Age of accountability?

[Christianbookworm]

Incidentally, very few people today would defend the eternal damnation of infants, but Augustine did believe unbaptized babies went to hell.

Why? It's not the kid's fault if he didn't get baptized. What about babies that died in utero? I wonder if he was jealous of a younger family member and that's why he thought babies were evil and accountable.

[Cerebrum123]

Incidentally, very few people today would defend the eternal damnation of infants, but Augustine did believe unbaptized babies went to hell.

Mickiel was actually able to dig up an article that promoted that view IIRC.

[KingsGambit]

This is one reason I'm not willing to dismiss "reason" from the Wesleyan quadrilateral. Does this really fit the biblical picture of God? I think not.

[Christianbookworm]

This is one reason I'm not willing to dismiss "reason" from the Wesleyan quadrilateral. Does this really fit the biblical picture of God? I think not.

Oops. Didn't realize which position you likely meant.

[Christianbookworm]

This is one reason I'm not willing to dismiss "reason" from the Wesleyan quadrilateral. Does this really fit the biblical picture of God? I think not.

Think fundy atheists have enough of a problem with God killing the physical body? That can be reversed. Uncreating a mind probably would be permanent. Oh, you're referring to the idea of hell as a place of flames and torture? I agree that doesn't maake sense. Especially the 23 Minutes in Hell version that has demons torturing humans. I don't think God would allow that. The demons would be more wicked than the humans!

[bling]

Numbers 32:11 ‘Because they have not followed me wholeheartedly, not one of those who were twenty years old or more when they came up out of Egypt will see the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob

God did not punish those 19 and under, but would all of them been able to follow God wholeheartedly?

The “logic” behind those that cannot be held personally accountable for the free will choices being allowed into heaven, has to do with our understanding of God’s justice, fairness and Love.
If you believe God acts virtually arbitrarily in selecting who goes to heaven and who goes to hell, there is no reason God would have to allow those that die before reaching an age of accountability to go to heaven.

If you believe we are personally are responsible in some corporate way for Adam and Eve’s sin, you might be able to justify putting that same blame on an new born child.

The question always come up: “Than why do we not just kill everyone before they reach the age of accountability so they will go to heaven?”

The answer to that question has to do with “man’s objective while here on earth” and the fact a child cannot fulfill that objective, so a child will enter heaven without fulfilling the earthly objective and there is no way to fulfill that objective in heaven.

[JonathanL]

The reason why we shouldn't kill everyone before they reach the age of accountability (assuming that it is a valid concept) is because we simply do not have the authority to take another persons life except in some few exceptional cases. The authority to take a life belongs solely to God and it is only He who has the right to decree what sort of circumstances validates the taking of another person's life. Killing someone because you think they haven't yet reached the age of accountability has never been condoned by God, as far as I am aware, and the act would therefore be equivalent to a blatant disregard for God's authority. Not to mention the fact that the concept of age of accountability is hardly a self-evident concept, and the fact that in some cases you couldn't even be sure if the person had reached the age of accountability yet, and taken together these two facts would mean that you could never be sure if the persons you killed were going to heaven in the first place.

So while your answer might hold some validity, it is not the main answer to why we should not just kill everyone before they reach the age of accountability.

[Christianbookworm]

Also, by that logic, murdering Christians is okay because we go to Heaven.