Infant Baptism Part 2: Is there an age of accountability?

It is widely taught these days that there is an age of accountability and if you die before you reach this age, you automatically go to heaven because you haven’t aged/matured enough to be held accountable for any of your sins. Is this a biblical view, or an unbiblical view?

The view that there is an age of accountability assumes that people make the choice of whether they believe or not and are therefore in charge of whether they receive salvation or not. According to what the bible says, this is not the case.

“There is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, there is not even one.” (Romans 3:11-12)

“The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; There is no one who does good. The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.” (Psalm 14:1-3)

Obviously according to scripture we do not look for or seek God apart from His work.

“All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.”

“For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren, and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.” (Romans 8:29-30)

However it is very evident in scripture that God calls people to himself and that is where our salvation comes in. Salvation is absent apart from God, there is nothing we can do to bring ourselves to a point of receiving salvation. Remembering that there are none who seeks for God in combination with the fact that we have all sinned means that infants are not without sin.

“…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” (Romans 3:23)

We can see now that there is no age of accountability taught in the bible but rather that God chooses whom He will. While this is probably something that is hard to grasp for many, (it used to be for me as I was raised Nazarene and stood for most of my life on the Arminian side of things) that not everybody has a chance at heaven. Just remember that without God choosing any of us, none of us would ever reach heaven or get to experience His grace and mercy. Rather than being upset with God for doing things His way, I urge you to be all the more thankful for your salvation. As Paul said, “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.” (1 Cor. 16:23)

Infant Baptism Part 1: Biblical or Unbiblical?

One of the most controversial beliefs of all time is whether infant baptism first of all is biblical, and second of all is sufficient for salvation.

Infant baptism goes back to the the year 200 AD when it is first mentioned by a leader in the church in North Africa, Tertullian. Even though Tertullian was the first one to mention infant baptism, in his writing he was actually arguing against the tradition. The most influential person in the early church who held to the practice of infant baptism was Augustine. Augustine was a big believer in sacramentalism which is obviously where his practice of infant baptism comes in. While he practiced this tradition and taught that it was done in the early church, he was never made a reference to anyone that actually taught that this was a way of salvation.

The whole reason for infant baptism came with sacramentalism (a belief in or emphasis on the importance and efficacy of the sacraments for achieving salvation and conferring grace). Since baptism was considered a sacrament, and sacraments were supposedly a means of grace given to the church, all of a sudden the church is in charge of salvation. This in effect is putting the church above God in stating that the church has the ability to give salvation. Summing it up, infant baptism is not sufficient for salvation and is unbiblical.

Coming up next is Part 2: Is there an age of accountability?

Following that is Part 3: If baptism doesn’t save, what does?

If it’s not controversial, it’s not Christianity!

            Why the name, “Controversial Christianity”? I figured that since this is my first post and my blog is called Controversial Christianity that I would share with you the reason I chose this name.

            First of all, I believe that if the gospel message that you put out there isn’t controversial, it’s probably not the true gospel; either that or you’re preaching to the choir. As the New Testament suggests, we Christians are set apart from the world and are to be different from the world. What follows along with that is that the world will hate us for standing out from it and living life in a way that they see as stupid, ignorant, disastrous, radical, or any other word you can think of that Christians may be called.

                “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.” (John 15:18-19)

            We are to conform ourselves and our minds daily to imitate Christ.

                “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”  (Romans 12:2)

            God placed us here to bring Him glory; in order to bring Him glory we follow His standards rather than the worlds; the world in return hates us for this and their hate makes our Christianity controversial. Thanks for your interest in this blog. I plan to continually update this at least 2x a week so please stop by. Feel free to e-mail me and ask me any questions at biblicalchristianity@gmx.com I’m not an expert by any means on religion but I would love to talk with you and we can hopefully learn from each other.

            God, I thank you for the time you’ve allowed me to have to write and share your name with others. I pray that you would help me to communicate your word effectively and most importantly to present it in its correct context. I pray for all those that are out there that need your touch tonight God, help them to see you and know your Truth. Amen.