The topic of an "age of accountability" comes up quite often; I've discussed it probably five times since I became a believer almost three years ago. Here is a verse from Isaiah I found today:
"For before the boy knows how to refuse evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted." (7:16)
If the issue is whether of not the young child or unborn infant is innocent, then this passage seems to answer very clearly "NO!". The child has not learned how to choose good and refuse evil and this means that he is engaging in evil acts and acting according to the slavery of sin as described in Romans 6 and 7 (7 is pending in some circles). Acts against the law of God are punished by God in His holiness and justice: Habakkuk 1:13, Psalm 11:5-7, Isaiah 5:16, and Deuteronomy 27:26.
But most people who take the "age of accountability" stance, probably agree with all of these verses above and would even agree that the baby is guilty in some form. What they might say is that the babies are given "special grace" to get into heaven without being born or reaching an age that the culture defines as "responsible".
So here we find ourselves in the grey area that will always come about in this discussion. Some thoughts that I have are 1. John 14:6 2. Romans 9:15 3. Acts 4:12 and lastly, I would caution you not to be the objective source on who God gives "special grace" to. Unless the Bible says that special grace will be given to a person or people it is dangerous to say so just because it meets our idea of "just" which can be grossly warped and wrong.
In heaven, every person will be glorifying Christ. No one will say, "I didn't really need Jesus to get here, I just got lucky enough to be killed before I was responsible for sin". Furthermore, regeneration is absolutely needed to make it to heaven- John 3:3. So when does the child/infant experience this? Obviously these are rhetorical pictures, but they can help us think through what we do know for certain and at least shed a little light on what is uncertain.
Where does all of this this leave us? With a huge amount of reverence for God's divine purpose and will, but also with a deep value for every human life. If the Bible is not 100 % clear on this issue then young children should not be written off as "not accountable yet" and babies in the womb should be fought for so that they have a chance to be born and hear the gospel. You can probably tell the side that I lean to on this issue but please do not take my words as final! Read the Bible and pray over these things and in the end if you disagree with me then I'm fine with it! But let's not use the grey area spoken off above as an excuse to forget the black and white truth that every soul will meet God. Hebrews 9:27.
Wow, thanks for shedding some light on this topic! Very helpful. We must remember that God's thoughts are higher than ours, and His ways are higher than ours. He is infinitely good and we cannot come close to grasping what all that entails. But we must take Him at His word and it must be enough to simply know "Thus saith the Lord!"
ReplyDelete