What age should my child be when I teach him about the rape, incest, and murder parts of the Bible?

Question

Do you even know what a troll is? You can't just call people trolls just because they have different beliefs than you..

Answer 1

parental guidence is suggested ... if all u do is teach those things ur bein a bad mommy ...

Answer 2

The age of reason, the age for understanding these things, is a judgment call only you can make. I've read all the other posts and would like to add, your heart will know when the time is right.

When do you teach your child about good and bad? Love and hate? Life and death? Yes, you can possibly use the basic guideline of when the TV news is seen & heard, but there is no understanding, only seeing these bad things happen to people. The Bible is like that as well. You have to have understanding to comprehend, and how can a child understand that violence? -- is it good, is it bad, is it just a fact of life? You have to teach the "why this happened" part of the lesson to your child.

Some people say it is ... just a fact of life. I say you have to take the bad with the good. To understand that the evil occurs all around us, through no fault of our own, & that good can happen indiscriminantly helps you understand the evil.

Someone mentioned you being an Atheist, that doesn't really matter to me in providing this answer.

You can honestly tell your child the Bible is the best-selling book of all time & that the books & stories within it have taught generations about life, death, joy, sorrow, elation, grief and, most importantly, belief. Belief in God, belief in self, belief in humankind are all intertwined in the words and lessons contained therein, whether you choose to partake is always a personal choice. But when dealing with the innocence of a child, a slow and steady nurturing hand should be offered to assist their understanding - not words of hate rammed down their gullet. You have the obligation to teach your child all the lessons you have already learned, as you have "been there & done that" -- however, allow them to make their own mistakes, so they can learn from them as well. Teach them right from wrong and that the ways of this world are but a short test of our ability to imitate God's love and share it. If you don't believe in the existence of God, I imagine the question above wouldn't even be asked by an Atheist who had no intention of sharing the Bible with their child or teaching them anything regarding a Supreme Being, a Creator, or a loving God.

"Ask the beasts, and they will teach you; and the the birds of the air; and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you; and the fish of the sea will explain to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?" --Job 12: 7-9

Answer 3

I wouldn't bother too much about teaching him the Bible - just introduce him to reality as your mentoring develops his capability of comprehending, and dealing with it. That said, the Bible, like many other books, holds many stories illustrating the foolishness of humanity - especially the Old Testament tales of David and others. Your child may have to be very secure, however, before being ready for the story of how God told Abraham to kill his most loved son as proof of his love of God. The twist that God let him off at the last minute doesn't excuse the point that such a God must be a paranoid egotist desperate for adulation. Not much of a model for a loving father!

Answer 4

Wow, you really got alot of RUDE responses. That's awful. Anyways, I don't believe alot of those stories in the bible but since you do I would use your best judgment. There are many stories that are for small children. Maybe leave the other stuff for mid teenage years. If you watch TV, would you let your child watch murder, and rape story lines? If not, then wait.

Answer 5

You don't teach your child about rape incest and murder; he will be exposed to it in his own world...on the TV, in newspapers...everywhere.
Remember, the Old Testament is the History of the Jewish people; the history of every people would include all those negatives.
Your duty as a parent is to talk to your child about the evils of those negatives and how they are against the will will of God.

Answer 6

toddler molesters are toddler molesters, no count number if or no longer they are monks or everyone else. there isn't any biblical justification for molesting a toddler. i do no longer remember David, Soloman or Noah abusing little ones or raping everyone, and Lot replace into in ordinary terms threatened rape by utilising the undesirable adult males, which does no longer justify didly squat. surely, the bible does enable divorce in the example of an adulterous companion, so i assume you in ordinary terms with ease forgot to repeat and paste that area.

Answer 7

How about when you're educated enough to understand it? I see on your profile that you're an "Atheist," so I don't suspect you'll be 'teaching' your children anything about the Bible.

Perhaps this will help . . .

The Bible is a collection of 66 different books, some history, some poetry, some songs, some letters, as well as the rules of an ancient religion . . . written over the span of thousands of years. Problems arise when people can't tell one from another, and confuse them into each other.

The Bible is an anthology, not one book. Take a book of prayer, a book of songs, a book of history, a volume of folk history . . . tie them all together, and call them a single Bible – that’s the Bible. Of course there are differences – it’s a chapter of poetry, not history.

Problems arise when you try to take a rule written for and by a certain group of people, and apply it to your life today (taking your disobedient child to the gates of the city to stone him, for example).

People tend to focus on the words in the Bible, and miss the message behind the story. The creation story of Genesis 1 and 2, for example, are poetry, the message is that God is powerful, neither of which is a history lesson.

Adam and Eve is a metaphor -- not literal history. It's poetic parable -- not the literal story of two people, for example.

The Bible is a fantastic collection of stories written by, about, and for the followers of the God of Abraham, and the followers of Christ.

The OT stories you mention aren't appropriate for a child -- nor are the stories of Stephen King.

So, when you're able to understand what the Bible really is, then perhaps you can begin to teach your child.

Answer 8

you should gradually introduce the concepts as he grows aware of such things in society. That's one of the great things about the Bible, it has these stories to help us deal with the evils that are out there already, like a teaching tool. It uses examples to help us know what to do about them, and show us what not to do and the consequences of both.

Answer 9

“No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says: He is always convinced that it says what he means.“--George Bernard Shaw

“The Bible is a book that has been read more and examined less than any book that ever existed.” --Thomas Paine

“Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand.” --Mark Twain

“If you believe that exposing your children to violence is a problem, by all means keep them away from the Bible.” --Rev. Charles Henderson

“The Old Testament, as everyone who has looked into it is aware, drips with blood; there is, indeed, no more bloody chronicle in all the literature of the world.” --Henry L. Mencken

“When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said "Let us pray." We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.” -- Desmond Tutu

“The Bible and the Church have been the greatest stumbling blocks in the way of women's emancipation.” --Elizabeth Cady Stanton

“The Bible itself is intolerant, and true followers of God's word should be as well.”-- Bob Jones III, president of Bob Jones University

“The Christian community continues to exist because the conclusions of the critical study of the Bible are largely withheld from them.” --Hans Conzelmann

“The Catholics have a Pope. Protestants laugh at them, and yet the Pope is capable of intellectual advancement. In addition to this, the Pope is mortal, and the church cannot be afflicted with the same idiot forever. The Protestants have a book for their Pope. The book cannot advance. Year after year, and century after century, the book remains as ignorant as ever.” --Robert Ingersoll

“The New Testament authors did not customarily refer to their written record as the Word of God. That subsequent Christian tradition tends to do this while the writers themselves hesitate to do it should tell us something. Evidently they distinguished the difference between the living, infinite Word and the written record more clearly than we do. If the written record is ever called the Word, it is the Word only in a secondary, derivative or relational sense. It is not the Word in the absolute sense.” --Robert D. Brinsmead


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Answer 10

I believe you should teach as soon as possible. And by that I mean as soon as he could talk very well and have gained some basic logical thinking. Around age 7-8 or so. Kids are growing up way to fast these days. Before you know it your kid could know more about sex and violence than you ever did at that age. You don't want him to start going to his friends/peers for answers because you withhold details from him. If you teach him correctly about "adult" stuff before he reaches pre-teen ages, you will build relationship where he will feel comfortable talking to you about anything when he does become a teenager.

Answer 11

The Bible is a very grown up book.There are many stories that teach children about the love of God and how to live.I don`t think any one teaches their children about incest and murder or any other thing that would be adult content.Most grown ups find that on their own.