Many questions have been raised about children’s age of accountability. It is defined as an age when the child is able to discern between right and wrong and can choose. It may be the age when children will no longer be taken to Heaven automatically when they die.
What does the Bible say about this?
We know that Jesus valued little ones and admonished not to harm them or prevent them from coming to Him. He has said that ALL children under the age of seven will be taken to Heaven when He comes for His faithful ones.
“But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.” Matthew 18:6
“In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.” Matthew 18:14
And yet when their parents are wicked, the children suffer.
“The people of Samaria must bear their guilt, because they have rebelled against their God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to the ground, their pregnant women ripped open." Hosea 13:16
Why did God kill children along with adults?
The children who lost their lives in the Flood, in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorra, and other places where God was no longer worshiped lost their physical lives but did not lose their spiritual life, their eternal life with God. Those children were blessed by God because they did not have to grow up in the midst of rampant perversion, where their minds and bodies would have been daily abused and twisted by vile adults.
Children of a righteous parent.
Can a righteous parent be assured that his/her children will be taken to Heaven with them, regardless of age and whether the child has accepted Jesus as his/her Lord and Savior?
“They replied, Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household." Acts 16:31
"Right then three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea stopped at the house where I was staying. The Spirit told me to have no hesitation about going with them. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man's house. He told us how he had seen an angel appear in his house and say, 'Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. 14He will bring you a message through which you and all your household will be saved.” Acts 11.11-14
Children can receive Jesus:
“And how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” 2 Tim 3.15
“Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” Prov. 22.6
“Samuel was ministering before the LORD - a boy wearing a linen ephod.” 1 Sam 2.18
From http://www.biblebell.org/accountability:
The Bible says children are not fully capable of distinguishing between good and evil. (Deuteronomy 1.39, Isa 7.16).
Numbers 14.29 and Deuteronomy 1.39 establish the precedent that God will NOT hold children responsible when He brings judgment for sin.
Those of you who have lost a child will be comforted.
Yes, your child is truly with the Lord in heaven. Yes, your
child is eternally free & healthy & happy. Yes, you WILL see your
beloved child again someday!
What a joyous reunion that will be!
There is a theory known as "the age of accountability."
Bible verses about the age of accountability:
Both Deuteronomy 1.39 and Isaiah 7.16 acknowledge that children "have no knowledge of good and evil" and do not have the maturity to "know to refuse evil and choose the good." But who is a "child" according to the Bible?
Being admitted to the Promised Land is not on the same level as being admitted to Heaven. So we cannot rely on the following passages as defining the age of accountability as some hope
In this desert your bodies will fall—every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me. Num 14:29
The Jews rebelled against God at the border of Canaan. God's judgment for this sin was that the Jews would wander in the wilderness for 40 years. During that wandering, ONLY those Jews who were aged 20 years and older would die (Num 14.29).In other words, the Jews who were 19 years old or younger were NOT held responsible for the rebellion. God permitted all of them to enter the Promised Land.