I will do an in depth post on this tonight, but I am at work now, and this will be a brief introduction. Firstly, do the words, "Age of Accountability" exist in the Bible? The answer is, "no." Do the words, "President of the United States" exist in the Bible? No, but it is true that there is a, president of the United States. In fact, believe it or not, George Bush is currently president of the United States, even though the Bible does not say, “George Bush is President of the United States.” Point #1: Not everything that is true is in the Bible, however, everything in the Bible is True. Having said that, think about this: Just because something is in the Bible, does being in the Bible make it true? OR! Is something in the Bible because it is truth already. If you believe that being in Scripture is what makes something true, then Scripture is the Authority of truth, and nothing outside of Scripture can be true. If you believe that only Truth is in Scripture, and it is only allowed to be in Scripture because it was true, then! truth can exist outside of verbatim Scriptural text. Of course nothing can be true that contradicts Scripture. Because we know that only Truth is in Scripture. Fact #2: God is the Author of all Truth. That is just a quick question that has nothing to do with "The Age of Accountability" Please know that this is a belief (held by most Christians) and I do not present this as an indisputable Biblical Fact, that there is no room for discussion. Age of Accountability: Briefly, God makes Himself known to each man in His own heart. At that time, each man makes a conscience decision to accept or reject God. Fact #3: We are saved by grace through faith. Belief: We must be able (intellectually) able to make the decision to place our faith in Him. God has a special affection for children. Christ said, “let all the children come unto me.” Jesus fellowshipped with the children, and He loved them. The fact that Jesus Christ had such a special place in His heart for young children, we “infer” that children are special to God the Father. Matthew 10: “13People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. 14When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 15I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." 16And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.” Here we see that we are to “be like” children in receiving the Kingdom of God. If children are not innately scions of Zion, then why did Christ make this statement? The problem is “usually” not, “Do babies go to heaven?” The problem “usually” is, “At what age, are children accountable for their actions, and at what age does God hold them accountable for choosing Him. A good example is when Moses lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Because they were unrighteous, they murmured, and complained against God, He made them wonder in the desert. God said that only one righteous man, except Caleb son of Jephunneh shall see the promise land. Deuteronomy 1: 34 When the LORD heard what you said, he was angry and solemnly swore: 35 "Not a man of this evil generation shall see the good land I swore to give your forefathers, 36 except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and I will give him and his descendants the land he set his feet on, because he followed the LORD wholeheartedly." All of this only really makes sense within “Free Will” beliefs. Please do not bring up predestination in this topic, as there is already a topic for that. Basically if you believe in predestination, it doesn’t matter at what age you die. So that is all we need to say about predestination in this topic. Then! after saying that they are all unrighteous, and can not enter the promise land, He says: Deuteronomy1: 39 And the little ones that you said would be taken captive, your children who do not yet know good from bad—they will enter the land. I will give it to them and they will take possession of it. God extended grace to the children, “Who did not know right from wrong.” The children were not held accountable when entering the promise land, and thus many of us infer that He extends that same grace to children entering His Kingdom. That’s all for now… off the top of my head, shot from the hip…more later… To be continued… -Matt

This may be a vauge reply, but I don't think that there can be one set age across the board. What if one child never is told about Christ until the age of ten where as one has been raised in church since birth. Obviously the one raised in church will have some understanding of who Jesus is. In saying that is it right to believe that the ten year old who's never heard of Jesus will be held accountable. I believe that if that ten year old passes away before ever hearing the good news of Jesus Christ he won't be held accountable.

Jesus said to be like children, but never said children were going to heaven. Granted, Jesus never explicitly endorsed infant depravity. However, my view othe matter comes from a Proverb: 19:18 Discipline your son, for in that there is hope; do not be a willing party to his death. There is an even clearer proverb: Proverbs 23:13: Do not avoid disciplining a boy; beat him with a rod, and save him from death. This, to me at least, means that unless we teach a boy to grown into a God fearing man, then surely he will die. Thus, we begin at a stage of depravity in which we must be taught to fear and love God, so when we are older, we may repent and then accept Jesus as our savior with full understanding. Jesus said few will be saved on the last day. I doubt that few will include infants. Just my very biased opinion, it is for God to decide, not me.