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| Q: | Does God send infants who have not been baptized to Hell? According to everything we believe, it seems that he does. But then Jesus said "let the little Children come to me and do not hinder them for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." (Mathew 19:14) and " I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven... When I read these passages, I get the impression that "all" children have faith and are born with it. That somehow they lose faith as they grow up and begin to believe otherwise. Look at the example of John the Baptist, clearly he had faith in the womb. Babies have a natural dependence on parents to do everything for them, to take care of them and guide them and love them unconditionally. Babies cannot help but understand the relationship between God and Man because they are helpless to do anything else. It is when the children mature, that this gets lost. Do you see what I am saying? Psalm 22:9,10 "Yet you brought me out of the womb: you made me trust in you even at my mother's breast. From Birth I was cast upon you; from my mother's womb you have been my God" This Psalm suggests also that faith begins in the womb."from my mother's womb YOU HAVE BEEN MY GOD" and trust in God at the Mother's breast. And John the Baptist is another example of this when he lept in the womb. Is is possible that we are all born with faith and then when it is not nurtured (as in an unbelieving family) it gets lost? I am thinking also that being "born again" is being brought to faith through the word. So could that mean that the first birth (our natural birth)came with faith also, but faith gets lost when not nurtured and so by a second birth through the word, faith comes? I mean if the "born again" brings faith, why not the "natural" birth also? It does say "AGAIN" Which also suggests that faith may have come in the womb. These passages seem to suggest that they do. What are your thoughts? | ||||||||
| A: | Allow me to respond to your initial question first. Scripture does not answer this question. Whether these young lives were lost through miscarriage, abortion, or stillbirth, God doesn't tell us whether they are saved or lost. We simply entrust them into the hands of a loving God knowing that he will do what is just and right. However, your question goes beyond the fate of an unbaptized infant. You wonder whether they have faith from the moment of conception. The scriptural teaching of original sin would make this impossible. While a passage like Psalm 22:10 (written by David) would seem to indicate that they might have faith from the womb, we have to put this passage alongside of Psalm 51:5 (also written by David) where David says that he was guilty before God from the moment of his conception. David would hardly stress this point in Psalm 51:5 if he had saving faith, for such a faith means that person is declared not guilty. Again, we have to put a passage like Psalm 22:10 alongside of Genesis 8:21 which states that the "every inclination of a person's heart is evil from childhood" and Romans 3:23 which says that "all (this would include infants) have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Another point to consider is that Scripture indicates that God works faith through the gospel in various forms (Word of God and the Sacraments). We call this the means of grace because it is the means God uses to give us the gracious message of forgiveness through Christ. These are the means he uses to work and strengthen faith in our hearts. Romans 10:17 says that "faith comes from hearing the message and the message is heard through the Word of Christ." 1 Peter 3:21 states that baptism saves, and Matthew 26:28 tells us that the Lord's Supper gives us the forgiveness of sins. These are means that God gives us to proclaim the gospel to people, including infants and children. We baptise them and we teach them the truths of God's Word. However, God has not given us any clear means of grace for the unborn. If he chooses to work faith in the heart of an unborn child apart from these normal means, he can certainly do so. But he has not revealed to us that he does and this would be an exception to the rule. John the Baptist was such an exception. In Luke 1:15 the angel told Zechariah that his son would be "filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth." This would indicate that John's situation was unique and different. So what do we know from Scripture? We know that children are sinful from the moment of conception and that because of this sin they deserve eternal punishment. We know that God has not given us a clear means of grace to work saving faith in the hearts of the unborn. Yet we know that God can work outside of the unusual means he gives us. For this reason we are cautious about saying anything more than that about the fate of the unborn who die before birth. | ||||||||
This is recent question #28 of 50
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