"Moreover your little ones and your children, who you say will be victims, who today have no knowledge of good and evil, they shall go in there, to them I will give it, and they shall possess it" (Deut. 1:39, NKJV).
"For before the Child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good..." (Isaiah 7:16, NKJV).
"... 'Yes. Have you never read 'Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise?'...." (Matt. 21:16, NKJV).
John Locke, father of modern empiricism, said that children are born tabula rasa, or with a blank heart or slate, that is impressionable and innocent!--thus all knowledge is learned by experience and we don't inherit any. The Bible clearly says that we are conceived in sin and that we err from birth, telling lies (Psalm 58:3, NKJV, says, "The wicked are estranged from the womb; They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies"). This native tendency is called original sin and is the effect of Adam's sin. We aren't sinners because we sin, rather we sin because we are sinners, theologians say. We sin, precisely because it's our very nature and we act according to our God-given nature. God chose our nature, whether sanguine, choleric, melancholy, impetuous, or happy-go-lucky!
We are not born free, but in bondage to sin, and must be set free (As John 8:36, NKJV, says, "Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed"). We don't need free wills, but wills made free. The will is depraved to and is not in a state of neutrality able to weigh the pros and cons of following Christ--we need to be wooed into the kingdom (cf. John 6:44, 65) and convicted of our sin and brought to faith by regeneration (cf. 2 Thess. 2:13, which implies that regeneration precedes faith!).
Our nature is determined by God, just like a dove's nature is to eat seed and a vulture to eat carrion, we act according to the nature God gave us, and we are true to nature and to the character that God didn't even ask us our permission before giving it to us. What if you had been born in India, do you think you'd be a Baptist? What if you had been born in abject poverty in the Horn of Africa, what would've been your chances of surviving, or what if you had been born in a Muslim nation and had virtually no freedom or opportunity to be anything except Muslim?
God recognizes that children don't know good and evil, though they are still sinners. Jonah was told that there were 120,000 in Nineveh that didn't know their right hand from their left! After the spies had come back from Canaan, Joshua was told that the nation would suffer for forty years in the wilderness due to cowardice and a whole generation would be punished--except those who were "innocent" as Deut. 1:39 says. Basically, God had mercy on all those under twenty years old, even though Jews consider the right of passage into adulthood at about 13 for boys and 12 for girls.
"For before the Child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good..." (Isaiah 7:16, NKJV).
"... 'Yes. Have you never read 'Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise?'...." (Matt. 21:16, NKJV).
John Locke, father of modern empiricism, said that children are born tabula rasa, or with a blank heart or slate, that is impressionable and innocent!--thus all knowledge is learned by experience and we don't inherit any. The Bible clearly says that we are conceived in sin and that we err from birth, telling lies (Psalm 58:3, NKJV, says, "The wicked are estranged from the womb; They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies"). This native tendency is called original sin and is the effect of Adam's sin. We aren't sinners because we sin, rather we sin because we are sinners, theologians say. We sin, precisely because it's our very nature and we act according to our God-given nature. God chose our nature, whether sanguine, choleric, melancholy, impetuous, or happy-go-lucky!
We are not born free, but in bondage to sin, and must be set free (As John 8:36, NKJV, says, "Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed"). We don't need free wills, but wills made free. The will is depraved to and is not in a state of neutrality able to weigh the pros and cons of following Christ--we need to be wooed into the kingdom (cf. John 6:44, 65) and convicted of our sin and brought to faith by regeneration (cf. 2 Thess. 2:13, which implies that regeneration precedes faith!).
Our nature is determined by God, just like a dove's nature is to eat seed and a vulture to eat carrion, we act according to the nature God gave us, and we are true to nature and to the character that God didn't even ask us our permission before giving it to us. What if you had been born in India, do you think you'd be a Baptist? What if you had been born in abject poverty in the Horn of Africa, what would've been your chances of surviving, or what if you had been born in a Muslim nation and had virtually no freedom or opportunity to be anything except Muslim?
God recognizes that children don't know good and evil, though they are still sinners. Jonah was told that there were 120,000 in Nineveh that didn't know their right hand from their left! After the spies had come back from Canaan, Joshua was told that the nation would suffer for forty years in the wilderness due to cowardice and a whole generation would be punished--except those who were "innocent" as Deut. 1:39 says. Basically, God had mercy on all those under twenty years old, even though Jews consider the right of passage into adulthood at about 13 for boys and 12 for girls.
Some teach that God sends children to hell if they're not baptized, but there is no place in hell for children. Isaiah 7:16 says that there is a time when children don't know to choose the good and reject the evil before adulthood, and God has mercy on them accordingly. Jesus, Himself, said that the kingdom of God belongs to the children of the world, and we are to receive them, even someone who accepts them in His name accepts Him. Woe to those who cause a child to stumble in the faith, because their angels constantly behold the face of the Father in heaven.
We have a lot to learn from children, who have not reached the age of accountability yet, because Jesus said that God has ordained praise from their lips (as Matt. 21:16, says, "... 'Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise?"), and we can see the love of God in their hearts (cf. Psalm 8:2). Saint Augustine said that it was the voice of a child saying, "Take and read, take and read," that was his spiritual wake-up call and motivated him to repent of his lascivious and debauched lifestyle.
Yes, God does speak through children and they can utter wise statements that are timely. Yes, forbid them not, as Mark 10:14 says to suffer them not, for such is the kingdom of God. Soli Deo Gloria!
We have a lot to learn from children, who have not reached the age of accountability yet, because Jesus said that God has ordained praise from their lips (as Matt. 21:16, says, "... 'Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise?"), and we can see the love of God in their hearts (cf. Psalm 8:2). Saint Augustine said that it was the voice of a child saying, "Take and read, take and read," that was his spiritual wake-up call and motivated him to repent of his lascivious and debauched lifestyle.
Yes, God does speak through children and they can utter wise statements that are timely. Yes, forbid them not, as Mark 10:14 says to suffer them not, for such is the kingdom of God. Soli Deo Gloria!