ALL CHURCHES have been bulldozed in North Korea except for a few show churches in the main capital of North Korea. Christians practice their faith in secrecy and constant danger. Religious prisoners are often subjected to harsher treatment and given the most dangerous tasks, all to force them to renounce their faith. When they refuse, they have often been tortured to death. Likewise their children are sentenced to hard labor and starved to death.
When a Christian is caught with a Bible in North Korea he or she can be executed. It affects the children. Those caught worshipping God will be imprisoned with their whole family, where they will be beaten, starved and worked to death. The children are affected equally with the adults.
A witness said: “It is not just our life we give as a Christian. It also is the life of our children. We must watch our children suffer and die or they must watch when we are executed.”
As a Christian child, growing up in a North Korean home means getting ready for the ultimate test. Children learn in school to worship Kim Il Sung as god. They have been brainwashed since kindergarten to believe in a false god, but they learn about the true God as seen and heard through their parents. They learn from the gatherings in their home and from their parents that our holy Heavenly Father is the real God and Jesus is the Christ who gives them eternal life. Some Christian organizations report that most Christian families exclude their children because of the fear that they may innocently disclose the worship at home. However, we believe that the lives of the parents teach their children.
In non-persecuted countries we have elected not to teach our children because of time limitations. Even on Sundays we elect to separate them into a Sunday school. The concept of Sunday school is a term that is understood by many to be the separation of the children from the adults during part of a public church service. Such a practice can not only hinder the growth of the children in the Lord but does not allow them to see the vibrant faith of the adults.
The early Church in Acts did not have separate meetings for children but rather had them all in the service. To have a child share a Scripture verse or short prayer can be a greatly edifying practice for the children themselves and even for the adults. The Churches in countries where there is persecution do not have even the liberty to have separate meetings for children with coloring crayons and other activities to entertain them. May we allow the children to witness the moving of God’s Spirit as the Church meets, teaches and worships.
In the Scriptures there are occasions where younger women were taught by older women733 yet in no place do we find the practice of children being taught by older children. The primary teaching place for children is the home of the believers. This is in its smallest way a meeting of the Church as believers assemble towards Jesus Christ in their family altars to pray, worship and read the Word of God.
Here are some Scripture passages that speak of this responsibility for the family to train and discipline the children in the ways of the Lord:
“Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.”734
“These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”735
“My son, keep your father’s command and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. Bind them always on your heart; fasten them around your neck.”736
“Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live!”737
In countries with no persecution and especially in rich non- persecuted nations the family unit has broken down. In most homes both parents work to keep up their wealth status. This leaves no time for the parents to teach their children. God seeks godly offspring.738 However, these children are now growing up as a godless generation. We are already reaping what we have sown. In the Book of Hosea it says: “My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. ‘Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as My priests; because you have ignored the Law of your God, I also will ignore your children.”739
May God have mercy on us. God always shows mercy where we genuinely repent and turn around. Parents, if you repent, God will help you.
“He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.”740