reading. So we’ll start that up and it will take several weeks with that beginning in April.
Well now I just finished up with James last Sunday and so I have this one Sunday at the end of this month now for the evening service and I had a couple of different things I was toying with but every once in a while—I can’t say it’s often, but every once in a while—someone will come to me with a question, a theological question, a curious one. With some it’s very personally felt, but with others it’s more of a curious question. And it came up again a couple of weeks ago, and I thought, well, I’ll deal with it now on this kind of off Sunday that I have. And that is the question: what happens to infants if they die? The question of dying infants—are they saved? Do they go to heaven? How can we know?
So this past month and in previous months, we’ve been working through James and it’s been filled with exhortation, teaching us how to pray, how to behave with one another, how to use our tongue, what to do with our money, all kinds of practical exhortations. This is not that. Curious question that many of you have. I hope it is not too tedious. It’s a, in a sense, a difficult question, but I want to walk you through the answer that I have for it and show you why we think what we do in this regard.
We’ll start with Psalm 51. Psalm 51: “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love. According to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. Against you and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.”
The question of the fate, if we can use that terrible word, of dying infants. What happens to an infant when he or she dies is a really very serious question, particularly for those who have experienced the loss of a young child. And there has been a general consensus about this in the history of the church. In the Roman Catholic tradition, I’m not sure what their position is right now. Traditionally, their position has been, well, it’s through the waters of baptism that the soul is cleansed. Apart from baptism, there would be no hope. I don’t know that they hold that anymore. That’s become a very difficult position for them to justify in this pluralistic age. The Reformed tradition, the Protestant tradition generally, and the Reformed tradition in particular, has tended to say, although not without exception, but has tended to agree that those infants who die in infancy go to heaven.
Now I have to say before I get into this that the biblical revelation on this subject is scarce. And in fact, nowhere in the Bible is the question directly addressed. So we have to address the question from inference only. We’ve got some inferences here and there, and I’m going to go through the thinking on that with you, but I want you to see up front, and to know up front, that there is no place where the Bible addresses it directly. There is one passage that we will see that comes closer to that than any other, although that is sometimes disputed, but the biblical revelation on it is scarce. But let’s look at some of the inferences and how do we come to this consensus that the Reformed church at least and Protestantism generally has had that infants who die in infancy do in fact go to heaven. And I want to start with—I’ll have three points to this.
The Need for Salvation of Dying Infants
First of all, the need, the need for salvation of dying infants. And my point here is just to start off by saying that this conviction that I have and that the church has generally had that dying infants are saved is not grounded in some presumed guiltlessness or presumed innocence in the sense that they don’t need to be saved. And that’s why I began with Psalm 51 in verse 5.
As you know here, in Psalm 51, David, the king, has—in the background is a familiar psalm. In the background is his sin with Bathsheba, his adultery with her, his murder of Uriah, her husband, and this is his psalm recording his repentance when Nathan the prophet came to him and confronted him about his sin. And in these early verses of the psalm we have David first of all repenting of his sin and acknowledging his transgressions and asking for forgiveness for it. He’ll amplify on that more later in the psalm, but here in these opening verses he’s repenting of the sins that he has committed and he’s acknowledging them as sinful and so on.
But when we get to verse 5, he turns a different corner. Here he’s not acknowledging his sins that he has committed. He’s acknowledging his own sinfulness that lay behind the sins that he committed. And so he says in verse 5, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.” I don’t know how to read that except to say that from birth, from conception, David is saying, I was a developing sinner. And so I am not a sinner because I have sinned. I’ve sinned because I’m a sinner. That’s who I am. And so later in the psalm, then he will ask God to cleanse him, not only purge him, not only from his sins that he has committed, but to create in him a clean heart and make him different from the inside out.
Now, my point here is that in verse 5, he speaks of it in terms of the infant. The infant himself or herself from infancy sinful. And so we can’t say that the infant who dies doesn’t need salvation. That’s not what we’re going to say. That’s not an option. We find this in other passages in Scripture that you’re familiar with. Romans chapter 5, for example, beginning with verse 12, that death comes because we are in Adam. And the death, I think he’s even referring to the death of infants in verse 13. Romans chapter 5, the death of infants proves that they are under the curse of Adam. In Ephesians chapter 2, we are by nature children of wrath. We are born sinners.
This is a consistent teaching of the scriptures. And so if dying infants make it to heaven, it’s not going to be because they’re not sinful. We have to keep that in mind. We are born sinners, and it is still true of everyone that if we are not born again, as Jesus says in John chapter 3, we’ll not see the kingdom of heaven. So the new birth is essential. All right, that’s the need. We can skip through that quickly, I think.
The Possibility
Number two, the possibility. Let’s just entertain the possibility. Is it possible that an infant can be saved? And what evidence could we have for that? Now, we have a couple of hints of that. Remember I said here that the biblical revelation here is scarce and we have only inference to it, but here we have something pretty close to that.
We’ll start with John chapter 3, a familiar passage where Jesus is speaking about the work of the Spirit and he says in verse 8 of John chapter 3, the Spirit of God does what he wants to do. He blows in where he wants to blow, playing on the word there with spirit meaning wind. The wind blows where it wants. The Spirit of God can come and save anyone he wants to save. He’s a sovereign spirit and he’s able to save. So we can, I think, say from that that he can save anyone he wants, including an infant.
But I think we can go further than that. And if you would like, look at Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter 1. Keep in mind here, we’re dealing with the question of the possibility now, is it possible for an infant to be saved? In Luke chapter 1, we have, beginning with verse 5, the birth of John the Baptist being foretold. You remember the incident with John the Baptist’s father, Zechariah, and the angel appears and tells him that his wife will have a son, and he questions it, and so on. But look at verse 15. The angel says, “He will be great before the Lord, and he must not drink wine or strong drink,” that is, he’ll be a Nazarite, “and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb.”
Well, there you have it. It is certainly possible, and I don’t know how else to read this except to say that here we have a one whose heart was changed from birth forward. Well, here we have it. Now, there are other verses that have been used to support the same implication like Jeremiah chapter 1 and verse 5 where God says to Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I consecrated you and I appointed you to be a prophet.” Well, that sounds like that might support the same. I’m not sure that it does. “Before you were born, I consecrated you.” And the reason I’m not sure that that really supports our point here is because Paul says the same thing about what God said to Paul, and we have that recorded for us in Galatians as well, that before Paul was born, God had set him apart to be a witness to the Gentiles. Well, nobody’s going to argue that Paul was saved from birth onward, and I don’t think the Jeremiah passage says that. But this in Luke, regarding John the Baptist, I think is pretty clear, that here we have one who was filled with the Spirit from his mother’s womb. From birth, he was filled with the Spirit of God.
Now, how in the world can God do that? Well, we’re a Reformed Baptist Church. We know all about that. The Spirit of God can do what he wants to do. The new birth comes, not by the will of man, but by the will of God. We read that in John chapter 1, and I think we have one clear example of that here in John the Baptist. Now notice here, though, that the possibility of infant salvation is grounded not, not in baptism. The possibility of infant salvation is grounded not in the status of the child’s parents. The possibility of the child’s salvation is simply that the Spirit of God has moved on him sovereignly and saved him.
Implications in Scripture
All right then, we have the need. We’ve seen now that it’s possible that an infant can be saved. Now, when we talk about dying infants, is there any implication in scripture that tells us that they are saved, those who die in infancy?
Now, I’m gonna start with a sentence, I’m gonna say it, and then I’m gonna qualify it so you don’t misunderstand. And that is, the salvation of dying infants seems to ring true to our idea of God’s goodness and justice. Now, I wouldn’t ground any theology in that. What seems to ring true to us is not solid ground for any theology. The question now I want to pursue is, is that assumption on our part, that it seems consistent with God’s goodness and justice to save dying infants, is there evidence of that anywhere in the scriptures? Support for us to think that.
And I’m gonna start with—well, I’ll just mention this. Exodus chapter 20 is one that has been used in this, where God promises His mercy to thousands of generations. I think that’s the point there. Calvin made that point there, that showing mercy to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. Well, if it’s thousands of generations that are in view, well, that would take in the whole race. I’m not sure that passage is saying all of that, though.
Let’s look at Deuteronomy chapter 1. Deuteronomy chapter 1. Keep in mind what I’m trying to do here is just find some implications that point us in the direction of the answer that we want to have here and that we seem to think is right. Deuteronomy chapter 1. Notice the reference in verses 38 and 39. Here we have Moses speaking about Joshua who will succeed him. Verse 38: “Joshua the son of Nun who stands before you, he shall enter,” that is, enter the land. Moses won’t. Joshua will lead you in. “Encourage him for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. 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.”
So here we have Israel, that first generation coming out of the Exodus. You remember those who are 20 years of age and older, all were condemned to die in the wilderness, the horrible period of Israel’s history where they died off because of their disobedience. But the younger ones were allowed to enter into the promised land. And notice how he describes them: “You are children who today have no knowledge of good and evil.” Now there is—we’ve already said that every person born is born guilty in Adam. There’s original sin, both in terms of the inherited guilt and the inherited sinfulness as well. But there is a relative sense, and we’ll see this in some other verses, where God recognizes a relative innocence on the part of the young, and he treats them accordingly. We find that several times in the scriptures. This is just the first, and here it regards those entering the promised land. So those who were younger, they had no knowledge of good and evil. It doesn’t say that they were good; just as they had no knowledge of good and evil, there’s a relative innocence on their part, they were allowed to enter into the land. Now, I’m not going to carry the typology here and say, well, entering the land is entering into Christ and salvation, and therefore those who are young—and I’m not gonna go that far, I don’t think it warrants all of that, but it does establish just at least a hint that God does recognize a relative innocence on the part of the young.
Now look at 2 Samuel chapter 12. This is the most famous one that’s used in this connection. 2 Samuel chapter 12. You remember the setting? David has committed this sin with Bathsheba, sin of adultery. As a result of that, she became pregnant. She has this baby, the son that was born. And Nathan, the prophet, says to David, that son that she has born to you, it is going to die. And then you remember how David responded to that. He prayed and he fasted and he asked God to spare the life of the child. He was so distraught over it that his servants were afraid to even speak to him. When finally the child died, they were afraid to tell him about it, for fear of how he would react. And he saw that they were talking among themselves. He surmises that the child must have died.
And then in 2 Samuel 12, verse 23—well, here. We have the famous statement that David says, we’ll start with verse 22. “He said, while 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. But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.” Now what’s interesting here is that David is taking some encouragement. His child has died. He’s gone. I can’t—he can’t come back. But he says, “I will go to him.” Now the question is, what does that mean? I can go to him. Now many people have kind of balked at this verse and saying this really doesn’t say all of that if you’re wanting to use this in support of the salvation of dying infants. But my question at that point then is, what then does it mean? What is the encouragement that David is taking here when he says, “I can go to him”? And I think what gives us particular force is when you compare David’s response here to his response to his another son who died, Absalom. And you remember when David goes back up to his chamber and they hear him wailing, “Absalom, Absalom, my son, Absalom, would God I had died for you.” There’s two very different responses. And here he’s taking some encouragement, and as I say, this is not a direct teaching about infant salvation, but I think the inference here is that David took the encouragement in that regard.
We have another hint of it. If you would like to jot it down, I don’t think I’ll take time to turn to it. It just gets too tedious, but in 2 Kings chapter 4 and verse 26, here we have the Shunammite woman, who is an older woman, you remember, and Elisha said she was barren and still had not had children and Elisha speaking to her husband said this time next year she’ll have a child and she’ll hold him and all of that. And so he did and she did and she has this child and he grows up somewhat and so she has this child and suddenly the child has this headache or something and he comes home and sits down and dies. She runs then to go see Elisha the prophet and said, you’ve promised me this child. I have him. But what’s interesting there is when she comes to Elisha, Elisha asks her, “Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child?” And she says, “It is well.” Now this is the text, 2 Kings 4 here, this is the text that Spurgeon used to preach on the doctrine of infant salvation, that she took it that all is well. Still, I’m not sure you can take all of that from that. Again, it’s just inference. It might be that she had the faith that Elisha would raise him from the dead, as he did. But there is some hint, perhaps.
Let’s look at Jeremiah, the prophet Jeremiah, chapter 19. Jeremiah 19 and verse 4 is what I want. Let’s start with verse 3. “You shall say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah, inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing such disaster upon this place that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle, because the people have forsaken me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods.'” So he’s bringing judgment on Jerusalem for their pagan worship, forsaking of the covenant, forsaking of God, they’re making offerings to gods whom neither they nor their fathers nor kings of Judah have ever known, “and because they have filled this place with the blood of the innocents.”
Now most would acknowledge, I think, that he’s speaking here—this is not entirely undisputed, but most acknowledge here—that what he’s speaking of in this context of offering sacrifices to false god is offering sacrifices to Molech, a false god which involved child sacrifice. And here he’s speaking then of that child sacrifice as “blood of the innocents.” Remember I said earlier that there are indications in the Bible that God treats them in a relative sense. That is, there’s a relative innocence, and on their part that was it. And I think that’s what’s going on here, that God views those infants then as innocent, in a relative sense.
You have the same thing if you’d like to look over to Ezekiel chapter 16. Verse 21, and then again we have the child sacrifice that is offered to Moloch, the false god, and there God says, “You’ve slaughtered my children.” My children. What does he mean by that? My children have been slaughtered. Are all children his? Is that the implication? I don’t know that you can say all of that, but again we have something pointing in this direction, that God treats them according to a relative innocence.
And then there’s one more in the Old Testament, and that’s Jonah. You’re familiar with the story. Jonah chapter 4. Remember Jonah has gone to Nineveh, he’s preached judgment, they’ve believed and repented, and so the judgment did not come. Jonah’s not entirely happy with that, and he’s angry, and then they have this plant that God gives him to give him shade so he can rest and he sleeps, and then God sends the worm and this plant withers away, and Jonah’s angry because the plant is gone and all of that. And look at verse 11. God says to Jonah—well, let’s take with verse 10: “And the Lord said, ‘You pity the plant for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night? And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?'” So God is saying here, shouldn’t I spare them? We have these innocent people there, 120,000 of them. And there’s been a lot of discussion on this verse because Nineveh at this time probably was not 120,000 total. So how do you come up with this 120,000 as infants? It’s probably talking about the greater Nineveh area, I think. And he describes these as innocent in a relative sense. Should I not be merciful to them? They don’t know the right hand from the left. Again, I think we have a pointer in that direction.
And then one more verse that we’ll look at, and that’s in Revelation chapter 20. Revelation chapter 20. And here we have a description of the final judgment. It’s called the Great White Throne Judgment. Revelation chapter 20. And I’ll begin with verse 11. “Then I saw a great white throne, and him who sat was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky had fled away, no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and small, standing before the throne, and the books were opened.” This is a classic judgment scene. “Then another book was opened, which is the Book of Life.” So the first was the Book of Works. You’ve seen that elsewhere in Daniel. Places where we have God keeping the records of all the sins and judgment meted out accordingly, presumably to assign degrees of punishment. We have this Book of the Works that were done, and then we have the Book of Life. “And the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done.”
According to what they had done, they were judged. And you find that consistently in the scriptures, that judgment is grounded on their behavior. What they had done that was evil, that is how judgment is assessed. And so the question comes up then, can infants do evil? And does that fit then with these other passages that we have seen where God treats them as relatively innocent?
Well, I think the indication here then is that the judgment will be according to works, and with those others in the background, and I think particularly with the David passage in 2 Samuel, that we can say that dying infants will be saved. Now again, I want to say that the evidence for this is slight. But I also want to say that I think it’s fair to say that the evidence points in a direction. And it points in the direction that yes, those who die in infancy will be saved.
Now, once I’ve said that, the next question that’s going to come up is, well, how young is young enough? And when is it too late? And there’s even less information on that question, I don’t know. And so that gets us into the question of terminology that some traditions have used. Some have taken all of this to coin the term “the age of accountability.” I think most of you have probably heard that. I’m not thrilled with that terminology. But there is some broad sense in which that’s what we’ve seen in these passages where God treats according to a relative innocence. That, I think, is the most that we can say.
There’s a long history of that. In fact, Warfield has a book on the history of the doctrine of infant salvation, but it’s more of a historical study than a biblical one. There’s not much more I think we can find in the scriptures that answer the question for us, but I do think, and I’m convinced of this, that we have enough to say that it points in a direction that we can say, yes, infants who die in infancy are numbered among God’s elect and he saves them. What the age is, what the break off—I suspect that’s for God to determine and it may be individually determined as well.
I hesitate doing this. Any questions?
All right, let’s stand and be dismissed in prayer. Pastor Greg, would you pray for us please?