A Moment With Pastor Fred

Deconstructing one’s faith has become the latest craze. Recently I was given a post by a professing Christian regarding how she had been shamed as a child regarding the death of Christ. The woman called it “religious trauma.” She wrote to a younger version of herself:

“Dear younger version of me, how dare anyone blame you for the death of an adult you never knew.  HOW DARE THEY! … Your behavior had zero to do with the death of Jesus … That kind of shaming … by adults was completely unacceptable and you deserved better. It was not your fault the adults in your life cared more about their beliefs than your wellbeing.”

I don’t really know where to begin with such comments. Yes, of course they are unbiblical. While children have a certain innocence, they are not sinless. As parents and teachers we must take care in how we present the gospel – but present it we must in its entirety. We should use terminology a child can understand. Children cannot be saved until they’re old enough to understand good and evil; sin and punishment; repentance and faith. Don’t soften parts of the gospel that sound unpleasant – Christ’s death and our sin are part of that gospel. If we by-pass these truths, we won’t be giving the full gospel and without the full gospel there is no salvation.

It is tragic that in our day we are seeing more and more examples of removing parts of the gospel people find offensive. The gospel – the good news contains bad news first. We are sinners, but oh what good news it is to hear Jesus is a bigger Savior than we are sinners.