Many knowledgeable and seemingly faithful people have been swept away by religious deception. Can we possibly prepare our children to resist a great deception to come?

Teaching children good habits early will help them navigate the darkness and confusion in the world around them.

Paul gave us this stark warning: “For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14).

How can our children learn to identify a false “angel of light”? The Bible is the one source we can count on to guide us. For those God has entrusted with children, there is a solemn obligation to provide them with a scripturally sound understanding of good and evil. Our world is so confused that children need to understand what is acceptable to God.

Entertainment is one area where we need to practice discernment frequently. Allowing our children to be part of the decision process helps them learn to use God’s standards when making decisions about what games they should play. When we pray and are willing to obey, God will provide insight and wisdom beyond what we or our children are capable of ourselves.

Contrary to renderings in many pop culture movies, games and books, good and evil are not easy to differentiate. That takes lots of practice and a close relationship with God. If you care to take the challenge, this could begin a family discussion on the topic, exploring how God says to discern good and evil.

Teaching children good habits early will help them navigate the darkness and confusion in the world around them. Using children’s entertainment that you already have in your home is a great place to begin some detective work. Below is a thought-provoking exercise for the whole family. Try it and you might be surprised what you learn!

4 Steps to Better Discernment of Good and Evil

1. Discuss as a family what makes a person (or fictional character) evil or good.

On paper, make one column for good and one for evil. Write down as many distinguishing features as possible for each. Depending on your children's ages and attention span the remaining steps in this exercise may be broken up into multiple days.

2. Have each person place several of their most memorable characters from movies, books or games into the good or evil column.

3. Turn to the scriptures to discuss God’s definition of good and evil.

Here are a few to get you started: Isaiah 5:20, Proverbs 3:7, Deuteronomy 18:9-14, Galatians 5:19-23, Philippians 4:8, Revelation 21:8. Write down any points from the scriptures that show God’s definition of evil or good, and note if any differ from your definitions.

4. Evaluate characters in each column based on biblical guidelines.

Are there any that need to be switched to the opposite column? What do the children think about this? This is a good time to discuss how Satan can pose as an extremely appealing and seemingly harmless “angel of light” to deceive us.

Entertainment, though mostly fictional, can have a significant impact on the way a child learns to discern between good and evil. Children can exhibit a surprising level of motivation and sacrifice to please God when given scriptural understanding and the responsibility to help the family make right choices.

To learn more about avoiding end time deception please watch the Beyond Today episode How to Avoid End-Time Depception.