Tuesday, January 10, 2012

accountability: smooth as a baby's bottom

So one thing that has really had me perplexed is the "age of accountability". Like, at what point do children become accountable for their sin and therefore if they died without Christ, they would spend eternity away from His presence. There is one school of thought which believes that once a child is born, they are with sin and therefore would go to hell even if they die a day after they are born. Another believes that even if they die in the mother's womb, they would be in hell because they do not know Christ as their Lord and Savior.

Yet another, which is the category that I fall into, is that there is some "age of accountability" where up until that age, they are covered by God's grace and mercy because they have not had the mental capability to understand the gospel. But what is this age? Is it the same age for everyone or do some have the ability to understand the gospel before others? It is something that I struggle with now because I have a daughter who will be 3 in May. We pray with her and read the Bible with her all the while praying that one day God will open the eyes of her heart to His love and His word and that He will draw her to Himself.

So I search the scriptures to the only place that I can think of where there was a distinct moment where people had their first sin, Adam and Eve.

Genesis 3:6-7 says "So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths"

So here we see the very first sin. Before this, everything was perfect between man and God. The thing that I find interesting is that once they both ate of the fruit and sinned against God it says "Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked". So this got me thinking about my own daughter and how she has no shame when she is naked. In fact, I am fully convinced that if she had the opportunity, she would never wear any clothes regardless if we were in the comfort of our own home or in the mall or in church. But at some point during her younger years, she is going to want to wear clothes because she is going to be embarrassed to be naked. So is this the "age of accountability"? When we, as humans, know that we are naked and want to wear clothes to cover our nakedness?

Perhaps I am onto something (not likely) or perhaps I am completely off base (most likely) but it is something to think about.




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