HYPOTHETICAL

I know hypotheticals bring a whole set of problems to disagreements over ideology, but they can serve a purpose. 

Calvinism starts to crumble once it steps away from abstract talk of the sinfulness of man and how every human deserves hell, and into hypotheticals representing millions of actual souls.

Recently I offered a Calvinist stranger online the hypothetical about a 7 year old Haitian girl dying of cholera after a short lifetime of absolute hunger and misery. If not part of the elect, isn't she off to hell in their systematic theology? And won't she spend eternity in conscious torment there? And doesn't she deserve such torment since she was a sinner who was detestable in God's sight?

My Calvinist friend replied that there is precedent in Scripture for an "age of accountability". Young children are sinners, but they are not held responsible for their sins. Thus, any infant or child who passes away gets a free ticket to heaven.

Well, that might fit well in other ideologies, but it surely doesn't fly in Calvinism.

As soon as an "age of accountability" is acknowledged, you no longer have Unconditional Election because some people are elected based on their age. That's a condition. 

Irresistible Grace goes out the window as well because if God's regenerating grace cannot be resisted by humans in general, then it cannot be resisted at any age. You only need an "age of accountability" loophole if the Spirit is unable to irresistibly regenerate children.    

I told him it sounded as if he couldn't bring himself to accept Calvinism's cold, hard conclusion regarding our hypothetical (that there was a good chance this little girl was predestined to be a reprobate and would suffer eternal torment after her short miserable life on earth ended) and so he was borrowing "age of accountability" from another theological basket. 

In the end, if your systematic theology cannot account for difficult hypotheticals, it might not be worth keeping.

On the other hand, if your systematic theology DOES have an answer for difficult hypotheticals ... but you can't affirm that answer, then your trust in that systematic theology might not be worth keeping.