Election and Child Raising

In Mark, Jesus welcomes children into His arms (10:14). How appropriate. Children are just so wonderful, and utterly huggable.

Parents that embrace the doctrine of election have struggled with how to raise their children for the Lord in that light . After all, what if my child is not elect?

I've seen three strange ways to deal with that tension.

First Strange Method: Infant baptism. Not to offend, but how many people have been sprinkled as infants and gone to perdition? The Bible teaches baptism only for those who profess faith and are able to be taught all that Jesus commanded (Mat. 28:19). Don't try to resolve the tension by “sprinkling” your precious baby and thinking that gets them into a covenent. It doesn't. They will enter the covenent by the narrow gate just like you. Problem is, a lot of kids thus sprinkled fight the Lord and grow up nastily reprobate. Infant baptism doesn’t resolve the tension, and it falsely trains parents to think the kid is better off than before.

Second Strange Method: Fear. Ever heard of people telling their little kids not to pray because their little reprobates who have yet to ask Jesus into their heart? Sad but true. So the parent, not wanting to offend God tries to get the child to do something to get saved, as if the kid can do anything anyway. Salvation by prayer ruins the cross. Teach your child to pray about all things, and don't be looking for "transaction with God," instead, look for transformed heart.

Third Strange Method: Don’t teach the child repentance, for they can do nothing to effect God’s election, and teaching them holiness might only frustrate God’s work in their life since He is the only One who can make holy. So you hear of reformed parents who let their 13 years olds play spin-the-bottle upstairs while the parents have Bible study downstairs. By age 16, the kids are gone.

So what is the right way?

Jesus meant is when He said, “Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these” (Mark 10:14).

From day one, teach the child that Your Father is their Father (is He not?) Teach them that Jesus is their Savior (have they any other?). Teach them repentance, hold them accountable for their sins in the wisdom of confrontation, chastisement, and reconciliation. For you are raising people to live out Christian lives. Why else did God give them to you, but for the expectation that He intends to make good His election of them.

“What is the One God seeking? Godly offspring" (Mal 2:15, ESV).