Children Become Accountable.—As children advance in years, however, they become accountable, and then, like adults, they must yield obedience to the requirements of the gospel. The Lord explained this matter to Adam in these words:
"Inasmuch as thy children are conceived in sin, even so when they begin to grow up, sin conceiveth in their hearts, and they taste the bitter, that they may know to prize the good.
"And it is given unto them to know good from evil; wherefore they are agents unto themselves, and I have given unto you another law and commandment.
"Wherefore teach it unto your children, that all men, everywhere, must repent, or they can in no wise inherit the kingdom of God, for no unclean thing can dwell there, or dwell in his presence; for, in the language of Adam, Man of Holiness is his name, and the name of his Only Begotten is the Son of Man, even Jesus Christ, a righteous Judge, who shall come in the meridian of time.
"Therefore I give unto you a commandment, to teach these things freely unto your children, saying:
"That by reason of transgression cometh the fall, which fall bringeth death, and inasmuch as ye were born into the world by water and blood, and the spirit, which I have made, and so became of dust a living soul, even so ye must be born again into the kingdom of heaven, of water, and of the Spirit, and be cleansed by blood, even the blood of mine Only Begotten; that ye might be sanctified from all sin, and enjoy the words of eternal life in this world, and eternal life in the world to come, even immortal glory;
"For by the water ye keep the commandment; by the Spirit ye are justified, and by the blood ye are sanctified." (Moses 6:55-60.)
Early Christian Views.—The earliest Christians did not doubt the necessity of baptism. On the contrary, they strongly insisted upon it, as indispensable to a saved condition. During the Patristic age—that of the early fathers, following the apostles—the conviction that no soul could be saved without baptism was so firm that it led to pedobaptism—the baptism of infants, and to other innovations upon the primitive faith. It was seen that infants could not believe in Christ, nor repent of sins that they had not committed; but it was held that the church, or those who stood sponsor for the little ones, could believe for them, and they were baptized for original sin, the sin of Adam, which they were supposed to have inherited. Peter's words in promising the Holy Ghost: "For the promise is unto you and to your children" (Acts 2:39), were construed to sustain infant baptism. It was even assumed that the Savior authorized it in saying, "Suffer little children to come unto me," the inference being that they could come unto him only by baptism.
Pedobaptism.—Holders of these ideas have never explained why infant baptism did not become prevalent until two or three centuries after Christ, and why such eminent Christians of the fourth century as Gregory, of Nazianzum, the son of a bishop; Basil the Great, of Cappadocia; Chrysostom of Antioch, and Augustine of Numidia—whose mothers were the most pious of Christians—were not baptized until they were over thirty years of age. Paul's affirmation that "children are holy" (1 Cor. 7:14), the Savior's declaration, "Of such is the kingdom of heaven," and Mormon's words to Moroni, already cited, are a sufficient answer to the assumption that children under the age of accountability have need to be baptized. Those who introduced the practice of baptizing infants for original sin, overlooked the fact that Christ atoned for original guilt, and that men are accountable for their own sins and not for Adam's transgression.
Other Innovations.—One innovation led to another, though the next related to adults. What was to become of martyrs, who had shed their blood in defense of the church, or for its sake, but had never confessed Christ nor been baptized? Were they to be damned? Oh, no; for their benefit another doctrine was introduced; they were held to have been baptized in their own blood. Finally, out of deference to the claims of a far more numerous class—worthy men and women, many of whom had lived and died before the Christian Church was founded, while others, though living contemporaneously with it, were never reached by its missionaries—the idea gradually obtained that baptism was not essential to salvation. All of which might have been obviated, and the Church spared much ridicule and skepticism—the result of its ramblings and inconsistencies—had it kept the key to the situation—namely, baptism for the dead.