*** w50 11/15 p.463 Questions From Readers***
Will children who have not reached the age of accountability and who die at Armageddon have a resurrection?—Ohio reader.
We cannot be dogmatic about this matter, as God is the judge.
*** w50 11/15 p.463 Questions From Readers***
Children are affected by the course of their parents, and parents are warned that their iniquity is visited on their offspring unto the third and fourth generation. (Ex. 20:5, 6) Parents are commanded to instruct their children in God’s way, and if in these last days parents refuse to heed the divine instruction and warning they bring destruction upon themselves and their small children at Armageddon.(Deut. 6:6, 7; Eph. 6:4) According to justice God can leave such children dead, for, as Ezekiel showed, all die in their iniquity. (Ezek. 3:17-19; 33:1-6) Parents should remember that their wrong course unfavorably affects their children and may bring their offspring to destruction at Armageddon, just as a right course on the part of parents may put their small children in the way of preservation during Armageddon and opportunity for eternal life in the new world to follow.
*** w51 5/1 p.286 Questions From Readers***
Adam’s offspring did not come under eternal destruction because of his fall. Why should young children suffer eternal destruction at Armageddon because of having wicked parents?—E.N.,Minnesota.
*** w51 5/1 p.286 Questions From Readers***
Our present day is also a time of judgment, and it is this that the objectors to the answer in the November 15 Watchtower apparently fail to fully appreciate. For seventy-one years TheWatchtower has been publishing the warning of God’s Word, and since 1919 Jehovah’s witnesses have been active as never before in giving world-wide witness, in this time of judgment when the enthroned King is separating the nations as a shepherd divides the sheep from the goats. Abuse and persecution come upon them from both adults and children under the influence of their elders. So it is because we now live in a period of judgment that we say all persons are on trial. And because children are present they too come in for judgment, and their case is not parallel to that of Adam and Eve’s offspring, who were not present in Eden at the time of that pair’s judgment trial.
*** w60 8/1 pp.479-480 Questions From Readers***
How can Deuteronomy 24:16, which says,“Children should not be put to death on account of fathers,” be harmonized with the fact that the offspring of the adulterous relation between David and Bath-sheba died due to their sin, as shown in 2 Samuel 12:14?—J.B.,U.S.A.
The law, as stated at Deuteronomy 24:16, shows that fathers were not to be put to death for their sons nor were sons to be put to death for their fathers. In man’s administration of justice each was to die for his own sin, and not drag innocent relatives down with him. In this particular case of David and Bath-sheba neither of them had a right to the child and so there was no injustice in their being deprived of it. Besides, as an uncircumcised, unnamed infant it had not as yet developed any personality pattern or consciousness so as to appreciate life. Then again, Bath-sheba could have been stoned to death for her adultery, in which case the unborn child would also have perished.
--The last article in particular is unsettling. By this line of reasoning, any of us could go out and kill illegitimate children and say to the parents, “Neither of you had a right to the child, so there’s no injustice in killing it. Besides, it hadn’t even developed a personality yet, it couldn’t appreciate life.” Or we could say, because everybody sins and therefore deserves to die anyway, I can kill anyone!
If, indeed, as is quoted above, God is the judge, I wonder how he would judge people who can use such justifications for the death of children. Then again, if he really did kill small children himself, maybe I’m talking about the wrong God…