Common Questions (part 5) - Do Babies Go To Heaven?

Father, thank you that when we're weak, you're strong. Thank you that you never sleep nor slumber. Of course, the Lord Jesus did. He was not just God, but he was the God-man, and he got tired and slept and was hungry and increased in knowledge and wisdom.

And we're just so thankful we have such a great representative, our Lord and Captain. We want to honor him. We want to see his name extolled. We want people to say, what a great Savior. We want the world to say, there's no one as excellent as Jesus.

We want the world to proclaim, oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name and your son and all the earth. Father, tonight, would you give us wisdom? I pray that in the days and years to come, if we live long enough, certainly we'll meet folks who have lost loved ones, help us to be loving and kind.

If we meet people who have lost little babies and there have been miscarriages, we also pray for that as well. We want to minister to folks, and so help us to be kind, wise, and certainly we don't want to hedge on the truth, but we just want to do the right thing.

So would you help us with this? In Jesus' name, amen. All right, the question tonight is a very popular question, and it's popular because babies do die, and it is very emotional, and I'm not going to have you raise your hand, but I would imagine if I were to ask you to raise your hand, if you have had a miscarriage, been in a family that's had a miscarriage, know someone that's lost a baby, most people would raise their hand.

Why the Question of Infant Salvation Matters

Where do those babies go? There's a lot of babies who are aborted, where do those babies go? Lots of children in third world countries that die, what about those babies? And so the question is very often asked, because lots of babies do die, infant mortality rate of course is lower than it used to be, but it was very high in the old days.

But also it's asked because it's a difficult question, because the Bible doesn't just say, all babies go to heaven, no babies go to heaven, some babies go to heaven. And so we have to construct from the Bible, some inferences, some implications, instead of having just a verse.

If I were to ask you, is anxiety a sin? There shouldn't be a lot of debate. Of course the world would say it's a disease, it's a syndrome, it's this, that and the other, but if the Bible says be anxious for nothing and you're anxious, we realize that's sinful and it's a lot easier problem.

And so tonight we're gonna deal with this issue, if a baby dies, where do they go? And friends, there's a time and place to talk about the subject, and there's a time and place not to talk about the subject.

And if you've been here long enough, the sanctuary was flipped around, but I remember two little babies, twins, in a casket about this big. Both those little babies sat right below this pulpit and we had a service.

And I remember that day, I'll never forget it. We sang, how great thou art. We sang, great is thy faithfulness. Tears streaming down people's faces as we buried little Lily at day one and little Tori at day three with Ron and Cheryl and their family.

And this is not just an academic exercise, in other words. If you'd like to sit around a fireplace and discuss things as seminary students would, that's fine by me, I'm for that. But there's a time to discuss things a little bit differently, for instance, at those funerals and when someone's lost a little child.

Lewis Berry Chaffer said, no theology is established or complete, which doesn't account for the salvation of those who die in infancy. So you need to have in your theology, what happens to babies? Now, not many of you emailed me to say, please send me the Kurt Daniel word document.

A few did and so I'd want to remind you again, if you have a computer and you're savvy on a computer, I have a word document for you from Kurt Daniel that has a lot of these quotes that I'll use tonight.

And it has a lot of quotes about all kinds of other issues about the sovereignty of God. I like it when I go to a basketball game or a football game and people sell programs and how do they sell programs?

Get your programs, here's a program. Do you know what I like? Here's how I think you should sell a program. The sales reps in the congregation will like this. You've got to have a program. You've got to have this word document.

Kurt Daniel emailed me and so some of the format I'll use from him. What happens to babies who die? Do babies go to heaven? Are babies saved? And even that language makes us think if a baby has to be saved, what do they need to be saved from?

In other words, babies, are they damned and then they need to be saved? Lots of times people think, okay, you Calvinists think that every baby that dies is reprobated to hell. You know, in all my studies, I've never heard of one person, one person advocating the sovereignty of God that teaches that, not one.

What are the options with the question, what happens to those who die in infancy? And by the way, if you want a verse by verse exposition, I'm not going to really do that tonight. I just want to answer this question.

Views on What Happens to Babies Who Die

Here's some options. The first options with babies and do they go to heaven when they die are people who don't have a mental capabilities to believe. The first answer is, we just don't know. We have no idea, scripture's silent and we don't know the answer.

That's option one. Option two, and again, I don't know anybody that teaches this. Option two is every baby that dies goes to hell. Every single baby that would ever die would go to hell. Three, the third option is babies that are baptized as babies go to heaven and babies that aren't baptized don't go to heaven.

Very few people believe that. Fourth option, some babies are saved. Some babies, we don't know about how many, but we know some are definitely saved. Calvin affirmed this, Francis Turretin. Fifth option, all babies that die are saved, therefore, elect babies.

Charles Hodge, B .B. Warfield, Baptist, Spurgeon, Lorraine Bettner, Louis Sperry Chaffer. This is the real popular view. This is the dominant view in Christianity that every baby that dies is saved. Every baby would be elect.

B .B. Warfield said, today, few Calvinists can be found who do not hold that all who die in infancy are the children of God and enter at once into his glory. Not because original sin alone is not deserving of eternal punishment, nor because they are less guilty than others, nor because they die in infancy, but simply because God in his infinite love has chosen them in Christ before the foundation of the world.

That would be Warfield's view, Dr. Danny Aiken, President of Southeastern, and Dr. Albert Moeller, President of Southern. They said, it is our conviction that there are good biblical reasons, theologically as well, for believing that God saves all who die who do not reach a stage of moral understanding and accountability.

Now, here's where it gets a little trickier. The confessions, like the Westminster Confession, and remember, it's confessions and the Bible. It's the other way around. Just seeing if you're awake, right?

It's not verse by verse. It's a little more academic tonight. The confessions state things like this. Elect infants dying in infancy are regenerated and saved by Christ. The elect infants. But that doesn't tell us if they're all elect or some are elect, or just maybe not many are elect.

When Reformed theologians look at that confession, most will say, see, that's a pronouncement where all babies are elect. The Presbyterian Church in the USA, when it was a worthy denomination, said in 1903, it is not to be regarded as teaching that any who die in infancy are lost.

We believe that all dying in infancy are included in the election of grace and are regenerated and saved by Christ through the Spirit who works when and where and how He pleases. And what we know for sure though, babies don't go to heaven because we're universalists, that everybody goes to heaven.

That's not why we believe babies go to heaven. We don't believe in second chances either. All right, let's make it a little more difficult. Do babies deserve to go to heaven? Does anybody deserve to go to heaven?

All right, let's put it this way. When you get to heaven, if every baby that's ever died is there, will you be happy? You'll be happy because you'll be in heaven. What if you get to heaven and no baby that died in infancy is there, would you still be happy?

Would the God of the universe still be worthy of praise? The answer is yes. So we wanna be careful. And so why don't we turn our Bibles to Romans 5, and I want to remind you, we were in Romans 5 this morning a little bit as well, that infants are born sinful.

Infants are not holy. Infants have Adam's sin credited to their account. And if God wants to punish sin, he's just and righteous and he can punish sin. He must punish sin. But does he punish it on Jesus or does he punish it on the baby?

Psalm 51, five, in sin my mother did conceive me. Now, I'm just gonna go through this quickly because we've gone through Romans 5 a lot, but I just wanna remind you that babies, even though they haven't sinned with their thought, word, and deed, they still have Adam's sin.

Adam's first sin, Romans 5, 12. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. Remember in Romans chapter five, what's Paul talking about?

That there's a representative who can save people, Romans 5, one through 11. And then he says in chapter five, verse 12 and following, hey, friends, representation shouldn't surprise you. It's not new.

Jesus saves by representation. It's not new, Romans chapter five, verse 12. Representation by Adam isn't new. Adam, this public person, stands in our stead as our immediate representative. And look at all the singular language, the one act of Adam bringing condemnation.

Take a look at verse 15. But the free gift of Romans, Romans 5 I'm in, is not like the transgression, for if by the transgression of the one, the many die. Verse 16, tucked there in the middle of the verse, the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation.

Verse 17, for if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through one. Verse 18, as through one transgression, there resulted condemnation to all men. And then in verse 19, through the one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners.

That first sin of Adam credited to your account. He was your representative. Of course, we know Jesus was a representative. Well, now take a look at verse 13. Now think through this. Remember, Abendroth's rule for Bible reading.

Read slowly, think. For until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there's no law. Hey, wait a second. Adam to Moses, where was the codified law? Where was Mosaic law? No law of Moses.

Between Adam and Moses, no Mosaic law. When people sin between Adam and Moses, as they certainly did, were they guilty of breaking God's direct revealed law? Well, there wasn't a law. There wasn't a law that said don't kill, but when they killed, what law did they break?

There was no imputing. If you look back at verse 13, but sin is not imputed when there's no law. There's no imputing people with violating Mosaic law when there's no Mosaic law. So what is Paul driving at?

Paul is driving at, are you waving to me? You're just stretching? Oh, this is not Q and A. You are dismissed. Okay, just hold onto that. Is that preach longer? How long have you been coming to this church?

Muto, take care of him. The conclusion, we just like lost control. The conclusion Paul wants you to draw is there's an earlier law broken. Adam broke the law. Why do people die? A law was broken. The law that Adam broke.

Verse 14, yeah, death reigned from Adam to Moses. How? How can death reign from Adam to Moses when there's no Mosaic law? Even over those sinning, who was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

John Murray said, for nothing evinces the sin of all and the death of all in the sin of Adam more than the death of little infants. When a baby dies, it proves that they have sin credited to their account.

Original Sin and Adam's Representation

Now, as we work through this issue of where do babies go? Baptism sneaks in. Baptism sneaks in. First of all, I don't believe the Bible teaches infant baptism. Second of all, I don't believe the Bible teaches baptismal regeneration.

If you get baptized, you go to heaven. And now we come to some interesting church history. Augustine, you baptize a baby to remove original sin. So Adam's sin is credited to the account of these babies.

How do we get these babies forgiven? Because you have sin, you're gonna have to pay for it. Augustine said, you baptize them. Augustine said, even the infants are, according to the true belief, born in sin, not actual, but original, so that we confess they have the need of grace for the remission of sins.

So now people start thinking this when Augustine hits the stage around the late 300s. Earlier in church history, from the New Testament time to Augustine, nobody really asks these questions. Augustine says, you've got to have a baby baptized to get rid of this original sin.

Then you've got people like Gregory the Great, Peter Lombard, saying that unless a baby is baptized, they are going to not go to heaven. They're gonna go to hell unless a baby's been baptized. I love what the second Scott's Confession says in 1580.

I didn't write it. I wish I would have. We abhor and detest the Pope's cruel judgment against infants dying without baptism. Time goes on. Let's kind of modify Augustine a little bit. We don't really want unbaptized babies going to hell.

It's okay that baptized babies go to heaven. So where can we send unbaptized babies besides hell? Anybody know the answer? Barry, you can't answer this one. No! Steve? Limbo. Limbus in phantom. Sounds like a scary Halloween outfit or something to me.

Unbaptized dying infants don't go to hell. They go to limbo. Modern Catholic Dictionary, page 319. Regarding the limbo of infants, it is an article of the Catholic faith that those who die without baptism and for whom the want of baptism has not been supplied in soma cannot enter heaven.

That's what Trent taught. Yet they started to fluctuate back and forth. Some would say limbo is, you just don't get to see God in heaven. You don't get the beatific vision. That doesn't make sense. Didn't we read that in Revelation 22, verse 4 this morning?

And they shall what? See his face. Some people would say, okay, in limbo, you don't get the good stuff in heaven, but you don't get the bad stuff in hell. You should just see your faces. Ambrose said unbaptized infants were not admitted to heaven but have immunity from the pains of hell.

Gregory of Nyssa said that infants who die, the second they die, they immediately mature and now they've got the opportunity to trust Christ. So you die, you have an adult mind, and now do you believe or don't you believe?

Of course we know there's heaven and hell. There's no purgatory, there's no limbo. Jesus said in Matthew 25, and these go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into limbo. No, eternal life. I just want to see if you're paying attention.

Revelation 20, if anyone's name was not written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. Well, the Greek Orthodox and the Anglicans pretty much believed the way that the Roman Catholics believed.

Same with Lutherans. Baptism washes away original sin. But Luther still had hope against hope. Somehow unbaptized babies would make it. Then we move to some of the Reformation, canons of Dort. If you're a Christian and your children die, then they go to heaven.

Dort, since we are to judge of the will of God from His word, which testifies that the children of believers are holy, not by nature, but in virtue of the covenant of grace in which they, together with their parents, are comprehended.

Godly parents have no reason to doubt the election and salvation of their children, whom it pleaseth God to call out of this life in their infancy. So if you've got a believer, they lose a child, you can give them assurance.

Unbelievers, no assurance. But then people began to think, well, what about faith? Don't you need faith? Faith comes by hearing a message about Christ. The just shall live by faith. Don't you need faith?

Some people would say you don't have real faith, like Turch, and he said you had seminal faith. Shedd would say the regenerate child, youth, and man believes and repents immediately. The regenerate infant believes and repents when his faculties will admit of the exercise and manifestation of faith and repentance.

It is a potential or latent faith. Billy Graham preached at the Oklahoma City Memorial Service. Remember that big bomb that went off? And he said, quote, someday there will be a glorious reunion with those who have died and gone to heaven before us.

And that includes all those innocent children that are lost. They're not lost from God because any child that young is automatically in heaven in the arms of God. And then some guy came up behind the scenes and got after Billy Graham and said, what you're preaching is a new gospel, justification by youth alone.

Biblical Evidence for Infant Salvation

How do we solve this problem? Let me give you some verses. Verses that I think teach that babies, that die, go to heaven. Some verses that are used that don't apply and then we'll wrap it up. All right.

Verses that seem to indicate the salvation of infants that die. And these are not explicit. These are implicit. We can't be totally sure, but I think we can make a pretty good case. What verse do you think I'm going to first, Barry?

Okay. Steve. Steve. Okay. 2 Samuel 12. Let's go there. Remember David lost his son and let's talk about this a little bit. This is really the verse. If you have to go to one verse or set of verses, it's 2 Samuel 12.

Now we are going to read a little bit more than just the one verse that we're looking for because I want to set the context up properly. The key verse is verse 23, but let's just pick it up in chapter 12, verse one of 2 Samuel.

And again, we're looking at verses that would seem to indicate that when a baby dies, certainly have a believer that they would go to heaven. 2 Samuel 12, verse one. And the Lord sent Nathan, sent Nathan to David.

He came to him and said, remember this? There were two men in a certain city and the rich, one rich and the other poor. Rich man had very many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought.

And he brought it up and it grew with him and with his children. It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms. And it was like a daughter to him. Now there came a traveler to the rich man.

He was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had come to him. But he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it, killed it for the man who had come to him. Then David's anger was greatly kindled against the man.

And he said to David, as the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die and he shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity. You are the man. Thus says the Lord God of Israel.

Nathan's now talking to David. I anointed you king over Israel. I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. I gave you your master's house, your master's wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah.

And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more. Why have you despised the word of the Lord to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.

Verse 13, David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said to David, the Lord has also put away your sin. You shall not die. Nevertheless, verse 14, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child who is born to you shall die.

David seeks the Lord on behalf of the child. Verse 16, verse 16 goes on to say he fasted. It says in verse 18, on the seventh day the child died and the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead for they said, behold, while the child was yet alive, we spoke to him and he did not listen to us.

How then can we say to him, the child's dead? He may do himself some harm. David's going to hurt himself. But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, David understood that the child was dead and said to his servants, is the child dead?

He's dead. Then David arose from the earth, washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes. And he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. He then went to his own house and when he asked, they set food before him and he ate.

Fasting's over. What is this thing, verse 21, the servants say that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive. But when the child died, you arose and ate food. He said, when the child was still alive, I fasted and wept for I said, who knows whether the Lord will be gracious to me that the child may live.

Verse 23, but now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? This is the crucial question that we'll ask regards this part of the verse. I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.

Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, they had a son. Okay, what does this mean, congregation? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me. Now, some people think it just means the boy died and David's going to die too.

Now, I wanna ask you a question, just how much encouragement is that? You lose a baby son and then you tell him, you're gonna die too, be warm, be filled. I don't think that's going to make David stop weeping.

I think that's gonna make him cry all the more. I think he would be more upset. Instead, the best way that you can think of this is I shall go to him and he will not return, but he will not return to me.

He's in heaven and I'm going to go to heaven as well. That's the best way. How do you encourage someone to just keep crying, say you're gonna die too? You know, we always talk about that when you go to the wake and we just tell the kids, you know, when you meet someone, you don't have to say anything, you can't make it all better, just say, I'm sorry, I love you, give them a hug and just work your way down the line and you can just say that thing to everyone.

And so then the next time you go to a wake and someone's lost a loved one and you give them a hug and say, I'm sorry, you'll be dead too. I mean, really, there's no comfort there. How different is David when Absalom dies?

He will not be comforted, why? Because he knows Absalom's in hell. He knows he's in eternal perdition. Oh, Absalom, Absalom. There's nothing David is going to do to stop himself with Absalom dying. But here, David prayed, he fasted, and then at the end of the day, he said, you know what?

I'm going to go be with that child in heaven one day. When Absalom dies, I refuse comfort because I know where he is. One man said, had the baby recovered, David could not know if he would live and become right with God and go to heaven or not.

But when he died, David knew at once that he went to the same heaven where he himself would one day go. And isn't it interesting? What day did the son die? The eighth day for circumcision. What day? Seventh day, no circumcision.

No circumcision, and David thinks that he's going to see the baby again. This is the verse that most people think it's the closest we can get to say infants who die go to heaven. John MacArthur said, though the verse doesn't explicitly say that David, say that, David clearly does expect to one day be reunited with his departed child.

Since we know David is a believer whose destiny was heaven, we can infer that his hope of reunion means he expects his child to be in heaven. Thus, MacArthur says, 2 Samuel 12, 23 suggests strong evidence for a heavenly destiny of the unborn and children who die young.

Let's turn to Revelation chapter five, please. This is another verse that is used for those trying to defend the position that if a baby dies, they go to heaven. And by the way, friends, I'd better say this now before I forget.

I want this to be the right view, don't you? I want this to be the right view. I'm not arguing, trying to make it not the right view. If I had to guess, this is the right view. I can't prove it like I could prove lots of other doctrines, but people use Revelation chapter five and some great theologians use this chapter, verses seven and following, to teach that infants, when they die, go to heaven.

I don't have tons of time, but we'll just go through it quickly. Verse seven of Revelation chapter five, and he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. When he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb.

You only fall down before God and worship. Each holding a harp and golden bowls of incense were the prayers of the saint, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song saying, worthy are you to take the scroll and open its seals, for you were slain and by your blood, you ransomed people for God.

And here's the key right here. Here's where the theologians will strike. From every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priest to God and they shall reign on earth.

The celebration of all the saints and the redemption of God, all praising the lion of the tribe of Judah for his great ransom, from every tribe, language, people and nation. How can this be possible? How can the multitude of heaven contain every tribe, nation, tongue and language?

Lewis Perry Chaffer wrote, it is probable that the elect company, in order for it to be from every kindred tribe and people, will be built up in part out of those who die in infancy. In other words, Moeller would say the same thing.

There are places, did you just read it in the news? I read it yesterday that they found an island that has never seen an airplane before. It's just a bunch of like natives. And if this language means out of every tribe, people and nation, how can people go to heaven who haven't had any missionaries visit them?

Answer, according to some theologians, babies that would die would go to heaven. All right, let's do another one. Luke chapter one, Luke chapter one. This is my last set of verses for, I think some good convincing arguments for those babies that die go to heaven.

This is a little bit different here, but we'll talk about it. People are like, well, babies don't have faith. They're just to live by faith. They're saved by faith. Can anybody be filled with the spirit in the womb, pre-faith?

John the Baptist, let's find out. Of course, we could go to Jeremiah one, where before the formation of Jeremiah in the womb, you were consecrated. But here, Luke chapter one, verse 12, Zechariah was troubled when he saw him and fear fell upon him.

But the angel said to him, do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son. You shall call his name John. You will have joy and gladness and many will rejoice at his birth for he will be great before the Lord and he must not drink wine or strong drink.

He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb. So for those who say, you've got to believe to go to heaven because everywhere else scripture teaches you've got to believe to go to heaven.

Here we have filled with the Holy Spirit in the womb. It is possible that God does it. It's not often, it's irregular, but it's possible and he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God.

The ESV study Bible says in an uncommon way, God imparts regeneration to him before he was born. Turn with me if you would to Ezekiel chapter 16. Spurgeon uses this verse, but I don't think it's a very good verse to use to prove that children go to heaven when they die.

But hey, what do I know? Charles Spurgeon is fairly formidable. You need to pull up an article sometime online. Are you sure you like Spurgeon? Because lots of people quote Spurgeon, but are you sure you like him?

It's for any secret Arminians in the congregation tonight. Are you sure you like Spurgeon? Well, he's not right on everything of course, and I don't think he's right here, but this is a verse used by Charles Haddon to teach that when children die, they're God's children, and he takes them to heaven.

Ezekiel 16, verse 20. Ezekiel 16, verse 20. And you took your sons and your daughters whom you had born to me, you Israelites, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. You offered up children to the God Molech, the end of verse 20.

Were your whoring so small a matter? Can you just imagine God talking to you like that? That you slaughtered, and here's where Spurgeon hones in, were you slaughtered my children and delivered them up as an offering by fire to them?

And in all your abominations and your whorings, you did not remember the days of your youth. And so Spurgeon says, see, you've slaughtered my children. The rebuke from God is you've slaughtered my children.

Passages That Should Not Be Used to Prove It

I read another article and the author said, this is Planned Parenthood's life verse. So some would use Ezekiel chapter 16. I wouldn't, but you just need to know about the verse. Matthew chapter 18 please, let me show you some verses, several verses in Matthew that can't be used, shouldn't be used, that have nothing to do with children going to heaven.

They're talking about childlike faith, faith like a child, faith that is childlike, not childish, but childlike. Let's just go through a few of these. And again, sorry, we're not going verse by verse tonight, but it is a question that we're just trying to answer.

What about children that go to heaven? Okay, Matthew chapter 18, Matthew 18. These are verses that I think shouldn't be used to prove children go to heaven. I'd rather stick with 2 Samuel. Matthew 18, at that time, the disciples came to Jesus saying, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

Calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, truly I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, the qualities of a child, you shall never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest of the kingdom of heaven.

Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me. But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me, it can't be an infant because infants don't believe. It would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.