Saturday, May 20, 2017

Book Review: "Do not hinder them"

Prompted by this note about a review of a book by Justin Peters, Do Not Hinder Them, I decided to purchase the book and see what Peters had to say.  As I've mentioned "a time or two" on this site, the sad reality is that far too many "seeds" do not sprout, and it's something that's killing our churches.

The main thrust of the book, in my view, is Peters' view of the age of accountability--the doctrine that below a certain age, all children are given grace by God whether or not they personally confess Christ.  In Peters' view, that age is somewhere around the ages of ten to twelve, somewhere near the age of a Bar Mitzvah, and where Dorothy Sayers noted the "poll parrot" stage of education ends, and the "pert" age begins.  In the language of classical education, it's about the age when a child can begin to use the tools of logic/dialectic.

Now as a Baptist myself, I am of course quite amenable to the notion of an age of accountability.  The simple fact is that infants do die occasionally, and that just as David noted that he would go to Bathsheba's child, there is some indication of grace to the child when he's that young.  I can also commend the idea that there are some things the very young cannot really understand, and that the practice of thinking logically may be involved in coming to Christ.

And yet....and yet....I cannot completely go along with his thesis, as his very title refers to Matthew 19:13-15, which notes that Jesus specifically says to let the little children come to Him.  Not teens, not youths, but little children. 

Moreover, if a key issue with people falling away from Christ was age, then the Scripture might have said that specifically (it doesn't IMO), and we would not see the huge fallout from college age conversions that we do. 

So it is a good effort, but ultimately it is one that does not persuade me.  I am 100% in agreement that revivalism and its techniques bear a lot of false fruit.  I am 100% in agreement that our "evangelism light" or "easy believism" culture tends to leave people defenseless against the challenges of life--persecution, the need to grow and repent, and the like.  But at the same time, I am not persuaded that our problems will be solved as we refuse to immerse the young.

3 comments:

Emily Shorette said...

If you have a minute, I’d really appreciate it if you took a look at Emily’s Virtual Rocket. This is a serious newsblog which has been taken from e-newspapers and e-magazines from around the world, with an emphasis on transgender issues. Also, with his election, I look for articles which critique Donald Trump.

I hope you enjoy this. Please paste the following:

emilysvirtualrocket.blogspot.com

If you like it, please consider putting it among your favorite blogs. I would greatly appreciate it.

Sincerely,

Emily

Bike Bubba said...

Emily, in the beginning, He created them male and female. There is a reality to gender dysphoria, but mutilating the victims of this condition through hormone treatments and surgeries is not the solution.

Elspeth said...

Sounds like an interesting book. I'll have to look into this one.