A Guest Essay by Nathan Koenig: "Teaching the Next Generation"

Note: This essay is a fitting reminder that tradition is more than simply holding fast to the Bible, the Confessions, and our Divine Service. Tradition literally means “handing over” our faith. ~ Ed.

A Sad Reality

It’s a tough pill to swallow, but we American Christians (and Lutherans in particular) have generally failed to pass on the faith to the next generation.

I recently graduated from college, so I know from first-hand experience that many young Christians stop going to church after high school. Then, the real question is why does this happen? Why do our children fall away from the one true faith?

Well, a recent story hit home that reality.

A close family member of mine attends a local Lutheran elementary school, and she told me about the following experience. One day in class, my family member’s teacher started talking about the Bible during religion class. Her teacher told the class that the disciple Judas Iscariot did not go to hell. Yes, that is what this teacher said.

My family member responded to this false claim by saying that Judas did—in fact—go to hell. Then, her teacher doubled-down and said again that Judas didn’t go to hell.

So cringe.

If you’re curious, then here are some Bible verses that show that Judas went to hell:

While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.  --John 17:12

And as they were eating, he said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, “Is it I, Lord?” He answered, “He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me.  The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.” Judas, who would betray him, answered, “Is it I, Rabbi?” He said to him, “You have said so.”  --Matthew 26:21-25

Suffice to say, I was proud of my family member for standing up for the truth. It’s not easy to find courage like that these days—especially in an academic setting.

Now, let’s step back for a minute. A Lutheran teacher is teaching students at a Lutheran school that Judas did not go to hell—in complete contradiction to the Holy Scriptures.

Personally, that situation caused me to do some reflection. Consequently, I “connected the dots” and recognized that “it’s not just about the schools”. While many Christian schools fail to correctly teach the Christian faith, this failure is not the only/primary reason our children are falling away from the Church.

It’s not just the Schools

This poor teaching at Christian school is just a symptom of a larger problem. The larger problem is that Christian parents (in modern America) are not passing down the Christian faith—including Lutheran parents. They have failed to properly teach their children about the Christian faith.

For some reason, most Baby Boomer/Gen X parents believed that their children would remain Christian if they just sent their children to Christian schools. That thinking has turned out to be disastrous.

Christian schools are not a replacement for parents teaching their own children about Jesus Christ and the Holy Bible. Nothing else is a good enough substitute.

While I do not like that Christian/Lutheran schools often fail to actually teach orthodox Christianity, we should not primarily blame those institutions whenever our children reject Christianity. Instead, we should look at ourselves as parents. Have we actually—as parents—spent time to teach our children the faith?

That question is a fair one to ask. Indeed, Luther points out in the Catechism how parents are supposed to bring up their children “in the training and instruction of the Lord”!

On another note, children generally can figure out what their parents value. If parents never mention the name of Jesus Christ in their homes, then I can assure you that your children will implicitly believe that Jesus isn’t that important as they grow up. That statement might sound harsh, but the time for sugar-coating the truth has long passed.

I am of the opinion that we must identify a problem before we can fix it. So if we want our children to stay Christians through adulthood, then we need to start teaching the faith in the home when they are young.  

The Proverbs ring true: “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6).

Sure, we might not be able to control the broader culture’s view of Christianity. Nevertheless, we can still bring our Children to the Divine Service every Sunday. We can still pray with our children before meals and before bedtime. We can still do family devotionals and Bible readings on a regular basis. This we can all do.

We can control what happens within our homes and our family’s lives. So, it is my prayer that Christ will continue to remain faithful—even when we aren’t. In closing, may God bless our children and bring them up in the one true Faith!

Nathan Koenig is a recent graduate of Texas Christian University and a member of Atonement Lutheran Church in Metairie, Louisiana. He blogs at The Tin Can Conservative.