On another recent thread a "discrepancy" was pointed out by a poster concerning what is commonly called the age of accountability. This discrepancy rather obviously is the belief that children are not going to hell if they have not come to the maturity level to understand what sin is. So if they don't go to hell they go heaven-- or in my preferred words, if they don't go into eternal torments, they have a place in the world to come. But this (at least the poster contended) must contradict the words of Jesus, that only by Him is there a way to the Father. And many, of course, extend this same dilemma to people born into a culture in which the gospel is not told-- are they 'accountable' for not believing something no one ever told them? I call this the "inverse gospel"-- that one must reject the gospel to be lost, rather than accept the gospel to be saved. Since this does present a problem, what is your answer?
[This is not a poll function because, in my view, the matter is more urgent and complex than simply checking an opinion box; explanations are needed.]
1) Those not told the gospel and young children, even still-born babies, go to eternal torment, as the inevitable conclusion from the citation seems to indicate.
2) The words of Jesus are certainly true, but as in other biblical examples, it is understood in context of who He was speaking to in what particular situation-- i.e., it's not absolutely true with no regard to other scriptures, such as "...of such [children] is the Kingdom of Heaven."
3) Since without the sacrifice of Jesus there would never have been forgiveness of sins [Hebrews 10:4]-- meaning in the Old Testament era anyone saved was saved by Jesus with no verbatim understanding of the gospel-- it was, and is still, possible to seek a Saviour, according to one's own level, without such understanding. Thus, it is still through Jesus that such a one comes to the Father.
4) Predestination settles it all-- if one dies a young child, or is never told the gospel because of circumstances of birth, that means any such person is not predestined to be saved anyway, so it doesn't matter.
5) Differs 'slightly ' from #4-- since God knows who [which soul] will come to Him and who won't, he allows those that won't to be born into a situation of ignorance of the gospel or to die very young.
6) This is just a copout dilemma-- from an objective human viewpoint it is horribly unfair for a baby to suffer eternal torment... but we can't understand the mind of God, whose ways are not our ways.
These are the basic 'answers' that I can see-- eliminating, of course, that the Bible is untrue or corrupted, or that there is no God. How do you answer this question?
[This is not a poll function because, in my view, the matter is more urgent and complex than simply checking an opinion box; explanations are needed.]
1) Those not told the gospel and young children, even still-born babies, go to eternal torment, as the inevitable conclusion from the citation seems to indicate.
2) The words of Jesus are certainly true, but as in other biblical examples, it is understood in context of who He was speaking to in what particular situation-- i.e., it's not absolutely true with no regard to other scriptures, such as "...of such [children] is the Kingdom of Heaven."
3) Since without the sacrifice of Jesus there would never have been forgiveness of sins [Hebrews 10:4]-- meaning in the Old Testament era anyone saved was saved by Jesus with no verbatim understanding of the gospel-- it was, and is still, possible to seek a Saviour, according to one's own level, without such understanding. Thus, it is still through Jesus that such a one comes to the Father.
4) Predestination settles it all-- if one dies a young child, or is never told the gospel because of circumstances of birth, that means any such person is not predestined to be saved anyway, so it doesn't matter.
5) Differs 'slightly ' from #4-- since God knows who [which soul] will come to Him and who won't, he allows those that won't to be born into a situation of ignorance of the gospel or to die very young.
6) This is just a copout dilemma-- from an objective human viewpoint it is horribly unfair for a baby to suffer eternal torment... but we can't understand the mind of God, whose ways are not our ways.
These are the basic 'answers' that I can see-- eliminating, of course, that the Bible is untrue or corrupted, or that there is no God. How do you answer this question?
