Theology talk

In the book I'm reading for my Christian Theology II class, an interesting point was brought up in answering the question of the destiny of babies. In my opinion, it makes sense to assume the heaven-bound nature of a baby that dies, but for the sake of debate, I will write a couple of paragraphs from the book, "Created in God's Image" by Anthony A. Hoekema, and then comment on it:

"'Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned...' The first half of the verse obviously refers to Adam (though his name is not mentioned until v. 14), and tells us why death came upon him. The second half deals with 'all men,' and answers the question, Why did death come upon all human beings? The answer is: 'because all sinned.' Some scholars have interpreted these words as point to ACTUAL SIN, that is, the sin we commit, in distinction from the sin in which and with which we were born...In my judgment, however, this interpretation is incorrect. Paul is not referring here to ACTUAL SIN; he is saying that death came upon all human beings because they all SINNED IN ADAM. Note what he says in verses 15 and 17: 'the many died by the trespass of the one man'; 'by the trespass of the one man, death reigned.' These clauses clearly tie in the death of the many, not with the actual sins of those who died but with the one sin of the one man, Adam.
Further, verses 13 and 14 read as follows:

For before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam.

'Who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam,' is a paraphrase of a clause that, translated literally, reads: 'even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of Adam's transgression.' The thrust of these verses is this: the people who lived between Adam and Moses were not given a clear command with a clear threat of death in case of disobedience, as was A. Nevertheless, they all died. Since this fact is adduced as an argument to support verse 12, it is apparent that Paul's point is that these people did not die because of their own personal, actual sins, but because of their connection with Adam."

Paul did not say that "accounted to be sinners" but rather that we were all "sinners in Adam". The thing to note is that we are doomed to die because of our sin. Spiritually we are disconnected from God and we need Christ to bridge the gap that resulted from sin. The sin we are 'born into' is not ACTUAL SIN (what we actually commit) but that which occurred in Adam. When a baby passes on, they are innocent from sin in the sense that they are incapable to commit it. Notice in the above scripture where it says, "But sin is not taken into account when there is no law". A child knows no "laws" of God nor is a child aware of the consequences of their actions. This places the child under a state of "innocence" (if you will) and this is how he/she can be delivered into Heaven without actually accepting the Lord (for that concept they are unaware of as well). This immediately leads into a slight discussion about two attributes of God: God of Wrath and God of Justice. I will discuss this in my next post.