Trends in Apologetics: Children’s Apologetics

This is the fourth part of a series I am doing on Trends in Apologetics.  I have covered Urban Apologetics, Cultural Apologetics, and Women in Apologetics.  This post will focus on Children’s Apologetics.

Children’s Apologetics

“Already Gone”

It has been highly promoted that between 50% to 70% of Christian students will abandon the faith in college.  It depends on the study but the findings are seeming consistent: a startling high number of college students are leaving the church.

To counter this trend much focus has been placed on college age and the teenage demographic.  It has come to be recognized that this might be to late.  Ken Ham and Britt Beemer with Toll Hillard identify the middle school and preteen years as the critical moment in Already Gone (first chapter).

This has prompted many to being apologetics even earlier than high school and middle school.  This is Children’s Apologetics.

“Children’s Apologetics”

The earliest attempt at Children’s Apologetics that I could identify is in 1991 with the publication of David Walters’ book Fact or Fantasy: A Study in Christian Apologetics for Children. The age range (according to Amazon.com) is 4-9 years of age.  This is very young. The description states “A children’s and teen’s Bible Study book on Simple Christian Apologetic’s (defend your faith). It helps answer the questions your friends ask you about what you believe.”

Then came along Lee Strobel’s “Case for . . .” series: The Case for Christ (1998), The Case for Faith (2000), The Case for a Creator  (2004), and The Case for the Real Jesus (2007).  He quickly followed up this works with student editions.  The success of these series is hard to estimate, but it is large nonetheless. This was duplicated for kids in The Case for Christ for Kids, The Case for Faith for Kids, and The Case for a Creator for Kids in 2006 (updated and expanded in 2010).  The target age for these books is age 9-12.  I have utilized these books with fourth and fifth graders and find them very useful.

Just before the Case series for Kids was published Josh McDowell edited his tome Evidence that Demands a Verdict for kids in Children Demand a Verdict in 2003.  It looked like things were slowing down for bit on the Children’s Apologetic front after the Case for series for Kids but recently a book on apologetics for kids was written by a detective and a book for parents to train their kids in apologetics was published by a mom:

                   

Natasha Crain is blogger at Christian Mom Thoughts that focused on training up children in apologetics and theology.  Post included such topics like “14 Ways I Teach Apologetics to My 5-year-Olds.”   She was approached by Harvest House Publishers to write the book Keeping Your Kids on God’s Side: 40 Conversations to Help Them Build a Lasting Faith in 2016 as well.  Her book is for parents and helps them “empower their children to respond well to the hard questions that threaten their faith. It’s no secret that children of all ages are being exposed to negative criticism of Christianity as they spend time at school, with friends, or online.”

J. Warner Wallace, the former cold case detective and author of Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Examines the Claims of the Gospels and God’s Crime Scene: A Cold-Case Detective Examines the Evidence for a Divinely Created Universe, wrote Cold-Case Christianity for Kids: Investigating Jesus with a Real Detective in 2016.  Not only is this a book on apologetics for children between the ages of 8-12, Wallace (along with his wife Susie) have developed a webpage to guide the readers through the book with videos, printable activities, leader guides, and certificates of completion. A trailer for the book and activities can be viewed:

 

More books for kids by Wallace are to come such as God’s Crime Scene For Kids and Forensic Faith for Kids.

Wallace and Crain were recently featured on November 26, 2016 on Frank Turek’s podcast/radio show CrossExamined titled “How to Teach Your Kids Apologetics.”

Apologetical Resources for Kids

The Case for Christ for Kids by Lee Strobel

The Case for Faith for Kids by Lee Strobel

The Case for a Creator for Kids by Lee Strobel

Cold-Case Christianity for Kids: Investigating Jesus with a Real Detective by J. Warner Wallace and Susie Wallace

Keeping Your Kids on God’s Side: 40 Conversations to Help Them Build a Lasting Faith by Natasha Crain

Jesus is Alive! Evidence for the Resurrection for Kids by Josh and Sean McDowell

Children Demand a Verdict by Josh McDowell and Kevin Johnson

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 Other posts on Trends in Apologetics:

Urban Apologetics

Cultural Apologetics

Women in Apologetics

 

Cold-Cases and Christianity

My wife loves detective or crime shows on TV.  From Matlock and Monk to Psyche and Sherlock.  She actually likes serving on the jury in court.  For those who have special place for detective shows or even crime novels you need to check out J. Warner Wallace.  Wallace, a cold-case detective, was an adamant atheist until he was thirty-five.  In fact, he cases have appeared repeatedly on NBS’s Dateline.  As Wallace puts it, “cold case detectives examine events in the distant past for which there is often no living eyewitnesses and little, if any, forensic evidence.  The gospels also record an event in the distant past for which there are no living eyewitnesses and no forensic evidence.”  He used his skills as a cold-case detective to determine if the gospel is true.  These skills are utilized in his first book Cold-Case Christianity. He has recently turned his skills to the existence of God in God’s Crime Scene.  The video below is a lecture he did in which he examines “How the Cosmological Evidence Points to the Existence of God.”  The lecture actually begins at minute 2:45.  He introduces the lecture by describing a cold case principle of “staying inside the room” or “going outside the room.”  When as a detective, coming upon a crime scene in a room, he had to determine if the evidence pointed a cause inside the room or outside the room.  Think of universe as a “room.”   As one looks at evidence, can it be accounted for by staying in the room or does one have to go outside the room in order to better explain the evidence.  The proverbial “room” is the universe.  As he says in the introduction of his new book God’s Crime Scene “my investigation of the natural universe required me to look at the characteristics of the ‘room’ and determine if they could be explained fully by what already existed within the ‘four walls.’  Was there any evidence inside the universe pointing to the existence or intervention of a supernatural being outside the universe?”

Both books are well worth the read as well as the video below.