Chapter 8 Fulfilling the Mandate

Chapter 8 Fulfilling the Mandate. 
            Catechizing
            Christian Apologetics
            Living the Reality
                        Sin and Repentance
                         Faith and Prayer

Fulfilling the Mandate. 

Now that we are aware of, “What does the Bible say about our parental responsibility to educate our children?”  We must now ask, “How do we fulfill our responsibility in light of our individual personal and cultural situation?”  If you have carefully read the above section, you now realize this is a daunting task.  Before we get to the education work, we must separate knowledge from wisdom.  There are a large number of people that have large amounts on knowledge about the Scripture but don’t believe it.  Knowledge is NOT sufficient to be saved!  Saul of Tarsus described his credentials as: “a Pharisee of the Pharisees, as to the law blameless.”  He had great knowledge, but he did not know God through Christ.  None of that knowledge would save him, only Christ!

Philippians 3:4-8 “Though I have a reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.”

As parents, we instruct our children and give them knowledge of God’s ways but remember it is God who saves.  Only he can take men and women dead in sin and make them alive.  I call this the problem of 18 inches.  This is how far the brain is from the heart.  You must teach.  But God will save!  And “make wise the simple.”

I’m going to outline three approaches to teaching children at home about the nature and character of God:  Catechizing, Apologetics and Living the Reality.  All three combined will contribute to the healthy development of a child.  Classical Christian education uses these three stages of development called the Trivium: Grammar, Dialectic, and Rhetoric.  For more detailed information about the Trivium use

http://www.classical-homeschooling.org/trivium.html

As children grow, they go through different stages of development and self-awareness. The Trivium method exploits those steps in teaching.  At ages 3-10, after a child has mastered language, their natural curiosity and young brain allows them to learn, memorize and recover large amounts of information quickly and easily.  In addition to expanding their vocabulary, they are taking in all kinds of information they get from their environment.  Their ability to remember is like a sponge!  This first stage of the Trivium is called the Grammar stage, generally, grades 1-5.  It emphasizes memorization of facts, structures, and forms.  Some of the common tools used are; chants, rhymes, songs and other forms of repetitious learning.  As the children begin to mature, ages 11-14 they move to the Dialectic stage.  The core subject is now logic.  As a parent, you have observed that at this age argument and contention is a most common behavior.  We’ll use those characteristics in teaching.  debate, argument and other methods of exploiting this developmental stage emphasizing understanding and analytical thinking.  At ages 15-18, as physical and psychological maturing takes place they desire more and more to express themselves.  We are now in the Rhetoric stage where we emphasize personal expression, abstract thinking, and defense of their beliefs.  Rhetoric is the art and study of using language effectively and persuasively.  I will use the first two stages, Grammar and Dialectic, of the Trivium in the Catechizing section and Rhetoric in the Apologetics section.

The last consideration before we get to your education plan is how do we do this.  In the 21st century, we are all very busy.  Each morning when we arise we have more things to do today then we can do, so some things won’t get done.  Once we recognize this, we can decide which things get the highest priority.  These decisions will impact how effective we educate our children.  It’s not a matter of running out of time.  It’s not about I can’t.  It’s I will or I won’t.  Understanding this will transform what you do and when you do it.  It’s always priorities and nothing else.  Now you are tempted to say: “It’s easy for him to say.” NO!  For everyone living in the 21st century, TIME MANAGEMENT is the most important skill to develop.  Every other resource: money, assets, information, etc. you can change.  Get another job.  Buy more stuff.  Get a faster computer.  BUT everyone only gets 24 hours every day.  No one can change that so how you use your time is one of the most important decisions you make all day, every day.  To educate your children, you must give it a high priority in your daily routine.  Don’t make it “left over”; make it a “must do!”

Catechizing

Catechizing will cover the first two aspects of the Trivium, Grammar, and Dialectic (Grades 6-8).  Although there are many choices to choose for catechizing I am going to use the Westminster Standards here: including the Shorter Catechism, the Larger Catechism, and the Confession.  I use these for two reasons.  First, the Bible contains all we need to know about: man, God and salvation but it is written as a historical account, so the doctrines are in many places in the different books.  If you want to study a particular topic, the Westminster documents provide a systematic analysis of the Scripture.  

Grammar, Ages 3-10. Start with the Shorter Catechism and memorize the questions and answers.  Do it stepwise starting from the beginning.  You also should be acquainting them with the Scripture by daily readings of the Scriptures cited.  Somewhere between ages 8 -10 they will be able to repeat the whole thing from memory.  Remember we are trying to get the information in their minds but not necessarily a lot of understanding.  Their reasoning and analytical skill are still not highly developed so rote memory is the goal. Understanding will come as they grow.   They will not fully understand, yet it will provide building blocks for correct learning and thinking.  If they ask questions, answer them but don’t dwell on too much information.  As they advance in maturity, they will begin to ask more and more deeper and more complex questions.

Dialectic Ages 11-14.  As the questions and challenges get stronger and stronger, we move into the Dialectic stage.  They are now asking: “Why?”  Make a big deal about advancing to the Westminster Larger Catechism and Confession.  For my Reformed Baptist brethren use the London Confession of 1789. Now, they are not memorizing but challenging the catechism’s questions and answers.   Use the Confession in the later stage Dialectic, so they see it as a reference source.  Make sure you have one with Scriptural proofs included.  Read a question and answer and go to the Scriptures and read them.  This method may result in going on a lot of tangents.  That’s OK.  We are going beyond rote understanding to encourage intellectual understanding and assent.  Don’t let hard questions or diversions stump you.  From the Bible and Bible study aids, one can find reasonable answers if not Biblical answers to nearly all questions. With all the assets of the Internet, there are almost no answers you can’t find. There will be some areas where the question itself is not answerable or knowable by our finite human abilities.  “How is God present everywhere, yet on the throne in heaven at the same time?”  Confess even you don’t know everything and explain the limitations of human knowledge.  Somewhere between 14 and 16, they begin to express themselves in more and more ways.  They are moving to the Rhetoric stage

Christian Apologetics

As they enter this stage I suggest both you and your child read the book: Already Gone by Ken Ham.  The greatest weakness of the US church is sending its children into the world unprepared for the attacks on their faith that will certainly.  I have taught and traveled in many academic areas educating college students where I’ve met many professors that consider one of their life goals to destroy Christian student’s faith in their classes.  Your child must be prepared for those attacks.  Each young Christian must know why they believe what they believe and be able to defend their faith.  It is critical to their survival as believers.  I’ve had too many conversations and calls from Christian parents who told me.  “Johnny or Sally went off to college last year and when they came home said, ‘I don’t believe that stuff about Jesus anymore.’”  I even had one student tell me, “I was educated out of my faith!”

“Already Gone” book and DVD links

https://answersingenesis.org/store/product/already-gone/?sku=30-9-265

https://answersingenesis.org/store/product/already-gone-book/?sku=90-7-508

Already Gone Description – Statistics reveal a huge disconnect taking place between our children and their church experience

Nationwide polls and denominational reports are showing that the next generation is calling it quits on the traditional church. And it’s not just happening on the nominal fringe; it’s happening at the core of the faith.

In the first scientific study of its kind, the “Beemer Report” reveals startling facts discovered through 20,000 phone calls and detailed surveys of a thousand 20–29-year-olds who used to attend evangelical churches on a regular basis but have since left it behind.  The results are shocking:

  • Those who faithfully attend Sunday school are more likely to abandon the church than those who do not. 
  • Those who regularly attend Sunday school are more likely to believe that the Bible is less true.
  • Those who regularly attend Sunday school are more likely to defend that abortion, and gay marriage should be legal. 
  • Those who regularly attend Sunday school are more likely to defend premarital sex. 

In this compelling book, author Ken Ham and consumer behavior research/analyst C. Britt Beemer combine to reveal trends that must be dealt with now . . . before we lose another generation!  The trends are frightening, but Already Gone shows how to win back our families, our churches, and our world!

As they form and express their own beliefs, we’ll change our strategy to the rhetoric stage.  We’ve gone from rote memory (Grammar) to reasoning and understanding (Dialectic), and now we go to Rhetoric to develop an intellectual defense of the faith.  As they get to the high school years there will be less and less time so you must target your goals narrowly.  Because they must be prepared to defend their faith from many different attacks, I suggest using an assortment of resources on Christian apologetics.  The most important thing you can do is encourage them to ask you questions that they have about the faith. 

When they leave home to go to college or work, they will be attacked by many skeptics.  They MUST be prepared with a strong apologetic for their faith.  My books are:

Always Be Ready to Give an Answer!

ANSWERS for “The Hope That Is In You”

Without 3 Miracles, Darwin’s DEAD

I recommend Always! Being ready! To give an ANSWER! that develops a personal evangelism strategy to deal with questions posed by unbelievers.  Second, ANSWERS For “The Hope That Is in You!” contains answers to 106 of those hard questions. If your child believes or struggles with Evolution then my third book Without 3 Miracles Darwin’s Dead!  is a valuable resource, particularly for students studying science. 

Here are three websites that list a large assortment of Christian apologetics resources.

http://www.apologetics315.com/p/about.html

http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/13931.Good_Christian_Apologetics_Books

http://reasonabletheology.org/top-10-apologetics-books/

There are many summer programs that will help your High School or College student build their faith   You may choose any of them, but here I recommend the one I feel is best.

Summit Ministries Student Conferences

You are engaged in a battle. Ideas come at you from every direction, and few know how to make sense of the world. Few know how to think Christianly. Few know what they believe; and fewer still, why they believe it. Equip yourself and learn to equip others.  Summit’s Student Worldview Conferences are intensive two-week retreats designed to teach students (ages 16-22) how to analyze the various ideas that are currently competing for their hearts and minds. Each summer, nine two-week conferences are held in Colorado, Tennessee, and California.
http://www.summit.org/conferences/student/

The preparation for your child’s life outside the covenant family is now complete.  If you’ve done these all things well, they will leave you prepared, but there is no guarantee they will believe.  That’s God’s domain so pray He would give them, “ears to hear.”  There is one more responsibility that begins at their birth and doesn’t end until one of you enters eternity.  That’s living the reality of being “in Christ.”

Living the Reality. 

There are a great many good books that provide guidance on living the Christian life.  I’m not going to go into great detail here, but I want to make two points that I’ve heard children that left the faith use as excuses.  Here are two quotes, from my experience, that expose these two areas.

1)  “My parents claimed to be Christians.  I know they are sinners, but I never saw them acknowledge it in their lives.  They never showed remorse for any sin, confess that sin or repent of it.  They loved to argue and call each other names and sometimes wouldn’t talk for days.  They’d eventually get over it, but I never saw them apologize or even express sorrow for their behavior.  When I sinned, they would call me on it and punish me and tell me not to do it again.  My father once said to me. “Don’t do what I do, do what I say.”  If that’s what it’s like to be a Christian I want no part of Christ.”

2)  “During my childhood our family was indigent, and we had many times when we had little to eat.  My dad would spend half his paycheck at the tavern on Friday night before he came home.  We all went to church as a family every Sunday.  They talked a lot about faith at church, but at home, the subject never came up.  At one particular time, when I was ten, the money crisis was particularly severe.  My mom suggested at the dinner table, after a meager meal of gravy bread, that we pray for God’s help.  I remember, like yesterday my dad laughed and said, ‘God can’t help us we have to help ourselves.’  I thought; If God can’t help us then what’s the point of being a Christian?”

I recognize these two cases are extreme, but my point is this:  Your children are watching everything you do.  They will see the impact or non-impact of Christ in your life every day.  These two areas: “sin and repentance” and “faith and prayer” must be demonstrated to show the reality of your life in Christ.  If the faith is not real to you, it won’t be real to them.  I am calling you to two particular behaviors to draw your children to Christ.

Sin and Repentance

We are all sinners and sin is always with us.  Although sin’s penalty, death, was paid at the cross its consequences are with us every day; you must deal with your obvious sins  in FULL VIEW of your children.  When not if, you sin in saying something or doing something that offends another or causes a broken relationship you must seek reconciliation and express repentance.

For example, one of my children did something I thought was stupid and I told them they must be stupid to do such a thing.  I didn’t address the action, but I attacked their character, and that was sinful on my part.  Many parents wouldn’t think much about it, however, the reality of my awareness of sin finally resulted in the correct actions and words.  At dinner that evening I asked the child to remember what I said about that action he did.  She repeated, word for word what I said.  She very clearly remembered how I had attacked her character.  We talked about my action, and I admitted my sin to her, confessed it aloud to the LORD in hearing of everyone and declared both God’s forgiveness and my repentance.  She then confessed what she did was wrong and took the same actions.

This simple process makes your faith real to all the others in the family.  It’s important that the father if there is one in the home to take the lead in this area.  Read this Scripture several times to see the real application of what I’ve told you! 

I John 1:5-10 “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”

Faith and Prayer

The last area our children need to see is that we walk every day by faith. Children have faith in the person teaching them descriptions of reality, first parents, then teachers, and hopefully somewhere along the maturation of the intellect, faith in God, The Creator. If God is not the Creator of everything then He could not be sovereign. And if He is not Sovereign, He could not be the ultimate Savior. Else there would be someone else or some other power to contend with that may preclude His actions/will.

I could give a lot of advice here, but I choose to force you to personally confront this issue by posing questions for you to contemplate.  First read this passage excerpted from Hebrews chapter 11, the faith chapter, then meditate on the questions after it.

Hebrews 11:1-35 (Excerpts, Incomplete.)  Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.  For by it the people of old received their commendation. 3 By faith, we understand that the universe was created by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

By faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain…  By faith, Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found… And without faith, it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household…  By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance…  By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son…  By faith, Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau.  By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph…  By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.

By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.  By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.  By faith he (Moses) left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.  By faith, he (Moses) kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.

By faith, the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned.  By faith, the walls of Jericho fell after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith Rahab, the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.

And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.

Questions for you to consider on faith and prayer.
1) Do you walk by faith?
2) When you face a crisis what’s the first thing you do?  Pray?
3) When you have received a blessing, what’s the first thing you do?
4) Do you pray consistently with your children?

As you progress through the catechizing and apologetics ask your children periodically do they see your faith?  Your walk speaks louder than anything you will ever tell them.  Lastly, we will look at the options you have to educate your children in the US.

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