Stop Trying To Give Your Kids Christian Hope

Christianity is not true because you have hope. You have hope because Christianity is true. Yet, we sometimes say and do things that seem to suggest that our hope is the driving truth behind the Christian worldview. It’s not. 

Our friend Natasha Crain over at Christian Mom Thoughts hits the nail on the head with this blog post. She says:

..if you’re in the market for hope, that can be found in all kinds of ways. For example, Islam and Mormonism both offer “hope” in the form of an eventual paradise for the faithful. But their claims about truth—including how a person reaches that paradise—couldn’t be more different. As another example,read this person’s story of deconversion from Christianity, in which he concludes that he’s now creating his own belief system about God because, though he’s no longer a Christian, he still needs “hope.”

Our job as Christian parents is not to give our kids hope. Hope can be found in all kinds of places, just like bumper stickers. Our job is to teach our kids truth, and to teach them how to discover that truth themselves.

If Christianity isn’t true, you’re only giving your kids false hope, which the apostle Paul points out is absolutely pitiful: “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Those who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Corinthians 15:17-19).

She goes on to say: 

If Christianity is true, all kinds of wonderful things flow from that truth. We really can delight in hope, and we absolutely should make sure our kids understand what awaits believers. But we have to carefully avoid focusing on hope as a reason for faith. As Paul said, false hope is a pitiful thing.

 

What’s important—vital—is that our kids know that what they believe is actually true…whether that truth hurts or not. Parents, please take that seriously: Study the objective evidence for the truth of Christianity so you are readily prepared to give your kids good reasons for the hope they have (1 Peter 3:15). 

Read the rest of her blog post here…