The Cage: A Young Children’s Guide to the Biblical Teaching on Hell – C. Matthew McMahon

[cleanhippie]

Little children ought to learn all the teachings Jesus taught about in the Bible. 1/6th of everything Jesus taught about was on judgment and hell. That is a huge amount of teaching on the subject! But how do we teach our children such a hard biblical idea appropriately?

Jesus said to Israel’s teacher, Nicodemas, in John 3:3, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
This is not exclusive for adults, it applies to everyone every conceived under Adam’s original sin. From the moment of conception, we have all gone astray under Adam’s original transgression. But how do we communicate this to children?

In this tastefully illustrated work that is completely in rhyme, the Bible’s teaching about hell is outlined in a very easy to understand manner. It is aimed at children 5 to 9 years old, but can certainly be read by any age. It concerns a young boy who we find is trapped in a cage called “Big Sin” and can’t escape on his own. The cage is suspended by a chain that is rusting and could break at any moment. What will our young friend do? What is he thinking about as he stands there locked away? He sees others in cages as well, some who don’t escape, and some who jump to safety as their prisons doors are opened by a mysterious key. Will our young friend get out? How will he escape THE CAGE?

C. Matthew McMahon, Ph.D., Th.D., is an American Calvinist Reformed theologian and adjunct professor at Whitefield Theological Seminary. He is the founder and chairman of A Puritan’s Mind, the largest Reformed website on the internet for students of the Bible concerning Reformed Theology, the Puritans and Covenant Theology. He is also the founder of Puritan Publications which publishes rare Reformed and Puritan works from the 17th century.

http://www.puritanshop.com/shop/the-cage-a-young-children%E2%80%99s-guide-to-the-biblical-teaching-on-hell-c-matthew-mcmahon-childrens-book/

Uhm... This is Religion, folks. We must respect deeply-held religious beliefs, right? Right?

[Yorktown]

1. Hell blackmail to kids 5 to 9

What's not to love in this approach?

[trotsky]

2. How helpful to condense so many things wrong with Christian theology into one little book.

I have long been wondering how I can communicate to my children that they are EVIL and SINFUL and DEFECTIVE thanks to a decision made by a man created by god 6000 years ago!

Thank you, C. Matthew McMahon, Ph.D., Th.D.!

[Yorktown]

10. If you want to teach your children well, use the famous Hitchens sentence

"We are created sick, and commanded by God to be well."

Helps create even keeled adults.

[mr blur]

3. "How will he escape THE CAGE?" Depends,

on whether or not his parents are rational or deluded. If they're rational, he'll never go into the fucking cage in the first place. If they're not, he's doomed to grow up as ignorant as they are.

[edhopper]

4. He will realize

As Capt. Pike did, that it is all an illusion by the Talosians.

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[nil desperandum]

5. It's

almost unimaginable to me that in the year 2015 some idiots are buying this tripe and using it to scare the jesus INTO their kids with tasteful cartoons all in rhyme...

Trapped in a cage that's called big sin,
what kind of monster puts a child in?

Hanging trapped upon a chain,
you see the ignorance that clouds man's brain.

His god has others trapped as well,
and will force a child to go to hell
no child has sinned to earn this ire
why does this god condemn with fire?

Religion is often a heavy yoke,
but now it's time to reveal the joke.

There is no god only fiction reviled,
thus no need to torture a child.

[rug]

6. More of that flat thinking again.

About as invalid a general statement as this:

"Uhm... This is Atheism, folks. We must respect deeply-held secular beliefs, right? Right?"



http://wonkette.com/586867/free-speech-loving-islamophobes-invade-phoenix-mosque-to-draw-mohammed-guns

[Lordquinton]

9. Atheists aren't a monolithic block

unlike, say, the Catholic Church who has a strong (conservative) central ledership.

[rug]

11. Neither are religions.

And this particular OP highllghts a literally peculiar one and attempts to persuade it is representative of the whole.

http://www.apuritansmind.com/

That is dishonesty and propaganda at its basest level.

If you think the Catholic Church is a monolithic block, you're a victim of your own biases about it.

Seriously, you should look into what is going on in the world of religion and nonbelief.

I make a point of it.

[Cartoonist]

13. Dishonesty and propaganda

Two words that perfectly describe the Bible. That is where this shitcage comes from.

[rug]

15. Oh, I see plenty of it outside the Bible.

Right here in this thread in fact.

[Warren Stupidity]

14. no rug that is a person who happens to also be an atheist.

Atheism is simply the lack of belief in any gods. That does not entail "Fuck Islam". But you knew that.

[rug]

16. Ah, atheism has nothing to do with it.

[brooklynite]

7. But isn't the proper analogy that he put himself IN the cage?

[struggle4progress]

8. McMahon is free to think as he chooses. I should say that I really do not understand his views,

though when he calls himself a Puritan, or writes a rambling and disjointed piece titled Liberal Theologians which includes such statements as The Ecumenical movement has been a huge inroad to modern theological confusion, then I naturally form certain impressions about how he and I might disagree

It is, of course, not necessary to agree with someone to profit from what they write. I consider Wittgenstein a brilliant and thought-provoking philosopher, with whose writings I almost always disagree -- but since I can find it difficult to explain my disagreements with him cogently, Wittgenstein forces me to think carefully, from which I conclude he is well worth reading. The ambiguities, brevities, and seeming contradictions of the ancient Hebrew scriptures similarly provoke my thinking; and that may indeed be partly the point of those texts, since there is an old and extensive tradition of argument and dispute over the meanings there, as recorded (say) in the midrashim. In a brief web-search of his writings, I haven't found myself challenged in that way by McMahon, so I think I must simply let him go his way while I continue to search for material that better helps me learn

[LeftishBrit]

12. There is a publishing company in 2015 called 'Puritan Publications'? Who knew?

[rug]

17. Exactly. Rather an outlier.