How Can I Help My Kids Have Authentic Faith?

How can I help my kids to have an authentic faith? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. You can also post your question on our Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter account, and you can always email us a question at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, let's go to Alice in Barrington, Kansas.

Alice, did I say the name of your town correctly? You can't have a relationship with God without him. What my question is, is I struggle with the Holocaust and all of the Jews that went through such torment and them being the chosen people. people for Christ coming to earth, do they have a... do they have a path?

I don't know. Is there any scripture that I could go to that would explain this to me? Yeah, Alice, you're not the only one who struggles with this. In fact, after, you know, the events of the Second World War and the Holocaust, a lot of theologians, Christian theologians, Jewish theologians, struggled to make some... how do we talk about this kind of suffering in light of the God of the Bible? How do we make sense of this? And so asking the same kinds of questions it sounds like you're asking, the first thing I'll say is you're right. The Bible makes it absolutely clear that there's salvation in no other name except the name of Jesus.

You see this all over the place. Jesus himself said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. And there are some people who said, or who will say something like, well, you know, Jews, because in the Old Testament the Hebrew people were God's covenant people, maybe for them there's sort of this special dispensation of, you know, you don't have to accept Jesus and you can still be welcomed into heaven on the basis of the fact that, you know, you're a part of the chosen line, if you will. But Paul makes it clear that that's also not true, especially in Romans chapters 9 through 11. He says, look, all of us are united to God, the family of God, solely by faith, faith in Jesus Christ. And so an individual who maybe, you know, they're of Jewish heritage, just because they're, you know, they have that heritage, that background, because they're Jewish, doesn't make them automatically saved. But again, well, what do we say about the things like the Holocaust?

Well, a couple of things. First, I'll say this, God is good and gracious and just. And on the day of judgment, when we are standing before the Lord, you know, from our perspective we see things and we don't understand, we can't make sense of it, but when we're all standing before the Lord on the day of judgment, there's not going to be any question about what God does and the judgments that he renders on that day.

We're going to see everything clearly. And one thing I think that we do know, Alice, on the basis of Scripture, is that while we're only saved by Jesus Christ, there are going to be degrees, if you will, of even judgment for some people. You know, the people who knew better, who had the truth, you know, plastered before them day in and day out and just continually repudiated it, they're going to be judged more severely than those who weren't given those same opportunities. And again, we don't know what that's going to look like, but I think you can rest assured that God is good, that his judgment is just. We see these kinds of terrible things and they're reminders for us of how far mankind, humanity, has turned its back on God, that we do such wicked and heinous things to each other. It's a picture of human depravity and sin, and we cling to the God who sent his Son to carry our sins and to comfort the afflicted. And we say, Lord, we don't understand, you know, how these these things could happen, and we don't understand what you're doing in and through them, and we don't know how exactly the judgment is going to look for individuals who have never had an opportunity. Maybe you think of the children who died in the Holocaust, who never had an opportunity to even hear your gospel, but I can tell you, Alice, that God, again, is just and good and gracious and merciful, and so we can trust him.

We can trust him to do the right thing he's going to do, and we don't have to be afraid that, you know, there's some sort of injustice that's going to be done on God's part. The injustice is on our part as sinners, and it's God's grace that puts the pieces back together. And so, Alice, God bless you, and thank you for that call. Such a sad chapter in human history. You know, Adriel, last year we took our kids to Washington, D.C., and one of the things we did while we were there was visit the Holocaust Museum, and anyone who tries to deny that there's a sin nature or that human beings can't be sinful and fallen and do cruel things, you go to the Holocaust Museum, you cannot deny the horrible evil that was done and the terrible suffering. So I can empathize with her question.

It's just so tough. Yeah, it's important that we have these conversations and that we, I mean, we see these things clearly because it does, I think, as you say, Bill, reveal the nature of sin, just how evil we can be to each other. And it should cause us to run to Christ, to pursue that which is good and true and beautiful in his law, and to receive the forgiveness that we need for the evil in our own hearts. And so I'm grateful you guys had that opportunity.

I'd love to take my kids there sometime as well. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to a voicemail that came in from one of our callers.

This is from Jennifer. I recently, as an adult, have started reading the Bible, and really as a child I went to church and I really thought I had a strong relationship with God, but I'm learning now that I'm just now really getting that. My question, I guess, is, as a parent now, how do we make sure that we're truly setting our children up to have an authentic Christian life and an authentic relationship with our Heavenly Father? Because I feel like I missed out on a lot until recently when I've been doing my own research and my own learning and my own reading. I don't want my kids to be 40 years old like I am before they get this gift. So if you could give us any kind of tips on how to make sure that there's an authentic Christian life being developed in your children, that would be amazing. Thanks so much.

Bye. Jennifer, thank you for that question, and it's a question on a lot of our minds. I have five kids, the oldest is ten, the youngest right now is a little bit over nine weeks, and that is the million-dollar question, if you will, right? We want our children to know and love Jesus, not just to be able to parrot information, but to have it sink deep down into their hearts so that they're shaped by it. And of course we know, according to the Bible, that that's the work of the Holy Spirit, that only God can do that, and yet at the same time we have a responsibility as parents to raise our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

And there's, you know, there's been a lot of, we're just thinking about it from a human perspective, there's been a lot of research done, there's a guy named Christian Smith who's written quite a bit about sort of passing the faith down to the next generation, and one of the things that he highlights in a lot of his studies is that the primary influence in the lives of our children is going to be us as parents. It's not their youth pastor or their Sunday school teacher, it's not their, you know, teacher at school or whatnot, it really is part of it is the example that we're setting in the home, you know, modeling I think what it looks like to love and follow Jesus for them, because we can say all sorts of things about what they need to believe, but if they see the exact opposite in us, I think that in one sense we're, you know, cutting the branch off on which we're seated, and so I think that that's really, really important. I think also just giving them the sort of grammar of the faith and praying that the Holy Spirit, you know, uses that, illuminates that. What I mean by the grammar of the faith is just teach your children the Bible, study scripture, read those stories together. I think of what Paul says to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 1, he says, I thank God whom I serve as did my ancestors with the clear conscience as I remember you constantly in my prayers, night and day, as I remember your tears.

I long to see you that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith. That's what you want to see in your children, that's what we want to see in our children, a sincere faith, and he says a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and now I am sure dwells in you as well. You have this sort of succession, this sincere faith. Now how did that faith get handed down? Well, if you go forward just a couple chapters in chapter 3 verse 15, he says this to Timothy, how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

So here's what we can do. This is a part of our responsibility as parents. Are we making our children acquainted with, if you will, the sacred writings?

Are we helping them to be rooted in the word? Are we having conversations around the dinner table about scripture, about the Bible years ago when I was in college? We visited, I visited one of my professor's homes.

I was friends with his daughter at the time. We had a bunch of, you know, a group of us in college, we're all friends, and he invited us all over for dinner. We had this great meal sitting around the table enjoying fellowship, talking with each other, and then all of a sudden he pulled out this little box of note cards and on each note card was a Bible verse. It had a Bible verse written on it, then he passed each of us a note card, and we're all sitting around the table and he said, I'll never forget, he said, now it's time for the real feast.

You know, we just had this great meal that his wife cooked up, but he said, now it's time for the real feast. And each of us around the table, we just read our, you know, the verse that was handed to us and we talked about it for a little bit, but I thought it was so just neat, you know, how we're sitting around the table enjoying fellowship, talking about God's Word, becoming more and more acquainted with the sacred writings. We can't transform the hearts of our children, that's the work of the Holy Spirit, but God uses his Word to transform hearts, and so we need to be saturated in the Word, and we want to help our children to be saturated in the Word as well, and prayer, and so be praying that the Lord would do that work, you know, surround your family with his grace, root you guys in the scriptures, be sure that you're, you know, you're taking, we're taking our children to church to be a part of the worshiping community. It's all of those things, and we depend upon the Lord, and so God bless you, and may God grant our children, as you say, that sincere faith. God bless.

Mm-hmm. Jennifer, we actually have a free core guide on this topic, which you might find helpful. For any of our listeners who have kids or grandkids, you might want to go to our website and check this out. It's called Five Ways to Help Your Kids Keep the Faith.

You can find that by going to corechristianity.com forward slash free downloads. Again, look for the core guide, Five Ways to Help Your Kids Keep the Faith. By the way, we also want to say thank you to a very special group of people today. They're folks that listen to this program on a regular basis. They believe strongly in what we do.

In fact, they believe so strongly that they make a monthly financial commitment to help us keep on the air. We call them our inner core. Yeah, we want to invite you to be a part of the inner core if you have been encouraged by the work that we're doing. We were just talking about families and raising our kids up in the Lord. It's been neat to hear from some of you who listen to the broadcast together with your children, and, you know, it opens up a conversation to talk about Jesus, to talk about his word.

Really encouraged by that. So if you've been encouraged by core Christianity, would you consider joining the inner core? It's a $25 donation, monthly donation.

Really not a ton of money, but it helps us, and it's encouraging for us. So through your support and your prayers, we're able to continue to do the work that the Lord has given us here to do. We'd love to invite you to join us in partnering together for the good of the gospel. We send our inner core members a number of resources throughout the year, and if you join the inner core, we'll send you this book by Dr. Michael Horton, a wonderful theologian called Core Christianity, which is just an introduction to those core truths of the Christian faith that we believe every Christian should should know and know well. And so thank you again for your support, and God bless. If you'd like to know more about joining the inner core, just go to our website corechristianity.com forward slash inner core. That's corechristianity.com forward slash inner core. We'd love to have you prayerfully consider joining that group of people, and we'd love to send you that book, Core Christianity.

Well let's go back to another question. We do receive questions through our Facebook page, and here's one from Matt. Matt says, my church is moving to a closed communion, and some are opposed to it because they think it is discriminatory and divisive. What are your thoughts?

Yeah, thank you, Matt, for that question. I guess if I was forced to choose between a closed communion, that is, only those who are members there in the church are allowed to receive the sacrament, the Lord's Supper, a part of the worshiping community and communion with the church there. If I was to choose between that and just a sort of idea of totally open, it doesn't matter what you believe, what you profess, you know, you just come as you feel led to come, which is frankly what a lot of churches do. I've seen churches, it'll just, the way they do, they just sort of set out some grape juice and crackers out there, and you know, the worship team is playing music, and anybody can just come up and take communion.

It doesn't matter really what you believe or even if you understand what you're doing. That would be an example of just sort of wide open communion, if you will. I think I would choose the more closed option on the basis of what the Apostle Paul says in 1st Corinthians chapter 11. Now in our church what we do is, you know, we call it fencing the table. You know, when I administer the Lord's Supper on a Sunday morning, I say this is a meal for Christians, for those who have been baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit who believe in Jesus Christ, have received his grace by faith. If that's you, even if they're not, you know, a member of my church, and maybe they don't agree with everything, but they agree with the gospel, and they've embraced that gospel, they've been baptized, we welcome them to the table.

So it's closed in some way, but not to the extent that I think you're referring to. But Paul in 1st Corinthians chapter 11, he basically makes it clear that it's required of those who would worthily partake of the Lord's Supper that they need to examine themselves first of their ability to discern the Lord's body, of their faith to feed upon him, of their repentance, love, their new obedience to the Lord. Less coming unworthily, they should eat and drink judgment to themselves. And that's what the Apostle Paul says in 1st Corinthians 11 verse 27, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

And so I think it's important that we take these things seriously. I mean, Paul is going to go on to say, this is why many of you there in Corinth, this is why many of you are weak and sick, and some of you have even died because of the way you're handling the holy things of the Lord, because of how you're approaching God in community. It sort of reminds me of, you know, Leviticus chapter 10 with Nadab and Abihu approaching God flippantly, offering strange fire to the Lord there in Leviticus 10, 1 through 3. And God judged them.

He consumed them with fire. And, you know, in the New Testament under the New Covenant, our God is still a consuming fire. This is what the author of the Hebrew says in Hebrews chapter 12. You know, we need to worship God with reverence and awe because our God is a consuming fire. And I think a lot of times in worship we just sort of miss that. You know, we've got this so, I call it a domesticated view of God and of worship where it's like, and we just want people to feel comfortable, sort of happy-clappy, you know, you come together and very light-hearted. There really isn't that reverence that oftentimes you do see in the New Testament, that fear, that godly fear even, that you see here in 1 Corinthians 11 surrounding the Lord's Supper. And so I think when we begin to see that in the New Testament, we consider what worship is. It's the meeting of heaven and earth. We're coming into the presence of the holy God who is a consuming fire, who invites us to come boldly to his throne of grace because of what he's done for us and his son Jesus. And there is this this holy weightiness to it, this joy, certainly this joy as well, but this holy weightiness that we want to have in our worship.

And so I think that's the way we want to look at it. And for that reason there are many Christian traditions that have done close communion for a number of other reasons as well. So I don't know that they need to see it as divisive, or your church should see it as divisive necessarily. This is a wisdom thing that you guys are going to have to think through, but I am for recovering a high view of the Lord's Supper and a high view of the wonder of what takes place when we gather around God's throne in worship here on earth today.

And so may the Lord bless you and give your church wisdom as they think about these things, and thank you for that question. That's some great counsel. Thank you for that, Adriel.

You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. By the way, you can leave us a voicemail 24 hours a day. We do try to review our voicemails once a day, and if you leave a voicemail there's a good chance we'll use it on the air. Here's the number to call if you've got a question about the Bible, the Christian life, doctrine, or theology. You can leave a voicemail at 833-THE-CORE. That's 1- 833-843-2673. Here's a voicemail from one of our callers named Destiny.

My boyfriend is trying to get into the religion, and one question he always asks me is, what's the difference between Christianity and Catholics? So that is my question for you, and I just wanted to say thank you so much for doing this. This helps me, and it's helped build my relationship.

Thank you. Hey, Destiny, thank you for that question. First thing I want to do is just speak to your boyfriend and say, hey, it's not just getting into the religion, it's knowing Christ by faith, and God calls you to himself to know him, to walk with him, to understand who he is through his word, and so I want to encourage you to dig into the scriptures, to open up the Bible, maybe start in a place like the Gospel of John. If you want to get into the religion, if you will, what it's about, learn about who Jesus is and what he's done for you and what he calls you to, and so dig into the Gospel of John. But a good question that you ask and that you're asking, Destiny, what's the difference between Roman Catholics and maybe Protestant Christians?

That would be a more specific way of asking the question. Those who don't identify with the Roman Catholic Church, well, there are two traditions, if you will, among Protestants. There are all sorts of different kinds of churches that differ in a number of ways. They differ with regard to things like the sacraments, how we understand the sacraments, baptism, and the Lord's Supper. The Catholic Church actually, you know, in my tradition, we believe that there are two sacraments, baptism and the Lord's Supper.

The Roman Catholic Church believes that there are seven and that there are a number of things that are, we might say, sacramental, so that would be a difference. The way we understand church government, you know, the head of the Catholic Church, we might say, is the Pope in Rome, and there's this sort of hierarchy of authority there that ends with the Pope, whereas, you know, we would say, I would say that the only head of the church is Jesus Christ, and the vicar of Christ's presence on earth is not the Pope, but the Holy Spirit, who Jesus said he would send to the church to communicate his presence to us here and now. So there's questions of the way in which the church should be governed. One of the big things, and this is maybe the main thing, is the way in which we understand the doctrine of salvation, in particular the doctrine of justification, and it's there that you have significant differences between the Roman Catholic Church and historically how Protestants have viewed this doctrine, Protestants like Martin Luther and John Calvin. In the Roman Catholic Church, justification is a process of inward renewal that begins at your baptism. You have this sort of initial justification at baptism, and as you cooperate with the grace of God that's given to you, you're more and more justified, if you will. You're becoming more and more righteous, and so it's this process of transformation, of internal transformation. Well, others, and this is my view, have said, well, that's not what justification is in the Bible. Actually, what it is is it's the declaration of God upon a sinner that you are righteous, not on the basis of anything that you've done, not on the basis of your internal transformation, but on the basis of what Jesus Christ has done for you. We're saved by grace through faith alone. That's what saves us, and that's one of the big differences, I think, that you're going to find as you're thinking about this question, and so keep digging into the Word, open up the Gospel of John, and may the Lord bless you. Thanks for listening to Core Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at CoreChristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar, or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833-THE-CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program, and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.