There is a moment of truth, sometime in the future, which no man can escape. In the day of judgment, every person, black or white, male or female, rich or poor, young or old, bond or free, must render to God a personal account. This will be "a moment of truth" because the God to whom we are accountable, is a God who sees all things as naked and open. Nothing can be hidden from him.
Providence has sufficiently influenced the human environment, that all mankind though diverse in culture may learn so much of God's law, in the formative years of life, as to become accountable to God. Everyone's, conscience becomes sufficiently well taught, that the self can defend or accuse self in line with God's law. On the other side, the dark side, Satanic powers have sufficiently influenced the human environment, that all mankind may be deceived and enticed sufficiently to leave the instruction of a good conscience, and do what is evil
Man's free will allows the self to choose between good and evil. Nobody is born with a bent, one way or the other, but neutral, able to listen equally to all the influences and voices around them, and to make a choice between them, between the voices and influences of Providence on one hand, and Darkness
In most cases, the choice is made for good, otherwise society would collapse, yet though greatly stressed, society is far from collapsing, because the good influence of Providence wins the majority vote in daily
Nevertheless, nobody is consistent in this choice, and people everywhere sometimes choose evil. Indeed, nobody is found to be faultless, the consciences of all accuse them of some wrongdoing. All people, even generally good people, know in their hearts that they are guilty on several counts
This general condemnation of mankind is no unfair blanket condemnation, but the sum of God's separate and meticulously impartial judgments of individuals, based on each one's personal accountability in an environment where it is always possible to do right, and one ought to do right, yet doing right is very difficult at times
Becoming accountable to God is a matter of development, a learning process. When the scripture says, "I became a man, I put away childish things"
Growth from childhood to adulthood is, of course, a development over time. We may well mark its completion, and say one has reached womanhood or manhood, but none of us claims it happened of a sudden. In the same way, the losing of innocence, and the getting of accountability, is a development
It may be said that one "has reached the age of accountability" but this is not scriptural language, and may indeed be misleading. When God holds someone accountable for sin, that person's age is hardly more relevant than his
It is understandable that one should ask at what stage of life one's child will lose innocence and stand among the number of the damned. This question, however, is not profitably pursued, for it is vexed with imponderables. One might as well ask when will a butterfly get where
It is not our responsibility to judge another's accountability to God, however we are responsible for whatever input we may be able to make. There are three main