3 in 10 children don't know that Easter is from the Bible

 
Tim Thornborough | 5 Mar 2014

As churches throughout the country prepare to get into high gear for their Easter outreach, a report by the Bible Society offers some sobering perspectives on how we need to share the good news today. The study revealed a generation of children with little knowledge of the most important stories forming the basis of Christianity, and parents who often knew little more. The poll of 800 children between the ages of 8 and 15, and 1100 adults found that:

  • 3 in 10 children did not know that the story of Jesus' birth came from the Bible
  • A similar number did not know the story of the crucifixion was in the Bible.
  • Almost half did not recognise the story of Noah's Ark as coming from the Bible
  • Many children confused Biblical stories with plotlines from well-known films like Harry Potter.
  • A quarter of adults thought that the story of Superman was in the Bible

The group said the findings were "symptomatic of the fact that many children indicate they have never read, seen or even heard these stories". However, on the positive side, many of the parents who responded saw the Bible as a source of good values for their children, and 80% of parents polled think it is important to pass on Bible stories to their children.

All this underscores our need to never assume that there is a fundamental grasp of the basic facts of the Gospel story - that Jesus was born, died and rose again - or that these stories are to be found in the Bible.

It was this observation that led to our creating The Third Day - an illustrated graphic depiction of the events of the first Easter, which just uses the words of Luke's Gospel.

If you want to bring the greatest story ever told to the attention of our next generation of teenagers, you could do worse than buying a stack of these books and putting them in the hands of teens at your local school. We're offering HUGE discounts for bulk purchase. Call our team for pricing on 0333 123 0880 or visit our website today.

3 Comments

Thomas Seidler

9:36 AM GMT on March 6th
The rest of what you say is sound enough, but regarding your title statement: "3 in 10 kids don't know Easter is from the Bible." Err... it isn't! The correct answer to "Where is Easter from?" should be, "Paganism."

Eastre, Astarte, Astare, Ishtar are all false gods. The timing of the modern event as I recall is also following a pagan one not the biblical Passover (not that we are into Holy Days). The eggs are part of Babylonian mystery religion, the rabbits are all connected with the fertility goddess. The word Easter never occurs in the language of the bible, though once in the KJV this is a poor translation of pasca/passover.

Ask the question, where does "Resurrection Sunday" come from and you might get a different answer?

http://www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/edn-t020.html

Of course, such is my love of chocolate that I'll still eat a chocolate egg if you choose to give me one! ;)

Tim

12:45 PM GMT on March 6th
Thanks Tom,

You have to shorten things for headlines. I was using "Easter" as shortform for "the events of the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ" - but good point matey - a massive pagan Easter Egg will be presented to in due course...

Brodi

9:09 AM GMT on March 7th
I respectfully submit my position:

So where are we with real history for “Easter”?

"The word Easter comes either from the old Anglo-Saxon word meaning “to shine”-possibly to describe the months of the year when the sun began to get brighter and higher during the day. Or it may come from the word “to baptize” indicating the Baptisms which took place on Easter. In 1525 William Tyndale used the Middle-English word “ester” = “Easter” as a translation for Passover and the day of Christ’s Resurrection. The word had already been long used and understood as referring to the day of Christ’s Resurrection when Tyndale made his translation.

Despite what modern pagans and wiccans wish the past might have been, there were no known pagan or wiccan celebrations of a pagan-easter in England or northern Europe in the period from the Middle Ages through the Reformation and up to the late 1800s."

http://steadfastlutherans.org/?p=28531

Tim Thornborough

Tim Thornborough is the founder and Publishing Director of The Good Book Company. He is series editor of Explore Bible-reading notes, the author of The Very Best Bible Stories series, and has contributed to many books published by The Good Book Company and others. Tim is married to Kathy and has three adult daughters.