What is the Eternal State of an Infant who Dies?

A Sensitive Subject

 

This is a sensitive question and topic that should not be handled flippantly or lightly.  There are many mothers and fathers and family members who have deep seated emotions which include sadness, anxiety, confusion, fear, and even hope.  In light of this, we need to proceed with love and tact, but we also need to respond with biblical truth.  I spoke on this topic at GBC as we worked our way through the book of 2 Samuel, and we came across David’s loss of his child born to Bathsheba.  After the death of his infant son, he made the statement, “I shall go to him, but he will not return to me” (2 Samuel 12:23).  

 

I wanted to make this material available in written format in the hopes that it may be a source of understanding and comfort for any struggling with this issue.  What follows was largely taken from that sermon and my understanding of God’s Word on this subject.  

 

David’s Child Who Died

 

So, what did David mean by his statement, “I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.”?  Did David believe that his son went to heaven and so they would be reunited there after David died also?  Or was David simply saying,” I will go to my grave also, just like my son.”  In that sense, he would “go to him.”  This leads us to the question, “What happens to a baby who dies?”  Do they go to heaven?  Do they go to be with the Lord?  

 

What Happens to A Baby Who Dies? 

 

Let me give you my quick answer at the outset, before I lay out my reasoning as to why I believe the way I do.  I believe that, “Yes, a baby who dies goes to be with the Lord in paradise.”  Now, why do I believe that is the case? 

 

No Explicit Bible Statement

 

First, it should be stated that the Bible nowhere explicitly states that children who die go to heaven.  Many here will want to simply land sentimentally and believe that babies go to heaven because it would be painful to believe otherwise.  The thought is that God would certainly not refuse a precious little one.  

 

But sentimentalism and feelings are not appropriate tools for establishing truth or determining reality.  Not only that, but we have no right to establish Bible doctrine on the basis of what we HOPE to be true.  We need to draw our answers from what the Bible reveals to be reality and truth.  

 

What About Inherited Sin?

 

One of the sticking points that some might have with my belief on the eternal state of a child who dies, is Bible’s teaching on inherited sin.  That is the truth that all human beings are conceived as sinners.  We have inherited a sin nature from our forefathers, stretching back to Adam’s rebellion in the Garden of Eden.  Romans 5:12 states, “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.” 

 

We are born as sinners, having been conceived by other sinners.  Therefore, we have inherited a corrupt or fallen nature.  This sinful nature that we have inherited from Adam ensures the inevitability that we WILL sin.  We do not merely become sinners when we sin, but we sin because we are sinners. 

 

So, what about the infant who dies?  How can I believe that they are ushered into the presence of God, when they have that inherited sin nature also?    

 

We are Judged on the Basis of Our Own Deeds

 

Well, the Bible teaches that we are to be judged on the basis of our deeds committed in the body.  Here are a couple of examples of this truth.  

 

2 Corinthians 5:10 - For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. 

 

Revelation 20:11-12 - Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. [12] And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. 

 

Adam’s sin and guilt explains our inability to respond to God without being “born again,” BUT the Bible does NOT teach that we will answer for Adam’s sin.  In fact, the very opposite is true.  The Bible teaches that we will answer for our own sin.  Let me give a couple of other passages that I believe highlight this truth.  

 

Romans 1:18 - For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 

 

According to this text, God’s wrath is against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.  These are those who knowingly suppress the truth about God.  We see the evidence of their knowledge of God in the following verse. 

 

Romans 1:19 - For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 

 

God has given men the truth, they then suppress the truth in unrighteousness, and the wrath of God is against them for this.  Where there is no awareness of knowledge, there can be no suppression.  

 

In another text of Scripture, Jesus had healed a man who had been born blind.  And the man was taken before the religious leaders to tell them what had taken place.  The pharisees didn’t want anything to do with Jesus, and they rejected the man and his claims.  In response to this, Jesus made this statement…

John 9:39 - Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.”

 

He was talking about the pharisees.  They thought that they could see, they believed that they were right with God, but they were actually blind.  Some of the pharisees understood what He was saying and asked him, “Are we blind also?” (v. 40). 

 

John 9:41 - Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains. 

 

Here’s the point: if we have no way to understand, or “see,” our sin, God does not hold us accountable for it. 

 

We are Accountable for Our Sins, Not Someone Else’s Sins

 

All throughout the Bible, God says that we are accountable for OUR own sins, NOT the sins of someone else.  We see this plainly stated in Ezekiel 18.  

 

Ezekiel 18:19-20 - “Yet you say, ‘Why should not the son suffer for the iniquity of the father?’ When the son has done what is just and right, and has been careful to observe all my statutes, he shall surely live. [20] The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. 

 

What we see in Exodus, as well as in 2 Samuel, is that the wrongdoings of parents influence and affect children.  Sometimes children follow the wicked ways of their parents, and sometimes they simply face the terrible circumstances created by their mother and/or their father.  But each person will be held responsible before God for their own actions, not for the actions of someone else.  

 

Barred from Entering the Promised Land

 

We see this principle in action throughout Scripture.  For instance, when all of Israel sinned against God in the wilderness, God barred them from entering the Promised Land.  But he did not bar everyone… 

Deuteronomy 1:39 - And as for your little ones, who you said would become a prey, and your children, who today have no knowledge of good or evil, they shall go in there. And to them I will give it, and they shall possess it. 

 

The Biblical Principle

 

Before people are mature enough to discern right from wrong (maybe we call it an age of accountability), it seems that they are not held responsible before God.  A toddler will sin because he or she bears Adam’s corrupt nature, but they lack the ability to understand the concept of good and evil, and so I believe they are under God’s grace.  They are covered under Christ’s blood, as an act of God’s unmerited favor. 

 

We see the tender care for children in Jesus’ response to His disciples as they sought to shoo them away from Him.

 

Matthew 19:13-14 - Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, [14] but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”

 

A Widely Held Belief

 

Lastly, let me state that I am not alone in my understanding of the biblical teaching concerning the destiny of children who die.  John Newton wrote to some close friends who had lost a young child.  He wrote, “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 eternal election of grace.”

 

Also, Charles Spurgeon, in one of his sermons declared this, “Now, let every mother and father here presently know assuredly that it is well with the child, if God hath taken it away from you in its infant days.  Many of you are parents who have children in heaven. Is it not a desirable thing that you should go there too? 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?”

 

I hope for some of you that the goodness of God, as revealed in Scripture, grants you great comfort and encouragement as you may be mourning the loss of your own little one.  I firmly believe that they are in the loving arms of our Heavenly Father.  Put your hope and your trust in Him – in His goodness and His grace.  

 

~ Pastor Ryan