What Parts of the Bible Should We Teach Children?

[Mr Arkadin]

I have been reading Genesis recently and two things struck me: firstly, it's actually a good piece of literature and is an enjoyable read if read in decent chunks; and secondly it's really quite dark in places- the best example of this being Lot's daughters getting him drunk so he'd impregnate them; other examples of the men of Sodom wanting rape the angels. Also one of the main themes is being barren and trying to get children but not trusting God to provide.

So the question is what do we teach Children from the Bible and by what criterion? When teaching an adult convert you obviously start with the most fundamental doctrines and work up and the same would go for children yet I would feel slightly uncomfortable teaching the Lot's daughters episode to a pre-pubescent. So I'd be tempted to leave of the sexually related until later. In regards violence I don't have much of a problem with,even the tent peg incident in Judges. Yet I don't really have a Biblically based criterion for this. Further if we leave out certain things how do we still demonstrate good exegesis from an early age?

A related point to this is what type of stories should children read? Most are quite light in tone and have happy ending. This brings to mind Disney's reworking of Hans-Christian Anderson's stories in particular the Little Mermaid. Which would be more appropriate the former or the latter? I prefer the latter since it's more realistic.

[bc1980]

All I can tell you is how I raised my son.

I did not teach him moralistic stories from the Bible. In other words, I didn't teach him O.T. stories in an effort to show "how he should act in given circumstances".

I used Hebrews as an example. I taught him that "it is all about Christ" meaning the O.T. was written to point to Christ. The shadows and types find their meaning in Christ alone. Christ is superior to the Law, Moses, the Levitical priesthood, the temple, the land, etc.

An example of an O.T. story that is told allot is David and Goliath. I didn't teach him that you can do anything if you just trust in God. I taught that this story was a shadow of the greater story to come. Jesus is David. Satan & death is the giant. Jesus took on the enemy while the rest of us was powerless to do anything about it. All we could do was stand by and watch, just like Israel's army. Yet we all reaped the benefits of the victory, just like all Israel reaped the benefit of David's victory.

I didn't use the phrase, "don't do this because God said not to". I taught him "God loved me so much I don't want to".

I would take advantage of opportunities when he was inquisitive and not push when he wasn't.

According to him, he learned more by watching me than he every did in formal teaching.

What was the outcome?

In high school he was a good baseball player and president of their chapter of Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He has been a guest speaker at a couple of different FCA chapters. He signed a baseball scholarship with a Jr. College and played for 2 years. At the end of that he was recruited by some colleges, one of which was a high profile D1 school. He was also offered a one year internship at a ministry making about $500 a month. He turned down the scholarship for the internship. He's 20 years old and is hungry for God and passionate about the Gospel.

On one other note, a year ago (age 19) he was invited into a large church near by to address the pastoral staff (about 20 men) on the "Big Story". When he finished the Senior Pastor told him he had never seen a young man his age with that kind of grasp of the Scriptures.

Needless to say, I'm am very proud of him. I wish I could say I knew what I was doing. I think God was merciful.

All I knew was if he didn't have a relationship with God it wouldn't matter how many Bible stories he knew. But if he could see me passionate about Christ, maybe that would whet his appetite.

[draw2much]

bc1980, Wow, that's a REALLY good way to teach your children! If I ever have kids I hope I can do something smart like that!

[Mr Arkadin]

Sounds like you bc1980 did a great job raising your son. I'm in wholehearted agreement that we should teach the gospel rather than moralism and that in the OT we should always be looking for the promised messiah prophesied in Genesis and revealed in the Gospels. I think you also bring up a great point that children learn a lot by imitation than just in formal teaching sessions.

However when doing Bible study I want him to see me use proper exegetical and hermeneutical tools then to work with him using these at a basic level, so the problem of content arises again since simply omitting parts of the narrative would destroy the flow and meaning. Anyone got any specific ideas on this subject? How do we make it appropriate for pre-pubescents and retain accurate exegesis.

[RBerman]

The ESV Illustrated Bible I read to my six year old had some surprisingly graphic art: Samuel slitting King Agag's throat in 1 Samuel 15 for instance. We also read through the Bible stories that describe various OT saints having plural wives, and he always turns to me and says, "That wasn't right."

I introduced my son to the concept of human death at a pretty young age- 2 or 3- because I felt it was an important part of understanding the gospel.

[Obsidian]

I don't think there's anything wrong with moralism. But in regard to your question, I wonder why we think it's wrong to tell kids about sex. Where did we even get that idea from? Did ancient Jews feel the same way?

And I definitely don't think there's anything wrong with reading to them about violence. Toughen 'em up from an early age. When I was young, 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings were my favorite books of the Bible!

[RBerman]

I don't think there's anything wrong with moralism. But in regard to your question, I wonder why we think it's wrong to tell kids about sex. Where did we even get that idea from? Did ancient Jews feel the same way?

I've heard that they weren't exposed to Song of Solomon until they were teenagers. But I can't back that up with an authoritative reference.

[Mr Arkadin]

So the general consensus thus far is that we should teach everything that is in the Bible to children. It is the most consistent position but I still have a nagging problem of the sexual stuff. Any ideas on an appropriate way of teaching it to pre-pubescents?

Also has anyone any articles they know of on the subject in general?

[DanK]

I'm mainly just observing this thread, considering that I'm 19 and don't plan on having kids for a while yet, however, I do have a thought about the issue of sex, more just something to think about than anything else.

If you wait until you're comfortable talking with your child about sex, chances are they'll have already been exposed to a number of twisted ideas about sex from the world, which would likely make it harder to teach them about God's plan for it. Also, why do we automatically assume that every description of sex has to be graphic and inappropriate for children? You can tell children about violent things in ways that aren't too graphic for them (i.e., you could tell a child that someone got their head cut off, and that would get the point across without getting into more gruesome details) - is it really that incredible to think that it might be possible to communicate the basic idea of sex in a way that doesn't destroy their innocence?

[themuzicman]

I've heard that they weren't exposed to Song of Solomon until they were teenagers. But I can't back that up with an authoritative reference.

This is correct. But that was the only book they weren't exposed to

[RBerman]

So the general consensus thus far is that we should teach everything that is in the Bible to children. It is the most consistent position but I still have a nagging problem of the sexual stuff. Any ideas on an appropriate way of teaching it to pre-pubescents?

Also has anyone any articles they know of on the subject in general?

With things like the rape of Tamar or the angels in Sodom, most kids are satisfied to know that the bad guys wanted to hurt someone. It's not necessary to get into the exact nature of the hurt. Even the story of Bathsheba can be comprehended in terms of David stealing Uriah's wife. Most kids know that it takes a mommy and a daddy to make a baby, without thinking about the mechanics.

[hedrick]

I don't have children and probably never will, but I have taught 7th and 8th grade Sunday School for years. By something like 5th grade I'd hope you could teach pretty much everything, though I wouldn't dwell on the details of either violence or sexual abuse. For younger kids I doubt that the Bible will differ from other stories. How much do you protect them from the nightly news? For young kids, you probably do. Since the Bible is basically the story of mankind repeatedly blowing it and God recovering, you can't avoid the dark side completely without making a lot of it pointless. But you don't want to overemphasize it or give kids nightmares. You also have to think about how they're likely to react. Commonly we teach Noah to fairly young kids, but I wouldn't want my kid to live in fear that God is going to destroy the world again (or even destroy just him for being a bad boy).