AMT | What is the age of accountability?

hey this is Steven and we come to our fifth question in this row of questions that we're dealing with at one time and this question has to do with the age of accountability that might be something you've heard of before in Christian circles and it has to do with the the age at which a child is accountable to know right and wrong before God and this is something that humans have recognized since the dawn of civilization even in our modern secular cultures we still acknowledge the age of accountability you know there's a there's a certain age in which you can drive a car you can vote you can drink alcohol because we're assuming that you're at an age where you are accountable for what you do you understand the seriousness of what you're doing you respect it it's an age of accountability in tribes and countries around the world they have ceremonies in which a child enters manhood it's an age of accountability you're no longer a child you're you're no longer dependent on your parents you're a man now or a woman you have responsibilities and duties of adulthood and among our Jewish friends you all know there's there's Bar Mitzvah and Bat Mitzvah so almost everyone believes in an age of accountability but when this question comes to in to the Christian community there is some disagreement about how it applies to to the church we in the reformed church also believe in an age of accountability but it differs slightly from some of our our brothers and other denominations which is okay this is not an essential question of the faith it shouldn't divide us but it's important to know the differences for us the age of accountability is marked by what we call confirmation or catechesis or catechism or when someone joins the church as a communing member a confirmation is that religious event in which you are declared and an adult so to speak in the church you're you're old enough now to take part in the life of Church you can you can vote on Church matters you can use your gifts and serve the church you can take an office in the church and most importantly it's it's it's a time and what you're signifying that you stand on your own two feet as a Christian you're no longer under your parents house and their faith this faith is now entirely yours even if your parents become Buddhists tomorrow you are with Jesus before you came to church because you had to with the family but now you come to church because you want to the faith of your parents is now entirely yours one way I like to explain it to parents is is by looking at an apple tree you know I think about an apple tree and there's an apple hanging on one of the branches and it it's a young Apple not yet ripe but is that we would all acknowledge that that Apple is alive right but is that Apple alive independently of the tree and I think we'd all say no that that Apple is alive but it's depending upon the nourishing SAP of the tree and that's how we see the children of the church they are alive they are in Christ they are members of the body of Christ and of his family but not yet independently of their parents they're still dependent on their parents faith for their life however however at some point that child must fall away from the tree and into good soil and up will spring a sapling of faith independent of the of the mother tree of the parent and it will bear fruit on its own now this this this can happen at different ages depending on the maturity of the child but this is how we see the age of accountability that time in which the Apple falls away from the tree and it takes on a life of its own and what we're basically saying now in confirmation is now you're an adult now you're a responsible member of the covenant family to bear fruit this is a very different way of seeing the age of accountability than some other denominations according to some other denominations the age of accountability has to do with that age in which you're responsible to either put your trust in Christ for the first time or not to join the church or not you don't belong to God's people but now you've made a decision and you do belong to God's people and on the one hand I can understand this view of the age of accountability because of something Peter said at Pentecost in acts 2:38 Peter said repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins well that seems to make sense you have to reach that age of accountability you have to be old enough to be able to repent to be able to believe and be saved right that makes sense however this view creates a problem for infants and for the severely disabled because they are not able to confess yet so if salvation begins a confession that excludes all babies in the severely disabled from salvation so because we can't have that that forces us to invent a doctrine that isn't necessarily spelled out in the Bible which is the idea that all children then must be saved we have to say that otherwise no children would be saved you see because they're not able to repent and believe okay but if all children are saved automatically before the age of accountability that creates another problem because then we have to ask at what age does that automatic salvation end you know at what point does the childlike innocence end that's something I want to know I mean from one day to the next one day my child is innocent and going to heaven if he dies and the next he's accountable and going to hell if he hasn't yet put his faith in Jesus what age is that is it 16 19148 no one knows because the Bible doesn't say anything about it but I would really like to know that so this is some of the differences between the two main Christian views of the age of accountability their view the other view of the age of accountability has to do with all the children of the world whereas ours applies only to the children of the church we believe that the chill of believers are part of the family of Christ in 1st Corinthians 7 it says that even one believing parent the child of one believing parent is holy it belongs to God into his family and remember although Peter did say in acts 2:38 that we need to repent and believe in order to be saved he also said this in the very next verse he says for the promise is for you and for your children so we believe that children are a part of the covenant community the family of God however at some point the apple must fall from the tree and a child must confirm his or her own personal faith in Jesus Christ and their willingness and readiness to be his disciple it's not as though they didn't belong to God before that point and now they do that's how the other side sees it and I respect that view but I disagree we say no the child of at least one believing parent has belonged to God and his family since the womb but now at the age of accountability at some age in which the parents and the elders talk together about and discuss the maturity of the child they are accountable to make a decision and stand on their own two feet before before Christ and with Christ they're accountable to serve the church with their gifts to participate in worship and the mission of the church so that's how we understand the age of accountability it's a great question I hope I hope my answer helps you a little bit and I hope that you'll research it yourself and come to a great conclusion thanks again for the question

Channel: Neuenburg International Church

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Keywords: iMovie

Id: oiI1an8CVoU

Length: 8min 19sec (499 seconds)

Published: Wed May 13 2020