The last few days I have been lost in thought about ages of discernment. It is a very important topic to those of us who have children and want to raise them up in a Christian household. For me in particular it was on the forefront of my thoughts because my three year old (more than half way to four) asked a little over a week ago how she could get Jesus to live in her heart. Fortunately we had just had a Sunday School lesson about Jesus rebuking his disciples when they tried to stop the children from approaching him so I gave her the completely serious, not dumbed down answer. And then she did it.
It took me a little while to wrap my head around it. Could a three year old really have the discernment to know what she was doing? Did she know enough about the world and about Jesus to make that choice? Does she need exposure to other lifestyles to even realize she was making a choice? And if she could make that choice at that age what does that mean for everyone else who...? God revealed three very important truths to me. One should have been obvious to me, another maybe a little less so, and the third one is a very painful, inconvenient truth.
First of all, yes, a young child can receive Jesus. He said so right in the passages we studied in the Sunday School lesson. In fact, Jesus said that heaven belongs to those little children. Let's not forget that when Jesus walked the Earth as God-Man a teenage person was a married adult so the people the disciples were shooing away were not the "enlightened" high school students we might think of today. They may well have been quite close to my daughter's age. Also the Holy Spirit leads a man to the Son who leads him to the Father so why couldn't the Holy Spirit act in my child's life when He chooses to act. Was I trying to claim to be able to limit God?
Second, a three year old surely can know enough about Jesus to make the decision to follow Him, and the rest of the world doesn't matter. The Word doesn't say teach your child apologetics and let her decide for herself. Nor does it say exposure your child to all the junk the world has to offer and tell her which way you think she should take. Proverbs 22:6 says, "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." That's it. Teach them about Jesus (the Way). Nothing more. The rest of that, the part about needing to know more about the world, that is my liberal arts education shining through. Besides, who, upon praying for their own salvation, knows everything there is to know about God or about the world? Who knows all of these things at death even? No one. Am I qualified to say that a certain quantity of knowledge is required then you can be saved but not before? No, definitely not. My child has been raised with Jesus and has accepted her seal. She is raised this way and when she was older she will still follow this path.
Finally, who goes to heaven? Heaven is for all people who have accepted Jesus as there Lord and Savior. These are precisely the requirements, no more and no less. Jesus is the only way to heaven. But what happened to the age of discernment that is frequently discussed? I have been told, by a catholic, that the age of discernment is at 12(ish) when you are able to go through the catechism. I have been told by a Methodist that the age of discernment happens when you reach a certain level of intillectual capacity so that a toddler can go to heaven. An adult with a severe disability might never reach this age of discernment and also be sealed for heaven. The Lord revealed a problem with this. We are trying to create more than one way to Heaven. We are all born in sin. Handicapped adults who have not received Jesus do not go to heaven. Even more tragicaly in my mind, young children who have not accepted Jesus do not go to heaven. These groups may not be able to verbally say they receive Him, but we still need to witness to them. They are still capable of praying even if they cannot speak, and even if their thoughts are truly muddled the Holy Spirit can still move in them and guide them to Jesus. I guess the important point here is start witnessing to your children the moment they are born. This isn't just "preach the gospel always; when necessary use words." In fact the more I learn the more I realize that is a horrible man-made proverb. Use words.
Now the next question I have to wrestle with even though I know the answer: Should we actually be telling children about Jesus *before* they are born? I believe abortion is unconditionally murder. I also believe what makes a human human is the soul, so is there a soul that needs saved in an unborn baby? And here we get to some of the depths that I prefer not to think about so here I stop.
From my own perspective - and this is just what I have gotten out of my own readings of the Bible - there is really no set age for discernment. When a child is old enough to accept or reject Christ on their own is personal. I also think that when they fully understand the importance of belief and salvation. My six year old is just now beginning to understand about WHY Jesus had to die, and what God's plan was. I never fully got that until I was much older - in my teens, actually.
ReplyDeleteI think it's also important to look at the parents in this as well - if we are truly "teaching our children" as we are commanded, then they will come to this understanding earlier than later.
As for the handicapped - I believe that (unless there is SEVERE brain damage) even the disabled have the ability at some point to know Jesus.
As for infants and the unborn - I don't believe they really have the intellectual capacity to understand salvation, so I think you have nothing to worry about on that end.
As for my children -
When my daughter looks at me and says "Momma, I love Jesus" or my two year old sings "Jesus loves me" - I am fairly certain that I am on the right track. : )
Great blog!