Who What Why The Gospels

I went back and forth on reviewing these individually or as a group, but I decided to review Who What Why The Gospels as a group because that’s how to best talk about them. They are a good middle grade Bible study for young Christians learning what their faith is. It’s a good addition to your bible lessons. So let’s talk about each of these books and how I would use them to help kids grow in their life.

(Danika gave me a free copy, my opinions are my own, and I have affiliate links in here)

The Who What Why Gospel series as a whole

Who What Why Gospels who is it for and what to do with it

First, let’s talk about the series as a whole. I’d estimate the reading level for this series to be about third grade. The print is nice and big, and it’s broken up fairly frequently with pictures. A couple of more well-known series to compare this to are Magic Treehouse or, for the Christian version, Imagination Station.

Each of these books is very grounded in scripture and pulls from both the Old and New Testament depending on what specific references she needs. She will also draw on historical references to reinforce and demonstrate that this is something grounded in history.

All of this has footnotes at the back of the book, so parents and more curious kids can go and look up where she got her facts from.

Who What Why The Gospels review Bible New testament

At the end, she includes information on how to become a Christian if you have not already made that choice. I think these books are best for new and growing believers.

Then, at the end, there is a timeline of the events covered.

Okay, you know what is generally in all of them. Let’s get to the specific books.

Who Were the Disciples? When to use it and what I like

Who Were the Disciples? walks through who each of the disciples is, obviously.

But beyond that, it talks about who they were before Jesus and how each person was changed by Jesus. We are given information about their family and how to place each person in history. For some of the disciples, more is known about them, so their chapters are longer.

What I liked about Who Were the Disciples?

We see the disciples were different people; it extrapolates from scripture and extra-biblical sources to flesh them out.
Extra historical knowledge is delivered simply to give context to the events. Extra terms are defined so children know what that means.
What happened to each disciple is told, including when we are unsure. It is described simply and not in detail because their deaths are often graphic. However, it is not whitewashed.

When I would use Who Were the Disciples?

I would use Who Were the Disciples either after finishing studying the GOSPELS or Acts. So, kids could learn what happened to the disciples after the narrative of the Bible is finished.

If you are studying church history, this could be a great assignment for your elementary child to learn what happened next.

This is also a great low-key Bible study as it intersperses Bible verses with history and learning from life. It’s much how we learn from the historical books of the Bible, we learn from the example of the people’s lives. So we see how Peter is impulsive but God can still use him.

What was the Cross? when to use it and what I like

What was the Cross? covers the events of the cross and why it had to happen.

Oddly enough the events of this book don’t start off with Jesus, it starts off all the way back in the garden of Eden, which if I were teaching it is exactly where I would start too. So, this made my Bible nerd heart very happy. You see, this is where we get the very first prophecy of Jesus coming. But, I digress, let me get back to this book.

What are you going to find in here:

How God set all of this up way back in the Old Testament (YES!)
Seriously, that is the first half of the book and I am THERE for it
How Jesus fulfilled this role
Then what Jesus’ death on the cross did

When to read this book

I would read this book heading up to Easter. If you celebrate Lent, this would be perfect to read as part of Lent, or as part of Holy Week. It’s a short book, and you could read it all during Holy Week, though you would need to figure out a couple of days where you read more than one chapter a day.

Why Did the Resurrection Happen? When to use it and What I like

When Did the Resurrection Happen? is the final book in the series, and I think I like it the most. But don’t quote me on that because I will change my mind in five minutes.

This is probably recency bias (yes, spell check, recency is a word that I meant to use) because I realized I was missing a few pictures and had to take more pictures, and I realized again, there are just some awesome chapters in here.

Okay, getting into what you’re going to find in this book.

How all the way from the beginning God set this all up, how God set up all of Judaism to show them His plan.
Jesus showed us the way. I almost capitalized it as The Way, but held back. It probably doesn’t count if I tell you after the fact, though. Then all the witnesses to it.
Then how the disciples reacted afterward.

My favorite parts were the beginning where it showed how God set it all up, because I always love reading that. It’s just so much fun to see all the ways God sets up the dominoes, and then to see Him knock them down and reveal these gorgeous patterns be created.

But then, the last portion where we get to see the disciples and the apostles write out the creeds and say, “No, this is what we believe and this is what we saw. There is no other way to say it.” I love that.

When I would use Why Did the Resurrection Happen?

I would use this after Easter, or maybe as part of a build-up during Lent. But I think it would be so cool to read What Was the Cross before Easter ending it on Good Friday, leave it hanging for the three days, and read this starting the day after Easter.

I know, it’s kind of silly and pretty much no kid that has grown up in church will be left wondering what is going on, but it would be so cool.