Teaching tip 66. Helping children to defend their faith.
T.T. 66. Helping
children to defend their faith.
In my teaching tip “What do children
believe” (Newsletter 89), I looked at the problem of children from non-Christian
homes being taught Biblical truths by their Bible teachers and then having their
parents or secular teachers contradicting it.
This problem was brought home to me
quite recently. Having completed my “Bible in schools” lesson in a state school,
the class teacher returned and was immediately asked by one of the children “Do
you believe the Bible?” The teacher’s answer was “No I don’t.” What is that
pupil and the others who overheard then supposed to believe?
I have witnessed similar situations
a number of times over the years. Once a 6 year old boy was pulled aside by his
class teacher to have a “one to one” session with her, at the same time and in
the same room as I was teaching the remaining pupils my “Bible” lesson. The boy
asked his teacher “What is fiction?” She replied “Fiction is like myths and
religion. It didn’t really happen.” Her comment was clearly heard by myself and
all the other children. If she could make comments like that in the presence of
the “Bible” teacher, what would she, and others liker, say to the children when
no “Bible” teacher is present?
Although there is no “magic”
solution to the above problem I believe that, when teaching children from
non-Christian backgrounds, we could do five things
:-
- Pray for the
children. Never underestimate the power of prayer and remember that God’s Word
as we speak it is far more powerful than any words of human origin.
- Encourage the children to always use
their minds and think for themselves. Teach the children not to accept any
statement as true, simply because someone says it is - even if that person is
their Bible teacher! Often, if we really examine a belief, the inconsistencies
and falsehoods soon become apparent.
- Teach the children that when a
person says “I don’t believe in God” or “I don’t believe that God wrote the
Bible”, in most cases it is not that the person cannot believe, but rather that
they will not believe. To
believe in God or a Creator means that we have to admit that He made us, and
therefore He owns us. Although He will never force us to do anything we don’t
want to do, He has every right to tell us how we should lead our lives. Some
people don’t like that idea as they would rather do whatever they want to do.
They therefore try to overcome this problem by denying God’s existence, or that
the Bible is “God’s word”. However if the unbeliever were challenged as to why
they don’t believe, by asking such questions as “Have you checked it out for
yourself, have you looked at the evidence?” Or, “Have you actually read the
Bible yourself?”, you will probably find that they haven’t.
- Remind the children that the
evidence of a Creator / God is all around them. We only have to look at the sky
or the many wonderful living things around us to see this. Our common sense and
experience teaches us that nothing can make itself, everything has to have a
creator / maker. Although human beings can make many wonderful things, they have
to have starting materials to do so. We cannot make anything out of nothing, and
we cannot make anything living from anything that is not living. Only God can do
those two things.
- Emphasise the importance of the Bible. State that Christians believe the Bible is God's Word, and therefore what the Bible says, God says. If a particular belief or idea clearly contradicts what the Bible says, it should be rejected. Ultimately it comes down to who we choose to believe. Do we believe God who was there at the beginning of time, knows everything, is never wrong and cannot lie, or do we believe people who were not there at the beginning, only know a tiny fraction of all there is to know, are often wrong and sometimes lie?
posted by Maurice Sweetsur @ 10:03 PM
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