Catechism question number 4 January 23, 2008
Posted by jwilliams2 in Christian Life.trackback
This coming Sunday night the children that I teach in Children’s Choir will be expected to have tried to memorize the answer to question number 4 of the Baptist Catechism. The question is:
Question 4: What is the Word of God?
Answer: The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, being given by divine inspiration, are the Word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and practice.
Scripture: 2 Peter 1:21; 2 Timothy 3:16, 17; Isaiah 8:20; Matthew 5:17- 18; 1 Corinthians 2:13; Psalm 19:7-8.
Comment: “Scriptures” is a special word for the “writings” of the OT and NT. Perhaps you will want to explain that the OT deals with God’s word that came before Jesus was born; and the NT is the word of God that came after Jesus was born. “Infallible” means it will never lead us astray in what it teaches. It is true and does not err. It can be trusted. “Faith” refers to right thinking and feeling; and “practice” refers to right doing. We measure our thoughts and emotions and actions by the rule of the Bible. “Inspiration” means that it is God-breathed: by his Spirit he guided his spokesmen to speak his word in their language.
I continue to be amazed at how quickly and efficiently these children are able to memorize these answers and spout them out when called upon. One may ask “How much do the children actually understand?” as some of them are quite young. The two things that jump out to me that are important for us to understand are: One, children are capable of digesting large chunks of information; and Two, even though we may not know what they get, at least they will have a foundation of truth to build upon.
As parents and teachers maybe we need to realize that sometimes (probably more often than not) our children are more capable than we realize and that we should not limit their potential to learn based on our incapacities to teach.
What do you think?
Amen!
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Our God Rains/Reigns
Our God Rains Reigns
This morning I took my 4 year old daughter out to walk the dog, and she was amazed at the amount of fog that was present. In her bewilderment she asked about the rain drops that were falling on us from the trees, “Daddy, did …
Children (particularly those below and through grammar school age) are capable of memorizing large amounts of data. It comes easy to them. They probably won’t understand most of it, but they are still storing it up, and later, when they have a better capacity to understand, they will pull from it and start to analyze it. Most two year olds, if they’ve heard the alphabet song enough times from some annoying toy that you can’t turn off, can say their ABC’s. They have no idea what they’re saying, but a year later, the fact that they have it memorized pays off immensely. Even when my daughter was learning how to recognize letters of the alphabet, she would take the “I’s” off the fridge and hold them up to her “eyes” and smile and say “eyes!”…or was she saying “I’s”?….who knows?….who cares?…she was clueless then, but she isn’t now!
Of course, God’s Word isn’t the same as the alphabet, and therefore something much more important happens when you teach your children the Bible. Not only will the same above concepts apply, but in having them memorize verses and learn the catechism you’re teaching them what’s important. God’s Word is having a part in their lives on a daily basis. They’re being taught the discipline of memorizing God’s Word. Some things they will understand and some they won’t. I think they understand more than we give them credit for. Regardless, God has promised that his Word will not return void. It is our job to plant it in their heads and water it, and it’s God’s part to make it grow.
I agree with Barefoot. What is the benefit of waiting to teach or ask a child to memorize at the point that they understand it? How do you determine when that time is? There is no magic age or date that determines when something “clicks” with a child. Besides, young children can memorize so easily. I am amazed daily at how my 3 year old can memorize verses and the catechisms. He may not understand all of them but he knows God is Almighty, powerful and has the rule over us, including mommy and daddy.
There will come a time when my children have to make a decision and my prayer is that all the memorization and “hiding in their heart” we’ve worked on will be the foundation to godly decisions.
Thanks for the comments! I fear that because society in general has limited the potential for learning to a specific structure, that sometimes as parents we begin to think that it is the only way it is supposed to be done.
I agree with barefoot about God’s word not returning void, and this brings up the point that we need to keep in our thoughts… Our God is Sovereign. We are to be faithful stewards in our parenting and trust God to work His will and way through that in our children’s lives. Praise God for His workmanship!
My pastor when I lived in CA has a blog and he recently posted this article which I think was very good and hit many of these points well:
Resisting 5 Misconceptions That Work against Family Peity
http://web.mac.com/douglasvan/Vans_Blog/home_page/Entries/2008/1/26_Resisting_5_Common_Misconceptions_That_Work_Against_Family_Piety_-_by_Starr_Meade.html