A brilliant Christian analysis on children’s condition toward sin was presented (repeated on request) during the traditional Q&A session at the IMS by Pastor Tzvetan Petkov, General Conference President at the IMS, under the title “Are Children Born Sinners?” and transmitted via YouTube on January 26, 2026: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eO39TdRgKqY, the Secretarial Department at the General Conference of the IMS confirmed. Pastor Douglas Francis, Counselor of the General Conference President at the IMS, was the moderator of the event.
In his introduction, Pastor Tzvetan Petkov specified that the birth of a child is not a sin, otherwise a sin offering would be required after the birth in the Lord’s Word, but it was not the case.
In his presentation, Pastor Tzvetan Petkov underlined that the children inherit the sinful nature, but this does not mean automatically that they are born in sin: some children are mentioned in the Bible as a blessed fruit of the womb (Luke 1:41-42; Deuteronomy 7:13, 15; Psalms 22:9-10; Jeremiah 1:5) On the other hand, the children of a generation which did iniquity were born under God’s curse (Isaiah 1:4; Psalms 51:5; Deuteronomy 28:15, 18). In addition, Pastor Tzvetan Petkov emphasized that the children of faithful Christian parents are holy through the faith of the parents (1Corinthians 7:14). Furthermore, Pastor Tzvetan Petkov mentioned the importance of the first three and first seven years of the life of the child from the point of view of the proper discipline, as well as the testimony of the Spirit of the Prophecy which confirmed that little children of faithful mothers would be saved and little children of unfaithful mothers would be saved without their mothers, because God’s angels shall take care of these little children on the day of Christ’s second coming.
Written by Margarit Zhekov
Pastor Douglas Francis with Pastor Tzvetan Petkov who is praying at the end of the Q&A session; a photo by IMS SDA GC.
