The Age of Accountability

The phrase “age of accountability” is often used to denote the age at which a child is considered under the saving care of God until he becomes responsibility for his own sins.  This phraseology is not the best choice for defining this act because it implies that there is a certain age when a person becomes responsibility for his own sins.  If this is the case, then what is the age?  Many in the Christian dome hold to the belief that this age is twelve years old, based on the fact that this was the age that Jesus was found in the temple teaching (Luke 2:41-49).  It was traditional among the Jews that at twelve the Jewish male began his attendance at the three great religious feasts in Jerusalem.  If we hold to this principle, then only the male children would be covered under God’s saving care.  The female children would be left out. 

I don’t believe there is a certain “age” when a child reaches accountability; rather I believe it’s a certain “ability” when a child reaches accountability.  When a child reaches the mental ability to understand his need for the saving grace of God in his life because of his sins then he becomes responsible for his own sins.  This mental ability comes early in life for some children and later for others.   The implication is because of the mental deficiency of the child’s inability to exercise personal faith in God, he is granted, in the event of death, entrance into the kingdom by the sovereign operation of God’s grace.  When children die before reaching this mental ability, they go into the presence of the Lord because they are under the special protection of the sovereign Lord.  God’s mercy is graciously extended to those children and through sovereign regeneration, they are granted entrance into heaven.

Such was the case with David’s son he lost who was born to Bathsheba (2 Samuels 12).  "I shall go to him," David said, "but he will not return to me" (2 Sam. 12:23).   Although this statement conveys that he must visit the grave as his son has visited the grave, there is a deeper meaning to the statement.  John Macarthur shares that “the personal pronouns I and him, as well as David's confident belief in the life to come (see Acts 2:25-28; Ps. 16:8-11), lend credence to the idea that he was confident of personal consciousness and identity in the life to come. David knew that he himself belonged to God and would one day enter His presence, and he had equal confidence that, when he entered the Lord's presence he would meet the little son who had preceded him”. 

Job shares several statements that give credibility to the saving care of God to children.  Look what he expresses in his depression and desolation in Job 3:1-17;  " ¹ After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day. ² And Job spake, and said, ³ Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived. ⁴ Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it. ⁵ Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it. ⁶ As for that night, let darkness seize upon it; let it not be joined unto the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months. ⁷ Lo, let that night be solitary, let no joyful voice come therein. ⁸ Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning. ⁹ Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; let it look for light, but have none; neither let it see the dawning of the day: ¹⁰ Because it shut not up the doors of my mother's womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes. ¹¹ Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly? ¹² Why did the knees prevent me? or why the breasts that I should suck? ¹³ For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest, ¹⁴ With kings and counsellors of the earth, which built desolate places for themselves; ¹⁵ Or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver: ¹⁶ Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light. ¹⁷ There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest (Job 3:1-17)”.

Job is expressing in his misery that being still-born would put him in a place of rest rather than having to face this life of trouble. He certainly didn't believe that infants that die go to hell and some eternal torment, but rather had the confidence that they entered into rest.  This rest would only be found in the presence of the Lord.

Also in Ecclesiastes chapter 6:3 to 5, Solomon shares as he laments that a still-born child is better off than a person who lives a thousand years twice and doesn't enjoy the right things. He says, "What's the point of living two thousand years if you don't ever enjoy true goodness, you'd be better off a still-born child."

Jesus in several passages likens the kingdom of God to children (Matt. 19:13-15; Mk. 10:13-16; Lk. 18:15-17). Let’s look at several principles taught in these passages.

Firstly, the kingdom of God is the sphere of God’s rule in Christ through His saving grace.  Secondly, the children are those who range from the age of infancy through perhaps toddler age based on the Greek word used for children, paidia.   Thirdly, the children are the participants and the portrait of the kingdom of God. They make up the kingdom of God and serve as a model of the kingdom of God.  The children are under God’s saving care.

In conclusion, to add to the validation of this principle, look at the flip side of the coin.  Does Scripture support infant damnation?  Does Scripture teach damnation of those with the inability to exercise personal faith?  Children who are still-born; children who are infants and toddlers who are not able to comprehend; children who may even be in their adolescent or teens who are mentally impaired; or even adults who are physically fit but lack in the mental capacity!  Although in Revelation chapter 20, verses 11 and 12, damnation is taught,  nowhere in the Scripture can support be found concerning damnation to those with the inability to exercise personal faith.  Notice that all the people who are sent to hell forever are sent there based upon a record that God has kept and it is a record of their...what?...their sins.