What is the Baptist response to 1 Corinthians 7:14 if the children are believers but the parents are not? &quot;For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy.&quot; (1 Corinthians 7:14 KJV)


&quot;For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.&quot; (1 Cor 7:14 NIV).

Taking these two assumptions about Baptist theology:

that young children must either believe in the Gospel and are saved, or not believe in the Gospel and are not saved, without there being any 3rd option

that the belief of young children is 100% independent of the belief of their parents; it is entirely up to them whether they believe or not


Therefore,

given a situation where a young child comes to believe in the gospel through a family friend, though his parents do not, how can this be reconciled with 1 Cor. 7:14? It is a contradiction of &quot;salvation by faith alone&quot; (made clear throughout the NT) to be &quot;unholy&quot; (&quot;unclean,&quot; depending on translation) and a believer at the same time.

One Baptist with whom I spoke said that Paul is using the word &quot;holy&quot; to mean &quot;having been somehow influenced by someone who is holy.&quot; But as far as I know the word &quot;holy&quot; throughout the Bible always refers to &quot;being of good standing with God&quot; and not just &quot;influenced.&quot; If Paul had meant that, I feel he would have used different wording.
There are some answers here: Does Christianity allow for believing on someone else&#39;s behalf?,
but none of them are specifically from a Baptist perspective.
I also already looked through these: https://biblehub.com/commentaries/1_corinthians/7-14.htm
What does not appear to be taken into your question is the age of consent. That is a strict belief in the Baptist Denomination. While a child is under the age of consent they are covered by the Grace of God (or in other words they are not judged by their not accepting Jesus as their Savior. They are accepted as were Adam and Eve prior to the fall). 

Later when they are of age it is taken into consideration whether or not their parents of someone else have presented the path of Salvation with them.


  Matthew 18:10 KJV Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.


Here we see that prior to the Crucifixion these little ones received special consideration in the face of God. 


  Matthew 24:14 KJV  And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.


Here we see that judgment of the World will not come until all of the World has seen the opportunity to accept Christ as their Savior. This requirement is that those capable of making that decision must elect Salvation. We also believe that God is love and would not condemn anyone who for any reason was incapable of making that decision, to the outer darkness (or what is better known as the lake of fire).

There is of course much more included in the Baptist Denomination about eligibility for Salvation than this, but I hope this gives you the basic understanding of the Baptist concept of your question.