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.
