (1 Pet 3:15, 2 Cor. 10:5). In other words, we’re doing a great job performing for our youth with skits, bands and videos, but a terrible job informing them with logic, truth, and a Christian worldview.
We’ve failed to recognize that what we win them with we win them to. If we win them with emotion, we win them to emotion.
3. There are two types of sharing what we would call good news.
One type of good news is SUBJECTIVE.
- “Hey! This new workout plan works for me, and it might work for you.”
- “Hey! I love this new restaurant, and I bet you would too.”
- “Hey! I was hurting and this book really helped.”
This is sharing a SUBJECTIVE opinion about things we find helpful and important. It is based upon the opinion of the subject making the observation (YOU). You are assuming that others might receive the same benefit, so you share your opinion with them.
THIS was the type of evangelism training I received in multiple churches in multiple denominations. “Give your personal testimony”, they said. “No one can refute your personal story”, they said.
Looking back, I see that this was a deliberate effort to avoid having to know any disputable facts. It did not serve me well at all, and it wasn’t an effective evangelism strategy for people who had questions about the facts of the Christian truth claims.
The other type of good news is OBJECTIVE.
- “Hey! Large doses of acetaminophen will damage the liver, so don’t give your infant an adult dose of Tylenol!”
- “Hey! You have a broken leg, and you need a doctor. I’ll take you to mine.”
- “Hey! Don’t step off the ledge because gravity at this height will KILL you.”
These three examples are warnings and OBJECTIVE observations. It is not my opinion that excessive doses of Tylenol will harm the liver. Anyone could repeat an assessment of the data to see what the FACT of the matter is.
How is it that I’m classifying warnings as good news? Well, if your leg is broken, it is good news for someone to point that out to you. It is even better news if they know of a doctor who can set it.
The quote from Paul captures the OBJECTIVE connection between the resurrection and “your sins”.
[1Co 15:17 CSB] 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.
IF you ACTUALLY have a SIN problem, then being warned about it is an example of OBJECTIVE good news.
If Jesus ACTUALLY rose from the dead, then this has HUGE implications about who HE is and who YOU are. This has huge implications for the connection of YOU to HIM. It points out that this connection may well be the most important connection in YOUR life.
It’s worth exploring. So PLEASE explore. Start with these posts, and pull the thread for you AND for your precious kids.
