Do Babies go to Heaven? (Soteriology)
When talking about the eternal security (or lack thereof) of infants and the mentally infirm one must tread very carefully. This particular subject is a delicate one, and many are healing from the pains of a precious little child being ripped from their arms far too soon or has a child who will never rise above the mental capacity of about a four-year-old. At the same time, false platitudes offer no real lasting comfort. Whatever answer is given must be grounded firmly in the Word of God, then at that point on Christ can offer any true and lasting comfort. But what needs to be understood first and foremost is the very nature of God, in particular, His Holiness and righteousness. The Word of God is the final authority, and no matter what it may say that we either agree with or disagree with, we observe and believe that God is just, and we the creation worship Him.
The first question that must be answered in one of anthropology, that is we must observe the nature of man, his sinfulness, and whether these are counted as guilty before a just and living God. There are some who would espouse an idea of an age of innocence. But there is little to support this ideal, rather what we find is quite the opposite. Instead of being an age of innocence we rather see that all men fall short of the glory of God. Paul affirms in Galatians 3:22 that all are under sin, and in Romans 3, “there is none righteous, no not one.” The totality of human depravity is undeniable, it permeates our entire society and the lives of every human born into it. Therefore, we must conclude then that the newborn and the invalid or worthy of damnation, they have equally entered the state of sinfulness that all humans enter into.
This leads us to the next question. Is the grace of God applied to those who are unable to come to faith in Jesus Christ due to a premature death or an underdeveloped mind? The Bible gives us reason to believe that the answer to this question is yes. Starting with the Old Testament we see a special grace for those who haven’t reached maturity. When David became King, he ordered the death of Saul’s seed, except for Mephibosheth, son of Jonathan who was lame from a young age, (2 Sam. 21:7). We also read from in the book of Matthew, “Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Matt. 19:14) While Jesus was talking of the humility we must assume in order that we come to God as meek as children, it should be noted that children were still the example set by God Himself. One further bit of evidence for this particular grace of God is found in Revelation. John told us in his vision while on Patmos that he beheld a great multitude of all nations, kindreds, people and tongues. Because history shows us that not every nation has heard the gospel, and many people groups have gone extinct without hearing of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice we can see indirect evidence for the idea that those who populate those areas of creation are those who, by the mercy of God, never could due to an early mortality or invalid mind.
There is nowhere in the Bible that infers directly that all children who pass before coming to an age of maturity are a member of the elect of Christ, predestined to spend eternity with Him. That being said, it should be noted that we as Christians hold to a number of truths that have not been directly stated but has rather been shown to be true. Scripture has inferred that those unable to truly come to an understanding of the gospel live their short lives as the chosen elect of God, and we can rest in the knowledge of our merciful Father knowing that these we see as precious stand now before the throne of God day and night in white linens. “They hunger no more, neither shall they thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them nor any heat. For the lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto fountains of waters. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” (Rev. 7:16-17)
Bibliography
Gregory A Boyd & Paul R Eddy Across the Spectrum Baker Academic Grand Rapids MI, 2009
J.I. Packer Knowing God InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL, 1973
Louis Berkhof Systematic Theology GLH Publishing, Louisville KY, 2017
Much of the doctrinal basis for the belief in an age of innocence comes from Matthew 19:14 King James Version (KJV)
ReplyDelete14 But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.
Even in Jewish culture (which we should look to as it the precursor to Christianity, and Christ said he didn't come to replace the Law of Moses, but to Fulfill it, when in doubt, I look to the culture and religion that christianity came from and look to the words of Christ and writings of his followers for changes rather than scholars who had their own cultural biases hundreds of years after the condescension of Christ ), children are taught, but until the Bar/Bat Mitzvah they are not accounted as adults nor held responsible for things as adults are. As youths, children as responsible for learning the laws so that they may obey and act in accordance with them.
I would also point to Robert Heinlein (not a religious scholar, but he has a good point here): "I told you that 'juvenile delinquent' is a contradiction in terms. 'Delinquent' means 'failing in duty.' But duty is an adult virtue—indeed a juvenile becomes an adult when, and only when, he acquires a knowledge of duty and embraces it as dearer than the self-love he was born with. There never was, there cannot be a 'juvenile delinquent.' But for every juvenile criminal there are always one or more adult delinquents—people of mature years who either do not know their duty, or who, knowing it, fail.”
That delinquency would be when they are accountable for any errors they might make, not sins until they know the error and make it anyway.
Also, given your own words "The Word of God is the final authority, and no matter what it may say that we either agree with or disagree with" I would choose the words of Christ himself over those of Paul in a letter to the Romans, while Paul's authority as an Apostle is impressive, it is decidedly less so than that of Jesus himself.
ReplyDeleteI would also argue against using David sparing Mephibosheth (awesome name btw), as his actions were purely pragmatic from a political standpoint, God didn't tell David to spare him, David was clearing out potential claimants to his throne and removing the possibility of a civil war, while the invalid child was clearly not a threat to his power, any other children of Saul COULD have been.
ReplyDeleteWe can see similar episodes when the Israelites returned to Canaan, they were ordered to exterminate the Canaanites, extermination, not sparing the children, but killing every man woman child, herd animal, destroy the wealth.