Age of Accountability

Craig by the sea,

Thank you, a long answer as usual.

Bluefalcon,

Yes, one can be on any thread on this board with out giving his testimony. Everyone is assumed to be a Christian because that is one of the requirements of the board. I was concerned for Craig by the Sea because of his answers on this thread and on many other ones. Concern, that he had a head knowledge not a heart relationship with Jesus, that's all. In retrospect I should have simply sent him a PM. But, I am new to this board and am still in the learning stage.

 

Aaron, cut the insults, especially to Jesus. He died for all. We have a choice of how to respond to His gift. I know you think we have no choice, but we do. Choose this day whom you will serve...

And Paul is not talking about opened eyes in Romans 7. He says plainly that he was alive before the law came into his life. It did not matter if he had been told and studied it. many people do that with the Bible and never even know what they are reading. Understanding is not the same as learning. Paul makes that pretty clear, I think.

He is telling his own story.

 

Age of accountability has already been proven.

If people do not want to accept it that is their
choice. We will find out for sure when we get to heaven.

 

APuritanMindset, I'm not out to 'prove' anything, only to give evidence.

 

Up to this point in this thread, I have limited my writing regarding the age of accountability to infants and others who have not yet reached the age of reason. In recent years, however, the suggestion has been put forth by some Baptists with a very poor knowledge of the Bible that even children who have reached the age of reason are not accountable for their sins. Although this suggestion is absolutely ridiculous and based upon the most unimaginable ignorance of the Holy Scriptures, I shall now address this suggestion lest any unwary souls fall prey to it.

This suggestion is based upon a very careless reading of the following passages of Scripture:

Num. 14:26. The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying,
27. "How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who are grumbling against Me? I have heard the complaints of the sons of Israel, which they are making against Me.
28. "Say to them, 'As I live,' says the LORD, 'just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will surely do to you;
29. your corpses will fall in this wilderness, even all your numbered men, according to your complete number from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against Me.
30. 'Surely you shall not come into the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.
31. 'Your children, however, whom you said would become a prey--I will bring them in, and they will know the land which you have rejected.
32. 'But as for you, your corpses will fall in this wilderness.

Num. 32:6. But Moses said to the sons of Gad and to the sons of Reuben, "Shall your brothers go to war while you yourselves sit here?
7. "Now why are you discouraging the sons of Israel from crossing over into the land which the LORD has given them?
8. "This is what your fathers did when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to see the land.
9. "For when they went up to the valley of Eshcol and saw the land, they discouraged the sons of Israel so that they did not go into the land which the LORD had given them.
10. "So the LORD'S anger burned in that day, and He swore, saying,
11. 'None of the men who came up from Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob; for they did not follow Me fully,
12. except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua the son of Nun, for they have followed the LORD fully.'
13. "So the LORD'S anger burned against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until the entire generation of those who had done evil in the sight of the LORD was destroyed.

No where in either of these two passages is there the slightest hint that those who were under the age of twenty were without sin or than they were not accountable for their sins. But for what reason do these passages tell us why those who were under the age of twenty not accountable for the evil of their the older generations? The answer is found in Num. 14:31 quoted above,

31. ‘Your children, however, whom you said would become a prey--I will bring them in, and they will know the land which you have rejected.’

The older generations refused to obey God and enter the promised land arguing that their children would be killed there. God, in His infinite wisdom, turns the tables on them and condemns the older generations to death in the wilderness, and spares all of the children!

There are a few careless readers, however, who confuse these two passages in Numbers with a passage in Deuteronomy,

Deut. 1:34. "Then the LORD heard the sound of your words, and He was angry and took an oath, saying,
35. 'Not one of these men, this evil generation, shall see the good land which I swore to give your fathers,
36. except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him and to his sons I will give the land on which he has set foot, because he has followed the LORD fully.'
37. "The LORD was angry with me also on your account, saying, 'Not even you shall enter there.
38. 'Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall enter there; encourage him, for he will cause Israel to inherit it.
39. 'Moreover, your little ones who you said would become a prey, and your sons, who this day have no knowledge of good or evil, shall enter there, and I will give it to them and they shall possess it.

These readers focus on the words, “and your sons, who this day have no knowledge of good or evil” and extrapolate from them that children under the age of 20 are not accountable for their sins. That this interpretation is most definitely contrary to the teaching of the Holy Scriptures, however, could not possibly be more obvious!

Exod. 20:12. "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the LORD your God gives you.

Exod. 21:15. "He who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.

Deut. 5:16. 'Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, that your days may be prolonged and that it may go well with you on the land which the LORD your God gives you.

Deut. 21:18. "If any man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father or his mother, and when they chastise him, he will not even listen to them,
19. then his father and mother shall seize him, and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gateway of his hometown.
20. "They shall say to the elders of his city, 'This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey us, he is a glutton and a drunkard.'
21. "Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death; so you shall remove the evil from your midst, and all Israel will hear of it and fear.

 

What one sees as an insult to Christ I guess depends on one's view of Him.

We have a choice of how to respond to His gift. I know you think we have no choice, but we do. Choose this day whom you will serve...

Yada, yada.

The Law also said, Thou shalt not covet, yet no one has the power in himself to do that.

And Paul is not talking about opened eyes in Romans 7. He says plainly that he was alive before the law came into his life. It did not matter if he had been told and studied it. many people do that with the Bible and never even know what they are reading. Understanding is not the same as learning. Paul makes that pretty clear, I think.

He is telling his own story.

Actually he is telling man's story, Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses. And there is life without the Law? Then what complaint did God have with the Antedeluvian world? With Sodom and Gomorrah? With Cain? They were all judged for their sins.

Paul was saying he had life though death was on the throne?

 

In reference to Dt. 1:39, I wonder if 2 Sam. 19:35 indicates that some 80-year-olds may slip back under the age of accountability?

 

Aaron wrote,

No, he is not! His story was VERY different! And do you mean to suggest that in Rom. 7:14 Paul, also writing in the first person singular, was writing that he, himself, as a blood-bought child of God and an Apostle of our Lord Jesus Christ, was sold into bondage to sin? Who do you suppose has the authority to sell any blood-bought child of God into bondage to sin?

14. For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.

Have you no knowledge at all of first century Greek literature and the use of the rhetorical first and second person pronoun!

And those of you who believe in eternal security—do you believe that it is possible for a born-again, blood-bought child of God to be sold into bondage to sin after having been redeemed from sin by the most precious blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? I do not believe in eternal security—but I KNOW that it is ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE for a born-again, blood-bought child of God to be sold into bondage to sin after having been redeemed by Christ and his blood!

 

A most excellent point—and 100% Scriptural too.

 

</font>[/QUOTE]I was quoting Helen. I agree that he is not telling his own story.

 

</font>[/QUOTE]I was quoting Helen. I agree that he is not telling his own story. </font>[/QUOTE]Aaron,

I most humbly apologize. Thank you for bringing this to my attention and the attention of our readers. And thank you for our thoughtful contribution to this thread.

 

If our legal system can see a difference in the actions of a child and the actions of an adult, are we more just than God?

Job 4:17 Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker?

Those under the age of 20 had most likely committed the same sins as those over 20 but God judged them differently.

Perhaps, this is why Adam was created as an adult in the Garden and not a child.