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- One of the most difficult questions both personally
and pastorally is what happens to infants when they die?
And then we think, not just of infants,
but just to be precise,
we can think of people who've
miscarried or of abortions.
We think of how many individuals are in that category.
The numbers are staggering.
And I think we should begin scripturally,
first by saying,
are infants innocent?
Well some people might say,
Well, of course.
All infants, everyone miscarried, everyone aborted,
they're saved because they're innocent,
they haven't sinned.
But I don't think that's a right reading of Scripture.
You look at Romans 5:12-19,
and Paul's very clear that all of us,
as sons and daughters of Adam.
All of us enter the world as sinners
by birth, by conception,
and condemned, judged for our sin.
So every person conceived
deserves judgement.
All of us are born as sinners.
So the answer isn't, well, we're innocent,
and therefore of course we're all going to be saved.
I think the answer, however, is yes,
infants will be in heaven,
infants will be saved.
And we don't have a direct Scripture on that,
so we have to argue theologically.
I would say maybe three things about this.
The first thing is, Genesis 18:25.
"Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?"
That's what Abraham says when he's praying to the Lord.
And of course the answer is,
of course He'll do what's right.
So we can say about anyone
who's died as an infant,
or has miscarried, or aborted,
we can say in every case,
God always does what is right.
I want to settle there first,
Will God ever do anything wrong?
So I think before answering the question directly,
I want to just linger on that for a moment.
I hope that builds your trust in the Lord
to recognize that God always does what is right.
If we don't believe that, we need to grow in our understanding
of the love of God,
and the holiness of God,
and the justice of God. He always does what's right.
A second text that I think is interesting,
and I think indicates that infants are saved,
the miscarried are saved, the aborted are saved,
is in 2 Samuel
when the son of David and Bathsheba dies.
And David says,
that the son will not return to me,
but I'll return to him.
If we reflect on that verse, is David simply saying?
I'm going to die as he did.
Is that returning to him in any meaningful sense?
I think he means something more than just,
I'm going to die as he died,
I think he has a hope there
in that statement, I think there's a hope in that statement
that there will be a personal reunion,
and a happy reunion.
You're clearly not saying,
we're going to be together in hell.
So I think David is anticipating there a future reward,
for him and for his son.
So, I think that verse is helpful.
And then thirdly,
I think Romans 1:18 and following
is helpful.
There we're taught that
God's wrath is revealed from heaven
against the sin of human beings.
God's wrath is revealed against those who have not received
special revelation,
that is those who have not received the Scriptures,
but they've received the revelation
of God through nature, though the natural world.
They've received that revelation, and what does Paul say
about every single person who receives that revelation
of God being God, and God being powerful
through the natural world,
Paul tells us,
everyone rejects that revelation,
everyone turns away from it.
Well, of course that's not true for infants is it?
Infants of course,
can never understand or grasp
that revelation that comes through nature.
And so they never have that opportunity
to express in their person
that rejection of God's general revelation.
So I'm arguing theologically from that,
that because they don't have that opportunity
God extends mercy to them
as a result of that.
So I'm not arguing
infants go to heaven
because they're innocent,
they're not innocent,
they're born into the world as sinners.
So He could justly judge them,
but because they haven't had the opportunity to express
the guilt and sin they have
as sons and daughters of Adam,
God shows them mercy
and grants them eternal life.
You may think hearing the answer to that question,
well I still have questions,
that doesn't answer all my questions.
But that's not surprising,
because as I said at the beginning,
we don't have any particular text
that resolves this clearly.
So I come back to where I started,
"Will not the judge of all the earth do right?"
We can trust our infants who die,
to the Lord.
He will the right thing with them,
I think that means, he'll show them mercy.
- [Narrator] Thanks for watching,
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