Is There An Age of Accountability?
Good morning/evening/night!Â
I was going through some stuff and struggling for a bit, but thank God I overcame, and this topic came to me. The Age of Accountability. What is the âAge of Accountability? A handful of people say the age of accountability is the age at which children become responsible for their own spiritual status, meaning where they stand with God, and their sins. Now, the bible didnât actually give an actual age but seeing as Christianity arose from Judaism and their age of spiritual accountability is 13 & 12 for males and females respectively, people assume that we also have a set age.Â
James 4:17 âTherefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.â
Now, children in early childhood, which is from age 2-6, do some questionable crap but they donât exactly know if itâs wrong or right therefore God will not hold them accountable for their actions. They are in a stage in their life called the pre-operational stage and they canât exactly combine and/or separate ideas or use any logic for that matter so they are incapable of effectively grasping the concept of right and wrong, let alone sin. Even though they canât grasp the concept effectively, it wonât hurt to teach them some bible verses and how to walk right with God by being an example; it will come in handy and help them dodge some bullets in the future.
In middle childhood, which is from age 6-11, children are now capable of using logic but to an extent since they can only apply logic to concrete/physical objects. This stage is called the concrete operational stage. In this stage the child is now able to grasp the concept of right and wrong, but can they grasp the concept of sin? Not everything humans deem wrong is actually sinful so teaching children in this stage the difference is gonna be hard, especially since they can only apply logic to physical objects. With all this being said, if one can use physical representations to relay to the child what God expects of us and what is right then fine but please donât go scaring them with detailed stuff about Hell cause God knows my church did that to me and even now Iâm still shaken up. Us Jamaicans, tend to use a term called âOperant Conditioningâ to teach our young ones right from wrong. This where the consequence of an action determines whether or not an individual will repeat the action. So if you get good grades youâll get KFC and that motivates you to get more good grades but if you get bad grades youâll get yourself a can full of âwhoop assâ and I bet youâll never get a bad grade again.
After middle childhood comes adolescence (age 12 - adulthood) and I donât know about anywhere else but here in Jamaica thatâs where most children start committing sexual sins. Their bodies are now transforming and theyâre having sexual attractions, hopefully to the opposite sex. If they arenât being guided on the right path and no one is there for them to talk to about how theyâre feeling, theyâll be left to explore on their own which wonât end well for them. At this stage kids are more than capable of knowing wrong from right; now understand what it is to sin therefore they will be held accountable for their sins, if they know it is wrong.
Due to circumstances, the age range for each stage wonât apply to every child as some children have a faster rate of cognitive maturity while some mature slower than the norm. An example of this is nine year Nora still being unable to use any form of logic. Do you think God will hold Nora accountable for stealing her sisterâs toy? Absolutely not. Nora is incapable of understand that stealing is a sin.Â
The accountability of oneâs sin doesnât come into play at any particular age. It comes into play when one is conscious of the fact that what they are about to do or have done is sinful, for the Lord wonât hold you accountable for what you arenât aware of.
 When I was 11, I was told by a friend that the age of accountability was 13 so all my sins would be on my parents until I was 13. I was a very smart child so I already knew about sin and it didnât help that I was practically raised in church but hearing this gave my flesh joy and I took advantage of it. I committed so many sins without care that even now Iâm still looked at as the black sheep in my family. Once I reached 13 I started to be more conscious about what I was doing but that was difficult seeing as I was so immersed in sin that it was hard for me to let go or do anything else but sin.Â
Now, it is important that we clarify issues like this for our children because there are so many other false truths out there that theyâll hear and we donât want them to be deceived, like I was. Also, teach the children that even if they do fall short, they can always ask God forgiveness and he will grant it. Always.
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