Tom,
You might benefit from reading a Calvinist on this topic.
Little Innocents? by Sinclair FergusonProponents of the "age of accountability" will quote Scriptures that speak about a time when the children of Israel had no knowledge between good and evil. For example we read this in Deuteronomy.
Deuteronomy 1:39 "Moreover your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, and your children, which in that day had no knowledge between good and evil, they shall go in thither, and unto them will I give it, and they shall possess it."
This passage along with similar ones is interpreted by Arminians to demonstrate that children are not yet accountable because they have no knowledge of sin. But what the passage is really saying is that they had no knowledge of the 'sins of their fathers,' meaning they had no part in the previous rebellions, but not that they had no understanding of what was evil.
The Bible tells us that we (each and everyone of us) are born in sin and each of us and our children are accountable from conception on.
Psalms 51:5"Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.”
Psalms 58:3"The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.”
It comes down to this. Those who believe in an "age of accountability" put the emphasis on man's choosing because they believe in man’s free will. This is a serious error. Salvation is of God's will, on whosoever He will, not of man's free will. So those who hold this "age of accountability," see their children in some sort of probationary state and don’t believe in God's Sovereign right to save whoever He chooses and not be in obligation to save only those who choose Him.
Romans 9:15-16"For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is Not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy".
The age of accountablity is conception!
Wes
