- Charity and I went to Lexington KY Sunday morning to go to church with Eric and Leslie. Leslie cooked a very good Sunday dinner. And Kyle and Brittany and Chad and Heather came over for dinner. Eric wanted us to come up for my birthday. Then on Monday, Eric and I went to play 18 holes of golf. The kids gave me a new digital camera.
I want to pick up on our article about "DO CHILDREN GO TO HEAVEN?"
SO HOW DOES GOD DEAL WITH THEM?
DO THEY GO INSTANTLY TO HEAVEN?
And as I have said, I think the Word of God will affirm the salvation of little ones who die. Of course, parents always think their children go to heaven. Everyone thinks they will go to heaven.
Let first review Psalms 139
- Psalms 139:1 For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. O Jehovah, thou hast searched me, and known me. 2 Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising; Thou understandest my thought afar off. 3 Thou searchest out my path and my lying down, And art acquainted with all my ways. 4 For there is not a word in my tongue, But, lo, O Jehovah, thou knowest it altogether. 5 Thou hast beset me behind and before, And laid thy hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain unto it. 7 ¶ Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? 8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, thou art there. 9 If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; 10 Even there shall thy hand lead me, And thy right hand shall hold me.
God knows every thing about me from the time I was given life to the time I die.
God is actively involved in my life. From the very start the Lord has been actively involved in controlling my life. And there is no way He is ever going to lose sight of me. "Where can I go from your Spirit" (vs 7) In other words, I can’t go anywhere outside of His knowledge, I can’t go anywhere outside of His vision. So I can talk to God anytime and anywhere, and He knows I am where I am at the time.
Before I ever said a word in 1947 God knows every single detail about my life. How does God know me like that? Because He is my personal Creator (vs 13) God made me personally.
And He has determined my destiny (vs 16) The days that were ordained for me when as yet there wasn’t Charles Whisnant.
Babies are in the presence of God.
- Cf Ecclesiastes 6 3-5 Solomon mourns. He mourns that a stillborn child is better off than a person who lives a 1000 years twice and doesn’t enjoy the right things, he said, "What’s the point of living two thousand years if you don’t ever enjoy true goodness. You’d be better off a stillborn child."
- Cf Job 3:16-17 "I would be better off if I were stillborn, so I wouldn’t have to face a troubling life - that I would enter immediately into what? "Rest." Job then understood by the Holy Spirit that dying as an infant would bring one to rest and one would escape the pain of suffering. Which would say, Job didn’t believe that infants would die and go to hell.
WE SAY THAT A CHILD BEFORE BIRTH OR AFTER BIRTH THAT DIES GOES TO HEAVEN.
Who qualifies then, in our discussion, as an infant or as a child, who dying is SAVED - who dying, instantly goes to heaven?
- "Those who have not reached sufficient, mature understanding in order to comprehend convincingly the issues of law and grace, sin and salvation."
- This would be the infant in the womb, the infant at birth, a small child, the mentally impaired adult at any age, anyone in the circumstance who cannot sufficiently understand and grasp so as to be fully convinced of the issues of law and grace and sin and salvation.
- It’s not about age; it is a condition. So we can say, any persons in the state of mind where they cannot, in a mature way, know and grasp these issues would be safe in the arms of God.
Now you have those who ask "Are all children born as sinners? "
- Some would say you are not a sinner until you commit sin by your own will. Notwithstanding, the Bible is definitely crystal clear that all children are sinners from conception – all children. This is the principle of iniquity which is embedded in the human race. Thus, all children are born morally corrupt. All children are born with an irresistible defect toward evil.
- Everybody is born in sin. An infant born without sin would not die. If they were born innocent or spotless or morally neutral, then there would be no basis for their death!
- The very fact that they die marks that the disease of sin is there in them.
- Cf 1 Kings 8:46 "If they sin against you——for there is no one who does not sin.." ESV
- Psa 51:5 "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity; in sin, my mother conceived me." From the point of conception sin was there, in the very nature.
- Psa. 143:2 Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you."
That means from conception on, in the womb, at birth, childhood, adulthood, no one is righteous!
Psa 58:3 The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies."
- The Scripture clearly points out that sinfulness is not a condition that comes upon people when they are old enough to choose to do wrong. It’s the condition of the entire human race.
Cf. Isa 48:8 "and that from before birth you were called a rebel." So it’s true that every child is conceived with this deadly virus called SIN. Thus, we cannot say that children die and go to heaven because they are sinless.
If it’s true then, that all are sinners, born into sin, then aren’t they all damned to hell and all the little children who die by the millions and even billions because they are sinful deserve death and hell and that is indeed where they go? If one has to believe on Jesus to be saved, and babies can’t, will they go to Hell?
Doesn’t total depravity teach all sinners go to Hell? Do Calvinists teach that infants can go to hell if they are not in the elect? Some do. I have heard and read that some preachers and theologians say if God does not elect a soul to heaven and that soul dies as a baby they will go to hell.
