The age of accountability is a foundational belief

By Steve Lemke, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary Provost and Professor of Philosophy

The doctrine often called the “age of accountability” is one of the most foundational Baptist belieSteve Lemke NOBTS Provost and Professor of Philosophyfs, yet it is also one of the least understood beliefs.

All three Baptist Faith and Message statements (1925, 1963, and 2000) assert that children are not morally accountable until “they are capable of moral action” (Baptist Faith and Message, Article 3).