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At what age is it appropriate to start teaching kids about hell?
I don't suppose this is going to be a huge surprise to you, but LDS children are not taught about Hell at all. They are taught that they are children of a Father in Heaven who knows each of them personally and loves them very much. They are taught how to live in such a way that their actions will reflect their love for Him. They are taught about their Savior, Jesus Christ, who suffered and died because He loved them so much that He was willing to pay the price for their sins, provided they have faith that He will do so and repent whenever they do something wrong. They learn about the happiness that will await them in Heaven after they die. The focus is entirely on Heaven. That's how we present it, and it seems to work.
As they grow older, we explain to them that although ultimately, almost everyone will go to Heaven, there are differing "degrees of glory" in Heaven and that each person will be judged worthy of one of them. By the time they learn about this, most of them are already committed to living the best lives they can so they can return to the presence of God, in the highest, or Celestial glory. There is almost no concern in any of their minds that Hell is even a possibility, because we believe that so few people will end up going there.
It was creepy, all right, but at that age, the kid really had no idea what he was even doing. He was just playing follow the leader and getting some attention from doing so.
The sooner the better. Get them started out in life the right way. The liberals are appalled at this notion, but God said it -- and that settles it.
Proverbs 23
[12] Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge.
[13] Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.
[14] Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.
The turning point was one Christmas, when Nate decided to teach his children about God. In the end, his son Tyler began crying in the backseat of the car, saying that he didn’t want to go to hell. “He wanted to believe because he didn’t want to go to hell,” Nate said. “I was just stunned because I didn’t know what I had said or how I had left him with that fear. I thought I was doing a good job of presenting it without the fear. “Thinking about it after the fact, I realized you can’t do that. With a young mind it doesn’t matter. You can try as much as you want to talk about how good God is, but the bottom line is there’s this intolerably frightening punishment if you don’t accept it. And how does a young mind deal with that?” Trevor Melanson » Running from hell
The more I study, the more convinced I am that ET is a doctrine of demons. It has damaged God's character more than any other belief on this planet. To spread this message through the church, which should have been spiritually protecting children, seems blasphemous to me. This belief has stunted so many children's minds. It has stunted their spiritual growth and it has stunted their love. The only people it truly damages are the ones who didn't need such fear to keep them in line and keeps them from truly knowing God, while passing by the evil men who would benefit the most from this "truth."
Churches are perfect breeding grounds for demonic doctrines and perfect breeding grounds for encouraging fear of God, rather than reverence, which keeps the masses sitting in the pews completely dependent on men rather than the Holy Spirit.
The turning point was one Christmas, when Nate decided to teach his children about God. In the end, his son Tyler began crying in the backseat of the car, saying that he didn’t want to go to hell. “He wanted to believe because he didn’t want to go to hell,” Nate said. “I was just stunned because I didn’t know what I had said or how I had left him with that fear. I thought I was doing a good job of presenting it without the fear. “Thinking about it after the fact, I realized you can’t do that. With a young mind it doesn’t matter. You can try as much as you want to talk about how good God is, but the bottom line is there’s this intolerably frightening punishment if you don’t accept it. And how does a young mind deal with that?” Trevor Melanson » Running from hell
That is how I felt all those years I shoulda been playing.
If we pay real close attention to our children, you'll notice that we don't have to "teach" them how to do wrong....that comes instinctively, almost effortless. All of us were born this way, with that one same identical gene, SIN, whether yellow, black or white! What we as parents need to concentrate on is teaching them about the love of God and how to take that within their hearts every single place that they go! And, that starts right out of the womb!!
true but I also think we're born with a sense of right and wrong,good and bad.and we instinctively know the difference.
I don't think that some ppl don't have a concience,I just think some are able to supress it better than others.
It was creepy, all right, but at that age, the kid really had no idea what he was even doing. He was just playing follow the leader and getting some attention from doing so.
I strongly disagree, teaching children is not about that, it is
Spoiler
mental child abuse
, to teach them fear, to teach them concepts they cannot process yet, and why? Do christians do this because their parents practiced
Spoiler
mental child abuse
on them, a pathetic family tradition, or are they under the delusion it will make their children behave better, because they are too lazy to teach them right and wrong at a level they can understand
I remember we didn't talk about hell in Sunday School but once I started going to youth group... it was lots of hell and little love for self.
Is hell an ancient way of keeping the teenagers in line?
Is teaching a child before the age of accountability even rational?
Most people that support the idea of hell must assume there is an age that a child becomes responsible for their own salvation... even our human justice system recognizes an age of culpability.
I worried, as a child, about how many sins I committed that day. I remember thinking that it would make God sad... Then as I grew older, I was taught it would not make God as sad as it would me for being burned eternally.
So what age is it normally done in the different denominations.
Opinions and testimony only... no facts.
Why do I want to know this? My kids are 10, 9, 8 (Don't ask....). We do not attend church but they do go to church with relatives occasionally and every summer they go to Vacation Bible School with the neighbors. This year they were taught about hell in VBS.
I (we) taught both our kids simply to love God.Never ever mentioned hell and needing to avoid it.Both accepted Christ in a manner and time I was certain was the real deal and not "following the crowd" or doing it early because they were taught they were supposed to,but didn't really understand the meaning.
Imagine that.People will come to Christ without having the hell scared out of them.
The sooner the better. Get them started out in life the right way. The liberals are appalled at this notion, but God said it -- and that settles it.
Proverbs 23
[12] Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge.
[13] Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.
[14] Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.
Amen to that. My daughter asked Jesus to live in her heart when she was 4 years old. She made the decision to be baptised at 7 years old. She knows there is a hell and isn't afraid to talk about it. She knows that people who don't know Jesus are going to go to hell and for that reason, she witnesses to her friends about Jesus and frequently invites them to come to church with us. She even tells us she loves us but she loves Jesus more. She understands that when she sees people acting badly, it is most likely because Jesus Christ doesn't live in their heart (since we are to judge them by their fruit - not for their sins) and we should pray for them so they won't spend eternity in hell. Jesus loves us all and died for every one of us and so we should always strive to be Jesus to those around us though we all sin and fall short daily. I can't find anything scary in that.
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). We do not attend church but they do go to church with relatives occasionally and every summer they go to Vacation Bible School with the neighbors. This year they were taught about hell in VBS.