Quote:
Originally Posted by SpeakersCorner
As for the two verses, I am familiar with them both. I have always taken them to mean we are born sinners. I never bought the Catholic "age of accountability" teaching. But now I am beginning to believe it is more complicated than I once thought. It does seem to me that newborns, naked as they are and unaware of it, are miniature Adams. The problem is, they are not born into Eden. They are born into a family of sinners with an environment that is tainted by sin. This might be how they are were conceived in sin ... a sinful environment, even a sinful womb.
|
I believe that this is why it is so difficult. A simplistic age of accountability seems arbitrary and unscriptural, yet there is some evidence that simply saying we are sinners from birth and if we die too young are merely doomed to perdition is also not clearly true.
I cannot add true value to the conversation other than to see it from the proverbial 40,000 ft. perspective. Man that fell as the consequence of free will has the option of coming to redemption through similar exercise of free will. (I will not try to reconcile the free will v predestination aspects. I decided that it was not good for my brain some years ago.) That a child who has insufficient awareness to exercise knowledgeable free will might be given a "free pass" is not incompatible.
On the other hand, I think that all of us who are parents often wonder how early an age there is a lot of free will to disobey at work in their children. Not saying anything particular — just making an observation.