Young Christians?

[Caitybug5131]

Hey everyone, I'm kinda new here and I'm 14. I'm a follower of Christ and have been living to glorify Him for two years now. I got in a conversation with some adults about young Christians (Under 18 ) and if they're truly believers, or just follow what their friends or family believes. What are your thoughts on that? Do you think that a 13-14 year old can actually know what God's love is? Or are they "Too young" in your opinion? Anyways, this is more of a poll than an actual question. Thanks everyone and God bless!

 

[juvenissun]

Yes and no. Nobody knows, includes YOU.
If you grow up to a Junior in college and is still with the Lord, then you may say you really love the Lord.

So, if you love the Lord now, then pray very hard that you will stay on the course.

 

[Paradoxum]

I think they can believe, but that it might be a different sort of belief from someone who has become somewhat independent of their general upbringing. It is hard to know though.

 

[juvenissun]

I think they can believe, but that it might be a different sort of belief from someone who has become somewhat independent of their general upbringing. It is hard to know though.

Different person has different process. For you, it is, so far, like: believer --> nonbeliever --> ?

But for me, it was like: non-believer --> non-believer --> half-believer --> ... --> believer.

There are many blessed ones who are: believer --> ... -- believer.

 

[Paradoxum]

Different person has different process. For you, it is, so far, like: believer --> nonbeliever --> ?

But for me, it was like: non-believer --> non-believer --> half-believer --> ... --> believer.

There are many blessed ones who are: believer --> ... -- believer.

I don't think what I said disagreed with this did it? I dunno if I would say I was a non-believer, but I wouldn't say I was a believer either.

 

[Publius]

Hey everyone, I'm kinda new here and I'm 14. I'm a follower of Christ and have been living to glorify Him for two years now. I got in a conversation with some adults about young Christians (Under 18 ) and if they're truly believers, or just follow what their friends or family believes. What are your thoughts on that? Do you think that a 13-14 year old can actually know what God's love is? Or are they "Too young" in your opinion? Anyways, this is more of a poll than an actual question. Thanks everyone and God bless!

I don't think anyone is too young to know God's love, but unfortunately, the church has been influenced by Unbiblical teaching that has led to children who are too young to understand the Gospel being pressed to "accept Jesus into their heart".

We know from the Bible that there were prophets God called from the womb so, obviously, age isn't a restriction on God's calling. But when a child is pressed to accept Jesus (which, I cannot repeate often enough is NOT a Biblical concept), what you often end up with is a false convert who becomes innoculated to the Gospel because they've been told that they're already saved or, worse yet, that they were saved as a result of their own actions.

If a child truly understands his sinfulness, his emnity with God, God's anger at sin and His punishement of sin, penal substitution, and God's plan for men to repent and receive Christ and His atonement on the cross on our behalf by faith, then, by all means, let them cry out to God for salvation and if they do, consider them a Christian.

The only thing I would suggest is that, because they are young, they should be subject to a little more counselling and a little more observation.

 

[Wiccan_Child]

Hey everyone, I'm kinda new here and I'm 14. I'm a follower of Christ and have been living to glorify Him for two years now. I got in a conversation with some adults about young Christians (Under 18 ) and if they're truly believers, or just follow what their friends or family believes. What are your thoughts on that? Do you think that a 13-14 year old can actually know what God's love is? Or are they "Too young" in your opinion? Anyways, this is more of a poll than an actual question. Thanks everyone and God bless!

I think that, as you age, you're more likely to be able to comprehend what it means to be a Christian, but this comprehension doesn't strike at any point. A 14 year old may just be echoing the dogma of his parents without really believing, but he could also be espousing a genuine belief. There's no test or benchmark, so the human thing to do is give these people the benefit of the doubt.

Sometimes it's obvious that a person doesn't really understand what he's saying, he's just repeating what his pastor made him say - one need only look at the children in Westboro Baptist Church protests, saying things like "God hates fаgs", not understanding what 'fаg' means. But barring some exceptional evidence like that, we shouldn't judge.

 

[MorkandMindy]

... Do you think that a 13-14 year old can actually know what God's love is? Or are they "Too young" in your opinion?

I think that a 13 year old is able to understand what love is, in fact people younger can.

And I know people who have not increased their mental capacities in the years that followed the age of 16 or so, in anyway that I've been able to discover, still making the same mistakes at 80 they made a 20 and most likely before then.

When you are shown love you know it.


What may happen in the future is you may find reason to doubt things you now believe to be facts.

or just follow what their friends or family believes.

Everyone does that.

 

[juvenissun]

I don't think what I said disagreed with this did it? I dunno if I would say I was a non-believer, but I wouldn't say I was a believer either.

Of course. I was not a believer until I lived 45 years in this world, when I had been baptized for 20 years.

So, you never know what you will be a believer or not.

 

[Paradoxum]

Of course. I was not a believer until I lived 45 years in this world, when I had been baptized for 20 years.

So, you never know what you will be a believer or not.

Why did you start believing?

 

[juvenissun]

Why did you start believing?

There was not a clear point of "start". I had A LOT of questions. But, one by one through 15 to 20 years of time (after my Ph.D.), 90% of them are solved one way or another. The remaining 10% was answered after I really believed. Now, I still have questions (of course), but it does not matter so much, because they are not critical to my faith now.

I study science. So, a good part of my questions are science questions. The more I learned science, the more questions about God is solved. Gradually, those non-science questions are also answered.

The whole process is simply wonderful and beautiful.