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How Should We Talk to Our Kids About Hell? With Rebekah Valerius—The Alisa Childers Podcast #34

10/1/2018

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As Christian parents, it can be daunting to talk to our kids about difficult subjects like hell and judgment. Recently, Rebekah Valerius of Mama Bear Apologetics wrote an article for the Christian Research Journal discussing the claim of atheist Richard Dawkins. Dawkins says that talking to kids about hell is child abuse. Today, Rebekah helps us understand how to broach this difficult topic with our kids.

Subscribe to CRJ to read Rebekah's article

Book recommendations:

2 Comments

12/2/2018 07:53:40 pm

Hello, thanks for the discussion about this difficult topic! One of the many things I agree with you both on is that C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton wrote a lot of helpful things to help us understand these questions.
Since Rebekah brought up Lewis's _The Great Divorce_ (which I recommend too, I hope you find time [or have found time] to read it), I'd like to ward off a potential misunderstanding about _The Great Divorce_: Lewis doesn't suggest that the afterlife is like what he depicts. At the end of the preface to the book (I'm looking at a copy that was printed in 1966) he says, "I beg readers to remember this is a fantasy. ... the transmortal conditions are solely an imaginative supposal: they are not even a guess or a speculation at what may actually await us. The last thing I wish is to arouse factual curiosity about the details of the after-world."
_The Great Divorce_ is a series of vignettes that go like this: Say you could interview some people who went to hell. What would they say about why they're in hell? I'll leave the rest for curious readers.
Thanks again!

Eric Blauer link

12/17/2018 08:31:55 am

This podcast left me a bit frustrated. I know it's a tough topic, but I didn't think the responses were convincing enough for street or kid level conversations. I think the exploration and attempts to describe the interplay of God's attributes just seemed a bit like circular reasoning, that confused, more than explained a difficult issue. Appealing to the salvation found in the cross from Hell, doesn't help explain its existence in my conversational experiences. I understand the idea behind the argument, but it just seemed flat. Teaching our kids to pray for their friends to find Jesus and not go to hell, again, seemed like we were dancing around the perimeter, instead of unearthing the core complexities and consternations. Appealing to the compelling need for evangelization, also seemed understandable in light of the horror of it all, but unsatisfying in helping understand why it's a part of God's plan.

I was hoping for a more logical and rational response that helps articulate the reason for Hell. Shouldn’t we be aiming to articulate the idea of Justice in the fabric of reality. To me Hell and the subsequent parables and biblical teaching about rewards and punishments etc., provide us with a line of thinking that almost everyone appeals to in some way or another. We are internally wired to think that what is wrong, shouldn’t be allowed or should be accounted for in some way, by someone. There’s a deep drive for justice in the human psyche that in my mind, provides us with a number of biblical truths that answer that cry. If there's a shared existential demand in the souls of humans, there must be some Divine response or reality that such a condition calls for. Like fish designed for water, anything outside that, leaves us searching. I was hoping for more discussion along these lines. I don’t know if I am making sense or not, and I am not being a troll, just giving some feedback. Thanks for swinging at the ball, I just didn't think it got me past maybe, second base.

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How Should We Talk to Our Kids About Hell? With Rebekah Valerius—The Alisa Childers Podcast #34

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