Talking to Your Kids about God Dying?

[Josh]

Some of us at Aletheia have been discussing how to best explain to our kids that in Christ, "God died" on the cross, and yet, as the Father he was not dead.

Here are some of my thoughts on the subject:

I think it is good to affirm to our kids that “God died”, in that God, in Jesus/
the incarnation, suffered death.  In fact
I think it’s important to emphasize to kids that the death was real and not
just an illusion.  But I think it’s also
important that they know that in another
sense God didn’t die: that the Father
was still alive even during Easter weekend. 

The doctrine of the Trinity is precariously balanced between
the errors of tri-theism and a strict monotheism that doesn’t allow for three
persons in one Godhead.  But since it’s
hard enough for adults to understand, I don’t think we should expect kids to
have a good handle on it.   I actually
think it is better that kids err on the side of tri-theism since they are going
to misunderstand the Trinity anyway until they can begin to apprehend the
doctrine’s paradox.    In other words, I
think I would just say that Jesus died for us, but His Father lived on and
brought Him back to life.     If our kids ask, “Is Jesus God” we can say,
“yes”.  And if they ask us if His Father
is God, we can say “yes”.  And if they
ask if there is more than one God we can say, “no, but there are three persons
in one God.”  And we can simply confess
to them that, yes, that sounds weird, but that their understanding of it will
grow as they learn more about God.

 

[Alex]

I find value in the communication that death is not non-existence. That Jesus was able to experience the transformation to death is as wondrous as his prior transformation to birth. But I like to communicate the idea that Jesus did not end in death; even during those days; rather he was a traveller.

Also, regarding who raised Him, I would say 'they' raised Him, but by His father's will.

Feel free to challenge that.

[Josh]

I suppose you could even talk to your kids about the"harrowing of hell". If you believe it.

I think there is a verse somewhere that directly attributes the resurrection to the fathers power specifically. Have to look that up.