Age of Accountability

Is the "age of accountability" really taught in the Scriptures or is it a lie and the vain imagination of man? Does God provide a "safety net" for children and then remove it when they reach a certain age? How old does one have to be before they are a sinner? Does being a Liar warrant eternal punishment?

Answers will be as brief and straightforward as possible. Additional Scripture references may be given for individual study. All Scripture References are KJV

THE LORD KNOWETH THEM THAT ARE HIS

Refuting The Age Of Accountability Heresy

Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. II Timothy 2:19

Here is an eternal truth that no man can change, not by will, word or works ! Men may deny it, try to pervert it, cast doubt upon it, add to it or take away from it, but this truth stands, The Lord knoweth them that are his. Everything that man knows about God, that which is revealed in nature and that which is revealed in Scripture, is sealed by this truth, The Lord knoweth them that are his. Every attribute of God, all that God is, all that God has done and all that God will do, is sealed with this truth, The Lord knoweth them that are his. Just as sure as God created the heavens and the earth, The Lord knoweth them that are his. Just as sure as the sun shines upon the earth, The Lord knoweth them that are his. Just as sure as Jesus Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose again from the grave the third day according to the Scriptures, The Lord knoweth them that are his. This is an absolute, immutable, truth about God, who can not lie, The Lord knoweth them that are his.

God knows all things ! Therefore nothing man does or thinks can surprise God. God does not wonder about things as we do. We know that God has thoughts because He says, "My thoughts are not as your thoughts". With this in mind, I have often wondered what God thinks of those who devise ways, by physical means or interpretation of Scripture, to bring new found children to His door as if to say "look God I have found some more for you to claim for your own".

Arminians teach that God is looking for souls to save if only they can get the lost to believe the gospel and accept Jesus. Calvinists teach that God depends on man to get the gospel message to the elect so they can hear, believe and be eternally saved. While these groups use different approaches, they both use the same gospel means for souls to be born again, and must of necessity make special exceptions for all infants and little children, etc., on the grounds of an imaginary age of accountability. David asked, "Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? - He that sitteth in the heaven shall laugh: The Lord shall have them in derision" (Psalms 2:1-4). The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his.

While this declaration, of comfort and assurance to the elect child of God, will stand alone as a landmark truth, the context (II Tim 2:19 (KJV)), magnifies the importance of the words, The Lord knoweth them that are his. Paul made this declaration in response to some "Who concerning the truth have erred (i.e. who were teaching false doctrine) and overthrow the faith of some" of God's little children. That situation is certainly amplified in these 'last days when perilous times shall come' (II Tim 3:1).

THOSE WHO TEACH FALSE DOCTRINES OVERTHROW THE FAITH OF SOME -- BUT NOT THE FAITH OF GOD. Paul said the false teachings by Hymenaeus and Philetus, ‘overthrow the faith of some’. (V. 18) I am so thankful it does not say that such false teachings can ‘overthrow the faith of God’. If I understand the Scriptures correctly (and I believe I do on this point) God the Father had faith in his Son Jesus Christ to finish the work of eternal redemption which he came to do, and the Son had faith in the Father that he would raise him up from the dead and glorify him with the glory he had before the world began (John 17:1-5, Romans 3:3, 20-27). Every elect child of God, was foreknown of God and chosen by God in Christ Jesus before the world began (Eph. 1:3-6), and is eternally safe as the result of that choice. Every elect child of God was predestinated to ultimately be conformed to the image of his Son in glory (Romans 8:28-30). Every elect child of God, without exception, (regardless of age, stature, ability or condition) is saved by grace through the faith of God, which God imparts to each one at the instant he/she is quickened, {i.e. made alive from being dead in trespasses and sins} by God himself, sometime between conception and death. (John 5:21-27, 6:37-39, 17:1-3, Eph. 2:1-9).

Illustrations of this truth are plentiful: Jeremiah before conception (Jere. 1:4-5), John the Baptist while still in the womb (Luke 1:15), David while still sucking on his mothers breasts (Psalms 22:9), The thief who died on a cross next to Jesus (Luke 23:39-43). No one knows the exact time the elect are born of God’s Spirit (John 3:8) but we have the assurance that ALL will be quickened. Therefore knowing that ALL elect are eternally safe and eternally saved by God’s grace and God’s faith there is no scriptural basis for some new method of security such as A Magic Age of Accountability.

This discussion is not over whether infants and little children are eternally safe or whether all infants who die in infancy go to heaven or not. All of God’s elect are eternally safe, and ultimately saved. All of God’s elect go to heaven. No one with any scriptural understanding goes around playing God and pronouncing the eternal destiny of anyone, much less infants and little children. But the teaching that all infants and little child were elected by God as a category because they have not done works of wickedness or reached the age where they are responsible for being sinners, flys in the face of the doctrine of total depravity and the landmark passages on election according to God’s purpose.

DEPRAVITY AND ELECTION: One of the fundamental doctrines which magnifies the truth of God’s Sovereign Grace is the total depravity of mankind. By depravity, it is meant the sin nature of mankind received from Adam, the condemnation before God because of that sin nature, and man’s complete inability to recover himself by any natural means from this condition. Depravity is not determined by the degraded lifestyle one lives, but rather the degraded lifestyle (or works of wickedness) is the evidence of depravity, just as works of righteousness is the evidence that one is righteous (Gal. 5:16-24, I John 3:7). The lemon tree does not become a lemon tree when it produces lemons, it was already a lemon tree. A good tree brings forth good fruit, and a corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit (Matt. 7:17-19).

While the word depravity is not found in the Scriptures, the principle is clearly taught. “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Rom. 5:12). The words “for that all have sinned” mean that in Adam all have sinned. “In Adam all die”. All of mankind (i.e. Adam’s posterity) is conceived in sin (Psalms 51:5) and are by nature children of wrath (Eph. 2:3). Because of Adam’s sin, God declared “all are under sin” and “there is none righteous, no not one” (Rom. 3:9-10). Depravity does not determine the eternal destiny of any one. If it did all mankind would go to hell, for there is none righteous. But God, in love, mercy and sovereign grace according to his own will and purpose chose a certain number of mankind unto eternal glory (Rom. 9:22-24). Hath not the potter power over the clay ?? These beautiful doctrines sound hard to many of God’s people at first because they have never been taught the truth.

The sinful nature of mankind is evident at an early age of childhood. Children do not have to be taught to lie, they do it by nature, as David wrote, “The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies” (Psalms 58:3). Some say, that the wicked in this verse speaks of the non-elect referred to in Scripture as the wicked. It is true that the non-elect are called the wicked and the elect are called the righteous many places in Scripture. But it is also true that all men (mankind) are liars and without exception telling a lie is wickedness, and that the righteous do wickedly when-ever they sin, and that God hath declared in Adam “All have sinned and come short” “for there is none righteous no not one”. Man can not escape the reality of his sinful depravity with a play on words.

DEPRAVITY INCLUDES ALL: The none righteous no not one must of necessity include all infants conceived in the womb, little babies, little children and all other persons, even if man may think some could stand before God having done no works of wickedness. It makes no difference what man may think or what false doctrine he may dream up about that unborn fetus or that innocent looking new born baby, or little child, or the best person in town. In the sight of God there are none righteous no not one, without the righteousness of Christ. If any one had any self righteousness to claim in the sight of God, it would appear as filthy rags (Isa. 64:6). Man in his best state is altogether vanity and less than nothing.

Some might say of that fetus, or that infant, or that child, or that good person, he/she has never violated God’s ten commandments. God says, “By the deeds of the law (doing or not doing) there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Rom. 3:20). The law (ten commandments) was never given to establish man’s righteousness before God (Gal.3:21). By the law comes the knowledge of sin and our inability to be righteous. The law was added because of man’s sin, man’s transgression, of the law of sin and death by Adam (Gen. 2:17, 3:6, Gal. 3:19-27). Therefore no man, no infant, no child, no one, is saved by works of righteousness (Titus 3:5-7). nor the absence of works of wickedness.

The only righteousness that satisfies God is his own righteousness, which he imputes to every elect child of God at the time they are quickened or made alive in Christ. (Romans 3:20-27). This is performed by an operation of God, a circumcision made without hands, (Col. 2:9-15) wherein God cuts away the condemnation of death received from our natural father Adam (Rom. 8:1-2) and imputes and declares his own righteousness for the remission of sin (Rom. 4:6-8 ).

The doctrine of election does not teach (as some charge) that God chose a certain number of Adam’s posterity to go to hell and a certain number to go to heaven. But rather God chose a multitude that no man can number (Rev. 7:9-10) to be redeemed by Christ from their sins (Matt 1:21) to be presented unto himself as a glorious church (Eph. 5:27), and a purchased possession unto the praise of his glory (Eph. 1:3-14). God’s choice was made before the foundation of the world based on whom he foreknew (Rom 8:28-30). God knows and foreknows all things, but His electing foreknowledge is of whom not what works of righteousness or wickedness any one would do or not do. (I Peter. 2:1)

DOCTRINAL EMERGENCY ? — DIAL 911: Man, with all his self attained knowledge and wisdom can write voluminous books of Systematic Theology and volumes upon volumes of Commentaries. Man can attempt to impress others with his high-minded high sounding technical terms and vain philosophies. Man can state his ideas and rest his case with his new and novel interpretation of the scriptures. But God establishes the truth and destroys all false teaching about election with twin boys. I have said it before, and I’ll say it again, when you have trouble understanding the doctrine of salvation by grace, or if you want to prove or disprove what someone is saying about the doctrine of election DIAL 911. “For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth (Romans 9:11) As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated”.

Jacob is Israel, the chosen of God, the apple of God’s eye (Deut. 32:10) and represents all the elect in Christ, the Israel of God, (Gal. 6:15-16). Esau is Edom, hated by God, not loved at all by God, and represents the non-elect, “the people against whom the Lord hath indignation for ever” (Malachi 1:1:2-4, Psalms 5:4-5, 7:11). Anyone who tries to make Esau a child of God on the grounds that God simply loved him less than Jacob, calls God a liar, and denies the purpose of God according to election.

Romans 9:11 is one of the landmark scriptures which must be used to teach the doctrine of election. Sadly, I once heard a man preach for an hour on the subject of election, and how we should not leave the ancient landmarks, and he never once gave reference to Romans 9:11. Even more sadly, I heard that man say that God elected all Jews as a category. Jesus and Paul disagree with that new and novel interpretation (John 8:37-47, Rom. 2:28-29, 9:3-8). Without using Romans 9:11 in any way, that man said that God elected all infants who die in infancy as a category, and they were sure to go to heaven because they had not done any works of wickedness. Now all infants who die in infancy may be the elect of God, and if so they will surely go to heaven. I am not authorized by God to say one way or another. But I will say with all my strength, their eternal destiny is not based on some “age of accountability” or because they have not done any works of wickedness. That is a works doctrine, and I would not have it in a bad dream. The purpose of God according to election is not based on man’s works of righteousness or the absence of works of wickedness.

GOD IS JUST IN HATING ESAU: Were there some doctrinal teaching that infants and little children are eternally safe based on a magical age of accountability or because they have not done any works of wickedness, then it seems to me God would have been unjust to hate Esau while he was yet an unborn baby. But God is just and the justifier ! God was just when he destroyed the world by flood because “God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5). How old does one have to be before they have thoughts ?? We have no way of knowing how many were elect or how many were non-elect on the face of the earth at that time. It is none of our business, and had God wanted us to know, he would have told us. The fact that “God endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction” (Romans 9:24), which is stated in the past tense, does not prove that ‘the good die young' and the ‘wicked live to an older age’. There is an abundance of Scripture that teaches the righteous live to old age (Ex. 20:12).

Furthermore, God was just when he instructed Saul to “Go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling” —to “go and utterly the destroy the sinners the Amalekites” (I Sam. 15:3, 18). Clearly the infants and sucklings in this passage are designated as sinners — but we do not know how many were of the elect or how many were of the non-elect. They may all have been the elect of God. They may all have been, as Esau was, hated by God. That is none of our business.

I know of no Scripture that teaches infants go to hell, and I know of none that clearly teach they don’t. When David’s child died, he spoke with assurance “I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me” (II Sam.12:23 ). But in my opinion this is not sufficient grounds to establish a doctrine that says all infants and little children are eternally safe because of a magical age of accountability. Nor is it sufficient grounds to say all infants who die in infancy go to heaven because they have not done works of wickedness.

If that is true then we would be justified to allow some Atheist to perform all abortions and murder all infants to assure them a place in heaven. The doctrine of hope for all is, “But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plentious in mercy and truth” (Psalms 86:15, 145:8, Micah 7:18-19). Some “concerning the truth have erred - and overthrow the faith of some - nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his.” Praise God !!