THE
"AGE OF ACCOUNTABILITY" HERESY
"The wicked are estranged from the
womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking
lies." // "The imagination of man’s heart is evil from his
youth" // "Behold, I was shapen in
iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Psalm 58:3, Genesis
The idea that God does not hold
those under a certain age accountable for their sins contradicts the clear
teaching of Scripture. The Bible not only says no such thing but in many
passages teaches the exact opposite.
The idea that anyone, infant or
otherwise, can get into heaven without forgiveness, without faith in Christ, on
the basis of their own innocence, flies in the face of all the Bible passages
that tell us that is simply not true. First of all the Bible says, “they that are in the flesh cannot please God,” for “without
faith it is impossible to please him” (Hebrews 11:6, Romans 8:8). Therefore,
age has nothing to do with our standing before God! It is faith, and faith
alone, that determines who is innocent in the sight of God and who is not.
Second, the Bible plainly tells us
that, “All unrighteousness is sin,” including the unrighteousness of a nature
that is, “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” That is why it
is written, “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,” and that is
why there is “none righteous, no, not one.” [Romans
Third, the Bible tells us that “all,” not just those
above a certain age, “have sinned,” tells us that we are by our very nature
“children of wrath,” and by the words, “Behold, I was shapen
in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me,” makes it clear that infants
and even embryos are sinful in the sight of God (Romans 3:23, Ephesians 2:3,
Psalm 51:5, Job 14:4).
Fourth, because “the wages of sin
is death,” if infants were not sinners, infants would never die (Romans
Those who hold to the myth of
infant “innocence” stubbornly cling to the idea that infants can be saved on
the basis of their own righteousness, in spite of what the Bible says. Either
they assume that infants cannot sin (and thus have achieved righteousness by
the law), or they assume that God somehow lowers the standard for them, by not
holding them accountable. However, lowering the standard amounts to nothing
more than giving them a different law to keep. Therefore, both views assume
that righteousness comes by the law, and that infants have achieved that
righteousness.
The Bible tells us that the law
cannot make infants “innocent,” when it says, “That no man is justified by the
law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just
shall live by faith” (Galatians
The Bible also tells us that
lowering the standard will not make infants “innocent” when it says, “If there
had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should
have been by the law” (Galatians 3:21).
Since the idea of infant “innocence” or an “age of
accountability” clearly contradicts the teaching of scripture, those who teach
it are rebelling against God (Psalm 107:11). And when they try to get around
what the Bible says, or explain it away, they only prove that they have a
spirit of error (1John 4:6).
Because every doctrine that
contradicts Scripture is satanic in origin such doctrines will produce satanic
fruit, and, while the fruit of some errors is hard to detect, the fruit of the
“age of accountability” myth is clearly evil.
On a number of occasions I have encountered people who
never tried to lead their children to faith, or even talked to them about
salvation, because they were convinced that their children did not need to
“worry” about salvation until they reached the “age of accountability.”
However, Christ said, “Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them
not: for of such is the
The Bible also says, “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise” (Matthew
Another evil fruit that has its
root in the “age of accountability” doctrine is tolerance for abortion. I am
aware that many people who hold that doctrine oppose abortion. However, I once
looked through a book in which the author, while claiming to be against
abortion, dogmatically asserted that God was using abortion to “fill heaven.”
What could be more satanic than that? It ought to be obvious that if all
infants were saved Satan would be fighting abortion, not promoting it.
A third evil fruit has to do with
the fact that those who hold the “age of accountability” doctrine twist
Scripture in a vain attempt to find support for that doctrine. I know of one
man who claimed that “because those who are present at the last judgement will be judged by their works, infants will not
be condemned.” However, that is the same old delusion of works righteousness
that I dealt with in the last section. The passages that warn of God’s judgement say nothing about an “age of accountability,”
that idea is simply being read into the text. Moreover, what the man in
question clearly does not understand (even though he is the head of a seminary)
is that when we are judged by our works, only those who trust in Christ will be
found sinless, because only those who trust in Christ will have all of their
sins washed away by the blood of Christ (1John 1:7-9). That is what the Bible
is talking about when it refers to “the righteousness of God which is by faith
of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe,”
or when it says, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one
that believeth” (Romans
Another argument that I have seen
used to support the “age of accountability” doctrine has to do with the fact
that only those who were under twenty years of age when Moses led
While the Bible makes it perfectly
clear that infants are sinners and that no one can be saved apart from faith in
Christ, there are a few passages which may indicate that the infant children of
believers are saved. In saying that I must make it clear that the evidence is
not conclusive, yet we need to look at what the Bible says.
First of all, after the death of the
child born of David’s sin with Bathsheba, David said, “I shall go to him, but
he shall not return to me” (2 Samuel
Another thing to consider is that
David fasted and besought God for the life of the child before it died, and
since faith is a gift of God, the child may have ended up in heaven in answer
to that prayer. Again, we cannot be certain, and even if we could it would be
dishonest to try to turn that one isolated incident into a general rule.
Second, because Jesus said of the
infants who were brought to Him, “Of such is the
In spite of what the Bible says
there are many people who want to believe that infants can be saved apart from
faith in Christ. However, self-delusion will only hinder the salvation of
souls. Because the Bible says nothing about the salvation of infants, we ought
to entrust them to God’s justice, without trying to delude ourselves. I once
heard someone suggest that infants who die without Christ may never experience
a greater level of consciousness than they had when they died, but that is
conjecture and should be recognized as such. Many believe that God’s saving
grace is bestowed on infants through baptism, however, that belief is
inconsistent with the fact that the Bible does not command or even explicitly
mention infant baptism.
What we do know for certain is that
no infant can be saved apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ (Acts
I am aware that the faith of an
infant would not be the same as the faith of an adult. Yet, the very fact that
God can work faith in the heart of an infant should move all of us to begin
praying for our children while they are yet in the womb. Because Christ
encouraged those who wanted Him to bless their children, if we ask Him to
receive our children into His care, instill faith in their heart, and forgive
their sin, we can be certain that our prayer is in accord with His will (Luke
18:16). For that reason, we ought to go eagerly to Him in prayer, claiming that
promise of blessing for our infants. In fact, why not have
parents bring their infants before the congregation so that the
congregation might join with them in committing those infants unto God – by
asking God to grant those children faith, forgive them, and receive them into
His care. His Word assures us that He is able to “keep” those children that we
“have committed unto Him,” (2 Timothy
As Christians we have a
responsibility to critically examine our own ideas, and bring our thinking into
accord with the Word of God (2 Corinthians 10:5, Romans 12:2). However, Satan
is not going to make it easy for us. In fact, if you have accepted a false
doctrine, he may lead you to place great importance on that doctrine as a way
of leading you to distort what the Bible says, or to deny and explain away any
passages of Scripture that contradict that doctrine. Therefore, we need to
realize how important it is for us to bring our thinking into accord with the
Word of God. In that regard, the following statements apply to all men, infants
included. “By the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation,”
for, “by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners,” and “Scripture hath
concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be
given to them that believe (Galatians 3:22, Romans 5:18-19). Those who ignore
or explain away those words are rebelling against God (Psalm 107:11, 1 John
4:6).