“All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
“there is none righteous, no not one.”
” the wages of sin are death.”

You have to do a lot of work to get around these and other like worded statements and unless we are willing to believe that God imputes righteousness apart from faith, then “anyone” that has not placed faith in the finished work of Christ at the cross, will face the eternal judgement of God.

Obviously an infant cannot, neither can a child to young to comprehend. So what about them?

I submit that God, who is infinite in knowledge and understanding, knows not only the things that are and all that will be, but also knows the things that could have been. Every conceivable out come to every conceivable situation.

In Matthew ch. 11:20 Jesus is upbraiding the cities. In vs.s 21 and 23 He makes two statements that support my contention. Basically if the mighty works that Chorazin and Bethsaida witnessed had been seen in Tyre and Sidon those cities would have repented in sackcloth and ashes. The same thing goes for Capernaum vs Sodom.

This is either hyperbole or truth. I believe Christ spoke only the truth. Plainly then God knows the outcome of circumstances that never occurred. Nothing that will happen or could happen is outside the knowledge of God. Is it not reasonable to conclude then, that God knows whether or not one that died at birth or in infancy would respond in faith to His revealed truth? Is He not the judge of the world?
Is he not righteous?

To word it differently: what ever God determines about the eternal destiny of those that die before an age of accountability, will be right. Those who seek to wring from scripture doctrines that it does not teach do a terrible disservice to the truth.

If God did not know that man would fall into sin why would Rev. 13 tell us about the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world ? If He knew man would sin before man was created, then He also knows those that will respond to Him in faith before they are born.

The descendents of Adam (including you and me) all sin against God, just like Adam did. But God provided a sacrifice for all of us, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was God made flesh and had no sin. He died so that my sins could be forgiven. When I believed on Him, I was unconditionally saved from the lake of fire, because His righteousness was imputed to me.

But if I had not believed, there was a time in my life that God still had not yet imputed my sins to my account. So, even though I sinned, I was not going to be cast into the lake of fire. Eventually, when I was much older, I became accountable for my sins. That is what this whole discussion is about.

Infant baptism is a made-up ritual by various religions, but I assure you, it’s a nothing to the child. The child in this account is certainly with God for all eternity.

The researchers you referred to, did they take into account what the scriptures say? I understand their point was that children begin to understand right and wrong around the age of 6-7. But I don’t think God agrees with the conclusion you make.

You mentioned Adam and Eve and said they were like infants. Why do you say that? We have no indication of their age, except that Adam had to be less that 130 years old by simple deduction (930 – 800 when Seth was born). But that leaves quite a bit of room. And furthermore, why would they be like infants even if they were only a few years old. They were already fully grown, and Adam seemed to be quite capable since he had already given a name to all living creatures.

But, as John mentioned above, the children of Israel were held accountable at Kadesh-barnea if they were 20 years or older. Those who were younger were actually said to not know good and evil. Surely they had some knowledge, but not enough to be held accountable. So, I put the age much closer to 20 than 7.

And for Judith, I believe the sins David is referring to are probably those he committed as a young man, not as a young child. In any case, he was no longer either when he prayed.

“This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.”

Since there is no darkness in Him, it is obvious to me that His temptation was purely external.

Several years ago I worked in metallurgy. One of the things we did frequently to determine the type of an unkown material was hardness testing. When the pressure of the test was applied to a metal its behavior would help us to determine some facts about its nature and therefore to know more precisely what we where dealing with.

It is important to distinguish between the test and the test results. The test always reveals something about the nature of the tested. When you apply a force to a diamond to test its hardness…or cause the diamond to “feel” the pressure of the test… it responds in a manner that reveals it has the nature of a diamond. You don’t question whether the diamond actually felt the force of the test.

The Lord is able to sympathize with our weakness not because he had a similar nature but because he also underwent testing. The result of His temptation however shows us something about His perfect sinless nature.

Christ was not changed after the resurrection – He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. His glorious nature was even unveiled to Peter James and John whilst upon the mount prior to his resurrection.

Hope this helps to clarify the analogy.

Matthew 18:2-3
“Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”
So, a converted person is like a little child and vice versa.

Matthew 18:10
” Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven.”
I believe this to mean that they are blameless before God so the Father’s face is not turned away from their angels.

Matthew 19:14
“Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”