You may be eagerly waiting for a verse of scripture which defines “the age of accountability”. There is no need to jump ahead to the end of the article; as I will not keep the reader in suspense. There is no such verse. The reader who has been raised in church is probably thinking at this point, “Well, there may not be a specified age in the scriptures, but certainly the scriptures would state that prior to a certain point in life; a child who dies, is guaranteed to go directly to Heaven!” Again, no, you will not find such a verse.
Preachers who believe that at least some (if not, “most”) of the descendants of Adam will be forever lost to God have attempted to provide people with palatable answers to tough questions. Sometimes it is a grieving parent or other family member, who has lost a child. The parent was raised in church themselves and having heard the teaching that all who “do not accept Jesus Christ” will go to hell are understandably terrified that their child; whom they loved with all their heart may be tormented forever and ever and ever and ever and ever. Sometimes, it is a curious Bible student who will ask such questions. I have often wondered if the preacher or theologian varies his answer depending on who is asking or depending on the audience. Many preachers will go on and on about eternal torment but suddenly sound like a “Universalist” at a funeral.
I can remember, as a child, hearing a preacher who was preaching about hell, and he described “eternity” in the following manner: “When you die, eternity begins (which is nonsense, but it gets worse). And if you can imagine a seagull that takes a single grain of sand, at a time, from the East Coast to the West Coast and back, after the seagull has moved all the sand from the East Coast to the West Coast and all the sand from the West Coast to the East Coast; that amount of time would be the first second in eternity!”
The question of where children, the mentally handicapped, and people who have never heard the gospel, “end up” has very likely been asked as long as the topic of “hell” has been taught. It may interest you to know that this is not a question asked by people in the Bible. But, if Jesus “preached more about hellthan He did about heaven’ (as so many preachers love to say, and which is also, incorrect), certainly some concerned parent would have asked Jesus Christ or pulled one of the disciples off to the side and asked them. But, no, the scriptures record no such conversation.
Those, like me, who believe that all will eventually be saved through the Plan God carried out through Christ Jesus are accused by many Christians of “inventing a way to God, other than His Son”. They will quickly refer to Christ’s words in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”, as if we disagree with that. I have yet to meet a believer in biblical universal reconciliation who does not believe that Jesus is the way. We simply, readily believe that passages like Philippians 2:10 are referring to everyone eventually coming to the truth, and gladly making acclamation of the fact that Christ Jesus is Lord, to the glory of the Father. 1Corinthians 12:3 says no one can make that acclamation apart from the Holy Spirit. Paul states in 1 Timothy 2:3-6 that God wills that all will be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.
In actuality, it is evangelical doctrines like the age of accountability which make “another way to God”. Think about it. I haven’t heard one Christian who believes in the age of accountability say that a child is not born with sin. They will also say that the only way to Heaven is to “accept Jesus”. Well, it is the only way, unless you fit into one of evangelical Christianity’s loopholes. With the age of accountability doctrine, they have created the loophole of “incapacity”. The child or mentally handicapped didn’t have the capacity to “accept Jesus”, therefore, incapacity is the way they “go to heaven”. Some have created a similar loophole for those who died never hearing of the gospel. For them, the loophole is “ignorance”.
Instead, I think it is safer to go with what the scriptures actually say. Below is one such statement from scripture:
“Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life” (Rom. 5:18)
I can’t think of one person group that the “all” of both clauses above, does not cover.
Does the Bible address the death of infants? King David lost an infant son, prior to the birth of Solomon. The two verses which record what David had to say about this are quite interesting.
“And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, Who can tell whether GOD will be gracious to me, that the child may live? But now he is dead, wherefore, should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.” (2 Sam. 12:22-23)
When we read this passage, what is not said is as informative as what is said. David doesn’t say, “My child is in a better place.”, nor does he say, “My child is walking the streets of gold.”, nor does he say, “My child went to be with God.” Instead, David shows a contrast between his actions when the baby was still alive, versus, after the baby had died. He says that there is no point in fasting or praying now. He also says that the baby will not return to him, but “I will go to him.” Go to him, where? Surely, David is saying that he will go to heaven to be with his baby, right? To read that into the passage would be to take great liberties with the passage. There is no joy hinted at with David’s saying. As a matter of fact, that kind of language is used throughout the scriptures as a figure of speech for the death state. Throughout the Old Testament, when it speaks of someone who died, this kind of language is used. Thirty-six times, when someone died, the scripture states that person “slept with his fathers”. The writer of Genesis records that God spoke to Abram, saying:
“And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.”
When Jacob was near death, he wanted Joseph to bury him with his fathers and not in Egypt,
“But I will lie with my fathers, and thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their buryingplace. And he said, I will do as thou hast said.”
When David’s baby died, he also didn’t wonder if the child were in heaven or hell. Why is that? Did the scriptures indicate that babies who die “go to heaven”? No, they do not. When studying the scriptures, no Israelite seems to have ever anticipated “going to heaven”. It’s true. Nowhere, in the Old Testament scriptures does an Israelite ever mention “going to heaven”. Also, in the Old Testament, there are no warnings of “going to hell”.
The Israelites who knew the scriptures and knew the “One true GOD” knew that the wages of sin, was not “eternity” in a place of torment. Adam and Eve were never warned about a place of “eternal torment” for disobeying God. Moses never warned the children of Israel of a place of eternal torment if they disobeyed the laws of God. The prophets never once warned the Kings of Israel or the priests about a place of eternal torment,not-even-once.
God warned Adam and Eve of death for disobeying the one commandment given to them. Moses warned the children of Israel of God removing His blessings from them, bringing judgments against them, and death for disobeying God’s laws. The prophets warned the Kings and priests of the same things. All the warnings were temporal and dealing with life and death.
The reason why David didn’t speak of his baby walking on the streets of gold, or worry that his baby may be tormented forever, was simply because unlike the Christians of today, David knew the scriptures. The false teachings of “immortality of the soul” and eternal torment have replaced scriptural teaching. Since death has been made to be just another form of life, or life in another place; the “wages of sin” being death, has lost all meaning.
In the New Testament, Jesus Christ spoke of resurrection. He comforted Martha, the sister of Lazarus, that he would be raised again at the last day. The apostle Paul encouraged believers not to grieve as those who have no hope. Paul also, did not talk about dead believers being alive in another place, having gone to heaven, walking the streets of gold, having “gone to be with the Lord”, or any such unbiblical thing. Instead, like Jesus Christ, Paul used the typical expression of sleep to talk about those who are dead. Below are some examples of sleep being used as a figure of speech for death:
“Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may wake him out of sleep.” (John 11:11)
“For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption.” (Acts 13:36)
“Behold, I shall show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,” (1 Cor. 15:51)
In what way can sleep be used figuratively for the death state, if when we die we are fully conscious, aware, experiencing bliss or pain, speaking, thinking, and any other activity people claim the dead are “doing”? What is the need of resurrection if we are actually alive when we are dead? It is utter Pagan, unscriptural, nonsense. It makes resurrection redundant and unnecessary. It makes death a friend, rather than an enemy (which the scriptures call it in 1 Corinthians 15:26).
We experience a type and shadow of death and resurrection every night and every morning; assuming that you aren’t currently suffering from insomnia. We go to sleep (a figure of death) and then we wake up (a figure of resurrection).
It is truly amazing to what extent “learned” theologians and pastors will go to attempt to make a biblical case for the age of accountability doctrine. Dr. John MacArthur does an excellent job of pointing out the buffoonery and twisting of scripture by the likes of Charismatic preachers like Kenneth Copeland and Joel Osteen, but he is no better when it comes to issues like the age of accountability (and other very important scriptural topics). There is absolutely zero scriptural support for it. It is actually a knee-jerk reaction to the horrible teaching that if an “un-elect” child dies (even a baby) that child will burn in helljust like any other unsaved (un-elect) individual. John MacArthur, deep down, knows how repugnant that teaching is; so making a philosophical argument, he clings to the false doctrine of the age of accountability, in the hopes that he can string enough out-of-context scriptures and logic together; to save God’s good name, from such malign.
MacArthur says, “So, I have always felt that somewhere around age twelve, the transition from childhood to adulthood takes place.”
The emphasis on “felt” and “twelve” is mine. “Felt” is a good word for MacArthur to use in this context, because much like the Charismatics who he beats up on, he is arguing from an emotional perspective here. He picks the age of ‘twelve” to be the approximate age in which the age of accountability may be found. Interestingly, MacArthur uses the ripped from the context Numbers 32:11 as a quasi-proof text for the age of accountability. See the verse below,
“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” (Numbers 32:11)
If this passage is a proof of the age of accountability, God set the threshold to be age 20 for those who would not be allowed to enter the Promised Land. MacArthur, on the other hand, believes that age 12 is more accurate. Maybe kids are more mature today than they were back in the day of wandering in the wilderness. Of course, depending on when MacArthur remarked on this, perhaps that age is closer to 9 years old now. Who knows?
MacArthur grabs another passage to bolster his reason for using the age of 12, and this is an amazing feat of eisegesis and hermeneutic on his part.
“Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast” (Luke 2:41-42)
Rather than reading from the text and recognizing that it is setting the stage to describe the life of Jesus Christ and giving us the background for when, why, and how old He was when a certain key event took place; MacArthur interprets it this way:
“The Jews had identified about the age of twelve, and that was when Jesus was taken by His parents to Jerusalem for the Passover and the Feast.”1
Picture the ridiculousness if you will. Joseph looks at Mary and says, “You know, Jesus is twelve now and we really need to be thinking about his eternal destiny. We haven’t taken Him to the Temple, so we better take Him when we go this year; after all, we Jews have identified about the age of twelve…”
So, John MacArthur uses two passages of scripture which use two varying measuring points for a doctrine which neither passage is teaching; to support a doctrine that is non-existent in scripture. Dr. MacArthur says the following when it comes to infants and children who die prior to making a “decision for Christ”:
“But, I also believe, that up until that point of real saving faith, God in His mercy, would save that child, should that child die.”2
MacArthur is simply attempting to throw a coat of whitewash onto his very adamant views on salvation being entirely of God, but in his heart of hearts believing it would be unjust of God to allow a child to be lost. He has spoken and written at length about how it is of God’s choosing; who is elect for salvation. MacArthur adeptly hits all the pertinent and undeniable passages of scripture which state emphatically that it is not the sinner, but rather, God Who “in eternity past” (another nonsense phrase)determines whom He will harden and upon whom, He will have mercy. Read MacArthur’s words below about salvation and predestination:
“And I have often said, if you believe the bible, you believe in predestination. If you believe the Bible, you believe in God choosing who would be saved. If you believe the Bible, you believe that God determined who would be saved...”3
MacArthur apparently has no qualms with stating that before a sinner comes into being that God has predestined that sinner for either Heaven or hell; but when it comes to the actual question of what happens to a baby or child who dies, MacArthur’s conscience and emotion take control. On that philosophical point, he scrounges and scratches and rips any verse from context in the hopes of vindicating God from the vile idea that while a baby may be predestined by God to burn in hellfor eternity; it only becomes repugnant if the un-elect baby actually dies as a baby. If the baby, whom God chose to harden, grows to adulthood (or the age of 12 or 20) and then dies; it becomes not only just for God to torture the young man in hellfor evermore; but it becomes a part of the mystery of the goodness of God, at that point.
That is how depraved most Christians are when it comes to the ultimate outcome of God’s creatures. They have bought the lie that God will allow any to be forever lost. Due to the spurious mistranslation of a handful of words, they completely ignore the statements about God’s unending mercy, God’s will that all be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth, that anything God wills; He will do; that He charged His Son with taking away the sin of the world, that He charged His Son with finding that which was lost, that He will reconcile all things through the blood of the cross. No, none of these things will happen in the minds of most Christians who claim to believe the Bible. For the Calvinist, God’s love, His plan, and Christ’s work was only for the elect. For the Arminian, these passages are merely the whimsical hopes of a “god” who impotently wants, wills, desires, and hopes, for all to be reconciled to him; but is completely incapable of bringing it to pass; due to his plan’s self -inflicted wound of giving his creatures a free will which can override his will.
I think that MacArthur naturally recoils at the horror that God would torment a baby who dies without saving knowledge; but does so at the cost of his intellectual honesty. For MacArthur, in God’s sovereignty, all those who die prior to reaching this mythical “age of accountability” were the elect. He can’t find a verse for it; but…it just must be so!!! He has reasoned that all who have died before reaching this age of accountability are elect.
MacArthur is correct when it comes to God’s sovereignty in salvation. I do believe that God elects some to belief, during this life. But, MacArthur, and most other Calvinists make the mistake of assuming that only the elect will ultimately be saved. On that, he is incorrect. All the elect are saved; but not all the saved are elect. It is the job of the elect to bring in the rest. Who do you suppose believers will reign over when the knowledge of God is to fill the earth (Hab. 2:14)? God has allowed the elect to have a special role in bringing others to a knowledge of the truth. This is the “especial” (not “exclusive”) salvation spoken of by Paul in 1 Timothy 4:10.
God does not elect a handful and wash His hands of all the rest.
For those who have been troubled by the worry that a loved one died and wasn’t a believer; rest in the knowledge that God loves that loved one of yours, even more than you. While He may have not given him or her faith (Eph. 2:8-9) in this life, He will do so. Read the below verse and keep in mind that God is not impotent. What He decrees, will stand. His Word will not return to Him void. He will accomplish His good pleasure and we need not invent a “loophole” to have the confidence it will happen.
MacArthur, John, “The Age of Accountability” last modified on unspecified date.
https://www.gty.org/library/Articles/A264
2 MacArthur, John, “The Age of Accountability” last modified on unspecified date.
https://www.gty.org/library/Articles/A264
3 MacArthur, John, “The Doctrine of Election, Part 1” last modified September 19, 2004.
https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/90-273/the-doctrine-of-election-part-1
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