It's not just children who are limited in their understanding of religious ideas.Religion is really big.And God,and all those concepts which we connect to Him,is by far bigger than any framework we are able to provide with our minds,such as they are.We can generate and explain all that which we call Theology,but God always transcends,and ever will.The same applies to the basic natures of all that He has created.So no matter how old we are,what our state of intellectual development is,or how misled we are by the ideas of others,we will always have deep and profound questions about being.And,as a consequence of our limitations,we will be limited in the ability to instruct others.Ergo,God,and Creation will always remain a mystery.Certainly not something that can be easily taught to children.
When we are children,our parents seem all powerful.They provide for our needs and guide us along,however imperfect they might be.And we try to believe,and accommodate the things that they teach us.It is a simple model of faith,perfectly understandable to most who have had a normal sort of upbringing.But things arise to challenge that faith,for such is the nature of faith.And the mystery inherent in God,that we will come to know later,is present there in our parents and teachers as well. I've come to believe that that mystery is essentially a good thing,one that apart from attaining a different nature we will never overcome.
But I find a lot of what is wrong with the teaching religion manifests itself in one rather profound fact.That we,as humans,often become confused between Our Heavenly Father,and our earthly parents.In many cases,this confusion causes people to literally be unable to believe,and to embrace Atheism as a default.I don't think I've met many,who,having perceived their childhood to have been unbearable,still accept Our Heavenly Father in a healthy,wholesome way.Those burdens seem to be an impediment to belief that only relatively few overcome,and none do of their own ability alone.So it is critical that we make an adequate distinction between"Our Father" and "our father" because eternal destiny may be seen as riding on that distinction.
Still,in our formative years,we make the best of what we have.Our teachers recognize that we cannot understand deep theology,and thus provide us with simple,though hopefully adequate explanations of basic understandings.Still,they,working from their own limitations do not always get it right.But good teachers,parents who care deeply about their children,always open up the spirit of inquiry within those being taught.That began with our creation in The Image Of God,a profound concept in and of itself.While I certainly don't understand that idea fully,It does imply in part that humans would always be endowed by a sense of wonder about God,and the responsibility to teach such to others of their kind.Moreover,I would say that through the ages,this part of God's plan has been carried out and preserved,such that it's core beliefs are,always have been,and will remain intact,and able to guide,guard and ultimately save.
In truth,my parents had their shortcomings in teaching us about God.But they made a good effort,and it wasn't wasted,even if they may not have believed exactly the same thing separately as they taught collectively.Their understanding of Hell for instance,is,to my understanding today,in error.But,in children it had or has the effect of creating a basis of moral imperative,and an effort to comply with established regulation.I don't think,for much of my life I've had an especially accurate or healthy idea of what Hell is.As I say,it always concerned me,but it never really terrified me.In a sense,when I think of the Hell I understand today,it really should terrify me,such as to make my desire to be pleasing God as fully as I am able,because I fear the unnatural state of being cast into a place where He is not.Yet,I would not have such a thing,such a doctrine bring about a terrified and neurotic existence to small children,such as it might when Hell is preached as it's own dogma to the exclusion of all else,even the eternal Love Of God.Thank God,his guidance was sufficient to see that this did not happen in our home.
I've always been astonished by the nature religion took on in our home.What I mean is,that I don't ever recall the actual words of the Gospel message being spoken.I never heard the words "Born Again" from either my mother or father,and this seems to be the foundation of Christianity to me.So the question has dogged me over the years:did we really live in a Christian home? And I don't profess to have any true or definite answers in that regard,for I'm convinced that we cannot really know the state of another's soul.That is God's alone.So ,in that regard I wish never to diminish His Glory.The best that is therefor possible,is to observe what my parents taught and how they lived out stated belief,or,in some cases,did not,as a purely behavioral construct.And while I can,and have been and will likely continue to infer certain things from that which I've seen,my own thoughts are not necessarily correct,nor should they be read as such.I find it impossible,though,not to wonder,for the mystery of such thing, both was and remains so very,very big,indeed as big as all Heaven,and very much beyond me. But I'm convinced that lacking the ability to know the answers as completely as I would like,it is still worth trying to know,that I might find things more knowable in some incremental,if still incomplete way.
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