June

I'm Albert Mohler, and this is The Briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview. Part I. Who is and is Not ...

The Scripture also says, and this is really interesting, "Let your 'Yea' be 'Yea' and your 'Nay' be 'Nay'. Let your 'Yes' be 'Yes' and your 'No' be 'No'." Let that be clear enough, let your character be strong enough and trusted enough that you don't have to use some kind of additional word just to get attention, as if no one's actually going to believe your yes means yes or your no means no. But the Bible, as it speaks of the child and the man, is speaking more of the intellect here, of the rational ability, of reasoning as a child, that's what the Apostle Paul is talking about, versus reasoning as an adult. And by the way, it is ratified not only in the Bible and not only in just about every society on planet Earth, it's also ratified or demonstrated by the development of the human being. And that was a legally compelling, morally compelling argument that was sufficient for Congress to send the issue to the states and a sufficient super majority of the states to similarly ratify the amendment. The age of majority is the age at which an individual, a citizen is understood to be an adult and the age at which parental authority, in legal terms as the ultimate and proximate authority, comes to an end. But even if in the United States it's age 18 that comes first to mind, a little bit of difference state by state, the reality is that the states also, as well as the federal government, have to back off of that arbitrary age at some point. But you have to have some point in every society at which you say, at least in legal terms, "A child on that side of the line, an adult on the other side of the line." No, all of that comes in the eventual and progressive acquisition of the status of adulthood and the responsibilities of adulthood. Parents have a different role to play, even in the life of a young person who's 17 and a half, that legally, in most jurisdictions, goes away the moment that young person turns 18. Different parts of the brain function in different ways, and different people have brains that function in different ways. Now, what I will discuss at the end of the segment of The Briefing is the fact that the primary biblical way of understanding the difference between a child and an adult is not just years, although the years are not unimportant. But the bigger issue here is a society that's just confused over the definition of child and the definition of adult.