Age of Accountability

from tract by Allen Webster

Introduction

1. Preachers are often asked – is my child old enough to be baptized?

2. How old is old enough?

Chronologically

1. Israel allowed a man to go to war at age 20 – Numbers 1:3

2. Priests began their service at age 20

   1. Can we go lower?

   2. Samuel – 1 Samuel 3:4 (child or boy)

   3. Jewish tradition – Bar Mitzvah – age 13

3. Josiah was 8 when he began to reign – 2 Chronicles 34:1

4. Jesus went to temple at age 12 – Luke 2:41-51

Practically

1. Does the child participate in worship?

2. Does the child show a deeper understanding of the conversion process?

3. Can the child do more than recite the steps of conversion? Explain? Meaning?

4. Salvation, forgiveness, repentance – are abstract – goes beyond facts

5. Does the child understand that this decision affects their future? Commitment.

6. How important (urgent) is it in their mind?

Spiritually

1. Children are “safe” - does not need baptism

2. Did they disobey, lie, act mean to others – But this is not SIN – not culpable

3. At some point – it clicks – they know sin, wrong, consequences

   1. Develop personal faith

   2. Willing to repent

   3. Make a commitment to Jesus

   4. Seek release from their sins in baptism