You sometimes hear of parents who let their children grow up without formal religion because they don’t want to impose upon them a particular faith. That may be well-intentioned but it’s wrong-headed. It instills in a child the attitude that faith is a result of our choice based upon our understanding. No, taught St. Augustine. It’s the other way around. We do not understand in order to believe but we believe in order to understand. Jesus says, “You did not choose Me but I chose you.” (John 15:16)
Last Sunday I preached at Trinity Lutheran in Klein, Texas. 58 young people were confirmed. In Lutheranism confirmation is not choosing faith but rather an affirmation of the faith given in Baptism. In a 1938 sermon for confirmation, Dietrich Bonhoeffer said,
“Confirmands today are like young soldiers marching to war, the war of Jesus Christ against the gods of this world. It is a war that demands the commitment of one’s whole life. Is not God, our Lord, worthy of this struggle? Idolatry and cowardice confront us on all sides, but the direst foe does not confront us, He is with us. “Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.” (Eric Metaxas, “Bonhoeffer,” 309)
So then, should we raise children spiritually unprepared and unarmed for the life ahead of them?
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