Its official now.... there will soon be another little Bellingham running around our apartment - only this one has two X chromosomes :) The ultrasound confirmed what both Les and I were both hoping for - a healthy little girl who is due to arrive sometime in March.
The joy of parenthood always brings with it the weight of responsibility since parenthood is a sacred stewardship from the Lord. I was reminded of this truth a couple weeks ago as I re-read the preface to the Westminster Confession of Faith which was addressed to Christian parents and written by one of my favorite Puritan pastors - Thomas Manton. The Puritan ideal was for the family to function as a little 'church' with the father ministering as the pastor: "Families are societies that must be sancitifed to God as well as Churches; and the governors of them have as truly a charge of the souls that are therein, as pastors have of the Churches." In the seventeenth-century Christian families didn't have the luxury of delegating their responsibilities to the local church - there was no Sunday School, no Children's Church, no Awana and no Pioneer Clubs. The primary responsibility for Christian nurture and Christian Education fell squarely on the shoulders of mom and dad. On this point Manton is crystal clear: "A family is the seminary of Church and State; and if children be not well principled there, all miscarrieth: a fault in the first concoction is not mended in the second; if youth be bred ill in the family, they prove ill in Church and Commonwealth." Recognizing the critical importance of the family, Manton lamented the fact that many Christian parents did not take their family duties seriously: "But while negligent ministers are (deservedly) cast out of their places, the negligent masters of families take themselves to be almost blameless...This covenant-breaking with God, and betraying the souls of their children to the devil, must lie heavy on them here or hereafter. They beget children, and keep families, merely for the world and the flesh: but little consider what a charge is committed to them, and what it is to bring up a child for God, and govern a family as a sanctified society." It may be surprising to us today, but Confessional Statements and Catechisms, which hardly see the light of day in most Evangelical churches, were written in large part for the benefit of parents so that they could instruct themselves in basic systematic theology and in turn instruct their children. Manton goes on to write: "I do therefore desire, that all masters of families would first study well [this Confession] themselves, and then teach it their children and servants, according to their several capacities. And, if they once understand these grounds of religion, they will be able to read other books more understandingly, and hear sermons more profitably, and confer more judiciously, and hold fast the doctrine of Christ more firmly , than ever you are like to do by any other course."
Of course the idea of teaching theology to our children didn't originate with the Puritans - it was God's command to the children of Israel before they entered the promised land: "Hear therefore O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. Your shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise." Deut 6:4-7. The Bible is full of pithy confessional statements which were memorized and passed down from generation to generation. Perhaps the most profound theological statement on the character of God in the entire Bible was first revealed in Deut 34:6 and recurs again and again, most notably in the last chapter of Jonah: "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness". What a treasure God has given us to pass on to the next generation!
Although there is certainly no one right way to teach spiritual truth to children, Leslie and I have found a Catechism to be a helpful tool as we've been working with Daniel. Reformed Baptists, like Presbyterians have a Confessional heritage that goes back to the seventeenth-century. To be sure Catechisms and Confessions are not inspired or inerrant and should never take the place of Scripture in our homes. If you'd like to try using a Catechism with your kids, I'd recommend the following which has been edited by Dr. Tom Nettles (currently a professor at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) and is based on Benjamin Keach's Baptist Catechism. Click Here
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