Pilot Knob Missionary Baptist Church

Tates Creek Baptist Association Family Ministry

Teaching your kids a Biblical Worldview -The Fall

Worldview matters. In our last article we discussed what a worldview consists of. Simply put, it is the way we view the world. As Christians we should look at the world through the lens of God's Word - we call that a "Biblical Worldview." In a Biblical Worldview and understanding of God's redemptive story in Scripture, we see four categories: Creation. Fall. Redemption. Restoration. In the last article the focus was on Creation; viewing the world through the fact that God created everything for His glory, with the pinnacle of creation being mankind - who was made in His image, for His glory, and to have a relationship with God.

In this article we will talk about the next category - The Fall.

What is "The Fall"? That is a phrase used to describe what happened when mankind chose to not follow God's plan. We see this account in Genesis 3 when Eve was tempted by Satan to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, the tree that they were forbidden to eat from by God. As the account goes, Satan tempts Eve, Eve eats of the fruit of the tree, she gives some to her husband Adam who was with her, their eyes are "opened" and they realize they are naked and have shame. In that shame, Adam and Eve then hide from God - a separation has occurred in the perfect, open relationship they had with God the Creator. There are several words that can be used to describe the root of what happened in Genesis chapter 3 with Adam and Eve; disobedience, pride, or rebellion, just to name a few. The key word to describe the Fall, however, is SIN. Sin is anything that is done against God's plan, standard, or Will. 1 John 3:4 says, "Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness." Sin is lawlessness - breaking the law of God's perfect standard.

How do we teach and disciple our kids in understanding the Fall and the effects of it? We have to realize that the Fall has affected everything. In Genesis 3:14-19 we see the consequences of sin in the punishment that God gave in response to Adam and Eve's choices. For Eve, pain in child bearing will now be increased and she will desire to have authority over her husband in contrast to God's established order for the household. For Adam, there will be difficulty and toil in the work he was given to do. Thorns and weeds will now make work challenging. The most significant consequence - death - Adam came from the dust and to the dust he will go after he dies. Romans 6:23 states, "For the wages of sin is death..." We need to let our kids know that death, sickness, and pain in this world are results of mankind's disobedience to God. Sin has consequences. The suffering from sin's consequences may be from sin you have performed or the results of someone else's sin in your life. Because God is just, sin had to be punished. When someone breaks the law in our society, we assume there will be punishment. In fact, if someone committed a crime and was allowed to walk away unpunished, we would say that justice was not performed. God in His justice had to punish sin. That didn't change the fact that He loved Adam and Eve or that He loves you and me. In fact, in the next article we will talk about that great love which led to our redemption.

We show our kids the consequences of sin and disobedience when we show loving discipline to them. The greatest hindrance you could perform in a child's understanding of the consequences of sin is to let sin and disobedience in their life go unchecked. In fact, we read in Hebrews 12:6, "For the Lord disciplines the one he loves..." In love we show discipline to our kids when they disobey. That can be an entire conversation in itself, but disciple should be consistent, effective, appropriate, and most of all - loving. We want our kids to make good choices, but they also need to learn from bad choices. It is easy many times to think our kids can do no wrong, or pass the blame on to someone else, but we need to be honest with ourselves when observing our kids actions. Remember Romans 3:23, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God", that includes you, me, and our kids.

In raising our kids appropriately and in love we want to protect them from the sin of this world. However, despite our best efforts to shelter and protect, they will be exposed to the effects of sin around them. They can simply look around and see that we live in a broken world. As they grow and ask more questions, we should be ready to have appropriate conversations and honestly assess the effects of sin around them. We want to be informed families, but honestly I struggled when our kids were younger about even letting them watch the news on TV with us because there was so much heartache and negative events going on. Not only that, the perspective of the given news anchor or channel could be in direct contrast to our Biblical Worldview. One product that we found to be very helpful in encouraging our older kids to be informed with current news through a Biblical Worldview is "Word Watch". World Watch is a product of WNG (World News Group), a Christian News organization whose goal is to provide "sound journalism, grounded in facts and biblical truth." World Watch is a daily short news program geared toward teens (although honestly I think upper elementary would enjoy it, as well). It is a paid subscription (I don't get any benefit from promoting it, just FYI), but you can do a free trial for a week from their website, www.worldwatch.news.

In developing a Biblical Worldview we need to help our kids understand the results of the Fall. We are all sinners. Sin has consequences. Sin has affected every aspect of humanity and the entire world. However, that wasn't God's plan for us. There is good news! Jesus came to defeat sin and death so that as Revelation 22:3 says, "No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him." We can have hope that through faith in Jesus, the effects of the Fall, the curse of sin has been removed! We will look at that more in our next article - Worldview Matters: Redemption.

Randy Calico
Pastor - Pilot Knob Missionary Baptist Church