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Question for Christians:

What is the nature of the sin a child born a month ago committed for someone to suggest they are a sinner?

Is there no innocence of sin the day after birth?

If so, when is the earliest a child may sin?

tracycoyle 8 Oct 27
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Well, for what it's worth, as promised I have posted a blog article entitled "Infant Salvation and an 'Age of Accountability.'" In this article I offer a brief survey of Biblical principles that point in the direction of the salvation of infants, a position to which many -- perhaps most -- Evangelical Christians adhere.

[reformedbaptistblog.com]

The blog is written, of course, from my own theological perspective, but it is a perspective which I believe I can defend from the Bible itself.

Thank you. I read the article. I am not going to present an argument against your points, but I will make one observation and then ask a question:

Observation: In 1 Samuel 15 Saul is told to go slaughter the Amalek for their behavior towards the Israeli's hundreds of years earlier - is this not bringing the sins of the father upon the child?

If all are born into sin, how as Christ not? If He was not, then He never faced our true heritage. As Mary was born into sin...

@tracycoyle Very good, thoughtful questions! 🙂 (I'm not surprised.)

First, I don't know that God was bringing the sins of the Amalekite parents upon their children. Although I cannot possibly know the mind of God on the matter, I would offer a possible answer based upon the principles I suggested in the article. For example, if His intention was to save these children and bring them to heaven without their having to endure the lives their parents were bringing them into, then He may have been showing them a tremendous mercy. They were all going to die -- and that because they were sinners -- but perhaps He saw to it that they died early for a gracious purpose. Again, this is only conjecture, but it is possible given the aforementioned principles.

Second, Scripture indicates that Jesus was born without sin because He was conceived miraculously through the power of the Holy Spirit. This is implied in the prophetic announcement of Jesus’ birth by the angel Gabriel. Recall again Luke’s account of his pronouncement to Mary:

NKJ Luke 1:35 And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.”

The ESV translates this verse a bit differently:

ESV Luke 1:35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy — the Son of God.” (Italics mine.)

Whichever way it is translated, this statement by Gabriel informs us that, because he was born of a virgin by the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus was holy. That this holiness was more than just being set apart as one who was special to God, but that it included a moral holiness or perfection, is clear from the fact that He was also going to be the very Son of God, who could be nothing but morally perfect. It is also clear from what the rest of the Scriptures tell us about Christ. For example:

NKJ 2 Corinthians 5:21 For He made Him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Here the Apostle Paul connects Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins to His own sinlessness. In fact, the Scriptures teach that Jesus’ sinlessness is why He can be the perfect sacrifice for our sins. As the Apostle Peter wrote, for example:

NKJ 1 Peter 1:18-19 … knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

Anyway, I hope I have been able to adequately answer your questions from a Christian perspective as you had requested. Of course, I cannot know the precise answer to some questions and can only offer conjecture based upon Biblical reasoning, but I at least hope that I've been consistent in doing so.

Perhaps I should also add that some Biblical scholars see evidence in Scripture that a sin nature is passed down through the man rather than the woman, but I'm not so sure about that. One such scholar can be found here:

[carm.org]

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I'm currently putting together a blog article on the salvation of infants and the concept of an "age of accountability" from Scripture. It should, at least partly, answer your question. I'll post a link here when I get it posted.

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