DID MY CHILD GO TO HEAVEN?
WHAT HAPPENS TO THE BABY WHEN THE BABY DIES IN THE WOMB?
Charles E. Whisnant

part seven

Personal Note:

• Good morning, Charity worked until 10 p.m. last night, the girls had two wedding cakes and two full sheet cakes for today. Plus they have an order for 100 dozen cookies for Tuesday. Charity was back at work this morning by 5 a.m. They had 35 cakes for today. I am sitting here at my desk getting read to post part seven. Later this morning I have some lawncare mowing at the bakery and Mexi. Plus I am working four hours today at Mexi.

THERE ARE SEVERAL POSITIONS ON THIS ISSUE TAKEN TO GET INFANTS IN HEAVEN

Some will contend that God by his nature will not be willing to let millions or billions of helpless infants go to hell.

Another view we need to thank Martin Luther: "Well, the baby can’t believe, so surrogate faith on the part of the parents is rendered in their behalf." So, baptized babies will be saved. The Lutheran Augsburg Confession on baptism.

• This view is also held by Anglicans and Episcopalians and several reformed groups, as well as the Roman Catholic Church.
• "By Christian baptism, one enters into the Kingdom of God into the sphere of the saving work of Christ."

Let’s make this clear (well as clear as I can) No view of infant salvation which denies original sin and total depravity is true. Babies are not really free from sin. They are sinners.

Sending babies to hell does not protect the doctrine of salvation either.

OKAY, if infants are saved when they die, what identification is required for their salvation?

• Those that die in the womb, those who are born dead, the retarded, those who have little understanding in the matters of salvation - if they are saved when they die, by what means are they saved?
  
• BY THE SACRIFICIAL WORK OF JESUS CHRIST, BECAUSE THAT IS THE ONLY MEANS THAT ANYBODY CAN BE SAVED.

Here is what John MacArthur says:

• God has predestined all He wills into salvation, including those in infancy. That salvation is by His sovereign choice through grace alone. Though all infants deserve eternal judgment because of their guilt and corruption, their sins were paid for by the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ on the cross in which He bore the wrath of God, not only for all who could believe, but for all who could not believe. I really believe that only those who understand true reformed theology can grasp the redemption of little ones, which fits so beautifully because it’s all of sovereignty and it’s all of grace."

• Here is what B.B. Warfied says:
• The destiny of infants who die is determined irrespective of their choice by an unconditional decree of God suspended for its execution on no act of their own and their salivation is wrought by an unconditional application of the grace of Christ to their souls through the immediate and irresistible operation of the Holy Spirit prior to and apart from any actions of their own proper wills.
• If death in infancy does depend on God’s providence, it is assuredly God in His providence who selects this vast multitude to be made participants of His unconditional salvation. This is but to say that they are unconditionally predestined to salvation from the foundation of the world.
• "If this be true, that an infant child, a child in the womb is saved by this grace of Christ, then the Arminian way is not effective. That is to say, salvation is ALL of God of grace, and that would account for the salvation of these children in the womb as well."

Some say, "These children didn’t believe." They couldn’t believe. And therefore in God’s mercy and grace and sovereign election, through the sacrifice of Christ and His resurrection which is freely implemented to them, they are guided into God’s kingdom.

The reason that people are damned is by their works. The Bible teaches that all condemned sinners merited their eternal punishment by their sins.

• Cf. Revelation 20:11-12
  Cf. John 5:12
  
• The Judgment seat is about the judgment of peoples "deeds". "Works".
  God has a complete record (pre-computer days) of every sin of every sinner who has ever lived (that is a lot of people) and it’s on those records that they will be condemned. The record establishes the sins of the sinners and that record will condemn them.

LITTLE CHILDREN DON’T HAVE A RECORD

next time