“Don’t you see that children are God’s best
gift, the fruit of the womb His generous legacy? Like a warrior’s fistful of
arrows are the children of a vigorous youth. Oh, how blessed are you parents,
with your quivers full of children! (Psa. 127:3-5a MSG)
Children are such an
amazing blessing from the Lord and a great responsibility at the same time!
Therefore, this month we are going to finish the discussion on what happens to
babies when they die and then begin to consider how we as parents should
respond to blessings that God has entrusted us with in our kids. As we saw last
month, the Bible teaches original grace. Every person is given the same
opportunity to choose God or choose to give in to the sinful desires before us.
Sadly, every person who has ever been born (with the exception of Jesus) has
chosen to give into that temptation once they had the ability of knowing right
from wrong. At that time we died spiritually (for more information see
http://eugenechristianchurch.blogspot.com/2016/07/man-image-of-god-7-do-all-babies-go-to.html).
On the other hand, some
Christians/churches believe in original sin: everyone is held accountable for
Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden since they are our original parents. But if
this teaching does not come from the Bible (as explained in last month’s article),
then where did it come from?
It came from Origen (AD
185-254). Initially, he taught that all souls lived in a previous celestial
existence before coming to earth as a baby. Eventually Origen was banished from
Alexandria, and upon coming to Caesarea, he came in contact with the practice
of infant baptism. Since in the early church, baptism was connected with the
forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38; 1 Peter 3:21), it became necessary to “find”
some sin an infant could be guilty of, for which he would need to be baptized.
Since it was not possible for the infant to have personally committed any sin,
it must be some inherited guilt.
Origen found that sin.
He borrowed the idea of seminal existence from Hebrews 7:9-10, and applied it
to everyone. It was from the Old Testament ceremony of purification that he
also developed his idea of inborn “uncleanness!” Thus, the false doctrine of
original sin began with Origen and was later taught by Augustine.
Tertullian (AD
160-220), arrived at the same conclusion because of Stoic philosophy, in
particular the belief that the soul of an infant is procreated or transmitted
to the child during conception, by which all qualities of the parents are
reproduced in the child. Tertullian believed that the qualities Adam and Eve
passed on were their fallen nature and being corrupted by the curse, contrary
to Genesis 9:6. Thus, none of these 3 church leaders (Origen, Augustine,
Tertullian), got their doctrine of original sin from Scripture (for more
information see Gareth Reese, Romans, p. 233-234).
Thus, the idea of original
sin is not based on Scripture. Therefore, it is my prayer that you see the
grace God has poured out on your children and that they are a blessing from the
Lord. Furthermore, we can rest assured that, heaven forbid, they should die
prior to coming to the knowledge of right and wrong, good and evil, we know
where they are spending eternity.
On the other hand, the
Biblical doctrine of original grace through the age of accountability does give
us as parents a large responsibility. The Bible does not give a specific age at
which a person becomes accountable for their sins since we all mature at
different rates. Some it could be as early as 4 or 5; but most will mature a
little later. Remember, the age of accountability is when they know the
difference between right and wrong. Therefore, the Bible admonishes us
repeatedly to train up our kids in the ways of the Lord. There is nothing more
important as parents than the salvation of your kids.
Next month we will
consider some specifics of how to lead our kids to Christ. But for now, I would
encourage you to never forget what an incredible blessing God has given you in
your children. May we never take them for granted.
In His service,
Matt
No comments:
Post a Comment