Originally Posted by Tom
Originally Posted by Anthony
You can attempt to raise your child “Christian” but will he/she be counted thus? Did God adopt him/her?

I take comfort in the fact that not one of the elect with go to hell. Who is elect is not my responsibility. I just need to be obedient to the Scriptures and in the case of bringing up children, that obedience means training them up in the Lord. Although Proverbs are not absolute promises, they are general truths. Proverbs 22:6 is comforting. "Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it."

The rest is up to the Lord.
FYI, I would have to guess that the majority of people misunderstand Proverbs 22:6 due to the translation which you quoted. In the Hebrew, that text actually says, "Train up a child after the manner of his own way, and when he is old he will not depart from it." So, instead of this proverb giving alleged comfort to parents that if they are faithful in "training up children in the Lord, they will either live godly lives at least outwardly or actually be true followers of Christ. On the practical side, either the overwhelming of parents throughout history have not taught their children correctly for not many 'covenant children' are truly converted (see the nation of OT Israel as an example) or the text doesn't actually provide any form of 'promise' of how one's children will live and therefore it is untrue. Rather, it does provide a promise to parents who allow their children to have what they want rather than obeying their parents' sound biblical instruction, that their children will live their lives by their own depraved nature's influence.

And just a little side note. The Heidelberg Catechism is a wonderful document that when used rightly provides a sound biblical source of the Christian faith. But I believe it must be used rightly. 1) The pupils of that Catechism must be professing Christians, for the promises and truths of comfort and instruction belong to them and to them only. Thus, children in my opinion are not to be taught the Catechism as they are given a false sense of security and salvation in Christ. Without allowed exceptions, ask anyone who believes children should be instructed in the Catechism and that children should memorize it and you will inevitably find that they hold to "presumptive regeneration", i.e., their children are to be deem Christians unless they totally repudiate Christianity. May the Catechism be used in an evangelistic sense? Perhaps, but the teaching method would have to be very different than how it is historically been used.

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simul iustus et peccator

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