My friend Jared has offered to engage me in a friendly debate on the issue of how a Christian worldview should see children via our respective blogs. This blog discussion is a text form of a conversation between he and I which consumed a good hour of our lives while we were supposed to be consuming fare from Taco Bell.

His proposal is centers around answering two questions:

1. How should Christians view Children?
2. Carried to its consistent end, what does this view look like fleshed out?

Let me get straight to the answers.

A search for the word “Children” in the NASB translation of the Bible yields 314 results. None of those results express my position as succinctly as Psalm 127:3, “Behold, children are a gift of the Lord; the fruit of the womb is a reward.”

Lest I appear disingenuous let me say upfront that the heat of our controversy is found in how I answer the second question he posed. Before I answer it, let me give you the central ideas that led me to my conclusion.

One, the Christian is authorized to speak authoritatively about objective right and wrong in belief and practice only so far as God’s Word has made clear. Two examples:

(1) I, as a believer committed to the inspiration, authority, and clarity of scripture, know exactly how I am to relate to a professing believer who is known to be sexually immoral, covetous, idolatrous, reviling, a drunkard, or an extortioner. “…now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner – not even to eat with such a person.” (1 Corinthians 5:11) Since God’s Word is explicit I can say without a doubt that it is wrong for a believer to share a table with someone who professes to be a believer but fits into those categories listed in the verse.
(2) I, as a believer committed to the inspiration, authority, and clarity of scripture, believe that the Bible indicates that believers should not recreationally use alcohol. However, I can acknowledge that what I believe to be the testimony of scripture isn’t as explicit as the verse above and thus there is room for disagreement between believers as to how we should approach the recreational use of alcohol.

In the first, we have no option to disagree; the Word makes our position clear for us. In the second, while we may be strongly convinced, we have to leave room for disagreement because the Bible has not made the issue explicit. Thus, in the case of the second example, the issue of a believer’s recreational use of alcohol falls into the domain of conscience (under, of course, the related issues that the Bible does make clear like refraining from drunkenness).

So what does this have to do with children? Just this: the only thing the Bible makes explicit is that children are to be viewed as a blessing from the Lord. Therefore, the only thing I can hold a brother or sister in Christ accountable to regarding children is that they view them as the Bible commands, namely, as a blessing from the Lord.

Since the Bible leaves undefined what this principle looks like fleshed out I must also say that however the believer chooses to flesh out the principle of viewing children as a blessing from the Lord is a matter of their conscience. Therefore I can’t dictate to another believer how they should live out this principle nor critique them if they don’t live it out in a manner that appears consistent to my mind.

So there’s my position. Feel free to comment. Otherwise stay tuned for Jared’s response.