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ChurchOpinionPhilosophy

Faith Like a Child: A Six Year Old’s Systematic Theology

(Allana is my daughter, age six. This is a write up of her thoughts shared the other night.)

Well, God has spoken to me. When I was a baby I leaned my head down and heard my heart beat. It kept me awake all night. I didn’t really invite him to live in my heart, he was just there. He told me to believe only in Him and the Son and the Holy Spirit, so that I would not do really bad things.

Some people sin really bad, the really bad guys, they kill people, steal and trick people and God does not like that. Good people sin too but we don’t have to sin.

You have to believe in three people to go to heaven. You have to believe in God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. One God, three persons. The Son, Jesus, died for our sins so we would not have to die because he does not want us to die. The soldiers nailed him to the cross—through his feet and his hands—-and it was really terrible. BUT THEN! A really wonderful thing happened. HE CAME BACK! And now we can go to heaven, because he does love us you know.

If you don’t believe you go to hell, a terrible, terrible place. It’s really hot all the time. There’s a big furnace and people are always complaining.

In heaven though it’s WONDERFUL! It’s beautiful and everybody there is friendly … all your family and your friends. They love each other and nobody fights. Too bad hundreds of people have been thrown into hell.

Heaven is way, way far out there, so far, it takes millions of hours to get there, and you only get there when you die, but not all of you goes there, only your spirit. God gets to decide how old you are when you die, and what kind of new body you get.

Some people try to get to heaven by climbing on idols. They stack up trees with branches across for steps like a ladder and then they start to climb, but they have to wear a helmet, and they never get there.

Heaven is WONDERFUL. You get goodies, but only once a day.

Allan Erickson

Allan Erickson---Christian, husband, father, journalist, businessman, screenwriter, and author of The Cross & the Constitution in the Age of Incoherence, Tate Publishing, 2012.