I love little babies—they are so precious!
When I see a baby, I can’t help but think of heaven and think of how Jesus loved little
children.
While most of our experiences with little children are precious, sometimes tragedy strikes.
More than one hundred years ago, a woman named Louise told of a heartbreaking experience
that happened to her.
Her fifteen-month-old daughter died.
Louise wrote, “At the funeral I had a visit from the minister of the [church] in which
we lived and another minister of the Christian Church, who came to comfort us, but they could
not tell me if my sweet baby was saved, for they said there was no provision in the Bible
for the salvation of children, but that we may hope that the Lord would take care of
them.
This time I felt indignant at their speech for in my heart I was sure that my little
angel was all right and that those ministers knew nothing.”
Louise is not the only person to be told her dead young child might not be able to inherit
God’s Kingdom.
President Joseph Fielding Smith shared the following story:
“I remember when I was in the mission field in England, there was an American family there.
. . . One evening as we sat in their home, the man’s wife turned to me and said: “Elder
Smith, I want to ask you a question.”
Before she could ask her question, she began to cry.
I did not know what the matter was.
She sobbed, and when she had composed herself enough to ask the question, she told me this
story: “When they went over to England, they had
the misfortune of losing a little baby.
They were attending the Church of England.
They went to the minister and wanted to have that baby laid away with a Christian burial,
as they had been attending the church.
The minister said to her: “We can’t give your child a Christian burial because it was
not christened.
Your baby is lost.”
That woman’s heart had been aching and aching for two or three years.
So she asked the question of me: “Is my baby lost?
Will I never see it again?””
Do little children need to be baptized?
Are they saved in the Kingdom of God?
Is my baby lost?
These are questions people have wondered about for centuries.
My son who is on a mission recently talked with a woman who had lost young child and
was looking for answers about what would happen to him.
While the Bible does not directly address this question, the Book of Mormon and revelations
in the Doctrine and Covenants are clear—little children do not need to baptized and are saved
in the Kingdom of God.
Consider a few passages of scripture: King Benjamin taught: “Even if it were possible
that little children could sin they could not be saved; but I say unto you they are
blessed; for behold, as in Adam, or by nature, they fall, even so the blood of Christ atoneth
for their sins.”
Abinadi declared: “Little children also have eternal life.”
Mormon wrote, “Little children are alive in Christ, even from the foundation of the
world; if not so, God is a partial God, and also a changeable God, and a respecter to
persons; for how many little children have died without baptism!
… Little children need no repentance, neither baptism.”
In September of 1830 Joseph Smith received what is now Doctrine and Covenants 29.
Just two years previously, Joseph and Emma had lost a baby who only lived for a few hours.
What comfort Joseph must have felt to have these words revealed to him: “Little children
are redeemed from the foundation of the world through mine Only Begotten; Wherefore, they
cannot sin, for power is not given unto Satan to tempt little children, until they begin
to become accountable before me.”
Some of us may take for granted the knowledge that little children are saved—but let’s
remember that this precious teaching is revealed in Latter-day scripture.
I’m grateful for the knowledge that, in Mormon’s words, “All little children are
alive in Christ.”