I wrote an article recently on the theology behind the “second” salvation of my youngest daughter. It elicited one of the top ten-percent of the nearly 3k comments I have received on Medium this past year. The author spoke about how young, impressionable, and naive she was (6 years old) to be proselytized by an eight year old neighborhood evangelist. Of course, from my perspective, being witnessed to by a peer, even at the age of six, seemed a blessing, both from the perspective of my appreciation of this evangelist’s parents, and for the sake of my own daughter’s eternal life. And yes, I recognize that my feelings would have been very different had it been a Jehovah’s Witness or Mormon roaming the neighborhood.
Conclusion
So, should we stop evangelizing our children? Of course not! Is it acceptable to build a Christian wall around them until they bend to our Biblical Christian worldview? Surprisingly, I would say yes. The truth is that we are not of this world; our citizenship is in Heaven (Phil. 3:20, John 15:19). To abdicate our responsibility as parents and Christian caregivers regarding the eternal status of our youth would be horrific.
What we need to avoid is ignoring our continuing responsibility to help in the sanctification process, once our young charges make a “profession of faith”. And, even more importantly perhaps, be true “fruit checkers” as we look for changes in their behavior, newly minted with the Holy Spirit in their hearts (Cor. 6:19).
Gal. 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Rom. 12:1-2 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…