Welcome and thank you for taking a bible break to test your knowledge of God's word.
This week's question:

Many in the world hold to the teaching that when a child is born, it is in sin as it bear's the sin of its parents. For even David says of himself, "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me." (Psalms 51:5).

And Paul says, "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread through all men, because all sinned." (Romans 5:12), and again, "There is none righteous, not even one." (Romans 2:10), and again, "…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23). Even Jesus says, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone." (Luke 18:19). After all this, one would almost say that the child is born in sin. But, let us study the scriptures to see if this is so.

We begin our search by seeing a man named Nicodemus coming to Jesus by night to hear him speak, and Jesus tells him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
( John 3:3). Nicodemus rightly understood that Jesus spoke of one who is old to be "born again" as he asks Jesus, "How can a man be born again when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?" (John 3:4), and Jesus answers him by saying, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." (John 3:5). So we must determine how old this individual must be to be able to be born of the water and the spirit.

First, we see how Jesus looks upon the children that follow Him as he walks this earth and says of them,"Truly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18:3). So we can see that Jesus sees the children as innocent at this stage of life and not held accountable for the learning process of right and wrong is not fully understood by them. But there will come a day when we are held accountable as each of us comes to an understanding of our actions and that there is a way for life, and we will all become slaves of sin (Romans 6:20). We must ask ourselves, can a child understand the way of the cross by faith as we only gain our faith by the word of God, "So, faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ." (Romans 10:17).

Paul Says, "I would not have come to know sin except through the Law." (Romans 7:7). So we must be able to understand the word of God to be able to comprehend what sin is, as Paul again says, "Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and that all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law so no flesh will be justified in His sight; fir through the Law comes the knowledge of sin." (Romans 3:19-20).

Would God hold a child accountable before their ability to fully realize the consequences for their actions? Can a child understand the action of repentance as those who came to the conclusion that they were guilty of crucifying the Christ after listening to Peter's first gospel sermon and then they asked the question, "Brethren, what shall we do?". Peter tells them, "Repent and let each one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins;" (Acts 2:38). Who would be baptized? Those who understood the lesson and repented of their sins, those who confessed Jesus before men, "…that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. (Romans 10:9-10).

So as we can see, one cannot confess for another as the individual confesses "with his mouth" that Jesus was raised from the dead and then he may be baptized. Just as the Ethiopian eunuch asked Philip after Philip preached Jesus to him "Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized? And Philip said, "If you believe with all your heart, you may." And he answered and said, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he ordered the chariot to stop; and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him." (Acts 8:35-38). So we see that not only must he believe with his heart Jesus as Lord, but then they went down into the water to be baptized in that "Burial" as we see it is in the like manner of Jesus' death burial and resurrection, "Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in the newness of life. (Romans 6:4), as we put the old man of sin away in that watery grave and have our sins washed away as we call upon His name just as Paul did in his own baptism (Acts 22:16). Would a child understand all this?

And finally, to bring our study to a close of the child bearing the parents sin, we turn to, Ezekiel 18:18-20 "As for his father, because he practiced extortion, robbed his brother and did what was not good among his people, behold, he will die for his iniquity. Yet you say, 'Why should the son not bear the punishment for the father's iniquity?' When the son has practiced justice and righteousness and has observed all my statutes and done them, he shall surely live. The person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father's iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son's iniquity; the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself."

So there we have the answer to our question as the son does not bear the father's sin! The Lord even knows the reaction of many of the people to this revelation as He says, "Yet you say, "The way of the Lord is not right.' Hear now , O house of Israel! Is My way not right? Is it not your ways that are not right?" Isn't it time to look the God's word for the truth and put aside the teachings of man that seem right but do not hold to the test of the scriptures. Look again, "You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created until unrighteousness was found in you." (Ezekiel 28:15). When was that? As the scriptures have shown us, it is when he becomes accountable!