By Dr. Albert Mohler
AlbertMohler.com
The death of an infant or young child is profoundly heartbreaking –
perhaps the greatest grief a parent is called to bear. For Christian
parents, there is the sure knowledge that our sovereign and merciful
God is in control, but there is also a pressing question: Is our baby
in heaven?
This is a natural and unavoidable question, calling for our most
careful and faithful biblical study and theological reflection. The
unspeakable anguish of a parent’s heart demands our honest and humble
searching of the Scriptures.
Some are quick to answer this question out of sentimentality. Of
course infants go to heaven, they argue, for how could God refuse a
precious little one? The Universalist has a quick answer, for he
believes that everyone will go to heaven. Some persons may simply
suggest that elect infants go to heaven, while the non-elect do not,
and must suffer endless punishment. Each of these easy answers is
unsatisfactory.
Mere sentimentalism ignores the Bible’s teaching which bears on the
issue. We have no right to establish doctrine on the basis of what we
hope may be true. We must draw our answers from what the Bible reveals to be true.
Universalism is an unbiblical heresy. The Bible clearly teaches
that we are born in sin and that God will not tolerate sinners. God
has made one absolute and definitive provision for our salvation
through the substitutionary atonement accomplished by Jesus Christ our
Lord. Salvation comes to those who believe on His name and confess
him as Savior. The Bible teaches a dual destiny for the human race.
The redeemed – those who are in Christ – will be raised to eternal
life with the Father in Heaven. Those who have not believed in Christ
and confessed Him as Lord will suffer eternal punishment in the fires
of Hell. Universalism is a dangerous and unbiblical teaching. It
offers a false promise and denies the Gospel.
The Bible reveals that we are born marked by original sin, and thus
we cannot claim that infants are born in a state of innocence. Any
biblical answer to the question of infant salvation must start from
the understanding that infants are born with a sin nature.
The shifting of the focus to election actually avoids answering the
question. We must do better, and look more closely at the issues at
stake.
Throughout the centuries, the church has offered several different
answers to this question. In the early church, Ambrose believed that
baptized infants went to heaven, while unbaptized infants did not,
though they received immunity from the pains of hell. His first error
was believing in infant baptism, and thus in baptismal regeneration.
Baptism does not save, and it is reserved for believers – not for
infants. His second error was his indulgence in speculation. Scripture
does not teach such a half-way position which denies infants
admission to heaven, but saves them from the peril of hell. Augustine,
the great theologian of the fourth century, basically agreed with
Ambrose, and shared his understanding of infant baptism.
Others have taught that infants will have an opportunity to come to
Christ after death. This position was held by Gregory of Nyssa, and
is growing among many contemporary theologians, who claim that all,
regardless of age, will have a post-mortem opportunity to confess
Christ as Savior. The problem with this position is that Scripture
teaches no such post-mortem opportunity. It is a figment of a
theologian’s imagination, and must be rejected.
Those who divide infants into the elect and non-elect seek to
affirm the clear and undeniable doctrine of divine election. The Bible
teaches that God elects persons to salvation from eternity, and that
our salvation is all of grace. At first glance, this position appears
impregnable in relation to the issue of infant salvation – a simple
statement of the obvious. A second glance, however, reveals a
significant evasion. What if all who die in infancy are among
the elect? Do we have a biblical basis for believing that all persons
who die in infancy are among the elect?
We believe that Scripture does indeed teach that all persons who
die in infancy are among the elect. This must not be based only in our
hope that it is true, but in a careful reading of the Bible. We start
with the biblical affirmations we have noted already. First, the
Bible reveals that we are “brought forth in iniquity,”(1) and thus
bear the stain of original sin from the moment of our conception.
Thus, we face squarely the sin problem. Second, we acknowledge that
God is absolutely sovereign in salvation. We do not deserve salvation,
and can do nothing to earn our salvation, and thus it is all of
grace. Further we understand that our salvation is established by
God’s election of sinners to salvation through Christ. Third, we
affirm that Scripture teaches that Jesus Christ is the sole and
sufficient Savior, and that salvation comes only on the basis of His
blood atonement. Fourth, we affirm that the Bible teaches a dual
eternal destiny – the redeemed to Heaven, the unredeemed to Hell.
What, then is our basis for claiming that all those who die in
infancy are among the elect? First, the Bible teaches that we are to
be judged on the basis of our deeds committed “in the body.”(2) That
is, we will face the judgment seat of Christ and be judged, not on the
basis of original sin, but for our sins committed during our own
lifetimes. Each will answer “according to what he has done,”(3) and
not for the sin of Adam. The imputation of Adam’s sin and guilt
explains our inability to respond to God without regeneration, but the
Bible does not teach that we will answer for Adam’s sin. We will
answer for our own. But what about infants? Have those who die in
infancy committed such sins in the body? We believe not.
One biblical text is particularly helpful at this point. After the
children of Israel rebelled against God in the wilderness, God
sentenced that generation to die in the wilderness after forty years
of wandering. “Not one of these men, this evil generation, shall see
the good land which I swore to give your fathers.”(4) But this was not
all. God specifically exempted young children and infants from this
sentence, and even explained why He did so: “Moreover, your little
ones who you said would become prey, and your sons, who this day have
no knowledge of good and evil, shall enter there, and I will give it
to them and they shall possess it.”(5) The key issue here is that God
specifically exempted from the judgment those who “have no knowledge
of good or evil” because of their age. These “little ones” would
inherit the Promised Land, and would not be judged on the basis of
their fathers’ sins.
We believe that this passage bears directly on the issue of infant
salvation, and that the accomplished work of Christ has removed the
stain of original sin from those who die in infancy. Knowing neither
good nor evil, these young children are incapable of committing sins
in the body – are not yet moral agents – and die secure in the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
John Newton, the great minister who wrote the hymn Amazing Grace
was certain of this truth. He wrote to close friends who had lost a
young child: “I hope you are both well reconciled to the death of your
child. I cannot be sorry for the death of infants. How many storms do
they escape! Nor can I doubt, in my private judgment, that they are
included in the election of grace.”(6) The great Princeton
theologians Charles Hodge and B. B. Warfield held the same position.
One of the most eloquent and powerful expressions of this
understanding of infant salvation came from the heart of Charles
Spurgeon. Preaching to his own congregation, Spurgeon consoled
grieving parents: “Now, let every mother and father here present know assuredly
that it is well with the child, if God hath taken it away from you in
its infant days.”(7) Spurgeon turned this conviction into an
evangelistic call. “Many of you are parents who have children in
heaven. Is it not a desirable thing that you should go there, too? He
continued: “Mother, unconverted mother, from the battlements of heaven
your child beckons you to Paradise. Father, ungodly, impenitent
father, the little eyes that once looked joyously on you, look down
upon you now, and the lips which scarcely learned to call you father,
ere they were sealed by the silence of death, may be heard as with a
still small voice, saying to you this morning, ‘Father, must we be
forever divided by the great gulf which no man can pass?’ Doth not
nature itself put a sort of longing in your soul that you may be bound
in the bundle of life with your own children?”
Jesus instructed his disciples that they should “Permit the
children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the Kingdom of God
belongs to such as these.”(8) We believe that our Lord graciously and
freely received all those who die in infancy – not on the basis of
their innocence or worthiness – but by his grace, made theirs through
the atonement He purchased on the cross.
When we look into the grave of one of these little ones, we do not
place our hope and trust in the false promises of an unbiblical
theology, in the instability of sentimentalism, in the cold analysis
of human logic, nor in the cowardly refuge of ambiguity.
We place our faith in Christ, and trust Him to be faithful to his
Word. We claim the promises of the Scriptures and the assurance of the
grace of our Lord. We know that heaven will be filled with those who
never grew to maturity on earth, but in heaven will greet us completed
in Christ. Let us resolve by grace to meet them there.
