As I often do, I was listening to a television preacher who was speaking about the beginning of life in the womb. He was attacking the abortionist which is very commendable. His text was Psalm 139:15-16, where the Psalmist said that God knew him in his mother's womb.
The preacher's teaching on this subject was as it should be; but then he carried that unborn child on to birth, speaking of the INNOCENCE of the child until what he termed the "age of accountability." He emphasized again the INNOCENT child. Here is a question:
And if so, when does it become guilty before God? A new-born infant has the nature of his father Adam which the Psalmist of Psalm 139:15-16 knew right well. David wrote in Psalm 58:3-5, "The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear, which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely."
In Psalm 51:5 David penned these words: "Behold I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me."
If plain language means anything, there is no such being as an INNOCENT child. Children may be washed in the Blood of Christ and have their sins forgiven, but NO HUMAN since Adam has been INNOCENT. If so, the doctrine of original sin is foolishness; but of course, religionists would deny this clear teaching anyway. If there were no other place in the Bible with clear teaching that when Adam sinned the whole race was destroyed spiritually, it is in Romans 5:12.
As dear and important as children are to us, we MUST be truthful with them. We must tell them of their sinful nature at an early age. This INNOCENT teaching has spawned the anti-christ thinking that "children will be children."
I have encountered this time after time in parents who would tell me that little Johnny wouldn't do THAT - but little Johnny WOULD! We teach children that they have a good heart, and what they do is excused because of their "innocence."
The law does not apply to anyone under 18, because they are yet "innocent." I read in the newspaper just this morning of a 15-year old boy shooting his father, mother, and sister. The authorities were puzzled as to the motive. If it were not for this "innocent" teaching, the motive would be clear. The boy's heart has murder in it. He went astray as soon as he was born, and his poison is like the poison of a serpent. Thus saith his Creator.
BUT "modern psychiatry" says that it was because of the way his mother insisted that he clean up the messes he made, or that his father punished him when he choked the cat. And modern "soul-winning" religion, that denies the guilt of all people regardless of age, has fallen in with this atheism and encouraged the lawlessness of this age among our youth. I believe that the television preacher knows better; but because of the need for millions of dollars, he dare not speak the truth.
I hear the readers of this article now. "This man hates children!" I beg your pardon - WHO hates children? The one who tells them the truth or you who tell them lies and encourage their rebellion. You would have me lie to your young ones? Certainly you would! It makes YOU look better if YOUR children are "free of guilt," because then YOUR guilt is lessened.
DEAR CHILDREN, you MUST have a Saviour, for you are lost in sin. Can you undertand that? Then seek the mercy of God in Jesus Christ. At what age are you accountable for your sin? I don't know, but I do know this - you will be brought into account before the Lord of the universe for ALL sin.
Now another question to clear the minds of those who even now are making rash and false statements about what you have read here:
Because they are "born in sin and shapen in iniquity"? I think not. Scripture says very little about this subject, so we cannot say much in a dogmatic way. We do believe ALL dying infants are elect of God. The Arminian heresy of this present age must have this INNOCENT theory, because they deny God's sovereign election. They must have a way out for the infants and children until the "age of accountability," so they say they are "free of guilt," which denies plain Bible teaching of depravity and hatred for God in the heart of the young as well as those of later years.
The godly men of the past who held our theological position were of the opinion that God's elective grace embraced all dying infants.
1. AUGUSTUS TOPLADY - "I testify my firm belief that all the souls of all departed infants are with God in glory. That in the decree of predestination to life, God has included all whom He decreed to take away in infancy, and that the decree of reprobation has nothing to do with them."
2. JOHN NEWTON - "The infants in heaven exceed its adult population."
3. JOHN GILL - "All dying in infancy are saved." I have a 3-week-old grandson whom I looked upon a few minutes after he was born. He MAY grow into a man; but if he dies today, I expect to see him in heaven. However, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ will be needful for this to be so. How God accomplishes this, I do not know; but I believe that it is so.
I thank God today for His mercy in Christ. I do not thank human nature for its "innocency," so-called. Pleasing to the flesh? Certainly not. "Do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ." (Galatians 1:10.)