Part 1 of Telling God's Story is about "How to Teach the Bible". In summary, Peter Enns proposes teaching scripture to children and young people in this way:
- Early and elementary years: make it all about Jesus - who He was, what He did, what He said. This will help establish firmly in your child the truth that the Bible's purpose is to reveal Jesus and will help avoid planting the subliminal message that the Old Testament Bible stories are for children.
- Middle-grade years: teach them the big picture of the Bible; place Jesus, who they have become acquainted with, into the larger context of the whole Scripture. By this stage, the child is well established in who Jesus is and can now begin to understand the world and culture and timeline that Jesus came from and lived in. Learning the stories of the Bible now has a coherence to it since they all pivot around the revelation of Jesus.
- High school years: teach them the ancient settings of the Bible, making them aware of the civilizations in which the Bible was written. Now your child can grapple with the realities of ancient stories and how well the Bible fits the world in which it was written while being unique in its revelation of the one true God in Jesus.
"Realize that all we do, including teaching our children about our faith, is ultimately geared toward helping them be adults. This encompasses much more than learning about what is in the Bible. It involves learning what it means to be a faithful follower of Jesus in a world that is not supportive of that goal..."
Next we will go to chapter 6, "Creation and Fall", which begins Part 2 ("Reading the Story for Yourself: The Five Acts of the Bible").
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