Some friends & I were talking about this & so this question is for the christians here.

As far as bibles go for children I can't rememember seeing any my wife is the General manager of a book store & she's never heard of them either. My question is do childrens bible contain
everything that adult bible do? If they do how do they explain hell & torment? & what about all the killing in the bible?
I'm not asking to be mean I'm asking because I want to know. Now I know not all christians here share the same idea's so I'm just asking those who believe the bible
literaily.

I'm not sure i never rly seen any of them myself. Except maybe for picture bibles for little kids with pictures of things that happened in the bible...

All of my children have the children's bible it does not include all the books of the bible but the stories of the bible that are suited for young children I have mine packed right now as we are attempting to move or I would give you the company who makes them. I get them at the bible book store now my daughters do have a precious moments bible that is a regular bible but its a keep sake until they are older of course.

NO offence but why would you have to keep the bible away from your children? I have to admit it does not say a lot about your religion.

Well its not keeping it away from them its they can't fully read it yet and they were given to them by someone very important thats not around anymore. I would never keep the bible from them! Sorry I should have explained my self better.
Always a pleasure

Would you give a child a textbook which describes in detail the American Civil War, including battle tactics and casualties. Or what about a textbook about the Second World War, including descriptions of Nazi Death Camps, casualties, descriptions of the way they operated, followed by liberation tactics by the Allies to free them from that.

Assuming they were even old enough to understand it (which children may not be, depending on their age), without the understanding of history, there would be no way to truly understand what was happening. But as children grow, they are given more information about history, until finally they have a more complete picture. This is what Lev Vygotsky called "the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)" - the concept that people should be given information on any given topic that is appropriate to the level of understanding of the child. I remember having a book on war when I was a kid. It wasn't about tactics or casualties, but it was historical - it was a book containing many of the vehicles that the army utilised, complete with big pictures and descriptions of each car, plane, tank, truck, etc. It was a book designed to educate me that was aimed at my developmental level - the ZPD

And as much as many like to think different, the Bible is the same. There are concepts and ideas in the Bible that are too sophisticated for children. The Bible also addresses historical accounts of battle, including casualties and battle tactics. This is not age-appropriate material for children. It does not mean that the information is being "hidden", or that it is a problem with the Bible. It is just good practice, both as a parent, and as a tutor, to scaffold the information as their cognitive abilities grow to be able to understand and accept the concepts and narratives.

Just a few thoughts to consider.

~ PA

Of course your right the bible my son and two little girls do read or have read to them is the children's bible of bible stories such as Jonah and the whale, And thats age appropriate. I think everything should be given to children at the right age not only the bible, as You say its just good parenting.
Always a pleasure

So how is someone going to explain why God changed? Because like it or not the Gods of the OT & the NT are two very different Gods because people will not admit to it because they do not want to see it.
Battle tactics are one thing but the killing in the bible is another you are right PA. If you are going to raise your child in the Christian faith then that child has the right to know everything at some point. Books like the bible should have a rating system on them. I would expect a smart child to ask why God killed all those people in the bible & how is it justified. He or she is going to want to know why you didn't tell them.

This "word of God" is a funny old thing ,It's not fit for children,it requires years of study to understand it ,and then when we feel that we know what a certain piece says ,we find we have taken it out of context and it doesn't mean that at all.Then eventually we find that different people have arrived at a different conclusion and are telling us we are wrong and they are right.I would have thought that God could have been more explicit and saved a lot of conflict


fullywired

I've not only seen the fluffy nice version of the bible for kids, but there is a huge consumer base of christians parents buying their kids christian based books and entertainment. There are cartoons of biblical stories, veggie tales, entire homeschool curriculums for moms homeschooling their kids on bible based teachings. It's a billion dollar market.

That is your opinion. I see them both as the exact same God. Both are just as loving and just as judgemental as each other - people just seem to focus on the "Lovey-dovey" aspect of God in the NT.

I would tell them when they are sufficiently old enough. Before then, it is not necessary to fill a child with details about wars and casualties of wars, anymore than you would go into the casualties of Nazi death camps - are you ever going to have to explain to your kids (if you have them) why you didn't tell them about that when they were 5 years old?

Kids are smarter then people give them credit for I am not saying that you should let a 5-year-old read a book full of horror stories.


As far as the OT VS NT people mostly focus on the God who has not killed anyone you only hear about the bad that God has done when someone is arguing a point.

If you want to be good to your children let them develop themselves. When they experience something they are bound to come and ask you about it, then you can tell them about and let them take their own stance instead of putting propaganda into their small heads

I don't have kids but this is how i see it....
When i was young my parents fast forwarded parts of movies that i shouldn't see becauase they were scary or had adult themes.Now that i'm older and more mature, i can watch that stuff.It's the same with childrens Bibles.There are some things in the Bible that aren't neccessarry to understanding it and could be bad for small children,such as battles and casualties and desriptions of how certain ppl died.As they grow older they can handle that stuff.

As for the OT vs. NT God,I see no difference.I'm curious as to wat makes ppl think he changes???

The difference I see is that with a holy all-powerful and loving God, there should be nothing to hide from Children that he has done. On the other hand, we have war. Which is a downside to humanity, and an obvious evidence of our ability to be so foolish. Of course we shouldn't let them read it.



I'm not too sure how similar the two Gods are. On one hand, we see him killing people at the first sign of doing something against him. Destroying an entire city of gays, allowing war and murder to go on in his name, etc. Now days, we don't even hear a peak of him!

The bible seems like it would be a rather difficult read for a child. Just due to the wording structure.

But I do recall having a childrens book of bible stories when I was young. Easy to read with lots of pictures.

To quote Yoda (the wise and powerful Yoda) - No. No different. Only different in your mind

I don't think there is anything to "hide", but simply that there are some things that children are physiologically be worse off for knowing. This is not an indictment against the knowledge, but an admission of our human cognitive development. Try reading some Piaget or Vygotsky some time if you have any information on them.


*boldened appropriate quote*
Err, which city was that again????? I'll give you a clue, it was not Sodom or Gomorrah. As for the rest, I can only suggest you read the historical context and keep in mind that everything that happened was to bring about the eventual Messiah.

I know you don't believe the Bible, so I can anticipate your response. I'm just sharing how Christians view the Bible. However, if you want to read up some of the judgemental acts of God in the New Testament, I suggest you try Romans 6:23 for a start and move on from there (it's only the beginning, if you want to read further into it, let me know - I won't derail the thread to discuss that). The only difference between the Old Testament and New Testament is that God's actions were more immediate in the Old. The exact same punishment inflicted on Sodom is promised to us, it is just taken out on us after we die.

God never changes it is the people who change.

I was brought up christian and as I have said before it never even dawned on me that there were people who denied God even existed, naive I know but before I came here to UM I assumed everyone ""knew" God existed some just chose not to follow Him and worship Him. Children will believe and become what you teach and show them, as parents we have the awesome job of forming another's life and we do form their life they look to us for the answers and what answers we give them will have a very big impact on who they are and who they become. My parents instilled in me a sense of pride about being a christian and they were not strict by any means. Children are smart yes and we need to give them creidt for being so but what we teach them is important and we should realize it does make them the person they will become. My children are my pride and joy and I want them to be the people they want to be but I still want them to keep the values and morals and belief in God that I was taught and then taught them, they will teach their children some day.
Always a pleasure