Children in Understanding?

As a little boy was walking to school with his mother, he kept turning around and looking back. His mother asked him what he was doing. He said he was looking for “Shirley Goodness and Murphy, who would follow him all the days of his life.” The little boy had not quite understood the words of Psalms 23, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.”

Another little boy, when asked what he had learned in Bible class, excitedly told his parents how Moses had went up to Mount Cyanide (Sinai) to get the Ten Commandments. Then he died before he reached Canada (Canaan), so Joshua led Israel in the battle of Geritol (Jericho). And then the greatest miracle happened—Joshua told his son to stand still, and the son obeyed!

A little girl was learning the Lord’s Prayer. Her recitation included these statements: “Our Father who art in heaven, Howard be thy name… Give us this day our jelly bread… lead us not into temptation, but deliver us some e-mail.”

Then there was the little girl from Minneapolis, Minnesota, who complained to her parents. “I don’t like the Bible. It always talks about St. Paul but never mentions Minneapolis.”

A father was reading to his son the Bible passage in which Lot was warned to take his wife and flee out of the city. Lot’s wife looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt, but the boy had another concern. “What happened to the flea?”

Little children say some of the cutest things. When they talk about the Bible, they often reveal a child-like understanding. They innocently misunderstand words and concepts that are beyond their level of maturity and learning. But are you and I children in our understanding of God’s word? How should we go about deepening our own level of spiritual maturity and learning?

The Apostle Paul told the Corinthian brethren that they should “not be children in understanding; however, in malice be babes, but in understanding be mature” (1 Corinthians 14:20). The epistle to the Hebrews compared some adults to children. “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe” (Hebrews 5:12-13).

Over the last few years, various polls have documented a declining knowledge of the Bible in Britain and America. A couple of years ago, Australian television reported the results of a British study showing that not one in 20 could name all of the Ten Commandments.  Many could not identify even some of the Bible’s most notable figures. 

When the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life released a survey of religious knowledge, it found that 86 percent of Americans expressed belief in a higher power, yet displayed declining Bible literacy.

The Apostle Peter told Christians that, to avoid being led astray, they should endeavor to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:17-18).  But, how should we go about this? Surveys have shown that many find the Bible very hard to understand. 

God is not opening most people’s minds to understand the Bible in this present age.  But if you are reading the Tomorrow’s World magazine, watching the Tomorrow’s World telecast and following the TomorrowsWorld.org Web site, God may be opening your mind to an understanding that few people today have.  To deepen your knowledge of God’s word and His ways, enroll in the Tomorrow’s World Bible Study Course. It is available in print or online, and is absolutely free.  Also, watch our Tomorrow’s World telecast, “Vital Keys for Bible Study,” and read our informative booklet, The Bible: Fact or Fiction? You do not need to be a child in understanding!