Update: Just in case anyone mistakes the posting of this material as apologetic, or seeks to twist it as such, the highlighted portions of this material point EXACTLY to the portions of the text that ENCOURAGED, CAUSED, and IMPLEMENTED CHILD ABUSE by parents in the Worldwide Church of God.

I never knew ol’ Arch personally, but he had a personal influence on my most formative years. Yes, brethren, I speak of course about the 1974 booklet, “Teach Your Children About God”. I never read this booklet myself. but reading through it now, it is painfully apparent that it was taken as gospel (literally) by the converted parent.

Frontispiece Text 

Never before has the younger generation been in greater need of knowledge about God and His law. This booklet gives you concrete, usable guidelines for teaching your small children about God, about creation, about God’s plan and about life.

What is God Like?

God holds you responsible for teaching your children about His way. You personally will determine to a tremendous degree what type of individual your child will grow up to be. The Bible states: “Teach a child to choose the right path, and when he is older he will remain upon it.” (Prov. 22:6, The Living Bible).

The great Creator God has granted you your children. He has given you Godlike powers over them — you have the power to mold and shape attitudes that will remain with the them the rest of their lives.

Get to know God by reading the Bible in an organized manner. Our free booklet Read the Book shows how. Send for your copy.

Give your child a simple concept of God’s strength by pointing out certain parts of the creation that demonstrate His power. (Read Job 37 – 41, Isaiah 40, and many of the Psalms. These and many other scriptures describe God’s power and authority through the physical creation.)

For instance, in pointing out a mountain to your child you might explain that God not only created the mountains, but also has the power to move and shake them as a person might shake out a blanket. (Amos 4:13; Joel 3:16)

Even this bit of knowledge is too much of a “hunk” for a four-year-old, so I reduce it to terms he will understand. At his tender age, he really doesn’t comprehend the problems of moving a mountain.

But he is very familiar with the effort he must expend in picking up heavy (to him) rocks and moving them. [Or if "he" is not, the "godly" parent will make sure that "he" is.]

Therefore I tell him that God can not only move large mountains, but also very large rocks. As he musters all the strength in his little forty-pound body to pick up a ten- or fifteen-pound stone, I often point to a giant boulder weighing multiple tons and casually explain to him that God has the strength to move that boulder much more easily than he is moving his fifteen-pound monolith. At that point he is very impressed with God’s power, to say the least! [And I pity poor Arch's four-year-old son.]

Do you see now how important it is to explain things in terms your child will grasp?

Psalm 29:3-5 likens God’s voice to thunder — another excellent physical phenomena conveying an aspect of God’s physical power.

Most of us at one time have experienced a thunderstorm so violent that we felt like crawling under the table. It is an awe-inspiring demonstration.

Just remember, while you’re under that table, take time out to give Johnny or Janey a few reminders about God’s power!

God has the same general form and shape that human beings do — a head, arms, hands, legs, feet, etc. Many scriptures throughout the Bible mentions God’s eyes, ears, hands, face, etc. (see Numbers 11:23; II Chronicles 16:9; Job 40:9; Psalm 104:29; Isaiah 59:1). There are dozens of other scriptures you can find through just a little research. Invest in a Bible concordance. For just a few dollars, you can search out many such verses in a hurry.

II Timothy 1:7 typifies God’s positive and concerned attitude towards us. God has a healthy, optimistic, confident outlook and approach to life. He leads a life full of joy. Jeremiah 32:41 mentions this aspect of His character in describing His future dealings with His people. Luke 15: 10 – 32 mentions that there is great joy in heaven when an individual truly repents and begins to live God’s way of life.

The parable of the prodigal son shows God’s boundless compassion toward the repentant sinner. (Luke 15).

About The Bible

Beware of letting subtle errors or misconceptions creep into your teaching. Don’t rely on books about the Bible. [I'm sorry, and this booklet was what, again?] Many “Bible story” books for children are saturated with unscriptural concepts, or vie for the child’s interest with exciting or violent fiction like cheap novels or comic books. [Your gagging transcriber notes: This text was published quite a few years before Basil's Bible Stories For Easily-Horrified Children began to be mass-distributed by "the church".] Biblical incidents are often taken out of context. Their real connection with the very purpose of life is often ignored. [More Bible jigsaw bullshit.]

And even pictures are misleading — biblical characters usually appear in various supposedly “spiritual” positions, generally with arms outstretched towards a rock, tree, or cloud, with far-off, contemplative expression on their faces. But in reality, biblical persons were DYNAMIC, ACTIVE, FORCEFUL! And that is what you should convey ro your children.

As your child grows older — say when he’s eight or ten — teach him how the Proverbs relate to his everyday life. This will take some considerable forethought on your part in some cases. But take just one proverb at a time — such as Proverbs 15:18.

Before attempting to teach your eight- or ten-year-old this lesson, sit down with pencil and paper and think of all the various applications this proverb may have in his relationship with other children, with his teachers at school, with you — in other words, with any and everyone he normally comes in contact with.

Think of WHY and HOW your child will benefit by inculcating the principle of this proverb into his life. Write these points down and you will have a very effective Bible study. [Transcriber asks: Anyone else here ever had to actually do one of these "parent-directed" Bible studies?!]

Another way to teach the Proverbs is to create hypothetical situations, then ask your child to explain the correct course of action based upon just one proverb. This method stimulates your child to make God’s laws an actual part of his thinking.

Emphasize over and over in different ways how beneficial and wonderful it is to obey God’s commandments. Stress to your child how GOOD they are for him. Always stress the positive — the GOOD life that obedience produces. Remember, you are molding your child’s concept of God and His way.

When you describe how Adam and Eve disobeyed God, stress how they had to leave the garden and were very unhappy because of their disobedience. Then relate this to your child’s everyday life by explaining that obedience to God always brings good things! And disobedience produces bad things. You can do this in numerous facets of his daily life. This is a language he understands.

How to Pray

While memorized prayers may serve as a daily reminder of God, we must remember that Christ cautioned His disciples against memorization or repetition of prayer in Matthew 6:7. Teach your children to think when praying — to say what’s on his or her mind. Let them know what prayer is — talking to God as we would respectfully talk to our physical father.

(Incidentally, it is always a good idea to teach your boy or girl to pray for other people regularly — perhaps for friends and relatives. Otherwise prayer can become totally self-oriented.) …. Also, remember to teach your children to ask God to heal when either they or you are ill. This will train them to trust God and look to Him as their Healer.

4. Be sure your children approach prayer respectfully. Don’t allow them to make a game of it. If you find them praying in a “sing-song” voice, or intentionally saying silly things, simply stop them with the reminder that God does not want us to talk that way to him. Then allow them to continue praying — respectfully.

And remember, when you have questions, doubts, or problems about teaching this vital subject, you pray about them. Ask God for the answers. He’ll give you the guidance and wisdom you need.

Also, if you happen to be in contact with the Ambassador College representative (an ordained minister of the Worldwide Church of God) in your area, he will be happy to help.

God’s Plan

To put it in a nutshell, God’s purpose is for us to eventually be like Him — literally! (I John 3:1,2.) We are created in His physical form and shape. He gives us limited Godlike powers and fantastic resources and faculties for a purpose — to control, channel, and use them in developing Godlike character — the character to make consistently right choices which produce happiness. This is the way we meet God’s standards and qualify for His free gift [Free with this box! No, wait.....] of eternal life in His family. Do you see what a fantastic purpose and future we have?

If this is your first glimpse of this marvellous truth, you may need more information. If so, our attractively printed booklet Why Were You Born? makes plain and understandable the transcendent purpose and meaning of human existence. Write for your free copy.

What about your children? Do they understand why they were born? They should! Parents ought to teach them the answer to the most basic question in life.

Children deserve to know.

And it’s simple to explain.Here’s how!

You could ask your child some very easy questions you are sure he can answer and grasp easily — such as, “Why did God make chickens?” If your youngster doesn’t know, simply explain that God made chickens basically to give us meat and eggs to eat. Emphasize that this is the basic reason for chickens’ existence.

In like manner, you can point out that cows give us milk and meat, sheep give us wool and meat [Don't forget pigs give us meat and --- oh wait.....], horses are for pleasure and work, etc. [Get yer filthy minds out of the gutter people!] Remember to show that each animal has a specific purpose.

Then you might ask your child, “Why did God make people? Why did He make you?” Of course your child will falter here — he won’t know. This is your opportunity to simply explain to him that God made us to someday be like Him. (Do you see the importance of teaching children what the real God is like as mentioned in Chapter One?)

Obviously, your child will not really grasp the meaning of being like God [Transcriber's note: And you better pray he better not repeat what little he does grasp, outside of the family home!] It is best not to go beyond a very simple explanation. ["Because I said so!"]

Here is the key. Plant in your child’s mind the progression of going from child to adult to God. Impress on his mind the necessity to obey God’s laws and live His way of life that produces happiness in order to qualify to be God. Thus, you are applying God’s plan of salvation in your child’s daily life.

Make use of various experiences and situations throughout the day to mention various aspects of God’s purpose.

“To your child, you parents are beings totally alien to his own nature. You are, in every sense of the word, gods [emphasis mine]. [Preceding note was intrinsic to the text.] Your motives are mysterious, your methods incomprehensible. You are to be loved and feared more than anybody or anything else.” (Family Circle, August 1972, p. 28)

Think about that. You possess awesome authority over your child — you hold his future in his hands, to a great extent. You as a parent are the potter — your young boy or girl is a piece of very malleable clay. God will judge each one of us according to how well we mold and teach these little minds.

And those are the low-lights from “Teach Your Children About God”. Then we have, surprise, surprise, on the endpaper, an ad for Spanky’s book The Plain Truth About Child-Rearing:

So thanks, Arch Bradley, for turning a generation of parents into authoritarian, fear-mongering, totalitarian theocrats. And double-thanks for leading them in to “continuing their studies” with Spanky Meredith’s master opus, The Plain Truth About Child-Rearing. (He ain’t called Spanky for no good reason you know.) Thank you, Arch, for this wonderful “contribution” you made, and this powerful influence you had, on my most formative years.

And fuck you, Arch Bradley. Fuck you to the fuckingest fuckingly fucked-up fucker’s fuckingdom.