Can a Child Be “a Fine Soldier of Christ Jesus”?

How young can a child be taught? What are the rewards for starting early?

CAN a young child be “a fine soldier of Christ Jesus”? Can he intelligently witness to his faith in God and in the Bible? Can he effectively discuss Bible teachings and principles with others, thus truly being like Timothy of old, “a fine soldier of Christ Jesus”?​—2 Tim. 2:3.

These questions have been made pertinent by reason of what one of America’s most popular Roman Catholic prelates, Bishop Sheen, radio and TV personality, had to say on the subject. Recently appointed bishop of Rochester, New York, he has made a number of innovations, among which is that from now on children in his diocese will be confirmed at the time of their graduation from high school, not at the usual age of from nine to twelve years.

Explaining his reasons for the change, he, among other things, stated: “At present bishops are asked to confirm tots and send them out as soldiers of Christ. Confirmation should not be administered generally before the candidate is ready to exercise his lay priesthood in the world.” Apparently Bishop Sheen does not consider that Catholic youths are able to do this before seventeen or eighteen years of age, for that is the usual age of those graduating from high school.​—Time, February 24, 1967.

At just what age can children be soldiers of Christ Jesus? That would depend, in part, upon how seriously their parents are concerned with instructing their children in the Bible and, to a large extent, also upon the disposition of the children themselves.

CURRENT EXPERIENCES FROM REAL LIFE

That quite young children can be effective witnesses to their faith is being repeatedly demonstrated. Thus a man in Germany one day announced to his four children that he was going to look for another mother for them because their present mother was studying with Jehovah’s witnesses. His youngest child, an eight-year-old daughter, spoke up, saying: “Why, Daddy, you can’t do that! Don’t you know you would be committing adultery?” Taken aback, he angrily replied: “What? You don’t even know what that means! What are you using words like that for?” Unabashed, the child replied, explaining what an adulterer is. “The Bible says that when you have a wife you are supposed to stay with her and not divorce her. Anyone who does divorce his wife and marries another is an adulterer.” (Matt. 5:31, 32; 19:9) Then for about a half hour she spoke in defense of Bible study, with her mother and her father listening silently. For some time thereafter the father avoided having anything to do with her; and while he has not left off opposing his wife’s Bible studying, he no longer talks about getting another mother for his children.

Yes, even an eight-year-old can speak confidently in behalf of faith in Christ Jesus if her parents heed the words of Jesus: “Let the young children come to me; do not try to stop them, for the kingdom of God belongs to suchlike ones.”​—Mark 10:14.

And then there was a certain youngster living in a large city in Central America. At the age of nine he was vigorously defending his Adventist religion in his discussions with Jehovah’s witnesses. Then one day he decided to attend a meeting of the Witnesses to see how much fault he could find with their teachings and way of doing things. But what he saw and heard so appealed to him that he accepted the invitation to attend a home Bible study meeting the following Tuesday. At this study he obtained his own copy of the textbook used, “Let God Be True,” and from then on he kept attending the meetings of the Witnesses. In three months he was going from house to house by himself, offering Bible magazines to the householders. Some months later, at the age of ten, he was baptized in obedience to the command given at Matthew 28:19, 20. Shortly thereafter he enrolled as a full-time pioneer minister and two years later he was appointed as a special pioneer minister along with his mother.

In this capacity he was sent, together with his mother, to a town where there were no Witnesses. In three years there was a group of fifteen Witnesses there, and so they were organized as a congregation. At fifteen years of age he was appointed the congregation overseer, at the same time being given other responsible duties to perform, such as the conductor of the congregation Watchtower study and the Theocratic Ministry School servant. The apostle Paul’s counsel, “Let no man ever look down on your youth,” could certainly have applied to him there. (1 Tim. 4:12) Four years later he was transferred to another congregation and then several years later he was invited to attend the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead at Brooklyn, New York, where he is now studying. Certainly this lad did not need to wait until his late teens before becoming “a fine soldier of Christ Jesus,” did he? While his experience in many respects is outstanding, that such young children can be fine soldiers of Christ Jesus is repeatedly shown in the annual Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

YOUTHFUL CAPACITY TO LEARN

The fact is that many adults have long underestimated the capacity of young children to learn, as well as their wanting to learn, their fondness for taking in knowledge. Pertinent in this regard are the findings of the social scientists Wann, Dorn and Liddle, as published in their book Fostering Intellectual Development (1963). Among other things these researchers, who interviewed hundreds of preschool children, stated:

“The depth and extent of the information and understanding of these three-, four-, and five-year-old children was much greater than we had anticipated. . . . Early in the study it was clear that the interests of young children were universal in their scope. . . . Impressive as was the extent of the knowledge of the young children even more impressive were the ways in which they were using and testing the knowledge. Information became for these children raw building materials for thinking and reasoning. . . . They associated ideas. They sought to understand cause and effect relationships.” Typical was the question a four-year-old asked the first time he saw a big steam shovel at work: ‘Daddy, what kind of machine was used to make the earth?’

And underscoring the importance of loving consideration on the part of parents in the development of a child’s faculties are the findings of a team of British physicians in their study of the causes and effects of premature births. They found that often it was unfavorable economic conditions that caused mothers to give birth to their children prematurely. At first it also seemed that the premature child was under a definite handicap in school, but then it was found that this was only because such handicapped children came from homes where children received little maternal care and where parents manifested little interest in the school progress of their children. Children born prematurely were found to be right up with their schoolmates having normal births if they received maternal care and their parents were interested in the progress they made in school.

Such findings underscore the fact that children can be trained to become fine soldiers of Christ before they reach their late teens. But it is not likely that they will be such without good, interested parental supervision, which emphasizes the need of parents’ starting early in teaching their children about God and the Bible. How early? As early as possible. In fact, those interested in reading progress tell us that mothers should begin to read to their children at least by the age of two and make a regular habit of it. This calls to mind what Moses commanded the fathers in Israel: “You must love Jehovah your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your vital force. And these words that I am commanding you today must prove to be on your heart; and you must inculcate them in your son and speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road and when you lie down and when you get up.” Yes, no opportunity was to be overlooked in teaching young Hebrew children about God and his requirements.​—Deut. 6:5-7.

That the Christian disciple Timothy was so taught from earliest childhood by his mother Eunice and his grandmother Lois​—his father being a Greek unbeliever—​is to be seen from what the apostle Paul wrote him years later: “You, however, continue in the things that you learned and were persuaded to believe, knowing from what persons you learned them and that from infancy you have known the holy writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through the faith in connection with Christ Jesus.” No question about it, Timothy was taught about God and the Bible at a very tender age.​—2 Tim. 3:14, 15.

Wise Christian parents will therefore begin early in making their children familiar with Bible truths. As soon as they are able to recognize and say words they can be taught that God made all things, that he has a name, Jehovah, that his place of dwelling is in the heavens above, that he cannot be seen with human eyes and that his Book, which is holy and is our guide, is the Bible. In this regard a most valuable study aid is From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained. Another real help in this respect are the new recordings of Christian songs found in the songbook “Singing and Accompanying Yourselves with Music in Your Hearts,” even as many mothers have testified. It takes effort, but it is rewarding to note the knowledge that young children can acquire and use as they begin to walk in the footsteps of Christ Jesus.

PERSONALITY TRAINING ALSO BEGINS EARLY

However, for your child to become a fine soldier of Christ Jesus it is just as important, if not more so, that he be trained from earliest infancy in right principles. In fact, from the very first weeks and months of a child’s life the mother is helping to develop the infant’s personality by the love and care she bestows upon her child. Thus a Dr. S. F. Yolles writes: “Child psychologists and psychiatrists are finding surprising new facts . . . A baby is a seeking, reacting human being​—with previously unsuspected capacity to learn very early in life and to be far more deeply influenced for good or ill—​by the impact of his mother’s behavior.”

In a similar vein Dr. Spock, America’s most popular child-training counselor, states that by the age of three years a child’s tendencies have already been formed toward constructive or destructive ends. “Personality trends that have been fairly well defined before the age of three have to do with such general attitudes as trustfulness vs. suspiciousness, friendliness vs. antagonism, optimism vs. pessimism,” and so forth. And says Benjamin Fine, an education editor of the New York Times, in his book 1,000,000 Delinquents: “The first six years are the most important for determining our characters.”

All of which is in line with the findings of Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck, who are credited with making America’s most ambitious studies and research on the subject of the causes of juvenile delinquency. They have found that delinquents are likely to come from homes where there is little understanding, affection and moral strength and that tendencies toward delinquency “are apparently anchored deeply in body and mind and essentially derive their malformations of personality . . . during the first few years of life.”

In view of these facts the words of the apostle Paul to the Christians at Thessalonica contain a meaning for all mothers. He had been the first to preach the good news to them and so might be said to have reared them from spiritual infancy. In doing so he had been so effective that their ability to weather persecution became a thing of note. And what was Paul’s method? “We became gentle in the midst of you, as when a nursing mother cherishes her own children. So, having a tender affection for you, we were well pleased to impart to you, not only the good news of God, but also our own souls, because you became beloved to us.” How wise, therefore, the Scriptural position that circumscribes woman’s sphere so that she can give her prime attention to the loving care and training of her children!​—1 Thess. 2:7, 8.

Not that mothers alone have this responsibility, but they certainly are with their children more during those all-important preschool years. That fathers also have a responsibility the apostle Paul shows in the same connection, for he also likened his activity to that of a father: “As a father does his children, we kept exhorting each one of you, . . . that you should go on walking worthily of God.” (1 Thess. 2:11, 12) As already noted, Moses commanded fathers to instruct their children about Jehovah and the apostle Paul told fathers to ‘bring up their children in the authoritative advice of Jehovah.’ There is nothing better in this regard than for a father to have a regular Bible study with his children. Both parents must cooperate, each according to his or her time and opportunities, of which the mother has the more, but what the father does often carries more weight. And so we read: “Listen, my son, to the discipline of your father, and do not forsake the law of your mother.”​—Eph. 6:4; Prov. 1:8.

Yes, if parents properly teach a child, starting early, the result can be that, even in his tender years, the child can bring them much joy, and, far from turning to delinquency, become a dedicated servant of God and prove himself to be “a fine soldier of Christ Jesus.”