HAVE THEY GOTTEN THE MESSAGE?
How Children View Salvation?
BY DONNA J. HABENICHT
If your students were asking
these questions: "If Jesus were to
come today or tomorrow, would you be saved?
Would He take you to heaven with Him?" what would they say? The
statements below are a small sample of the responses from interviews with a
number of Adventist children and youth:
"I'm not ready--I have
so many things to work on." (19-year-old)
"Yes, because I go to
church every week, and I pray every night, study my lesson…" (9-year-old)
"Even good people can
do one bad thing." (10-year-old)
"I must get some more
stars in my crown." (18-year-old)
"I have been reading
the Bible and I trust in God." (7-year-old)
"I have not asked
forgiveness for all the sins that I have done today." (7-year-old)
"I have faith and I
trust Him." (12-year-old)
"If you ask Him, He
will save you." (11-year-old)
"I believe that even
though I'm not perfect, God will save me because I'm willing to let Him live
with me." (16-year-old)
"Even though I'm not
perfect, God sees me through Jesus' life and therefore, I'm righteous in His
eyes." (18-year-old)
"Christ came to teach
the human family the way of salvation, and He made this way so plain that a
little child can walk in it."[1]
This Ellen White statement has always intrigued me. What do children really understand about salvation? When can they
understand enough to accept Jesus as their personal Saviour? Is there a development pattern to their
understanding? If so, could awareness
of this sequence help us teach them more effectively about Jesus and salvation?
To try and answer these
questions, with the assistance graduate students at Andrews University, Berrien
Spring, Michigan,[2] I am
conducting a study of how ideas about salvation develop. I chose to use the semiclinical interview
format utilized by Piaget in is studies of children's thinking. This method has been widely used in research
on religious thinking during childhood and adolescence.[3]
It allows the interviewer to probe the child's thinking patterns. The interviewee must generate responses,
rather than merely react to ideas on survey documents. Even young children who lack the reading
skills to participate in survey research can easily be interviewed.
During the interview
session, we collected demographic and religious activities information,
administered the vocabulary test of the Wechsler Scales of intelligence to
obtain a brief measure of verbal ability, and asked each person to make a
drawing about salvation.
Currently, we have
interviewed 276 SDA children, teenagers, and youth from 4 to 25 years of age,
mainly from the Midwest region of the United States, but including other parts
of the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico. A
fourth of the participants were born in other countries, but were living in the
U.S. We included people from rural and
major metropolitan areas, small and large churches, public and church schools,
and major ethnic groups in our sample.
Victor Korniejczuk extended the study to 'South America, interviewing
120 randomly selected students age 6 to 17 who attended church schools in
Argentina and Paraguay. [4]
In this study, we are not
trying to invent theology: we are only recording it as understood by children
and youth. We asked questions about
sin: baptism; being "saved"; the roles of works, trust, and grace in
salvation; and the assurance of salvation.
We also asked why Jesus came to earth and what He is doing now. Before completing each interview, we tried
to determine the person's overall attitude toward salvation.
This article focuses on some
of the major findings of special interest to teachers at all levels from
kindergarten to university. An
understanding of salvation includes many different ideas, as well as feelings
and attitudes toward assurance. The
results of our interviews clearly show that some of these ideas have a definite
developmental pattern, with understanding gradually increasing as children mature. Other ideas do not show such a clear
developmental pattern--younger children give responses almost as complete as
those of teenagers and youth.
However, this does not mean
that children will "naturally" develop ideas about salvation. Each question we asked relates to what they
have been taught. While understanding
may mature, the basic ideas on which understanding is built must be learned
from family, church, and school. The
developmental pattern suggests guidelines for teaching because it tells us when
children can best understand certain ideas.
But must always remember that children have individual timetables--a few
will understand earlier and some later than the majority. The amount of exposure to religious ideas
also seems to influence when what children understand.
Sin
Since some understanding of
evil seems basic to recognizing the need for a Saviour, we asked a series of
questions about sin, beginning with "What is sin?" Answers to these questions clearly
illustrates a developmental pattern. Four-to 5-year-olds say, "Sin is
something bad" and tell about a "bad" thing they did. Six-to 7-year-olds begin to make the
transition to thinking of sin as disobeying God. By age 8 or 9 years, they are beginning to be more specific,
although it takes until the mid-teens before a majority relate sin to
disobeying God's law. The idea that sin
is a break in the relationship with God is first mentioned at age 16, but in
our group only the 24-to 25-year-olds give this as a majority response. Graph 1 shows the development of this
pattern of thinking.
It is easy to see why young
people focus on actions and on the commandments. Rules are important, specific, and concrete. Children can tell if they are
"good" or "bad" by how they relate to home or classroom
rules. It is the same with God, in
their view. Beginning in junior academy
may be the time to focus on the relationship aspect of sin, as adolescents are
poised to grow in understanding.
Does everyone sin? Many of the youngest children think
"good" people –grownups--do not sin, but that idea is quickly
replaced with the belief that nobody is perfect. "Only God is perfect" is the most popular response at
all ages beginning with 8 to 9 years. A
few 10- and 11-year-olds talk about being born in an evil world, but sinful
human nature is not introduced by anyone until the early teen years.
The idea of a sinful human
nature needs careful teaching, probably during academy and college, since the
majority never used this idea.
Understanding the sinfulness of human nature lays a crucial foundation for
shifting through the underpinnings of many disciplines--psychology and
theology, for example--and the technique that flow from their
philosophies. It is also crucial to
understand the Christian worldview.
Junior and senior academy and college students should certainly have the
chance to grapple with this concept.
We have taught our children
well about the origin of sin. Even some
4 to 5-years olds mention Lucifer as being responsible, although most of the
younger children tell the story of Adam and Eve eating the fruit. Lucifer and the war in heaven come in
strongly by ages 8 to 9. By age 10 or
11, a few children are mentioning his selfishness, pride, or jealousy as the original
cause of sin, but it is not until 18 to 19 years of age that the idea that sin
originated in the heart of Lucifer becomes part of the picture for at least a
fourth of the interviewees. If youth do
not grasp this idea fully, might they think God had something to do with the
beginning of evil?
As late as age 20, a few
subjects see no connection between personal choice and salvation or overcoming
sin. They relate choice to making good
decisions, but not until mid- to late teens do as many as half of the
respondents talk clearly about the choice between God and Satan. The idea that the ultimate choice lies with
individual begins to come in during the mid-teen years, but is not strong until
the early 20s. We need to teach much
more clearly that each person makes choices between God and Satan all the
time. This is an idea that children can
understand. It is basic to the great
controversy doctrine and the SDA worldview.
God's Love
We asked several questions
about God's love for sinners. Most
young children are quite sure that God is not angry when they do something
wrong. He is sad, but not mad or
angry. By 10 to 11 years of age,
children are certain that God loves the sinner and forgives the sin. And they give good reasons for their
belief--God keeps us alive, He died for us, etc.
Actually, these responses
are quite remarkable. Ideas about God
have been extensively researched.[5] Generally, these studies 
conclude that children
believe God is angry when they do wrong things. Our children believe quite the contrary--God love them and He is
definitely not angry, although some think He might love them a little less when
they sin. We need to continue stressing
God's love for everyone--even people who do wrong things. It is an important message.
Being Saved
Adventists do not talk very
much about "being saved," and this showed in our interviews. Most do not know what "being
saved" means, or they only mention freedom from sin, without linking it to
heaven. Less than a third talked about
eternal life, a relationship with God, freedom from Satan, sin, and dying, or
said that "being saved" is a free gift from God. Children and youth do need to understand
what "being saved" implies.
This is our ultimate goal.
|
Graph 1 Definition of Sin |
|
|
LEVEL 1 |
Something bad/evil Related to child's own actions or behavior |
|
LEVEL 2 |
Disobedience to God Illustrated with concrete examples |
|
LEVEL 3 |
Transgression of God's commandments Personal consciousness of sin |
|
LEVEL 4 |
Separation from God-broken relationship |
Works Versus
Faith/Grace
Several of our questions addressed
the issue of works versus faith and grace in salvation. In answer to the question, "Who will go
to heaven?" children make a transition from mostly works responses to more
faith/grace responses at ages 8 to 9.
After that, there is no really significant change in the proportion of
works versus faith/grace responses until the oldest year of our study. Behavioral responses are given by about 45
percent and faith/grace responses by 40-45 percent. The remainder are a combination of the two, sometimes in an
integrated from and other times just a simple statement with both ideas.
Question, "What is the
most important you can do to be saved?" generated a greater proportion of
faith/grace responses. Around 30
percent of 6 –to 7-year-olds give faith/grace responses. By ages 14 to 15, more than half are sure
faith/grace is the only way to be saved, with more than 80 percent giving this
response in the 20s. The behavioral responses
eventually disappear in the 20s.
When we probed about
assurance of salvation, 95 percent of 4- to 5-year-olds is confident Jesus will
take them to heaven. But this
confidence begins to erode rather quickly.
By age 10 to 11, there is a crisis of confidence. Half are uncertain or plainly state that
Jesus would not save them. Twelve to
13-year-olds and 18- to 19-year-olds are little more confident, with almost
two-thirds giving a strong yes. But the
crisis in confidence continues through the teens and early 20s. In our group, the 24- to 25-year-olds were
again more confident (70 percent, the highest since age 6 to 7). Graph 2 shows this picture. Interpretation
of this graph needs to consider the overall picture, rather than minor
variations from year to year.
Four- to 6-year-olds have
very simple reasons for their assurance--they have been told, they know Jesus
is coming and believe He will take them with Him. They have what might be called a "blind faith." With new thinking abilities, uncertainties
begin to surface from 7 to 9 years.
Children seem almost pre-occupied with forgiveness. Forgiveness weighs heavily on their minds,
illustrated by one child who told me:
"Mom doesn't pray right. I
tell her she doesn't do it right. She
doesn't ask for forgiveness for everything, so I do it myself afterwards."
Overwhelmingly, the reasons
given are behavioral ones: "I'm
not good enough." "I won't
ever measure up." "I don't
know if I'm good enough in heaven's view." "I try to be nice, I try not to be so mean, I try to show an
example like I am trying to bring my friends to church." Children talk a lot about "trying
hard."
|
Graph 2 Assurance of
Salvation |
|
|
LEVEL 1 |
Spontaneous, unconditional assurance of salvation |
|
LEVEL 2 |
Some uncertainty, doubts about forgiveness and
readiness. Not for them to say-God's decision |
|
LEVEL 3 |
Negative answers |
A great deal of uncertainty is expressed about one
sin keeping the person from being saved.
The idea that it is "the set of the sails" or the direction of
one's life, the commitment to follow the Lord that matters seems lacking. The "one sin" is really bothersome
to quite a few children and youth. They
need the assurance.
The first clear statement
about Christ's righteousness as a solution to the problem o