The Age of Accountability
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Intro: I began a study on the age of accountability back towards the end of January. I didn’t seek it out trying to prove something but the Lord used a few Scriptures to start be down a path of study. All of my life I have been told different things concerning the age of accountability. “It depends on the person,” “It depends on how quickly someone matures.” Some refer to it as “The age of understanding.” Which again, depends upon each individual. My struggle has always been that God has never given us commands that were dependent upon where we are at in our life. So why would this be left so confusing? I’ll tell you that when I started this study, I never imagined ever teaching it, and I never imagined coming to a place of understanding like the Lord has led me to. The only thing I am going to ask this morning is that we set aside what we have been taught, gather at the feet of Christ and allow Him to teach us through His word.
I see two major reasons why this study is important:
1st: If you or someone you know have ever lost a child, the question that everyone in that situation asks is, “Is my child in heaven?”
2nd: If you are a parent of a child, it is natural to be afraid of your child not being saved but the danger that accompanies that fear is having your child make a false profession of faith.
Why are the views concerning this so different, and why are their so many different thoughts concerning this topic? The answer to that is relatively simple, and it seems to always be hinged and swing in connection with someones view of Biblical salvation.
The Catholic church doesn’t call it the age of accountability, but use the terms the age of discretion or the age of reason. Taking into account their view of Biblical salvation, Pope Pius X, in 1910 said that the age of reason was about 7 years old. This of course didn’t change the course of infant baptism, but if you grew up in a Catholic church then you are familiar with the process of confirmation, which they believe should begin around the age of 7 years old. (In direct connection with the age of reason.) From there they will wait a few years before the sacrament of Eucharist which if you stuck around long enough then you recieved God’s grace through the sacraments and you now have to work your way to heaven, never really knowing if you are saved, or if your baby was saved and in heaven if they never made it through the church sacraments. The sacraments are treated almost like a vaccination against hell, with each sacrament acting like a booster in-case the last one didn’t stick... The problem of course with all of this is that it isn’t Bible...
The Methodist church also have sacramental baptism, and their confirmation starts a little later. Their process is based upon human observation of that child, which leads to that confirmation starting around junior high.
The problem again being that neither one of these process include someone making a personal decision based upon the gospel of Christ and seeing their own need of being saved from their sin. Baptism becomes a security measure, which they assume will wear off as that child ages in which case, they go on to confirm that “salvation” through further church sacraments. This kind of “salvation” ends up being progressive and without assurance. Meaning ultimately that salvation is a work of the church, and not a work of God...
The Calvinist Church sees baptism as the replacement for Old Testament covenant for circumcision. If God’s covenant people circumcised babies, then their view is that they should baptize babies. The concerning part, is that the baptism is done not knowing if these babies are elect, leaving a mother who lost their child in complete limbo… A Calvinist believes everyone is accountable for the original sin that passed through Adam, but that nobody is accountable to make a personal decision concerning their sin, and repentance toward God because God makes that choice for you. They have no age of accountability, because you have no part in your own salvation. They would chalk up babies dying and going to hell as God being sovereign.
All of these have one thing in common… Their belief is not based upon what the Bible teaches, their concern is what does my church have to say concerning this.
Where we differ is that we don’t care what the church has to say, but what does the Bible say?
The question that needs to be answered is not whether or not their is original sin that needs to be answered for because we already know that answer to that question is yes.
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
The question that needs to be answered is when does God stop seeing someone as innocent and starts holding that person accountable for their sin?
Yea, they sacrificed their sons
And their daughters unto devils,
And shed innocent blood,
Even the blood of their sons and of their daughters,
Whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan:
And the land was polluted with blood.
How can the blood of their children be innocent if they recieved the original sin of Adam? We know according to Romans 5:12 that they all recieved that original sin, however, they are innocent, because God has not held them accountable yet, causing them to be guilty.
In Matthew 27 Judas is confessing what he had done concerning the betrayal of Christ.
Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that.
I am not saying that the blood of innocent children and the blood of Christ are the same… Their is a difference between not have ever sinned, and your blood having the capability take away someone else’s sin, and someone who has original sin, but that isn’t held accountable yet for that sin. The connection however is in that status of their blood, both are innocent before God! The reason that a child’s blood is called innocent is found in Deuteronomy. Where God is dealing with the nation of Israel concerning their disobedience and unwillingness to enter into the promise land because of the inhabitants.
Moreover your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, and your children, which in that day had no knowledge between good and evil, they shall go in thither, and unto them will I give it, and they shall possess it.
In the book of Isaiah, Isaiah is commanded to go with his son Shear-jashub to Ahaz with a message of prophecy concerning Christ and then he gives a sign concerning the land and the current situation using his own son for the sign.
For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good,
The land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.
In Matthew 18, the disciples of Christ are arguing about who is the greatest...
Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.
The parallel passage in Mark
And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.
I want us to go back and consider something that brother Ray stated concerning Adam and Eve in one of his first lessons. That Adam and Eve, were created in the garden in the image of God but that they were not “righteous” because righteousness requires proving. They were in the garden of Eden, and were allowed to be in the presence of God and walk with God because they were innocent…
And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
What changed the moment that they took of the fruit? They lost their innocence… What caused them to lose that innocence?
For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
Paul was circumcised the 8th day.
Brought up under the teaching of Gamaliel.
When was Paul alive without the law? In the first 8 days of his life? No, when he was a child...
Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die.
And Nathan departed unto his house. And the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife bare unto David, and it was very sick. David therefore besought God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night upon the earth. And the elders of his house arose, and went to him, to raise him up from the earth: but he would not, neither did he eat bread with them. And it came to pass on the seventh day, that the child died. And the servants of David feared to tell him that the child was dead: for they said, Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spake unto him, and he would not hearken unto our voice: how will he then vex himself, if we tell him that the child is dead? But when David saw that his servants whispered, David perceived that the child was dead: therefore David said unto his servants, Is the child dead? And they said, He is dead. Then David arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came into the house of the Lord, and worshipped: then he came to his own house; and when he required, they set bread before him, and he did eat. Then said his servants unto him, What thing is this that thou hast done? thou didst fast and weep for the child, while it was alive; but when the child was dead, thou didst rise and eat bread. And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me, that the child may live?
I think we all understand the innocence of a child but what hope we have in the Scriptures concerning those children that we can know are with the Lord. Now to answer the question concerning the age...
Moreover your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, and your children, which in that day had no knowledge between good and evil, they shall go in thither, and unto them will I give it, and they shall possess it.
God declares their children in this passage as not have knowledge between good and evil, meaning they in His eyes were innocent of the things done wrong against Him. Deuteronomy 1 is the retelling of that account from Numbers 14 which is going to give us our answer concerning the age.
And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me. Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me, Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised. But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise. I the Lord have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die. And the men, which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land,
God will confirm this again by requiring a half shekel silver offering in Exodus 30 to be required for an atonement for their soul. He required this offering be made by those that are 20 years old and older.
This they shall give, every one that passeth among them that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary: (a shekel is twenty gerahs:) an half shekel shall be the offering of the Lord. Every one that passeth among them that are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering unto the Lord. The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give an offering unto the Lord, to make an atonement for your souls.
We then see it again concerning the battles fought through their wanderings and capturing of the promise land. God had them number the people that were able to go forth to war in Israel, and the again chooses the age of twenty and upward to be that age.
Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names, every male by their polls; From twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel: thou and Aaron shall number them by their armies.