Here's a preview (or a review if you don't catch it on air)of a conversation to take place on WMBI-FM, Chicago, this morning between 7:40 AM and 8 AM. Thanks to Bryan Litfin, professor at Moody Bible Institute. These are just notes, but please do comment, or send him or WMBI your comments.
Do Babies Go to Heaven?
Importance of the question
Many people have suffered tragic loss through miscarriage, abortion, stillborn children, or early infant death. It’s an issue of great importance. Who among us doesn’t know someone who has suffered such loss?
Sentimental answer vs. Biblical answer
Let’s let the Word of God speak to us, not human emotions. Babies are not little angels sitting on the lap of Jesus. God doesn’t take them to heaven just because they are cute. Jesus did welcome children to come to him, but he wasn’t teaching us about their salvation in those passages.
If we are honest, we must say the Bible gives us guidance on the issue, but it doesn’t lay it all out in one place in a systematic way. We have to piece it together. But when we do, I believe the Bible clearly teaches that young children who die go to heaven.
What does the Scripture say? Here are two facts about God:
1. God is abundantly merciful – “abounding in lovingkindness.” His character is to be gracious and kind. We should assume this about him. He never penalizes anyone to hell unfairly. The baseline assumption is that he is treating us with grace. Exodus 34:6.
2. God has a sovereign plan for every person.
In Psalm 139, it says we are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” God sees us in the womb and knits us together and numbers all our days.
In Luke 1, the unborn John the Baptist leaped for joy in his mother’s womb.
In Galatians 1, Paul says God separated him for a holy task from his mother’s womb.
In Psalm 22:9 David says the same thing.
The point is, God has a plan for each child from conception. We should assume his tender mercy toward every human being. Yet of course, he judges and sends people to hell...why?
All human beings are sinful from conception. They have inherited a sin nature from Adam.
In Psalm 51, David says, “In sin my mother conceived me.”
Romans 5 teaches that the sin of Adam has been passed to all men.
So, some theologians say some babies go to hell because of their inherited sin from Adam.
The problem is: the Bible nowhere teaches this! When hell or eternal punishment is described, it is for those who consciously do the deeds of evil – especially the evil of unbelief. People go to heaven or hell based on whether they accept the one true God by faith, or don’t.
Romans 1 teaches that people know enough to believe in the Creator God, yet they “suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” Thus, they incur a fair penalty of eternal death. Everybody has to have a chance to hear, and adults with understanding have that chance by observing nature.
In contrast, babies, though they are sinful because of their inherited sin, are not old enough to have willfully sinned. They have not discerned God in Creation and rejected him. They have not spurned the Gospel message after understanding right and wrong. That is why Jeremiah 19:4 describes children offered as sacrifices to pagan gods as being “innocent.” They are not old enough to have committed sin deserving of final punishment.
NOTE that babies are saved by the blood of Christ and by grace! I’m not saying they are innocent and go to heaven because of their own innate merit. Far from it! In God’s grace, he applies the work of Christ to them. He does this because they have not committed the lawless and rebellious deeds that Scripture says send you to hell. Hell is never linked to infants or original sin; it is always linked to evildoers who knowingly reject God!
A few other points:
Job 3 says that stillborn infants are peacefully at rest in their death, and their situation is better than to be alive on earth.
The Bible doesn’t teach an age of accountability.
My comments probably also apply to the mentally handicapped, who, like children, cannot in full understanding reject the Gospel.
Why would God accept all babies into heaven? One reason might be this. As we view the world around us, we see that most people are hellbound. It seems like the number of Christians is small. Does that mean heaven will be lightly populated, while hell will be full? No–not if you count all the souls of people who are conceived and then die before birth! Something like 1 in 4 pregnancies spontaneously abort, and many more children die at childbirth, throughout history, and in poor countries today. Heaven will be full of these people! Though this is not directly stated in Scripture, it helps solve the theological problem that “the way is narrow that leads to life,” yet we don’t believe heaven will be far less full than hell.
Rhonda's note: This isn't the end of the conversation, obviously. Another uplifting verse for all of us is Jeremiah 29:11. But this side of heaven has dim vision.
