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QUESTION 158
So since we are all born in sin, with a sin nature separated from God, how can today's preachers teach with the assurance that they do, that all children under the age of "accountability go to heaven when they die?

ANSWER:
First let's understand that God does not create children, they are born. It is true that God gives them the breath of life, but He only created one man, Adam.

How then can a child, who is a sinner, get into heaven without repentance and faith in Christ is clear from two offering in the Old Testament and several verses in the New. Leviticus 4:1-3 we read about the sin offering. In Leviticus 5:6 we read about the trespass offering. To follow these through the Scriptures the sin offering was for sins of ignorance or sin that one is unaware of. The trespass offering was for sins that one was aware and guilty of.

Christ fulfilled both these offerings. He died for sin period. Hebrews 9:26. The gospel is, that He died for our sins (that is what we have done) 1 Corinthians 15:3. This is the trespass offering. He also died for what we were, sinners. John 1:29, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This is the sin offering. He takes away the sin (not sins) of the world. This is the sin that we are unaware of. This would include all children until they have a consciousness of good and evil, it also takes away also the sins that Christians commit each day that they are totally unaware of. Our sins that we are aware of must be confessed in order to be forgiven, 1 John 1:9. In the case of the unsaved they must repent and trust Christ to have forgiveness of their sins. Have you done this yet?

In Romans 5:18, we read "Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. Please observe, that the same all men that are born in Adam are already under judgment and condemnation, by his offense; but the same all men are justified by the righteousness (a single act) of another (Christ, in going to the cross) unto life. Born sinners in Adam, but at the same time justified in Christ. This again is the sin offering. That make grace greater that sin. Romans 5:20, "But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:" When Adam sinned immediately God had a covering for his nakedness, Genesis 3:21. Here again, grace is greater that sin.

All comments and questions to: Harold Smith

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Updated July 2009, by Shelly Allen