How do you explain the concept of atonement to a child?

Question

To tell a child that Christ died on the cross to save you is very problematic, in my opinion. Despite the criticism that Christianity is childish, I find parts of it quite complicated and quite adult. A minister once recommended explaining to children that Jesus died because God loves us. As an adult I get the concept, but to a child that could mean that loving parental figures, as a matter of course, will suffer painful deaths because of him/her. It seems like a frightening set up, even when you add the story of the resurrection, which brings its own set of problems.

Elaine-I DON'T. I don't require my children to follow my beliefs, and will only explain these to them when appropriate and when they are developmentally prepared to comprehend AND question/critique my explanations

Meow- I ask the question to those who insist that heir kids go to church with them. How do they rationalize this? I don't take my kids to church, and because I live in a very conservative area, I don't attend one myself. I wouldn't take them unless they wanted to go in any event, and even in that case I would hold off until they were mature enough to think critically about what is being presented. My own first church experience was pretty traumatic.

Answer 1

I sympathize with the problem. Atonement has a vague accepted meaning as you describe which of course is spiritually meaningless. Jesus did not die because some deity on high loves us. He demonstrated through the events of his life a process/way of achieving psychological rebirth/resurrection of authentic being (Christ/anointed Self) through giving up ones defenses entirely and experiencing ego death. This is too difficult and metaphysical for children.

AND they won't have to bother with the worst of transformation/transcendence if WHAT they love is supported, they're validated and respected and never shamed or leveled for an error. Not much to psychologically transcend if they haven't been forced by others in reality to develop a defensive, self-destructive ego.

At-one-ment means what it says - referring to unity within and oneness with god/reality which happens simultaneously. All religions try to describe the intersection of psychology and physics (multi-dimensional reality) before science existed.

Answer 2

Try this:

A man once committed a crime. He was guilty, and when he went to trial he was found guilty. It was a terrible thing he did, and he was given the death penalty for it. His appeals were all denied and on the final day, they were bringing his last meal when the phone rang. It was the judge. Certain that he was about to be executed, the prisoner ate his last meal and waited nervously for the guards to come and lead him down the hall to the execution chamber. There was no clock in the room, but he imagined he heard ticking all the same. The sound of his own breathing was like a thunderstorm in his ears, and he could smell his own nervous sweat. The air around him was thick and damp, like a shroud around him, proclaiming his coming death. He knew he deserved nothing more, but he didn't want to die. Alas, there was no way out, and no hope.
Suddenly there were footsteps heard, and he even welcomed the sound. At least it'd all be over soon. He heard the door of the execution chamber open, then close. There was a long pause, and then the lights dimmed. Someone had just been executed. No one else was scheduled for execution today, so who was it? The door opened again, and there were more footsteps. It was the warden and 2 guards. Well, whatever happened, it was his turn now. He stood, determined to face the end bravely, maybe the last and only brave thing he'd ever do in life. The cell was opened and the warden said, "You're free to go."
Bewilderment shot through the man's mind. "How can this be!?" he thought. "What do you mean I'm free to go?" he asked the warden.
The warden stood there for a moment then motioned him to follow. He was led to the execution chamber, where a body was being brought out, dead. The warden pulled back the sheet, revealing a young man who looked vaguely familiar.
"Who's that?" the prisoner asked.
"That," said the warden, "is the judge's son. He asked to die in your place, and the judge agreed to let him."
"Wow," said the prisoner, "the judge must have really hated him!"
"Quite the contrary," said the warden, "he loved him very much. But they both knew that there was no other way to let you live, so you're free."

Answer 3

There are many ways of helping children to understand the Atonement. As with teaching any concept, the methods should be appropriate for the age of the child.

For example, I looked through the children's lesson manuals for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (aka Mormon Church). The first link below is a lesson on the Atonement for very young children. It focuses on repentance.

I've also included a link to all the lesson books for each age group.

Answer 4

The Holy Trinity, the belief that God is one person, yet at the same time, is three persons, is a mystery, even to the Christians themselves. This is why they call it the mystery of the Trinity. We can't fully understand it because our minds are limited to empirical evidence and rational thought. In fact, a number of Christian denominations reject the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity because of this difficulty. However, the opening chapter of St. John's Gospel says quite clearly:- In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God....And the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us. I believe the supreme being in the Hindu pantheon is a three-headed god, so the notion of the Trinity exists in at least one other, non-Christian, religion. (These similarities between different religions lead atheists to believe that all religions borrow from each other, rather than accept that there is an underlying reality manifesting itself in different forms in all religions.)

Answer 5

I have used this concept before.
A child wants to buy a bike and works hard to save up for it. She works at odd jobs and so forth. After a long time, she goes with her father to the store to buy the bike. She puts all of her pennies and coins on the counter, but learns sadly that she does not have enough. She is sad because she has worked so hard at it. Her father, who loves her, sees that she does not have enough. So, in love and kindess, he takes some money out and pays the difference, the remainder. She now can have and enjoy the bike. She worked hard for it, but the father, who is representing jesus Christ in the story, makes up the difference for us. The Savior compensates for our shortcomings, our weaknesses, and our faults. Without him, we could not enjoy eternal life.

Now, to further demonstrate the resurrection, you could use this anaolgy: Take a glove and put it on your hand: The glove represents our physical bodies while our hand represents our spiritual bodies. When we are born to the earth, our physical and spiritual bodies are united together. We can walk, talk, move about etc. You can move your hand inside the glove to emphasize that point.
When we die, the physical body is separated from our spiritual bodies. The physical body goes to the grave. This can be displayed by taking the glove off of the hand and placing in on the table. The physical body (glove) is lifeless and is buried in the grave. Our spiritual bodies are still alive (move you bare hand around to show life and motion.
When we are resurrected, the spiritual body is reunited with the physical body again. Place the glove back on the hand and show motion again. After the resurrection, you can explain that the reunification of the body and spirit will be permanent, never to be separated again.

Answer 6

Watch or better read The Lion, The witch and The wardrobe (Narnia1) with them to introduce them to Christ vs Satan, god vs evil, justice and mercy, death and resurrection, prophecy, the deep magic being the everlasting Gospel, God's plan of happiness and redemption, duty and honor... And the atonement. It is an amazing support material for kids

Answer 7

Why should a child be bombarded with such thoughts anyhow? Telling a kid Jesus was crucified and suffered a horrid death for them, is a little sick. Sorry. What's the motivation for this kind of tactic? It's especially sick to tell the child that unless they accept the bloody sacrifice of Jesus, they will burn in hell. Ick.

Answer 8

Jesus never actually said he died for our sins. Man did. He said go and sin no more. He came to teach us religious principles which by following we would be save. Believing means following his teachings. He said those who believe in me will attain the kingdom of heaven. This idea that we can do anything we want and just believe in childish and simply demoniac. If we accept the fundamentalists beliefs that everyone gets the same eternal heaven weather they follow Jesuses teachings or if you do anything but claim to believe in Jesus is bogus. Jesus originally taught karma, reincarnation, vegetarianism, and no one goes to hell eternally, King Constantine with his click of scribes misconstrued so many things in the bible and he added Paul's teachings who never even met Jesus. For the original Gospel before Constantine changed the Bible google gospelofthenazirenes.com Following Jesuses original teachings will set you free and you child. He will understand that simply because it is the truth.

Answer 9

It depends on the age of the child. Many children don't even understand the concept of death, let alone someone else dying for them.
If they are old enough to understand death, then I suppose you simply tell them that Jesus died for them. No need to get into the gorey details until they start asking. usually you answer questions as they come, as simply as you can. When they are satisfied to their comprehension, the questions stop.
Like I said, it really depends on the age of the Child.

Answer 10

I told my children that Jesus got a spanking in your place.

Sort of like a big brother who loved his little sister so much he admitted breaking the window to spare his little sister the spanking she deserved because really she broke the window.

Pastor Art