Journal: Eikon
Volume: EIKON 07:1 (Spring 2025)
Article: A Return To Protestant Catechesis
Author: Jonathan E. Swan

Eikon 7.1 (Spring 2025) p. 8

A Return To Protestant Catechesis

Jonathan E. Swan

Jonathan E. Swan is Executive Editor of Eikon

Children are a gift from the Lord. Instructing one’s children to follow the Lord is a sacred undertaking, filled with both deep challenges and profound joys. But it is also a duty. While many such examples can be proffered from Scripture, only two will suffice. After God constituted his redeemed people Israel into a nation, he gave them laws by which they were to live together in righteousness and receive his blessing. For this reason, the Lord commanded the Israelite parents to teach their children these laws, instructing them, “You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deut 6:7–9).

Clearly, God expected his people to prioritize frequent and daily instruction of his statutes. More than that, these instructions cast a vision of parenting as a comprehensive lifestyle of discipleship (see Deut 6:20–25). This same expectation can be reasonably imported into Paul’s command to fathers in the church in Ephesus when he called upon them to bring up their children “in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Eph 6:4). In brief, the Scriptures teach us to consider it a matter beyond question that parents have a responsibility to teach their children God’s Word and instruct them in obedience. Indeed, the Bible teaches us to consider this task as every

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parent’s most significant responsibility.

The State Of Christian Parenting Today

But how are parents to accomplish this important task? And how are parents doing in this work today? Before offering a suggestion about the former question, let me provide some insight on the latter. It is not going well. While a shrewd observer may have already surmised this conclusion based on anecdotal observation, the following data may serve to confirm.

George Barna’s research suggests that as little as nine percent of those who profess to be a Christian have a biblical worldview.1 To further illustrate this sad reality, in an even more recent study, Barna found that among those who are “theologically-identified, Born-Again Christians,” just twenty-four percent believe the doctrine of the Trinity. And of ...