existence of God , the creation of the world , and the resurrection of Jesus ? Why should we live according to God ’ s laws in the Bible ? Let ’ s explore two examples of how we can provide evidence that the Bible is true to help fortify a child ’ s faith .
We can believe the Bible is true and trustworthy because archeological discoveries verify what the Bible says . The Bible makes historical references to people , places , and events . Many of these are verifiable . Archeologists have uncovered the city of Jericho with evidence that the walls fell flat , a ring with Pilate ’ s name on it , and David ’ s city . These discoveries confirm the existence of people and places , verifying the reliability of the Bible .
The Bible has more manuscript evidence to support that it is true than any ten pieces of classical literature combined . If the Bible is not trustworthy then no other ancient documents are either . The Jewish scribes were meticulous in preserving the biblical text . They had a special group of people whose only job was to preserve and copy the text . They literally counted every letter and word to make sure there were no mistakes and if there were , they threw it away and started over . There are more than 25,000 ancient portions of manuscripts of the New Testament in existence today . No other ancient document comes close to that number . The Iliad is second , with more than 600 manuscripts . The manuscripts make a compelling reason to trust that the Bible we have today is the Bible that was written thousands of years ago . No book is as accurate as the Bible .
3 . WHAT DO OTHERS BELIEVE ? Children need to know what other people believe and be trained to test the beliefs of others according to the Bible . One way we can do this is by comparing and contrasting other religions and belief systems with the Christian faith . Help your children answer the following questions : Are other religions true ? Do they provide different paths to God ? We need to spend time exploring the claims of the most common belief systems of our day with our children such as Islam , Mormonism , Secularism , Marxism , and New Age Spirituality . What do these worldviews believe about the nature of reality , who we are , how we got here , what is the problem , and what is the solution ? How do they know these things ? What we will learn is that the core beliefs of every other religion are different from Christianity . They make claims that are contradictory about God and salvation and cannot all be true at the same time . When we look at the truth claims of Christianity , they align with the world and reality . Christianity is the only religion that is not a worksbased religion .
A second way to do this is through cultural apologetics where we teach a child the truth of the Bible and then expose them to the ideas of society and help them discern what is true and what is erroneous . Here is a short list of biblical topics that it is critical to teach children : biblical sexuality , the biblical definition of a man and woman , the biblical view
HERE IS A SHORT LIST OF BIBLICAL TOPICS THAT IT IS CRITICAL TO TEACH CHILDREN :
BIBLICAL SEXUALITY
THE BIBLICAL DEFINITION OF A MAN AND WOMAN
THE BIBLICAL VIEW OF MARRIAGE THE VALUE OF LIFE THE ROLE OF THE CHURCH FAMILY AND GOVERNMENT
THE BIBLICAL MANDATE TO TAKE DOMINION OVER CREATION
A BIBLICAL UNDERSTANDING OF JUSTICE AND RACE
of marriage , the value of life , the role of the church , family and government , the biblical mandate to take dominion over creation , and a biblical understanding of justice and race . Society has a secular creed and is working diligently to shape the views and values of our children on these topics . If we are silent about them , that void will be filled by other voices . Pay careful attention to the common cultural statements of the day like “ Love is love ,” “ Women ’ s rights are human rights ,” “ Live your truth ,” “ You be you ,” “ Be your authentic self ,” and “ Gender is nonbinary .” These are not harmless statements but are hardcore secular beliefs that many Christians absorb . Proactively point out these statements , talk about them with your children , and help them identify the lies .
4 . HOW CAN I PROVIDE ANSWERS ? In every generation , there are many attacks against Christianity , and children need to be introduced to these distorted ideas , learn to test them against God ’ s Word , and be able to identify truth from error . We ’ ve all heard about a teenager who goes to school , gets a teacher who says something about Christianity , and blows them away . That only happens because the young person has never heard the claim before . That ’ s why we bring these challenges to them , talk about them with them , and train them for it . How do you do this ? Don ’ t wait for your children to come to you with the challenges .
Anticipate attacks and arguments that a child will face in the teen and adult years . The most common attacks children need to be prepared for include : the work of God ( anything
RENEWANATION . ORG 13